Synthesis and Structure–Activity Relationship of Vicenistatin,a Cytotoxic 20‐Membered Macrolactam Glycoside

We have developed two syntheses of vicenistatin and its analogues. Our first‐generation strategy included the rapid and sequential assembly of the macrocyclic lactam by using an intermolecular Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons reaction between the C3–C13 fragment and the C1–C2, C14–C19 fragment, followed by an intramolecular Stille coupling reaction. The second‐generation strategy utilized a ring‐closing metathesis of a hexaene intermediate to generate the desired 20‐membered macrolactam. This second‐generation strategy made it possible to prepare synthetic analogues of vicenistatin, including the C20‐ and/or C23‐demethyl analogues. Evaluation of the cytotoxic effect of these analogues indicated the importance of the fixed conformation of aglycon for determining the biological activity of the vicenistatins.     

Bifurcation structure of chaotic attractor in switched dynamical systems with spike noise

High-frequency ripple (spike noise) effects in the qualitative properties of DC/DC converter circuits. This study investigates the bifurcation structure of a chaotic attractor in a switched dynamical system with spike noise. First, we introduce the system dynamics and derive the associated Poincaré map. Next, we show the bifurcation structure of the chaotic attractor in a system with spike noise. Finally, we investigate the dynamical effect of spike noise in the existence region of the chaotic attractor compare with that of a chaotic attractor in a system with ideal switching. The results suggest that spike noise enlarges an invariant set and generates a new bifurcation structure of the chaotic attractor.     

An enzyme-encapsulated microreactor for efficient theanine synthesis

A flow-type microreactor containing glutaminase-mesoporous silica composites with 10.6 nm pore diameter (TMPS10.6) was developed for the continuous synthesis of theanine, a unique amino acid. High enzymatic activity was exhibited by the local control of the reaction temperature.     

Organic vapor triggered repeatable on-off crystalline-state luminescence switching

A nonporous crystalline solid consisting of an organoarsenic platinum(II) complex, i.e., a mononuclear diiodoplatinum(II) complex trans-PtI(2)(cis-DHDAtBu)(2) (1) with cis-1,4-dihydro-1,4-dimethyl-2,3,5,6-tetrakis(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-1,4-diarsinine (cis-DHDAtBu), shows on-off solid-state luminescence switching through reversible solvent vapor uptake and escape. The on-off switching of solid-state luminescence was achieved without changing the structure or electronic state of the organoarsenic platinum(II) complex.     

Examples of Hermitian manifolds with pointwise constant anti-holomorphic sectional curvature

We construct non-compact examples of Hermitian manifolds with pointwise constant anti-holomorphic sectional curvature. Our examples are obtained by conformal change of the metric on an open set of the complex space form.     

Microwave oven synthesis of esters promoted by imidazole

Using imidazole as promotion agent, primary, secondary and phenolic alcohol compounds were esterified with aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acid anhydrides. Heating a ternary mixture of alcohol, anhydride and imidazole in an unmodified microwave oven produced esters in low to high yields, depending on the steric bulk of the alcohol.     

Notes on braidzel surfaces for links

As a generalization of pretzel surfaces, L. Rudolph has introduced a notion of braidzel surfaces in his study of the quasipositivity for pretzel surfaces. In this paper, we show that any oriented link has a braidzel surface. We also introduce a new geometric numerical invariant of links with respect to their braidzel surface and study relationships among them and other ``genus' for links.

     

Robust parameter estimation with a small bias against heavy contamination

In this paper we consider robust parameter estimation based on a certain cross entropy and divergence. The robust estimate is defined as the minimizer of the empirically estimated cross entropy. It is shown that the robust estimate can be regarded as a kind of projection from the viewpoint of a Pythagorean relation based on the divergence. This property implies that the bias caused by outliers can become sufficiently small even in the case of heavy contamination. It is seen that the asymptotic variance of the robust estimator is naturally overweighted in proportion to the ratio of contamination. One may surmise that another form of cross entropy can present the same behavior as that discussed above. It can be proved under some conditions that no cross entropy can present the same behavior except for the cross entropy considered here and its monotone transformation.