CuSO4/sodium ascorbate catalysed synthesis of benzosuberone and 1,2,3-triazole conjugates: Design,synthesis and in vitro anti-proliferative activity

A novel series of conjugates of benzosuberone and 1,2,3-triazole i.e. 3-(4-phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-1-yl)propyl-9-chloro-2,3-dimethyl-6,7-dihydro-5H-benzo[7]annulene-8-carboxylic acids (8a-j) were synthesized in good to excellent yields catalysed by CuSO₄ under milder reaction conditions and evaluated for their anti-proliferative activity. The structural elucidation of the prepared compounds was carried out using IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and Mass spectral analysis. The newly synthesized derivatives (8a-j) were evaluated for their anti-proliferative activity against four human cell lines and the novel derivatives showed moderate to excellent activity. The obtained results suggest that these compounds can be considered as new hits for anti-proliferative drug development programme and further SAR studies can help obtain better anticancer agents.     

Enhanced photoactivity of antimony phosphates by substitution of H+, Cu2+ and N3− in the K3Sb3P2O14·xH2O crystal lattice

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Substitutional doping of framework heteroatoms in photocatalysis is one of the approaches for harvesting visible light. Tunnel structure potassium antimony...     

Pressure induced phase transition behaviour in f-electron based dialuminides

The rare-earth and actinide based compounds are endowed with several exotic physical and chemical properties due to the presence of f-electrons. These properties exhibit interesting changes under the action of various thermodynamic fields and hence continues to be a subject of extensive research. For instance, under pressure, the nature of f-electrons can be changed from localized to itinerant, leading to a variety of changes in their structural, physical and chemical properties. The present review on the high pressure phase transition behaviour of dialuminides of rare earths and actinides is an outcome of research in our laboratory during the last five years using a unique combination of a Guinier diffractometer and a diamond anvil cell built in-house. To bring out the correlations between the compressibility and structural behaviour with the electronic structure, we have also carried out electronic structure calculation. Further, the usefulness of Villars’ three parameter structure maps in predicting pressure induced structural transitions has been explored and this has been illustrated with the available phase transition data.     

Bizarre alterations of the morphology of pineal synaptic bodies under constant light and an evaluation of suitable 3D-reconstruction software

Three dimensional (3D) reconstruction and modelling software was evaluated to find a procedure suitable for visualization of small subcellular structures in transmission electron microscope images. The method applied in this study demonstrates bizarre alterations of the structure of synaptic bodies (SBs) in pinealocytes of the guinea-pig pineal gland caused by constant illumination. It can, in general, be used for any 3D reconstruction from serial sections.

Pineal glands of five guinea-pigs (two kept under a LD cycle of 12:12 h; three kept in constant light, for 4 months) were investigated. SBs consist of an electron-dense centre with attached vesicles. Under normal lighting conditions most SBs are flat plates (about 35 nm in thickness), which eventually may be bent. The proteins comprising the molecular basis of SBs, mainly RIBEYE A and B are polymerised in a regular manner in these plates. This is not the case in other SBs, which appear as spheres or irregular lumps. SBs lie in groups in which usually some of the plates are arranged in parallel arrays

Constant illumination caused different changes in morphology: many of the SBs lie in ‘paired fields’, i.e. appear in groups attached to the cell membranes of two pinealocytes directly opposite to each other. Some of the SBs in such groups are strongly bent, showing blebs and irregular thickened areas, others seem to aggregate and show inclusions of cytoplasm. Further goblet-like, shield-like and other bizarre forms of SBs occurred and the relative number of spheroid and lump-like SBs increased. Protrusions on larger SBs suggest detachment or fusion of SB material to a greater extent than in the control animals. There is a reduction of areas in which the polymerisation of the SB proteins remains well ordered, i.e. where the typical thickness of 35 nm is maintained. It remains unclear why this polymerisation pattern is only partly affected by constant light.     

Entrapment of Humic Acid in a Sol-Gel Matrix—A New Tool for Sorption Studies

Humic substances are natural complexed mixtures of organic compounds originated from the decomposition of plant and animal residues. These compounds are ubiquitous in soils, sediments, surface waters and groundwaters. They contain both hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties, able to interact with hydrophobic organic contaminants and with heavy metals. These sorption interactions play a crucial role in contaminants fate and transport and their understanding and quantification are essential for modeling and predictions. However, sorption analyses frequently suffer from experimental problems. A novel idea presented in this study is to use sol-gel as an inert matrix to immobilize (entrap) specific, well defined, humic molecules which then be used in sorption studies. We developed a successful procedure for the immobilization of humic acid (HA) in a sol-gel matrix. After gelation and drying, the doped gel was crushed and washed several times, yielding a very stable product. It was then used in a series of batch experiments, studying the sorption of several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with Aldrich HA. The sorption coefficients (K _oc) obtained with the immobilized HA were highly correlated with the values expected based on the hydrophobicity of the contaminants. We concluded that the entrapped HA retained its original properties and that it was accessible to the external contaminants through the pore network.     

A Modification of an Algorithm by Golub and Plemmons for Large Linear Least Squares in the Context of Doppler Positioning

This paper considers the solution of the geodetic Doppler multi-stationadjustment, i.e. the problem of computing the positions of severalstations observing the Doppler shift on radio frequencies emittedby several artificial satellites passing over the horizon. Amodification of an algorithm due to Golub and Plemmons, forsolving large linear least-squares problems where the observationmatrix has a block dual angular form, is proposed in this framework.This modification is shown to reduce substantially both datatransfer between the tracking stations and the main computingcentre, and the total computational effort required to obtainthe solution of the problem. Preliminary numerical results arediscussed and some further comments presented.     

Fission yields at different fission-product kinetic energies for thermal-neutron-induced fission of 239Pu

At the recoil spectrometer “Lohengrin” of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, the yields of the light fission products from the thermal-neutron-induced fission of ²³⁹Pu were measured as a function of A, Z, the kinetic energy E and the ionic charge states q. The nuclear charge and mass distributions summed over all ionic charge states were determined for different light fissionproduct kinetic energies between 93 and 112 MeV. The proton odd-even effect which was measured to be (11.6 ± 0.6)% causes considerable fine structure in the yields. The average kinetic energy of even-Z elements in the light fission-product group is 0.3 ± 0.1 MeV larger than for odd-Z elements. The neutron odd-even effect is (6.5 ± 0.7)%. The comparison with previously published data ¹) for thermal-neutron-induced fission of ²³⁵U reveals a correlation between the proton odd-even effect in the yield and in the kinetic energy of the elements. The dependence of the proton odd-even effect on the fragmentation is very similar for ²³⁵U and ²³⁹Pu when it is considered as a function of the nuclear charge of the heavy fission products. The isobaric variances σ_z². for thermal-neutron fission of ²³⁵U and ²³⁹Pu coincide at all kinetic energies if the influence of the proton odd-even effect is averaged out. This supports the hypothesis that the magnitude of σ_z² is determined only by quantum-mechanical zero-point fluctuations. The influence of the spherical shells Z = 50 and N = 82 on the fragmentation is discussed.