Cytotoxicity of labdane-type diterpenoids from Hedychium forrestii

Two new labdane-type diterpenoids, hedyforrestin D (1) and 15-ethoxy-hedyforrestin D (2), and three known compounds, yunnancoronarin A (4), B (3) and C (5) were isolated from the rhizomes of Hedychium forrestii. The structure of the new diterpenoids was established as 6beta,15xi-dihydroxylabda-8(17),11,13-trien-15,16-olide (1), and 6beta-hydroxy-15xi-ethoxylabda-8(17),11,13-trien-15,16-olide (2) on the basis of spectroscopic analyses. In addition, the isolated compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against the lung adenocarcinoma cells A549 and leukemia cells K562 through 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays. Of these, compounds 3 and 4 exhibited the most activity with IC(50) values of 0.92 and 2.20 microM, respectively, whereas 5 was inactive against A549 cells and 1 was inactive against both cell lines up to a concentration of 300.81 microM. This shows that both the hydroxy substitution and orientation of unsaturated lactone group in the five-membered ring of C-13 to C-16 seem to play an important role in the anti-tumor activities of human lung adenocarcinoma and leukemia.     

Preparation and structural characterization of the Ih and the D5h isomers of the endohedral fullerenes Tm3N@C80: icosahedral C80 cage encapsulation of a trimetallic nitride magnetic cluster with three uncoupled Tm3+ ions

We report an efficient method for the preparation and purification of the Ih and the D5h isomers of Tm3N@C80. Following preparation in a Kratschmer-Huffman electric-arc generator, the Tm3N@C80 isomers were obtained by a chemical separation process followed by a one-stage isomer selective chromatographic high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation (pyrenyl, 5PYE column). The HPLC chromatographic retention behavior on a pentabromobenzyl (5PBB) column suggests a charge transfer of approximately 6 electrons; [M3N] 6+@C80(6-) and the chromatographic retention mechanisms of the Ih and the D5h isomers of Tm3N@C80 on both 5PBB and 5PYE columns are discussed. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction data demonstrate that the Tm3N cluster has a planar structure but represents a tight fit for trapping the Tm3N cluster inside the I h - and the D 5h -C 80 cages. Specifically, the Tm atoms punch out the cage carbon atoms adjacent to them. The "punched out" effect can be demonstrated by cage radii and pyramidal angles at cage carbon atoms near the Tm atoms. The magnetic susceptibility (chiT) for Tm3N@ Ih -C80 was found to exhibit Curie-Weiss behavior with C = 23.4 emu.K/mol, which is consistent with the calculated value for three uncoupled Tm3+ ions by considering the spin and orbital contributions with no quenching of the orbital angular momentum ( L = 5, S = 1, and J = 6; Ccalcd = 23.3 emu.K/mol). The electrochemical measurements demonstrate that both the Ih and the D5h isomers of Tm3N@C80 have a large electrochemical gap.     

Ferroelectric heterobimetallic clusters with ferromagnetic interactions

Two homochiral trinuclear clusters, {(MeTp)2Fe2(CN)6Ni[(1R,2R)-chxn]2} (1) and {(MeTp)2Fe2(CN)6Ni[(1S,2S)-chxn]2} (2) [chxn = 1,2-diaminocyclohexane; MeTp = methyltris(pyrazolyl)borate], have been synthesized and structurally characterized. Ferroelectric and magnetic measurements reveal that they are rare examples of metal-organic compounds bearing ferroelectricity and intramolecular ferromagnetic interactions.     

Correlation between rheological behavior and structure of multi-component polymer systems

Rheological measurement has been an effective method to characterize the structure and properties for multiphase/multi-component polymers, owing to its sensitivity to the structure change of hetero- geneous systems. In this article, recent progress in the studies on the morphology/structure and rheological properties of heterogeneous systems is summarized, mainly reporting the findings of the authors and their collaborators, involving the correlation between the morphology and viscoelastic relaxation of LCST-type polymer blends, the microstructure and linear/nonlinear viscoelastic behavior of block copolymers, time scaling of shear-induced crystallization and rheological response of poly- olefins, and the relationship between the structure/properties and rheological behavior of filled polymer blends. It is suggested that a thorough understanding of the characteristic rheological response to the morphology/structure evolution of multiphase/multi-component polymers facilitates researchers’ op- timizing the morphology/structure and ultimate mechanical properties of polymer materials.     

Photoreduction of mercury(II) in the presence of algae, Anabaena cylindrical

The photochemical and biological reduction of Hg(II) in the presence of algae, anabaena cylindrical, was investigated under the irradiation of metal halide lamps placed in cooling trap for maintaining constant temperature by water circulation (lambda >or=365 nm, 250 W). The photoreduction rate of Hg(II) increased with increasing algae concentration. The addition of Fe(III) and humic substances into the suspensions of algae also enhanced the photoreduction of Hg(II). Alteration of pH value affected the photoreduction of Hg(II) in aqueous solution with or without the addition of algae. The concentration of dissolved gaseous mercury (DGM), the reduced product of Hg(II), increased with increasing exposure time and then gradually approached to a steady state. The influence of initial Hg(II) concentration on the photoreduction of Hg(II) with algae was studied by irradiating the suspensions of anabaena cylindrical at pH 7.0 with initial concentrations (C(0)) of Hg(II) at 50, 100, 120, 150 and 180 microg L(-1), respectively, the light-induced reduction of Hg(II) followed the apparent pseudo first-order kinetics. The initial photoreduction rate could be expressed by the equation: r(A)=0.0871+0.00129 C(0), with a correlation coefficient R=0.9994. The overall mercury mass balance study on the photo-reductive process revealed that more than 39.86% of Hg(II) from the algal suspension was reduced to volatile metallic mercury.     

Novel Designed PEG-Dicationic Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids as Effective Plasticizers for Sustainable Polylactide

A series of novel polyethylene glycol-dicationic imidazolium-based ionic liquids(mPEG-ILs)were synthesized by facile quaternization reaction from various elabor...     

On the Generalized Cartan Matrices Arising from k-th Yau Algebras of Isolated Hypersurface Singularities

Algebras and Representation Theory - Let (V,0) be an isolated hypersurface singularity defined by the holomorphic function $f: (mathbb {C}^{n}, 0)rightarrow (mathbb {C}, 0)$ . The k-th Yau...     

First-principles calculations of F-, Cl-, and N-related defects of amorphous SiO_2 and their impacts on carrier trapping and proton release

The first-principles calculations based on density functional theory are performed to study F-,Cl-,and N-related defects of amorphous SiO2(a-SiO2) and their impacts on carrier trapping and proton release.The possible geometric configurations of the impurity-related defects,the formation energies,the hole or electron trapping of the neutral defects,and the mechanisms to suppress proton diffusion by doping N are investigated.It is demonstrated by the calculations that the impurity atoms can interact with the oxygen vacancies and result in impurity-related defects.The reactions can be utilized to saturate oxygen vacancies that will cause ionization damage to the semiconducting devices.Moreover,the calculated formation energy indicates that the F-or Cl-related oxygen vacancy defect is a deep hole trap,which can trap holes and prevent them from diffusing to the a-SiO2/Si interface.However,three N-related defects,namely N(2)o-H,N(2)o=O,and N(3)o-Vo,tend to act as shallow hole traps to facilitate hole transportation during device operation.The N(2)o and N(3)o configurations can be negatively charged as deep electron traps during the oxide charge buildup after ionization radiation.In addition,the nudged elastic band(NEB) calculations show that four N-related defects,namely N(2)o,N(2)o-H,N(2)o=O,and N(3)o are capable of capturing protons and preventing them from diffusing to and de-passivating the interface.This research reveals the fundamental properties of the F-,Cl-,and N-related defects in amorphous silica and the details of the reactions of the carrier trapping and proton release.The findings help to understand the microscopic mechanisms that alleviate ionization damage of semiconducting devices by doping a-SiO2.     

Coexistence of isospin I =0 and I=1 pairings in asymmetric nuclear matter

The coexistence of neutron-neutron (n-n),proton-proton (p-p),and neutron-proton (n-p) pairings is in-vestigated by adopting an effective density-dependent conta...     

Two supersymmetric hierarchies related to the super-HS spectral problem

In this paper, we construct Lax pairs and super-bihamiltonian structures of two supersymmetric integrable hierarchies related to a given super-HS spectral problem.