Stereoselective synthesis of a fragment of mycobacterial arabinan

Strategies for the stereoselective synthesis of mycobacterial arabinan were explored. Arabinofuranosyl donors with various protective groups were screened in terms of suitability for beta-(1,2-cis)-selective glycosylation. The protective group was found to affect the stereoselectivity of arabinofuranosylation. Beta-selectivity was drastically enhanced by using donors protected with 3,5-TIDPS, possibly due to conformational constraints on the furanose ring. Synthesis of heptaarabinofuranoside was then performed to demonstrate the practicality of this methodology. [reaction: see text].     

Evaluation of CH3-DTPA-Gd (NMS60) as a new MR contrast agent: early phase II study in brain tumors and dual dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging

PURPOSE: A newly developed contrast material, CH3-DTPA-Gd (NMS60), a trimer containing 3 Gd(3+) atoms per molecule, has been shown to offer greater enhancement and longer vascular retention than gadopentetate dimeglumine (Gd-DTPA) in animals. We report on our early phase II study on NMS60 in brain tumor patients together with supplementary investigations. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The longitudinal relaxation rate (R(1)=1/T(1)) and the transverse relaxation rate (R(2)*=1/T(2)*) of NMS60 and Gd-DTPA were determined at 20 degrees C in water at 1.5 T. An NMS60 dose of 0.1 or 0.2 mmol (Gd)/kg was randomly assigned and administered to 10 patients (five women, five men; mean age: 49 years) with brain tumors. Safety and contrast-enhancing ability of NMS60 were evaluated. Dual dynamic contrast-enhanced T(1) and R(2)* studies (DUCE imaging) were also carried out in two patients. RESULTS: Regarding the relaxivity per Gd, R(1) and R(2)* of NMS60 were 9.5 and 11.0 (mmol/L x s)(-1), respectively, compared to 4.8 and 7.2 (mmol/L x s)(-1) for Gd-DTPA. Although a transient slight increase of alanine aminotransferase was observed in one case, no other adverse reactions were observed after administration of NMS60. Contrast enhancement by NMS60 was excellent at both concentrations, and when tumor detectability was assessed with a five-point scale, the diagnostic usefulness was 4 or higher in all cases. In DUCE imaging, NMS60 appeared to show high signal intensity, when compared with the data obtained separately for Gd-DTPA. CONCLUSION: NMS60 had a high contrasting effect and little toxicity, and is expected to be clinically useful.     

Mesoporous aluminosilicate-catalyzed Sakurai allylation and Mukaiyama aldol reaction of acetals

In the presence of a catalytic amount of mesoporous aluminosilicate (Al-MCM-41), both allyltrimethylsilane and silyl enol ether reacted with various acetals under mild reaction conditions to afford the corresponding homoallyl ethers and β-alkoxy ketones, respectively. The catalyst was easily recovered from the reaction mixture and could be reused in the same reaction without a significant loss of catalytic activity. Moreover, Al-MCM-41 exhibited high chemoselectivity for acetal over aldehyde in the reactions.     

Molecular orientation in the Nematic Ordered Cellulose film using polarized FTIR accompanied with a vapor-phase deuteration method

Previously, the authors reported “Nematic Ordered Cellulose (NOC)” that is a well-ordered state of β-1,4-glucan chains without exhibiting typical X-ray diffraction patterns of any cellulose polymorphs (Togawa and Kondo 1999; Kondo et al. 2001; Kondo 2007). The NOC was prepared by stretching water-swollen gel-like films at the draw ratio of 2.0 to provide highly oriented β-1,4-glucan molecular chains of cellulose, which was proved by the high resolution TEM observation. In this paper, a detailed study of the unique ordered state of the NOC was attempted to characterize orientation of the main chains as well as the OH groups of molecules using polarized FTIR accompanied with a vapor-phase deuteration method. The dichroic analysis suggested that the main chains were fairly oriented in the stretching direction whereas the OH groups remained unoriented. The disordered state of the OH groups regardless of the oriented state for the main chain may hinder the oriented crystallization during the preparation of NOC films.     

Evaluation of molecular spin-orbit integrals by a gaussian expansion method

A method is presented for the evaluation of molecular multi-centre spin-orbit integrals of Coulomb, hybrid and exchange types using cartesian gaussian functions. It is shown that if gaussian bases are employed the spin-same-orbit integrals reduce to one-electron field integrals and the spin-other-orbit integrals to two-electron field integrals. The final formulae for these integrals are found to be convenient for computer programming. Some relationships among the nuclear attraction, the field and the field-gradient integrals as well as among the electronic repulsion, the two-electron field, and the zero-field splitting integrals are discussed in connection with the spin-orbit integrals. Some calculations are carried out for the radicals CH₂ and NH.     

Robust Spirobifluorene Core Based Hole Transporters with High Mobility for Long-Life Green Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Devices

Using a tailored high triplet energy hole transport layer (HTL) is a suitable way to improve the efficiency and extend the lifetime of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs), which can use all molecular excitons of singlets and triplets. In this study, dibenzofuran (DBF)-end-capped and spirobifluorene (SBF) core-based HTLs referred as TDBFSBF1 and TDBFSBF2 were effectively developed. TDBFSBF1 exhibited a high glass transition temperature of 178 °C and triplet energy of 2.5 eV. Moreover, a high external quantum efficiency of 22.0 %, long operational lifetime at 50 % of the initial luminance of 89,000 h, and low driving voltage at 1000 cd m⁻² of 2.95 V were achieved in green phosphorescent OLEDs using TDBFSBF1 . Further, a high-hole mobility μ_h value of 1.9×10⁻³ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ was recorded in TDBFSBF2 . A multiscale simulation successfully reproduced the experimental μ_h values and indicated that the reorganization energy was the primary factor in determining the mobility differences among these SBF core based HTLs.     

Deformation of a singularity of type E8 and Mordell‐Weil lattices in characteristic 2

In this paper, we study the Mordell‐Weil lattices of the family of elliptic surfaces which is arising from the E₈⁴ singularity, one of the ADE singularities in characteristic 2. And we construct a subfamily of the universal family of supersingular K 3 surfaces in characteristic 2 as an application (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)