A novel synthesis of spiro[2.6]nonadienones by the reaction of magnesium cyclopropylidenes with naphtholates and phenolates

The sulfoxide-magnesium exchange reaction of aryl 1-chlorocyclopropyl sulfoxides with i-PrMgCl in THF at low temperature gave magnesium cyclopropylidenes. Treatment of the magnesium cyclopropylidenes with lithium naphtholates or phenolates resulted in the formation of spiro[2.6]nonadienones in up to 82% yield. The structure of the spiro[2.6]nonadienones was found to be dependent on the structure of the naphtholates and phenolates.     

Synthesis of cyclotetrapeptides,am-toxin analogs,containing α-hydroxyalanine

Condensation of amide with α-keto acid to yield a α-hydroxyalanine (α-Hyala) or dehydroalanine residue was applied to syntheses of analogs of AM-toxins, cyclotetradepsipeptides. Cyclo(-α-Hyala-L-Ala-L-Val-L-Phe-), cyclo(-α-Hyala-L-Ala-L-Hmb-L-Phe-) and cyclo(-α-Hyala-L-Ala-L-Hmb-L-Tyr-) (Hmb, 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutanoic acid) were obtained from the corresponding pyruvyl-tripeptide amides in good yields by the treatment of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride.     

MassBank: a public repository for sharing mass spectral data for life sciences

MassBank is the first public repository of mass spectra of small chemical compounds for life sciences (<3000 Da). The database contains 605 electron‐ionization mass spectrometry(EI‐MS), 137 fast atom bombardment MS and 9276 electrospray ionization (ESI)‐MSⁿ data of 2337 authentic compounds of metabolites, 11 545 EI‐MS and 834 other‐MS data of 10 286 volatile natural and synthetic compounds, and 3045 ESI‐MS² data of 679 synthetic drugs contributed by 16 research groups (January 2010). ESI‐MS² data were analyzed under nonstandardized, independent experimental conditions. MassBank is a distributed database. Each research group provides data from its own MassBank data servers distributed on the Internet. MassBank users can access either all of the MassBank data or a subset of the data by specifying one or more experimental conditions. In a spectral search to retrieve mass spectra similar to a query mass spectrum, the similarity score is calculated by a weighted cosine correlation in which weighting exponents on peak intensity and the mass‐to‐charge ratio are optimized to the ESI‐MS² data. MassBank also provides a merged spectrum for each compound prepared by merging the analyzed ESI‐MS² data on an identical compound under different collision‐induced dissociation conditions. Data merging has significantly improved the precision of the identification of a chemical compound by 21–23% at a similarity score of 0.6. Thus, MassBank is useful for the identification of chemical compounds and the publication of experimental data. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new entry to the synthesis of 2,3-disubstituted indoles

[reaction: see text] The Stille coupling of N-acyl-2-iodoanilines with the 1-(tributylstannyl)-1-substituted allenes affected the successive one-step formation of the 2-methyl-3-substituted indoles. Alternatively, the other type of 2-alkyl-3-substituted indoles could be synthesized in a one-pot operation, which consists of the Stille coupling reaction with the 1-(tributylstannyl)-1,3-disubstituted allenes, followed by TBAF treatment. This procedure could be applied to the synthesis of indomethacin.     

Trace determination of uranium preconcentrated using graphene oxide by total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

A new method based on dispersive microsolid phase extraction using graphene oxide (GO) as a solid adsorbent and total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry is proposed for trace determination of uranium. In the developed methodology, a suspension of GO was injected into uranium-spiked multielement solutions including rubidium; after filtration, the membrane filter with collected GO was placed in a small volume of internal standard acid solution and the eluent containing uranium was deposited onto a fluorine resin-coated slide glass, which is a disposable sample stage. Using GO was effective for removal of rubidium from the measurement solution to avoid interference between Rb Kα peak and U Lα peak. The high enrichment factor of 150 enables obtaining uranium detection limits of 0.042, 0.087, and 0.12 μg L⁻¹ for ionic strength of 0.01, 0.1, and 1 mol L⁻¹, respectively. Such low detection limits were obtained by using a benchtop TXRF spectrometer with 5-min measurement. The proposed method is suitable for trace uranium determination in water, including high salinity samples.     

A note on extensions of algebraic and formal groups II

Partially supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research #05640063     

Morphology of polytetrafluoroethylene prepared by radiation-induced emulsion polymerization

The original morphology of polytetrafluoroethylene prepared by radiation-induced emulsion polymerization was studied by electron microscopy. The morphology depends on molecular weight, which in turn depends on polymerization conditions, especially the emulsifier concentration. The molecular weight decreases with increasing emulsifier concentration. The morphology changes with molecular weight roughly as follows: fibrils below 10⁵, rods between 10⁵ and 5 × 10⁵, and granular particle above 10⁶. The crystallinity is high for all morphologies.     

Evaluation of ferritin-overexpressing brain in newly developed transgenic mice

Aberrant expression of ferritin, a major iron-binding protein, has shown to be involved in neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we generated transgenic (Tg) mice of human ferritin heavy chain (FTH) gene and investigated the effects of ferritin overexpression in FTH-Tg brain by ¹H-MRI and ¹H-MRS. The mice displayed no apparent neurological symptoms, and no specific morphological and T₂ alterations were found in the brain by MRI, and not even by histological studies. ¹H-MRS, however, revealed that some metabolic markers were significantly altered in FTH-Tg brains compared to wild-type control brains, such as decreases in myo-inositol and glutamine, and an increase in lactate. Our present studies suggested that despite the absence of neurological, morphological, T₂, and histological signatures, brain metabolisms were significantly affected in FTH-Tg mice. This study also highlights the usefulness of ¹H-MRS in the analysis of transgenic mouse models.     

Syntheses of shuttlecock- and bowl-equipped phenylazopyridines and photomodulation of their coordination ability to Zn-porphyrin

Shuttlecock- and bowl-equipped 4-(phenylazo)pyridine derivatives, which bear substituents that allow the pyridine moiety to protrude in the trans form but hinder it in the cis form, have been designed and synthesized. These molecules show cis/trans photoisomerization despite the presence of bulky substituents. ¹H NMR titration with Zn-porphyrin showed that the trans isomers coordinate to Zn-porphyrin much stronger than the cis isomers.     

Extended skyrme models in even dimensions and higher-dimensional solitons II: Wess-Zumino terms in two and higher dimensions

We investigate Wess-Zumino terms in higher-dimensional nonlinear sigma models using the higher-dimensional hedgehog ansatz proposed by us. The gauged Wess-Zumino terms are also calculated from a fermion determinant, and we comment on extended objects or a dibaryon ansatz.Partially supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, No. 61460005.