Reaction of Cl with CD4 excited to the second C-D stretching overtone

The effects of vibrational excitation on the Cl+CD(4) reaction are investigated by preparing three nearly isoenergetic vibrational states: mid R:3000 at 6279.66 cm(-1), |2100> at 6534.20 cm(-1), and |1110> at 6764.24 cm(-1), where |D(1)D(2)D(3)D(4)> identifies the number of vibrational quanta in each C-D oscillator. Vibrational excitation of the perdeuteromethane is via direct infrared pumping. The reaction is initiated by photolysis of molecular chlorine at 355 nm. The nascent methyl radical product distribution is measured by 2+1 resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization at 330 nm. The resulting CD(3) state distributions reveal a preference to remove all energy available in the most excited C-D oscillator. Although the energetics are nearly identical, the authors observe strong mode specificity in which the CD(3) state distributions markedly differ between the three Cl-atom reactions. Reaction with CD(4) prepared in the |3000> mode leads to CD(3) products populated primarily in the ground state, reaction with CD(4) prepared in the |2100> mode leads primarily to CD(3) with one quantum of stretch excitation, and reaction with CD(4) prepared in the |1110> mode leads primarily to CD(3) with one quantum of C-D stretch excitation in two oscillators. There are some minor deviations from this behavior, most notably that the Cl atom is able to abstract more energy than is available in a single C-D oscillator, as in the case of |2100>, wherein a small population of ground-state CD(3) is observed. These exceptions likely result from the mixings between different second overtone stretch combination bands. They also measure isotropic and anisotropic time-of-flight profiles of CD(3) (nu(1)=1,2) products from the Cl+CD(4) |2100> reaction, providing speed distributions, spatial anisotropies, and differential cross sections that indicate that energy introduced as vibrational energy into the system essentially remains as such throughout the course of the reaction.     

Schmidt’s game on fractals

We construct (α, β) and α-winning sets in the sense of Schmidt’s game, played on the support of certain measures (absolutely friendly) and show how to compute the Hausdorff dimension for some. In particular, we prove that if K is the attractor of an irreducible finite family of contracting similarity maps of ℝ ^N satisfying the open set condition, (the Cantor’s ternary set, Koch’s curve and Sierpinski’s gasket to name a few known examples), then for any countable collection of non-singular affine transformations, Δ _i : ℝ ^N → ℝ ^N ,

Drugs Targeting the A3 Adenosine Receptor: Human Clinical Study Data

The A3 adenosine receptor (A3AR) is overexpressed in pathological human cells. Piclidenoson and namodenoson are A3AR agonists with high affinity and selectivity to A3AR. Both induce apoptosis of cancer and inflammatory cells via a molecular mechanism entailing deregulation of the Wnt and the NF-κB signaling pathways. Our company conducted phase I studies showing the safety of these 2 molecules. In the phase II studies in psoriasis patients, piclidenoson was safe and demonstrated efficacy manifested in significant improvements in skin lesions. Namodenoson is currently being developed to treat liver cancer, where prolonged overall survival was observed in patients with advanced liver disease and a Child–Pugh B score of 7. A pivotal phase III study in this patient population has been approved by the FDA and the EMA and is currently underway. Namodenoson is also being developed to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). A Phase IIa study has been successfully concluded and showed that namodenoson has anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrosis, and anti-steatosis effects. A phase IIb study in NASH is currently enrolling patients. In conclusion, A3AR agonists are promising drug candidates in advanced stages of clinical development and demonstrate safety and efficacy in their targeted indications.     

Oxygen-sensitive 19F NMR imaging of the vascular system in vivo

The fluorine nuclear magnetic resonance spin-lattice relaxation rate (1/T1) of the perfluorochemical blood substitute perfluorotripropylamine (FTPA) is very sensitive to oxygen tension. This presents the possibility of measuring blood oxygen tension by 19F MR imaging. We obtained oxygen-sensitive 19F NMR images of the circulatory system of rats infused with emulsified FTPA. Blood oxygenation was assessed under conditions of both air- and 100% O2-breathing. T1 relaxation times were derived from MR images using a partial saturation pulse sequence. The T1 times were compared with a phantom calibration curve to calculate average blood pO2 values in the lung, liver, and spleen. The results showed marked, organ-specific increases in blood oxygen tension when the rat breathed 100% O2 instead of air.     

“The energy spectrum of quadrupole impurity centers of different types in antiferromagnets

We study the energy spectrum and some properties of various quadrupole centers (magnetic impurities or magnetic impurity complexes that are symmetric with respect to the magnetic sublattices of the antiferromagnet). We allow for the effect of spin-phonon coupling on the quadrupole splitting parameter and show that such coupling can lead to a considerable decrease in the value of this parameter and even change its sign. We investigate the behavior of quadrupole centers with an orbitally degenerate ground state and of quadrupole impurity complexes formed by mixed-valence ions. We demonstrate that such centers may greatly affect the resonant, magnetic, and thermodynamic properties of antiferromagnets. Finally, we analyze the existing experimental data and show that several new effects can be observed in systems with such centers (in particular, a magnetic analog of the Jahn-Teller effect and a strong magnetoelectric effect). Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 111, 964–978 (March 1997)     

Distance distributions recovered from steady-state fluorescence measurements on thirteen donor-acceptor pairs with different Förster distances

The end-to-end distance distribution of a flexible molecule was recovered from steady-state fluorescence energy transfer measurements using the method suggested by Cantor and Pechukas (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 68, 2099–2101, 1971). In this method, the Förster distance (R ₀) is varied by attaching different donor-acceptor (D-A) pairs to the flexible linker of interest. Distance distributions are then recovered from energy transfer efficiency measurements on the set of D-A pairs with differentR ₀ values. Thirteen D-A pair compounds were synthesized withR ₀ values ranging from 6 to 32 Å. Each compound contained a tryptamine donor linked by an alkyl chain (10 carbons) to 1 of 13 acceptors. Using these compounds, we have experimentally confirmed the Cantor and Pechukas method for recovering distance distributions. The measured transfer efficiencies, as a function ofR ₀, were fit to the transfer efficiencies predicted for both Gaussian and skewed Gaussian distance distributions. The data support the existence of a skewed Gaussian distribution, and we believe that this is the first experimental observation of an asymmetric distribution for a flexible molecule using fluorescence resonance energy transfer measurements. Finally, the experimentally recovered distance distribution was found to be in good agreement with the distribution predicted from the rotational isomeric state model of Flory (Statistical Mechanics of Chain Molecules, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1969, Chaps. 1, 3, and 5) but not with the predicted distribution for a freely rotating or freely jointed chain.