Cyclic RGD Peptides Containing Azabicycloalkane Reverse‐Turn Mimics

The Fmoc‐protected lactams 3 and 4 were used to prepare cyclo(Arg‐Gly‐Asp‐lactam) 1 and cyclo(Arg‐Gly‐Asp‐Phe‐lactam) 2 , which contain the Arg‐Gly‐Asp (RGD) recognition motif. Their solid‐phase synthesis, conformational analysis, and binding to purified α_Vβ₃ and α_Vβ₅ integrins are reported. Compound 1 was found to act as an active and selective inhibitor of the α_Vβ₅ integrin.     

Synthesis, crystal structures and magnetic properties of cyanide- and phenolate-bridged [M(III)NiII]2 tetranuclear complexes (M=Fe and Cr)

The binuclear complex NiII2L(H2O)2(ClO4)2(1) and the neutral tetranuclear bimetallic compounds [{M(III)(phen)(CN)4}2{NiII2L(H2O)2}].2CH3CN with M=Fe (2) and Cr (3)[H2L=11,23-dimethyl-3,7,15,19-tetraazatricyclo[19.3.1.1(9,13)]hexacosa-2,7,9,11,13(26),14,19,21(25),22,24-decaene-25,26-diol] have been synthesized and the structures of and determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. and are isostructural compounds whose structure is made up of centrosymmetric binuclear cations [Ni2(L)(H2O)2]2+ and two peripheral [M(phen)(CN)4]- anions [M=Fe (2) and Cr (3)] acting as monodentate ligands towards the nickel atoms through one of their four cyanide nitrogen atoms. The environment of the metal atoms in 2 and 3 is six-coordinated: two phen-nitrogen and four cyanide-carbon atoms at the iron and chromium atoms and a water molecule, one cyanide-nitrogen and two phenolate-oxygens and two imine-nitrogens from the binucleating ligand L2- at the nickel atom build distorted octahedral surroundings. The values of the FeNi and CrNi separations through the single cyanide bridge are 5.058(1) and 5.174(2)A respectively, whereas the Ni-Ni distances across the double phenolate bridge are 3.098(2)(2) and 3.101(1) A (3). The magnetic properties of have been investigated in the temperature range 1.9-290 K. The magnetic behaviour of corresponds to that of an antiferromagnetically coupled nickel(II) dimer with J=-61.0(1) cm-1, the Hamiltonian being defined as H=-J S(A).S(B). An overall antiferromagnetic behaviour is observed for and with a low-lying singlet spin state. The values of the intramolecular magnetic couplings are J(Fe-Ni)=+17.4(1) cm-1 and J(Ni-Ni(a))=-44.4(1) cm-1 for and J(Cr-Ni)=+11.8(1) cm-1 and J(Ni-Ni(a))=-44.6(1) cm-1 for [H=-J(M-Ni)(S(M).S(Ni)+S(Ma).S(Nia))-J(Ni-Nia)S(Ni)S(Nia)]. Theoretical calculations using methods based on density functional theory (DFT) have been employed on in order to analyze the efficiency of the exchange pathways involved and also to substantiate the exchange coupling parameters.     

Differential pulse polarographic determination of traces of iron in solar-grade silicon

Iron is determined, after volatilization of the matrix as hexafluorosilicic acid, by means of the polarographic iron(III) wave in a 0.1 M triethanolamine—0.1 M potassium bromate—0.5 M sodium hydroxide medium. Differential pulse polarography provides a detection limit of about 0.15 μg g^-1 with a precision of 1–2% and linear calibration graphs up to 0.5 μg Fe(III) ml^-1.     

Conformational analysis of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines

Ring and nitrogen inversion account for the conformational equilibria of 3-phenyl-1, 2,3, 4-tetrahydroiso-quinolines. In order to quantitate the relative contribution of each conformer to the equilibrium, we undertook a molecular mechanics study on several substituted 3-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 4-tetrahydroisoquinolines. Predictions from calculations were checked against cmr chemical shift data. No boat conformation contributed significantly to the equilibrium. A general result of our calculations is that in all cases the 3-phenyl group in the equatorial position is strongly favored (by at least 2.50 kcal/mole). For 3-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 4-tetrahydroisoquinolines without substitution at nitrogen, N-H in equatorial position is preferred over the axial conformer, although the energy difference between both is always small (0.30–1.10 kcal/mole). For the cis-1,3-disubstituted compounds the le'3e conformers are the only species present (at least 99.8%). The calculated energy differences between the la′3a conformer and the le′3e conformer are always large (3.80–6.10 kcal/mole for the NHe conformers and 3.60–3.80 kcal/mole for the NHa conformers). The lack of a γ_1a upfield shift at C3 also points to the preference for the pseudoequatorial-equatorial conformer. For N-methyl-3-phenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline a preference for the NMe group in the equatorial position is predicted (0.60–2.00 kcal/mole). The small downfield shift at C4 (γ_Na = 0.5 ppm) is consistent with the equatorial NMe preference. For the cis-1,2,3-trisubstituted compounds no significant γ_1a effect at C3 (γ_1a = -0.2 and 1.0 ppm) or γ_Na effect at C4 (γ_Na = 0.1 and 0.4 ppm) is observed. For these compounds, deformations due to steric congestion are evidenced by the deviation from the values of the C4a-C8a-Cl-N and C4a-C4-C3-N torsional angles, as compared to less crowded 3-phenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines. Here the heterocyclic ring adopts a distorted half-chair conformation.     

Extraction-chromatographic method for the determination of plutonium-239,240 and plutonium-238 in soils with high natural radioactivity

A highly selective method is described for the determination of ^239,240Pu and ²³⁸Pu in soils by extraction chromatography with Microthene-710/tri-n-octylamine. The method is especially suitable for volcanic soils containing high concentrations of natural alpha radionuclides (Th, Po, U, etc.). The detection limit by α-spectrometry is 2.2 mBq kg^?1 for 50-g soil samples. The average chemical yield, obtained by adding ²⁴²Pu as the internal standard, is 69.5 ± 17.1%. An IAEA reference soil was analyzed, with a relative error of 6.7% for ²³⁹Pu. The concentration of ^2239,240Pu in thirteen analyzed soils and sediments ranged from 26.6 to 429 mBq kg^?1.     

Structure-Property Relationships in the Basicity and Lipophilicity of Arylalkylamine Oxides

Homologous N,N-dimethyl-phenylalkylamine oxides and N,N-dimethyl-diphenylalkylamine oxides were prepared. Their basicity and lipophilicity (octan-1-ol/H₂O) were compared to those of the parent amines. In contrast to the amines, the basicity of all N,N-dimethyl-arylalkylamine oxides showed very limited pK_a variations (range 4.65 – 5.01) with increasing chain length and number of Ph groups. The N-oxides in their neutral form had a log P^N value lower by 2.77±0.34 (n=9) units than that of the parent amine. The log P^C of the cationic N,N-dimethyl-diphenylalkylamines was lower than that of their neutral form, with a decrement diff(log P^N−C) that increased from 3.25 to 4.21 in the homologous series. Unexpectedly, the decrement diff(log P^N−C) for the N-oxides was much smaller than for the tertiary amines, being 0.23 for the aliphatic N,N-dimethyl-pentylamine oxide, 0.47±0.13 for the phenylalkylamine oxides, and 0.80±0.07 for the diphenylalkylamine oxides. In fact, the protonated N-oxides had log P^C values that were quite comparable to those of the protonated parent amines. Because of the differences in basicity, the difference in distribution coefficients at physiological pH (log D^7.4) between a tertiary arylalkylamine and its N-oxide was 0.82±0.66 (n=9). The pharmacokinetic implication is that N-oxygenation may have a smaller effect on the urinary excretion of tertiary amines than usually assumed.     

Physical and Chemical Characterization of Cellulose Based Textiles Modified by Periodate Oxidation

Conversion of dihydroxyl groups to dialdehyde by periodate oxidation is a useful method widely used in derivatization of cellulose to activate the polymer to further reactions as grafting polymerization. To investigate the cellulose behavior at different level of oxidation and to better understand the influence of the crystallinity on the effects induced by oxidative reactions on different cellulose materials, linen and cotton textiles have been oxidized with periodate solutions in different conditions. Oxidized cellulose samples have been characterized by several techniques: solid-state ¹³C NMR, Wide Angle X-Ray diffraction, and SEM. Moreover the mechanical properties of the untreated and oxidized yarns have been evaluated by means of tensile tests, the oxidation degree has been measured by means of the hydroxylamine hydrochloride method.     

Multifunctional polymeric materials for biomedical applications

The work performed by our research group during the last few years in the area of bioerodible-biodegradable polymers as designed to the formulation of systems for the controlled delivery of drugs and as specific sorbents of uraemic toxins is broadly reviewed. In particular, attention has been focused on the strategies adopted in the preparation of functional polymers containing hydroxyl or carboxyl groups, suitable to establish specific bonding and non-bonding interactions with conventional and proteic drugs.     

Estimation of the effective and functional human cortical connectivity with structural equation modeling and directed transfer function applied to high-resolution EEG

Different brain imaging devices are presently available to provide images of the human functional cortical activity, based on hemodynamic, metabolic or electromagnetic measurements. However, static images of brain regions activated during particular tasks do not convey the information of how these regions are interconnected. The concept of brain connectivity plays a central role in the neuroscience, and different definitions of connectivity, functional and effective, have been adopted in literature. While the functional connectivity is defined as the temporal coherence among the activities of different brain areas, the effective connectivity is defined as the simplest brain circuit that would produce the same temporal relationship as observed experimentally among cortical sites. The structural equation modeling (SEM) is the most used method to estimate effective connectivity in neuroscience, and its typical application is on data related to brain hemodynamic behavior tested by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), whereas the directed transfer function (DTF) method is a frequency-domain approach based on both a multivariate autoregressive (MVAR) modeling of time series and on the concept of Granger causality.

This study presents advanced methods for the estimation of cortical connectivity by applying SEM and DTF on the cortical signals estimated from high-resolution electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, since these signals exhibit a higher spatial resolution than conventional cerebral electromagnetic measures. To estimate correctly the cortical signals, we used a subject's multicompartment head model (scalp, skull, dura mater, cortex) constructed from individual MRI, a distributed source model and a regularized linear inverse source estimates of cortical current density. Before the application of SEM and DTF methodology to the cortical waveforms estimated from high-resolution EEG data, we performed a simulation study, in which different main factors (signal-to-noise ratio, SNR, and simulated cortical activity duration, LENGTH) were systematically manipulated in the generation of test signals, and the errors in the estimated connectivity were evaluated by the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The statistical analysis returned that during simulations, both SEM and DTF estimators were able to correctly estimate the imposed connectivity patterns under reasonable operative conditions, that is, when data exhibit an SNR of at least 3 and a LENGTH of at least 75 s of nonconsecutive EEG recordings at 64 Hz of sampling rate.

Hence, effective and functional connectivity patterns of cortical activity can be effectively estimated under general conditions met in any practical EEG recordings, by combining high-resolution EEG techniques and linear inverse estimation with SEM or DTF methods. We conclude that the estimation of cortical connectivity can be performed not only with hemodynamic measurements, but also with EEG signals treated with advanced computational techniques.     

A minimum problem with free boundary for a degenerate quasilinear operator

In this paper we prove regularity (near flat points) of the free boundary 0\}\cap\Omega$" align="middle" border="0"> in the Alt-Caffarelli type minimum problem for the p-Laplace operator: 0\}}\right)dx\rightarrow \min\qquad (1 Received: 3 June 2003, Accepted: 9 June 2004, Published online: 8 February 2005Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 35R35, 35J60The first author is partially supported by NSF Grant DMS-0202801 and NSF CAREER Grant DMS-0239771