From labdanes to drimanes. Degradation of the side chain of dihydrozamoranic acid

A new route for the degradation of the saturated side chain of dihydrozamoranic acid has been devised, giving an advanced intermediate, compound 14, useful for the synthesis of insect antifeedants such as warburganal and polygodial.     

A molecular dynamics description of the conformational flexibility of the L-iduronate ring in glycosaminoglycans

For a synthetic hexasaccharide model it is shown that the conformational flexibility of the L-iduronate ring in glycosaminoglycans can be adequately described by using the PME methodology together with simulation protocols suitable for highly charged systems.     

Adhesion Forces between LewisX Determinant Antigens as Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy

No Abstract     

Synthesis, crystal structures and magnetic properties of M(II)Cu(II) chains (M = Mn and Co) with sterically hindered alkyl-substituted phenyloxamate bridging ligands

A series of neutral oxamato‐bridged heterobimetallic chains of general formula [MCu(L^x)₂(S)₂] ? p S ? q H₂O [p=0–1, q=0–2.5; L¹=N‐2,6‐dimethylphenyloxamate, S=DMF with M=Mn ( 1 a ) and Co ( 1 b ); L²=N‐2,6‐diethylphenyloxamate, S=DMF with M=Mn ( 2 a ) and Co ( 2 b ) or S=DMSO with M=Mn ( 2 c ) and Co ( 2 d ); L³=N‐2,6‐diisopropylphenyloxamate, S=DMF with M=Mn ( 3 a ) and Co ( 3 b ) or S=DMSO with M=Mn ( 3 c ) and Co ( 3 d )] were prepared by treating the corresponding anionic oxamatocopper(II) complexes [Cu(L^x)₂]^2? (x=1–3) with M²⁺ cations (M=Mn and Co) in DMF or DMSO as the solvent. The single‐crystal X‐ray structures of 2 a and 3 a reveal the occurrence of well‐isolated, zigzag, oxamato‐bridged manganese(II)–copper(II) chains. The intrachain Cu ??? Mn distances across the oxamato bridge are 5.3761(7) and 5.4002(17) Å for 2 a and 3 a , respectively, whereas the shortest interchain Mn ??? Mn distances are 9.4475(16) and 8.1649(14) Å for 2 a and 3 a , respectively. All of these M^IICu^II chains (M=Mn and Co) exhibit 1D ferrimagnetic behaviour with moderately strong intrachain antiferromagnetic coupling between the square‐planar Cu^II and octahedral high‐spin M^II ions across the oxamato bridge [?J=31.4–35.2 and 33.4–44.8 cm^?1, respectively; H =∑_i?J S _M,i( S _Cu,i+ S _Cu,i?1)]. Only the Co^IICu^II chains show slow magnetic relaxation effects characteristic of single‐chain magnets (SCMs). Analysis of the magnetic relaxation dynamics of 3 d shows a thermally activated mechanism (Arrhenius law dependence) with values of the pre‐exponential factor (τ₀=2.6×10^?9 s) and activation energy (E_a=7.7 cm^?1) that are typical of SCMs. In contrast, two relaxation regimes are observed for 2 d in different temperature regions (τ₀=3.2×10^?10 s and E_a=24.7 cm^?1 for T<4.5 K and τ₀=3.2×10^?14 s and E_a=37.5 cm^?1 for T>4.5 K).     

Simplified box orbitals for molecules containing atoms beyond Ar

Simplified Box Orbitals (SBOs) are a kind of spatially restricted basis functions with a similar use to Slater functions, but fulfilling an exact version of the zero-differential overlap approximation. These functions also allow for a drastic reduction in the number of bielectronic integrals when dealing with huge systems, and can be adapted to study confined systems such as molecules in solution. In previous studies, the necessary SBOs parameters to be used for different elements were defined. However, the accuracy of those basis functions decreases with the atomic number of the atoms under study, and therefore their use was discouraged beyond the Ar atom. In the present study, we verify that slightly increasing the terms of SBOs for a better definition, is enough to correctly handling atoms beyond Ar. This, together with other improvements exposed in this work, allowed obtaining accurate SBOs for K–Kr atoms. To make possible the use of SBOs in standard quantum chemistry calculation software, Gaussian expansions to the proposed basis functions–were achieved. Then, simple formulas for directly obtaining those expansions were deduced. Finally, the results of an SZ basis set of the proposed SBOs are analysed and compared with a similar STO basis set.     

Highly enantioselective borane reduction of heteroaryl and heterocyclic ketoxime ethers catalyzed by novel spiroborate ester derived from diphenylvalinol: application to the synthesis of nicotine analogues

An asymmetric synthesis for the preparation of nonracemic amines bearing heterocyclic and heteroaromatic rings is described. A variety of important enantiopure thionyl and arylalkyl primary amines were afforded by the borane-mediated enantioselective reduction of O-benzyl ketoximes using 10% of catalyst 10 derived from ( S)-diphenylvalinol and ethylene glycol with excellent enantioselectivity, in up to 99% ee. The optimal condition for the first asymmetric reduction of 3- and 4-pyridyl-derived O-benzyl ketoxime ethers was achieved using 30% of catalytic loading in dioxane at 10 degrees C. ( S)- N-ethylnornicotine ( 3) was also successfully synthesized from the TIPS-protected ( S)-2-amino-2-pyridylethanol in 97% ee.     

Screen printed graphite macroelectrodes for the direct electron transfer of cytochrome c

We report the direct electrochemistry of cytochrome c at screen printed graphite electrodes which exhibits quasi-reversible voltammetric responses without the need for any chemical or electrochemical pre-treatment, use of mediators or nanomaterials. Through voltammetric studies and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) it is shown that carbonyl and carboxylic surface oxygenated species likely residing at edge plane like- sites/defects of the graphite comprising the screen printed electrodes are responsible for the favourable interaction of the cytochrome c with that of the screen printed electrochemical sensing platform.     

Enantiomeric separation of several antimycotic azole drugs using supercritical fluid chromatography

The chiral resolution of four antifungal compounds, three imidazoles (miconazole, econazole and sulconazole) and one triazole (itraconazole) using supercritical fluid chromatography on the amylose-based chiral stationary phase Chiralpak AD, is presented in this work. The influence of pressure, type and percentage of organic modifier and temperature on retention times and resolution was studied. The enantiomeric separation of the three imidazoles was achieved with resolutions higher than two and analysis times lower than 10 min, obtaining the best results using methanol as modifier. However, the analysis time of the triazole was higher than 80 min due to the existence of a high number of functional groups that were able to interact with the chiral stationary phase. In this case, the resolution of the four stereoisomers was achieved only partially with mixtures of ethanol and 2-propanol as modifier. The isoenantioselective temperatures were obtained from the study of the influence of the temperature, they were above the range of temperatures assayed, except for sulconazole using 2-propanol.     

Re-entrant phase behavior for systems with competition between phase separation and self-assembly

In patchy particle systems where there is a competition between the self-assembly of finite clusters and liquid-vapor phase separation, re-entrant phase behavior can be observed, with the system passing from a monomeric vapor phase to a region of liquid-vapor phase coexistence and then to a vapor phase of clusters as the temperature is decreased at constant density. Here, we present a classical statistical mechanical approach to the determination of the complete phase diagram of such a system. We model the system as a van der Waals fluid, but one where the monomers can assemble into monodisperse clusters that have no attractive interactions with any of the other species. The resulting phase diagrams show a clear region of re-entrance. However, for the most physically reasonable parameter values of the model, this behavior is restricted to a certain range of density, with phase separation still persisting at high densities.     

Lossless equalization of frequency combs

Frequency combs obtained by sinusoidal phase modulation of narrowband cw lasers are widely used in the field of optical communications. However, the resulting spectral envelope of the comb is not flat. We propose a general and efficient approach to achieve flat frequency combs with tunable bandwidth. The idea is based on a two-step process. First, efficient generation of a train with a temporal flat-top-pulse profile is required. Second, we use large parabolic phase modulation in every train period to map the temporal intensity shape into the spectral domain. In this way the resulting spectral envelope is flat, and the size is tunable with the chirping rate. Two different schemes are proposed and verified through numerical simulations.