A facile,stereoselective [2 + 2] photoreaction mediated by curcurbit[8]uril

The [2 + 2] photoreaction of (E)-diaminostilbene dihydrochloride proceeds with large rate acceleration and high stereoselectivity via formation of a stable 1:2 host-guest complex with curcurbit[8]uril in solution.     

Torsional Splittings in Small-Amplitude Vibrational Fundamental States of Methanol-Type Molecules

Group-theoretical methods are used to show that inverted torsional splittings in fundamental levels of small-amplitude vibrations of methanol-like molecules can be parameterized and understood in terms of the energy level patterns induced when a pair of high-barrier torsionally split components of given v(t) and (t)A+(t)E symmetry species in the molecular symmetry group G(6) is allowed to interact with small-amplitude vibrational modes of symmetry (v)E. Such doubly degenerate (v)E vibrational modes arise rather naturally in G(6) (isomorphic with the point-group C(3v)) for those methyl-group vibrations in point-group-C(s) asymmetric tops such as CH(3)-CHO that are analogs of the degenerate methyl-group stretch, bend, and rocking vibrations in point-group-C(3v) symmetric tops such as CH(3)-C identical withC-H. The present group-theoretical treatment is somewhat different from, but (as a comparison of model parameters shows) still fundamentally similar to, the recent local mode explanation of inverted torsional splittings in the C-H stretching fundamental region in methanol. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

On the spectral properties of Witten-Laplacians, their range projections and Brascamp-Lieb's inequality

A study is made of a recent integral identity of B. Helffer and J. Sjöstrand, which for a not yet fully determined class of probability measures yields a formula for the covariance of two functions (of a stochastic variable); in comparison with the Brascamp-Lieb inequality, this formula is a more flexible and in some contexts stronger means for the analysis of correlation asymptotics in statistical mechanics. Using a fine version of the Closed Range Theorem, the identity's validity is shown to be equivalent to some explicitly given spectral properties of Witten-Laplacians on Euclidean space, and the formula is moreover deduced from the obtained abstract expression for the range projection. As a corollary, a generalised version of Brascamp-Lieb's inequality is obtained. For a certain class of measures occuring in statistical mechanics, explicit criteria for the Witten-Laplacians are found from the Persson-Agmon formula, from compactness of embeddings and from the Weyl calculus, which give results for closed range, strict positivity, essential self-adjointness and domain characterisations.Supported by TMR grant FMRX-CT960001 of the European Commision, PDE and QM at Université de Paris-Sud, France; partly by the Danish Natural Sciences Research Council, grant 9700987.     

Addition,elimination, exchange,and epimerization in nitro sulfones

Three reactions were studied in the diastereomers of 1‐(benzenesulfonyl)‐2‐nitro‐1‐phenylpropane ( 1A and 1B ) and briefly in related compounds: elimination of the benzenesulfonyl group, epimerization of one diastereomer to the other, and deuterium/hydrogen exchange at the methine group next to nitro in starting material. The two diastereomers showed quite different reactivity. The high melting diasteromer showed rapid elimination and some exchange. The low melting diastereomer (at approximately a half‐life) showed extensive epimerization, and elimination to the alkene, but little exchange. There is little effect of aromatic substituents on reaction course. The situation is complicated by re‐addition of benzenesulfinate to the alkene. The addition reaction was similar to elimination in agreement with the Principle of Microscopic Reversibility expectations. An electron transfer mechanism for addition is calculated to be comparatively favorable. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐injection workflow for a liquid chromatography/LTQ‐Orbitrap system to complete in vivo biotransformation characterization: demonstration with buspirone metabolite identification

The relatively high background matrix in in vivo samples typically poses difficulties in drug metabolite identification, and causes repeated analytical runs on unit resolution liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) systems before the completion of biotransformation characterization. Ballpark parameter settings for the LTQ‐Orbitrap are reported herein that enable complete in vivo metabolite identification within two HPLC/MS injections on the hybrid LTQ‐Orbitrap data collection system. By setting the FT survey full scan at 60K resolution to trigger five dependent LTQ MS² scans, and proper parameters of Repeat Duration, Exclusion Duration and Repeat Count for the first run (exploratory), the Orbitrap achieved the optimal parallel data acquisition capability and collected maximum number of product ion scans. Biotransformation knowledge based prediction played the key role in exact mass ion extraction and multiple mass defect filtration when the initial data was processed. Meanwhile, product ion extraction and neutral loss extraction of the initial dependent data provided additional bonus in identifying metabolites. With updated parent mass list and the data‐dependent setting to let only the ions on the parent mass list trigger dependent scans, the second run (confirmatory) ensures that all precursor ions of identified metabolites trigger not only dependent product ion scans, but also at or close to the highest concentration of the eluted metabolite peaks. This workflow has been developed for metabolite identification of in vivo or ADME studies, of which the samples typically contain a high level of complex matrix. However, due to the proprietary nature of the in vivo studies, this workflow is presented herein with in vitro buspirone sample incubated with human liver microsomes (HLM). The major HLM‐mediated biotransformation on buspirone was identified as oxidation or hydroxylation since five mono‐ (+16 Da), seven di‐ (+32 Da) and at least three tri‐oxygenated (+48 Da) metabolites were identified. Besides the metabolites 1‐pyrimidinylpiperazine (1‐PP) and hydroxylated 1‐PP that formed by N‐dealkylation, a new metabolite M308 was identified as the result of a second N‐dealkylation of the pyrimidine unit. Two new metabolites containing the 8‐butyl‐8‐azaspiro[4,5]decane‐7,9‐dione partial structure, M240 and M254, were also identified that were formed apparently due to the first N‐dealkylation of the 1‐PP moiety. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chromatographic Processing Scheme for Continuous Harvesting of rec-Prourokinase from Serum Free Medium Cell Cultures

Continuous perfusion cell culture, using albumin containing medium, offers the potential advantages of higher recombinant Prourokinase (r-ProUK) yields, higher initial product purity and increased throughput compared to batch culture technology using medium supplemented with fetal bovine serum. We have characterized the production of r-ProUK in medium supplemented with a lipid rich bovine serum albumin (Albumax) in a perfusion system. The results of these studies showed that it was necessary to modify the r-ProUK batch recovery scheme to process r-ProUK from a perfusion system. To accommodate large volumes of perfusate harvested over a ten to fourteen day production cycle, cation exchange and hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) resins were identified that had increased product binding capacity, better flow characteristics and wider pH ranges which allowed caustic cleaning. The mobile phase composition, pH and ionic strength were modified to improve r-ProUK yields from the identified resins, and procedures were developed to eliminate r-ProUK degradation products. Strategies were defined for processing continuous harvest, which contained four to seven times the amount of r-ProUK of batch harvests.     

Base-catalyzed tritium exchange between tritium-containing heavy water and deuterated chloroform–kinetics and equilibrium

We develop a kinetic model for the exchange of tritium and deuteriumbetween tritium-containing heavy water and deuterated chloroform in a two-phase liquid system, catalyzed by hydroxide ion (sodium hydroxide). For the exchange reaction yielding tritiated chloroform andheavy water, the measured equilibrium constant is 0.518 at 25–45°C, independent of temperature. The rate constant (for the controlling step, deuteron abstraction from chloroform) is 0.22 L/mol s at 25°C, 0.72 at 35°C, and 2.0 at 45°C, corresponding to an activation energy of 87 kJ/mol. Comparison is made with literature data, and effects of mass transfer on the apparent rate constant are discussed.     

An algorithmic framework for convex mixed integer nonlinear programs

This paper is motivated by the fact that mixed integer nonlinear programming is an important and difficult area for which there is a need for developing new methods and software for solving large-scale problems. Moreover, both fundamental building blocks, namely mixed integer linear programming and nonlinear programming, have seen considerable and steady progress in recent years. Wishing to exploit expertise in these areas as well as on previous work in mixed integer nonlinear programming, this work represents the first step in an ongoing and ambitious project within an open-source environment. COIN-OR is our chosen environment for the development of the optimization software. A class of hybrid algorithms, of which branch-and-bound and polyhedral outer approximation are the two extreme cases, are proposed and implemented. Computational results that demonstrate the effectiveness of this framework are reported. Both the library of mixed integer nonlinear problems that exhibit convex continuous relaxations, on which the experiments are carried out, and a version of the software used are publicly available.