Late stages in the biosynthesis of abnormal erythrina alkaloids

The incorporation of (±)-, N-norprotosinomenine, N-nor-orientaline, N-nor-reticuline, norlaudanosoline, protosinomenine, and N-[2-(3-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)ethyl]-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl) ethylamine into coccuvine has been studied, and the specific utilisation of the (±)-norprotosinomenine demonstrated. A double labelling experiment with (±)-[1-³H,4'-methoxy-¹⁴C]-N-norprotosinomenine showed that the 4'-O-Me group of the precursor is retained in the bioconversion and the erythrinan ring system is not formed by addition of secondary amino function onto an ortho-quinone system. Feeding of (±)-[1-³H, 7-methoxy-¹⁴C]norprotosinomenine established that O-demethylation is the terminal step in the biosynthesis of coccuvine. Feeding of labelled abnormal Erythrina alkaloids revealed that isococculidine is converted into coccoline via coccuvinine and isococculine into coccolinine via coccuvine.     

Correlation between topological features and surface tension of binary liquid mixtures

Summary The excess surface tension of a large number of binary liquid mixtures has been correlated with their topological features quantified in terms of the molecular connectivity indices. The agreement between the calculated and experimental ^E values is reasonably well for all the mixtures. A simple correlation has also been proposed between ^E and molar excess volume (V ^E ) of a binary mixture. The correlation is quite useful in correlating ^E data even for the mixtures where either one or both the components are associated in the pure state and/or there is interaction between them.

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Korrelation zwischen topologischen Gegebenheiten und Oberflächenspannung von binären flüssigen Mischungen

Zusammenfassung Die Exzeß-Oberflächenspannungen einer großen Anzahl von binären flüssigen Mischungen wurden mit der Topologie ihrer Komponenten in Form der molekularen Konnektivitätsindices korreliert. Die Übereinstimmung zwischen den ^E -Werten ist für alle Mischungen relativ gut. Es wurde ebenfalls eine einfache Korrelation zwischen ^E und den molaren Exzeß-Volumina (V ^E ) der binären Mischungen vorgeschlagen. Diese Korrelierung ist nützlich, um die ^E -Werte sogar dann für die Korrelation von Mischungen verwenden zu können, wenn entweder eine oder beide Komponenten im Reinzustand assoziiert sind und/oder eine Wechselwirkung zwischen ihnen besteht.

     

A note on weak production of nucleon resonances

The resonant cross sections for weak production of nucleon resonances is extracted from experimental data on high energy \(\bar v\) -collisions and compared with predictions of theoretical models.     

The biosynthesis of nornuciferine-I(2-methoxy-6aα-aporphine-1-ol)

The incorporation of (±)-norcoclaurine, (±)-coclaurine, (±)-N-methylcoclairine, (±)-N-methylnorcoclaurine into nornuciferine-I in Croton sparsiflorus morong has been studied, and the specific utilization of the (±)-N-methylcoclaurine demonstrated. The evidence supports the direct oxidative coupling of (+)-(S)-N-methylcoclaurine to give N-methylcrotsparine, which in turn is shown to be a specific precursor of nornuciferine-I. The experiments also show that N-methylcrotsparine is reduced to N-methylcrotsparinol and it is N-methylcrotsparinol-I which is preferentially dehydrated and rearranged to nornuciferine-I.     

EFFECT OF PHOTIC STIMULATION ON THE HUMAN MENSTRUAL CYCLE

To test the hypothesis that artificial light can be used to regularize the human menstrual cycle, 16 women with histories of menstrual irregularity and/or abnormally long cycles were studied. It was assumed that a 29-day cycle is the "normal" length. Thus, light exposure was begun on the evening of day 14, with the expectation that ovulation would be triggered by day 15 and menstruation on day 30. The light regimen was continued for 2-3 nights more. Temperature graphs indicated all subjects were ovulating. 41 control and 41 matching experimental cycle lengths were obtained. The experimental cycle lengths were less variable than the control lengths and showed a sharp peak at 29 days. In the 11 subjects exposed to light for more than 1 cycle, 9 showed a decrease in the range of cycle length (3.3% level of significance difference between control and experimental groups in terms of cycle length). It is concluded that these data provide evidence that photic stimulation can regularize menstrual cycle length and thus influence the time of ovulation, thereby facilitating use of the rhythm method of birth control. Further studies involving larger samples and more sophisticated measurements of ovulation in relation to photic stimulation are recommended.     

On Implicit Vector Variational Inequalities

In this paper, we study the existence of solutions of implicit vector variational inequalities for multifunctions. Generalized pseudomonotonicity concepts are introduced. Our results extend and unify corresponding earlier existence results of many authors for vector variational inequalities under the Hausdorff topological vector space setting.     

Duality for <Emphasis Type="Italic">ε</Emphasis>-Variational Inequality

In this paper, following the method in the proof of the composition duality principle due to Robinson and using some basic properties of the ε-subdifferential and the conjugate function of a convex function, we establish duality results for an ε-variational inequality problem. Then, we give Fenchel duality results for the ε-optimal solution of an unconstrained convex optimization problem. Moreover, we present an example to illustrate our Fenchel duality results for the ε-optimal solutions. The authors thank the referees for valuable suggestions and comments. This work was supported by Grant No. R01-2003-000-10825-0 from the Basic Research Program of KOSEF.     

Arc modulator for the TFTR neutral-beam ion source

A discussion is presented of the protection of the tokamak fusion reactor neutral-beam ion source, located at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The system design is based on three operational protection requirements that include provisions for ion-source current pulse matching, ion-source fault current extinction, and metallic fault current extinction. A power circuit configuration satisfying these requirements is illustrated and briefly described. Simplified analytical expressions relating the protection requirements to the circuit parameters are developed. Experimental findings are in good agreement with a computer simulation of the circuit model, although several side effects introduced by the circuit configuration have been observed. The side effects observed include ion-source current overshoot and the existence of a negative ion source current. Modifications to counteract these side effects are briefly described     

A colorimetric method for the assay of lipoyl dehydrogenase

Microchimica Acta - A colorimetric method for the direct assay of lipoyl dehydrogenase is described. Enzyme reaction is stopped by ethanol precipitation. This is followed by the displacement of...