Isolation of 5 alpha- and 5 beta-dihydrorubrosterone from Silene otites L. (Wib)

5 alpha-Dihydrorubrosterone (2 beta, 3 beta, 14 alpha, 17 beta-tetrahydroxy-5 alpha-androst-7-ene-6-one), a new 19-carbon 5 alpha-ecdysteroid, was isolated together with its 5 beta counterpart from the aerial parts of Silene otites L. (Wib.) (Caryophyllaceae) by a combination of solvent partition, low-pressure column chromatography, thin-layer chromatography (normal-phase and reversed-phase) and finally HPLC. Mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic procedures were used for compound characterization.     

Stereoselective synthesis and moulting activity of integristerone A and analogues

Integristerone A, a rare ecdysteroid of plant origin, has been synthesized from 20-hydroxyecdysone with 2-deoxy-1,2-didehydro-20-hydroxyecdysone as the key intermediate, followed by stereoselective asymmetric dihydroxylation. The analogues 1,2-di-epi-integristerone A and 1,2-di-epi-5α-integristerone A have also been synthesized. Integristerone A exhibited approximately 9-fold lower moulting activity than the parent 20-hydroxyecdysone in the Musca domestica bioassay, indicating that the presence of a 1β-hydroxyl group resulted in a decrease in activity. As expected, the 1,2-di-epi-5α-analogue was inactive in this assay.     

Aspherical Products Which do not Support Anosov Diffeomorphisms

We show that the product of infranilmanifolds with certain aspherical closed manifolds do not support Anosov diffeomorphisms. As a special case, we obtain that products of a nilmanifold and negatively curved manifolds of dimension at least 3 do not support Anosov diffeomorphisms.     

Matériaux composites à base de graves et de liants polymères—I: Étude par spectroscopie infrarouge d'enrobés à base de polyéthylène

Polyethylene mixed with basaltic chalky/calcareous and silico-calcareous gravel is heated to temperatures between 150 and 220°. The PE chemical changes are observed quantitatively by i.r. spectroscopy by measuring the carbonyl and double bond ratios. The oxidation kinetics are studied and related to the nature of mixtures, and of mineral constituents, concentration of the catalyst and granulometry of the mixtures.     

The unimolecular elimination kinetics of benzaldoxime in the gas phase

The kinetics of the gas‐phase elimination of benzaldoxime was determined in a static reaction system over the temperature and pressure range 350°C–400°C and 56–140 Torr, respectively. The products obtained were benzonitrile and water. The reaction was found to be homogeneous, unimolecular, and tend to obey a first‐order rate law. The observed rate coefficient is represented by the following Arrhenius equation: According to kinetic and thermodynamic parameters, the reaction proceeds through a concerted, semi‐polar, four‐membered cyclic transition state type of mechanism. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 39: 145–147, 2007     

Optimized strategies to synthesize β-cyclodextrin-oxime conjugates as a new generation of organophosphate scavengers

A new generation of organophosphate (OP) scavengers was obtained by synthesis of β-cyclodextrin-oxime derivatives 8-12. Selective monosubstitution of β-cyclodextrin was the main difficulty in order to access these compounds, because reaction onto the oligosaccharide was closely related to the nature of the incoming group. For this purpose, non-conventional activation conditions were also evaluated. Intermediates 5 and 7 were then obtained with the better yields under ultrasounds irradiation. Finally, the desired compounds 8-10 were obtained from 5-7 in high purity by desilylation using potassium fluoride. Quaternarisation of compounds 8 and 9 was carried out. OP hydrolytic activity of compounds 8-12 was evaluated against cyclosarin (GF) and VX. None of the tested compounds was active against VX, but these five cyclodextrin derivatives detoxified GF, and the most active scavengers 10 and 11 allowed an almost complete hydrolysis of GF within 10 min. Even more fascinating is the fact that compounds 9 and 10 were able to hydrolyze enantioselectively GF.     

A Convenient Synthesis of 3-Deoxy-D-gluco-2-octulosonate (D-gluco-KDO)

β-Lithiated acrylates have proven to be versatile pyruvate β-carbanion equivalents which are also useful in D-manno-KDO synthesis. The secondary amine adducts of acetylenedicarboxylate 4 display the same versatility, as demonstrated in this paper. However, on reaction with 2,3:4, 5-di-O-isopropylidene-D-arabinose 6, the diastereofacial selectivity is in favor of the gluco-isomer, thus leading with lithiated compounds 4A, preferentially to α-aminobutenolides 7-(g). The best results were obtained with the morpholine adduct of di-tert.-butyl acetylenedicarboxylate 4d which afforded the gluco-isomer 7d-(g) as an easily separable crystalline material. Its deamination and concomitant deisopropylidenation with trifluoroacetic acid provided the known α-hydroxy-butenolide 8b-(g), which was transformed via decarboxylation product 9-(g) to D-gluco-KDO 10-(g) thus concluding a convert four step synthesis of this compound via crystalline intermediates.     

Strong Jordan Separation and Applications to Rigidity

We prove that simple, thick hyperbolic P-manifolds of dimensionat least three exhibit Mostow rigidity. We also prove a quasi-isometryrigidity result for the fundamental groups of simple, thickhyperbolic P-manifolds of dimension at least three. The keytool in the proof of these rigidity results is a strong formof the Jordan separation theorem, for maps from Sⁿ Sⁿ⁺¹ whichare not necessarily injective.