Non-isothermal cure and decomposition kinetics of hydroxyl and propargyl functional poly (ether ether ketone): epoxy resins

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - This paper presents the cure behavior and decomposition kinetics of epoxy resins incorporated with hydroxyl functionalized poly (ether ether ketone)s...     

Metaheuristics approach for solving personalized crew rostering problem in public bus transit

The crew rostering problem in public bus transit aims at constructing personalized monthly schedules for all drivers. This problem is often formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem, since it considers the interests of both the management of bus companies and the drivers. Therefore, this paper attempts to solve the multi-objective crew rostering problem with the weighted sum of all objectives using ant colony optimization, simulated annealing, and tabu search methods. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that attempts to solve the personalized crew rostering problem in public transit using different metaheuristics, especially the ant colony optimization. The developed algorithms are tested on numerical real-world instances, and the results are compared with ones solved by commercial solvers.     

Development of Halogenated Pyrazolines as Selective Monoamine Oxidase-B Inhibitors: Deciphering via Molecular Dynamics Approach

Halogens have been reported to play a major role in the inhibition of monoamine oxidase (MAO), relating to diverse cognitive functions of the central nervous system. Pyrazoline/halogenated pyrazolines were investigated for their inhibitory activities against human monoamine oxidase-A and -B. Halogen substitutions on the phenyl ring located at the fifth position of pyrazoline showed potent MAO-B inhibition. Compound 3-(4-ethoxyphenyl)-5-(4-fluorophenyl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole (EH7) showed the highest potency against MAO-B with an IC₅₀ value of 0.063 µM. The potencies against MAO-B were increased in the order of –F (in EH7) > –Cl (EH6) > –Br (EH8) > –H (EH1). The residual activities of most compounds for MAO-A were > 50% at 10 µM, except for EH7 and EH8 (IC₅₀ = 8.38 and 4.31 µM, respectively). EH7 showed the highest selectivity index (SI) value of 133.0 for MAO-B, followed by EH6 at > 55.8. EH7 was a reversible and competitive inhibitor of MAO-B in kinetic and reversibility experiments with a Ki value of 0.034 ± 0.0067 µM. The molecular dynamics study documented that EH7 had a good binding affinity and motional movement within the active site with high stability. It was observed by MM-PBSA that the chirality had little effect on the overall binding of EH7 to MAO-B. Thus, EH7 can be employed for the development of lead molecules for the treatment of various neurodegenerative disorders.     

Capillary electrophoresis in pharmaceutical analysis: a survey on recent applications

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has a significant role in drug discovery and manufacturing processes and has a potential to grow further, due to new developments that can provide highly sensitive and high throughput analysis. This review illustrates recent applications of CE in pharmaceutical analysis (2005-present). The history, principles, instruments, and conventional modes of CE are briefly described. Applications for drug analysis by various techniques of CE are presented in six tables: capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) (Table I), micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) and microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC) (Table II), non-aqueous CE (NACE) (Table III), chiral CE (Table IV), CE-mass spectrometry (MS) microchip CE (Table V), and multiplexed CE (MCE) (Table VI).     

Pyridinium dichlorophosphinomethylides

Seven new pyridinium dichlorophosphinomethylides 2 have been obtained from dichlorophosphinylation of the pyridinium methylides generated in situ. 2 give 1,3‐bis(alkoxycarbonyl)‐2‐phosphaindolizines 4 through 1,5‐electrocyclization of the intermediate, bis(pyridinium ylidyl)phosphenium chloride 3 which is generated either from disproportionation of 2 or from the reaction of 2 with pyridinium methylide. Formation of 3 has been confirmed by carrying out a crossed reaction. 3‐Substituted 2 forms 4 regiospecifically. Intramolecular 1,5‐cyclocondensation of 2‐methylpyridinium dichlorophosphinomethylide is preferred over its disproportionation. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 12:602–609, 2001     

Elucidating Sequence and Structural Determinants of Carbohydrate Esterases for Complete Deacetylation of Substituted Xylans

Acetylated glucuronoxylan is one of the most common types of hemicellulose in nature. The structure is formed by a β-(1→4)-linked D-xylopyranosyl (Xylp) backbone that can be substituted with an acetyl group at O-2 and O-3 positions, and α-(1→2)-linked 4-O-methylglucopyranosyluronic acid (MeGlcpA). Acetyl xylan esterases (AcXE) that target mono- or doubly acetylated Xylp are well characterized; however, the previously studied AcXE from Flavobacterium johnsoniae (FjoAcXE) was the first to remove the acetyl group from 2-O-MeGlcpA-3-O-acetyl-substituted Xylp units, yet structural characteristics of these enzymes remain unspecified. Here, six homologs of FjoAcXE were produced and three crystal structures of the enzymes were solved. Two of them are complex structures, one with bound MeGlcpA and another with acetate. All homologs were confirmed to release acetate from 2-O-MeGlcpA-3-O-acetyl-substituted xylan, and the crystal structures point to key structural elements that might serve as defining features of this unclassified carbohydrate esterase family. Enzymes comprised two domains: N-terminal CBM domain and a C-terminal SGNH domain. In FjoAcXE and all studied homologs, the sequence motif around the catalytic serine is Gly-Asn-Ser-Ile (GNSI), which differs from other SGNH hydrolases. Binding by the MeGlcpA-Xylp ligand is directed by positively charged and highly conserved residues at the interface of the CBM and SGNH domains of the enzyme.