A Reliable Enantioselective Route to Mono-Protected N1-Cbz Piperazic Acid Building Block

The chiral N1-Cbz, N2-H derivative of the piperazic acid monomer is a valuable building block in the total synthesis of natural products, comprising this nonproteinogenic amino acid. In that context, we wish to report an improved synthetic protocol for the synthesis of both (3R)- and (3S)-piperazic acids bearing the carboxybenzyl protecting group (Cbz) selectively at the N1 position. Our method builds on previously reported protocols, circumventing their potential shortcomings, and optimizing the ultimate selective deprotection at the N2 position, thus, offering an efficient and reproducible pathway to suitably modified piperazates in high optical purity.     

The problem of irreversibility in Newtonian dynamics

A new type of dissipation function which does not satisfy the Lipschitz condition at equilibrium states is proposed. It is shown that Newtonian dynamics supplemented by this dissipation function becomes irreversible, i.e., it is not invariant with respect to time inversion. Some effects associated with the approaching of equilibria in infinite time are eliminated. New meanings of chaos and turbulence are discussed.     

Electrochemically induced Henry reaction of nitromethane and carbonyl compounds

The electrolysis of carbonyl compounds and nitromethane in methanol or in the mixture of methanol and DMF in an undivided cell results in the formation of corresponding β-nitroalcohols in 60-75% yields. Thus, the simple electrocatalytic system can produce under mild conditions an electrochemically induced Henry reaction.     

From Biomass‐Derived Furans to Aromatics with Ethanol over Zeolite

We report a novel catalytic conversion of biomass‐derived furans and alcohols to aromatics over zeolite catalysts. Aromatics are formed via Diels–Alder cycloaddition with ethylene, which is produced in situ from ethanol dehydration. The use of liquid ethanol instead of gaseous ethylene, as the source of dienophile in this one‐pot synthesis, makes the aromatics production much simpler and renewable, circumventing the use of ethylene at high pressure. More importantly, both our experiments and theoretical studies demonstrate that the use of ethanol instead of ethylene, results in significantly higher rates and higher selectivity to aromatics, due to lower activation barriers over the solid acid sites. Synchrotron‐diffraction experiments and proton‐affinity calculations clearly suggest that a preferred protonation of ethanol over the furan is a key step facilitating the Diels–Alder and dehydration reactions in the acid sites of the zeolite.     

Wetting films on a hydrophilic silica surface obtained from aqueous solutions of hydrophobically modified inulin polymeric surfactant

The thickness of wetting films on a hydrophilic silica surface was investigated using a microinterferometric technique. Aqueous solutions of hydrophobically modified inulin (INUTEC^®SP1) at various concentrations, in the presence or absence of NaCl or Na₂SO₄, were studied. The equilibrium film thickness (h _eq) showed a complex dependence on INUTEC^®SP1 concentration. At low electrolyte concentrations, h _eq decreased with an increase in INUTEC^®SP1 concentration, reaching a minimum at 10^?6 mol dm^?3. However, at high electrolyte concentrations, this dependence became less pronounced. At any given INUTEC^®SP1 concentration, the equilibrium film thickness decreased with an increase in electrolyte concentration as a result of the compression of the electrical double layer reaching a minimum value. After that, the film thickness showed a small decrease with further increase in electrolyte concentration. This indicates that the electrostatic component of disjoining pressure can be neglected, and the steric repulsion of the loops and tails of INUTEC^®SP1 determined the film thickness.     

Development and validation of a liquid chromatographic method for the determination of hydroxymethylfurfural and alpha-ketoglutaric acid in human plasma

Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and alpha-ketoglutaric acid (KG) have been recently investigated as potential cancer cell damaging agents. We herein report for the first time a validated quantitative assay for their simultaneous determination in human plasma which is amenable to be applied in the future screening of the target compounds in human probands in order to properly design a targeted chemotherapeutic regimen for certain types of malignant tumors.A simple liquid chromatographic method in conjunction to derivatization after a two-step optimized solid phase clean-up procedure is described. The method is based on the reaction of HMF and KG with 2-nitrophenylhydrazine or 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine in an aqueous environment. Reaction conditions were studied with respect to pH, reagent volume, reaction temperature and time. Exact testing of such parameters beside careful selection of the mobile phase composition rendered feasible the quantification of the chemically significantly differing analytes along a single chromatographic run. The formed derivatives could be separated isocratically by reversed-phase LC on a C₈-column. Detection in the UV and in the visible range is possible. Results showed good recovery and reproducibility with detection limits (S/N = 3) down to 2 picomoles analyte on column. Resolution of the syn and anti geometric isomers of the HMF and KG derivatives is possible. The isomeric ratio in relation to the reaction pH is discussed.     

Special Lie superalgebras with maximality condition for subalgebras

We consider finitely generated Lie superalgebras over a field of characteristic zero satisfying Capelli identities. We prove that any such an algebra with the maximality condition for abelian subalgebras is finite dimensional. In particular, any special Lie superalgebra with the maximality condition for its subalgebras has a finite dimension. We also prove that the universal enveloping algebra U(L) of special Lie superalgebra L is Noetherian if and only if $\dim L<\infty$ .     

On the codimension growth of almost nilpotent Lie algebras

We study codimension growth of infinite dimensional Lie algebras over a field of characteristic zero. We prove that if a Lie algebra L is an extension of a nilpotent algebra by a finite dimensional semisimple algebra then the PI-exponent of L exists and is a positive integer.     

Novel methodology for 3D reconstruction of carotid arteries and plaque characterization based upon magnetic resonance imaging carotid angiography data

In this study, we present a novel methodology that allows reliable segmentation of the magnetic resonance images (MRIs) for accurate fully automated three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the carotid arteries and semiautomated characterization of plaque type. Our approach uses active contours to detect the luminal borders in the time-of-flight images and the outer vessel wall borders in the T(1)-weighted images. The methodology incorporates the connecting components theory for the automated identification of the bifurcation region and a knowledge-based algorithm for the accurate characterization of the plaque components. The proposed segmentation method was validated in randomly selected MRI frames analyzed offline by two expert observers. The interobserver variability of the method for the lumen and outer vessel wall was -1.60%±6.70% and 0.56%±6.28%, respectively, while the Williams Index for all metrics was close to unity. The methodology implemented to identify the composition of the plaque was also validated in 591 images acquired from 24 patients. The obtained Cohen's k was 0.68 (0.60-0.76) for lipid plaques, while the time needed to process an MRI sequence for 3D reconstruction was only 30 s. The obtained results indicate that the proposed methodology allows reliable and automated detection of the luminal and vessel wall borders and fast and accurate characterization of plaque type in carotid MRI sequences. These features render the currently presented methodology a useful tool in the clinical and research arena.