Axially Chiral Imidodiphosphoric Acid Catalyst for Asymmetric Sulfoxidation Reaction: Insights on Asymmetric Induction

Insights into chiral induction for an asymmetric sulfoxidation reaction involving a single oxygen atom transfer are gained through analyzing the stereocontrolling transition states. The fitting of the substrate into the chiral cavity of a new class of imidodiphosphoric Brønsted acids, as well as weak C H⋅⋅⋅π and C H⋅⋅⋅O noncovalent interactions, are identified as responsible for the observed chiral induction.     

Isolation and Characterization of Exopolysaccharides Produced by the Cyanobacterium <Emphasis Type="Italic">Limnothrix redekei</Emphasis> PUPCCC 116

Limnothrix redekei PUPCCC 116, a filamentous cyanobacterium, has been identified through 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Exopolysaccharides (EPS) of this organism have been isolated and characterized chemically, and its rheological properties were compared with commercial xanthan. The organism produced 304 μg EPS/ml culture in 21 days. The rate of EPS production was maximum (313 μg EPS/mg protein/day) during the initial days of growth, and it decreased to 140 μg EPS/mg protein/day during 18-21 days of growth. Chemical analysis of EPS revealed the presence of glucose/mannose, ribose, rhamnose, and uronic acid. Fourier transformed infrared spectrum of EPS further revealed the presence of methyl and carboxyl groups besides C–N groups indicating the presence of peptidyl moieties. Elemental analysis of EPS showed the presence of 4.97% N. The organism under continuous light produced 102% more EPS compared to when grown under a light/dark cycle of 14/10 h. The rheological properties of EPS were comparable with commercial xanthan gum.     

Electrochemical template-assisted fabrication of CdS micro/nanostructures

One-dimensional (1D) cadmium sulphide (CdS) nanostructures, including micro/nanorods, and nanostructures resembling flowers and cactus have been synthesized by electrochemical template deposition technique, using polycarbonate membranes, by controlling various reaction parameters. These 1D CdS nanostructures were characterized structurally through the X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies and morphologically through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that apart from the dimensions of the pores of the templates, the geometrical morphologies of the CdS 1D nanostructures were significantly influenced by the synthesizing parameters also. The optical characterization has been done by UV–visible absorption and room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) studies.     

Europium(III) DOTA-tetraamide complexes as redox-active MRI sensors

PARACEST redox sensors containing the NAD(+)/NADH mimic N-methylquinolinium moiety as a redox-active functional group have been designed and synthesized. The Eu(3+) complex with two quinolinium moieties was nearly completely CEST-silent in the oxidized form but was "turned on" upon reduction with β-NADH. The CEST effect of the Eu(3+) complex containing only one quinolinium group was much less redox-responsive but showed an unexpected sensitivity to pH in the physiologically relevant pH range.     

Structural and electronic properties of sulphur-doped boron nitride nanotubes

First-principles calculations based on density functional theory were performed to study the structural and electronic properties of sulphur substitution-doped boron nitride (BN) nanotubes, using the theory as implemented in SIESTA code, which uses non-conserving pseudo-potentials in fully non-local form and atomic orbitals as the basis set. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) was used for the exchange–correlation (XC) potential. The tube selected was a (10, 0) BN nanotube that fell in the range of energy gap independent of the tube diameter. The electronic and structural properties for sulphur substitution in the boron and the nitrogen sites were studied. The structural arrangement in equilibrium conditions for S shows an outward radial deformation around the sulphur atom in the tube. The bandgap of the pristine BN nanotubes was found to be significantly modified on doping.     

Modelling of a sugarcane sett cutting operation by Monte Carlo technique

This paper describes a mathematical model capable of analysing a sugarcane sett cutting operation. Monte Carlo technique is applied for generating the hypothetical sugarcanes to be cut into setts of uniform length. The probability density functions of the variables such as the sugarcane lengths, nodal spacings and the end piece lengths for a given sugarcane variety constitute the inputs to the model. The experimental and model predicted proportions of the multibudded setts for a few arbitrarily selected cut lengths are compared and further improvements in the model are discussed. It is shown that the developed model can be effectively used to analyse the sugar cane sett cutting operation to meet the selection criteria for the multibudded setts.     

Molecular cluster perturbation theory. I. Formalism

We present second-order molecular cluster perturbation theory (MCPT(2)), a linear scaling methodology to calculate arbitrarily large systems with explicit calculation of individual wave functions in a coupled-cluster framework. This new MCPT(2) framework uses coupled-cluster perturbation theory and an expansion in terms of molecular dimer interactions to obtain molecular wave functions that are infinite order in both the electronic fluctuation operator and all possible dimer (and products of dimers) interactions. The MCPT(2) framework has been implemented in the new SIA/Aces4 parallel architecture, making use of the advanced dynamic memory control and fine-grained parallelism to perform very large explicit molecular cluster calculations. To illustrate the power of this method, we have computed energy shifts, lattice site dipole moments, and harmonic vibrational frequencies via explicit calculation of the bulk system for the polar and non-polar polymorphs of solid hydrogen fluoride. The explicit lattice size (without using any periodic boundary conditions) was expanded up to 1000 HF molecules, with 32,000 basis functions and 10,000 electrons. Our obtained HF lattice site dipole moments and harmonic vibrational frequencies agree well with the existing literature.     

Synthesis,spectroscopic characterization,biological screening and in vitro cytotoxic studies of 4‐methyl‐3‐thiosemicarbazone derived Schiff bases and their Co (II), Ni (II), Cu (II) and Zn (II) complexes

A series of twenty compounds inclusive of bidentate Schiff bases derived from condensation of 4‐methyl‐3‐thiosemicarbazide with substituted derivatives of napthaldehyde/benzaldehyde/salicylaldehyde and their mononuclear Co (II), Ni (II), Cu (II) and Zn (II) complexes in molar ratio (1:1) were synthesized and characterized. The coordination behavior, modes of bonding and overall geometry of the compounds was known from the elemental analysis, spectral techniques (IR, UV–Vis, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ESR and ESI‐mass), magnetic moment measurements, molar conductance, thermal and powder XRD studies. The studies revealed octahedral geometry for all the complexes where ligands coordinated in a neutral bidentate manner (NS) via nitrogen atom of azomethine group and sulphur atom of thione group with the metal centre. In vitro biological effects of the compounds were tested against four bacterial species and two fungal strains. The results indicated that the metal complexes showed a marked enhancement in biocidal activity in comparable with the parent Schiff bases. In vitro anticancer activity against the malignant tumor cell lines; human alveolar adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line (A549), human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF7), human prostate cancer cell line (DU145) and human normal lung cell line (MRC‐5) using MTT assay, exposed compound 16 as a leading member with lowest IC₅₀ value of 10.6 ± 0.14 μM against (A549) cell line.     

2′‐(4‐Fluoro­phenyl)‐[1,2,3]­triazolo[4′,5′:16,17]­androst‐5‐en‐3β‐ol methanol hemisolvate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C₂₅H₃₀FN₃O·0.5CH₃OH, contains four symmetry‐independent steroid and two methanol mol­ecules. The conformations of the independent steroid mol­ecules are very similar. Intermolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds create two independent chains, each of which links two of the independent steroid mol­ecules plus one methanol mol­ecule via a co‐operative O—H⋯O—H⋯O—H pattern. Intermolecular C—H⋯O and C—H⋯F interactions are also observed.