Complexation of Fe3+, Cu2+, and Cr3+ β-diketonates with poly(urethane) and poly(methyl methacrylate) in semi-interpenetrating networks: Effect on phase separation

Complexation of iron, copper, and chromium β-diketonates with poly(urethane) and poly(methyl methacrylate) in semi-interpenetrating polymer networks was studied by IR spectroscopy and ESR using various paramagnetic probes. It was shown that types of complexes arising in semi-interpenetrating polymer networks depend on the central metal ion in a chelate. In the networks containing iron and copper β-diketonates, formation of complexes between chelates of these metals and donor groups of PUR and PMMA promotes mutual penetration of poly(urethane) and poly(methyl methacrylate) phases. As a consequence, the degree of their separation decreases and the interphase region widens.     

Multidimensional Watson lemma and its applications

We prove the multidimensional analog of the well-knownWatson lemma and then apply it to prove a local limit theorem for the transition probabilities of symmetric random walks on the multidimensional lattice with infinite variance of jumps.     

Synthesis and Antiviral Activity of Camphene Derivatives against Different Types of Viruses

To date, the ‘one bug-one drug’ approach to antiviral drug development cannot effectively respond to the constant threat posed by an increasing diversity of viruses causing outbreaks of viral infections that turn out to be pathogenic for humans. Evidently, there is an urgent need for new strategies to develop efficient antiviral agents with broad-spectrum activities. In this paper, we identified camphene derivatives that showed broad antiviral activities in vitro against a panel of enveloped pathogenic viruses, including influenza virus A/PR/8/34 (H1N1), Ebola virus (EBOV), and the Hantaan virus. The lead-compound 2a, with pyrrolidine cycle in its structure, displayed antiviral activity against influenza virus (IC₅₀ = 45.3 µM), Ebola pseudotype viruses (IC₅₀ = 0.12 µM), and authentic EBOV (IC₅₀ = 18.3 µM), as well as against pseudoviruses with Hantaan virus Gn-Gc glycoprotein (IC₅₀ = 9.1 µM). The results of antiviral activity studies using pseudotype viruses and molecular modeling suggest that surface proteins of the viruses required for the fusion process between viral and cellular membranes are the likely target of compound 2a. The key structural fragments responsible for efficient binding are the bicyclic natural framework and the nitrogen atom. These data encourage us to conduct further investigations using bicyclic monoterpenoids as a scaffold for the rational design of membrane-fusion targeting inhibitors.     

Anodic oxidation of complex shaped items of aluminum and aluminum alloys with subsequent electrodeposition of copper coatings

It was shown that the method of anodization of aluminum and aluminum alloys can be applied for subsequent plating of highly adherent copper coating instead of the known zincate treatment with additional annealing. Fluorine-containing additives in anodizing electrolyte were proposed as activator of oxide film. The parameters of the anodic film (thickness, porosity, and microroughness) were calculated. The plated quality copper coatings have high adhesion to the aluminum support, and no additional heat treatment is required. This considerably reduces the processing time for deposition of multilayer coatings and decreases the material costs.     

Peculiarities of formation of optically transparent photocurable compound adhesive with high refractive index

The peculiarities of the formation of an optically transparent, photocurable composition with a high refractive index based on epoxy resin are studied. The optimal ratios of the components at which the fastest and most complete formation of three-dimensional structures occurs are established.     

Circular Sandwich Plates under Local Impulsive Loads

The axisymmetric transverse vibrations of a circular elastic sandwich plate under impulsive surface and linear loads are studied. To describe the kinematics of the asymmetric plate, the hypotheses of broken normal are adopted. The core is a lightweight material. Analytical solutions are obtained using Heaviside functions and Dirac delta-function. The solutions are analyzed numerically     

Elastoplastic bending of a sandwich bar on an elastic foundation

The elastoplastic bending of a sandwich bar with a stiff compressible core on an elastic foundation is studied. The kinematics of the bar, which is asymmetric across the thickness, is described adopting Bernoulli’s hypotheses for the face layers. The displacements of the core are assumed to vary linearly across the thickness. The foundation is described by the Winkler model. A system of equilibrium equations for displacements is derived and solved. Numerical results for a metal-polymer sandwich bar are presented __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 110–120, April 2007.     

Positive Discrete Spectrum of the Evolutionary Operator of Supercritical Branching Walks with Heavy Tails

We consider a continuous-time symmetric supercritical branching random walk on a multidimensional lattice with a finite set of the particle generation centres, i.e. branching sources. The main object of study is the evolutionary operator for the mean number of particles both at an arbitrary point and on the entire lattice. The existence of positive eigenvalues in the spectrum of an evolutionary operator results in an exponential growth of the number of particles in branching random walks, called supercritical in the such case. For supercritical branching random walks, it is shown that the amount of positive eigenvalues of the evolutionary operator, counting their multiplicity, does not exceed the amount of branching sources on the lattice, while the maximal of these eigenvalues is always simple. We demonstrate that the appearance of multiple lower eigenvalues in the spectrum of the evolutionary operator can be caused by a kind of ‘symmetry’ in the spatial configuration of branching sources. The presented results are based on Green’s function representation of transition probabilities of an underlying random walk and cover not only the case of the finite variance of jumps but also a less studied case of infinite variance of jumps.     

Acid-catalyzed transformations of diepoxy derivatives of terpinolene

Transformations of diepoxy derivatives of terpinolene under conditions of homogeneous and heterogeneous acid catalysis were studied. Qualitative and quantitative compositions of the reaction mixtures were found to depend on the acidity of the medium and mutual orientation of the epoxide rings in the p-menthane skeleton. The experimental data were compared with the results of computer simulation of the most probable transformation pathways in terms of molecular mechanics and quantum-chemical methods.     

Single-stage synthesis of heterocyclic alkaloid-like compounds from (+)-camphoric acid and their antiviral activity

Molecular Diversity - An effective technique for one-stage synthesis of new polycyclic nitrogen-containing compounds has been developed. The procedure involves refluxing mixtures of camphoric acid...