Inhibition of thermal induced protein denaturation of extract/fractions of Withania somnifera and isolated withanolides

This study describes the in vitro inhibition of protein denaturation of extract/fractions of Withania somnifera and isolated withanolides including 20β hydroxy-1-oxo(22R)-witha-2,5,24 trienolide (1), (20R,22R-14α,20α)-dihydroxy-1-oxowitha-2,5,16,24 tetraenolide (2). The results showed that the extract/fractions of the plant evoked profound inhibitory effect on thermal-induced protein denaturation. The chloroform fraction caused the most dominant attenuation of 68% at 500 μg/mL. The bioactivity-guided isolation from chloroform fraction led to the isolation of compounds 1 and 2 that showed profound protein inhibition with 78.05% and 80.43% effect at 500 μg/mL and thus strongly complimented the activity of extract/fractions. In conclusion, extract/fractions of W. somnifera possessed strong inhibition of protein denaturation that can be attributed to these isolated withanolides.     

Constraint-based search for optimal Golomb rulers

Finding optimal Golomb rulers is an extremely challenging combinatorial problem. The distance between each pair of mark is unique in a Golomb ruler. For a given number of marks, an optimal Golomb ruler has the minimum length. Golomb rulers are used in application areas such as X-ray crystallography, radio astronomy, information theory, and pulse phase modulation. The most recent optimal Golomb ruler search algorithm hybridises a range of techniques such as greedy randomised adaptive search, scatter search, tabu search, clustering techniques, and constraint programming, and obtains optimal Golomb rulers of up to 16 marks with very low success rates. In this paper, we provide tight upper bounds for Golomb ruler marks and present heuristic-based effective domain reduction techniques. Using these along with tabu and configuration checking meta-heuristics, we then develop a constraint-based multi-point local search algorithm to perform a satisfaction search for optimal Golomb rulers of specified length. We then present an algorithm to perform an optimisation search that minimises the length using the satisfaction search repeatedly. Our satisfaction search finds optimal Golomb rulers of up to 19 marks while the optimisation search finds up to 17 marks.     

Gaseous flow measurements in an internal combustion engine assembly using molecular tagging velocimetry

A molecular tagging velocimetry (MTV) system was applied for mapping in-cylinder flows in an internal combustion engine. The images were captured inside an optical engine assembly that reproduces operation of a 2.2 L four stroke gasoline engine. A recently developed algorithm to process MTV images is based on a fast-normalized spatial correlation approach implemented using MATLAB software. The code allows accurate detection of the MTV grid nodes displacements. It processes simultaneously velocity vector and circulation fields for individual cycles, and ensemble averages of those over a few hundred sequential cycles to obtain mean and standard deviation values. Then probability density functions are reconstructed to quantify cycle-to-cycle variability of the in-cylinder flow.     

Magnetic properties of iron oxides produced by bacterial oxidation of Fe2+ under acid conditions

Iron oxides synthesized under acid conditions in a bioreactor using the bacteriumThiobacillus ferrooxidans or formed in nature under similar conditions resemble relatively “well”-crystallized ferrihydrites. Mössbauer spectra, however, show up significant differences between these and ferrihydrites, indicating sulfate to play a major role in determining the properties of the bacterial samples.     

Two New Insecticidal Amide Dimers from Fruits of Piper nigrum Linn.

The methanolic extract of dried ground seeds of Piper nigrum Linn . afforded fourteen compounds, of which thirteen were amides, including two new isomeric insecticidal amides, pipsaeedine ( 1 ) and pipbinine ( 2 ), along with eleven known amides and piptaline; (this is the first report of isolation of these compounds from this plant). The structures of 1 and 2 have been elucidated as (E,E)‐1‐[(E)‐5‐(7‐{6‐[5‐(piperidin‐1‐yl)‐5‐oxopent‐3‐enyl]‐1,3‐benzodioxol‐4‐yl}‐1,3‐benzodioxol‐5‐yl)‐1‐oxopenta‐2,4‐dienyl]piperidine and (E,E)‐1‐[(E)‐5‐(4‐{6‐[5(piperidin‐1‐yl)‐5‐oxopent‐3‐enyl]‐1,3‐benzodioxol‐4‐yl}‐1,3‐benzodioxol‐5‐yl)‐1‐oxopenta‐2,4‐dienyl]piperidine, respectively, through extensive 1D‐ and 2D‐NMR spectral studies, while the known constituents have been identified through comparison of their spectral data with those reported in the literature. Compounds 1 and 2 exhibited toxicities of 45.0 and 40.0 ppm, respectively, against fourth instar larvae of Aedes aegypti Liston.     

Synthesis and reactivity of thiophene palladium and thiophene dipalladium complexes with unsaturated molecules

Reactions of 2,5‐dibromothiophene, 1 , with [Pd₂(dba)₃]^?dba [Pd(dba)₂; dba = dibenzylideneacetone] in the presence of N‐donor ligands such as 2,2′‐bipyridine (bpy) and 4,4′‐di‐tert‐butyl‐2,2′‐bipyridine (dtbbpy) give arylpalladium complexes of cis‐[2‐(5‐BrC₄H₂S)PdBrL₂], 2a, b [L₂ = bpy ( 2a ), L₂ = dtbbpy ( 2b )], and cis‐cis‐L₂PdBr[2,5‐(C₄H₂S‐)PdBr(L₂)], 3a, b [L₂ = bpy ( 3a ), L₂ = dtbbpy ( 3b )]. Treatment of cis complexes 2a, b and 3a, b with CO causes the insertion of CO into the Pd? C bond to give the aroyl derivatives of palladium complexes of cis‐[2‐(5‐BrC₄H₂S)COPdBrL₂], 4a, b [L₂ = bpy ( 4a ), L₂ = dtbbpy ( 4b )], and cis‐cis‐[(L₂)(CO)BrPdC₄H₂S‐PdBr(CO)(L₂)], 5a, b [L₂ = bpy ( 5a ) and L₂ = dtbbpy ( 5b )], respectively. Treating complexes 2a, b with 1 mole equivalent of isocyanide XyNC (Xy = 2,6‐dimethylphenyl) gave iminoacyl complexes cis‐[2‐(5‐BrC₄H₂S)C?NXyPdBrL₂], 6a, b [L₂ = bpy ( 6a ), L₂ = dtbbpy ( 6b )], and a 3‐fold excess of isocyanide XyNC (Xy = 2,6‐dimethylphenyl) gave triiminoacyl complexes [2‐(5‐BrC₄H₂S)(C?NXy)₃ PdBr], 7 . Cyclization reactions of 6a, b with 3 mole equivalents of isocyanide XyNC (Xy = 2,6‐dimethylphenyl) or cyclization reaction of 7 with 1 mole equivalent of isocyanide XyNC (Xy = 2,6‐dimethylphenyl) both gave tetraiminoacyl complexes of [2‐(5‐BrC₄H₂S)(C?NXy)₄PdBr], 8 , which was also obtained by the reaction of 1 or 2a, b with a 4‐fold excess of isocyanide XyNC with or without add Pd(dba)₂. Similarly, complexes 3a and b were also reacted with 2 mole equivalents of isocyanide XyNC (Xy = 2,6‐dimethylphenyl) to give iminoacyl complexes cis‐cis‐[(L₂)(CNXy)BrPdC₄H₂S‐PdBr(CNXy)(L₂)], 10a, b [L₂ = bpy ( 10a ), L₂ = dtbbpy ( 10b )] and an 8‐fold excess of isocyanide XyNC (Xy = 2,6‐dimethylphenyl) afforded tetraiminoacyl complexes of [2,5‐(C₄H₂S)(C?NXy)₈Pd₂Br₂], 11 . Complexes 2a, b and 3a, b reacted with TlOTf [(TfO = CF₃SO₃)] in CH₂Cl₂ to give 9a, b and 12a, b , respectively, in a moderate yield. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The characterization of poorly chrystalline Si-containing natural iron oxides by Mössbauer spectroscopy

Soils developed from recent basalts of Marion Island in the Sub-Antarctic contain about 20% of a poorly crystalline iron oxide. The association of this phase with Al and Si appears to have a major influence on its Mössbauer spectra: whereas room-temperature spectra indicate a relatively regular structure, the magnetic hyperfine fields at 4.2K are lower than those of even the most poorly crystalline pure ferrihydrites.     

Modeling chlorite-iodide reaction dynamics using a chlorine dioxide-iodide reaction mechanism

The mechanism of Lengyel, Li, Kustin, and Epstein (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 3708) for the oscillatory chlorine dioxide-iodide reaction accurately models the reaction in closed and open systems. We investigated whether this mechanism minus the single reaction involving chlorine dioxide models the chlorite-iodide reaction equally well. It agrees qualitatively with clock reaction results. As for open system dynamics, the mechanism predicts the existence of two steady states and bistability in very nearly the same regions where these features are found experimentally in the pH range 2-4. A discrepancy in the range of bistability emerges as pH decreases, and it cannot be remedied by taking into account chlorous acid decomposition. That we were unable to locate an oscillatory region is of greater significance. Because the chlorite-iodide reaction is sensitive to mixing effects, we incorporated a two-parameter model of imperfect mixing but still found no oscillations at physically reasonable parameter values. These discrepancies strongly suggest that to obtain predictive utility for the chlorite-iodide reaction, revision of the chlorine dioxide-iodide mechanism is required.