Synthesis of benzodiazocine-annulated heterocycles by the implementation of Pd-catalyzed intramolecular Heck reaction

Synthesis of hitherto unreported benzodiazocine-annulated heterocycles by the implementation of palladium-catalyzed intramolecular Heck reaction has been achieved in excellent yields.     

RDX分子内振动能量重分配的动力学研究

基于从头算分子动力学(Born-oppenheimer molecular dynamics, BOMD)模拟, 构建了环硝胺六氢-1,3,5-三硝基-1,3,5-三嗪(RDX)单分子不同振动模式之间的耦合矩阵, 并计算了在不同加载能量下从低频振动模式到高频振动模式的最优能量传输路径. 结果表明, RDX单分子中—NNO₂基团更有利于能量局域化, 振动模式v₃和v₄在从低频振动模式到高频振动模式的能量传输过程中扮演着重要角色. 通过对v₃和v₄两个振动模式的进一步分析发现, 加载能量的不同会导致RDX单分子能量传输路径的不同. 当加载能量较低时, RDX单分子倾向于从低频振动模式到中频振动模式再到高频振动模式的能量传输路径; 当加载能量较高时, 能量更倾向于从低频振动模式直接传输到高频振动模式上. 揭示了RDX分子内振动耦合能量转移的微观机制, 为进一步探索RDX将“机械能”转化为“化学能”的微观过程提供了理论基础.     

Luminescence kinetic and association equilibria of lanthanide ions in aqueous solutions. II. Determination of the formation constant of Tb acetato complex by means of luminescence lifetime measurement

The association constant K of mono-acetato complex of Tb³⁺ has been determined at normal p and T conditions by measurement of its luminescence lifetime in aqueous solution containing increasing concentrations of acetate. Two experimental arrangements used for the measurement are described.     

An ensemble learning framework for potential miRNA-disease association prediction with positive-unlabeled data

To explore the pathogenic mechanisms of MicroRNA (miRNA) on diverse diseases, many researchers have concentrated on discovering the potential associations between miRNA and disease using machine learning methods. However, the prediction accuracy of supervised machine learning methods is limited by lacking of experimentally-validated uncorrelated miRNA-disease pairs. Without these negative samples, training a highly accurate model is much more difficult. Different from traditional miRNA-disease prediction models using randomly selected unknown samples as negative training samples, we propose an ensemble learning framework to solve this positive-unlabeled (PU) learning problem. The framework incorporates two steps, i.e., a novel semi-supervised Kmeans (SS-Kmeans) to extract reliable negative samples from unknown miRNA-disease pairs and subagging method to generate diverse training sample sets to make full use of those reliable negative samples for ensemble learning. Combined with effective random vector functional link (RVFL) network as prediction model, the proposed framework showed superior prediction accuracy comparing with other popular approaches. A case study on lung and gastric neoplasms further confirms the framework’s efficacy at identifying miRNA disease associations.     

Interactions between Adsorbed Layers of a Low Charge Density Cationic Polyelectrolyte on Mica in the Absence and Presence of Anionic Surfactant

Interactions between two negatively charged mica surfaces across aqueous solutions containing various amounts of a 10% charged cationic polyelectrolyte have been studied. It is found that the mica surface charge is neutralized when the polyelectrolyte is adsorbed from a 10–50 ppm aqueous solution. Consequently no electrostatic double-layer force is observed. Instead an attractive force acts between the surfaces in the distance regime 250–100 Å. We suggest that this attraction is caused by bridging. Additional adsorption takes place when the polyelectrolyte concentration is increased to 100 and 300 ppm, and a long-range repulsion develops. This repulsive force is both of electrostatic and steric origin. The polyelectrolyte layer adsorbed from a 50 ppm solution does not desorb when the polyelectrolyte solution is replaced with an aqueous polyelectrolyte-free solution. Injection of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) into the measuring chamber to a concentration of about 0.01 CMC (8.3 × 10⁻⁵M) does not affect the adsorbed layers or the interaction forces. However, when the SDS concentration is increased to 0.02 CMC (0.166 mM) the adsorbed layer expands dramatically due to adsorption of SDS to the polyelectrolyte chains. The sudden swelling suggests a cooperative adsorption of SDS to the preadsorbed polyelectrolyte layer and that the critical aggregation concentration between the polyelectrolyte and SDS at the surface is about 0.02 CMC. The flocculation behavior of the polyelectrolyte in solution upon addition of SDS was also examined. It was found that 0.16–0.32 mol SDS/mol charged segments on the polyelectrolyte is enough to make the solution slightly turbid.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Push-Pull Porphyrins

A series of “push-pull” porphyrins with 4-nitrophenyl and 4-aminophenyl substituents were synthesized and separated by flash column chromatographic techniques. They were fully characterized by elemental analysis, FAB-MS, FTIR, UV-visible, and ¹H NMR spectroscopies. The unsymmetrical π-electron distribution of the porphyrins caused by the donor (amino) and acceptor (nitro) substituents were investigated by ¹H NMR technique. The pyrrole-H resonance positions can be correlated to the Hammett σ constants of the substituents. Although with strong donor and acceptor substituents, UV-visible spectra show the push-pull porphyrins have rather weak solvatochromism and hence limited intramolecular charge-transfer character.     

Intramolecular Diels-Alder Reactions of Thio-Substituted Dienes with Enones

Thio-substituted dienes bearing an enone moiety were readily prepared from 3-sulfolenes, and their intramolecular Diels-Alder (IMDA) reactions were studied. Octahydronaphthalenones were produced in good yield with high stereoselectivity. Hexahydroindenones were also obtained, but the stereoselectivity was lower.     

甲基化的β-环糊精与十六烷基三甲基溴化胺的相互作用

环糊精与表面活性剂的相互作用已有许多研究,但多局限于β－环糊精（β－CD）,而修饰的β－环糊精与表面活性剂的相互作用研究较少[1－3]．分子内扭转电荷转移（TICT）激发态对介质极性高度敏感性,已成功地用于探针环糊精与表面活性剂的相互作用[4]．研究表明,β－CD能够诱     

The first 85% kraft lignin-based thermoplastics

Interest in the development of lignin-containing polymeric materials has been upheld more or less continuously for the past 20 years. Tendencies toward high moduli and poorly defined thermal transitions have been regarded as imposing inevitable limitations upon the use of lignin derivatives for such purposes. Incorporation of more than 25–40% (w/w) lignin had usually resulted in materials that were brittle and weak. For the first time, however, from homogeneous blends containing 85% (w/w) underivatized industrial kraft lignin with poly(vinyl acetate) and two plasticizers, a series of thermoplastics has been fabricated with promising mechanical properties. The tensile behavior of these new polymeric materials depends directly upon the degree of association between the intrinsic kraft lignin components. In extending to values about 25 MPa and 1.5 GPa, respectively, the tensile strengths and Young's moduli vary linearly with the effective M̄_w for the kraft lignin species, under conditions where the proportions of the individual molecular components, both associated and discrete, do not change. Moreover, melt-flow index measurements indicate that these polymeric materials are amenable to thermal processing by extrusion molding. Thus a significant step has been taken toward developing a new generation of thermoplastics that are lignin-based in a very fundamental way. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 35: 1899–1910, 1997     

Role and Perspective of Molecular Simulation-Based Investigation of RNA–Ligand Interaction: From Small Molecules and Peptides to Photoswitchable RNA Binding

Aberrant RNA–protein complexes are formed in a variety of diseases. Identifying the ligands that interfere with their formation is a valuable therapeutic strategy. Molecular simulation, validated against experimental data, has recently emerged as a powerful tool to predict both the pose and energetics of such ligands. Thus, the use of molecular simulation may provide insight into aberrant molecular interactions in diseases and, from a drug design perspective, may allow for the employment of less wet lab resources than traditional in vitro compound screening approaches. With regard to basic research questions, molecular simulation can support the understanding of the exact molecular interaction and binding mode. Here, we focus on examples targeting RNA–protein complexes in neurodegenerative diseases and viral infections. These examples illustrate that the strategy is rather general and could be applied to different pharmacologically relevant approaches. We close this study by outlining one of these approaches, namely the light-controllable association of small molecules with RNA, as an emerging approach in RNA-targeting therapy.