Synthesis and Biological Activity of Ferrocenyl and Ruthenocenyl Analogues of Etoposide: Discovery of a Novel Dual Inhibitor of Topoisomerase II Activity and Tubulin Polymerization

Two series of the ferrocenyl and ruthenocenyl analogues of etoposide bearing 1,2,3-triazolyl or aminoalkyl linker were synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic properties, influence on the cell cycle, ability to induce tubulin polymerization, and inhibition of topoisomerase II activity. We found that the replacement of the etoposide carbohydrate moiety with a metallocenyl group led to organometallic conjugates exhibiting differentiated antiproliferative activity. Biological studies demonstrated that two ferrocenylalkylamino conjugates were notably more active than etoposide, with submicromolar or low-micromolar IC₅₀ values towards SW620, etoposide-resistant SW620E, and methotrexate-resistant SW620M cancer cell lines. Moreover, the simplest ferrocenylmethylamino conjugate exerted dual inhibitory action against tubulin polymerization and topoisomerase II activity while other studied compounds affected only topoisomerase II activity.     

The Cambridge Structural Database in Retrospect and Prospect

The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) was established in 1965 to record numerical, chemical and bibliographic data relating to published organic and metal–organic crystal structures. The Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) now stores data for nearly 700 000 structures and is a comprehensive and fully retrospective historical archive of small‐molecule crystallography. Nearly 40 000 new structures are added each year. As X‐ray crystallography celebrates its centenary as a subject, and the CCDC approaches its own 50th year, this article traces the origins of the CCDC as a publicly funded organization and its onward development into a self‐financing charitable institution. Principally, however, we describe the growth of the CSD and its extensive associated software system, and summarize its impact and value as a basis for research in structural chemistry, materials science and the life sciences, including drug discovery and drug development. Finally, the article considers the CCDC’s funding model in relation to open access and open data paradigms.     

The dual of a constacyclic code,self dual,reversible constacyclic codes and constacyclic codes with complementary duals over finite local Frobenius non-chain rings with nilpotency index 3

Over finite local Frobenius non-chain rings with nilpotency index 3 and when the length of the codes is relatively prime to the characteristic of the residue field of the ring, the structure of the dual of $\gamma$-constacyclic codes is established and the algebraic characterization of self-dual $\gamma$-constacyclic codes, reversible $\gamma$-constacyclic codes and $\gamma$-constacyclic codes with complementary dual are given. Generators for the dual code are obtained from those of the original constacyclic code.     

Electrolytes for quasi solid‐state dye‐sensitized solar cells based on block copolymers

The first use of PS_n‐b‐PEO_m‐b‐PS_n block copolymers (PS = polystyrene, PEO = poly(ethylene oxide)) as solid hosts for iodine/iodide electrolytes in dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is described. Using the benchmark photosensitizer N719, DSSC based on the quasi solid‐state electrolytes afforded efficiencies up to 6.7%, to be compared with an efficiency of 7.3% obtained in similar conditions with a conventional iodine/iodide liquid electrolyte. By varying the PS:PEO relative volume ratio in the block copolymers different properties and morphologies were obtained. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 719–727     

Dynamic analysis and regulation of the flexible pipe conveying fluid with a hard-magnetic soft segment

Applied Mathematics and Mechanics - The recently developed hard-magnetic soft (HMS) materials can play a significant role in the actuation and control of medical devices, soft robots, flexible...     

On Convergence of Quasi ρ-preserving Locally Related Quasi-nonexpansive Mappings

The concept of quasi-nonexpansive mappings was initiated in Diaz and Metcalf (Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 73 (1967), 516–519), further it was generalized by Petryshyn and Williamson (Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 43, no. 2 (1973): 459-497). Further investigating the above work, in this article a Banach space with a relation ρ has been considered, the notion of ρ-preserving and quasi ρ-preserving locally related quasi-nonexpansive mappings has been introduced. It has been shown that every ρ-preserving mapping is a quasi ρ-preserving and every nonexpansive mapping is locally related quasi-nonexpansive but converse may not hold. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the convergence of Picard, Mann and Ishikawa iterations of ρ-preserving, quasi ρ-preserving locally related quasi-nonexpansive mappings are presented.     

Empirical Likelihood Estimation for the Two-Sample Mean under Density Ratio Models Using Auxiliary Information

Auxiliary population information is often available in finite population inference problems, and the empirical likelihood (EL) approach has been demonstrated to be flexible and useful for such problems. The present paper concerns EL when interest centers on inference for the mean of the baseline distribution under two-sample density ratio models. Although dual EL is a convenient technical tool since it has the same maximum point and maximum likelihood as DRM-based EL, it can not combine such auxiliary information into the likelihood conveniently and may have loss of efficiency. By contrast, the classical EL approach of Qin and Lawless\ucite{21} does not have this problem and incorporate seamlessly auxiliary information. Based on the EL using auxiliary information and the dual EL methods, we construct both point and interval estimations and make a careful comparison. Though the point estimation efficiency gain obtained by the former is not noticeable, we find that they may have different performances in interval estimation. In terms of coverage accuracy, the two intervals are comparable for not or moderate skewed populations, and the EL interval using auxiliary information can be much superior for severely skewed populations.     

Bounded sets structure of CpX and quasi‐(DF)‐spaces

For wide classes of locally convex spaces, in particular, for the space $C_p(X)$ of continuous real‐valued functions on a Tychonoff space X equipped with the pointwise topology, we characterize the existence of a fundamental bounded resolution (i.e., an increasing family of bounded sets indexed by the irrationals which swallows the bounded sets). These facts together with some results from Grothendieck's theory of $(DF)$‐spaces have led us to introduce quasi‐ $(DF)$‐spaces, a class of locally convex spaces containing $(DF)$‐spaces that preserves subspaces, countable direct sums and countable products. Regular $(LM)$‐spaces as well as their strong duals are quasi‐ $(DF)$‐spaces. Hence the space of distributions $D^{\prime }(\mathrm{\Omega })$ provides a concrete example of a quasi‐ $(DF)$‐space not being a $(DF)$‐space. We show that $C_p(X)$ has a fundamental bounded resolution if and only if $C_p(X)$ is a quasi‐ $(DF)$‐space if and only if the strong dual of $C_p(X)$ is a quasi‐ $(DF)$‐space if and only if X is countable. If X is metrizable, then $C_k(X)$ is a quasi‐ $(DF)$‐space if and only if X is a σ‐compact Polish space.     

Photoredox/Cobalt Dual-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Elimination of Carboxylic Acids: Development and Mechanistic Insight

Recently, dual-catalytic strategies towards the decarboxylative elimination of carboxylic acids have gained attention. Our lab previously reported a photoredox/cobaloxime dual catalytic method that allows the synthesis of enamides and enecarbamates directly from N-acyl amino acids and avoids the use of any stoichiometric reagents. Further development, detailed herein, has improved upon this transformation's utility and further experimentation has provided new insights into the reaction mechanism. These new developments and insights are anticipated to aid in the expansion of photoredox/cobalt dual-catalytic systems.     

Simultaneous separation and determination of seven isoflavones in Radix Puerariae by capillary electrophoresis with a dual cyclodextrin system

A simple, comprehensive and efficient capillary electrophoresis method using a dual cyclodextrin system was developed for the simultaneous determination of seven isoflavones (3′‐methoxypuerarin, puerarin, 3′‐hydroxypuerarin, ononin, daidzin, daidzein and genistin). Baseline separations of the seven isoflavones were achieved within 11 min with the running buffer consisting of 35 mm sodium tetraborate, 9.0 mm sulfobutylether‐β‐cyclodextrin and 30 mm α‐cyclodextrin at pH 9.34, and peaks were detected at 254 nm. Other separation parameters included the separation voltage for 15 kV and the working temperature for 25°C. Under the optimum conditions, good linearities were obtained with linear correlation coefficients of seven isoflavones of 0.9978–0.9992. The limits of detection and the limits of quantification were 0.7–2.9 and 2.5–9.5 μg/mL, respectively. Excellent precision and accuracy were obtained. The intraday and interday precision ranged from 0.7 to 2.0% and from 0.8 to 1.9%, respectively. The recoveries of seven analytes were from 97.7 to 103.1%. This method was successfully applied to determine the seven analytes in Radix Puerariae and its preparations.