Structure-activity relationships of pyrethroid insecticides. Part 2. The use of molecular dynamics for conformation searching and average parameter calculation

Summary Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed on a number of conformationally flexible pyrethroid insecticides. The results indicate that molecular dynamics is a suitable tool for conformational searching of small molecules given suitable simulation parameters. The structures derived from the simulations are compared with the static conformation used in a previous study. Various physicochemical parameters have been calculated for a set of conformations selected from the simulations using multivariate analysis. The averaged values of the parameters over the selected set (and the factors derived from them) are compared with the single conformation values used in the previous study.     

Design considerations and an example of application of an in-house made TG-MS interface

The design, the abilities and a characteristic application of an in-house made interface for combining thermogravimetry (TG) with mass spectrometry (MS) are presented. The TG-MS interface consists mainly of three co-axial tubes. The position of the intermediate tube was determined after calculation of the temperature profile at the TG furnace exit tube. The inner tube position was determined taking into consideration its protection against condensation of heavy molecules and the time delay for the transfer of the evolved gases. This interface allows either continuous sampling and transferring of the evolved gases from the TG to the MS or repetitive introduction of short sampling pulses of TG evolved gases to MS. The interface is capable of coupling various commercial instruments. In the present work two configurations of this interface are demonstrated. Finally an example of application of this interface on forest fuel pyrolysis is presented. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Networks and chain coverings in partial orders and their products

For an arbitrary poset P, subposets {P _i : 1ik} form a transitive basis of P if P is the transitive closure of their union. Let u be the minimum size of a covering of P by chains within posets of the basis, s the maximum size of a family of elements with no pair comparable in any basis poset, and a the maximum size of an antichain in P. Define a dense covering to be a collection D of chains within basis posets such that each element belongs to a chain in D within each basis poset and is the top of at least k-1 chains and the bottom of at least k-1 chains in D. Dense coverings generalize ordinary chain coverings of poset. Let d=min {|D|–(k–1)|P|}. For an arbitrary poset and transitive basis, a convenient network model for dense coverings yields the following: Theorem 1: da, with equality iff P has a minimum chain decomposition in which every pair of consecutive elements on each chain are comparable in some basis poset. Theorem 2: usda. Theorem 3: s=d iff s=a. The most interesting special case is where the transitive basis expresses P as the product of two posets, in which case u and s measure the minimum and maximum sizes of unichain coverings and semiantichains.     

Development of a novel laboratory scale high solids reactor for anaerobic digestion of processed municipal solid wastes for the production of methane

Economic evaluations of the capital costs for anaerobic digestion systems for gas production show that the reactor is a significant cost component. The successful application of high solids digestion of processed MSW (e.g., greater than 10% solids within the digester) would allow a decrease in reactor volume with maintenance of relatively high gas production rates. However, high solids slurries do not mix well in conventional stirred tank reactors. A horizontal shaft, hydraulically driven reactor was designed and fabricated to test the anaerobic digestion of high solids concentrations. Digester performance was evaluated as a function of experimental parameters such as nutrient requirements, feeding rates, pH control, and agitator design/ rotation speed; horsepower of mixing was also evaluated for the reactor. Several startup protocols were examined to obtain a biologically stable anaerobic fermentation at high solids levels.     

The recent progress of wide bandgap donor polymers towards non-fullerene organic solar cells

The recent progress of wide bandgap (WBG) donor polymers for non-fullerene polymer solar cells (NF-PSCs) were reviewed in detail, which was classified by D-type and D-A type molecular backbones to discuss the related structure-property correlations and put forward an outlook for future innovations.     

大环二萜天然产物(±)-Mayol的全合成

西松烷型二萜类化合物是一大类广泛分布于松脂、烟草、陆地动物及海洋生物体中的具有十四元碳环骨架的化合物.其结构新颖复杂,且大多具有显著和广谱的生物活性.近几十年来,有关这类化合物的研究已引起了人们的极大兴趣.因此,开展这类天然产物及其类似物的全合成及构效关系的研究不仅具有重要的学术价值,而且具有潜在的应用前景.     

Product or sum: comparative tests of Voigt,and product or sum of Gaussian and Lorentzian functions in the fitting of synthetic Voigt‐based X‐ray photoelectron spectra

A comparative study for the fitting of X‐ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) using different model functions is presented. Synthetically generated test spectra using Gaussian/Lorentzian convolution and a real measured spectrum are fitted with the three commonly used models: product, sum and Gaussian/Lorentzian convolution functions. In these limited tests, it was found that the sum function is superior to the product function, particularly for low‐noise spectra. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of Obyanamide, a Marine Cytotoxic Cyclic Depsipeptide

Obyanamide 1 is a cyclic depsipeptide that was recently isolated from the marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya confervoides by Moore and co-workers1. This compound displayed a potent inhibitory effect on both KB and LoVo cells in vitro. Several structural analog…     

Free energy perturbation approach to the critical assessment of selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors

The discovery of selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors represents a major achievement of the efforts over the past few decades to develop therapeutic treatments for inflammation. To gain insights into designing new COX-2-selective inhibitors, we address the energetic and structural basis for the selective inhibition of COX isozymes by means of a combined computational protocol involving docking experiment, force field design for the heme prothetic group, and free energy perturbation (FEP) simulation. We consider both COX-2- and COX-1-selective inhibitors taking the V523I mutant of COX-2 to be a relevant structural model for COX-1 as confirmed by a variety of experimental and theoretical evidences. For all COX-2-selective inhibitors under consideration, we find that free energies of binding become less favorable as the receptor changes from COX-2 to COX-1, due to the weakening and/or loss of hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interactions that stabilize the inhibitors in the COX-2 active site. On the other hand, COX-1-selective oxicam inhibitors gain extra stabilization energy with the change of residue 523 from valine to isoleucine because of the formations of new hydrogen bonds in the enzyme-inhibitor complexes. The utility of the combined computational approach, as a valuable tool for in silico screening of COX-2-selective inhibitors, is further exemplified by identifying the physicochemical origins of the enantiospecific selective inhibition of COX-2 by -substituted indomethacin ethanolamide inhibitors.