Isolation of a Novel Polyketide from Neodidymelliopsis sp.

Fungi have become an invaluable source of bioactive natural products, with more than 5 million species of fungi spanning the globe. Fractionation of crude extract of Neodidymelliopsis sp., led to the isolation of a novel polyketide, (2Z)-cillifuranone (1) and five previously reported natural products, (2E)-cillifuranone (2), taiwapyrone (3), xylariolide D (4), pachybasin (5), and N-(5-hydroxypentyl)acetamide (6). It was discovered that (2Z)-cillifuranone (1) was particularly sensitive to ambient temperature and light resulting in isomerisation to (2E)-cillifuranone (2). Structure elucidation of all the natural products were conducted by NMR spectroscopic techniques. The antimicrobial activity of 2, 3, and 5 were evaluated against a variety of bacterial and fungal pathogens. A sodium [1-¹³C] acetate labelling study was conducted on Neodidymelliopsis sp. and confirmed that pachybasin is biosynthesised through the acetate polyketide pathway.     

Cellulose

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Untersuchung von Textilien und Textilrohstoffen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Resonant effects in evanescent wave scattering of polydisperse colloids

Measurements and predictions are reported to understand large variations in evanescent wave (EW) scattering intensities between different particles from the same batch of single mode, polydisperse colloids. Measured EW scattering intensity distributions are obtained for three different micrometer sized latex particles irreversibly deposited onto glass surfaces. Predicted EW scattering intensity distributions are obtained using measured particle size distributions as input in a Mie theory for the three-dimensional scattering of a sphere under EW illumination. Good agreement is observed between measured and predicted EW scattering intensity distributions using no adjustable parameters. Our results indicate how finite polydispersity together with resonant effects produce large, nonlinear intensity variations between particles that appear to be physically and chemically uniform. Our findings allow such resonant effects to be understood and exploited in EW based particle-surface characterization techniques (e.g., using total internal reflections, surface plasmons) and chemical and biomolecular sensing applications (e.g., using whispering gallery modes).     

UHV STM I(V) and XPS studies of aryl diazonium molecules assembled on Si(111)

Molecular layers formed from 4-trifluoromethylbenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate and 4-Methylbenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate have been assembled on H-passivated Si(111) and studied by UHV STM and XPS. STM imaging shows well-developed Si(111) step edges and terraces both on Si(111):H and Si(111) substrates covered with a molecular layer. STM I(V) data acquired at different tip-substrate separations reveals a factor of approximately 10 enhancement in current for positive bias voltage when current flows through the 4-trifluoromethyl molecule when compared to the 4-methyl variant. The observed current enhancement in I(V) can be understood by comparing the projected density of states of the two molecule-Si systems calculated using a density functional theory local density approximation after geometry optimization was performed via the conjugate gradient method. XPS data independently confirm that H-passivated Si(111) remains oxygen free for short exposures to ambient conditions and provide evidence that the molecules chemically react with the silicon surface.     

Antimicrobial Metabolites against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus from the Endophytic Fungus Neofusicoccum australe

Antimicrobial bioassay-guided fractionation of the endophytic fungi Neofusicoccum australe led to the isolation of a new unsymmetrical naphthoquinone dimer, neofusnaphthoquinone B (1), along with four known natural products (2–5). Structure elucidation was conducted by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic methods, and the antimicrobial activity of all the natural products was investigated, revealing 1 to be moderately active towards methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 16 µg/mL.     

Finite-element analysis of craze deformation

The finite-element method is applied to a craze model in order to estimate surface displacements and stresses of an isolated craze in a thin rectangular plate. The limitation of assuming linear-elastic behavior of the craze fibrils is demonstrated by comparing computed profiles with published experimental ones. Accurate finite-element estimates of craze surface stresses are obtained from the experimental displacement profile. The analysis is extended to the three-dimensional case but the difference between the craze displacements at the surface of the plate and those at midthickness is too small to justify the considerable increase in computer time in comparison with that required for two-dimensional analysis.     

The locally conservative Galerkin (LCG) method for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

In this paper, the locally conservative Galerkin (LCG) method (Numer. Heat Transfer B Fundam. 2004; 46 :357–370; Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 2007) has been extended to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. A new correction term is also incorporated to make the formulation to give identical results to that of the continuous Galerkin (CG) method. In addition to ensuring element‐by‐element conservation, the method also allows solution of the governing equations over individual elements, independent of the neighbouring elements. This is achieved within the CG framework by breaking the domain into elemental sub‐domains. Although this allows discontinuous trial function field, we have carried out the formulation using the continuous trial function space as the basis. Thus, the changes in the existing CFD codes are kept to a minimum. The edge fluxes, establishing the continuity between neighbouring elements, are calculated via a post‐processing step during the time‐stepping operation. Therefore, the employed formulation needs to be carried out using either a time‐stepping or an equivalent iterative scheme that allows post‐processing of fluxes. The time‐stepping algorithm employed in this paper is based on the characteristic‐based split (CBS) scheme. Both steady‐ and unsteady‐state examples presented show that the element‐by‐element formulation employed is accurate and robust. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.