The selective reductive acylation of a-keto imines

Reaction of α-keto imines with the $\text{in}$$\text{situ}$ generated acetylcobalt tetracarbonyl occurs only at the carbon—nitrogen double bond to give β-keto amides. An unexpected by-product was formed in several instances.     

Gene expression analysis for high throughput screening applications

To meet growing needs for high throughput gene expression profiling, we established a new automated high throughput TaqMan RT-PCR method for quantitative mRNA expression analysis. In this method, the Allegro( trade mark ) (Zymark) system conducts all sample tracking and liquid handling steps, and ABI PRISM 7900 HT (Applied Biosystems) is used to conduct real-time determination of the C(t) value when amplification of PCR products is first detected and accumulation of inhibitory PCR products is unlikely to occur. The ABI PRISM 7900 HT Sequence Detection System features a real-time PCR instrument with 384-well-plate compatibility and robotic loading, and continuous wavelength detection, which enables the use of multiple fluorophores in a single reaction. The Allegro System offers an assembly line approach with a modular design that allows reconfiguration of the components to accommodate variations in the assay flow. In the present study, we have established and validated a new automated High Throughput (HT) TaqMan RT-PCR- based method for quantitative mRNA expression analysis. The data demonstrate that HT-Taqman PCR is a powerful tool that can be used for measuring low concentrations of mRNA, and is highly accurate, reproducible, and amenable to high throughput analysis. Results suggest that HT-TaqMan is a reliable method for the quantification of low-expression genes and a powerful tool with HT capability for target identification/validation, structure-activity relationship (SAR) study, compound selection for efficacy studies, and biomarker identification in drug discovery and development.     

The ruthenium carbonyl catalyzed reduction of nitro compounds by phase transfer catalysis

Amines were obtained in excellent yields by treatment of nitro compounds, at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, with carbon monoxide, ruthenium carbonyl as the metal catalyst, and benzyltriethylammonium chloride as the phase transfer catalyst in an aqueous base-organic solvent system.     

Microbial metabolism. Part 12. Isolation, characterization and bioactivity evaluation of eighteen microbial metabolites of 4'-hydroxyflavanone

Fermentation of 4'-hydroxyflavanone (1) with fungal cultures, Beauveria bassiana (ATCC 13144 and ATCC 7159) yielded 6,3',4'-trihydroxyflavanone (2), 3',4'-dihydroxyflavanone 6-O-β-D-4-methoxyglucopyranoside (3), 4'-hydroxyflavanone 3'-sulfate (4), 6,4'-dihydroxyflavanone 3'-sulfate (5) and 4'-hydroxyflavanone 6-O-β-D-4-methoxyglucopyranoside (7). B. bassiana (ATCC 13144) and B. bassiana (ATCC 7159) in addition, gave one more metabolite each, namely, flavanone 4'-O-β-D-4-methoxyglucopyranoside (6) and 6,4'-dihydroxyflavanone (8) respectively. Cunninghamella echinulata (ATCC 9244) transformed 1 to 6,4'-dihydroxyflavanone (8), flavanone-4'-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (9), 3'-hydroxyflavanone 4'-sulfate (10), 3',4'-dihydroxyflavanone (11) and 4'-hydroxyflavanone-3'-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (12). Mucor ramannianus (ATCC 9628) metabolized 1 to 2,4-trans-4'-hydroxyflavan-4-ol (13), 2,4-cis-4'-hydroxyflavan-4-ol (14), 2,4-trans-3',4'-dihydroxyflavan-4-ol (15), 2,4-cis-3',4'-dihydroxyflavan-4-ol (16), 2,4-trans-3'-hydroxy-4'-methoxyflavan-4-ol (17), flavanone 4'-O-α-D-6-deoxyallopyranoside (18) and 2,4-cis-4-hydroxyflavanone 4'-O-α-D-6-deoxyallopyranoside (19). Metabolites 13 and 14 were also produced by Ramichloridium anceps (ATCC 15672). The former was also produced by C. echinulata. Structures of the metabolic products were elucidated by means of spectroscopic data. None of the metabolites tested showed antibacterial, antifungal and antiprotozoal activities against selected organisms.     

Plasma motion in a filtered cathodic vacuum arc

A model is proposed for the flow of a plasma originating from a cathodic vacuum arc into a curvilinear magnetic field. The model gives good agreement with measurements obtained from a filtered cathodic-arc thin film deposition system. The important parameters involved in the motion of a vacuum arc plasma beam through a magnetic filter are examined. The analysis is based on the use of the guiding center approximation to describe the motion of the charged particles produced in the plasma where the thermal energy is negligible compared to the mass flow energy. Electron-ion collision effects are included within the framework of the drift model. It is shown that under the limiting condition of a collision frequency which is much higher than the cyclotron frequency of the electron, the motion of the plasma ions around the bend becomes independent of the magnetic field, with the number of ions traversing the filter significantly reduced. However, in the collisionless plasma case (cyclotron frequency higher than the collision frequency), the model predicts a square-law relationship between ion-saturation current and magnetic field , I_p ∞B²     

Microbial metabolism. Part 7 : Curcumin

Microbial metabolism of the cancer chemopreventive agent, curcumin [(1E,6E)-1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)hepta-1,6-diene-3,5-dione] (1) with Pichia anomala (ATCC 20170) yielded four major metabolites, 5-hydroxy-1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)heptan-3-one (2), 5-hydroxy-7-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)heptan-3-one (3), 1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)heptan-3,5-diol (4), 5-hydroxy-1,7-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)heptane-3-one (5) and two minor products, 1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-7-(4-hydroxyphenyl)heptane-3,5-diol (6) and 1,7-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)heptane-3,5-diol (7). The structures of compounds 2-5 were established on the basis of spectroscopic data. Compounds 6 and 7 were assigned tentative structures.     

A Discrete Wavelet Transform without edge effects using wavelet extrapolation

The Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is of considerable practical use in image and signal processing applications. For example, significant compression can be achieved through the use of the DWT. A fundamental problem with the DWT, however, is the treatment of finite length data sequences. Commonly used techniques such as circular convolution and symmetric extension can produce undesirable edge effects which propagate into the interior of the transformed data as the number of DWT iterations increases. In this paper, we develop a DWT applicable to Daubechies’ orthogonal wavelets which does not exhibit edge effects. The underlying idea is to extrapolate the data at the boundaries by determining the coefficients of a best fit polynomial through data points in the vicinity of the boundary. This approach can be regarded as a solution to the problem of orthogonal wavelets on an interval. However, it has the advantage that it does not involve the explicit construction of boundary wavelets. The extrapolated DWT is designed to be well conditioned and to produce a critically sampled output. The methods we describe are equally applicable to biorthogonal wavelet bases.