Glycosyl azide—a novel substrate for enzymatic transglycosylations

Glycosyl azides are new efficient donors for glycosidases. Their high water solubility facilitates transglycosylations with comparable or better yields than common O-glycosides. The azido group totally changes the β-GalNAc-ase/β-GlcNAc-ase ratio in β-N-acetylhexosaminidases (from the usual 0.3-1.0 to <0.01), contrary to all known aglycons.     

Fluorimetric determination of the levels of urinary neopterin and serum thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in the nonagenarians

Twelve self-sustaining nonagenarians, 10 women and two men, aged 94+/-3 years, and eight institutionalised nonagenarians, eight women, aged 91+/-1 year as well as 11 control subjects, seven women and four men, aged 84+/-5 years entered the study. Urinary neopterin, an indicator of systemic immune activation, and serum thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), a marker of lipoperoxidation, were determined initially, and collection of the blood and urine samples was repeated at 3-month interval. Neopterin was measured in the urine specimens by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography. A C(18) reversed-phase column 3.3x150 mm, 5 mum-diameter packing Separon SGX was used. Potassium phosphate buffer (15 mmol l(-1), pH 6.4) at flow rate of 0.8 ml min(-1) was used as mobile phase. After centrifugation (5 min, 1300xg) and diluting 100 mul of urine specimens with 1.0 ml of mobile phase containing 2 g of disodium-EDTA per litre, a 20 mul sample was injected on a column. Neopterin was identified by its native fluorescence (353 nm excitation, 438 nm emission). Creatinine was determined by Jaffé kinetic reaction after dilution of sample 1:50 (v/v). The concentration of neopterin in urine was expressed as neopterin/creatinine ratio (mumol mol(-1) creatinine). TBARS were determined spectrofluorometrically using LS-5 spectrofluorimeter (excitation wavelength 528 nm, emission wavelength 558 nm) after extraction with n-butanol treatment with thiobarbituric acid. The significance of differences between nonagenarians and control group was examined by ANOVA-Kruskal-Wallis tests, using statistical software NCSS 6.0.21 (Kaysville, UT, 1996). The decision on significance was based on P=0.05. Urinary neopterin was significantly higher in institutionalised compared to self-sustaining subjects and controls (625+/-565 vs. 203+/-63 mumol mol(-1) creatinine, and 198+/-128 mumol mol(-1) creatinine, respectively, P=0.006). The serum TBARS were higher in both groups of nonagenarians (3.23+/-1.16 mumol l(-1) and 2.69+/-0.39 vs. 2.12+/-0.83 mumol l(-1) for the self-sustaining, institutionalised and controls, respectively, P=0.023). We conclude that the fluorimetric determinations of urinary neopterin and serum TBARS can be useful for the monitoring health status in the elderly patients.     

Features of light attenuation in crystals under violation of the Bouguer law

A computer simulation and measurements of the light transmittance of germanium and paratellurite crystals of different thickness were used to show that, at scattering probabilities of photons comparable to their absorption probabilities, the standard methods for calculating light extinction coefficients on the basis of the Bouguer law lead to rough errors in estimation of the optical quality of a material.     

Effect of the incomplete accommodation of the heterogeneous recombination energy on heat fluxes to a quartz surface

Taking both the heterogeneous catalytic processes, including the surface formation of particles with excited internal degrees of freedom, and the processes of multicomponent diffusion and heat transfer in the MESOX apparatus fully into account makes it possible to obtain a recombination coefficient and an accommodation coefficient of the oxygen-atoms-on-quartz recombination energy which are in good agreement with the experimental data. The heterogeneous catalysis model constructed can be used effectively for predicting the heat fluxes to the surface of reentry vehicles on their entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.     

Raman spectra of MgB2 at high pressure and topological electronic transition

Raman spectra of MgB₂ ceramic samples were measured as a function of pressure up to 32 GPa at room temperature. The spectrum at normal conditions contains a very broad peak at ∼590 cm⁻¹ related to the E _2g phonon mode. The frequency of this mode exhibits a strong linear dependence in the pressure region from 5 to 18 GPa, whereas, beyond this region, the slope of the pressure-induced frequency shift is reduced by about a factor of two. The pressure dependence of the phonon mode up to ∼5 GPa exhibits a change in the slope, as well as a “hysteresis” effect in the frequency vs. pressure behavior. These singularities in the E _2g mode behavior under pressure support the suggestion that MgB₂ may undergo a pressure-induced topological electronic transition.     

Kinetic Aspects of Dimethylamine Hydroxyethylation in the Presence of Water

The kinetics of dimethylamine hydroxyethylation at an ethylene oxide : dimethylamine : water molar ratio of 1 : 3 : (0.1–0.5) was studied in the temperature range 20–50°C. A kinetic model of the reaction, which adequately describes the experimental data, was suggested.__________Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Khimii, Vol. 78, No. 4, 2005, pp. 687–689.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Danov, Kolesnikov, Efremov, Mezhenin.     

Gitoxigenin glycosides

Summary Three cardiac glycosides have been synthesized from gitoxigenin and D-glucose: gitoxigenin 3-O--D-glucopyranoside, gitoxigenin 16 -O- -D-glucopyranoside, and gitoxigenin 3, 16-di-O- -D-glucoside. The first glycoside, obtained with a yield of 49% on the weight of the initial aglycone, possesses a fairly high biological activity (0.25 mg/kg), while the other two, formed in a yield of about 0.3%, do not possess the action on the heart that is specific for the cardenolides.Khar'kov Chemical and Pharmaceutical Scientific-Research Institute. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 45–49, January, 1971.     

Semiempirical andab initio study of the structure of the alumophenylsiloxane complex and its fragments

The structures, spectra, and electron density distributions of the alumophenylsiloxane (APS) complex and its fragments have been calculated using semiempirical (AM1) and ab initio (SCF/3-21G and SCF/6-31G^*) quantum chemical approximations. It has been shown that the local properties of the central fragment of alumophenylsiloxane, which is a slightly distorted tetrahedron AlO₄, are described with the (LiO)₂AlOBe(OH) cluster. M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. I. M. Gubkin State Academy of Oil and Gas. Translated fromZhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 410–417, May–June, 1995. Translated by I. Izvekova