Table of Contents

Abstract: The behavior of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride has been investigated byRaman spectroscopy as a function of hydrostatic pressure. Under ambient pressure tworotational isomers (GA and AA forms) of the 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium cation coexist inthe ionic liquid state. As the supercooled liquid was compressed from ambient to 0.9 GPa,the contribution of the GA conformer decreases in intensity as the pressure was elevated. Anew high pressure phase is formed above the pressure of 1.5 GPa. This new high pressurephase of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride arises from perturbed GA conformer, i.e.,distorted Crystal 2. Crystal 1 form (AA form) is known as a thermodynamically stable formunder ambient pressure. Nevertheless, crystal 1 form is switched to a metastable state underthe condition of high pressure.

Abstract: PMP22_Claudin family proteins play important roles in cell tight junction. In thisstudy, we have identified a novel member of this family, PMP22CD. Human PMP22CD wasfirst discovered by database sequence mining and analysis, and verified by cloning andsequencing. PMP22CD was isolated from the human testis cDNA library and mapped tochromosome 11q24.1 by browsing the UCSC genomic database. It contains an ORF with alength of 675bp, encoding a protein that contains a putative PMP22_Claudin domain withfour transmembrane helices. Its molecular weight and isoelectric point are predicted to be25.8kDa and 8.42, respectively. The PMP22CD protein is highly conservative in mammalanimals. Phylogenetic tree analysis indicated that PMP22CD stands for a new subgroup inthe PMP22/EMP/Claudin family. RT-PCR analysis showed that PMP22CD was specificallyexpressed in the testis. Green fluorescence protein localization analysis showed thatPMP22CD mainly surrounded the nuclear membrane, with a minority distribution in thecytoplasm. These results suggested that PMP22CD is a distant member of thePMP22/EMP/Claudin family and that it may have a novel function that does not involve celltight junction because it is not located at the cell membrane.

Abstract: Several ionic liquids were applied as catalysts for the synthesis of cyclicurethanes from amino alcohols and pressurized CO2 in the presence of alkali metalcompounds as promoters. A comparative study was made for the catalytic performanceusing different ionic liquids, substrates, promoters, and pressures. The optimum catalyticsystem was BMIM-Br promoted by K₂CO₃, which, for 1-amino-2-propanol, produced cyclicurethane in 40% yield with a smaller yield of substituted cyclic urea and no oligomericbyproducts. For other amino alcohols, cyclic urethanes, cyclic ureas, and/or undesiredbyproducts were produced in different yields depending on the substrates used. Possiblereaction mechanisms are proposed.

Abstract: Determinations of the specific rates of solvolysis of 1-adamantyl bromide and 1-adamantyl iodide in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol-water mixtures, in conjunction withearlier reported values in 80% ethanol, have led to additional YBr and YI solvent ionizingpower values. These new values will be especially important in avoiding multicollinearitywhen the extended Grunwald-Winstein equation (extended by addition of a term involvingsolvent nucleophilicity) is used to correlate solvent-induced changes in the specific rates ofsolvolyses involving a bromide or iodide ion leaving group.

Abstract: Topological indices have been applied to build QSAR models for a set of 20 an-timalarial cyclic peroxy cetals. In order to evaluate the reliability of the proposed linearmodels leave-n-out and Internal Test Sets (ITS) approaches have been considered. The pro-posed procedure resulted in a robust and consensued prediction equation and here it isshown why it is superior to the employed standard cross-validation algorithms involvingmultilinear regression models.