Thermosensitive Imaging Composition and Lithographic Plate Comprising the Same (US Patent 20110271859)

The present application relates to a positive-working heat-sensitive lithographic plate. The infrared heat-sensitive image recording composition of the plate comprises a resin having self-dissolution inhibiting property and an infrared absorber. The resin having self-dissolution inhibiting property is an alkali-soluble resin that contains phenolic hydroxyl group, and carbamate or thiocarbamate group that has strong electron-absorbing ability. The advantage of the present application is that it requires no dissolution inhibitor when preparing the infrared positive-working heat-sensitive CTP plate. The mechanism could be understood but not limited to that the carbamate or thiocarbamate group contained in the resin has a dissolution inhibiting effect on the phenolic hydroxyl group in the resin, reducing the solubility of the resin in an alkali solution

Endocidal Regulation of Secondary Metabolites in the Producing Organisms

Secondary metabolites are defined as organic compounds that are not directly involved in the normal growth, development, and reproduction of an organism. They are widely believed to be responsible for interactions between the producing organism and its environment, with the producer avoiding their toxicities. In our experiments, however, none of the randomly selected 44 species representing different groups of plants and insects can avoid autotoxicity by its endogenous metabolites once made available. We coined the term endocides (endogenous biocides) to describe such metabolites that can poison or inhibit the parent via induced biosynthesis or external applications. Dosage-dependent endocides can selectively induce morphological mutations in the parent organism (e.g., shrubbiness/dwarfism, pleiocotyly, abnormal leaf morphogenesis, disturbed phyllotaxis, fasciated stems, and variegation in plants), inhibit its growth, development, and reproduction and cause death than non-closely related species. The propagule, as well as the organism itself contains or produces adequate endocides to kill itself

Self-regulation mechanism for charged point defects in hybrid halide perovskites

Hybrid halide perovskites such as methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) exhibit unusually low free carrier concentrations despite being processed at low-temperatures from solution. We demonstrate, through quantum mechanical calculations, that the origin of this phenomenon is a prevalence of ionic over electronic disorder in stoichiometric materials. Schottky defect formation provides a mechanism to self-regulate the concentration of charge carriers through ionic compensation of charged point defects. The equilibrium charged vacancy concentration is predicted to exceed 0.4% at room temperature. This behaviour, which goes against established defect conventions for inorganic semiconductors, has implications for photovoltaic performance

National Center for Pharmaceutical Crops

The mission of the National Center for Pharmaceutical Crops is to develop crops for the production of pharmaceutical and other bioactive compounds. The NCPC, located in the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, is the only one of its kind in the U.S. and it seeks to improve human health, revitalize rural economies and enhance U.S. security in strategic pharmaceuticals. This poster provides a background to the department, its functions and activities and notable achievements

Trichome Management to Enhance Camptothecins in Camptotheca Decaisne

Inducible chemical defenses of plants have received much attention in the last three decades, and these defenses often involve trichomes. It is known that some plant secondary metabolites may accumulate in trichomes which can protect plants from damage by herbivores. However, studies on plant trichomes are largely limited to some major vegetable or cash crops and model species with large glandular trichomes (e.g., Nictotiana and Arabidopsis). In fact, the existing studies on the effect of damage (pruning or defoliation) on trichome density or chemical production in plants are partial and even contradictory. Management strategies to maximize chemical induction in medicinal plants or pharmaceutical crops have not been developed well. Our experiments showed that camptothecins (CPTs) are primarily accumulated in glandular trichomes in Camptotheca. We found that pruning, particularly decapitation pruning (T-pruning) can effectively induce contents and derivatization of CPTs in Camptotheca, and the leveled CPTs caused induced endogenous autotoxicity (abnormal morphogenesis) in the plants. Auxin reduction is a trigging factor for such induced biosynthesis and endogenous autotoxicity. Because trichomes are visible to the naked eye and can be much more easily targeted and measured than CPTs, the term “Trichome Management” is used for strategy development to induce CPTs in Camptotheca

Phytochemical constituents and pharmacological activities of Eryngium L.(Apiaceae)

Eryngium L. is the largest and arguably the most taxonomically complex genus of the family Apiaceae. The genus has approximately 250 species throughout the world, with the center of diversity in South America. Some Eryngium species are cultivated as ornamental, vegetable, or medicinal crops for folk uses. With increasing chemical and biological investigations, Eryngium has shown its potential as pharmaceutical crops. This review focuses on phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of 127 compounds isolated and identified from 23 species of Eryngium, particularly nonessential oil compounds such as terpenoids, triterpenoid saponins, flavonoids, coumarins, polyacetylenes, and steroids. Eryngium extracts or isolates have shown in vitro bioactivitities such as cytotoxicity against various human tumor cell lines, anti-inflammatory, anti-snake and scorpion venoms, antibacterial, antifungal, and antimalarial, antioxidant, and antihyperglycemic effects. In vivo studies through various animal models have also shown promising results. However, chemical constituents and their bioactivities of most species of this highly diversified genus have not been investigated. The molecular mechanism of bioactivities (particularly cytotoxicity and anti-snake and scorpion venoms) of Eryngium isolates remains elusive. Also, anti-tumor activity of polyhydroxylated triterpenoid saponins isolated from Eryngium needed to be furthur explored

First-principles study on the effective masses of zinc-blend-derived Cu_2Zn-IV-VI_4 (IV = Sn, Ge, Si and VI = S, Se)

The electron and hole effective masses of kesterite (KS) and stannite (ST) structured Cu_2Zn-IV-VI_4 (IV = Sn, Ge, Si and VI = S, Se) semiconductors are systematically studied using first-principles calculations. We find that the electron effective masses are almost isotropic, while strong anisotropy is observed for the hole effective mass. The electron effective masses are typically much smaller than the hole effective masses for all studied compounds. The ordering of the topmost three valence bands and the corresponding hole effective masses of the KS and ST structures are different due to the different sign of the crystal-field splitting. The electron and hole effective masses of Se-based compounds are significantly smaller compared to the corresponding S-based compounds. They also decrease as the atomic number of the group IV elements (Si, Ge, Sn) increases, but the decrease is less notable than that caused by the substitution of S by Se.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

Phenolics from the Fruits of Maclura pomifera

Two new compounds, maclurin A (1) and maclurin B (2), and six known ones, ononin (3), pterofuran (4), osajin (5), pomiferin (6), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (7), and 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzoic acid (8) were isolated from the fruit of Maclura pomifera. Compounds 3 and 4 were isolated from the genus for the first time. Structure elucidation was achieved by spectroscopic measurements and by comparison with literature data. Compounds 2-4 exhibited activities against the cancer cell lines A549 and Panc-28 with GI50 values from 18.1 to 32.2, and 20.6 to 43.5 μM, respectively. Compounds 2 and 4 also showed cytotoxicity against HCT 116 with GI50 values of 47.2 and 24.4 μM, respectively

Chemical composition and product quality control of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.)

Chemical constituents of various tissues of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) have been extensively investigated. To date, at least 235 compounds, primarily phenolic compounds and terpenoids have been identified from the species, including 22 diarylheptanoids and diarylpentanoids, eight phenylpropene and other phenolic compounds, 68 monoterpenes, 109 sesquiterpenes, five diterpenes, three triterpenoids, four sterols, two alkaloids, and 14 other compounds. Curcuminoids (diarylheptanoids) and essential oils are major bioactive ingredients showing various bioactivities in in vitro and in vivo bioassays. Curcuminoids in turmeric are primarily accumulated in rhizomes. The essential oils from leaves and flowers are usually dominated by monoterpenes while those from roots and rhizomes primarily contained sesquiterpenes. The contents of curcuminoids in turmeric rhizomes vary often with varieties, locations, sources, and cultivation conditions, while there are significant variations in composition of essential oils of turmeric rhizomes with varieties and geographical locations. Further, both curcuminoids and essential oils vary in contents with different extraction methods and are unstable with extraction and storage processes. As a result, the quality of commercial turmeric products can be markedly varied. While curcumin (1), demethoxycurcumin (2), and bisdemethoxycurcumin (5) have been used as marker compounds for the quality control of rhizomes, powders, and extract (“curcumin”) products, Ar-turmerone (99), -turmerone (100), and -turmerone (101) may be used to control the product quality of turmeric oil and oleoresin products. Authentication of turmeric products can be achieved by chromatographic and NMR techniques, DNA markers, with morphological and anatomic data as well as GAP and other information available