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Notes: Abstract (25R)-2,3,25,27-Tetrahydrophysalin A dimethanol solvate, C30H42O12, a derivative of 13,14-seco-16,24-cyclosteroid physalin A, crystallizes in the orthorhombic space groupP212121, witha=15.486(5),b=14.794(4), 12.248(6) Å andZ=4. The crystal structure has been solved by direct methods, and refined to an R-value of 0.053 for 2345 observed reflections.1H NMR spectral data of physalin A and its hydrogenated derivatives measured in dimethylsulfoxide-d6 solutions have been elucidated, based on the crystal structure of the tetrahydrophysalin A, enabling the assignment of all the proton signals of physalin A. Theβ-proton of C(11)-methylene has been shown to resonate at remarkably higher field due to anisotropic shielding effect of carbonyl group at C(15).

Notes: Abstract The reproductive data for Japanese monkeys,Macaca fuscata fuscata, which had been recorded for the 34 years from 1952 to 1986 on Koshima, were analyzed in terms of the influence of changes in artificial food supplies, the differences in reproductive success between females, the timing of births, and the secondary sex ratio. Koshima monkeys increased in number until 1971 when the population density was still small and artificial provisioning was copious. As described byMori (1979b), the severe reduction in artificial food supplies, which began in 1972, had an enormous deleterious effect on reproduction: the birth ratio of adult females of 5 years of age or more fell from 57% to 25%; the rate of infant mortality within 1 year of birth rose from 19% to 45%; primiparous age rose from 6 to 9 years old on average; and there was an increased death rate among adult and juvenile females. The prolonged influence of “starvation” may be seen in the significantly delayed first births of those females that were born just before the change in food supplies. When reproductive parameters are compared between the females who belonged to six lineages in the group during these periods, they were found to be rather consistent, although some individual differences can be recognized among females and subgroups. The apparent trend was that some of the most dominant females retained superior reproductive success while that of the second-ranked females has tended to diminish over the years since 1972. Such opposing trends were seen only in the most dominant lineage group and such a difference was not recognized among the females of other lineages. The difference in reproductive success is discussed in relation to both the different situations that arise because of the artificial food supplies and differences in feeding strategies. Multiparous females, after a sterile year, gave birth somewhat earlier than those who reared infants in the preceding year and, when artificial provisioning was intense, they tended to give birth a little earlier than during other periods. There is some evidence that the mortality of later-born infants was higher than that of earlier-born infants after 1972. However, this difference may not be responsible for the differential reproductive success of females since the timing of births did not differ among lineages. Furthermore, during the time when many females gave birth continuously, prior to 1972, the infant mortality did not differ with respect to the timing of births. The differences in infant mortality were not correlated with the reproductive history, parity or age of the mother, or with the sex of the infant. The secondary sex ratio varied by only a small amount, from slightly male-biased ratio (114: 100) when correlated with reproductive history, parity, age of mother, sex and survival ratio for preceding infants, timing of birth, and lineage of the female. Furthermore, the change in artificial food supplies did not cause any modifications of the secondary sex ratios, despite its enormous deleterious effect on reproduction. The secondary sex ratio of Japanese monkeys may not be influenced by the social factors mentioned.

Notes: The crystal structures of the isovaline (Iva) containing dipeptides, Boc-D-Iva-L-Pro-OBzl and Boc-L-Iva-L-Pro-OBzl, were determined by x-ray diffraction. The diastereomeric peptides were shown to adopt unturned conformations closely similar to each other (φIva 52°, ψIva 46°, φPro-65°, and ψPro 143° for D-Iva-L-Pro sequence and φIva 52°, ψIva 44°, φPro -63°, and ψpro 148° for L-Iva-L-Pro sequence). The Pro ring of each peptide was in Cγ-endo conformation. The unusually large ∠CIva-NPro-CδPro values (131° in both peptides) were observed, that was due to steric repulsion between the δ-methylene of Pro and the alkyl side chain of Iva residue. These conformations were essentially the same as that of the corresponding α-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib)-containing peptide Boc-Aib-L-Pro-OBzl. The result has demonstrated that replacement of either one of the two methyl groups of the Aib residue in Boc-Aib-L-Pro-OBzl with an ethyl group does not cause any significant change in the unturned conformation of the dipeptide. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.