Natural product synthesis is one of the most creative branch of chemistry in terms of its boundless scope for innovation and has stimulated several generations of synthetic organic chemists. With advancement in the technology, particularly in the isolation and purification techniques, high-field NMR and X-ray crystallography, it has become fairly routine to isolate and assign the structures, high-field NMR and X-ray crystallography, it has become fairly routine to isolate and assign the structures, even to those complex molecules, which are available only in microscopic quantities from natural sources. Concurrently, one has witnessed tremendous advances in the availability of new synthetic methodologies with high region-, stereo-, and enantiocontrol for one or multiple C-C bond formations and rapid generation of molecular complexity. These developments have rekindled interest with total synthesis of natural products as platforms for testing and validating new reactions and strategies. Many natural products exhibit wide range of biological activities and thus provide good leads in drug discovery but quite often such bioactive compounds are obtained only in minute quantities from Nature. Hence, there is need to synthesize them to obtain requisite quantities and build diversity around their scaffold to further explore their therapeutic potential. Thus, natural product synthesis combines both intellectual challenge and possible application for human wellbeing. Our research group is actively engaged in the synthesis of structurally complex, bioactive natural products and as a part of this endeavour, total syntheses of several bioactive compounds have been accomplished in our laboratory in recent past. The present thesis has also evolved around the ongoing theme directed towards natural product synthesis and is organized under three chapters. Chapter I: Total synthesis of (+)-1S-Minwanenone Chapter II: Enantioselective total synthesis of the bioactive natural product (+)-Sch 642305. Chapter III: Enantiospecific total synthesis of 6-epi-(-)-Hamigeran B.

Alors que la plaquette a un rôle prépondérant dans le maintient de l'hémostase, son implication dans la formation de la thrombose est également incontestée. Il existe à présent des traitements antiplaquettaires mais ceux-ci présentent quelques failles. Le but de ma maîtrise a donc été de caractériser de nouvelles voies d'inhibition de l'activité plaquettaire. Les deux études qui ont été réalisées concernent l'inhibition de récepteurs couplés aux protéines G, soit le récepteur à l'ADP P2Y1 et le récepteur à la thrombine PAR-1. Dans un premier temps, l'étude du récepteur P2Y1 suggère que l'inhibition de celui-ci seul ou en combinaison avec l'inhibition du récepteur P2Y12 présente un potentiel thérapeutique chez des patients coronariens stables. Dans un deuxième temps, l'étude d'un nouvel antiplaquettaire qui est présentement en phase III de son développement clinique, soit le SCH 530348, a été effectuée. Étant un antagoniste du récepteur PAR-1, le SCH 530348 a des effets qui se répercutent à la fois chez la plaquette et les leucocytes qui possèdent eux aussi ce récepteur. Cette deuxième étude suggère que complémentairement à son effet chez la plaquette, cet inhibiteur diminue les marqueurs de l'inflammation systémique. / Platelets have a central role in haemostasis as well as in the pathology of atherothrombotic disease. Antiplatelet therapy is the standard treatment for patients with coronary heart disease. However, the current antiplatelet agents show some disadvantages. The aim of my studies was then to describe the effect of inhibition of platelet activation pathways that are not yet the target of clinically used therapies. The two studies that were performed are regarding the inhibition of two G coupledprotein receptors, which are the ADP P2Y1 receptor and the thrombin PAR-1 receptor. First, the study of P2Y1 receptor revealed that its inhibition alone or in combination with the inhibition of P2Y12 receptor show a therapeutic potential in patients with stable coronary disease. Second, the study of a novel antiplatelet agent, SCH 530348, which is in phase III of its clinical development, has been carried out. SCH 530348, which is a PAR-1 receptor antagonist, can therefore act on platelets as well as on leukocytes which also express this receptor. This second study showed that additionally to its effect on platelet activation inhibition, SCH 530348 also reduces the cell-surface markers of systemic inflammation.

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Nitric acid has been implicated in a variety of physiological functions of the mammalian brain, and in a large number of its pathologies. Recently we have demonstrated that a nitric oxide donor (L-arginine) and a nitric-oxide-synthase-inhibitor (nitro-L-arginine-methyl-ester) modified the response of central al dopamine D 1 and D 3 receptors to some of their agonists. In the present study we demonstrate the modulatory effect of L-arginine, nitro-L-arginine-methyl-ester and molsidomine (another nitric oxide donor) on the reactivity of the central dopamine receptors to specific agonists and antagonists. The agonists tested were SKF-38393, 7-OH-DPAT and quinpirole, and the antagonists - SCH-23390 and haloperidol. They were evaluated in the rat by the following behavioral methods: locomotor activity, locomotor coordination, rearings and cataleptogenic activity (D 2 modulation); grooming time (D 1 activation); yawning (D 3 activation) and ethanol- and phenobarbital-sleeping-time parameters after SKF-38393 or quinpirole pretreatment. Our results suggest that nitro-L-arginine-methyl-ester is effective in modulating the reactivity of the central dopamine receptors D 2, D 1 and D 3, to their agonists and antagonists, and that it is much more effective than L-arginine in regulating the righting reflex after ethanol and phenobarbital, in both female and male mature rats.

SCH-64874 (5) is a fungal metabolite that inhibits the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a high-profile oncology target, with an IC50 of 1.0µg/mL. It is of particular interest because it is unlikely to inhibit the protein’s intramolecular kinase domain (as typical chemical EGFR inhibitors do), and may act instead by obstructing the receptor’s ligand binding and/or dimerisation processes. / In this work, the epipolythiodiketopiperazine family of natural products is reviewed, leading to a discussion of the probable biosynthetic pathways by which these complex molecules are produced in nature. A laboratory synthesis based on this proposed biosynthesis was subsequently proposed and undertaken. / The oxidation of aromatic systems was investigated, which led to the synthesis, for the first time, of complex functionalised arene oxides such as 178. The regioselective epoxidation of 178 was accessed by derivatisation as the Diels-Alder adduct 180. Subsequent epoxidation and manipulation led to the amino alcohol 195b, possessing the exo-epoxide endo-alcohol stereochemistry shown. / This stereochemical assignment was based on detailed NMR analysis of the product, and also on AM1 semi-empirical molecular modelling and Ab initio molecular orbital calculations, which were used to evaluate the relative stabilities of the cyclisation products.

A time-domain backprojection processor for airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been developed at the University of Massachusetts’ Microwave Remote Sensing Lab (MIRSL). The aim of this work is to produce a SAR processor capable of addressing the motion compensation issues faced by frequency-domain processing algorithms, in order to create well focused SAR imagery suitable for interferometry. The time-domain backprojection algorithm inherently compensates for non-linear platform motion, dependent on the availability of accurate measurements of the motion. The implementation must manage the relatively high computational burden of the backprojection algorithm, which is done using modern graphics processing units (GPUs), programmed with NVIDIA’s CUDA language. An implementation of the Non-Equispaced Fast Fourier Transform (NERFFT) is used to enable efficient and accurate range interpolation as a critical step of the processing. The phase of time- domain processed imagery is dif erent than that of frequency-domain imagery, leading to a potentially different approach to interferometry. This general purpose SAR processor is designed to work with a novel, dual-frequency S- and Ka-band radar system developed at MIRSL as well as the UAVSAR instrument developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These instruments represent a wide range of SAR system parameters, ensuring the ability of the processor to work with most any airborne SAR. Results are presented from these two systems, showing good performance of the processor itself.

The aim of this thesis is to explore possibilities of rapid control prototyping, describe the concept of creating the software application in MATLAB/Simulink environment with use for development kit Texas instruments LaunchPad and create an application for DC and induction motor control in this environment. This work describes the application for unipolar/bipolar control H-Bridge of power converter for DC motor, measurement of output currents, speed and its displaying in real time using serial control interface. This thesis also desribes scalar and vector control of induction motor. All software applications with measurements are created in MATLAB/Simulink and attached to the thesis.