Ecological theory suggests that large-scale patterns such as community stability can be influenced by changes in interspecific interactions that arise from the behavioural and/or physiological responses of individual species varying over time. Although this theory has experimental support, evidence from natural ecosystems is lacking owing to the challenges of tracking rapid changes in interspecific interactions (known to occur on timescales much shorter than a generation time) and then identifying the effect of such changes on large-scale community dynamics. Here, using tools for analysing nonlinear time series and a 12-year-long dataset of fortnightly collected observations on a natural marine fish community in Maizuru Bay, Japan, we show that short-term changes in interaction networks influence overall community dynamics. Among the 15 dominant species, we identify 14 interspecific interactions to construct a dynamic interaction network. We show that the strengths, and even types, of interactions change with time; we also develop a time-varying stability measure based on local Lyapunov stability for attractor dynamics in non-equilibrium nonlinear systems. We use this dynamic stability measure to examine the link between the time-varying interaction network and community stability. We find seasonal patterns in dynamic stability for this fish community that broadly support expectations of current ecological theory. Specifically, the dominance of weak interactions and higher species diversity during summer months are associated with higher dynamic stability and smaller population fluctuations. We suggest that interspecific interactions, community network structure and community stability are dynamic properties, and that linking fluctuating interaction networks to community-level dynamic properties is key to understanding the maintenance of ecological communities in nature.

The synthesis and study of the structure-activity relationships of two new classes of synthetic antitubulin compounds based on 1-aroylindole and 3-aroylindole skeletons are described. Lead compounds 3, 10, and 14 displayed potent cytotoxicities with IC50 = 0.9-26 nM against human NUGC3 stomach, MKN45 stomach, MESSA uterine, A549 lung, and MCF-7 breast carcinoma cell lines. The inhibition of proliferation correlated with in vitro polymerization inhibitory activities. Structure-activity relationships revealed that 6-methoxy substitution of 3-aroylindoles and 5-methoxy substitution of 1-aroylindoles contribute to a significant extent for maximal activity by mimicking the para substitution of the methoxy group to the carbonyl group in the case of aminobenzophenones. Addition of a methyl group at the C-2 position on the indole ring exerts an increased potency. The 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoyl moiety was necessary for better activity but not essential and can be replaced by 3,5-dimethoxybenzoyl and 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl moieties. We conclude that 1- and 3-aroylindoles constitute an interesting new class of antitubulin agents with the potential to be clinically developed for cancer treatment.

We study the effect of nonsolvent on the formation of polymer nanomaterials in the nanopores of porous templates. Water (nonsolvent) is added into a poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) solution in dimethylformamide (DMF) confined in the nanopores of an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. Water forms a wetting layer on the pore wall and causes the PMMA solution to be isolated in the center of the nanopore, resulting in the formation of PMMA nanospheres or nanorods after the solvent is evaporated. The formation of the polymer nanomaterials induced by nonsolvent is found to be driven by the Rayleigh-instability-type transformation. Without adding the nonsolvent, PMMA chains precipitate on the walls of the nanopores after the solvent is evaporated, and PMMA nanotubes are obtained.

A new type of inhibitor of tubulin polymerization was discovered on the basis of the combretastatin molecular skeleton. The lead compounds in this series, compounds 6 and 7, strongly inhibited tubulin polymerization in vitro and significantly arrested cells at the G(2)/M phase. Compounds 6 and 7 yielded 50- to 100-fold lower IC(50) values than did combretastatin A-4 against Colo 205, NUGC3, and HA22T human cancer cell lines as well as similar or greater growth inhibitory activities than did combretastain A-4 against DLD-1, HR, MCF-7, DU145, HONE-1, and MES-SA/DX5 human cancer cell lines. Structure-activity relationship information revealed that introduction of an amino group at the ortho position of the benzophenone ring plays an integral role for increased growth inhibition.