Reactions of cyclo-octatetraene and its derivatives—VIII: 1,2,3,8- And 1,2,3,4-tetrachlorocyclo-octatetraene

Earlier attempts to synthesize 1,2,3,8-tetrachlorocyclo-octatetraene 4 are described. A ca. 2:1 mixture of 1,2,3,8- and 1,2,3,4-tetrachlorocyclo-octatetraene was finally obtained by hydrolysis (using 96% trifluoroacetic acid) of the ketal 15 followed by thermal decarbonylation of the product. Reaction of the mixture of cyclo-octatetraenes with bromine gave the (separable) dibromo-derivatives 17 and 18. On attempted debromination with zinc, the dibromodiene 17 formed the benzocyclobutadiene dimer 12, together with the benzobiphenylene 13; these compounds were also produced directly from the cyclo-octatetraene mixture by the action of zinc. In contrast, similar treatment of the dibromodiene 18 led to the E-bromostyrene 22. The mixture of cyclo-octatetraenes reacted with maleic anhydride to give the adduct 27, whereas with acenaphthylene the adduct 28 was obtained.     

Vectorial Approach to Fast Correlation Attacks

A new, vectorial approach to fast correlation attacks on binary memoryless combiners is proposed. Instead of individual input sequences or their linear combinations, the new attack is targeting subsets of input sequences as a whole thus exploiting the full correlation between the chosen subset and the output sequence. In particular, the set of all the input sequences can be chosen as the target. The attack is based on a novel iterative probabilistic algorithm which is also applicable to general memoryless combiners over finite fields or finite rings. To illustrate the effectiveness of the introduced approach, experimental results obtained for random balanced combining functions are presentedMost of this work was done while he was with Rome CryptoDesign Center, Gemplus, Italy     

On the Motion of a Dynamic System with Minimal Dissipation

The motion of a holonomic scleronomic non-conservative mechanicalsystem with minimal dissipation is considered. As applicationsof the theory several problems are studied in detail.     

Experimental analysis of a continuously pumped,repetitively Q-switched Nd/YAG laser

The threshold operation and performance of a high pulse repetition frequency Nd/YAG laser are discussed. A rotating mirror Q-switch was used, and detailed studies of the variation of Q-switched threshold with motor frequency, and of the pulse build-up time with input power have been carried out. The results indicate that the switching angle varies with mirror reflectivity but is practically independent of resonator length. The latter is attributed to thermal lens action in the laser rod modifying the nominally plane parallel resonator configuration thereby leading to a spherical configuration. Under these conditions, the switching angle becomes independent of resonator length, but depends strongly on the induced focal length of the lens (laser rod). The degrading effect on the Q-switched laser performance of the mis-match at the laser rod surfaces is then discussed and finally the conditions for achieving maximum energy output in a single pulse are derived and experimentally verified.     

Selected Reactions of Diethyl (E)‐1‐(bromomethyl)‐2‐cyanovinylphosphonate with Secondary and Tertiary Amines

An easy regio‐ and stereoselective synthesis of new nitrogenous molecules 2a–e was successfully realized via an effective coupling reaction of diethyl (E)‐1‐(bromomethyl)‐2‐cyanovinylphosphonate 1 with various secondary amines in methanol. Hence, the use of less and more bulky secondary amines gives rise, respectively, to the successive (S_N2′) substitution–isomerization and (S_N2) substitution derivatives 2a–c and 2d–e . Moreover, the addition of tertiary amines to 1 in the same reaction conditions, leads exclusively to the rearranged vinyl ether 3 in good yields.     

Fusion around the barrier for 7Li+12C

Fusion cross-sections for the ⁷Li + ¹²C reaction have been measured at energies above the Coulomb barrier by the direct detection of evaporation residues. The heavy evaporation residues with energies below 3 MeV could not be separated out from the α-particles in the spectrum and hence their contribution was estimated using statistical model calculations. The present work indicates that suppression of fusion cross-sections due to the breakup of ⁷Li may not be significant for ⁷Li + ¹²C reaction at energies around the barrier.     

The measurement of the conductivity of hydrogen uranyl phosphate tetrahydrate and the determination of the thermodynamics of the hydrogen-tungsten oxide system

The ac impedance method has been used to investigate the conductivity of pressed HUP pellets. The activation energy for the ionic conduction process at high frequencies (30 kJ mol^?1) was attributed to a simple proton hopping step. At lower frequencies (32 Hz) a Warburg diffusional impedance was observed with a much higher activation energy. This was attributed to the higher energy process of vacancy rotations needed for ion transfer over significant distances. Using a concentration cell, with HUP as the electrolyte, the thermodynamics of the hydrogen-tungsten oxide system was investigated.     

A simple route to the 7H-cyclopenta[a]pentalene system: preparation of the 1,2,3,4,5,6-hexachloro-derivative.

Reaction of octachlorofulvene (3) with diazomethane leads to the formation of the tricyclic tetraene (4), which on dechlorination with tin(II) chloride gives 1,2,3,4,5,6-hexachloro-7$\text{H}$-cyclopenta[a]pentalene¹ (2).     

Correlation Analysis of the Alternating Step Generator

The alternating step generator is a well-known keystream generator consisting of two stop/go clocked LFSRs, LFSR₁ and LFSR₂, whose clocks are controlled by another LFSR, LFSR₃, which is clocked regularly. A probabilistic analysis of this generator is conducted which shows that the posterior probabilites of individual bits of the first derivatives of the regularly clocked LFSR₁ and LFSR₂ sequences, when conditioned on a given segment of the first derivative of the keystream sequence, can be computed efficiently in a number of probabilistic models of interest. The expected values of these probabilities, for a random keystream sequence, are derived by an approximate theoretical analysis and are also verified by systematic computer experiments. It is pointed out that these posterior probabilities can be enhanced in a resynchronization scenario and thus used for a low-complexity fast correlation attack on the two LFSRs. More generally, it is argued that even without resynchronization these probabilities may be significantly different from one half for fast correlation attacks based on iterative decoding algorithms to be successful, although with incresead complexity. A related method for computing the posterior probabilities of individual bits of the LFSR₃ sequence, when conditioned on both the keystream sequence and the LFSR₁ and LFSR₂ sequences, is also developed. As these posterior probabilities are much more different from one half, they can be used for a low-complexity fast correlation attack on LFSR₃, provided that the initial states of LFSR₁ and LFSR₂ are previously reconstructed.