Complex and unpredictable Cardano

This purely recreational paper is about one of the most colorful characters of the Italian Renaissance, Girolamo Cardano, and the discovery of two basic ingredients of quantum theory, probability and complex numbers.     

Kinetik der Verseifung des Benzolsulfosäuremethylesters

Ohne ZusammenfassungIch fühle mich verpflichtet, am Schlusse dieser Arbeit Herrn Prof. Wegscheider für die mir zu teil gewordene Unterstützung wärmstens zu danken.     

Insight into the mechanism of three component condensation leading to aminomethylenebisphosphonates

Three-component reaction of a primary amine, diethyl phosphite and triethyl orthoformate followed by acid hydrolysis of the adduct provides N-substituted aminomethylenebisphosphonic acids in good yields. Being extremely versatile, it is commonly utilized for preparation of compounds possessing potential antiosteoporotic, antibacterial, anticancer, antiparasitic or herbicidal activity. However, the mechanism of the reaction remains unknown. p-Nitroaniline has been found an interesting tool to shed light on this matter. Its use allowed to separate and identify four intermediates, both non-phosphorus and phosphorus containing, and subsequently suggest the mechanism of the whole process. The acquired knowledge was helpful in explanation the route and the final product structure obtained for more complex reaction proceeding with the use of 4-aminopyridine. Additional alkylation of the pyridine nitrogen atom, leading to unexpected N-(1-alkylpyridinium-4-amino)methylenebisphosphonic acids was unambiguously proved.     

Fission fragment mass yields of Th to Rf even-even nuclei

Fission properties of the actinide nuclei are deduced from theoretical analysis. We investigate potential energy surfaces and fission barriers and predict the fission fragment mass yields of actinide isotopes. The results are compared with experimental data where available. The calculations were performed in the macroscopic-microscopic approximation with the Lublin-Strasbourg Drop (LSD) for the macroscopic part, and the microscopic energy corrections were evaluated in the Yukawa-folded potential. The Fourier nuclear shape parametrization is used to describe the nuclear shape, including the non-axial degree of freedom. The fission fragment mass yields of the nuclei considered are evaluated within a 3D collective model using the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.     

Quantifying entanglement of two-qubit Werner states

In this article, we introduce a framework for entanglement quantification of photon pairs represented by two-qubit Werner states. The measurement scheme is based on the symmetric informationally complete POVM. To make the framework realistic, we impose the Poisson noise on the measured two-photon coincidences. For various settings, numerical simulations were performed to evaluate the efficiency of the framework.     

A ruthenium(II)-trithiacyclononane curcuminate complex: Synthesis,characterization, DNA-interaction,and cytotoxic activity

The coordination of ruthenium(II) complexes to anionic oxygen-based donors are very rare. This study describes a simple, one-pot method for obtaining [ruthenium(II)(trithiacyclononane)(curcumin)(S-DMSO)]Cl (1) in 37% yield. The structural characterization of complex 1 by elemental analysis, FT-IR, 1-D and 2-D NMR, ESI⁺-MS as well as UV–vis and fluorescence spectroscopies are presented. The DNA-melting temperature (T_m) assay shows that salmon sperm DNA (smDNA) in the presence of complex 1 has a higher melting temperature, with ΔT_m = 7.4 °C, while in the presence of curcumin the melting temperature remains unaltered. The in vitro cytotoxic activities of curcumin and complex 1 were investigated using the tumor human prostate cell line, PC-3, and the healthy cell line, PNT-2. Complex 1 is innocuous toward normal prostate epithelial cells and, whereas curcumin is toxic, with inhibition rates of ca. 35 and 65% at 50 and 80 μM, respectively. On the tumor cell line PC-3, complex 1 did not cause viability changes, whereas curcumin exhibited dose-dependent inhibition, with ca. 73% inhibition at the highest concentration tested, i.e. 80 μM. This study suggests that coordination with the trithiacyclononane ruthenium(II) scaffold stabilizes the photochemical properties of curcumin and strongly changes its biologic activity.     

Sequential reactions from catalytic hydroformylation toward the synthesis of amino compounds

Different families of new amino compounds were efficiently synthesized, through optimized sequential processes, involving rhodium catalyzed hydroformylation as the key step. The selection of appropriate hydroformylation catalytic systems and reaction conditions allowed obtaining aldehydes derived from several n-alkyl olefins, cholest-4-ene and 3-vinyl-1H-indole, which were subsequently transformed, in one-pot, in to α-amino acids via hydroformylation/Strecker reaction, and in to tertiary amines via hydroaminomethylation, with excellent yields.