Mössbauer studies of Jarosite, Mikasaite and Yavapaiite, and implication to their Martian counterparts

In order to confirm Mössbauer spectra of Jarosite, unidentified Fe³⁺ species (Fe3D3) and Fe₂O₃ found on Martian surface, some Jarosite specimens produced on Earth were characterized by ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. For comparison, anhydrous ferric sulfate minerals, Mikasaite (Fe³⁺ _1.56Al_0.44)(SO₄)₃, and Yavapaiite, KFe (SO₄)₂ were also measured. The thermal decomposition products of Jarosite and their hydration products were also traced by scattering Mössbauer spectra (CEMS and XMS). These data are useful for the identification of hydrous and anhydrous ferric sulfate phases on Mars, including Fe3D3.     

Asymmetric conjugate addition reaction using pyrazole derivatives as a chiral catalyst

The conjugate addition of Grignard reagent ( 2 ) onto 1‐α,β‐unsaturated)acyl 3,5‐dimethylpyrazole ( 1 ) was enantioselectively catalyzed by the copper complex from cuprous compounds and 3‐phenyl‐l‐mentho‐pyrazole ( 3 ).     

A mild procedure for the oxidative cleavage of substituted indoles catalyzed by plant cell cultures

We have developed a novel procedure for the oxidative cleavage of indole carbon double bonds in the presence of H₂O₂ using plant cell cultures as a catalytic system. The oxidative procedure has some advantages, such as mild reactions, good yields, easy work-up and safety.     

Synthetic studies of halichondrin B, an antitumor polyether macrolide isolated from a marine sponge. 8. Synthesis of the lactone part (C1---C36) via horner-emmons coupling between C1---C15 and C16---C36 fragments and Yamaguchi lactonization

The lactone part (2) of halichondrin B (1) was synthesized by Yamaguchi macrolactonization of the seco-acid (3), which was synthesized via coupling of C1---C15(4) with C16---C36 (5), prepared through stereoselective construction of the E ring starting from C16---C26 (7) and C27---C36 (8).     

Synthesis of polypeptides from activated urethane derivatives of α‐amino acids

A series of activated urethane‐type derivatives of α‐amino acids were synthesized and applied to polypeptide synthesis. The urethane used herein, N‐(4‐nitrophenoxycarbonyl)‐α‐amino acids 1 , were synthesized by N‐carbamoylation of γ‐benzyl‐L ‐glutamate, β‐benzyl‐L ‐aspartate, L ‐leucine, L ‐phenylalanine, and L ‐proline, with 4‐nitrophenyl chloroformate. When 1 was dissolved in N,N‐dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and heated at 60 °C, it was smoothly converted into the corresponding polypeptides with releasing 4‐nitrophenol and carbon dioxide. Spectroscopic analyses of the obtained polypeptides revealed that they were comparable with the authentic polypeptides synthesized by the ring‐opening polymerizations of amino acid N‐carboxyanhydrides (NCAs). Besides the successful polycondensations of a series of 1 , their polycondensations of 1a and other 1 were also successfully carried out to obtain the corresponding statistic copolypeptides. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 2525–2535, 2008     

Convenient synthesis of poly(γ‐benzyl‐L‐glutamate) from activated urethane derivatives of γ‐benzyl‐L‐glutamate

A series of activated urethane‐type derivatives of γ‐benzyl‐L ‐glutamate were synthesized, and their potential as monomers for polypeptide synthesis was investigated. The derivatives of the focus of this work were a series of N‐aryloxycarbonyl‐γ‐benzyl‐L ‐glutamate 1 , of which aryl groups were phenyl, 4‐chlorophenyl, and 4‐nitrophenyl. These urethanes 1 were reactive in polar solvents such as dimethylsulfoxide, N,N‐dimethylformamide (DMF), and N,N‐dimethylacetamide (DMAc), and were efficiently converted into poly(γ‐benzyl‐L ‐glutamate) (poly(BLG)) under mild conditions; at 60 °C without addition of any catalyst. Among the three urethanes, that having 4‐nitrophenoxycarbonyl group 1c was the most reactive to give poly(BLG) efficiently, as was expected from the highly electron deficient nature of the nitrophenoxycarbonyl group. On the other hand, the urethane 1a having phenoxycarbonyl group was also efficiently converted into poly(BLG), in spite of the intrinsically less electrophilicity of the phenoxycarbonyl group. In addition, the successful formation of poly(BLG) by the reaction of 1a favored its diluted concentration (0.1 M) much more than 2.0 M, the optimum initial concentration for 1c . ¹H NMR spectroscopic analyses of the reactions in situ revealed that the predominant pathway from 1 to poly(BLG) involved the intramolecular cyclization of 1 into the corresponding N‐carboxyanhydride, with release of phenol and its successive ring‐opening polymerization with release of carbon dioxide. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 2649–2657, 2008     

Crystallographic report: Dichloro[bis(1‐methylimidazole‐2)disulfide]zinc(II)

The Zn center in [ZnCl₂(L‐S‐S‐L)], where L‐S‐S‐L = bis(1‐methylimidazole‐2)disulfide, adopts a tetrahedral configuration defined by two Cl atoms and two N atoms from L‐S‐S‐L, which was obtained by in situ oxidation of 1‐methylimidazole‐2‐thione. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Atmospheric concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, formic and acetic acids in the south of Vietnam measured by the passive sampling method.

A passive sampling method was applied to measure the concentrations of air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, hydrogen chloride, and nitric, formic and acetic acids, in the ambient air at four test sites in the southern region of Vietnam. The monthly averages and the average concentrations of air pollutants during the period from July 2001 to September 2002 are reported here. The concentrations of air pollutants varied widely, depending on the test sites and the sampling periods. The average concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the air during the period from July 2001 to September 2002 at the four test sites were 3.3-16.9 ppb, and those of nitrogen dioxide were 5.4-12.8 ppb. The concentrations of nitrogen monoxide and hydrogen chloride were very low at all of the test sites. The observed concentrations of all of the above-mentioned pollutants were lower than those of the Vietnamese standards of air pollutants.     

Heavy cycles passing through some specified vertices in weighted graphs

A weighted graph is one in which every edge e is assigned a nonnegative number, called the weight of e. The sum of the weights of the edges incident with a vertex υ is called the weighted degree of υ. The weight of a cycle is defined as the sum of the weights of its edges. In this paper, we prove that: (1) if G is a 2‐connected weighted graph such that the minimum weighted degree of G is at least d, then for every given vertices x and y, either G contains a cycle of weight at least 2d passing through both of x and y or every heaviest cycle in G is a hamiltonian cycle, and (2) if G is a 2‐connected weighted graph such that the weighted degree sum of every pair of nonadjacent vertices is at least s, then for every vertex y, G contains either a cycle of weight at least s passing through y or a hamiltonian cycle. AMS classification: 05C45 05C38 05C35. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory