A computationally efficient state-space partitioning approach to pricing high-dimensional American options via dimension reduction

This paper studies the problem of pricing high-dimensional American options. We propose a method based on the state-space partitioning algorithm developed by Jin et al. (2007) and a dimension-reduction approach introduced by Li and Wu (2006). By applying the approach in the present paper, the computational efficiency of pricing high-dimensional American options is significantly improved, compared to the extant approaches in the literature, without sacrificing the estimation precision. Various numerical examples are provided to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. Pseudcode for an implementation of the proposed approach is also included.     

Sensing Plant Physiology and Environmental Stress by Automatically Tracking Fj and Fi Features in PSII Chlorophyll Fluorescence Induction

Following a step excitation, chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) from photosystem II (PSII) of a dark‐adapted photosynthetic organism exhibits the well‐known OJIP pattern. The OJIP induction has been widely used in plant science and agriculture engineering. While the J and I phases are related to transitions of photochemical reaction redox states, characteristic fluorescence intensities at the two phases (F_j and F_i) are often treated at fixed time points in routine measurement and thus do not account for variations in plant and experimental conditions, this (1) neglects the differences in the time of appearance of these phases, which is potentially useful information for characterizing plant status and environmental factors, and (2) leads to errors in measured F_j and F_i values in the many publications. In this work, an alternative method for consistent measurement of F_j and F_i was presented. The proposed method measures the curvatures in the OJIP curve and automatically tracks the characteristic transition points under variable sample and experimental conditions. Experiments were carried out to demonstrate the concept and classification capabilities of the method. This research has established a new framework to analyze ChlF and has enhanced the application capability of ChlF. It is expect useful in analysis ChlF from PSII.     

Structural and Functional Consequences of the Weak Binding of Chlorin e6 to Bovine Rhodopsin

The chlorophyll‐derivative chlorin e6 (Ce6) identified in the retinas of deep‐sea ocean fish is proposed to play a functional role in red bioluminescence detection. Fluorescence and ¹H NMR spectroscopy studies with the bovine dim‐light photoreceptor, rhodopsin, indicate that Ce6 weakly binds to it with μm affinity. Absorbance spectra prove that red light sensitivity enhancement is not brought about by a shift in the absorbance maximum of rhodopsin. ¹⁹F NMR experiments with samples where ¹⁹F labels are either placed at the cytoplasmic binding site or incorporated as fluorinated retinal indicate that the cytoplasmic domain is highly perturbed by binding, while little to no changes are detected near the retinal. Binding of Ce6 also inhibits G‐protein activation. Chemical shift changes in ¹H‐¹⁵N NMR spectroscopy of ¹⁵N‐Trp labeled bovine rhodopsin reveal that Ce6 binding perturbs the entire structure. These results provide experimental evidence that Ce6 is an allosteric modulator of rhodopsin.     

Additive‐dependent iptycene incorporation in polyanilines: Insights into the pentiptycene clipping effect and the polymerization mechanism

Despite the long history of polyaniline chemistry, backbone‐substituted polyanilines are limited. Here, we report the synthesis of pentiptycene‐incorporated polyanilines through acidic aniline oxidative polymerization with three pentiptycene derivatives, TA, DA, and TP, as nucleate additives. The reactivity of TA > DA ? TP, as evidenced by structural and property analysis of the corresponding polyaniline products, demonstrates a radical coupling mechanism and the formation of Dewar π‐complex intermediates for the chain propagation. In addition, the iptycene substituent effect on enhancing the electrochemical stability and charge storage capability of polyaniline are discussed with a clip model, namely, the threading of neighboring polyaniline chains through the U‐ and V‐shaped cavities of pentiptycene restricts lateral motions of the polymer chains and promotes interchain conductivity. Density function theory (DFT) calculations suggest a larger clipping effect for the U versus V cavities. Both the conclusion of a terminal planar p‐phenylenediamine (ppda) group being the key component of an effective nucleate and the concept of interchain clipping for enhanced electrochemical performance should facilitate the design and synthesis of novel polyanilines for electronic applications.     

Total synthesis of diaportheone A

Diaportheone A (1), a chromone natural product was previously isolated from the endophytic fungi Diaporthe sp. P 133. Its structure was established by spectroscopic methods, however, its absolute configuration remained undefined. This study dealt on the total synthesis of diaportheone A (1) utilizing the cyclization and in situ thermal syn-elimination of a β-ketosulfoxide. The C-1R absolute configuration of the natural product was established by X-ray crystallography of the synthetic diaportheone A (1) (>99%?ee) and comparison with the optical rotation.     

Light‐Driven Reversible Intermolecular Proton Transfer at Single‐Molecule Junctions

Photoresponsive molecular systems are essential for molecular optoelectronic devices, but most molecular building blocks are non‐photoresponsive. Employed here is a photoinduced proton transfer (PIPT) strategy to control charge transport through single‐molecule azulene junctions with visible light under ambient conditions, which leads to a reversible and controllable photoresponsive molecular device based on non‐photoresponsive molecules and a photoacid. Also demonstrated is the application of PIPT in two single‐molecule AND gate and OR gate devices with electrical signal as outputs.     

Highly Enantioselective Synthesis of Fused Tri‐ and Tetrasubstituted Aziridines: aza‐Darzens Reaction of Cyclic Imines with α‐Halogenated Ketones Catalyzed by Bifunctional Phosphonium Salt

The first enantioselective aza‐Darzens reaction of cyclic imines with α‐halogenated ketones was realized under mild reaction conditions by using amino‐acid‐derived bifunctional phosphonium salts as phase‐transfer promoters. A variety of structurally dense tri‐ and tetrasubstituted aziridine derivatives, containing benzofused heterocycles as well as spiro‐structures, were readily synthesized in high yields with excellent diastereo‐ and enantioselectivities (up to >20:1 d.r. and >99.9 % ee). The highly functionalized aziridine products could be easily transformed into different classes of biologically active compounds.     

Isolated Diatomic Ni‐Fe Metal–Nitrogen Sites for Synergistic Electroreduction of CO2

Polynary single‐atom structures can combine the advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts while providing synergistic functions based on different molecules and their interfaces. However, the fabrication and identification of such an active‐site prototype remain elusive. Here we report isolated diatomic Ni‐Fe sites anchored on nitrogenated carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for CO₂ reduction. The catalyst exhibits high selectivity with CO Faradaic efficiency above 90 % over a wide potential range from ?0.5 to ?0.9 V (98 % at ?0.7 V), and robust durability, retaining 99 % of its initial selectivity after 30 hours of electrolysis. Density functional theory studies reveal that the neighboring Ni‐Fe centers not only function in synergy to decrease the reaction barrier for the formation of COOH* and desorption of CO, but also undergo distinct structural evolution into a CO‐adsorbed moiety upon CO₂ uptake.     

A Main‐Group Element Radical Based One‐Dimensional Magnetic Chain

The first main‐group element radical based one‐dimensional magnetic chain ( 1K )_n was realized by one‐electron reduction of the pyridinyl functionalized borane 1 with elemental potassium in THF in the absence of 18‐crown‐6 (18‐c‐6). The electron spin density of ( 1K )_n mainly resides at the boron centers with a considerable contribution from central benzene and pyridine moieties. The spin centers exhibit an antiferromagnetic interaction as demonstrated by magnetic measurements and theoretical calculations. In contrast, the reduction in the presence of 18‐c‐6 afforded the separated radical anion salt 1K(Crown) , in which the potassium cation was trapped by THF and 18‐c‐6 molecules. Further one‐electron reduction of 1K(Crown) and ( 1K )_n led to the diamagnetic monomer and polymer, respectively.