Enantioselective Synthesis of Isoxazolines Enabled by Palladium‐Catalyzed Carboetherification of Alkenyl Oximes

Reported here is a highly efficient Pd/Xiang‐Phos catalyzed enantioselective carboetherification of alkenyl oximes with either aryl or alkenyl halides, delivering various chiral 3,5‐disubstituted and 3,5,5‐trisubstituted isoxazolines in good yields with up to 97 % ee. The sterically bulky and electron‐rich (S,Rs)‐ NMe‐X2 ligand is responsible for the excellent reactivities and enantioselectivities. The salient features of this transformation include mild reaction conditions, general substrate scope, good functional‐group tolerance, good yields, high enantioselectivities, easy scale‐up, and application in the late‐stage modification of bioactive compounds. The obtained products can be readily transformed into useful chiral 1,3‐aminoalcohols.     

Semi-hyperbolic Patches of Solutions to the Two-dimensional Euler Equations

We construct semi-hyperbolic patches of solutions, in which one family out of two nonlinear families of characteristics starts on sonic curves and ends on transonic shock waves, to the two-dimensional Euler equations. This type of solution appears in the transonic flow over an airfoil and Guderley reflection, and is common in the numerical solutions of Riemann problems.     

Characterization and analysis of mycobacteria and Gram-negative bacteria and co-culture mixtures by Raman microspectroscopy, FTIR, and atomic force microscopy

The molecular composition of mycobacteria and Gram-negative bacteria cell walls is structurally different. In this work, Raman microspectroscopy was applied to discriminate mycobacteria and Gram-negative bacteria by assessing specific characteristic spectral features. Analysis of Raman spectra indicated that mycobacteria and Gram-negative bacteria exhibit different spectral patterns under our experimental conditions due to their different biochemical components. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, as a supplementary vibrational spectroscopy, was also applied to analyze the biochemical composition of the representative bacterial strains. As for co-cultured bacterial mixtures, the distribution of individual cell types was obtained by quantitative analysis of Raman and FTIR spectral images and the spectral contribution from each cell type was distinguished by direct classical least squares analysis. Coupled atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman microspectroscopy realized simultaneous measurements of topography and spectral images for the same sampled surface. This work demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing a combined Raman microspectroscopy, FTIR, and AFM techniques to effectively characterize spectroscopic fingerprints from bacterial Gram types and mixtures.

A modified stiffness spreading method for layout optimization of truss structures

The stiffness spreading method (SSM) was initially proposed for layout optimization of truss structures, in which an artificial elastic material of low modulus is uniformly distributed in the design domain to create connections between discrete members. In this paper, a modified stiffness spreading method is proposed by replacing the artificial elastic material with auxiliary bars to connect real members of the truss structure. Since the background continuum mesh for the elastic material is no longer required, the computational cost is significantly reduced. Like SSM, the new method is advantageous in that an initial design may consist of disconnected bars allocated in the design domain, and mathematical programming methods can be applied for the efficient solution of the formulated optimization problem. A number of solution strategies are also developed to achieve more practical designs with lower computational cost. Numerical examples of both 2-D and 3-D truss structures are presented to demonstrate the feasibility, robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Simultaneous Ring Contraction and Expansion Reaction: Electrosynthesis of Heterocycle-Fused Fulleroids and Photovoltaic Application

Simultaneous electrochemical ring contraction and expansion reactions remain unexplored to date. Herein, the reductive electrosynthesis of heterocycle-fused fulleroids from fullerotetrahydropyridazines and electrophiles in the presence of a trace amount of oxygen has been achieved with concurrent ring contraction and ring expansion. When trifluoroacetic acid and alkyl bromides are employed as electrophiles, heterocycle-fused fulleroids with a 1,1,2,6-configuration are regioselectively formed. In contrast, heterocycle-fused fulleroids with a 1,1,4,6-configuration are regioselectively produced as two separable stereoisomers if phthaloyl chloride is used as the electrophile. The reaction proceeds through multiple steps of electroreduction, heterocycle ring-opening, oxygen oxidation, heterocycle contraction, fullerene cage expansion, and nucleophilic addition. The structures of these fulleroids have been determined by spectroscopic data and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. The observed high regioselectivities have been rationalized by theoretical calculations. Representative fulleroids have been applied in organic solar cells as the third component and exhibit good performance.