Practical synthesis of chiral ligands for catalytic enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones and ketoimines

A practical synthesis of chiral ligands that are useful for catalytic enantioselective cyanosilylation of ketones and ketoimines is described. Compared with the previous synthetic route, the number of total steps is decreased and the total yield is greatly improved. Furthermore, both (+)- and (-)-ligands are readily available by this new synthetic route.     

Confirmation of the structures of kuwanons G and H (albanins F and G) by partial synthesis

Conclusive evidence is presented supporting structures $\text{1}$ and $\text{2}$ for two natural Diels-Alder adducts isolated from mulberry and designated as kuwanon G (albanin F, moracenin B) and Kuwanon H (albanin G, Moracenin A).     

A method for ion-exchange separation of low levels of americium in environmental materials

A method is presented for separating low levels of americium from large environmental samples ( $ 200 l. of sea-water, $ 100 g of sediment, 500 g of biological material, etc.) by applying an anion-exchange process in methanolic acid medium.     

Synchronization of excitatory neurons with strongly heterogeneous phase responses

In many real-world oscillator systems, the phase response curves are highly heterogeneous. However, the dynamics of heterogeneous oscillator networks has not been seriously addressed. We propose a theoretical framework to analyze such a system by dealing explicitly with the heterogeneous phase response curves. We develop a method to solve the self-consistent equations for order parameters by using formal complex-valued phase variables, and apply our theory to networks of in vitro cortical neurons. We find a novel state transition that is not observed in previous oscillator network models.     

Neural mechanism for a cognitive timer

To examine a possible biological mechanism for a cognitive timer, the stochastic dynamics of a network of neurons possessing two stable states ("on" and "off" states) is studied. The fraction of on neurons existing at t = 0 remains large for an extended interval, and then abruptly falls. The distribution of the lengths of the interval is scale invariant in the following sense: The ratio (k root of (mu(k))/m, with m and mu(k) being the mean and the kth central moment, respectively, is invariant under scale transformations of m and mu(k). In the special case k = 2, this gives Weber's law, a hallmark of cognitive timing.     

An improved radiochemical procedure for low-level measurements of americium in environmental matrices

The chemical yield and accuracy of measurements of (241)Am at low levels in marine environmental matrices have been substantially improved by applying the extraction procedure with DDCP (dibutyl-N,N-diethylcarbamylphosphonate). The improved procedure is described, and its advantages over the conventional procedure are discussed.     

Catalytic enantioselective synthesis of key intermediates for triazole antifungal agents

[reaction: see text] A short-step synthesis of versatile chiral building blocks for triazole antifungal agents such as ZD0870 and Sch45450 was developed via catalytic enantioselective cyanosilylation of electron-deficient ketones as the key step. High enantioselectivity was produced using a catalyst prepared from Gd(HMDS)(3) and ligand 5 in a 2:3 ratio. This new catalyst preparation method was superior to the previous method using Gd(O(i)Pr)(3) as a metal source. A rationale for the difference is proposed on the basis of structural studies of the catalyst complexes using ESI-MS.