A novel synthetic route to 2-alkylpropane-1,3-sultones and its application to the synthesis of 2-alkyl derivatives of tramiprosate

A practical synthetic route to various 2-alkylpropane-1,3-sultones, the key intermediates for the preparation of 2-substituted homotaurines as analogs of tramiprosate, was developed.     

Magnetic Field Effects on the Behavior of Radicals in Protein and DNA Environments

We have examined the behavior of radical pairs derived by hydrogen abstraction of triplet benzophenone and some of its derivatives from bovine serum albumin, human serum albumin and calf thymus DNA. They have been investigated by means of nanosecond laser flash photolysis techniques. The dynamics of radical pair behavior are shown to be sensitive to external magnetic fields; these effects are interpreted using the established model for the influence of magnetic fields on radical pairs in micellar aggregates, in which intersystem crossing of the radical pair is slowed by the external magnetic field. Our results indicate that proteins and DNA can confine the radicals for a sufficiently long period of time for spin evolution to be affected by external fields. In proteins the radical pair retains its geminate character ( i.e . remains confined) for about 0.5–1 μs. Interestingly, the magnetic field effects observed in proteins and in DNA seem to occur in distinct timescales; for example, for 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzophenone bound to DNA, the magnetic field alters the radical reactivity only over times ≤50 ns, suggesting poor confinement. The timescale for these effects can be increased by promoting Coulombic attraction between DNA and the radical precursor. Electron transfer interactions play a role in the case of DNA.     

Immobilization of a nickel complex onto functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles: a green and recyclable catalyst for synthesis of 5-substituted 1H-tetrazoles and oxidation reactions

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In the present research, a magnetically recoverable catalyst was easily prepared by anchoring nickel onto the surface of organically modified magnetite...     

NH2SO3H and H6P2W18O62 · 18H2O-Catalyzed,Three-Component,One-Pot Synthesis of Benzo[c]acridine Derivatives

We report here two simple methods for the synthesis of benzo[c]acridine derivatives from three-component, one-pot condensation of 1-naphthylamine, dimedone, and a variety of substituted aldehydes in the presence of a catalytic amount of NH₂SO₃H or H₆P₂W₁₈O₆₂ · 18H₂O under solvent-free conditions at 120 °C or in refluxing ethanol.     

One-pot synthesis of 5-(furo[3,4-b]chromenyl)-5-hydroxybarbiturates via a three-component cascade reaction

A three-component domino reaction between a 3-formylchromone, an isocyanide, and 1,3-dimethylalloxan which affords novel 5-(furo[3,4-b]chromenyl)-5-hydroxybarbiturate derivatives is reported. The reaction sequence consists of an initial [4+1] cycloaddition followed by an activated electrophilic heteroaromatic substitution on the furan ring to afford the products. This novel cascade reaction sequence represents an atom-economic route to biologically interesting molecules.     

Hammett and Brown correlations in the structure and electronic properties of H2Si=SiHAr (Ar = p-C6H4X; X = NH2, OH,Me, H,F, Cl,CHO, COOH,CN, NO2) molecules

Substituent effect on the structure and electronic properties of H₂Si=SiHAr (Ar = p-C₆H₄X; X = NH₂, OH, Me, H, F, Cl, CHO, COOH, CN, NO₂) molecules are studied at the CAM-B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level of theory. Energy decomposition analysis (EDA) is used as a useful tool for illustrating the interaction between H₂Si and SiHAr fragments in HArSi=SiH₂ molecules. Energetic analysis reveals that the singlet state of the fragments is more stable than triplet state. Also, interactions are stronger in the presence of electron-withdrawing groups (EWGs) in comparison to electron donating groups (EDGs). EDG and EDG effects are investigated on the stability of fragments, frontier orbital energy, distortion, HOMO–LUMO gap, electron-donating (ω⁻) and electron-accepting (ω⁺) powers of the studied molecules. Then, the correlations between these calculated parameters with the Hammett and Brown constants (σ_p and σ_p⁺, respectively) are provided. Also, time-dependent density functional theory method (TD-DFT) is employed for the determination of the strongest absorption band values (λ_max,el) of these molecules. This absorption band is attributed to the HOMO →LUMO transition.     

Generalized framework for robust design of tuned mass damper systems

The primary purpose of this contribution is to develop a novel framework for generalized robust design of tuned mass damper (TMD) systems as passive vibration controllers for uncertain structures. This versatile strategy is intended to be free of any restriction on the structure-TMD system configuration, the performance criterion, and the number of uncertain parameters. The main idea pursued is to adopt methods and concepts from the robust control literature, including: (1) the linear fractional transformation (LFT) formulation pertaining to the structured singular value (μ) framework; (2) the concept of weighted multi-input multi-output (MIMO) norms for characterizing performance; and (3) a worst-case performance assessment method to avoid the unacceptable computation burden involved with exhaustive search or Monte Carlo methods in the presence of multiple uncertainties. Based on these, the robust design framework is organized into four steps: (1) modeling and casting the overall dynamics into the proposed LFT framework that isolates the TMD system as the controller, and the uncertainties as a structured perturbation to the nominal dynamics; (2) setting up the optimization problem based on generalized indices of nominal performance, robustness, and worst-case performance; (3) implementing a genetic algorithm (GA) for solution of the optimization problem; and (4) post-processing the results for systematic visualization, validation, and selection of preferred designs. This strategy has been implemented on several illustrative design examples involving a seismically excited multi-story building with different combinations of assumptions on the uncertainty, TMD configuration, excitation scenarios, and performance criteria. The resulting solution sets have been studied through various post-processing methods, including visualization of Pareto fronts, uncertain frequency response plots, time-domain simulations, and random vibration analysis.     

Impact of geometry on the TM photonic band gaps of photonic crystals and quasicrystals

Here we demonstrate a novel quantitative procedure to pursue statistical studies on the geometric properties of photonic crystals and photonic quasicrystals (PQCs) which consist of separate dielectric particles. The geometric properties are quantified and correlated to the size of the photonic band gap (PBG) for wide permittivity range using three characteristic parameters: shape anisotropy, size distribution, and feature-feature distribution. Our concept brings statistical analysis to the photonic crystal research and offers the possibility to predict the PBG from a morphological analysis.     

On distributionally robust multiperiod stochastic optimization

This paper considers model uncertainty for multistage stochastic programs. The data and information structure of the baseline model is a tree, on which the decision problem is defined. We consider “ambiguity neighborhoods” around this tree as alternative models which are close to the baseline model. Closeness is defined in terms of a distance for probability trees, called the nested distance. This distance is appropriate for scenario models of multistage stochastic optimization problems as was demonstrated in Pflug and Pichler (SIAM J Optim 22:1–23, 2012). The ambiguity model is formulated as a minimax problem, where the the optimal decision is to be found, which minimizes the maximal objective function within the ambiguity set. We give a setup for studying saddle point properties of the minimax problem. Moreover, we present solution algorithms for finding the minimax decisions at least asymptotically. As an example, we consider a multiperiod stochastic production/inventory control problem with weekly ordering. The stochastic scenario process is given by the random demands for two products. We determine the minimax solution and identify the worst trees within the ambiguity set. It turns out that the probability weights of the worst case trees are concentrated on few very bad scenarios.     

Vanadyl Sulfate (VOSO4.3H2O). An Efficient Catalyst for Acylation of Alcohols and Phenols under Solvent Free Condition

Alcohols and phenols were efficiently acylated with acetic anhydride in the presence of vanadyl sulfate (VOSO₄.3H₂O) at room temperature in high yields.