Pd0‐Catalyzed Intramolecular α‐Arylation of Sulfones: Domino Reactions in the Synthesis of Functionalized Tetrahydroisoquinolines

A new strategy for the synthesis of tetrahydroisoquinolines based on the Pd⁰‐catalyzed intramolecular α‐arylation of sulfones is reported. The combination of this Pd‐catalyzed reaction with intermolecular Michael and aza‐Michael reactions allows the development of two‐ and three‐step domino processes to synthesize diversely functionalized scaffolds from readily available starting materials.     

Stability criteria for positive linear discrete-time systems

Positivity - We prove new characterisations of exponential stability for positive linear discrete-time systems in ordered Banach spaces, in terms of small-gain conditions. Such conditions have...     

Tips and Tricks for the Surface Engineering of Well-Ordered Morphologically Driven Silver-Based Nanomaterials

Particularly-shaped silver nanostructures are successfully applied in many scientific fields, such as nanotechnology, catalysis, (nano)engineering, optoelectronics, and sensing. In recent years, the production of shape-controlled silver-based nanostructures and the knowledge around this topic has grown significantly. Hence, on the basis of the most recent results reported in the literature, a critical analysis around the driving forces behind the synthesis of such nanostructures are proposed herein, pointing out the important role of surface-regulating agents in driving crystalline growth by favoring (or opposing) development along specific directions. Additionally, growth mechanisms of the different morphologies considered here are discussed in depth, and critical points highlighted.     

Exact Max-SAT solvers for over-constrained problems

We present a new generic problem solving approach for over-constrained problems based on Max-SAT. We first define a Boolean clausal form formalism, called soft CNF formulas, that deals with blocks of clauses instead of individual clauses, and that allows one to declare each block either as hard (i.e., must be satisfied by any solution) or soft (i.e., can be violated by some solution). We then present two Max-SAT solvers that find a truth assignment that satisfies all the hard blocks of clauses and the maximum number of soft blocks of clauses. Our solvers are branch and bound algorithms equipped with original lazy data structures, powerful inference techniques, good quality lower bounds, and original variable selection heuristics. Finally, we report an experimental investigation on a representative sample of instances (random 2-SAT, Max-CSP, graph coloring, pigeon hole and quasigroup completion) which provides experimental evidence that our approach is very competitive compared with the state-of-the-art approaches developed in the CSP and SAT communities. Research partially supported by projects TIN2004-07933-C03-03 and TIC2003-00950 funded by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. The second author is supported by a grant Ramón y Cajal.