General strategy for a short and efficient synthesis of 3-hydroxy-4-methylprolines (HMP)

The non-proteinogenic amino acid 3-hydroxy-4-methylproline (HMP) is an active constituent of some potent antimicrobials including echinocandins, nostopeptins, pneumocandins, sporiofungin and mulundocandins. A synthesis has been achieved in 10 steps with 29% overall yield; the Evans’ aldol reaction using Crimmins’ modified method was pivotal to the success of the strategy.     

Spectral shift function and trace formula

The complete proofs of Krein’s theorem on the spectral shift function and the trace formula are given for a pair of self-adjoint operators such that either (i) their difference is trace-class or (ii) the difference of their resolvents is trace-class. The proofs, essentially due to Krein, is based on Herglotz’s theorem on the boundary value of the analytic functions whose imaginary part is non-negative on the upper half plane, and an almost optimal class of functions are obtained for which the trace formula is valid. Also an alternative method based on Weyl-von Neumann’s theorem for self-adjoint operators, avoiding the complex function theory and inspired by Voiculescu’s work, is given for the first case. Furthermore, some applications of the spectral shift function have been discussed.     

Bi-large neutrino mixings by radiative magnification

Starting with the unification hypothesis of mixings of quarks and leptons and small quark-like mixings at the see-saw scale, we find that two large mixings for ν_e —νx03BC; andv _μ—v _τ at the weak scale are obtained as a result of renormalization group evolution and radiative magnification if the three neutrinos are quasi degenerate in masses and possess the same CP parity. We also find thatU _e3 remains small and well within the CHOOZ-Palo Verde bound since the correspondingV _ub for CKM mixing is very small. Several testable pedictions are pointed out.     

Towards the total synthesis of amphidinolide E: an enantioselective synthesis of C12-C29 fragment

An enantioselective synthesis of the C12-C29 fragment of amphidinolide E is described. Key transformations include an intramolecular mercuriocyclization reaction, stereoselective introduction of methyl group at the C2 position, and Stille coupling for the introduction of the diene side chain.     

Extraction of cesium-137 from nitric acid medium in the presence of macrocyclic polyethers

Extraction behavior of¹³⁷Cs was studied from nitric acid medium using dibenzo 18 crown 6 (DB18C6), 4,4'(5')di-acetylbenzo 18 crown 6 (DAB18C6), 4, 4'(5')di-hexanoylbenzo 18 crown 6 (DHB18C6), 4,4'(5')di-nonanoylbenzo 18 crown 6 (DNB18C6) and 4,4'(5')di-t-butylbenzo 18 crown 6 (DTBB18C6) in nitrobenzene medium. The stoichiometry of the species extracted with dibenzo 18 crown 6 (L) conformed to ML⁺. NO₃ ⁻ TheD _Cs values were found not to be affected by the presence of aluminium nitrate in the aqueous phase. The separation behavior of fission products obtained from an irradiated natural uranium target was also studied. Presence of 0.004M phosphotungstic acid found to enhance theD _Cs values at lower acidities.     

Calibration of a quenching and deformation differential dilatometer upon heating and cooling: Thermal expansion of Fe and Fe-Ni alloys

Dilatometry is a technique for precise measurement of thermal dilatation of materials during heating or cooling. A procedure has been presented for calibration of a differential dilatometer operating with electromagnetic heating for metallic specimens both upon heating and cooling as well as under uniaxial compressive and tensile loading. The dilation signal has been calibrated for both heating and cooling and for uniaxial loading (compressive and tensile) using platinum or iron reference specimens, for which recommended dilational data are available. The ferro- to paramagnetic transition (characterised by the Curie temperature) of pure iron or iron-based alloys has been adopted to calibrate the temperature in the dilatometric measurement under different loading modes during heating and cooling. On this basis calibrated data for the thermal expansion coefficients of Fe and Fe-Ni alloys have been obtained.