A One‐Pot Synthesis of N‐Aryl‐2‐Oxazolidinones and Cyclic Urethanes by the Lewis Base Catalyzed Fixation of Carbon Dioxide into Anilines and Bromoalkanes

The multicomponent assembly of pharmaceutically relevant N‐aryl‐oxazolidinones through the direct insertion of carbon dioxide into readily available anilines and dibromoalkanes is described. The addition of catalytic amounts of an organosuperbase such as Barton's base enables this transformation to proceed with high yields and exquisite substrate functional‐group tolerance under ambient CO₂ pressure and mild temperature. This report also provides the first proof‐of‐principle for the single‐operation synthesis of elusive seven‐membered ring cyclic urethanes.     

Inverse problems with partial data for a Dirac system: A Carleman estimate approach

We prove that the material parameters in a Dirac system with magnetic and electric potentials are uniquely determined by measurements made on a possibly small subset of the boundary. The proof is based on a combination of Carleman estimates for first and second order systems, and involves a reduction of the boundary measurements to the second order case. For this reduction a certain amount of decoupling is required. To effectively make use of the decoupling, the Carleman estimates are established for coefficients which may become singular in the asymptotic limit.     

The Gould-Jacobs Reaction of5-Aminoquinoxaline

 Reaction of 5-aminoquinoxaline with alkoxymethylene derivatives affords the corresponding quinoxalinoaminoethylenes. These undergo a thermal cyclization to yield angularly annelated 10H-pyrido[2,3-f]quinoxalines. The structures of all products were deduced from their IR, UV, mass, ¹H, and ¹³C NMR spectra.     

Non-Markovian thermalisation of a two-level atom

We consider thermalisation and spontaneous decay of a two-level atom beyond the Markovian approximation. While the standard elimination of the continuum of radiation modes results in exponential decay represented by a Lindblad equation of motion, we use a simple toy model that takes into account the finite relaxation rate of the environment and present an exact non-Markovian master equation of the Nakajima-Zwanzig form. Because the exact derivation of non-Markovian equations has proved very difficult for all more realistic (and hence much more complicated) models, we analyze the master equation obtained and also discuss difficulties that are likely to arise with non-Markovian evolution operators.     

Mental representations of important real-life decisions

Two studies investigated how decision makers characterize alternatives in important real-life decisions, which they themselves had made (to leave a partner, to choose an education and to choose a home). First, the participants indicated a very high degree of involvement in the decisions studied and about half of the participants gave maximum involvement ratings for the partner decision. Second, the results showed that concepts that are essential in most decision theories, such as, consequence, probability and value were important characteristics of the decisions. Third, emotion, positive and negative affect were also important characteristics. Fourth, value and emotion were uncorrelated. Fifth, the patterns of characteristics of decisions made in the past did not differ markedly from the characteristics given to future decisions. Principal component analyses were performed on the ratings of applicability of the different characteristics across participants for each decision situation. Three factors were extracted. There was one factor for positive affect/emotions and another factor for negative affect/emotions verified in oblique solutions. Thus, different scales are needed to represent emotion/affect components (and not bipolar scales) in real-life important decisions. The third factor represented the way in which a decision was represented (moving pictures dialogue etc.). An analysis restricted to the participants who rated 100% involvement showed an additional fourth factor with “what others would think”, “similar situations”, “values” and “money” as the most prominent characteristics. This points to the importance of controlling for participant involvement in studies of human decision making to enable generalizations to real-life decisions.     

On the two isomeric tris(perchlorothienyl)methyl radicals

The two isomeric tris(trichlorothienyl)carbinols have been synthesized. Upon treatment with acid the tris(trichlorothienyl)carbenium ions were formed, which upon reduction with iodide gave the tris(trichlorothienyl)methyl radicals, which were studied by epr-spectroscopy. The β-isomer, the tris(2,4,5-trichloro-3-thienyl)methyl radical, was much more stable than the α-isomer and showed great similarity to the perchlorotrityl radical.     

Ultraviolet B irradiation modulates the immune system of fish (Rutilus rutilus, Cyprinidae). II: Blood

The effects of a single dose of ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation (0.4 J/cm2) on immunological functions by blood leukocytes and on hematological parameters was studied in roach (Rutilus rutilus), a teleostean fish. The respiratory burst of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate stimulated whole blood phagocytes increased significantly after UVB irradiation but spontaneous cytotoxicity of blood leukocytes toward 51chromium-labeled K562 target cells was not markedly altered. Differential cell counting revealed that UVB exposure significantly increased the proportion of granulocytes and significantly decreased the proportion of lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, whereas hematocrit and the total number of white and red blood cells were unchanged. Plasma cortisol concentration increased in UVB-exposed fish. Severe handling stress caused similar, although not as potent, effects on the measured parameters of fish blood as UVB irradiation. These observations suggest that in fish UVB brings about a stress response, which may account for the observed alterations in the immune parameters and leukocyte composition of blood. Exposure of fish to strong visible light induced no alterations in immunological or hematological parameters, making it unlikely that ultraviolet radiation mediates its effects through visual perception.     

Ultraviolet B Irradiation Modulates the Immune System of Fish (Rutilus rutilus, Cyprinidae). I. Phagocytes

Roach ( Rutilus rutilus ) were irradiated with a single dose of ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation (0.4 J/cm²) in order to study the effects of UVB on the nonspecific immune defense mechanisms of fish. Neutrophils and macrophages were isolated from the head kidney of fish on days 1–14 postirradiation. Both random and directed migration of neutrophils, studied by migration under agarose assay, were suppressed on day 1 after UVB irradiation. The respiratory burst of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetatestimulated neutrophils and macrophages was also suppressed at days 1 and 2 after UVB irradiation. The suppression of migration and respiratory burst were restored or the responses were even enhanced later, but on the other hand spontaneous cytotoxicity of neutrophils toward ⁵¹chromium-labeled K562 target cells stayed suppressed throughout the 14 day follow-up. This study indicates that UVB radiation has the potential to suppress the functioning of phagocytes and to compromise the immune system of fish.