Ma?analytische Bestimmung des Quecksilbers

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Gibberellin metabolites from ent-kaura-2,16-dien-19-ol and its succinate in Gibberella fujikuroi

Exposure of ent-kaura-2,16-dien-19-ol (1) or its succinate (2) to resuspended mycelia of G. fujikuroi has produced a complex mixture of acids which after methylation gave the esters of two C₁₉ (24) and (30) and five C₂₀ gibberellins (4, 11, 20, 32 and 33). The triester (32) and the lactone ester (24) have been prepared before from the esters of gibberellin A₁₃ (8) and gibberellin A₄ (26) respectively. The structures of the other metabolites were assigned on spectroscopic data and by chemical transformations. Thus the lactone diester (4) has been converted to the known keto triester (6). The epoxide (11) has been related to gibberellin A₁₄ (14) and the aldehyde (33) has been related to gibberellin A₁₃ trimethyl ester (8) by way of the triol (34). Selective de-epoxidation of the 16,17-epoxy function in diepoxides has provided a route from the dienes (20 and 24) to the epoxides (11 and 30) respectively, but not from the ester of gibberellin A₅ (23) to that of gibberellin A₆ (29). On the other hand the latter can be obtained by epoxidation of gibberellin A₅ methyl ester trifluoroacetate. Backfeeding experiments carried out with the epoxy diacid (12), the diene diacid (21) and the derived diol (39) indicate pathways connecting the various metabolites. The natural gibberellins A₅ and A₆ were shown to be formed in some of the backfeeding experiments.     

Dipole strengths in the chlorophylls

Measurements of dipole strengths of chlorophylls in solution are reviewed and correlated. The refractive index dependence is found to be expressible in a simple empirical fashion that does not rely on the concept of vacuum dipole strength. The index dependence in some respects contradicts the dependence expected on the basis of effective field theories.     

Separation of tetracyclines by high-speed liquid chromatography.

The separation of tetracycline and its four commoninpurities has been studied by high-speed liquid chromatography. A preliminary study of the effectiveness of ion-exchange, adsorption, liquid-liquid partition and reversed-phase ion-pair chromatography indicated that only the last method showed promise. By developing special hydrocarbon-bonded stationary phases a rapid and complete resolution of all five tetracyclines has been obtained within 10 min. Plate heights using a derivatised 18-mum partisil are in the range 0.15-0.3 mm. The method can be used to quantify the impurities in tetracycline at around the 1% level.     

Acidic ent-kauranoids from the metabolism of ent-kaura-2,16-dien-19-ol in gibberella fujikuroi

Three acidic ent-kauranoid metabolites have been obtained as the methyl esters (7, 8, and 9) from incubation of the [17-¹⁴C]-labelled dienol (1) with Gibberella fujikuroi. Spectroscopic studies of the triol ester (7) and chemical degradation of B-ring cleaved products establish the assigned structure (7). The structures of the other two metabolite esters are indicated to be 8 and 9 from the spectroscopic data.     

Characterizing the peak in the cosmic microwave background angular power spectrum

A peak has been unambiguously detected in the cosmic microwave background angular spectrum. Here we characterize its properties with fits to phenomenological models. We find that the TOCO and BOOM/NA data determine the peak location to be in the range 175-243 and 151-259, respectively (at 95% confidence) and determine the peak amplitude to be between approximately 70 and 90 &mgr;K. The peak shape is consistent with inflation-inspired flat, cold dark matter plus cosmological constant models of structure formation with adiabatic, nearly scale invariant initial conditions. It is inconsistent with open models and presents a great challenge to defect models.     

Chemical failure modes of AlQ3-based OLEDs: AlQ3 hydrolysis

Tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum(III), AlQ3, is used in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) as an electron-transport material and emitting layer. The reaction of AlQ3 with trace H2O has been implicated as a major failure pathway for AlQ3-based OLEDs. Hybrid density functional calculations have been carried out to characterize the hydrolysis of AlQ3. The thermochemical and atomistic details for this important reaction are reported for both the neutral and oxidized AlQ3/AlQ3+ systems. In support of experimental conclusions, the neutral hydrolysis reaction pathway is found to be a thermally activated process, having a classical barrier height of 24.2 kcal mol(-1). First-principles infrared and electronic absorption spectra are compared to further characterize AlQ3 and the hydrolysis pathway product, AlQ2OH. The activation energy for the cationic AlQ3 hydrolysis pathway is found to be 8.5 kcal mol(-1) lower than for the neutral reaction, which is significant since it suggests a role for charge imbalance in promoting chemical failure modes in OLED devices.     

Elevated uptake of Th and U by netted chain fern (<Emphasis Type=Italic>Woodwardia areolata</Emphasis>)

We assessed the ability of netted chain fern (Woodwardia areolata) to uptake U and Th from wetland soils on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Netted chain fern had the highest Th and U concentrations of all plants collected from the wetland. Ferns grown in contaminated soil (329 mg·kg⁻¹ Th, 44 mg·kg⁻¹ U) in a greenhouse contained 6.4 mg·kg⁻¹ Th and 5.3 mg·kg⁻¹ U compared with 0.13 mg·kg⁻¹ Th and 0.035 mg·kg⁻¹ U in Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon). Netted chain fern has potential for the phytoremediation of soils contaminated with Th and U.     

Evaluating the financial performance of bank branches

We evaluate the financial performance of most of the branch offices of a large European savings bank for a recent accounting period. We employ a complementary pair of nonparametric techniques to evaluate their financial performance, in terms of their ability to conserve on the expenses they incur in building their customer bases and providing customer services. We find variation in the ability of branch offices to perform this task, and agreement on the identity of the laggard branches. We then employ parametric techniques to determine that the list of indicators on which their financial performance is evaluated can be reduced without statistically significant loss of information to bank management. Both findings suggest ways in which the bank can increase the profitability of its branch network. A previous version of this paper was presented at CORE, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, where we received many helpful comments from the audience. We are grateful to three referees for their helpful comments as well.