Enantioselective organocatalytic formal allylation of α-branched aldehydes

Heteroarylvinyl sulfone 1 has been successfully used as a new sulfonyl Michael acceptor in aminocatalytic reactions with branched aldehydes. Subsequent one-pot Julia-Kocienski olefination allows the challenging preparation of enantiomerically pure α-allylated aldehydes bearing C-α quaternary carbons.     

Trypanocidal activity of oxoaporphine and pyrimidine-β-carboline alkaloids from the branches of Annona foetida Mart. (Annonaceae)

Phytochemical investigation of the branches of Annona foetida Mart. led to isolation from the CH(2)Cl(2) extract of four alkaloids: Atherospermidine (1), described for the first time in this species, liriodenine (2), O-methylmoschatoline (3), and annomontine (4). Their chemical structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic data from IR, MS, NMR (1D and 2D), and comparison with the literature. Compounds 2-4 showed potent trypanocidal effect when evaluated against epimastigote and trypomastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi.     

Storm processes and stochastic geometry

This paper is devoted to a prototype of max-stable models called the storm process. At first its spatial distribution is given in association with different observation supports. Then the compatibility relationships between extremal coefficients at various supports are completely characterized. Particular attention is paid to the special case where the storms are indicator functions of Poisson polytopes. Explicit formulae are found for the extremal coefficients with finite or convex supports. A new algorithm for exactly simulating the Poisson storm process in continuous space is also provided. Overall, the storm process can be used as a benchmark for comparing the performances of several estimators of extremal coefficients, or for model selection.     

Heavy metals and some other elements in medicinal plants. Determined by X-ray fluorescence analysis

Determination of Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Hg, Pb, Br, Se, Rb, Sr and Cd in the medicinal plants by radionuclide X-ray fluorescence analysis (using²³⁸Pu,²⁴¹Am/Ag and¹²⁵I) is described.     

Investigation of the turbulent mixing of thin layers of materials of different density during the laser acceleration of flat multilayer targets in the Iskra-4 facility

The results of the first experiments devised to investigate the mixing of thin layers of Al and Au during the laser acceleration of flat three-layer targets of Si (5 μm), Al (2 μm), and Au (0.05–0.26 μm) by radiation converted to the second harmonic from the Iskra-4 iodine laser with an intensity of 4×10¹³−7×10¹³ W/cm² (τ _0.5∼1 ns), which acts on the Si side of the target. A method for detecting the occurrence of mixing is developed. It is established that under the experimental conditions the thickness of the mixing region is at least ∼0.15 μm. The results of a theoretical analysis of the evolution of the disturbances leading to mixing are presented. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 111, 882–888 (March 1997) Deceased.     

Analysis of torsional vibrations of an ethane molecule

Based on the solution for the Mathieu equation, we obtained wave functions for the internal rotation of an ethane molecule that satisfy the symmetry properties of the group G₃₆. We calculated the frequency of the principal torsional transition (273 cm⁻¹). The types of symmetry of the energy levels and transition probabilities in IR and Raman spectra are determined. We note drawbacks of divisible permutable-inverse nuclear groups and the groups of molecular symmetry associated with their construction, as well as difficulties that appear when equivalent rotations are used. The possibility of avoiding the application of an extended group is indicated. Belarusian State University, 4, F. Skorina Ave., Minsk, 220050, Belarus. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 26–31, January–February, 1997.     

Experimental evaluation of entropy for transmission holographic optical elements

An experimental study of transmission holographic optical elements is presented. Several important aspects related to the diffractional analysis of these elements have been considered. The case of the spherical object wave is analyzed in detail. The emphasis is on obtaining the entropy from the intensity distribution on an image plane. We use the calculated entropy to locate experimentally the position of the best image plane in the sense of minimal aberrations for a holographic lens. The comparison of experimental and theoretical results is presented and good agreement between theory and experimentation has been obtained.Part of this paper was presented at the IS & T/SPIE symposium in Electronic Imaging, Science and Technology (Practical Holography IX) February 4–10, 1995, San José, CA, USA     

Investigation of the effect of large-scale shell asymmetry on Iskra-5 target operation

Experiments designed to investigate the effect of a controlled large-scale asymmetry of a shell containing deuterium-tritium fuel on the shell compression and neutron production under indirect (x-ray) action are performed on the Iskra-5 laser fusion device. The uniformity of the x radiation near the target is not worse than 3%, and the shell asymmetry is varied from 30 to 100%. The observed decrease of the experimental neutron yield as compared with experiments using symmetric targets is in satisfactory agreement with two-dimensional calculations. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 67, No. 3, 161–165 (10 February 1998)