Total Synthesis of (6R,10R,13R,14R,16R,17R,19S,20R,21R,24S, 25S,28S,30S,32R,33R,34R,36S,37S,39R)‐Azaspiracid‐3 Reveals Non‐Identity with the Natural Product

A convergent and stereoselective total synthesis of the previously assigned structure of azaspiracid‐3 has been achieved by a late‐stage Nozaki–Hiyama–Kishi coupling to form the C21?C22 bond with the C20 configuration unambiguously established from l ‐(+)‐tartaric acid. Postcoupling steps involved oxidation to an ynone, modified Stryker reduction of the alkyne, global deprotection, and oxidation of the resulting C1 primary alcohol to the carboxylic acid. The synthetic product matched naturally occurring azaspiracid‐3 by mass spectrometry, but differed both chromatographically and spectroscopically.     

Effects of gas adsorption and collisions on electrical transport in single-walled carbon nanotubes

Degassing of bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes in vacuum at 500 K is found to drive the thermoelectricpower (TEP) strongly negative, indicating that the degassed metallic tubes in a bundle are n type. The magnitude of the negative TEP indicates that important asymmetry in the electronic carbon pi bands exists near the Fermi energy. Easily measurable increases in the TEP ( approximately 5-10 &mgr;V/K) and resistivity ( 2%-10%) are observed at 500 K upon exposure to N2 and He, suggesting that even gas collisions with the nanotube wall can contribute significantly to the transport properties.     

Preliminary studies on 226Ra, 228Ra, 228Th and 40K concentrations in foodstuffs consumed by inhabitants of Accra metropolitan area, Ghana

Knowledge of radioactivity levels in human diet is of particular concern for the estimation of possible radiological hazards to human health. However, very few surveys of radioactivity in food have been conducted in Ghana. The natural radionuclides ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra, ²²⁸Th and ⁴⁰K were measured in the foodstuffs using gamma ray spectrometry. All samples were found to contain high ⁴⁰K content in the range 87.77?C368.50?Bq?kg^?1. The maximum concentration of ²²⁸Th and ⁴⁰K were found in cassava to be 14.93?±?3.86 and 368.50?±?19.20?Bq?kg^?1, respectively. The total annual committed effective dose was estimated to be 4.64?mSv. The daily intake of radionuclides from food consumption reveals that cassava and plantain are the highest contributors, while millet is the lowest. The daily radionuclide intake from the foodstuffs consumed by the general public was 411.32?Bq and the daily internal dose resulting from ingestion of the radionuclides in the foodstuffs was 0.01?mSv. The radionuclide concentrations were comparable with those reported from other countries.     

Earth surface effects on active faults: An eigenvalue asymptotic analysis

We study in this paper an eigenvalue problem (of Steklov type), modeling slow slip events (such as silent earthquakes, or earthquake nucleation phases) occurring on geological faults. We focus here on a half space formulation with traction free boundary condition: this simulates the earth surface where displacements take place and can be picked up by GPS measurements. We construct an appropriate functional framework attached to a formulation suitable for the half space setting. We perform an asymptotic analysis of the solution with respect to the depth of the fault. Starting from an integral representation for the displacement field, we prove that the differences between the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions attached to the half space problem and those attached to the free space problem, is of the order of d^-2, where d is a depth parameter: intuitively, this was expected as this is also the order of decay of the derivative of the Green's function for our problem. We actually prove faster decay in case of symmetric faults. For all faults, we rigorously obtain a very useful asymptotic formula for the surface displacement, whose dominant part involves a so called seismic moment. We also provide results pertaining to the analysis of the multiplicity of the first eigenvalue in the line segment fault case. Finally we explain how we derived our numerical method for solving for dislocations on faults in the half plane. It involves integral equations combining regular and Hadamard's hypersingular integration kernels.     

Target detection and characterization from electromagnetic induction data

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the field of nondestructive testing by eddy currents. We provide a mathematical analysis and a numerical framework for simulating the imaging of arbitrarily shaped small-volume conductive inclusions from electromagnetic induction data. We derive, with proof, a small-volume expansion of the eddy current data measured away from the conductive inclusion. The formula involves two polarization tensors: one associated with the magnetic contrast and the second with the conductivity of the inclusion. Based on this new formula, we design a location search algorithm. We include in this paper a discussion on data sampling, noise reduction, and probability of detection. We provide numerical examples that support our findings.     

Inequalities for Volumes of Simplices in Terms of Their Faces

By generalizing some well-known results, we first obtain an inequality involving the volume and product of s-contents of s-faces of an n-simplex. Using this we generalize two inequalities maximizing the volume of one or two simplices in terms of their edge lengths.     

Deoxyribozyme-based ligase logic gates and their initial circuits

A complete set (YES, NOT, AND, and ANDNOT) of molecular scale logic gates based on ligase deoxyribozymes was constructed. The activity of these gates was visualized through the formation of cascades with downstream phosphodieseterase YES gates, which performed fluorogenic cleavage.     

Electrochemical Detection of Artemisinin Using Cobalt Sulphide/Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite

Solvothermally synthesized cobalt sulphide/reduced graphene oxide (CoS/rGO) was used to fabricate an electrochemical sensor for detection of artemisinin. Microscopic techniques were used to characterize CoS/rGO nanocomposite. The electrochemical sensor was fabricated by modifying the surface of glassy carbon electrode with CoS/rGO nanocomposite. [Fe(CN)6]^3−/4− was used as a mediator to aid oxidation of artemisinin. Differential pulse voltammetric technique was used for the detection of artemisinin. A linear range of 30–100 μM was used. Experimentally, a detection limit of 0.5 μM was obtained. Therefore, the developed sensor can be used for quality control of artemisinin.     

Existence of frequency modes coupling seismic waves and vibrating tall buildings

We prove in this paper an existence result for frequency modes coupling seismic waves and vibrating tall buildings. The derivation from physical principles of a set of equations modeling this phenomenon was done in previous studies. In this model all vibrations are assumed to be anti-plane and time harmonic so the two dimensional Helmholtz equation can be used. A coupling frequency mode is obtained once we can determine a wavenumber such that the solution of the corresponding Helmholtz equation in the lower half plane with relevant Neumann and Dirichlet conditions at the interface satisfies a specific integral equation at the base of an idealized tall building. Although numerical simulations suggest that such wavenumbers should exist, as far as we know, to date, there is no theoretical proof of their existence. This is what this present study offers to provide.