Dichlorocarbene Addition to

In contrast to the terminal phosphinidene complex PhPW(CO)(5) (2), which adds to [5]metacyclophane (1) in a 1,4-fashion, dichlorocarbene preferentially adds in a 1,2-fashion to the formal "anti-Bredt" type double bond of the aromatic ring of 1 to afford the norcaradiene 11b, which immediately rearranges to the bridged cycloheptatriene 12b and further by a [1,5] sigmatropic chlorine migration to the isomeric 13b as the first observable product. More slowly, the latter isomerizes via a dissociative mechanism to give 15b. A computational study supports the notion that the [1,5] chlorine migration in the rearrangement 12b --> 13b, for which an activation barrier of 70.2 kJ mol(-)(1) was calculated, is essentially concerted with minor charge separation. In contrast, the analogous [1,5] chlorine migration in the flat model compound 7,7-dichlorocycloheptatriene (12a) displays features of a dissociative pathway.     

Verification of a model to predict the influence of particle inertia and gravity on a decaying turbulent particle-laden flow

In an earlier publication some of the authors presented a theoretical model for the calculation of the influence of particle inertia and gravity on the turbulence in a stationary particle-laden flow. In the present publication the model is extended for application to a decaying suspension. Also a comparison is given between predictions made with the model and experimental data (own data and data reported in the literature) on a decaying turbulent flow with particles in a water tunnel or in a wind tunnel. For most of the experiments a prediction with reasonable accuracy and an interpretation is possible by means of the model.     

Fidelity enhancement by logical qubit encoding

We demonstrate coherent control of two logical qubits encoded in a decoherence free subspace (DFS) of four dipolar-coupled protons in an NMR quantum information processor. A pseudopure fiducial state is created in the DFS, and a unitary logical qubit entangling operator evolves the system to a logical Bell state. The four-spin molecule is partially aligned by a liquid crystal solvent, which introduces strong dipolar couplings among the spins. Although the system Hamiltonian is never fully specified, we demonstrate high fidelity control over the logical degrees of freedom. In fact, the DFS encoding leads to higher fidelity control than is available in the full four-spin Hilbert space.     

ALS-associated mutant SOD1<Superscript>G93A</Superscript> causes mitochondrial vacuolation by expansion of the intermembrane space and by involvement of SOD1 aggregation and peroxisomes

Background  

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an age-dependent neurodegenerative disease that causes motor neuron degeneration, paralysis and death. Mutations in Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) are one cause for the familial form of this disease. Transgenic mice expressing mutant SOD1 develop age-dependent motor neuron degeneration, skeletal muscle weakness, paralysis and death similar to humans. The mechanism whereby mutant SOD1 induces motor neuron degeneration is not understood but widespread mitochondrial vacuolation has been observed during early phases of motor neuron degeneration. How this vacuolation develops is not clear, but could involve autophagic vacuolation, mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) or uncharacterized mechanisms. To determine which of these possibilities are true, we examined the vacuolar patterns in detail in transgenic mice expressing mutant SOD1^G93A.