Intramolecular iodoetherification of ene or diene ketals: facile synthesis of spiroketals

A novel and rapid approach to chiral mono- or di-substituted spiroketals based on remote asymmetric induction by intramolecular iodoetherification of ene or diene ketals has been developed. This strategy concisely offers 5,5- and 5,6-spiroketals including the natural insect pheromone of the wasp.     

Influence of halogen substituents on the catalytic oxidation of 2,4,6-halogenated phenols by Fe(III)-tetrakis(p-hydroxyphenyl) porphyrins and potassium monopersulfate

The influence of halogen substituents on the catalytic oxidation of 2,4,6-trihalogenated phenols (TrXPs) by iron(III)-porphyrin/KHSO? catalytic systems was investigated. Iron(III)-5,10,15,20-tetrakis(p-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrin (FeTHP) and its supported variants were employed, where the supported catalysts were synthesized by introducing FeTHP into hydroquinone-derived humic acids via formaldehyde poly-condensation. F (TrFP), Cl (TrCP), Br (TrBP) and I (TrIP) were examined as halogen substituents for TrXPs. Although the supported catalysts significantly enhanced the degradation and dehalogenation of TrFP and TrCP, the oxidation of TrBP and TrIP was not enhanced, compared to the FeTHP catalytic system. These results indicate that the degree of oxidation of TrXPs is strongly dependent on the types of halogen substituent. The order of dehalogenation levels for halogen substituents in TrXPs was F > Cl > Br > I, consistent with their order of electronegativity. The electronegativity of a halogen substituent affects the nucleophilicity of the carbon to which it is attached. The levels of oxidation products in the reaction mixtures were analyzed by GC/MS after extraction with n-hexane. The most abundant dimer product from TrFP via 2,6-difluoroquinone is consistent with a scenario where TrXP, with a more electronegative halogen substituent, is readily oxidized, while less electronegative halogen substituents are oxidized less readily by iron(III)-porphyrin/KHSO? catalytic systems.     

Ultrafast excited state dynamics of fucoxanthin: excitation energy dependent intramolecular charge transfer dynamics

Carotenoids containing a carbonyl group in conjugation with their polyene backbone are naturally-occurring pigments in marine organisms and are essential to the photosynthetic light-harvesting function in aquatic algae. These carotenoids exhibit spectral characteristics attributed to an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state that arise in polar solvents due to the presence of the carbonyl group. Here, we report the spectroscopic properties of the carbonyl carotenoid fucoxanthin in polar (methanol) and nonpolar (cyclohexane) solvents studied by steady-state absorption and femtosecond pump-probe measurements. Transient absorption associated with the optically forbidden S(1) (2(1)A) state and/or the ICT state were observed following one-photon excitation to the optically allowed S(2) (1(1)B) state in methanol. The transient absorption measurements carried out in methanol showed that the ratio of the ICT-to-S(1) state formation increased with decreasing excitation energy. We also showed that the ICT character was clearly visible in the steady-state absorption in methanol based on a Franck-Condon analysis. The results suggest that two spectroscopic forms of fucoxanthin, blue and red, exist in the polar environment.     

Control of dynamics and molecular distribution in a self-spreading lipid bilayer using surface-modified metal nanoarchitectures

The molecular distribution and spreading dynamics of self-spreading lipid bilayers can be tuned by surface-modified metallic nanoarchitectures. Interactions between lipids and molecules in the surface modification alter the self-spreading behavior at the gate regions between adjacent nanoarchitectures, leading to molecular filtering/concentrating effects and modification of the dynamics. The hydrophilic surface can tune the spreading velocity without changing the molecular distribution in the spreading bilayer, whereas the hydrophobic surface provides a molecular concentrating function to the nanogates. This indicates that a combination of unmodified/hydrophobic/hydrophilic nanoarchitectures has a wide range of potential applications since it can be used to independently control the self-spreading dynamics and the molecular distribution.     

Lattice- and network-structure in plastic ice

We have investigated structural and energetic characteristics of plastic ice, which was found in a high pressure region such as 10 GPa by molecular dynamics simulation and free energy calculation. It was predicted that plastic ice intervenes between ice VII and liquid water, in which diffusion is suppressed but rotation is allowed. In the present work, the structure in plastic ice is explored from both local and global view points and focus is placed on the local arrangement, the extent of deviation from the ideal lattice position, and the hydrogen-bonded patterns. The roles of the attractive interaction and the repulsive part of Lennard-Jones potential are also examined. It is found that the higher interaction energy in plastic ice induces a large dislocation of water molecules, which eventually conducts a facile rotation. There are a large amount of hydrogen-bonds which do not orient to the tetrahedral directions. These orientational defects give rise to fusion of the two interpenetrating sublattices of ice VII leading to a plastic phase rather than defect-containing ice VII, which results in a unique network structure of the plastic ice.     

Delayed feedback control based on the act-and-wait concept

This paper proposes a delayed feedback control (DFC) based on the act-and-wait concept, which reduces the dynamics of DFC systems to that of discrete-time systems. Based on this concept, a delayed feedback controller is designed for a prototype two-dimensional oscillator using a simple systematic procedure. This control has two advantages: the feedback delay time can be large and it can obtain deadbeat behavior. A numerical example using a double-scroll circuit model demonstrates these theoretical results.     

Efficient likelihood-based inference for the generalized Pareto distribution

Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics - It is well known that inference for the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) is a difficult problem since the GPD violates the classical...     

Hydrostatic compression of the monoclinic form of polyethylene

Lattice constants of the monoclinic form of polyethylene under pressures up to 1.8 GPa at 298 K are investigated by x-ray diffraction. The thermal expansion from 100 K to 300 K at atmospheric pressure is also studied. The equation of state is calculated by Pastine's method, taking into account the zero-point vibration, and is compared with experimental results. The calculated results depend largely on the interatomic potential used and the limit of the interatomic distance for summation of the potentials. A change in the angle γ between the a and b axes results in an anisotropic change in the unit cell dimension with both pressure and temperature; the a and b axes change at nearly the same rate. The monoclinic form may have a higher density than the orthorhombic form at pressures above 1.0 GPa.