Diastereoselective synthesis of linear‐fused tricyclic nitrogen heterocycles by a tandem reduction‐reductive amination reaction

A two‐step diastereoselective synthesis of linear‐fused tricyclic nitrogen heterocycles has been developed from cyclic β‐ketoesters. The cyclization substrates are readily prepared by alkylation of the methyl 2‐oxo‐cycloalkanecarboxylates with 2‐nitrobenzyl bromide. Hydrogenation of these substrates initiates a reaction sequence involving (1) reduction of the aromatic nitro group, (2) condensation of the resulting hydroxyl‐amine or aniline nitrogen with the cycloalkanone and (3) reduction of the imine. The products are isolated in high yield as single diastereomers having the trans‐fused ring junction. The observed selectivity is rationalized in terms of a steric effect imposed by the ester group in the final reductive amination step which directs the incoming hydrogen to the opposite face of the molecule. By comparison, reductive cyclizations of substrates lacking the stereodirecting ester group give mixtures of cis and trans products with a preference for the cis‐fused heterocycle.     

Intermolecular magnetic couplings in the dinuclear copper(II) complex mu-chloro-mu-[2,5-bis(2-pyridyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole] aqua chlorocopper(II) dichlorocopper(II): synthesis, crystal structure, and EPR and magnetic characterization

Mu-chloro-mu-[2,5-bis(2-pyridyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole] aqua chlorocopper(II) dichlorocopper(II) is the first characterized dimeric complex of a transition metal and this hetero ligand [C(12)H(10)Cl(4)Cu(2)N(4)OS; triclinic; space group P; a = 9.296(3) A, b = 9.933(3) A, c = 10.412(3) A; alpha = 79.054(5) degrees, beta = 82.478(6) degrees, gamma = 67.099(5) degrees; Z = 2 at room temperature]. The Cu(II) ions are bridged by the N-N thiadiazole bond and a chloride ion [Cu1-Cu2 = 3.7800(8) A]. Thermogravimetric analysis shows this structure to be stable at temperatures up to 348 K. At higher temperatures, the successive loss of a water molecule and one chloride of the dimeric unit is identified. From room temperature to 125 K, half of the Cu(2+) ions are progressively engaged in intermolecular dinuclear antiferromagnetic exchanges, while the other half remain paramagnetic. At lower temperatures, both susceptibility and electron paramagnetic resonance measurements show the paramagnetic-only couplings of this half of the Cu(2+) ions, involving a singlet ground state for interacting Cu(2+). This unusual behavior has been satisfactorily explained on the basis of intermolecular Cu-Cu interactions (J = -180 cm(-1)), involving the magnetic d(z)2 orbital perpendicular to the molecular plane, on which are seen the conjugate effects of the bridging chloride and the planar thiadiazole. It is noteworthy that the behavior of the title compound is original, compared to the systematic in-plane intramolecular antiferromagnetic coupling of other thiadiazole-containing binuclear complexes.     

High performance liquid chromatographic measurement of lignocaine in tissue samples following transabdominal placental biopsy

A method is described for the measurement of lignocaine in small samples of fetal and placental tissue. Tissue samples (ca 100 mg) are digested using a preteolytic enzyme. Lignocaine and an internal standard are extracted into methyl tert-butyl ether and analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection (+1.0 V vs Ag/AgCl). The limit of accurate measurement is better than 0.1 mg/kg wet weight for a 100 mg sample. This method has been used to assess fetal exposure to the drug when used as a local anaesthetic during transabdominal placental biopsy (chorionic villus sampling). The range of lignocaine concentrations found in the tissue samples was large (from less than 0.04 mg/kg wet weight to 15.4 mg/kg wet weight) although most samples contained less than 1.0 mg lignocaine/kg wet weight.     

Techniques for direct experimental evaluation of structure–transport relationships in disordered porous solids

Determining structure–transport relationships is critical to optimising the activity and selectivity performance of porous pellets acting as heterogeneous catalysts for diffusion-limited reactions. For amorphous porous systems determining the impact of particular aspects of the void space on mass transport often requires complex characterization and modelling steps to deconvolve the specific influence of the feature in question. These characterization and modelling steps often have limited accuracy and precision. It is the purpose of this work to present a case-study demonstrating the use of a more direct experimental evaluation of the impact of pore network features on mass transport. The case study evaluated the efficacy of the macropores of a bidisperse porous foam structure on improving mass transport over a purely mesoporous system. The method presented involved extending the novel integrated gas sorption and mercury porosimetry method to include uptake kinetics. Results for the new method were compared with those obtained by the alternative NMR cryodiffusometry technique, and found to lead to similar conclusions. It was found that the experimentally-determined degree of influence of the foam macropores was in line with expectations from a simple resistance model for a disconnected macropore network.     

Multifractal fluctuations in joint angles during infant spontaneous kicking reveal multiplicativity-driven coordination

Previous research has considered infant spontaneous kicking as a form of exploration. According to this view, spontaneous kicking provides information about motor degrees of freedom and may shape multijoint coordinations for more complex movement patterns such as gait. Recent work has demonstrated that multifractal, multiplicative fluctuations in exploratory movements index energy flows underlying perceptual-motor information. If infant spontaneous kicking is exploratory and occasions an upstream flow of information from the motor periphery, we expected not only that multiplicativity of fluctuations at the hip should promote multiplicativity of fluctuations at more distal joints (i.e., reflecting downstream effects of neural control) but also that multiplicativity at more distal joints should promote multiplicativity at the hip. Multifractal analysis demonstrated that infant spontaneous kicking in four typically developing infants for evidence of multiplicative fluctuations in multiple joint angles along the leg (i.e., hip, knee, and ankle) exhibited multiplicativity. Vector autoregressive modeling demonstrated that only one leg exhibited downstream effects but that both legs exhibited upstream effects. These results confirm the exploratory aspect of infant spontaneous kicking and suggest chaotic dynamics in motor coordination. They also resonate with existing models of chaos-controlled robotics and noise-based interventions for rehabilitating motor coordination in atypically developing patients.