Sequential unsymmetrical aryl coupling of o-substituted aryl iodides with o-bromophenols and reaction with olefins: palladium-catalyzed synthesis of 6H-dibenzopyran derivatives

Dibenzopyran derivatives are prepared by palladium- and norbornene-catalyzed reaction of aryl iodides, o-substituted with electron-releasing substituents, o-bromophenols, and activated alkenes.     

Synthesis and conformational analysis of new cyclobutane-fused nucleosides

[structure: see text]. A stereselective synthesis of 3-oxabicyclo[3.2.0]heptane nucleoside analogues, which were designed as conformational mimics of the anti-HIV agents 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxythimidine (stavudine, d4T) and 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxyadenosine (d4A), is described. The target compounds were prepared by condensation of a common intermediate bicyclic acetate, derived from a homochiral 2(5H)-furanone, with pyrimidine and purine bases under modified Vorbrüggen conditions. The conformational behavior of the synthesized nucleoside analogues was studied by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.     

Recent advances in polyhydroxyalkanoate production by mixed aerobic cultures: from the substrate to the final product

Numerous bacteria have been found to exhibit the capacity for intracellular polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) accumulation. Current methods for PHA production at the industrial scale are based on their synthesis from microbial isolates in either their wild form or by recombinant strains. High production costs are associated with these methods; thus, attempts have been made to develop more cost-effective processes. Reducing the cost of the carbon substrates (e.g., through feeding renewable wastes) and increasing the efficiency of production technologies (including both fermentation and downstream extraction and recovery) are two such examples of these attempts. PHA production processes based on mixed microbial cultures are being investigated as a possible technology to decrease production costs, since no sterilization is required and bacteria can adapt quite well to the complex substrates that may be present in waste material. PHA accumulation by mixed cultures has been found under various operational conditions and configurations at both bench-scale and full-scale production. The process known as "feast and famine" or as "aerobic dynamic feeding" seems to have a high potential for PHA production by mixed cultures. Enriched cultures submitted to a transient carbon supply can synthesize PHA at levels comparable to those of pure cultures. Indeed, the intracellular PHA content can reach around 70% of the cell dry weight, suggesting that this process could be competitive with pure culture PHA production when fully developed. Basic and applied research of the PHA production process by mixed cultures has been carried out in the past decade, focusing on areas such as microbial characterization, process configuration, reactor operational strategies, process modeling and control, and polymer characterization. This paper presents a review of the PHA production process with mixed cultures, encompassing the findings reported in the literature as well as our own experimental results in relation to each of these areas.     

NMR relaxometry and imaging of water absorbed in biodegradable polymer scaffolds

Porous substrates made of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBHV) were prepared by a particulate leaching method. After removing the salt by extraction in water, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry and imaging were performed on sets of PHBHV substrates immersed in phosphate-buffered solution during 3 months at different time points. Polarized optical microscopy studies were performed on thin sections, 25 and 5 mum, of the PHBHV samples. The results of NMR relaxometry showed two (1)H nuclei populations, well distinguishable on the free induction decay (FID), due to the different decay time constants, a factor of 10(2) apart. Thus, it was possible to separate the two populations, giving separate distributions of T(1) relaxation times. One population could be associated with water protons in the pores and the other to macromolecular protons. The distributions of T(1) and T(2) of the water proton shifted to lower values with increasing immersion time to a constant value after 30 days. The results obtained by NMR imaging showed an initial increase in the apparent porosity, reaching a plateau after 25 days of immersion. This increase is attributed mainly to the absorption of water in the microporosity as supported by the results of the relaxometry measurements and shown by scanning electron microscopy. The average porosity measured by NMR imaging at the plateau, 78+/-3%, is slightly higher than that determined by optical microscopy, 73+/-9%, which may be due to the fact that the latter method did not resolve the microporosity. Overall, the results suggest that at early stages after immersing the scaffolds in the aqueous medium, first 30 days approximately, NMR imaging could underestimate the porosity of the substrate.     

On profinite groups with word values covered by nilpotent subgroups

Let N stand for the class of nilpotent groups or one of its well-known generalizations. For a multilinear commutator word w and a profinite group G we show that w(G) is finite-by-N if and only if the set of wvalues in G is covered by countably many finite-by-N subgroups. Earlier this was known only in the case where w = x or w = [x, y].     

Convergence to Lévy stable processes under some weak dependence conditions

For a strictly stationary sequence of random vectors in R^d${\mathbb{R}}^d$ we study convergence of partial sum processes to a Lévy stable process in the Skorohod space with _J1$J_1$-topology. We identify necessary and sufficient conditions for such convergence and provide sufficient conditions when the stationary sequence is strongly mixing.     

On the bicriterion – minimal cost/minimal label – spanning tree problem

We address a bicriterion spanning tree problem relevant in some application fields such as telecommunication networks or transportation networks. Each edge is assigned with a cost value and a label (such as a color). The first criterion intends to minimize the total cost of the spanning tree (the summation of its edge costs), while the second intends to get the solution with a minimal number of different labels. Since these criteria, in general, are conflicting criteria we developed an algorithm to generate the set of non-dominated spanning trees. Computational experiments are presented and results discussed.     

Scheduling three chains on two parallel machines

We consider the problem of scheduling n tasks subject to chain-precedence constraints on two identical machines with the objective of minimizing the makespan. The problem is known to be strongly NP-hard. Here, we prove that it is binary NP-hard even with three chains. Furthermore, we characterize the complexity of this case by presenting a pseudopolynomial time algorithm and a fully polynomial time approximation scheme.     

Radial and non radial solutions for Hardy–Hénon type elliptic systems

We discuss existence and non-existence of positive solutions for the following system of Hardy and Hénon type: $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} {-\Delta v=|x|^{\alpha}u^{p},\,-\Delta u=|x|^{\beta}v^{q} \,\,{\rm in}\, \Omega,}\\ {u=v=0 \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad{\rm on}\, \partial \Omega}, \end{array}\right.$$ where ${\Omega\ni 0}$ is a bounded domain in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}}$ , N ≥ 3, p, q > 1, and α, β > ?N. We also study symmetry breaking for ground states when Ω is the unit ball in ${\mathbb{R}^{N}}$ .     

Synthesis, structure, and catalytic activity of titanium(IV) and zirconium(IV) amides with chiral biphenyldiamine-based ligands

A new series of titanium(IV) and zirconium(IV) amides have been prepared from the reaction between M(NMe₂)₄ (M = Ti, Zr) and C₂-symmetric ligands, (R)-2,2′-bis(pyridin-2-ylmethylamino)-6,6′-dimethyl-1,1′-biphenyl (2H₂), (R)-2,2′-bis(pyrrol-2-ylmethyleneamino)-6,6′-dimethyl-1,1′-biphenyl (3H₂), (R)-2,2′-bis(diphenylphosphinoylamino)-6,6′-dimethyl-1,1′-biphenyl (4H₂), (R)-2,2′-bis(methanesulphonylamino)-6,6′-dimethyl-1,1′-biphenyl (5H₂), (R)-2,2′-bis(p-toluenesulphonylamino)-6,6′-dimethyl-1,1′-biphenyl (6H₂), and C₁-symmetric ligands, (R)-2-(diphenylthiophosphoramino)-2′-(dimethylamino)-6,6′-dimethyl-1,1′-biphenyl (7H) and (R)-2-(pyridin-2-ylamino)-2′-(dimethylamino)-6,6′-dimethyl-1,1′-biphenyl (8H), which are derived from (R)-2,2′-diamino-6,6′-dimethyl-1,1′-biphenyl. Treatment of M(NMe₂)₄ with 1 equiv. of N₄-ligand, 2H₂ or 3H₂ gives, after recrystallization from an n-hexane solution, the chiral zirconium amides (2)Zr(NMe₂)₂ (9), (3)Zr(NMe₂)₂ (11), and titanium amide (3)Ti(NMe₂)₂ (10), respectively, in good yields. Reaction of Zr(NMe₂)₄ with 1 equiv of diphenylphosphoramide 4H₂ affords the chiral zirconium amide (4)Zr(NMe₂)₂ (12) in 85% yield. Under similar reaction conditions, treatment of Ti(NMe₂)₄ with 1 equiv. of sulphonylamide ligand, 5H₂ or 6H₂ gives, after recrystallization from a toluene solution, the chiral titanium amides (5)Ti(NMe₂)₂·0.5C₇H₈ (13·0.5C₇H₈) and (6)Ti(NMe₂)₂ (15), respectively, in good yields, while reaction of Zr(NMe₂)₄ with 1 equiv. of 5H₂ or 6H₂ gives the bis-ligated complexes, (5)₂Zr (14) and (6)₂Zr (16). Treatment of M(NMe₂)₄ with 2 equiv. of diphenylthiophosphoramide ligand 7H or N₃-ligand 8H gives, after recrystallization from a benzene solution, the bis-ligated chiral zirconium amides (7)₂Zr(NMe₂)₂ (17) and (8)₂Zr(NMe₂)₂ (19), and bis-ligated chiral titanium amide (8)₂Ti(NMe₂)₂ (18), respectively, in good yields. All new compounds have been characterized by various spectroscopic techniques, and elemental analyses. The solid-state structures of complexes 10, 12, 13, and 17-19 have further been confirmed by X-ray diffraction analyses. The zirconium amides are active catalysts for the asymmetric hydroamination/cyclization of aminoalkenes, affording cyclic amines in good to excellent yields with moderate ee values, while the titanium amides are not.