Urea nitrate and nitrourea: powerful and regioselective aromatic nitration agents

Urea nitrate (UN) and nitrourea (NU), easily prepared from urea and nitric acid, convert deactivated aromatic compounds to the corresponding nitrated derivatives with a high yield and a high regioselectivity under very mild conditions. The performance of the two reagents is quite similar indicating that NU is an intermediate in the UN nitration process.     

A combinatorial characterization of smooth LTCs and applications

The study of locally testable codes (LTCs) has benefited from a number of nontrivial constructions discovered in recent years. Yet, we still lack a good understanding of what makes a linear error correcting code locally testable and as a result we do not know what is the rate‐limit of LTCs and whether asymptotically good linear LTCs with constant query complexity exist. In this paper, we provide a combinatorial characterization of smooth locally testable codes, which are locally testable codes whose associated tester queries every bit of the tested word with equal probability. Our main contribution is a combinatorial property defined on the Tanner graph associated with the code tester (“well‐structured tester”). We show that a family of codes is smoothly locally testable if and only if it has a well‐structured tester. As a case study we show that the standard tester for the Hadamard code is “well‐structured,” giving an alternative proof of the local testability of the Hadamard code, originally proved by (Blum, Luby, Rubinfeld, J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 47 (1993) 549–595) (STOC 1990). Additional connections to the works of (Ben‐Sasson, Harsha, Raskhodnikova, SIAM J. Comput 35 (2005) 1–21) (SICOMP 2005) and of (Lachish, Newman and Shapira, Comput Complex 17 (2008) 70–93) are also discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 49, 280–307, 2016     

The impact of weak C-H...Rh interactions on the structure and reactivity of trans-[Rh(CO)2(phosphine)2]+: an experimental and theoretical examination

The crystal structure of the new cationic Rh(I) complex trans-[Rh(CO)(2)(L)(2)]BF(4) (L=alpha(2)-(diisopropylphosphino)isodurene) was found to exhibit a nonlinear OC-Rh-CO fragment and weak intramolecular C-H...Rh interactions. These interactions, which have also been shown to occur in solution, have been examined by density functional theory calculations and found to be inextricably linked to the presence of the distorted OC-Rh-CO fragment. This linkage has also been demonstrated by comparison with a highly similar Rh(I) complex, in which these C-H...Rh interactions are absent. Furthermore, the presence of these weak interactions has been shown to have a significant effect on the reactivity of the metal center.     

Determination of HEPES in <Superscript>68</Superscript>Ga-labeled peptide solutions

A practical and reliable HPLC method was used for the determination of 2-[4-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazinyl]-N′-ethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) content in the ⁶⁸Ga-labeled [1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid]-1-Nal3-octreotide (DOTANOC). Linearity of this method was observed in a concentration range of 0.01–10 mg mL⁻¹ and the quantitative limit (signal to noise = 11) was determined as 10 μg mL⁻¹. The HEPES concentration in the final products of ⁶⁸Ga-DOTANOC was typically lower than the detection limit. Pure water and HEPES buffer as reaction medium were investigated using various activities of gallium-68. It was demonstrated that the presence of HEPES buffer consistently furnished very high radiochemical purity of ⁶⁸Ga-DOTANOC, which remained stable for several hours post-labeling. Evidence is provided that in addition to its role as a buffer, HEPES also functions as a radioprotectant agent.     

Molecule and electron transfer through coordination-based molecular assemblies

This study provides insight into the internal structure of surface-confined molecular assemblies. The permeability of the layer-by-layer grown thin films can be controlled systematically by varying their composition and the structure of their molecular components. Moreover, the thickness can be used to control molecule permeation versus electron transfer.     

Synthesis of acetylenes via dehydrobromination using solid anhydrous potassium phosphate as the base under phase-transfer conditions

Phase-transfer catalyzed preparation of acetylenes from the corresponding vicinal dibromo compounds via double dehydrobromination using the mild solid base, anhydrous potassium phosphate, under very mild conditions is reported.     

Catalytic reductions with formate ion under phase transfer conditions

Formate ion was extracted as ion pair into organic solvents and catalytically reduced chalcone in presence of homogeneous ruthenium phosphine complex.