Ring transformation of 5-acylpyrimidines into 4-acylpyrazoles with hydrazine and phenylhydrazine in acidic medium

5-Benzoyl-4-methylpyrimidines 4a,b and 5-acetyl-4-phenylpyrimidines 5a,b reacted with hydrazines in alcoholic acidic medium to give respectively 4-acetyl-3-phenylpyrazoles 7, 9 and 10 and 4-benzoyl-3-methylpyrazoles 6, 8 and 11 . In the reaction with phenylhydrazine, 5-benzoyl-4-methyl-2-methylthiopyrimidine ( 4a ) led exclusively to 4-acetyl-1,3-diphenylpyrazole ( 10 ) as 5-acetyl4-phenyl-2-methylthiopyrimidine ( 5a ) led to 4-benzoyl-3-methyl-1-phenylpyrazole ( 11 ) via the initial formation of phenylhydrazones of pyrimidines 4a and 5a . However, 5-benzoyl-4-methyl-2-phenylpyrimidine ( 4b ) and 5-acetyl-2,4-diphenylpyrimidine ( 5b ) reacted with phenylhydrazine to afford, each of them, a mixture of two isomeric pyrazoles. The mechanism of these ring contraction reactions is discussed.     

Calculation of positron states in the BEDT-TFF based organic superconductors

Positron states in the BEDT-TTF based organic superconductors, namely -Cu(NCS)₂, -CuCN[N(CN)₂] and -Cu[N(CN)₂]Br salts, have been calculated using the superposedatom model and the numerical relaxation technique. For each salt positrons are distributed predominantly around the anion layers and have a little overlap with the TTF skeleton and the outer S atoms which are responsible for the conductivity.     

Scalable free energy calculation of proteins via multiscale essential sampling

A multiscale simulation method, "multiscale essential sampling (MSES)," is proposed for calculating free energy surface of proteins in a sizable dimensional space with good scalability. In MSES, the configurational sampling of a full-dimensional model is enhanced by coupling with the accelerated dynamics of the essential degrees of freedom. Applying the Hamiltonian exchange method to MSES can remove the biasing potential from the coupling term, deriving the free energy surface of the essential degrees of freedom. The form of the coupling term ensures good scalability in the Hamiltonian exchange. As a test application, the free energy surface of the folding process of a miniprotein, chignolin, was calculated in the continuum solvent model. Results agreed with the free energy surface derived from the multicanonical simulation. Significantly improved scalability with the MSES method was clearly shown in the free energy calculation of chignolin in explicit solvent, which was achieved without increasing the number of replicas in the Hamiltonian exchange.     

Pulsed laser deposition synthesis of superconducting (Cu,C)Ba2CuOx thin films

(Cu, C)–Ba–O thin films have been deposited at low growth temperature of 450–570 °C by pulsed laser deposition method. A control of CO₂ gas pressure and the growth temperature, usage of BaCu_yO_x pellet target resulted in an expansion of twice c-axis length of BaCuO₂ structure (2c phase) and a significant rise of conductivity. Measurements of in-situ XPS suggest that the 2c phase should be (Cu, C)Ba₂CuO_x [(Cu, C)-1201]. The maximum temperature of onset of the superconducting transition and zero resistance state obtained so far were 60 and 47 K, respectively.     

In situ characterization of transport properties of superconducting (Cu, C)-system thin films

Transport properties of (Cu, C)Ba₂CuO_x [(Cu, C)-1201] thin films have been characterized by in situ temperature dependence of resistivity, without breaking vacuum from the deposition to the measurement. In in situ transport properties measurements, the obtained results reveal that (Cu, C)Ba₂CuO_x films exhibit T_c > 20 K on the cased of conductivity at 290 K (σ_[290 K]) > 4 × 10² S/cm and temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) > 1.5 × 10^?3 K^?1, and doping level of them should be in between under-doped and optimally-doped states. Their results suggest that there would be possible to further increases of T_c, and XPS data suggest that (Cu, C)-system should have the excellent dopability in their charge reservoir and the possibility of low anisotropy.     

Axially chiral guanidine as highly active and enantioselective catalyst for electrophilic amination of unsymmetrically substituted 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds

A newly designed axially chiral guanidine is found to function as an effective platform for asymmetric induction at the alpha-carbon of unsymmetrically substituted 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds. Highly efficient and enantioselective electrophilic amination of various 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds with azodicarboxylate was successfully achieved using the present chiral guanidine catalyst, which provides efficient access to the construction of nitrogen-substituted quaternary stereocenters in an optically active form.