Oxytrifluoromethylation of multiple bonds using copper catalyst under mild conditions

Oxytrifluoromethylation reaction of styrene derivatives and alkynes with external and internal oxygen nucleophiles, catalyzed by copper (I) salts under mild conditions, was developed. Direct formation of a β-trifluoromethylstyrene derivative from a styrene derivative was also achieved by the reaction in the presence of a Brønsted acid. Further transformation of the oxytrifluoromethylated products was conducted to demonstrate their utility.     

Aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols in the presence of activated secondary alcohols

Chemoselective aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols in the presence of activated secondary alcohols was effected under irradiation of visible light by using (nitrosyl)Ru(salen) complex 6 that possesses bulky 1-ethyl-1-methylpropyl groups at C3, C3′, C5 and C5′, as catalyst. For example, oxidation of n-decanol was >50 times faster than oxidation of 1-phenylethanol at 10 °C.     

Atomic in-plane disorder in Co/Pt superlattices

We have studied 111 and 001 oriented Co(3 Å)/Pt(18 Å) superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy via X-ray diffraction using synchrotron radiation. The diffraction peak shapes, for the scattering vector Q parallel to the film planes, were found to be characteristically different between these two films. For the 111 oriented sample, this broadening is characterized by a Lorentzian peak shape with a positional correlation length of the order of 50 Å. The data further indicate that the atomic correlation in the 111 sample has a long range orientational but only short range positional order.     

The effects of implementation delay on decision-making under uncertainty

In this paper, we accomplish two objectives: First, we provide a new mathematical characterization of the value function for impulse control problems with implementation delay and present a direct solution method that differs from its counterparts that use quasi-variational inequalities. Our method is direct, in the sense that we do not have to guess the form of the solution and we do not have to prove that the conjectured solution satisfies conditions of a verification lemma. Second, by employing this direct solution method, we solve two examples that involve decision delays: an exchange rate intervention problem and a problem of labor force optimization.     

Magnetic susceptibility measurements of solutions by surface nanodisplacement detection.

A new principle to measure the magnetic susceptibility of a solution was proposed; it utilized the displacement of solution surface caused by the magnetic force applied to the solution. The interfacial displacement was measured with the sensitivity of 5 nm from a change of the interference fringes, so called Newton Ring, generated from the solution surface and an upper surface of a small plano-convex lens on the bottom wall of a cell. The surface displacement measurement was carried out in a homemade cell attached by one or two small Nd-Fe-B magnets. The performance of this method was investigated by the measurements of magnetic susceptibility of manganese(II) chloride solution and some lanthanide(III) solutions. An excellent linear relationship between the magnetic susceptibility and the interfacial displacement was observed for each solution system. Then, it was demonstrated that this relationship could be used for the determination of the magnetic susceptibility of solutions or the concentration of a solute by using the manganese(II) solution as a standard solution.     

Quantitative visualization of the leading-edge vortices on a delta wing by using pressure-sensitive paint

Leading-edge vortices on a simple delta wing were visualized by using pressure-sensitive paint (PSP). PSP is an optical pressure measurement technique based on oxygen quenching of luminescent molecules. In the present study, we used PSP composed of platinum octaethylporphyrine (PtOEP) and fluoropolymer (poly-IBM-co-TFEM [Poly (isobutylmethacrtlate-co-trifluoroethylate)]). This new paint has higher sensitivity to pressure and lower sensitivity to temperature than previous ones, reducing an error due to temperature variation during a wind tunnel test. A thin coating of PSP was applied to a delta wing model with 70-degree leading-edge sweep. The coating was excited by Xenon light and emission from the coating was detected by a high-resolution CCD camera. Tests were done at subsonic speeds in the 0.2-m Supersonic Wind Tunnel at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Japan. Complicated flow structures on the delta wing including primary and secondary vortices were clearly visualized using pressure-sensitive paint. An a priori calibration technique was used to convert measured luminescent intensity into pressure. The obtained pressure distributions were in good agreement with pressure tap data. Pressure maps were obtained for various Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers and angles of attack. It was found that an increase in Mach number delayed vortex breakdown while Reynolds number had little effect on the vortex formation.     

Optimizing venture capital investments in a jump diffusion model

We study two practical optimization problems in relation to venture capital investments and/or Research and Development (R&D) investments. In the first problem, given the amount of the initial investment and the cash flow structure at the initial public offering (IPO), the venture capitalist wants to maximize overall discounted cash flows after subtracting subsequent investments, which keep the invested company solvent. We describe this problem as a mixture of singular stochastic control and optimal stopping problems. The second problem is concerned with optimal dividend policy. Rather than selling the company at an IPO, the investor may want to harvest technological achievements in the form of dividend when it is appropriate. The optimal control policy in this problem is a mixture of singular and impulse controls. E. Bayraktar was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, under grant DMS-0604491.