Novel bromination reagents · hexabromocyclopentadiene: bromination of activated saturated sites

Hexabromocyclopentadiene (HBC) readily brominates α-keto and benzylic sites, apparently by bromonium ion transfer.     

Zur Kenntnis des Faktors F430 aus methanogenen Bakterien: Struktur des proteinfreien Faktors

Factor F430 from Methanogenic Bacteria: Structure of the Protein-free Factor Factor F430, the porphinoid nickel-containing coenzyme of the methylcoenzyme-M reductase of metanogenic bacteria is shown to be the 3³,8³,12²,13³,18²-pentaacid derivative of the pentamethylester F430M, the structure of which had been determined previously (see structural formulae 1 and 2 ). The structure assignment rests on chromatographic, UV/VIS-, CD-, IR-, and ¹³C-NMR-spectroscopic as well as FAB-mass spectral comparision of F430 with F430M and the pentaacid prepared by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of F430M. In the cells of Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum, factor F430 is present in a ‘bound’ and also, depending on the growth conditions, in ‘free’ form, the latter being defined as the part of total F430 that can be extracted from the cells under extremely mild conditions (80% EtOH at 0–4°). From the (protein)-‘bound’ form, F430 is extracted by subsequently treating the cells at 0–4° with 80% EtOH containing (e.g.), 2m LiCi. From both sources, the extracted factor is the same pentaacid, and there is no indication for the existence of a protein-free F430 species that would contain additional (covalently bound) structural elements.     

Growth and decomposition of lithium and lithium hydride on nickel

In this paper we have investigated the deposition, structure and decomposition of lithium and lithium-hydride films on a nickel substrate. Using surface sensitive techniques it was possible to quantify the deposited Li amount, and to optimize the deposition procedure for synthesizing lithium-hydride films.By only making thin films of LiH it is possible to study the stability of these hydride layers and compare it directly with the stability of pure Li without having any transport phenomena or adsorbed oxygen to obscure the results. The desorption of metallic lithium takes place at a lower temperature than the decomposition of the lithium-hydride, confirming the high stability and sintering problems of lithium-hydride making the storage potential a challenge.     

Preserving Non-null with Suslin+ Forcings

We introduce the notion of effective Axiom A and use it to show that some popular tree forcings are Suslin⁺. We introduce transitive nep and present a simplified version of Shelah’s “preserving a little implies preserving much”: If I is a Suslin ccc ideal (e.g. Lebesgue-null or meager) and P is a transitive nep forcing (e.g. P is Suslin⁺) and P does not make any I-positive Borel set small, then P does not make any I-positive set small.     

Direct Observation of Acetophenone Enol Formed by Photohydration of Phenylacetylene

The photohydration of phenylacetylene yields acetophenone enol as a transient primary product which was detected by flash photolysis. The identification of the transient intermediate rests on a quantitative comparison of its decay kinetics with that of authentic acetophenone enol generated by Norrish type-II photoelimination from γ-hydroxybutyrophenone in aqueous HCl and aqueous AcOH buffer solutions.     

Direct coupling of intracerebral dialysis with flow injection analysis based on enzymatic/fluorescence detection of lactic acid

Rapid, specific measurement of the lactic acid content of the extracellular fluid of a conscious, freely-moving rat can be accomplished by direct combination of intracerebral dialysis and flow injection analysis with enzymatic/fluorescence detection. Basal levels of lactic acid, the end product of anaerobic glycolysis, can be measured by using lactate dehydrogenase to convert lactate to pyruvate with consequent generation of NADH, which is monitored fluorimetrically. The rapid response time of this system, 40 s, allows real-time measurement of transient changes in anaerobic metabolism in the striatum of the rat, as illustrated after electrically-induced seizures.     

Geometrical Solution to the Fermat Problem with Arbitrary Weights

The prime motivation for the present study is a famous problem, allegedly first formulated in 1643 by Fermat, and the so-called Complementary Problem (CP), proposed but incorrectly solved in 1941 by Courant and Robbins. For a given triangle, Fermat asks for a fourth point such that the sum of its Euclidean distances, each weighted by +1, to the three given points is minimized. CP differs from Fermat in that the weight associated with one of these points is –1 instead of +1. The geometrical approach suggested in 1998 by Krarup for solving CP is here extended to cover any combination of positive and negative weights associated with the vertices of a given triangle. Among the by-products are surprisingly simple correctness proofs of the geometrical constructions of Torricelli (around 1645), Cavalieri (1647), Viviani (1659), Simpson (1750), and Martelli (1998). Furthermore, alternative proofs of Ptolemy's theorem (around A.D. 150) and an observation by Heinen (1834) are provided.