Silica sulfuric acid: an efficient and reusable catalyst for the one-pot synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones

Silica sulfuric acid efficiently catalyzes the three-component Biginelli reaction between an aldehyde, a β-dicarbonyl compound and urea or thiourea in refluxing ethanol to afford the corresponding dihydropyrimidinones in high yields. The catalyst is reusable and can be applied several times without any decrease in the yield of the reactions.     

Circular chromatic index of graphs of maximum degree 3

This paper proves that if G is a graph (parallel edges allowed) of maximum degree 3, then χ′_c(G) ≤ 11/3 provided that G does not contain H₁ or H₂ as a subgraph, where H₁ and H₂ are obtained by subdividing one edge of K (the graph with three parallel edges between two vertices) and K₄, respectively. As χ′_c(H₁) = χ′_c(H₂) = 4, our result implies that there is no graph G with 11/3 < χ′_c(G) < 4. It also implies that if G is a 2‐edge connected cubic graph, then χ′_c(G) ≤ 11/3. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 49: 325–335, 2005     

Data-driven distributionally robust optimization using the Wasserstein metric: performance guarantees and tractable reformulations

We consider stochastic programs where the distribution of the uncertain parameters is only observable through a finite training dataset. Using the Wasserstein metric, we construct a ball in the space of (multivariate and non-discrete) probability distributions centered at the uniform distribution on the training samples, and we seek decisions that perform best in view of the worst-case distribution within this Wasserstein ball. The state-of-the-art methods for solving the resulting distributionally robust optimization problems rely on global optimization techniques, which quickly become computationally excruciating. In this paper we demonstrate that, under mild assumptions, the distributionally robust optimization problems over Wasserstein balls can in fact be reformulated as finite convex programs—in many interesting cases even as tractable linear programs. Leveraging recent measure concentration results, we also show that their solutions enjoy powerful finite-sample performance guarantees. Our theoretical results are exemplified in mean-risk portfolio optimization as well as uncertainty quantification.

     

Rogue waves management by external potentials

We study the effect of time-dependent linear and quadratic potentials on the profile and dynamics of rogue waves represented by a Peregrine soliton. The Akhmediev breather, Ma breather, bright soliton, Peregrine soliton, and constant wave (CW) are all obtained by changing the value of one parameter in the general solution corresponding to the amplitude of the input CW. The corresponding solutions for the case with linear and quadratic potentials were derived by the similarity transformation method. While the peak height and width of the rogue wave turn out to be insensitive to the linear potential, the trajectory of its center-of-mass can be manipulated with an arbitrary time-dependent slope of the linear potential. With a quadratic potential, the peak height and width of the rogue wave can be arbitrarily manipulated to result, for a special case, in a very intense pulse.     

Practical High-Throughput Method to Screen Compounds for Anthelmintic Activity against Caenorhabditis elegans

In the present study, we established a practical and cost-effective high throughput screening assay, which relies on the measurement of the motility of Caenorhabditis elegans by infrared light-interference. Using this assay, we screened 14,400 small molecules from the “HitFinder” library (Maybridge), achieving a hit rate of 0.3%. We identified small molecules that reproducibly inhibited the motility of C. elegans (young adults) and assessed dose relationships for a subset of compounds. Future work will critically evaluate the potential of some of these hits as candidates for subsequent optimisation or repurposing as nematocides or nematostats. This high throughput screening assay has the advantage over many previous assays in that it is cost- and time-effective to carry out and achieves a markedly higher throughput (~10,000 compounds per week); therefore, it is suited to the screening of libraries of tens to hundreds of thousands of compounds for subsequent evaluation and development. The present phenotypic whole-worm assay should be readily adaptable to a range of socioeconomically important parasitic nematodes of humans and animals, depending on their dimensions and motility characteristics in vitro, for the discovery of new anthelmintic candidates. This focus is particularly important, given the widespread problems associated with drug resistance in many parasitic worms of livestock animals globally.     

SOME NEW EXTENSIONS OF EDELSTEIN-SUZUKI-TYPE FIXED POINT THEOREM TO G-METRIC AND G-CONE METRIC SPACES

In this paper, we prove some fixed point theorems for generalized contractions in the setting of G-metric spaces. Our results extend a result of Edelstein [M. Edelstein, On fixed and periodic points under contractive mappings, J. London Math. Soc., 37 （1962）, 74-79] and a result of Suzuki [T. Suzuki, A new type of fixed point theorem in metric spaces, Nonlinear Anal., 71 （2009）, 5313-5317]. We prove, also, a fixed point theorem in the setting of G-cone metric spaces.     

c-capability of Lie algebras with the derived subalgebra of dimension two

The current article is devoted to classify the c-capability of finite dimensional nilpotent Lie algebras with the derived subalgebra of dimension two.     

An alternative approach for recording of multidimensional NMR data based on frequency dependent folding mechanism

A new scheme for obtaining HSQC spectra with improved resolution or in a shorter time called SHARC (Shaped Arrayed data aCquisition protocol) is proposed, which uses region selective RF pulses and allows the sweep width to be adjusted individually for each region. It thus bypasses the problems with the Nyquist theorem associated with other method suggested for this purpose. Assignment of the cross-peaks to their respective region is achieved by manipulating the phases of the RF pulses and/or their frequencies. SHARC NMR can be applied without any previous knowledge of the chemical shift distribution, but can be further optimized on the basis of a quick overview spectrum.     

Determination of acidic drugs in biological and environmental matrices by membrane‐based dual emulsification liquid‐phase microextraction followed by high‐performance liquid chromatography

A simple method is introduced providing a highly clean microextraction for the determination of some anti‐inflammatory drugs as the model analytes in human urine and environmental matrices. This method is based upon the implementation of two consecutive emulsification liquid‐phase microextractions, which are separated by a syringe filtration step. In this method, the organic extraction solvent (dihexyl ether) is dispersed into the aqueous sample solution (20 mL), and the resulting cloudy mixture is passed through a hydrophilic polytetrafluoroethylene syringe filter. By this action, the extraction phase containing the analytes and many interfering species that could be transferred into the organic phase is retained behind the hydrophilic membrane. The filter is then detached from the syringe and attached to another syringe containing an aqueous solution (pH 12.0, 150 μL), and by the in‐syringe dispersion of the organic phase into the aqueous phase, the analytes are selectively back‐extracted into the aqueous phase. The developed method is centrifuge‐free and very simple, and provides a high sample clean‐up in a few minutes. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the developed method provided a linearity in the range of 2.0–2000 ng/mL, a low limit of detection (0.5 ng/mL), and enrichment factors of 47–53.