Synthetic efforts towards the protoilludenes. A formal synthesis of Δ-protoilludene

An improved route to 5,8,8-trimethylbicyclo[4.3.0]-4-nonen-3-one, a key intermediate for the synthesis of the protoilludane skeleton and in particular Δ⁷-protoilludene, is reported. Attempts on an alternative synthesis of Δ⁶-protoilludene based on a phenylsulfonyl allene cycloaddition reaction is also presented.     

Iteration of transmit-beam aberration correction in medical ultrasound imaging

Simulations of iterative transmit-beam aberration correction using a time-delay and amplitude filter have been performed to study the convergence of such a process. Aberration in medical ultrasonic imaging is usually modeled by arrival-time and amplitude fluctuations concentrated on the transducer array. This is an approximation of the physical aberration process, and may be applied to correct the transmitted signal using a time-delay and amplitude filter. Estimation of such a filter has proven difficult in the presence of severe aberration. Presented here is an iterative approach, whereby a filter estimate is applied to correct the transmit-beam. This beam induces acoustic backscatter better suited for arrival-time and amplitude estimation, thus facilitating an improved filter estimate. Two correlation-based methods for estimating arrival-time and amplitude fluctuations in received echoes from random scatterers were employed. Aberration was introduced using eight models emulating aberration produced by the human abdominal wall. Results show that only a few iterations are needed to obtain corrected transmit-beam profiles comparable to those of an ideal aberration correction filter. Furthermore, a previously developed focusing criterion is found to quantify the convergence accurately.     

The management of high seas fisheries

The intergovernmental United Nations Conference on Highly Migratory and Straddling Stocks, initiated in 1993 and finished in 1995, addressed the conservation and management of fishery resources located both within the coastal state 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the adjacent high seas. These types of marine resources continue to be a source for international conflicts and debates. The original United Nations Law of the Sea of 1982 failed to address transboundary fisheries in a proper way. In particular, the agreement did not recognize the emergence of the complicated straddling stock issue. In the new United Nations Law of the Sea agreement of 1995, a consensus was reached that the management of the straddling and highly migratory fish stocks should be carried out through regional fisheries management organizations. We present a review of the straddling stock issues in the international agreement emerging from the negotiations within the United Nations. The review is contrasted with and clarified by game theoretic analyses. We also discuss one international fishery exemplifying the case, the Norwegian springspawning herring. The main conclusion is that the local problems, faced during the stage of setting up regional fisheries organizations for the management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks, are expected to be much more complicated and difficult to solve as compared to the cases of shared fish stocks. In the current paper, we present two reasons for this increased complexity. The first is the larger number of players as compared to the case of shared fish stocks and the second is the possibility of new members entering the regional fisheries organizations.     

Eigenfunction analysis of stochastic backscatter for characterization of acoustic aberration in medical ultrasound imaging

Presented here is a characterization of aberration in medical ultrasound imaging. The characterization is optimal in the sense of maximizing the expected energy in a modified beamformer output of the received acoustic backscatter. Aberration correction based on this characterization takes the form of an aberration correction filter. The situation considered is frequently found in applications when imaging organs through a body wall: aberration is introduced in a layer close to the transducer, and acoustic backscatter from a scattering region behind the body wall is measured at the transducer surface. The scattering region consists of scatterers randomly distributed with very short correlation length compared to the acoustic wavelength of the transmit pulse. The scatterer distribution is therefore assumed to be delta correlated. This paper shows how maximizing the expected energy in a modified beamformer output signal naturally leads to eigenfunctions of a Fredholm integral operator, where the associated kernel function is a spatial correlation function of the received stochastic signal. Aberration characterization and aberration correction are presented for simulated data constructed to mimic aberration introduced by the abdominal wall. The results compare well with what is obtainable using data from a simulated point source.     

Estimation of ultrasound wave aberration with signals from random scatterers

A method for estimating waveform aberration from random scatterers in medical ultrasound imaging has been derived and its properties investigated using two-dimensional simulations. The method uses a weighted and modified cross-spectrum in order to estimate arrival time and amplitude fluctuations from received signals. The arrival time and amplitude fluctuations were used in a time delay, and a time delay and amplitude aberration correction filter, for evaluation of the retransmitted aberration corrected signal. Different types of aberration have been used in this study. First, aberration was concentrated on the plane of the transmitting/receiving array. Second, aberration was generated with a distributed aberrator. Both conditions emulated aberration from the human abdominal wall. Results show that for the concentrated aberrator, arrival time and amplitude fluctuations were estimated in close agreement with reference values. The reference values were obtained from simulations with a point source in the focal point of the array. Correction of the transmitted signal with a time delay, and a time delay and amplitude filter produced approximately equal correction as with point source estimates. For the distributed aberrator, the estimator performance degraded significantly. Arrival time and amplitude fluctuations deviated from reference values, leading to a limited correction of the retransmitted signal.     

An asymmetric iodolactonization reaction catalyzed by a zinc bis-proline–phenol complex

The intramolecular zinc bis-proline-phenol complex 2a was found to promote enantioselective iodolactonization reactions of both electron-rich and electron-poor 5-aryl-5-hexenoic acids affording δ-iodolactones in good chemical yields with up to 82% enantiomeric excess. The reactions were found to be insensitive to air and moisture, providing an experimentally simple protocol for synthetically useful compounds.     

Reflexive modules on normal surface singularities and representations of the local fundamental group

We consider the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence on the complement of a normal surface singularity (X,x). Through a closure operation we obtain a correspondence between the category of finite dimensional representations of the local fundamental group and the category of left D_X,x-modules that are reflexive as O_X,x-modules. We show that under this correspondence profinite representations correspond to invariant modules and that these admit a canonical structure as left D_X,x-modules. We prove that the fundamental module is an invariant module if and only if (X,x) is a quotient singularity. Finally we investigate some algebraisation aspects.