Introduction: María Victoria Roux, colleague, calorimetrist, and friend

This essay is the introductory paper for a special issue of Structural Chemistry explicitly dedicated to the premier Spanish calorimetrist and thermochemist, our colleague and friend, María Victoria Roux. The studies in this issue were written on the occasion of her recent retirement from the CSIC Institute of Physical Chemistry “Rocasolano,” Madrid.     

Reductive Ring Opening of Ephedrine and Pseudo-Ephedrine-Derived Oxazolidinium Methiodides by Sodium Borohydride. A Direct Access to New Chiral Amine-Borane Adducts

Sodiun borohydride reacts with oxazolidinium methiodides derived from ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, in ethereal solvents, cleaving regioselectively the C-N bond of the ring and leading, in good yields, to chiral amine-borane adducts of know absolute configuration. The ¹HNMR data allow to predict the most stable conformation.     

On the Number of Type Change Loci of a Generalized Complex Structure

In this note, we describe a procedure to construct generalized complex structures whose type change locus has arbitrarily many path components on products of the circle with a connected sum of closed 3-manifolds. As an application, we use the procedure to exhibit such geometric structures on a myriad of simply connected 4-manifolds among many others.     

Symmetric periodic solutions in the Sitnikov problem

An elementary method to prove the existence of odd periodic solutions with a prescribed number of zeros is presented. In some cases it is also possible to prove the uniqueness of this solution. The method combines shooting arguments with Sturm comparison theory and can be applied to a large class of nonlinear oscillators. In particular, this class includes the Sitnikov problem, a well-known restricted three body problem.     

A Simple Strategy to Improve the Accuracy of the Injection Step in Batch Injection Analysis Systems with Amperometric Detection

In this study, we describe for the first time the application of an internal standard method to compensate for random errors associated with the injection procedure in batch injection analysis (BIA) systems with multiple pulse amperometric detection. A sequence of potential pulses was selected in such a way that the internal standard (IS) compound was detected individually at one potential pulse and both the IS and analyte, were detected at another potential pulse. The current ratio (I_IS+analyte/I_IS) was used in the construction of the calibration curve and then to compensate for random errors. The use of disposable syringes or manual pipettes in BIA systems increases the robustness of the method and dispenses with skilled operators.