Synthesis of L-carbafuranomycin, an unnatural analogue of the antibiotic amino acid furanomycin

[reaction: see text] L-(+)-carbafuranomycin is a novel analogue of L-(+)-furanomycin, an unusual antibiotic alpha-amino acid that attracted great interest due to its activity as an isoleucine antagonist. We present here a concise and efficient asymmetric synthesis of this carba-analogue starting with the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of a chiral nitrile oxide with cyclopentadiene. Notably, the methyl group was introduced by an S(N)2' cuprate substitution with high stereo- and regioselectivity.     

Long-range critical wetting: observation of a critical end point

Alkanes deposited on aqueous substrates exhibit two different types of wetting behavior: alternatively to the usual first-order wetting transition, a sequential-wetting scenario of a long-range critical wetting transition preceded by a first-order thin-thick transition may be observed. Here, we present the first successful experimental attempt to locate the transition point between the standard first-order wetting and the long-range critical wetting: a critical end point, observed in a mixture of pentane and hexane which is deposited on an aqueous solution of glucose. Furthermore, we present the first direct measurement of the contact angle in the intermediate wetting state (frustrated-complete wetting) in the sequential-wetting scenario of hexane on brine and compare to theoretical predictions.     

Chemistry in microstructured reactors

The application of microstructured reactors in the chemical process industry has gained significant importance in recent years. Companies that offer not only microstructured reactors, but also entire chemical process plants and services relating to them, are already in existence. In addition, many institutes and universities are active within this field, and process-engineering-oriented reviews and a specialized book are available. Microstructured systems can be applied with particular success in the investigation of highly exothermic and fast reactions. Often the presence of temperature-induced side reactions can be significantly reduced through isothermal operations. Although microstructured reaction techniques have been shown to optimize many synthetic procedures, they have not yet received the attention they deserve in organic chemistry. For this reason, this Review aims to address this by providing an overview of the chemistry in microstructured reactors, grouped into liquid-phase, gas-phase, and gas-liquid reactions.     

Finding All Maximal Cliques in Dynamic Graphs

Clustering applications dealing with perception based or biased data lead to models with non-disjunct clusters. There, objects to be clustered are allowed to belong to several clusters at the same time which results in a fuzzy clustering. It can be shown that this is equivalent to searching all maximal cliques in dynamic graphs like G _t = (V,E _t), where E _{t – 1} E _t, t = 1,...,T; E ₀ = . In this article algorithms are provided to track all maximal cliques in a fully dynamic graph.     

Simultaneously suppressing frequency and intensity noise in a Nd:YAG nonplanar ring oscillator by means of the current-lock technique

We show that frequency and intensity noise in a Nd:YAG laser are correlated to a high degree and can be traced to the same underlying cause, namely, power fluctuations of the pump source. Because of this correlation, simultaneous suppression of frequency and intensity noise by 30 dB is achieved by means of a single actuator, the pump power.     

Characterization of an optical multilayer hydrophone with constant frequency response in the range from 1 to 75 MHz

The performance of an optical multilayer hydrophone for ultrasound measurements is investigated both in theoretical terms and experimentally. The optical measurement system comprises a thin high-finesse dielectric interference filter structure that is deposited onto a plane glass plate. An incident acoustic pressure wave deforms the layer system, and the induced variation of the optical reflectance is determined. Applying the concept of an optical off-axis detection scheme offers good sensitivity and a simple and low-cost setup. A primary interferometric calibration technique is applied to experimentally determine the pressure-voltage transfer function in the range from 1 to 75 MHz. Within the measurement uncertainty a constant transfer factor is obtained for the whole frequency range. Measurements of broadband ultrasound pulses are influenced neither by acoustic resonances of the very thin sensing element nor by diffraction phenomena that are known to cause waveform distortions in small probe hydrophone measurements. High temporal and spatial resolution is combined with high durability of the probe, which is why the optical multilayer hydrophone is well suited for use as a reference for secondary hydrophone calibration.     

Simple diastereoselectivity on addition of alpha-haloalkyl Grignard reagents to benzaldehyde

The addition of alpha-haloalkyl Grignard reagents to benzaldehyde occurs with simple diastereoselectivity substantially higher than that of the corresponding lithium reagents. Reaction in the presence of dimethyl-aluminum chloride suppresses subsequent Oppenauer oxidation of the resulting Mg-alkoxides by excess benzaldehyde.