A Direct and Efficient Synthetic Method for Nitriles from Ketones

Cyclic cyano derivatives 3 were obtained by the reaction of Me₃SiCN / ZnI₂ with the cyclic ketones 2 which gave the trimethylsilyloxy nitriles 4. They were directly transformed to cyano derivatives 3 (70–80% yield) by the reductive reagent Me₃SiCl-NaI in acetonitrile in the presence of H₂O.     

A Simple and Efficient Procedure for the Preparation of Benzal Chlorides and Benzal Bromides

Benzal chlorides and benzal bromides were conveniently synthesized by reaction of aryl aldehydes with a Vilsmeier type reagent formed in situ by reduction of CC1₄ or CBr₄ in dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent.     

Synthesis of Polyamides-11 with Sulfonamide End Groups

α,ω-Diaminooligoamides-11 were prepared and their structure was controlled by endgroup titration, elemental analysis, and infrared and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. A fundamental study of the reaction between αA,ω diaminooligoamides and p-toluenesulfonyl chloride in DMF showed that a side reaction takes place. This was carefully characterized. When the reaction was carried out in chlorobenzene (on models and on polymers), well-defined compounds were obtained which were characterized by different techniques.     

Pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) of diuretic drugs in herbal formulations using a gold electrode following ion-pair chromatographic separation

Herein, we present a new method based on separation by ion-pair chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection for evaluating various diuretics, including hydrochlorothiazide, chlorthalidone, furosemide, and amiloride, which are adulterants in herbal-based pharmaceutical formulations. The amperometric detection cycle (time?=?2 s) was performed at a gold electrode by applying a detection potential (E1) of +800 mV for 0.4 s and an oxidation potential (E2) of +1,000 mV for 0.40 s, followed by a reduction potential (E3) of ?200 mV for 1.20 s. The mobile phase for separating the diuretics was composed of 5 mmol L^?1 phosphate buffer and 0.3 mmol L^?1 sodium dodecyl sulfate in 50 % (v/v) methanol (pH 4.5). This method enabled the quantification of the drugs at low concentrations (i.e., 0.08 mg/capsule for hydrochlorothiazide, 0.01 mg/capsule for chlorthalidone, and 0.007 mg/capsule for furosemide). Twenty-six herbal formulations were analyzed, and eight samples (30.8 %) were found to contain diuretics that were added to the final composition (declared or not).     

Nonlinear filtering with a symmetric space valued discontinuous observation

The aim of this paper is to derive the Zakai equation associated with nonlinear filtering problems when the observation process is discontinuous and takes its values in a Riemannian symmetric space. The main tools are the stochastic development and the horizontal lift of manifold–valued càdlàg semimartingales     

Spectre de A(\̄gW) pour des domaines bornés faiblement pseudoconvexes réguliers

If Ω is a weakly pseudoconvex domain in a Stein manifold, then the spectrum of the Frechet Algebra $\text{A}{}^{\mathrm{\infty }}\text{(}\text{}\text{?}\text{gW)}$ is isomorphic to $\text{}\text{?}\text{gW, A}{}^{\mathrm{\infty }}\text{(}\text{}\text{?}\text{gW)}$ denotes the space of holomorphic functions smooth up to the boundary. The spectrum of the uniform algebra $\text{A(}\text{}\text{?}\text{gW)}$ is also isomorphic to -Ω. As a corollary we prove an approximation theorem for plurisubharmonic functions in $\text{Ω}$ continuous in -Ω.     

Audiogram of a harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) measured with narrow-band frequency-modulated signals

The underwater hearing sensitivity of a two-year-old harbor porpoise was measured in a pool using standard psycho-acoustic techniques. The go/no-go response paradigm and up-down staircase psychometric method were used. Auditory sensitivity was measured by using narrow-band frequency-modulated signals having center frequencies between 250 Hz and 180 kHz. The resulting audiogram was U-shaped with the range of best hearing (defined as 10 dB within maximum sensitivity) from 16 to 140 kHz, with a reduced sensitivity around 64 kHz. Maximum sensitivity (about 33 dB re 1 microPa) occurred between 100 and 140 kHz. This maximum sensitivity range corresponds with the peak frequency of echolocation pulses produced by harbor porpoises (120-130 kHz). Sensitivity falls about 10 dB per octave below 16 kHz and falls off sharply above 140 kHz (260 dB per octave). Compared to a previous audiogram of this species (Andersen, 1970), the present audiogram shows less sensitive hearing between 2 and 8 kHz and more sensitive hearing between 16 and 180 kHz. This harbor porpoise has the highest upper-frequency limit of all odontocetes investigated. The time it took for the porpoise to move its head 22 cm after the signal onset (movement time) was also measured. It increased from about 1 s at 10 dB above threshold, to about 1.5 s at threshold.     

Neural correlates of semantic and syntactic processes in the comprehension of case marked pronouns: Evidence from German and Dutch

Background  

It is well known that both semantic and syntactic information play a role in pronoun resolution in sentences. However, it is unclear what the relative contribution of these sources of information is for the establishment of a coreferential relationship between the pronoun and the antecedent in combination with a local structural case constraint on the pronoun (i.e. case assignment of a pronoun under preposition governing). In a prepositional phrase in German and Dutch, it is the preposition that assigns case to the pronoun. Furthermore, in these languages different overtly case-marked pronouns are used to refer to male and female persons. Thus, one can manipulate biological/syntactic gender features separately from case marking features.