Synthetic studies in the alkaloid field-IX: Stereospecific total synthesis of (±)-19,20-dihydro-20-desformyl-20-methoxycarbonyl-vallesiachotamine and its 20-desethyl analogue

The stereospecific total synthesis of (±) - 19,20 - dihydro - 20 - desformyl - 20 - methoxycarbonyl-vallesiachotamine and its 20-desethyl analogue has been carried out by sodium dithionite reduction of appropriate 1-[2-(3-indolyl)ethyl]-3-methoxycarbonyl pyridinium salts to the corresponding 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives, followed by acid-induced cyclization.     

Ab initio study of bonding trends for f0 actinide oxyfluoride species

 Fully relativistic, four-component Dirac–Fock calculations and quasirelativistic pseudopotential calculations at different ab initio levels are used to study the bonding trends among the naked, triatomic [OAnO] ^q+ groups or the oxyfluorides [AnO _n F _m ] ^q with f ⁰ configurations. The triatomic f ⁰ series is suggested to range from the bent ThO₂ via the linear OPaO⁺ to at least NpO₂ ³⁺, a possible new gas-phase species. The neutral oxyfluoride molecules include the experimentally unknown NpO₂F₃ and PuO₂F₄. The latter is a candidate for the so far unknown oxidation state Pu(VIII), which is found to lie considerably above Pu(VI), but to be locally stable. Their all-oxygen isoelectronic analogues are NpO₅ ³⁻, known in the solid state, and the unknown PuO₆ ⁴⁻. Further possible candidates for Pu(VIII) are PuO₄(D _4h ) and the cube-shaped PuF₈(O _h ). Isoelectronic UF₈ ²⁻ is calculated to be D _4d , in agreement with experiment. Received: 18 May 2001 / Accepted: 21 June 2001 / Published online: 11 October 2001     

Determination of Stoichiometric Dissociation Constants of Benzoic Acid in Aqueous Sodium or Potassium Chloride Solutions at 25°C

Equations were determined for the calculation of the stoichiometric (molality scale) dissociation constant K_m of benzoic acid in dilute aqueous NaCl and KCl solutions at 25°C from the thermodynamic dissociation constant K_a of this acid and from the ionic strength I_m of the solution. The salt alone determines mostly the ionic strength of the solutions considered in this study and the equations for K_m were based on the single-ion activity coefficient equations of the Hückel type. The existing literature data obtained by conductance measurements and by electromotive force (EMF) measurements on Harned cells were first used to revise the thermodynamic value of the dissociation constant of benzoic acid. A value of K_a = (6.326 ± 0.005) × 10^-5 was obtained from the most precise conductivity set [Brockman and Kilpatrick] and this value is supported within their precisions by the less precise conductivity set of Dippy and Williams and by the EMF data set measured by Jones and Parton with quinhydrone electrodes. The new data measured by potentiometric titrations in a glass electrode cell were then used for the estimation of the parameters of the Hückel equations of benzoate ions. The resulting parameters were also tested with the existing literature data measured by cells with and without a liquid junction. The Hückel parameters suggested here are close to those determined previously for anions resulting from aromatic and aliphatic carboxylic acids. By means of the calculation method based on the Hückel equations, K_m can be obtained almost within experimental error at least up to I_m of about 0.5 mol-kg_-1 for benzoic acid in NaCl and KCl solutions.     

On functions with derivatives in a Lorentz space

We establish a sharp integrability condition on the partial derivatives of a Sobolev mapping to guarantee that sets of measure zero get mapped to sets of measure zero. This condition is sharp also for continuity and differentiability almost everywhere. Received: 6 January 1999 / Revised version: 5 May 1999     

Sobolev embeddings, extensions and measure density condition

There are two main results in the paper. In the first one, Theorem 1, we prove that if the Sobolev embedding theorem holds in Ω, in any of all the possible cases, then Ω satisfies the measure density condition. The second main result, Theorem 5, provides several characterizations of the Wm,p-extension domains for 1<p<∞. As a corollary we prove that the property of being a W1,p-extension domain, 1<p?∞, is invariant under bi-Lipschitz mappings, Theorem 8.     

Energy‐dispersive diffraction with synchrotron radiation and a germanium detector

The response of an intrinsic Ge detector in energy‐dispersive diffraction measurements with synchrotron radiation is studied with model calculations and diffraction from perfect Si single‐crystal samples. The high intensity and time‐structure of the synchrotron radiation beam leads to pile‐up of the output pulses, and the energy distribution of the pile‐up pulses is characteristic of the fill pattern of the storage ring. The pile‐up distribution has a single peak and long tail when the interval of the radiation bunches is small, as in the uniform fill pattern, but there are many pile‐up peaks when the bunch distance is a sizable fraction of the length of the shaping amplifier output pulse. A model for the detecting chain response is used to resolve the diffraction spectrum from a perfect Si crystal wafer in the symmetrical Laue case. In the 16‐bunch fill pattern of the ESRF storage ring the spectrum includes a large number of `extra reflections' owing to pile‐up, and the model parameters are refined by a fit to the observed energy spectrum. The model is used to correct for the effects of pile‐up in a measurement with the 1/3 fill pattern of the storage ring. Si reflections (2h,2h,0) are resolved up to h = 7. The pile‐up corrections are very large, but a perfect agreement with the integrated intensities calculated from dynamical diffraction theory is achieved after the corrections. The result also demonstrates the convergence of kinematical and dynamical theories at the limit where the extinction length is much larger than the effective thickness of the perfect crystal. The model is applied to powder diffraction using different fill patterns in simulations of the diffraction pattern, and it is demonstrated that the regularly spaced pile‐up peaks might be misinterpreted to arise from superlattices or phase transitions. The use of energy‐dispersive diffraction in strain mapping in polycrystalline materials is discussed, and it is shown that low count rates but still good statistical accuracy are needed for reliable results.     

On the development of a biomechatronic system to record tendon sliding movements

The main goal of this paper is to study the feasibility of a novel implantable micro-system able to record information about tendon sliding movements by using contactless measurement devices (magnetic sources and sensors). The system, named "Biomechatronic Position Transducer" (BPT), can be used for the implementation of advanced control strategies in neuroprostheses. After a preliminary analysis based on finite element model simulations, an experimental setup was developed in order to simulate the recording conditions (the sensors fixed to the bones and the magnetic sources placed on the tendons). In order to limit the number of implanted components of the system, a fuzzy Mamdani-like architecture was developed to extract the information from the raw data. The results confirm the possibility of using the presented approach for developing an implantable micro-sensor able to extract kinematic information useful for the control of neuroprostheses. Future works will go in the direction of integrating and testing the sensors and the electronic circuitry (to provide power supply and to record the data) during in vitro and in situ experiments.