Synthesis of 2‐silaoxane via 1,3‐ photocycloaddition

Irradiation of an aryl group with a silyl tethered alkene yields a tetracyclic 2‐silaoxane with high regiose‐lectivity. The multicyclic structure has been further modified to give an unstable tricyclic diol. Photocycloaddition between cyclopentene and phenylcyclopropane gave a single major cycloadduct without cyclopropyl ring opening, indicating that the putative radical intermediate involved in cycloaddition apparently has a very short lifetime if it exists at all.     

Automated Mapping of the MapReduce Pattern onto Parallel Computing Platforms

The MapReduce pattern can be found in many important applications, and can be exploited to significantly improve system parallelism. Unlike previous work, in which designers explicitly specify how to exploit the pattern, we develop a compilation approach for mapping applications with the MapReduce pattern automatically onto Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based parallel computing platforms. We formulate the problem of mapping the MapReduce pattern to hardware as a geometric programming model; this model exploits loop-level parallelism and pipelining to give an optimal implementation on given hardware resources. The approach is capable of handling single and multiple nested MapReduce patterns. Furthermore, we explore important variations of MapReduce, such as using a linear structure rather than a tree structure for merging intermediate results generated in parallel. Results for six benchmarks show that our approach can find performance-optimal designs in the design space, improving system performance by up to 170 times compared to the initial designs on the target platform.     

Accurate relativistic energy-consistent pseudopotentials for the superheavy elements 111 to 118 including quantum electrodynamic effects

Energy-consistent two-component semi-local pseudopotentials for the superheavy elements with atomic numbers 111-118 have been adjusted to fully relativistic multi-configuration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations based on the Dirac-Coulomb Hamiltonian, including perturbative corrections for the frequency-dependent Breit interaction in the Coulomb gauge and lowest-order quantum electrodynamic effects. The pseudopotential core includes 92 electrons corresponding to the configuration [Xe]4f(14)5d(10)5f(14). The parameters for the elements 111-118 were fitted by two-component multi-configuration Hartree-Fock calculations in the intermediate coupling scheme to the total energies of 267 up to 797 J levels arising from 31 up to 62 nonrelativistic configurations, including also anionic and highly ionized states, with mean absolute errors clearly below 0.02 eV for averages corresponding to nonrelativistic configurations. Primitive basis sets for one- and two-component pseudopotential calculations have been optimized for the ground and excited states and exhibit finite basis set errors with respect to the finite-difference Hartree-Fock limit below 0.01 and 0.02 eV, respectively. General contraction schemes have been applied to obtain valence basis sets of polarized valence double- to quadruple-zeta quality. Results of atomic test calculations in the intermediate coupling scheme at the Fock-space coupled-cluster level are in good agreement with those of corresponding fully relativistic all-electron calculations based on the Dirac-Coulomb-Breit Hamiltonian. The results demonstrate besides the well-known need of a relativistic treatment at the Dirac-Coulomb level also the necessity to include higher-order corrections for the superheavy elements.     

Phenothiazinyl rhodanylidene merocyanines for dye-sensitized solar cells

Phenothiazinyl rhodanylidene acetic acid merocyanine dyes with variable substitution pattern on the peripheral benzene ring were synthesized in good to excellent yields by Knoevenagel condensation of the corresponding phenothiazinyl aldehydes and rhodanine-N-acetic acid. The electronic properties were investigated by cyclic voltammetry, absorption, and fluorescence spectroscopy. Electron releasing substitution leads to an appreciable lowering of the oxidation potential, bathochromic shift of the absorption band, and minimization of the emission quantum yield. Not least as a consequence of these properties, the compounds are interesting for use as chromophores in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). DSSCs were constructed and successfully tested by determining the characteristic parameters such as incident-photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE), fill factor (FF), and overall efficiency.     

The importance of precision in sampling sludges, biowastes and treated soils in a regulatory framework

As part of the European Commission (EC)'s revision of the Sewage Sludge Directive and the development of a Biowaste Directive, there was recognition of the difficulty of comparing data from Member States (MSs) because of differences in sampling and analytical procedures. The ‘HORIZONTAL' initiative, funded by the EC and MSs, seeks to address these differences in approach and to produce standardised procedures in the form of CEN standards. This article is a preliminary investigation into aspects of the sampling of biosolids, composts and soils to which there is a history of biosolid application. The article provides information on the measurement uncertainty associated with sampling from heaps, large bags and pipes and soils in the landscape under a limited set of conditions, using sampling approaches in space and time and sample numbers based on procedures widely used in the relevant industries and when sampling similar materials.These preliminary results suggest that considerably more information is required before the appropriate sample design, optimum number of samples, number of samples comprising a composite, and temporal and spatial frequency of sampling might be recommended to achieve consistent results of a high level of precision and confidence.     

Acetone‐Based Cellulose Solvent

Acetone containing tetraalkylammonium chloride is found to be an efficient solvent for cellulose. The addition of an amount of 10 mol% (based on acetone) of well‐soluble salt triethyloctylammonium chloride (Et₃OctN Cl) adjusts the solvent's properties (increases the polarity) to promote cellulose dissolution. Cellulose solutions in acetone/Et₃OctN Cl have the lowest viscosity reported for comparable aprotic solutions making it a promising system for shaping processes and homogeneous chemical modification of the biopolymer. Recovery of the polymer and recycling of the solvent components can be easily achieved.

     

HiggsBounds-4: improved tests of extended Higgs sectors against exclusion bounds from LEP,the Tevatron and the LHC

We describe the new developments in version 4 of the public computer code HiggsBounds. HiggsBounds is a tool to test models with arbitrary Higgs sectors, containing both neutral and charged Higgs bosons, against the published exclusion bounds from Higgs searches at the LEP, Tevatron and LHC experiments. From the model predictions for the Higgs masses, branching ratios, production cross sections and total decay widths—which are specified by the user in the input for the program—the code calculates the predicted signal rates for the search channels considered in the experimental data. The signal rates are compared to the expected and observed cross section limits from the Higgs searches to determine whether a point in the model parameter space is excluded at 95 % confidence level. In this paper we present a modification of the HiggsBounds main algorithm that extends the exclusion test in order to ensure that it provides useful results in the presence of one or more significant excesses in the data, corresponding to potential Higgs signals. We also describe a new method to test whether the limits from an experimental search performed under certain model assumptions can be applied to a different theoretical model. Further developments discussed here include a framework to take into account theoretical uncertainties on the Higgs mass predictions, and the possibility to obtain the $\chi ^2$ likelihood of Higgs exclusion limits from LEP. Extensions to the user subroutines from earlier versions of HiggsBounds are described. The new features are demonstrated by additional example programs.