Experimental and Theoretical Studies on the Rearrangement of 2‐Oxoazepane α,α‐Amino Acids into 2′‐Oxopiperidine β2,3,3‐Amino Acids: An Example of Intramolecular Catalysis

Enantiopure β‐amino acids represent interesting scaffolds for peptidomimetics, foldamers and bioactive compounds. However, the synthesis of highly substituted analogues is still a major challenge. Herein, we describe the spontaneous rearrangement of 4‐carboxy‐2‐oxoazepane α,α‐amino acids to lead to 2′‐oxopiperidine‐containing β^2,3,3‐amino acids, upon basic or acid hydrolysis of the 2‐oxoazepane α,α‐amino acid ester. Under acidic conditions, a totally stereoselective synthetic route has been developed. The reordering process involved the spontaneous breakdown of an amide bond, which typically requires strong conditions, and the formation of a new bond leading to the six‐membered heterocycle. A quantum mechanical study was carried out to obtain insight into the remarkable ease of this rearrangement, which occurs at room temperature, either in solution or upon storage of the 4‐carboxylic acid substituted 2‐oxoazepane derivatives. This theoretical study suggests that the rearrangement process occurs through a concerted mechanism, in which the energy of the transition states can be lowered by the participation of a catalytic water molecule. Interestingly, it also suggested a role for the carboxylic acid at position 4 of the 2‐oxoazepane ring, which facilitates this rearrangement, participating directly in the intramolecular catalysis.     

Concurrent multiresponse non-linear screening: Robust profiling of webpage performance

Profiling engineered data with robust mining methods continues attracting attention in knowledge engineering systems. The purpose of this article is to propose a simple technique that deals with non-linear multi-factorial multi-characteristic screening suitable for knowledge discovery studies. The method is designed to proactively seek and quantify significant information content in engineered mini-datasets. This is achieved by deploying replicated fractional-factorial sampling schemes. Compiled multi-response data are converted to a single master-response effectuated by a series of distribution-free transformations and multi-compressed data fusions. The resulting amalgamated master response is deciphered by non-linear multi-factorial stealth stochastics intended for saturated schemes. The stealth properties of our method target processing datasets which might be overwhelmed by a lack of knowledge about the nature of reference distributions at play. Stealth features are triggered to overcome restrictions regarding the data normality conformance, the effect sparsity assumption and the inherent collapse of the ‘unexplainable error’ connotation in saturated arrays. The technique is showcased by profiling four ordinary controlling factors that influence webpage content performance by collecting data from a commercial browser monitoring service on a large scale web host. The examined effects are: (1) the number of Cascading Style Sheets files, (2) the number of JavaScript files, (3) the number of Image files, and (4) the Domain Name System Aliasing. The webpage performance level was screened against three popular characteristics: (1) the time to first visual, (2) the total loading time, and (3) the customer satisfaction. Our robust multi-response data mining technique is elucidated for a ten-replicate run study dictated by an L₉(3⁴) orthogonal array scheme where any uncontrolled noise embedded contribution has not been necessarily excluded.     

Conversion of Methanol to Aromatic-Rich Gasoline over High-Efficiency Bifunctional Catalysts: Green Synthesis of GaZSM-5 Zeolites via Dry-Gel Conversion Strategy

Russian Journal of Applied Chemistry - Nanoscale ZSM-5 (AlZ5-D) and Ga-substituted ZSM-5 zeolites ((Al,Ga)Z5-D and GaZ5-D) were synthesized by a green dry-gel conversion strategy. For comparison,...     

Towards a Better Prediction of Cell Settling on Nanostructure Arrays—Simple Means to Complicated Ends

Vertical arrays of nanostructures (NSs) are emerging as promising platforms for probing and manipulating live mammalian cells. The broad range of applications requires different types of interfaces, but cell settling on NS arrays is not yet fully controlled and understood. Cells are both seen to deform completely into NS arrays and to stay suspended like tiny fakirs, which have hitherto been explained with differences in NS spacing or density. Here, a better understanding of this phenomenon is provided by using a model that takes into account the extreme membrane deformation needed for a cell to settle into a NS array. It is shown that, in addition to the NS density, cell settling depends strongly on the dimensions of the single NS, and that the settling can be predicted for a given NS array geometry. The predictive power of the model is confirmed by experiments and good agreement with cases from the literature. Furthermore, the influence of cell‐related parameters is evaluated theoretically and a generic method of tuning cell settling through surface coating is demonstrated experimentally. These findings allow a more rational design of NS arrays for the numerous exciting biological applications where the mode of cell settling is crucial.     

Design and investigation of UV image detectors

The results of investigation of optical image detectors designed for the largest problem, near-VUV, range of the spectrum are presented. The possibility of using a dual-stage image detection system to appreciably lower the sensitivity threshold and make computer data processing feasible is considered. The integration of a UV module into a wideband image detector is studied.