A two-step biomimetic synthesis of antimalarial robustadials A and B

The antimalarial robustadials A and B have been synthesized in two steps starting from commercially available phloroglucinol comprising a key biomimetic three-component reaction that involves in situ generation of an o-quinone methide via Knoevenagel condensation and subsequent Diels-Alder cycloaddition with (−)-β-pinene.     

Structure of minimizers in linear-quadratic Bolza problems of optimal control

In this paper, we study intersections of extremals in a linear-quadratic Bolza problem of optimal control. The structure of the inter-sections is described. We show that this structure implies the semipositive definiteness of the quadratic cost functional. In addition, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of minimizers.     

Imidazol(in)ium carboxylates as N-heterocyclic carbene ligand precursors for Suzuki-Miyaura reactions

Simple catalysts formed in situ from palladium acetate and a variety of imidazolium and imidazolinium carboxylates and dithiocarboxylates have been screened in the coupling of aryl halides with trans-2-phenylvinylboronic acid. Imidazol(in)ium carboxylates show an excellent activity, which compares to that displayed by the parent imidazol(in)ium chlorides, whereas imidazol(in)ium dithiocarboxylates are poorly efficient. Interestingly, the base employed exerts a profound influence on the trans/cis stereochemistry of the coupling product.     

Homogeneous immunoassays

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology -     

Effect of the subdivision strategy on convergence and efficiency of some global optimization algorithms

We investigate subdivision strategies that can improve the convergence and efficiency of some branch and bound algorithms of global optimization. In particular, a general class of so called weakly exhaustive simplicial subdivision processes is introduced that subsumes all previously known radial exhaustive processes. This result provides the basis for constructing flexible subdivision strategies that can be adapted to take advantage of various problem conditions.     

Preparation and characterization of ZnO nanorods from NaOH solutions with assisted electrical field

ZnO naorods on ZnO-coated seed substrates were fabricated by solution chemical method from Zn(NO₃)₂/NaOH under assisted electrical field. The working mechanism of electrical field was analyzed and the factors affecting the rod growth such as potential, precursor concentration and growth temperature were elucidated. The structural and optical properties are characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, HRTEM and UV-vis. The results indicated that the nanorods have wurtzite structure without electrical field and are primarily of zincite structure under electrical field; when the electrical field is 1.1-1.3 V, not only the elevation of ion diffusion and adsorption lower the crystallite/solution interfacial energy and then the crystal nucleation barrier by increasing charge intensity, but also the production of H⁺ through oxidation of OH⁻ increases properly the degree of solution supersaturation near the substrate, and thus lowers the activation energy. Both the two processes do favor to rod growth. With increasing precursor concentration in this system, the average diameter and length of ZnO nanorods increase, leading to decreasing of optical transmittance. The maximum rod growth rate at given concentration of Zn²⁺ occurs at a specific temperature.     

Parking Capacity and Pricing in Park'n Ride Trips: A Continuous Equilibrium Network Design Problem

In this paper we consider the problem of designing parking facilities for park'n ride trips. We present a new continuous equilibrium network design problem to decide the capacity and fare of these parking lots at a tactical level. We assume that the parking facilities have already been located and other topological decisions have already been taken.The modeling approach proposed is mathematical programming with equilibrium constraints. In the outer optimization problem, a central Authority evaluates the performance of the transport network for each network design decision. In the inner problem a multimodal traffic assignment with combined modes, formulated as a variational inequality problem, generates the share demand for modes of transportation, and for parking facilities as a function of the design variables of the parking lots. The objective is to make optimal parking investment and pricing decisions in order to minimize the total travel cost in a subnetwork of the multimodal transportation system.We present a new development in model formulation based on the use of generalized parking link cost as a design variable.The bilevel model is solved by a simulated annealing algorithm applied to the continuous and non-negative design decision variables. Numerical tests are reported in order to illustrate the use of the model, and the ability of the approach to solve applications of moderate size.     

Adaptive application of operators in standard representation

Recently adaptive wavelet methods have been developed which can be shown to exhibit an asymptotically optimal accuracy/work balance for a wide class of variational problems including classical elliptic boundary value problems, boundary integral equations as well as certain classes of noncoercive problems such as saddle point problems. A core ingredient of these schemes is the approximate application of the involved operators in standard wavelet representation. Optimal computational complexity could be shown under the assumption that the entries in properly compressed standard representations are known or computable in average at unit cost. In this paper we propose concrete computational strategies and show under which circumstances this assumption is justified in the context of elliptic boundary value problems. Dedicated to Charles A. Micchelli on the occasion of his 60th birthday Mathematics subject classifications (2000) 41A25, 41A46, 65F99, 65N12, 65N55. This work has been supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB 401, the first and third author are supported in part by the European Community's Human Potential Programme under contract HPRN-CT-202-00286 (BREAKING COMPLEXITY). The second author acknowledges the financial support provided through the European Union's Human Potential Programme, under contract HPRN-CT-2002-00285 (HASSIP) and through DFG grant DA 360/4–1.     

Comparative Study on Large and Small Signal Theory for Intensity Modulation Response of Semiconductor Lasers Including Higher-Order Dispersion Terms

In this article, the comparison of large signal theory and small signal theory has been done with dispersive propagation of optical signal with IMDD (Intensity Modulation Direct Detection) systems for semiconductor lasers with higher-order dispersion terms. The expressions for an exact large signal theory and small signal theory including higher-order dispersion terms for propagation of an optical wave with sinusoidal amplitude and frequency modulation in a dispersive fiber have been derived. It is observed that small signal theory is more sensitive compared to large signal theory in terms of intensity modulation/direct detection systems. Also, it is reported that for large signal analysis the higher-order effects of dispersion can be ignored, whereas for small signal theory, the higher-order effects can be ignored for lower modulation frequencies only. The variation in the transfer function for various values of modulation indices are greater for small signal analysis than for large signal analysis. Also, as the intensity modulation index is increased, there is a decrease in the value of transfer function. The large signal model approximates the small signal model for lower values of the intensity modulation index.     

Nash Equilibria,Variational Inequalities,and Dynamical Systems

In this paper, we introduce some relationships between Nash equilibria, variational equilibria, and dynamical equilibria for noncooperative games.