Beyond Stereoselectivity,Switchable Catalysis: Some of the Last Frontier Challenges in Ring‐Opening Polymerization of Cyclic Esters

Metal‐based catalysts and initiators have played a pivotal role in the ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of cyclic esters, thanks to their high activity and remarkable ability to control precisely the architectures of the resulting polyesters in terms of molar mass, dispersity, microstructure, or tacticity. Today, after two decades of extensive research, the field is slowly reaching maturity. However, several challenges remain, while original concepts have emerged around new types or new applications of catalysis. This Review is not intended to comprehensively cover all of these aspects. Rather, it provides a personal overview of the very recent progress achieved in some selected, important aspects of ROP catalysis—stereocontrol and switchable catalysis. Hence, the first part addresses the development of new metal‐based catalysts for the isoselective ROP of racemic lactide towards stereoblock copolymers, and the use of syndioselective ROP metal catalysts to control the monomer sequence in copolymers. A second part covers the development of ROP catalysts—primarily metal‐based catalysts, but also organocatalysts—that can be externally regulated by the use of chemical or photo stimuli to switch them between two states with different catalytic abilities. Current challenges and opportunities are highlighted.     

A new strategy for synthesis of branched cyclic peptide by Asn side-chain hydrazide ligation

Here, we report a new strategy for rapid synthesis of branched peptide by side-chain hydrazide ligation at Asn. The hydrazide was converted to thioester at Asn side chain by NaNO₂ and thiol reagent, and sequential ligation with an N-terminus Cys-peptide efficiently afforded the branched peptide. A branched cyclic peptide was successfully synthesized by side-chain ligation with a two-Cys-peptide and formation of a disulfide bond. This approach provides a new way for expeditious synthesis of branched peptides and facilitates the design of neopeptides as functional bio-mimics.     

An M/G/1 Retrial Queueing System with Two-Phase Service and Preemptive Resume

An M/G/1 retrial queueing system with additional phase of service and possible preemptive resume service discipline is considered. For an arbitrarily distributed retrial time distribution, the necessary and sufficient condition for the system stability is obtained, assuming that only the customer at the head of the orbit has priority access to the server. The steady-state distributions of the server state and the number of customers in the orbit are obtained along with other performance measures. The effects of various parameters on the system performance are analysed numerically. A general decomposition law for this retrial queueing system is established.     

一类稀疏效应下捕食┐被捕食者系统极限环的存在性和唯一性

本文研究捕食者种群具有线性密度制约的一类稀疏效应下捕食－被捕食者系统ｘ＝ｘ（ａｘ－ｃｘ３－ｂｙ），ｙ＝ｙ（－α＋βｘ－γｙ）．（＊）得到：（１）当Ａ１＜Ａ１，Ａ２＜Ａ２，Ａ３＞Ａ３时，系统（＊）在第一象限内存在极限环；（２）当Ａ２＜Ａ２，Ａ３＞Ａ３时，系统（＊）在第一象限内存在唯一极限环     

Cycle and circle tests of balance in gain graphs: Forbidden minors and their groups

We examine two criteria for balance of a gain graph, one based on binary cycles and one on circles. The graphs for which each criterion is valid depend on the set of allowed gain groups. The binary cycle test is invalid, except for forests, if any possible gain group has an element of odd order. Assuming all groups are allowed, or all abelian groups, or merely the cyclic group of order 3, we characterize, both constructively and by forbidden minors, the graphs for which the circle test is valid. It turns out that these three classes of groups have the same set of forbidden minors. The exact reason for the importance of the ternary cyclic group is not clear. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

The number of limit cycles of cubic Hamiltonian system with perturbation

In this paper, by using qualitative analysis, we investigate the number of limit cycles of perturbed cubic Hamiltonian system with perturbation in the form of (2n+2m) or (2n+2m+1)th degree polynomials . We show that the perturbed systems has at most (n+m) limit cycles, and has at most n limit cycles if m=1. If m=1, n=1 and m=1, n=2, the general conditions for the number of existing limit cycles and the stability of the limit cycles will be established, respectively. Such conditions depend on the coefficients of the perturbed terms. In order to illustrate our results, two numerical examples on the location and stability of the limit cycles are given.     

〈I〉型三角剖分下非张量积连续小波基的构造

多维非张量积小波是近年小波研究领域中的热点问题之一 ,它们与多维张量积小波相比具有更多的优势 .关于高维张量积、非张量积小波 ,目前已有一些很好的工作 (见文[2 ] [3 ] [4 ] ) ,但关于样条小波 ,还有许多问题有待于研究 .本文针对〈I〉型三角剖分下的二维线性元空间 ,讨论其具有紧支集和对称性的半正交样条小波基 .给定 x1 x2 平面上的〈I〉型三角剖分 (图 1 ( a)所示 ) ,记 j=( j1 ,j2 ) ,| j| =j1 + j2 ,πm= { 0≤ |j|≤ mCj1j2 xj11 xj22 ,Cj1,j2 是任意实数 }为次数不超过 m的代数多项式全体 .引入剖分尺度为 1的线性元空间 V0…     

Products of mixed covering arrays of strength two

A covering array CA(N;t,k, v is an N × k array such that every N × t subarray contains all t‐tuples from v symbols at least once, where t is the strength of the array. Covering arrays are used to generate software test suites to cover all t‐sets of component interactions. The particular case when t = 2 (pairwise coverage) has been extensively studied, both to develop combinatorial constructions and to provide effective algorithmic search techniques. In this paper, a simple “cut‐and‐paste” construction is extended to covering arrays in which different columns (factors) admit different numbers of symbols (values); in the process an improved recursive construction for covering arrays with t = 2 is derived. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 124–138, 2006     

Studying the process of ionization of hydrogen in conditions of its forced delivery to a porous nickel oxide electrode

The hydrogen ionization process is studied experimentally on an industrial sintered nickel oxide electrode in models of sealed nickel-metal hydride batteries. It is shown that the hydrogen ionization rates that are reached during overcharge by high current densities in conditions of forced gas delivery into the electrode pores (up to 40 mA cm^?2) exceed the self-discharge rate of a nickel-hydrogen battery by two orders of magnitude. Up to 70% of hydrogen delivered into the compact assembly block undergoes ionization during forced charge of models of sealed nickel-metal hydride batteries with a closed hydrogen cycle. Two independent methods (potentiostatic and manometric) are used to determine the relationship between rates of hydrogen ionization with the degree of the electrode filling with gas and perform estimation of the process intensity at a unit reaction surface. It is established that, in conditions of forced gas delivery, practically all the hydrogen oxidation current is generated at the surface of the nickel oxide electrode beneath thin films of an electrolyte solution at the rate of 4–5 mA cm^?2. It is shown that the hydrogen oxidation rate on a nickel oxide electrode filled in part by gas is independent of the electrode potential, probably because of a tangible contribution made by diffusion limitations to the overall hampering of the process.     

Multilevel preconditioners for a quadrature Galerkin solution of a biharmonic problem

Efficient multilevel preconditioners are developed and analyzed for the quadrature finite element Galerkin approximation of the biharmonic Dirichlet problem. The quadrature scheme is formulated using the Bogner–Fox–Schmit rectangular element and the product two‐point Gaussian quadrature. The proposed additive and multiplicative preconditioners are uniformly spectrally equivalent to the operator of the quadrature scheme. The preconditioners are implemented by optimal algorithms, and they are used to accelerate convergence of the preconditioned conjugate gradient method. Numerical results are presented demonstrating efficiency of the preconditioners. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2006