Cetyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (CTAOH) as a general, ecofriendly catalyst for the formation of carbon-carbon bond through nitroalkanes

Nitroalkanes have been found to give good yields in Michael and nitroaldol (Henry) reactions by the use of a catalytic amount (10 mol%) of CTAOH, at room temperature and under solvent free conditions and in very short reaction times. The methods do not need a large excess of the nitroalkanes and show good chemoselectivity toward further functionalities.     

A palladium-catalyzed synthetic approach to new Huperzine A analogues modified at the pyridone ring

The synthesis of two new Huperzine A analogues is reported. Both products present an amino substituted benzo-fused system in place of the pyridone ring of the natural alkaloid. The synthetic strategy to the two analogues is based on three different key palladium-catalyzed steps, namely a carbonylation reaction, an epoxide isomerization and a bicycloannulation reaction.     

Polycondensed heterocycles. I. Synthesis of 11-oxo-5H, 11H-pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzothiazepine,Derivative of a novel ring system

The synthesis of the title compound 4 by cyclization of 1-(2-ethoxycarbonylthiobenzyl)pyrrole 9 , prepared by treating with ethyl chloroformate the 1-(2-mercaptobenzyl)pyrrole 7 previously obtained by debenzylation of 1-(2-benzylthiobenzyl)pyrrrole 6 , failed. On the other hand 4 was successfully synthesized by intramolecular cyclization of 1-(2-mercaptobenzyl)pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid 15 by DMAP -catalyzed DCC method. The pyrrole 6 and 1-(2-benzylthiobenzyl)pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde 11 were useful as starting materials to obtain 1-(2-benzylthiobenzyl)pyrrole-2-carbonitrile 13 , which was hydrolyzed to corresponding amide 16 . Debenzylation of 16 afforded 1-(2-mercaptobenzyl)pyrrole-2-carboxyamide 17 , whose hydrolysis led to required acid 15 .     

Cosmic-muon results from the NUSEX experiment

Summary Muon underground data collected in the NUSEX experiment at Mont Blanc have been analysed concerning the following topics: I) vertical muon intensity, II) prompt muon flux, III) muons from the direction of Cygnus X-3. Preliminary results from the analysis of more than 20 000 muons are presented and discussed.

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Riassunto Gli eventi di muoni rivelati sottoterra nell'esperimento NUSEX al Monte Bianco sono stati analizzati per studiare I) l'intensità verticale dei muoni, II) il flusso di muoni pronti, III) l'eccesso di muoni dalla direzione di Cygnus X-3. In questo lavoro sono presentati c discussi i risultati preliminari ottenuti dal'lanalisi di piú di 20.000 eventi.

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Резюме Был проведен анализ данных, собранных в экспеимемнте NUSEX на Мон Блане. Анализировались следующие вопросы: 1) интенсивность вертикальных мюонов, 2) поток мгновенных (быстрых) мюонов, 3) мюоны, движущиеся в направлении от Лебедь X-3. Приводятся и обсуждаются предварительные результаты анализа для более, чем 20 000 муонов.

     

Low-Energy Kaon�CNucleon/Nuclei Interaction Studies at DA��NE (SIDDHARTA and AMADEUS Experiments)

The DA??NE electron?Cpositron collider at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of INFN has made available a unique quality low-energy negative kaons ??beam??. The SIDDHARTA experiment used this beam to perform unprecedented precision measurements on kaonic atoms, while the AMADEUS experiment plans to perform in the coming years precision measurements on kaon?Cnuclei interactions at low-energies, in particular to study the kaonic nuclei. The two experiments are briefly presented in this paper.     

A Note on the Cops and Robber Game on Graphs Embedded in Non-Orientable Surfaces

We consider the two-player, complete information game of Cops and Robber played on undirected, finite, reflexive graphs. A number of cops and one robber are positioned on vertices and take turns in sliding along edges. The cops win if, after a move, a cop and the robber are on the same vertex. The minimum number of cops needed to catch the robber on a graph is called the cop number of that graph. Let c(g) be the supremum over all cop numbers of graphs embeddable in a closed orientable surface of genus g, and likewise ${\tilde c(g)}$ for non-orientable surfaces. It is known (Andreae, 1986) that, for a fixed surface, the maximum over all cop numbers of graphs embeddable in this surface is finite. More precisely, Quilliot (1985) showed that c(g) ≤ 2g + 3, and Schröder (2001) sharpened this to ${c(g)\le \frac32g + 3}$ . In his paper, Andreae gave the bound ${\tilde c(g) \in O(g)}$ with a weak constant, and posed the question whether a stronger bound can be obtained. Nowakowski & Schröder (1997) obtained ${\tilde c(g) \le 2g+1}$ . In this short note, we show ${\tilde c(g) \leq c(g-1)}$ , for any g ≥ 1. As a corollary, using Schröder’s results, we obtain the following: the maximum cop number of graphs embeddable in the projective plane is 3, the maximum cop number of graphs embeddable in the Klein Bottle is at most 4, ${\tilde c(3) \le 5}$ , and ${\tilde c(g) \le \frac32g + 3/2}$ for all other g.     

Limit on monopole flux in the Mont Blanc NUSEX experiment

Summary A trigger dedicated to the search of superheavy monopoles operates since about two years in the NUSEX apparatus, installed in the Mont Blanc tunnel. Monopoles are identified by time of flight and visualization of the pulses involved in a trigger. The present upper limit on monopole flux is 2.3·10⁻¹³ cm⁻² s⁻¹ sr⁻¹ (90% c.l.).

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Riassunto Da circa due anni è operativo sull'apparato NUSEX, installato nel tunnel del Monte Bianco, un trigger dedicato alla ricerca dei monopoli previsti dalle teorie di grande unificazione. L'identificazione dei monopoli è basata sul tempo di volo e sulla localizzazione nello spazio degli impulsi coinvolti nel trigger. Il limite superiore fino ad oggi raggiunto per il flusso di monopoli è 2.3·10⁻¹³ cm⁻²s⁻¹ sr⁻¹ (90% c.l.).

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Резюме Триггерная схема, предназначенная для поиска сверхтяжелых монополей, действует в течение почти двух лет в установке NUSEX, расположенной в туннеле под Мон Бланом. Идентификация монополей основана на времени пролета, а локализация в пространстве осуществляется с помощью импульсов в триггерной схеме. Настоящий верхний предел на поток монополей составляет 2.3· ·10⁻¹³ см⁻² с⁻¹ ср⁻¹ (к 90% вероятностью).

     

A cryogenic underground observatory for rare events: CUORE, an update

CUORE is a proposed tightly packed array of 1000 TeO₂ bolometers, each being a cube 5 cm on a side with a mass of 750 g. The array consists of 25 vertical towers, arranged in a square of 5 towers by 5 towers, each containing ten layers of four crystals. The design of the detector is optimized for ultralow-background searches for neutrinoless double beta decay of ¹³⁰Te (33.8% abundance), cold dark matter, solar axions, and rare nuclear decays. A preliminary experiment involving 20 crystals of various sizes (MIBETA) has been completed, and a single CUORE tower is being constructed as a smaller scale experiment called CUORICINO. The expected performance and sensitivity, based on Monte Carlo simulations and extrapolations of present results, are reported.