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.     

GDME-based methodology for the determination of free formaldehyde in cosmetics and hygiene products containing formaldehyde releasers

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry - Formaldehyde is often applied in the industrial production of different products, such as textiles, insulation materials, or cosmetics, due to its...     

Piecewise-linearized methods for oscillators with limit cycles

A piecewise linearization method based on the linearization of nonlinear ordinary differential equations in small intervals, that provides piecewise analytical solutions in each interval and smooth solutions everywhere, is developed for the study of the limit cycles of smooth and non-smooth, conservative and non-conservative, nonlinear oscillators. It is shown that this method provides nonlinear maps for the displacement and velocity which depend on the previous values through the nonlinearity and its partial derivatives with respect to time, displacement and velocity, and yields non-standard finite difference formulae. It is also shown by means of five examples that the piecewise linearization method presented here is more robust and yields more accurate (in terms of displacement, energy and frequency) solutions than the harmonic balance procedure, the method of slowly varying amplitude and phase, and other non-standard finite difference equations.     

Fast and efficient preparation of Baylis-Hillman-derived (E)-allylic azides and related compounds in aqueous medium

A practical access to alkyl- and aryl-substituted (E)-2-(azidomethyl)alkenoates and related azido compounds from the corresponding allylic bromides in aqueous acetone is described. An alternative method to obtain the starting bromides based on heterogeneous catalysis under mild conditions was also investigated.     

Supercritical CO2 as a superior solvent for the cyclization of diallylmalonate catalyzed by palladium-containing zeolites

Palladium-containing zeolites catalyze the cycloisomerization of diethyl diallylmalonate to dimethylcyclopentenes. When the reaction is carried out in toluene, the performance of the palladium catalyst depends on the pore size of the zeolites. At 60 °C, palladium adsorbed on large pore size Beta zeolite (pore size ∼7.4 Å) is more active than medium pore size ZSM-5 (pore size ∼5.4 Å). This lower activity of ZSM-5 compared to Beta is attributable to the restricted diffusion of reagent and products through the ZSM-5 channels as compared to Beta zeolite. However, due to the gas-like diffusion characteristic of the supercritical state, the activity of ZSM-5 increases and becomes identical to that of Beta zeolite using supercritical CO₂ as medium.     

Predicting automobile claims bodily injury severity with sequential ordered logit models

Despite the large cost of bodily injury (BI) claims in motor insurance, relatively little research has been done in this area. Many companies estimate (and therefore reserve) bodily injury compensation directly from initial medical reports. This practice may underestimate the final cost, because the severity is often assessed during the recovery period. Since the evaluation of this severity is often only qualitative, in this paper we apply an ordered multiple choice model at different moments in the life of a claim reported to an insurance company. We assume that the information available to the insurer does not flow continuously, because it is obtained at different stages. Using a real data set, we show that the application of sequential ordered logit models leads to a significant improvement in the prediction of the BI severity level, compared to the subjective classification that is used in practice. We also show that these results could improve the insurer’s reserves notably.     

Left, right, and inner socles of associative systems

We investigate the basic properties of the different socles that can be considered in not necessarily semiprime associative systems. Among other things, we show that the socle defined as the sum of minimal (or minimal and trivial) inner ideals is always an ideal. When trivial inner ideals are included, this inner socle contains the socles defined in terms of minimal left or right ideals. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

X-ray diffraction study of some mesogenic copper, nickel and vanadyl complexes

We present a comparative study of various metallomesogenic complexes, using X-ray diffraction methods. For a given ligand linked to different metal atoms (Cu, Ni, VO), the nature of this central atom influences mainly the magnetic susceptibilities of the mesophases. With different ligands, which keep the close neighbourhood of the metal atom unchanged, the apparent length of the mesogenic unit is longer for short ligands than for longer ones. This unexpected behaviour is qualitatively well explained by taking into account the global shape of the different complexes.