Comment: 2004's fastest organic and biomolecular chemistry!

In January 2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry launched Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC)--a journal promising to provide high quality research from all aspects of synthetic, physical and biomolecular organic chemistry. The journal was set to build upon the foundations laid down by its predecessor publications (J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 and J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2) as well as complement the subject coverage already published in prestigious general chemistry journals such as Chemical Communications and Chemical Society Reviews. Nearly two years on, just how is the programme developing and what can the community expect to see from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)?     

Comment: 2004's fastest organic and biomolecular chemistry!

In January 2004, the Royal Society of Chemistry launched Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC) - a journal promising to provide high quality research from all aspects of synthetic, physical and biomolecular organic chemistry. The journal was set to build upon the foundations laid down by its predecessor publications (J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 and J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2) as well as complement the subject coverage already published in prestigious general chemistry journals such as Chemical Communications and Chemical Society Reviews. Nearly two years on, just how is the programme developing and what can the community expect to see from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)?     

MRI of thermally denatured blood: methemoglobin formation and relaxation effects

Focal regions of T₁-shortening have been observed in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-monitored thermal ablations of perfused tissues. The aims of this study were two-fold: to find evidence for heat-induced conversion of hemoglobin (Hb) to methemoglobin (mHb), and to investigate the effects of heat treatment of in-vitro blood components upon their MR relaxation times. Spectrophotometric studies were performed to confirm the heat-induced formation of methemoglobin. Preparations of whole and fractionated blood, previously submitted to elevated temperatures of 40°C to 80°C, were imaged and the relaxation times were calculated. Optical absorption spectra of samples containing free Hb, heated to 60°C, showed increased light absorption at 630 nm, evident of mHb presence. Short T₁ values in whole blood (1.13 s) and packed red blood cell (0.65 s) compartments, heated at 60°C, compared to their baseline values (1.62 s and 0.83 s, respectively), were attributed to mHb formation. In relation to MRI-guided thermal interventions, these results suggest a possible explanation for observation of hyperintense regions on T₁-weighted images.     

Productive chloroarene C-cl bond activation: palladium/phosphine-catalyzed methods for oxidation of alcohols and hydrodechlorination of chloroarenes

The palladium/phosphine-catalyzed productive chloroarene C-Cl bond activation provides general, efficient, and functional group friendly methods for the selective oxidation of alcohols and the hydrodechlorination of chloroarenes.     

On the Ramsey number of the triangle and the cube

The Ramsey number r(K ₃,Q _n ) is the smallest integer N such that every red-blue colouring of the edges of the complete graph K _N contains either a red n-dimensional hypercube, or a blue triangle. Almost thirty years ago, Burr and Erd?s conjectured that r(K ₃,Q _n )=2 ⁿ⁺¹?1 for every n∈?, but the first non-trivial upper bound was obtained only recently, by Conlon, Fox, Lee and Sudakov, who proved that r(K ₃,Q _n )?7000·2 ⁿ . Here we show that r(K ₃,Q _n )=(1+o(1))2 ⁿ⁺¹ as n→∞.     

Existence of solutions for a finite nonlinearly hyperelastic rod

A theoretical investigation of a mathematical model for the capillary-tissue fluid exchange, including the characteristics and influence of the boundaries and media through which the fluid flows, has been studied. Filtration from the cylindrical capillary into the concentrically surrounding tissue-space and flow from a capillary into the tissue across the thin membrane are analyzed in detail. It has been observed that the filtration efficiency of the functional unit decreases as the peripherallayer viscosity increases, and that contrary to the results of Apelblat, Katziv-Kutchalsky and Silborberg (Biorheology2 (1974), 1–49), the slip velocity plays dominant role on filtration efficiency. It is also noted that he filtration efficiency decreases as the slip velocity at the porous boundary increases.     

Cope rearrangements of diels-alder adducts containing norbornene and norbornenone systems

The product formed from cyclopentadiene and the cyclo-octatetraene dimer 5a has been shown to possess structure 6a, probably resulting from Cope rearrangement of an initial adduct 4a. The reaction of tetraphenylcyclopentadienone with 1 - methoxybuta - 1,3 - diene yields a mixture of the exo-adduct 14 and the rearranged endo-adduct 13 Rearrangement of the norbornenone derivative 27 gives the Cope product 29 Treatment of the 4,5-fused 2,3,4,5-tetrachlorocyclopent-2-enones 29,40 and 41 with powdered sodium hydroxide in tetrahydrofuran results in ring-cleaveage with the formation of 2,3,5-trichlorobuta-2,4-dienoic acid derivatives, 36, 43 and 44 respectively.