Synthesis and structural characterization of (η5-Dp)Ru(PPh3)2H (Dp = C8H9−, 1,2-dihydropentalenyl)

Transition Metal Chemistry - (η5-Dp)Ru(PPh3)2H (Dp?=?C8H9?, 1,2-dihydropentalenyl) was synthesized in 90% yield by reaction of (η5-Dp)Ru(PPh3)2Cl with sodium formate....     

Influence of the sulfonate countercation on the thermal stability of nafion perfluorosulfonate membranes

We report a strong dependence of the thermal stability of Nafion® perfluorosulfonate ionomer on the nature of the counterion associated with the fixed sulfonate site. These results were obtained using thermal gravimetric analysis on a series of alkali metal and alkyl ammonium cation-exchanged Nafion films. We have found that the temperature of decomposition of Nafion is inversely dependent on the size of the exchanged cation; i.e., Nafion films show improved thermal stability as the size of the counter cation decreases. We attribute this inverse relationship of thermal stability with counterion size to an initial decomposition reaction which is strongly influenced by the strength of the sulfonate-coun-terion interaction. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Stability of vertices in random boolean cellular automata

Based on computer simulations, Kauffman (Physica D, 10, 145-156, 1984) made several generalizations about a random Boolean cellular automaton which he invented as a model of cellular metabolism. Here we give the first rigorous proofs of two of Kauffman's generalizations: a large fraction of vertices stabilize quickly, consequently the length of cycles in the automaton's behavior is small compared to that of a random mapping with the same number of states; and reversal of the states of a large fraction of the vertices does not affect the cycle to which the automaton moves.     

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     

An expedient route to diaza-spirocycles utilizing a sequential multicomponent α-aminoallylation/ring-closing metathesis strategy

A general method for the preparation of diaza-spirocycles is reported. This method used an olefin metathesis in order to construct the desired spirocyclic framework. Beginning with commercially available protected amino ketones, this strategy ultimately produced pharmacologically relevant diaza-scaffolds in an efficient and high-yielding process.     

On the Computational Complexity of the Rooted Subtree Prune and Regraft Distance

The graph-theoretic operation of rooted subtree prune and regraft is increasingly being used as a tool for understanding and modelling reticulation events in evolutionary biology. In this paper, we show that computing the rooted subtree prune and regraft distance between two rooted binary phylogenetic trees on the same label set is NP-hard. This resolves a longstanding open problem. Furthermore, we show that this distance is fixed parameter tractable when parameterised by the distance between the two trees.Received March 16, 2004