A General Catalyst Based on Cobalt Core–Shell Nanoparticles for the Hydrogenation of N-Heteroarenes Including Pyridines

Herein, we report the synthesis of specific silica-supported Co/Co₃O₄ core–shell based nanoparticles prepared by template synthesis of cobalt-pyromellitic acid on silica and subsequent pyrolysis. The optimal catalyst material allows for general and selective hydrogenation of pyridines, quinolines, and other heteroarenes including acridine, phenanthroline, naphthyridine, quinoxaline, imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine, and indole under comparably mild reaction conditions. In addition, recycling of these Co nanoparticles and their ability for dehydrogenation catalysis are showcased.     

Could chroman-4-one derivative be a better inhibitor of PTR1? – Reason for the identified disparity in its inhibitory potency in Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania major

Most notable Kinetoplastids are of the genus Trypanosoma and Leishmania, affecting several millions of humans in Africa and Latin America. Current therapeutic options are limited by several drawbacks, hence the need to develop more efficacious inhibitors. An investigation to decipher the mechanism behind greater inhibitory potency of a chroman-4-one derivative (compound 1) in Trypanosoma brucei pteridine reductase 1 (TbPTR1) and Leishmania major pteridine reductase 1 (LmPTR1) was performed. Estimation of ΔG_bind revealed that compound 1 had a greater binding affinity in TbPTR1 with a ΔG_bind value of −49.0507 Kcal/mol than −29.2292 Kcal/mol in LmPTR1. The ΔGbind in TbPTR1 were predominantly contributed by “strong” electrostatic energy compared to the “weak” van der Waals in LmPTR1. In addition to this, the NADPH cofactor contributed significantly to the total energy of TbPTR1. A characteristic weak aromatic π interaction common in PTR1 was more prominent in TbPTR1 than LmPTR1. The consistent occurrence of high-affinity conventional hydrogen bond interactions as well as a steady interaction of crucial active site residues like Arg14/Arg17, Ser95/Ser111, Phe97/Phe113 in TbPTR1/LmPTR1 with chroman-4-one moiety equally revealed the important role the moiety played in the activity of compound 1. Overall, the structural and conformational analysis of the active site residues in TbPTR1 revealed them to be more rigid than LmPTR1. This could be the mechanism of interaction TbPTR1 employs in exerting a greater potency than LmPTR1. These findings will further give insight that will be assistive in modifying compound 1 for better potency and the design of novel inhibitors of PTR1.     

Highly dispersed palladium nanoclusters incorporated in amino‐functionalized silica spheres for the selective hydrogenation of succinic acid to γ‐butyrolactone

Highly dispersed palladium nanoclusters incorporated on amino‐functionalized silica sphere surfaces (Pd/SiO₂‐NH₂) were fabricated by a simple one‐pot synthesis utilizing 3‐(2‐aminoethylamino)propyltrimethoxysilane (AAPTS) as coordinating agent. Uniform palladium nanoclusters with an average size of 1.1 nm can be obtained during the co‐condensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate and AAPTS owing to the strong interaction between palladium species and amino groups in AAPTS. The palladium particle size can be controlled by addition of AAPTS and plays a significant role in the catalytic performance. The Pd/SiO₂‐NH₂ catalyst exhibits high catalytic activity for succinic acid hydrogenation with 100% conversion and 94% selectivity towards γ‐butyrolactone using 1,4‐dioxane as solvent at 240°C and 60 bar for 4 h. Moreover, the Pd/SiO₂‐NH₂ catalyst is robust and readily reusable without loss of its catalytic activity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Stochastic signal analysis: Numerical representation and applications to system theory

Alternative procedures for representing a stochastic signal as a denumerable series with uncorrelated terms are developed. The study includes considerations about parametric rescaling and its repercussions on the orthogonal expansion, as well as numerical techniques for approaching such an expansion. In addition, applications to the Gaussian characterization of stochastic signals, filtering and stochastic modelling are treated.     

Orthogonal double covers by super‐extendable cycles

An Orthogonal Double Cover (ODC) of the complete graph K_n by an almost‐hamiltonian cycle is a decomposition of 2K_n into cycles of length n?1 such that the intersection of any two of them is exactly one edge. We introduce a new class of such decompositions. If n is a prime, the special structure of such a decomposition allows to expand it to an ODC of K_n+1 by an almost‐hamiltonian cycle. This yields the existence of an ODC of K_p+1 by an almost‐hamiltonian cycle for primes p of order 3 mod 4 and its eventual existence for arbitrary primes p. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 283–293, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10011     

Global and uniform convergence of subspace correction methods for some convex optimization problems

This paper gives some global and uniform convergence estimates for a class of subspace correction (based on space decomposition) iterative methods applied to some unconstrained convex optimization problems. Some multigrid and domain decomposition methods are also discussed as special examples for solving some nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems.

     

弱(L_1,L_2)-BLD映射的正则性

本文首先将文［１］中的ＢＬＤ映射推广为弱（Ｌ１，Ｌ２）－ＢＬＤ映射，并证明了如下正则性结果：存在两个可积指数 Ｐ１＝Ｐ１（ｎ，Ｌ１，Ｌ２）＜ｎ＜ｑ１＝ｑ１（ｎ，Ｌ１，Ｌ２），使得对任意弱（Ｌ１，Ｌ２）－ＢＬＤ映射ｆ∈（Ω，Ｒｎ），都有ｆ∈（Ω，Ｒｎ），即ｆ为（Ｌ１，Ｌ２）－ＢＬＤ映射．     

Generalized Complex Spectral Decomposition for a Quantum Decay Process

By extending the notion of mixed states to functionals acting on the space of observables with diagonal singularity we obtain a well-defined complex spectral decomposition of the time evolution for a quantum decaying system. In this formalism, generalized Gamow states are obtained with well-defined physical properties.