Threatened suicide and baiting crowd formation: a replication and extension of Mann (1981)

Using the lens of Deindividuation Theory, Leon Mann explored the formation of baiting crowds in a small sample of public suicides/suicide attempts. Instead of attempting to prevent the suicide, baiting crowds encourage the victim to jump. Our aim was to replicate Mann's study with a larger more diverse sample of suicide attempts and a broadened theoretical lens (Frustration-Aggression). Using ProQuest, we identified 152 public suicide attempts reported in English language newspapers and failed to replicate Mann’s findings. Rather, baiting crowd formation was associated with variables that increase crowd frustration (e.g., duration of the event, blocked traffic, cordoned off pedestrian walkways). Finally, we failed to find an association between the presence of a baiting crowd and the suicidal individual ultimately jumping

Highly stereoselective synthesis of the indolo[2,3-a]quinolizine ring system and application to indole natural product synthesis

This article has been published in the journal, European Journal of Organic Chemistry [© Wiley-VCH Verlag]. The definitive version, ALLIN, S. et al., 2005. A highly selective synthesis of the indolo[2,3-a]quinolizine ring system and application to natural product synthesis. European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 19, pp.4179-4186, is available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.200500412.We present a facile and highly stereoselective approach to the indolo[2,3-a]quinolizine ring system from a readily available, non-racemic chiral template. We demonstrate the potential for application of this methodology to natural product synthesis through conversion of the template to some representative indole alkaloids with high enantiomeric purity in both enantiomeric series

A chemical synthesis of 11-methoxy mitragynine pseudoindoxyl featuring the interrupted Ugi reaction

A synthesis of 11-methoxy mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, a new member of the mitragynine class of opioid agonists, from a derivative of the Geissman-Waiss lactone is described. An internal attack of an electron-rich aromatic ring on an electrophilic nitrilium ion and a late-stage construction of the functionalized piperidine ring by the method of reductive cyclization are the pivotal transformations; both ring annulations proceed in a highly diastereoselective fashion. The construction of substituted indoxyl frameworks by the interrupted Ugi method offers an attractive alternative to the strategy of oxidatively rearranging indoles