Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Arylboronic Acids to Five-, Six-, and Seven-Membered β-Substituted Cyclic Enones: Enantioselective Construction of All-Carbon Quaternary Stereocenters

The first enantioselective Pd-catalyzed construction of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters via 1,4-addition of arylboronic acids to β-substituted cyclic enones is reported. Reaction of a wide range of arylboronic acids and cyclic enones using a catalyst prepared from Pd(OCOCF_3)_2 and a chiral pyridinooxazoline ligand yields enantioenriched products bearing benzylic stereocenters. Notably, this transformation is tolerant to air and moisture, providing a practical and operationally simple method of synthesizing enantioenriched all-carbon quaternary stereocenters

Orbital periods of the binary sdB stars PG0940+068 and PG1247+554

We have used the radial velocity variations of two sdB stars previously reported to be binaries to establish their orbital periods. They are PG0940+068, (P=8.33d) and PG1247+554 (P=0.599d). The minimum masses of the unseen companions, assuming a mass of 0.5 solar masses for the sdB stars, are 0.090 +/- 0.003 solar masses for PG1247+554 and 0.63 +/- 0.02 solar masses for PG0940+068. The nature of the companions is not constrained further by our data.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

A robot-based burr measurement system for the automotive industry

Burrs are often difficult to detect and measure because of their intrinsic variability in shape and dimension. No automotive standard had been established about their acceptable dimensions and measurement techniques for sheet steel products. For the automotive industry, even burrs of the size of 100 μm are perceived as damaging because of their dramatic impact upon panel corrosion resistance and assembly performance. It is critical to measure burrs during panel manufacture in order to control the process. The characterization of the typical burr produced has been carried out employing 3D measurements with a surface profilometer and a SEM. This analysis has shown a typical triangular burr shape and some characteristic dimensions. A contact method and two laser-triangulation systems have been developed. The instrument accuracy was analyzed, based upon a full factorial experimentation over a set of typical panels edges

Sustainability, stakeholders and business. Editorial

Over the past 20 years, there has been an increasing attention on the drivers of value in organizations. Both the strategic management literature and practice have remarked the importance for managers to be aware of the impact of firm activities, products and services on either the external and internal environment and, more generally, on all firm stakeholders. The emergence of the notions of “sustainable development” and “sustainability” reflects a profound change in global thinking, which forces firms to move beyond trade-offs between business and society

Polarization quantum properties in type-II Optical Parametric Oscillator below threshold

We study the far field spatial distribution of the quantum fluctuations in the transverse profile of the output light beam generated by a type II Optical Parametric Oscillator below threshold, including the effects of transverse walk-off. We study how quadrature field correlations depend on the polarization. We find spatial EPR entanglement in quadrature-polarization components: For the far field points not affected by walk-off there is almost complete noise suppression in the proper quadratures difference of any orthogonal polarization components. We show the entanglement of the state of symmetric intense, or macroscopic, spatial light modes. We also investigate nonclassical polarization properties in terms of the Stokes operators. We find perfect correlations in all Stokes parameters measured in opposite far field points in the direction orthogonal to the walk-off, while locally the field is unpolarized and we find no polarization squeezing.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figure

Searching for galactic axions through magnetized media: QUAX status report

The current status of the QUAX R\&D program is presented. QUAX is a feasibility study for a detection of axion as dark matter based on the coupling to the electrons. The relevant signal is a magnetization change of a magnetic material placed inside a resonant microwave cavity and polarized with a static magnetic field.Comment: Contributed to the 13th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, Thessaloniki, May 15 to 19, 201

A Conceptual Design Study of a High Temperature Solar Thermal Receiver

A conceptual design was made for a solar thermal receiver capable of operation in the 1095 to 1650 C (2000 to 3000 F) temperature range. This receiver is designed for use with a two-axis paraboloidal concentrator in the 25 to 150 kW sub t power range, and is intended for industrial process heat, Brayton engines, or chemical/fuels reactions. Three concepts were analyzed parametrically. One was selected for conceptual design. Its key feature is a helical coiled tube of sintered silicon nitride which serves as the heat exchanger between the incident solar radiation and the working fluid. A mechanical design of this concept was prepared, and both thermal and stress analysis performed. The analysis showed good performance, low potential cost in mass production, and adaptability to both Brayton cycle engines and chemical/fuels production

Monte Carlo simulation for radiative kaon decays

For high precision measurements of K decays, the presence of radiated photons cannot be neglected. The Monte Carlo simulations must include the radiative corrections in order to compute the correct event counting and efficiency calculations. In this paper we briefly describe a method for simulating such decays.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

Virial theorem in the Kohn-Sham density-functional theory formalism: Accurate calculation of the atomic quantum theory of atoms in molecules energies

A new approach for computing the atom-in-molecule [quantum theory of atoms in molecule (QTAIM)] energies in Kohn-Sham density-functional theory is presented and tested by computing QTAIM energies for a set of representative molecules. In the new approach, the contribution for the correlation-kinetic energy (