N-heterocyclic carbene catalyzed α-redox reaction: catalytic synthesis of amides and carboxylic acids

2011 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.N-heterocyclic carbene catalyzed α-redox reaction has been utilized towards the catalytic synthesis of amides utilizing amines and substoichiometric quantities of an acyl transfer reagent in a waste reduced acylation process. The reaction is amenable to a plethora of amines and amine hydrochloride salts as nucleophiles. The reaction is applicable towards a variety α-reducible aldehydes as α,α-dichloro aldehydes, enals, epoxy and aziridnyl aldehydes all provide the respective amides in moderate to excellent yields with the latter in high diastereoselectivity. The asymmetric amidation reaction provides chiral amides in moderate enantioselectivity. Additionally, the N-heterocyclic carbene catalyzed α-redox reaction was also utilized for the synthesis of enantioenriched α-chloro and α-fluoro carboxylic acids. The reaction also provide for a mild installation of a deuterium from D2O furnishing enantioenriched isotopically labeled compounds. Investigations in to the mechanism have revealed that the carbene displays behavior of a phase transfer reagent by shuttling hydroxide from the aqueous phase to the organic phase. Additionally, it has been found that the turnover limiting step in this acylation process in the hydrolysis of the acyl azolium

Pharmacokinetic characterization and therapeutic efficacy of halofuginone micelle nanoparticles in murine models of Nrf2 activated lung adenocarcinoma

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The Emergence of Private Authority in the Oil Industry: the Case of Oil Concession Agreements

This thesis situates itself in a context that has become a feature of the globalizing world – the emergence of private authority in global governance and the transformation of the power of the state. As the title suggested, the thesis investigates the emergence of private authority in the oil industry by concentrating on the negotiation and implementation of various oil concession agreements of the past in the period between 1900 and 1960. The analysis employs qualitative methodologies, taking experiences of private actors through archival research using case study concentrating on four countries in the Middle East region, namely, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and Iraq. The examination of each case focuses on the oil concession agreement that is pivotal to the structural transition of oil industry, hence power/authority transition. The relationship between public and private authorities involved in the case study is the key to the emergence of private authority. The public-private interaction that allows this relationship to establish and develop is also important to the process. Other factors such as inter-firm cooperation; resources in the form of finance and expertise; and political, economic and social climate also contribute to the process which allow private authority to emerge and operate. Despite the fact that identifying these factors permits us to gain better understanding of the concept of private authority, it is still difficult to pinpoint the exact moment it emerges and the clear location it operates. Private actors today play a major role in global governance, affecting the political, economic and social development both at national and international level, thus, the exact of its route and the true impact of its existence need to be clarified. The findings from the research have great relevance to the theorizing of the concept of private authority. It provides powerful insights into debates regarding the emergence and operation of private authority both in historical and contemporary perspective. The findings also give us better knowledge of the nature of private authority in term of its various forms and functions

Optimizing Weights And Biases in MLP Using Whale Optimization Algorithm

Artificial Neural Networks are intelligent and non-parametric mathematical models inspired by the human nervous system. They have been widely studied and applied for classification, pattern recognition and forecasting problems. The main challenge of training an Artificial Neural network is its learning process, the nonlinear nature and the unknown best set of main controlling parameters (weights and biases). When the Artificial Neural Networks are trained using the conventional training algorithm, they get caught in the local optima stagnation and slow convergence speed; this makes the stochastic optimization algorithm a definitive alternative to alleviate the drawbacks. This thesis proposes an algorithm based on the recently proposed Whale Optimization Algorithm(WOA). The algorithm has proven to solve a wide range of optimization problems and outperform existing algorithms. The successful implementation of this algorithm motivated our attempts to benchmark its performance in training feed-forward neural networks. We have taken a set of 20 datasets with different difficulty levels and tested the proposed WOA-MLP based trainer. Further, the results are verified by comparing WOA-MLP with the back propagation algorithms and six evolutionary techniques. The results have proved that the proposed trainer can outperform the current algorithms on the majority of datasets in terms of local optima avoidance and convergence speed

A PHARMACIST'S DUTY TO WARN: SOUND ECONOMICS, EFFECTIVE MEDICINE, AND CONSISTENT WITH DRUG REGULATION THEORY

This paper argues in favor of a duty to warn on the part of the pharmacist. In the next section, I begin with a discussion of two common regulatory approaches to warning patients of prescription drug hazards and flesh out their inadequacies. In section three, I will discuss the legal status of the pharmacist's duty to warn and the negative reaction to the current trends in that doctrine. Then, in section four, I will go on to propose an alternative model for the duty to warn, explore arguments in support of this model, and finally attempt to reconcile the proposed duty to warn scheme with the primary theoretical underpinnings of drug regulation in the United States

Lateral movement of the entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora in soil under laboratory conditions

Despite the growing importance of entomopathogenic nematodes as biocontrol agents for soil inhabiting insect pests, little is known of their population and spatial ecology. In a series of three consecutive laboratory experiments, the horizontal movement of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora GPS11 strain was quantified in 5 cm deep autoclaved soil with 24% moisture content placed in three different sized arenas (22.86 cm x 22.86 cm, 61 cm x 61 cm, and 122 cm x 122 cm) at room temperature (21°C). A single 10-day old cadaver of fourth instar Galleria mellonella infected with H. bacteriophora was placed in the center of each arena and the movement of at least one nematode from it to site of the soil sample, collected in small cups with soil core samples (2 cm in diameter) at intervals from 6 to 240 hours and at distances from 7 to 61 cm from the center, was inferred from death of the bait (one uninfected G. mellonella larva per cup) three days later. Each of the three arena sizes were replicated five times and all three experiments were repeated with similar sampling distances and time intervals. The data collected comprised the proportion of dead G. mellonella baits at 96 combinations of distance and time computed from 5 – 10 replicates. A two-dimensional modified Fick diffusion model was fit to the spatio-temporal data by least squares method and descriptive statistics calculated. The average movement of infective juveniles in soil was 6 cm/day. The number of infective juveniles moving a given distance declined with increasing distance from the cadaver with 40% traveling >15 cm and 2.5% traveling >60 cm in up to 240 hours. This study has shown that the dispersal ability of H. bacteriophora in soil with no source of attraction in the form of bait or carbon dioxide from other organisms.G054

The Effect of an Antenatal Breastfeeding Intervention on Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy and Intention Among Inner City Adolescents

According to Healthy People 2020, infants who are breastfed have improved nutritional, immunological, developmental, and social outcomes (USDHHS, 2014). Despite the benefits of breastfeeding and the focused international efforts to increase levels of breastfeeding, adolescents remain largely unaware and continue to have among the lowest levels of breastfeeding initiation (CDC, 2013; Spear, 2006). The purpose of this EBP project was to reduce the disparities of breastfeeding initiation by increasing breastfeeding self-efficacy and intention in an inner city specialty high school. Synthesis of the evidence demonstrated that needs-based, repeated antenatal education delivered by a lactation expert including breastfeeding peer counselor supports was best practice for engaging the adolescent population. Utilizing Social Cognitive Theory as the theoretical framework and the Stetler Model for Evidence-Based Practice as a model for practice change, an educational intervention was implemented incorporating an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), peer counselors, and breastfeeding support. Pre- and post-intervention breastfeeding selfefficacy and intended infant feeding preference were collected utilizing the Prenatal Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (BSES). Non-parametric statistical testing did not reveal any significant differences between mean self-efficacy scores (81.2 and 83.4 respectively, p = .500). Linear regression was performed on pre and post- intervention breastfeeding intention revealing that, while the intervention did positively impact intention, results were not statistically significant (p = .133)