Synthesis of heterocycles via palladium-catalyzed coupling of vinylic halides and functionally-substituted alkenes

Palladium-catalyzed coupling is a very convenient and useful method for the synthesis of heterocycles in organic synthesis. We have successfully developed the palladium-catalyzed coupling of vinylic halides and functionally-substituted alkenes for the synthesis of oxygen and nitrogen heterocycles. The palladium-catalyzed coupling of vinylic halides and o-vinylic benzoic acids affords good yields of 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins under very mild reaction conditions. The palladium-catalyzed coupling of vinylic halides with o-vinylic and allylic phenols provides mixtures of 2,3-dihydrobenzofurans and 3,4-dihydrobenzopyrans in most cases with high isomeric ratios;This process has been applied successfully to the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles. The palladium-catalyzed coupling of vinylic halides and olefinic sulfonamides provides pyrrolidines and piperidines in good yields. Like the analogous reactions of phenols, the palladium-catalyzed coupling of vinylic halides with o-vinylic and allylic anilines produces a mixture of 2,3-dihydroindoles and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines with high isomeric ratios in most cases. Interestingly, the reactions of N-tosyl-o-isopropenylaniline provides 2,3-dihydrobenzazepines exclusively in moderate to good yields;The synthesis of carbocycles via palladium-catalyzed coupling hasn\u27t been accomplished successfully and further investigation is needed

Dopamine Autoreceptor Regulation of a Hypothalamic Dopaminergic Network

Acknowledgments The authors thank Drs. Gilberto Fisone, Jessica Ausborn, Abdel El Manira, Gilad Silberberg, and members of the C.B. laboratory for advice, as well as Paul Williams for expert help with the graphical abstract. This study was supported by a Starting Investigator Grant from the ERC (ENDOSWITCH 261286), the Swedish Research Council (2010-3250), Novo Nordisk Fonden, and the Strategic Research Programme in Diabetes at Karolinska Institutet.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An Expo of Their Own: How Ethnic Koreans in Japan Appropriated the Japan World Exposition in Osaka

This paper explores the historical complexity and dynamics of contributions to the motherland by ethnic Koreans in Japan associated with Mindan (Korean Residents Union in Japan) and examines the support initiative for the 1970 Japan World Exposition in Osaka (hereafter Expo). Mindan established the Korean Residents Association for the Support of EXPO 70 in August 1969 to engage in various large-scale activities in support of the Expo, including covering the 50,000 US-dollar expense to build and manage the South Korean pavilion, organizing National Day, and inviting 9,710 compatriots from the homeland. The rapidly growing business community in Osaka, incidentally the leading coalition opposed to Chongnyŏn (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, affiliated with North Korea), formed the backbone of this support initiative. These businessmen actively developed cooperative and mutually dependent relations with the South Korean government while promoting cooperation and solidarity within the region. Considering the Korean pavilion an opportunity to proclaim the industrialization of South Korea, they projected a multifaceted vision of a desirable future, emphasizing the organizational power of Mindan to elevate Korean national prestige in the eyes of Japan and the world, as well as in regard to Chongnyŏn. This highlighted the importance of businessmen within Mindan and the Korean community and enhanced the status of Osaka with respect to Tokyo. Conceived as an identity project under the proposed permanent residency system, the Expo support initiative knitted together local and national patriotism and attested to the possibility of a new kind of homeland orientation, allowing one to contribute to the homeland, as well as to their local community. The initiative thus served as the setting in which first-generation Korean residents in Japan came to identify themselves as Zainichi

Low-carbon energy transition with the sun and forest: Solar-driven hydrogen production from biomass

森と太陽から水素を作る革新的プラント --あらゆる既知手法より少ないCO2排出量を実現--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-12-24.There is a need to derive hydrogen from renewable sources, and the innovative stewardship of two natural resources, namely the Sun and forest, could provide a new pathway. This paper provides the first comparative analysis of solar-driven hydrogen production from environmental angles. A novel hydrogen production process proposed in this paper, named Solar-Driven Advanced Biomass Indirect-Gasification (SABI-Hydrogen), shows promise toward achieving continuous operation and scalability, the two key challenges to meet future energy needs. The calculated Global Warming Potential for 1 kg of solar-driven hydrogen production is 1.04 kg CO₂-eq/kg H₂, less than half of the current biomass gasification process which emits 2.67 kg CO₂-eq/kg H₂. Further, SABI-Hydrogen demonstrates the least-carbon intensive pathway among all current hydrogen production methods. Thus, solar-driven hydrogen production from biomass could lead to a sustainable supply, essential for a low-carbon energy transition

Consulting report – Natura Cosméticos SA

Natura S.A is a Brazilian company that sells beauty products and personal care through direct sales. Currently it has a greater presence in the Latin American market: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru Colombia and Chile. On the other hand, Atento is a Peruvian company that provides the services of the contact center for all operations of Natura Latin America, without including Brazil. The main problem identified is the inefficient management of the contact center by Natura which is deteriorating the quality of the service. The inefficiencies are related to the lack of quality tools, limited definition of indicators, poor staff management, and poor added value during the call service. In this sense, the Regional Customer service area (Natura) is interested in look for better processes and indicators for the management of the contact center in order to find a model that optimizes the control of the performance of the supplier. The literature reviewed to develop the solution is about quality management systems, contact center outsourcing models, methods to add value to services, and process improvement methodologies. After that, three alternatives were developed where each of one was evaluated according factor of costs, innovation, risk, value added, feasibility and feedback of Natura. The final proposal has two phases, the first one is to implement Business Intelligence in which it will be possible to analyze the database of the calls in order to develop initiatives of improvement in short and long term, as the reduction of unwanted calls. After that, in order to complement the business intelligence proposal, the second phase will be the implementation of the value-added strategy in which it will look for higher quality and personalization of call service according to the profile of the consultants per country. The implementation plan implies an active participation of both parties. Finally, the investment to implement this proposal is 68,300 PEN and the expected benefits are reduction of expenses of 750,000 PEN, process optimization and improvement of consultant’s satisfaction.Natura S.A es una empresa brasilera comercializadora de productos de belleza y cuidado personal mediante la venta directa. Actualmente tiene mayor presencia en el mercado latinoamericano: Brasil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru Colombia y Chile. Por otro lado, Atento es una empresa peruana que brinda los servicios del centro de contacto para todas las operaciones de Natura Latinoamérica sin incluir Brasil. El principal problema identificado es la ineficiente gestión interna del centro de contacto por parte de Natura que está deteriorando la calidad del servicio. Las ineficiencias están relacionadas a la falta de herramientas de control, limitada definición de indicadores, deficiente gestión de personal, y poco valor agregado durante la atención de llamadas. En este sentido, el área de Atención Regional (Natura) está interesado en la búsqueda de mejores procesos e indicadores para la gestión del centro de contacto y encontrar un modelo que optimice el control del desempeño del proveedor. La teoría investigada para desarrollar la solución al problema son sistemas de gestión de calidad, modelos de tercerización de centros de contacto, métodos para agregar valor a los servicios, y metodologías de mejora de procesos. Luego se desarrolló tres alternativas, las cuales fueron evaluadas de acuerdo a factores de costos, innovación, riesgos, valor agregado, factibilidad y valoración de Natura. La propuesta final comprende de dos fases, la primera es la implementación de inteligencia de negocios (Business Intelligence) en el cual se podrá analizar la información de las llamadas para desarrollar iniciativas de mejora a corto y largo plazo, como la reducción de llamadas no deseadas. Mientras que la segunda fase se basa en la estrategia de valor agregado, el cual se buscara mayor calidad y personalización en la atención de llamadas de acuerdo al perfil de las consultoras. Finalmente, la inversión requerida anual es de S/. 68,000 y los beneficios esperados son la reducción de gastos en S/.750,000 soles, optimización de procesos y mejora de satisfacción de consultoras.Tesi

Investigation on Nitric Oxide and Soot of Biodiesel and Conventional Diesel using a Medium Duty Diesel Engine

Biodiesel has been suggested as an alternative fuel to the petroleum diesel fuel. It beneficially reduces regulated emission gases, but increases NOx (nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide) Thus, the increase in NOx is the barrier for potential growth of the biodiesel fuel. In general, NOx formation is dominated by flame temperature. Interestingly, soot can play a role as a heat sink as well as a heat transfer media to high temperature gases. Thus, the cooling effect of soot may change the flame temperature and therefore, NOx emissions. In this study, emphasis is placed on the relationship between soot and NO (Nitric oxide) formation. For the experimental study, a metallic fuel additive is used since barium is known to be effective to suppress soot formation during combustion. The barium additive is applied to #2D (Number 2 diesel fuel) by volume basis: 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5 %-v, and to the palm olein oil by 0.25 %-v. All the tests are carried out in a four-cylinder medium duty diesel engine, 4045 DI diesel engine, manufactured by John Deere. For the analysis, an analytical model is used to estimate combustion temperature, NO concentration and soot emissivity. The results show that NO concentration does not have the expected trade-off relation with soot. Rather, NO concentration is found to be more strongly affected by ambient temperature and combustion characteristics than by soot. The results of the analytical model show the reasonable NO estimation and the improvement on temperature calculation. However, the model is not able to explain the detailed changes of soot emissivity by the different fuels since the emissivity correlation is developed empirically for diesel fuel

Real-Time Robot Software Platform for Industrial Application

In this study, we present the requirements of a real-time robot software (SW) platform that can be used for industrial robots and examine whether various kinds of existing middleware satisfy them. Moreover, we propose a real-time robot SW platform that extends RTMIA to various industrial applications, which is implemented on Xenomai real-time operating system and Linux. The proposed SW platform utilizes the timer-interrupt based approach to keep strict period and the shared memory for convenient usage, on which the shared variable is designed and used. We verify the proposed platform by showing that the robot task and the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) program are performing with interlocking each other on the presented platform

Improvement of combat readiness for Republic of Korea Army

The Russian invasion of Ukraine highlights the importance of strengthening combat readiness in the military. The purpose of this study was to devise a policy implementation that can ensure the appropriateness of the evaluation using the improvement elements of the current combat readiness evaluation in the Korean Army. To do so, the acts and regulations of combat readiness assessment and application cases in field units were analyzed, and the necessary improvements of elements were derived by collecting expert opinions using a Delphi survey. The analysis revealed that the weights for each evaluation element through the analytic hierarchy process survey were presented to assess the quantitative elements (troops, equipment, supplies, and competency) at the C-level, and the use of a judgment process was suggested to assist the commander in reasonably determining the level of qualitative evaluation factors when evaluating the grade (final decision of the level of combat readiness of the unit) at the mission assessment (MA-level). The results of this study can be applied to the assessment of combat readiness level to identify the poor elements of the field units objectively and report them accurately to the upper unit. Future, research must study topics related to the elaboration of assessment elements that can ensure the accuracy and reliability of the evaluation of combat readiness in terms of organizational competency development

Prefrontal Parvalbumin Neurons in Control of Attention

SummaryWhile signatures of attention have been extensively studied in sensory systems, the neural sources and computations responsible for top-down control of attention are largely unknown. Using chronic recordings in mice, we found that fast-spiking parvalbumin (FS-PV) interneurons in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) uniformly show increased and sustained firing during goal-driven attentional processing, correlating to the level of attention. Elevated activity of FS-PV neurons on the timescale of seconds predicted successful execution of behavior. Successful allocation of attention was characterized by strong synchronization of FS-PV neurons, increased gamma oscillations, and phase locking of pyramidal firing. Phase-locked pyramidal neurons showed gamma-phase-dependent rate modulation during successful attentional processing. Optogenetic silencing of FS-PV neurons deteriorated attentional processing, while optogenetic synchronization of FS-PV neurons at gamma frequencies had pro-cognitive effects and improved goal-directed behavior. FS-PV neurons thus act as a functional unit coordinating the activity in the local mPFC circuit during goal-driven attentional processing

Blending-NeRF: Text-Driven Localized Editing in Neural Radiance Fields

Text-driven localized editing of 3D objects is particularly difficult as locally mixing the original 3D object with the intended new object and style effects without distorting the object's form is not a straightforward process. To address this issue, we propose a novel NeRF-based model, Blending-NeRF, which consists of two NeRF networks: pretrained NeRF and editable NeRF. Additionally, we introduce new blending operations that allow Blending-NeRF to properly edit target regions which are localized by text. By using a pretrained vision-language aligned model, CLIP, we guide Blending-NeRF to add new objects with varying colors and densities, modify textures, and remove parts of the original object. Our extensive experiments demonstrate that Blending-NeRF produces naturally and locally edited 3D objects from various text prompts. Our project page is available at https://seokhunchoi.github.io/Blending-NeRF/Comment: Accepted to ICCV 2023. The first two authors contributed equally to this wor