Applications of Sodium Azide in the Synthesis of Tetrazines and Hydrolysis Reactions

The inverse electron demand Diels−Alder cycloadditions of heterocyclic azadienes have provided a robust methodology for synthesizing highly substituted and functionalized heterocycles. It is widely used in organic synthesis and the pharmaceutical industry in the divergent construction of screening libraries and bioorthogonal conjugation. Each heterocyclic azadiene was found to possess a unique reactivity toward different classes of dienophiles, display predictable modes of cycloaddition, and exhibit substantial substituent electronic effects impacting their intrinsic reactivity and cycloaddition regioselectivity. Synthesis of 1,2,4,5-tetrazine has been reported in the literature since the late 19th century, showing scientists\u27 tremendous interest in its application. Herein we attempt to synthesize the 1,2,3,5-tetrazine, which is the less popular member of the family. Initial studies of its cycloaddition reactivity, stability, and scope illustrate that it displays similar properties to that of the isomeric 1,2,4,5-tetrazine. The lack of scientific focus on the compound despite its potential value has motivated us to develop an efficient synthetic route via N-methylene amide and azide cycloaddition. Although the attempt to prepare the desired tetrazine was unsuccessful, our designed method interestingly led up to a hydrolysis pathway that allowed us to explore the application of sodium azide further

Determination of Littlest Higgs model parameters at the ILC

We examine the effects of the extended gauge sector of the Littlest Higgs model in high energy e+e- collisions. We find that the search reach in e+e- -> f fbar at a 500 GeV center-of-mass energy International Linear Collider covers essentially the entire parameter region where the Littlest Higgs model is relevant to the gauge hierarchy problem. In addition, we show that this channel provides an accurate determination of the fundamental model parameters, to the precision of a few percent, provided that the LHC measures the mass of the heavy neutral gauge field. Additionally, we show that the couplings of the extra gauge bosons to the light Higgs can be observed from the process e+e- -> Z higgs for a significant region of the parameter space. This allows for confirmation of the structure of the cancelation of the Higgs mass quadratic divergence and would verify the little Higgs mechanism.Comment: 21 pages, 15 Postscript figure

Regulating Campylobacter jejuni flagellar gene expression: transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms of control

The bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of foodborne gastroenteritis in the developed world. C. jejuni flagella are crucial virulence determinants, but the regulation of these complex organelles within different environments is not fully understood. Moreover, regulatory RNAs are important for virulence and flagellar gene expression in many prokaryotes, but their role in C. jejuni biology is unknown. The first aim was to understand flagellar regulation in acidic conditions and what effect this has on virulence. The most acidic pH C. jejuni was able to survive was pH 3.6 and acid-shock at this pH and pH 5 increased expression of a subset of flagellar genes and increased invasion of intestinal epithelial cells. The second aim of this study was to characterise the function of two paralogous small non-coding RNAs (less than 50 nucleotides), NC1 and NC4, which were identified in the C. jejuni NCTC11168 transcriptome and are predicted to regulate flagella gene expression. NC1 and NC4 expression was dependent on the flagellar sigma factor, sigma28, and post-transcriptionally regulated expression of predicted sigma54-dependent C. jejuni flagellar gene targets in an E. coli based GFP reporter system. However, microarray and phenotypic analysis showed no clear differences in gene expression between NC1/NC4 deletion and over-expression mutants compared to the wild-type strain. The conclusions are that flagellar gene expression is regulated by acidic conditions and C. jejuni invasion of intestinal epithelial cells may be primed in response to acid. In addition, the transcription of NC1 and NC4 is linked to flagella expression and they may function to post-transcriptionally regulate sigma54-dependent flagella genes in C. jejuni. Although the biological significance of NC1 and NC4 remains unknown, this is the first study to show that non-coding RNAs are potential regulators of gene expression in Campylobacter

The Inna

1st Prize Winner Inspired by the people and culture of Mali. What inspired you to enter this special competition to create a modern architectural language for Africa? African architecture always inspired me with amazing earthen architecture throughout the continent. This competition is a valuable chance for me to study and understand more about the architecture of the continent, it is also a chance for me to express my ideas about modern architectural language for Africa. What did you find most interesting or challenging during the research and development of your prototype? The most interesting is when researching for an image that represents the artistic identity of a country or an ethnic group. The process was amazing and felt like I was having a tour of the continent. Seeing so many surprising images and local building techniques inspired me a lot with the design. The most challenging part is the climate of Africa is very diverse; hence, choosing a climatic zone to study is quite difficult. Why do you believe African homeowners will be interested in building a home such as the one you have submitted today? Not only the African homeowners but also homeowners from everywhere in the world will have common consideration in choosing a place to live which is: affordable, high quality living standard, aesthetically attractive, and low cost for running and maintenance. Hence, I use these as my goal for the design. When design meets these requirements, there is no doubt that homeowners will interested in building that house

Business Plan- Viet Balo : The role of a business plan to a start up in the food & beverage inudstry

Author(s) Pham, My Type of publication Bachelor’s thesis Published Spring 2020 Number of pages 51 Title of publication BUSINESS PLAN : VIET BALO OY The role of a business plan to a start-up in the food and beverage industry Name of Degree Bachelor of Business Administration Abstract As the result of changing dining-out habits in Helsinki, Finland and increasing amount of entrepreneurs looking to enter the food and beverage industry, rental premises in the Greater Helsinki region is extremely difficult to find and obtain especially for startup companies like case company, Viet Balo Oy. As a start-up company Viet Balo is yet to create their business plan which could help them acquire a rental space for their business and funding from financial institutes. The objective of this thesis is to produce a business plan for the case company and a guide on how to write a business plan along with what it should include. The main topic in this thesis is to find out how a business plan can contribute to the success of a start-up. The research in this thesis applies an inductive approach and uses a qualitative research method for data collection. The thesis utilizes both primary and secondary data. Primary data is obtained from the interviews conducted and used to answer the research questions in the thesis. Primary data is analyzed using thematic analysis. Secondary data is derived from published book, documents and website sources. The theoretical part of the thesis covers the theories needed and defines the guide for the business plan. The thesis strives to be helpful to the case company and others who are interested in writing a business plan. The findings show that businesses with a well-done business plan succeed more often at acquiring a rental premises in high-traffic areas in the Greater Helsinki region. Data on consumers shows that they value convenience most when it comes to dining out and start-up businesses often found that there is the lack of information on how to make a business plan. Keywords Helsinki, food and beverage industry, business plan, start-up, case compan

Aerial Bombardment and Educational Attainment

This paper provides evidence that the Allied bombing of Vietnam, the longest and heaviest aerial bombardment in history, imposed detrimental ramifications on educational attainment and future labor market outcomes of school-age individuals. By exploiting the plausibly exogenous district-by-cohort variation in bomb destruction under a difference-in-differences framework, we find that an increase in bomb intensity leads to significantly fewer educational years completed and lower future earnings for school-age children exposed to the bombardment. We further show that both the supply-side factors (inadequate school security and the lack of teachers) and the demand-side factors (residential casualties, restricted access to healthcare, damaged properties, and increased reliance on welfare assistance) could be potential mechanisms driving the long-term consequences of aerial bombardment. Our findings underline the importance of conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction in promoting sustainable development

Shedding Light on Maternal Education and Child Health in Developing Countries

This paper investigates the intergenerational effects of maternal education on child health in 68 developing countries across five continents over nearly three decades. Exploiting the between-sisters variation in the educational attainment of the mothers, we find that mother’s education is positively associated with child health measured by the three most commonly used indices, namely height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age. Our mechanism analyses further show that these favorable effects could be, at least in part, attributed to fertility behavior, assortative matching, health care utilization, access to information, health knowledge, and labor market outcome. Given the long-lasting impacts of early-life health over the life cycle, our findings underline the importance of maternal education in improving economic and social conditions in developing countries

CROSS-CULTURAL EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF OCCUPATIONAL ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN ASIAN AMERICAN AND CAUCASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the cross-cultural validity of occupational engagement in Asian American college students and to examine its relationship to traditional Asian values and level of acculturation. Five hundred and seventy Asian American and Caucasian American college students completed a 57-item measure of occupational engagement. Exploratory factor analyses yielded a two-factor structure in each sample. In each sample, the respective two-factor structure of occupational engagement was shown to positively correlate with measures of academic achievement and subjective life satisfaction. For the Asian American sample, the construct of occupational engagement demonstrated a positive relationship with traditional Asian values and no significant relationship with level of acculturation. Results from the study yielded two newly developed measures of occupational engagement, the Occupational Engagement Scale-Asian American (OES-AA) and Occupational Engagement-Caucasian American (OES-CA). Subtle differences in the proportion of variance accounted for by each factor of the OES scales were observed, as well as cultural implications for differences found between the two scales. The researcher provides potential explanations for findings that include differences in the work values of Asian Americans and their pragmatic approach to decision-making