A Collacon on Collacon

Mellen and I were exploring the depths of logology one day, when she suddenly stopped short, and uttered a single word, collacon. \u27Collacon?\u27 My dear Mellen --- ? That, she replied, is your challenge

Captain Smith\u27s Vlgrie

Harry B. Partridge, in Ad Memoriam Demetrii (August 1986), introduced a newly-discovered word ending in -gry. I was very interested in this announcement, since I Have been working on a little treatise of such words; ulgry increased my list to nineteen examples

Exploring New Reaction Pathways Mediated by Palladium(IV) Complexes

Carbon-carbon bond-forming processes featuring palladium catalysts play an important role in the synthesis of biologically active organic compounds. In the early 2000s, Canty, Sanford, Ritter and others have focused on studying palladium complexes in the oxidation state Palladium(IV). The PdII-PdIV transformations possess distinct advantages over the traditional catalytic process mediated by palladium in the oxidation states Palladium(0) and Palladium(II). In these transformations, reductive elimination to form new C-C bonds from the PdIV intermediate is expected to occur at a faster rate than &beta-hydride elimination. Overall, the C(sp3)-C(sp3) bond coupling is expected to be favorable. In the past decade, the Malinakova group has been studying the synthesis of unique pallada(II)cycles and exploring their reactivity with different electrophilic organic oxidants. These studies established that allyl halides as well as vinyl and alkynyl iodonium salts are capable of producing PdIV complexes possessing three Pd-C bonds. A stable PdIV complex was isolated, characterized and shown to mediate the formation of a heterocycle. In this Dissertation, the synthesis of various PdIV complexes and studies aimed at explaining the range of fundamental transformations at the PdIV-center beyond reductive elimination are presented. Chapter One discusses a general introduction into Palladium(IV) chemistry which includes a comparison between Pd0-PdII and PdII-PdIV catalytic cycles. This introduction also documents the observed and the proposed advantages of Palladium(IV) complexes in the applications to organic synthesis. Chapter Two constitutes a review of Palladium(IV) complexes in organometallic chemistry with particular emphases on the following themes in Palladium(IV) chemistry: (1) the use of strong oxidants to create various Pd-carbon or Pd-heteroatom bonds; (2) the presence of stabilizing ligands to aid in isolating the PdIV complexes; (3) the overview of known organometallic transformations being mediated by the PdIV-center Chapter Three provides the preliminary studies into the use of diazonium salt oxidants to generate PdIV complexes at low temperatures. The PdIV complexes feature the tripodal tris(pyrazol-1-yl)borate (Tp) ligand as well as two Pd-C(sp3) bonds and the oxidant generates a new Pd-C(sp2) bond. Detailed 1H NMR spectroscopic studies at low temperature provided the evidence of the formation for the (Tp)PdII intermediate via ligand exchange and the formation of the desired PdIV complexes in solution. Chapter Four describes the study of PdIV-mediated C-H activation in an organic oxidant yielding PdIV complexes with multiple Pd-C(sp2/sp3) bonds. Reductive elimination generates a complex heterocycle featuring two new C(sp2)-C(sp3) bonds. Detailed low temperature 1H NMR spectroscopic studies monitor the formation of the PdIV intermediates, give insight into the oxidative addition and C-H activation pathway during the reaction sequence and confirm carbon-carbon bond-formation by establishing the structure of the final organic product. Chapter Five details the synthesis of stable PdIV complexes featuring different auxiliary ligands. These PdIV complexes, which also possess the stabilizing tripodal Tp ligand, are generated in the presence of iodonium salts. The chapter reports our studies on the effect of the electronic properties of auxiliary ligands on the reactivity of the PdIV complex. The studies detailed in the chapter were aimed at exploring the C-H activation in organic substrates induced by the PdIV complexes. However, initial work indicated a limited scope of ligand substitution reactions, which prevented us from realizing the desired C-H activation on the organic substrate. Detailed ligand exchange studies with nucleophiles/additives are described in this chapter

Bonny and Read: A Musical of Love and Pirates

A musical based on the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women that grew up in the early 18th century. Anne was born in Ireland to a father that dressed her as a boy in an attempt to provide her with more opportunities in life. Mary was born in England to a mother that passed her off as her dead son to receive inheritance money from her deceased husband’s mother. This musical begins when the two girls come of age and continue to use their ability to pass as men in order to better their position in the world. The two end up in the Caribbean for different reasons. Anne is swept away by the glamour of the pirating lifestyle. She leaves her husband and runs off with Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham. The two come across Mary Read, who they believe to be a man named Mark Read. They are both impressed by her and invite her to join their crew. Over the course of their short time together, the three pirates enter a dangerous love triangle as Anne and Mary fall in love with each other, all the while maintaining their own relationships with Calico Jack. In an effort to profess her love, Mary Read reveals herself to Anne as a woman. Anne’s response to this is an acknowledgment of the love they’ve been experiencing. Anne decides to let Calico Jack in on the secret that Mary is also a woman in order to keep his growing jealousy at bay. Their ship is ultimately captured by a pirate hunter working for the Governor of Jamaica. The three are put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to hang. At the final hour, both Anne and Mary are granted a stay of execution because it is revealed that they are both pregnant. Anne Bonny’s final words to the father of her child Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham were, “Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.

Onomasticon III

In his November 1978 article, Logopoeia, Philip M. Cohen defines his title word as a coined word meaning \u27word-coinging.\u27 This definition does not do an established word justice. Logopoeia was defined by Ezar Pound -- who may have coined it -- in ABC of Reading (1934); and while logopoeia is literally making of words, Pound gives the word a much richer definition. The accepted meaning of this and most (all?) other -poeia words (from the Greek poiein, to make) are in the following onomasticon. Perhaps this should have been subtitled Much Ado About \u27Making\u27

Synthesis of Orthometalated Platinum (II) Complexes with Ligands containing Thiophene and Imine Moieties

Ligands containing thiophene and imine moieties were synthesized in order to study their reactions with platinum precursors. The imine is thought to coordinate initially to the platinum atom, with chelate-assisted C-H activation of the thiophene occurring next. A range of orthometalation products were obtained. The products varied depending on the reaction conditions including the solvents utilized, the steric bulk of the ligands, the stoichiometric ratios employed, the reaction temperatures, and the reaction times. All ligands and platinum complexes were characterized by 1H NMR and IR spectroscopies

Effects of relevant and irrelevant characteristics of leaders in a communication network

The present study involved groups of four Ss participating in a communication network, problem-solving task. Groups were assigned to one of the two treatments involving an irrelevant leader characteristic, race, and one of two treatments involving a relevant leader characteristic, efficiency. Race was varied by informing some groups that their leader was White while the other groups were informed that their leader was Negro. Efficiency was defined by an efficiency index, which, through a script followed by a confederate leader, produced either a high or low degree of efficiency. Race of the leader had a non significant impact on all six dependent variables. Efficiency had a significant impact on all six dependent variables. Race and efficiency showed a significant interaction only on the variable involving the S’s satisfaction with his role in the group

Onomasticon II

Little did I envision the difficulties encountered in building a list of -cide words. In general, such words are a combined form, signifying \u27killer\u27 or \u27killing\u27 (from the Latin caedere, to cut or kill). There are, however, three groups of exceptions: (1) development from other, similar roots; (2) neologisms, many of which are nonsensical; and (3) accidents of etymology

Onomasticon IV

\u27Wright\u27 is a word whose earliest recorded use was, according to the OED, circa 695 A.D. The word is now considered archaic or dialectic, but in its 1300-year history \u27wright\u27 has spawned many attributed and combined words and surnames, the subject of this listing. All words are from Webster\u27s Second, the OED, or S. Baring-Gould\u27s Family Names and Their Story. Words which double as surnames are indicated by an asterisk and are either recorded in Baring-Gould or known to the author; if a reader knows someone whose surname is in this list, but not noted as such, please send it in as a correction. I have provided definitions (in parentheses) for words listed without definition

Onomasticon I

One of my favorite pastimes is gathering together words that share an interesting suffix -- or perhaps share a similar spelling, regardless of etymology