Alkoxyallenes as building blocks for organic synthesis

Alkoxyallenes are unusually versatile C3 building blocks in organic synthesis. Hence this tutorial review summarizes the most important transformations, including subsequent reactions and their applications in the synthesis of relevant compounds, e.g. natural products. The reactivity patterns involved and the synthons derived from alkoxyallenes are presented. Often alkoxyallenes can serve as substitutes of acrolein or acrolein acetals, utilisation of which has already led to interesting products. Most important is the use of lithiated alkoxyallenes which smoothly react with a variety of electrophiles and lead to products with unique substitution patterns. The heterocycles or carbocycles formed are intermediates for the stereoselective synthesis of natural products or for the preparation of other structurally relevant compounds. The different synthons being put into practice by the use of lithiated alkoxyallenes in these variations will be discussed

Potential Anticancer Compounds. II, Synthesis of Some Nitrosiminodiacetic Acid Hydrazides

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati 2

Environmental Product Declaration as a Mobilizer to Achieve Competitive Advantages

Global climate challenges have led to a significant increase in renewable energy production. Currently, energy generated from the sun is the fastest-growing energy source globally. Solar panels based on silicon make it possible to transform solar energy into electrical energy. However, the extraction of silicon is highly energy-intensive, hence potentially contributing to significant pollutant emissions. On the other hand, a Norwegian silicon producer, REC Solar, has chosen to utilize a more expensive technology, resulting in lower polluting emissions. Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) are used to document and promote the environmental effects of a specific product developed according to international standards and Life Cycle Analysis. The EPD is founded on Product Category Rules (PCR) to create a basis for comparison regarding environmental properties for products with equal satisfactory qualities. Thus, EPDs can contribute to more sustainable procurement. The harmonization of PCRs and the prevalence of EPDs have been proven to be most significant in the construction industry. Therefore, an empirical study has been conducted within this industry. The thesis aims to investigate EPD's active role in a competitive market and how it can contribute to REC Solars' utilization of low-emission silicon. A quantitative study has been conducted to retrieve experiences from EPD-owners in the Norwegian construction industry. In addition, a qualitative study has been conducted to analyze how contractors evaluate EPDs in procurement processes. Finally, the empirical results are structured in a theoretical resource management framework to assess the EPD's ability to mobilize low-emission silicon and achieve a lasting competitive advantage. The research results show that EPD can mobilize low-emission silicon as a resource. However, the perceived value of low-emission silicon is currently not adequate for buyers to prioritize lower emissions above price. The study promotes that an increased number and more explicit incentive systems are needed for the environmental properties of products to have a greater impact on procurement decisions. Hence, appropriate the potential value and achieve lasting competitive advantage

The ICT convergence discourse in the information systems literature - A second-order observation

The growing relevance, scale, and complexity of Business Intelligence (BI) entails the need to find agile and efficient solutions for the coordination of maintenance and release processes – under consideration of the heterogeneity of the involved units on the IT and the business side. The finance industry with its mature BI infrastructures and its highly turbulent business environment is a forerunner for these developments. Based on a survey among BI users in the finance sector, relevant problem areas in the BI service provision are identified and structured. A series of qualitative interviews among banks and insurance companies is used to gain further insights into approaches for dealing with the related issues. The studies uncover several advantages of a central “BI Competency Centre” (BICC) as well as levers for effectively structuring the interfaces between BICC, IT, and user interface

Environmental Product Declaration as a Mobilizer to Achieve Competitive Advantages

Global climate challenges have led to a significant increase in renewable energy production. Currently, energy generated from the sun is the fastest-growing energy source globally. Solar panels based on silicon make it possible to transform solar energy into electrical energy. However, the extraction of silicon is highly energy-intensive, hence potentially contributing to significant pollutant emissions. On the other hand, a Norwegian silicon producer, REC Solar, has chosen to utilize a more expensive technology, resulting in lower polluting emissions. Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) are used to document and promote the environmental effects of a specific product developed according to international standards and Life Cycle Analysis. The EPD is founded on Product Category Rules (PCR) to create a basis for comparison regarding environmental properties for products with equal satisfactory qualities. Thus, EPDs can contribute to more sustainable procurement. The harmonization of PCRs and the prevalence of EPDs have been proven to be most significant in the construction industry. Therefore, an empirical study has been conducted within this industry. The thesis aims to investigate EPD's active role in a competitive market and how it can contribute to REC Solars' utilization of low-emission silicon. A quantitative study has been conducted to retrieve experiences from EPD-owners in the Norwegian construction industry. In addition, a qualitative study has been conducted to analyze how contractors evaluate EPDs in procurement processes. Finally, the empirical results are structured in a theoretical resource management framework to assess the EPD's ability to mobilize low-emission silicon and achieve a lasting competitive advantage. The research results show that EPD can mobilize low-emission silicon as a resource. However, the perceived value of low-emission silicon is currently not adequate for buyers to prioritize lower emissions above price. The study promotes that an increased number and more explicit incentive systems are needed for the environmental properties of products to have a greater impact on procurement decisions. Hence, appropriate the potential value and achieve lasting competitive advantage

Potential Anticancer Compounds. III, Synthesis of Some 8-Substituted Caffeines and Theophyllines

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati 21, Ohi

Free-Surface Lattice-Boltzmann Simulation on Many-Core Architectures

AbstractCurrent advances in many-core technologies demand simulation algorithms suited for the corresponding architectures while with regard to the respective increase of computational power, real-time and interactive simulations become possible and desirable. We present an OpenCL implementation of a Lattice-Boltzmann-based free-surface solver for GPU architectures. The massively parallel execution especially requires special techniques to keep the interface region consistent, which is here addressed by a novel multipass method. We further compare different memory layouts according to their performance for both a basic driven cavity implementation and the free-surface method, pointing out the capabilities of our implementation in real-time and interactive scenarios, and shortly present visualizations of the flow, obtained in real-time

Using a multi-level tailored design process to develop a customer satisfaction survey for university evaluation

A multi-level procedure is described in order to develop a total quality management survey tool in the field of engineering academia. As a first step a review of available evaluation tools for universities is conducted, resulting in over 150 items used for evaluation purposes. Secondly all dimensions of educational evaluation used in previous research are summarized, resulting in 15 dimensions. In a third step, items are assigned to the dimensions, overlapping items were combined or removed, and item content and dimensions were adjusted to the specific conditions of the target faculty. Fourthly, the resulting twelve dimensions were used in first, investigative interviews in the target population. Results indicate that eleven dimensions sufficiently mapped all aspects of evaluation. After revising the items to improve understanding in a fifth step cognitive pretests were conducted. The final revision resulted in 83 items assigned to eleven dimensions

The Boekelheide Rearrangement of Pyrimidine-N-oxides as a Case Study of Closed or Open Shell Reactions – Experimental and Computational Evidence for the Participation of Radical Intermediates

In a case study, the acetic anhydride-promoted reaction of a model pyrimidine-N-oxide to the corresponding 4-acetoxymethyl-substituted pyrimidine derivative (Boekelheide rearrangement) was investigated in detail by experiment and quantum chemical calculations. The reaction conditions were varied and several side products formed in low to moderate yields were identified. These experiments indicate that a (pyrimidin-4-yl)methyl radical is one of the key species of the rearrangement. This interpretation was supported by the fact that rearrangements performed in solvents which can easily lose hydrogen atoms, afford considerable quantities of products incorporating the solvent. With TEMPO the key radical could be trapped. Other carboxylic acid anhydrides confirm the conclusion that the Boekelheide rearrangement of the model pyrimidine-N-oxide proceeds, at least in part, via radical intermediates. The high level closed and open shell quantum chemical calculations show that concerted [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements or stepwise processes, either via ion pairs or via radicals, are energetically feasible