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Elucidation of some reactions of methyl 3-(benzyl(2-hydoxyethyl)amino)propionate using NMR
No full textContrary to a literature report on a close analogue, reaction of methyl 3-(benzyl(2-hydroxyethyl)amino)propionate with methanesulfonyl chloride and triethylamine gives not the expected mesylate but the corresponding chloride. Conversion of the alcohol into the corresponding bromide was achieved using carbon tetrabromide and triphenylphosphine. Fully assigned 1H and 13C NMR spectra are presented and compared for all three compounds
Dude: dual distribution-aware context prompt learning for large vision-language model
No full textPrompt learning methods are gaining increasing attention due to their ability to customize large vision-language models to new domains using pre-trained contextual knowledge and minimal training data. However, existing works typically rely on optimizing unified prompt inputs, often struggling with fine-grained classification tasks due to insufficient discriminative attributes. To tackle this, we consider a new framework based on a dual context of both domain-shared and class-specific contexts, where the latter is generated by Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPTs. Such dual prompt methods enhance the model’s feature representation by joining implicit and explicit factors encoded in LLM knowledge. Moreover, we formulate the Unbalanced Optimal Transport (UOT) theory to quantify the relationships between constructed prompts and visual tokens. Through partial matching, UOT can properly align discrete sets of visual tokens and prompt embeddings under different mass distributions, which is particularly valuable for handling irrelevant or noisy elements, ensuring that the preservation of mass does not restrict transport solutions. Furthermore, UOT’s characteristics integrate seamlessly with image augmentation, expanding the training sample pool while maintaining a reasonable distance between perturbed images and prompt inputs. Extensive experiments across few-shot classification and adapter settings substantiate the superiority of our model over current state-of-the-art baselines
The 1831 CE mystery eruption identified as Zavaritskii caldera, Simushir Island (Kurils)
No full textPolar ice cores and historical records evidence a large-magnitude volcanic eruption in 1831 CE. This event was estimated to have injected ~13 Tg of sulfur (S) into the stratosphere which produced various atmospheric optical phenomena and led to Northern Hemisphere climate cooling of ~1 °C. The source of this volcanic event remains enigmatic, though one hypothesis has linked it to a modest phreatomagmatic eruption of Ferdinandea in the Strait of Sicily, which may have emitted additional S through magma–crust interactions with evaporite rocks. Here, we undertake a high-resolution multiproxy geochemical analysis of ice-core archives spanning the 1831 CE volcanic event. S isotopes confirm a major Northern Hemisphere stratospheric eruption but, importantly, rule out significant contributions from external evaporite S. In multiple ice cores, we identify cryptotephra layers of low K andesite-dacite glass shards occurring in summer 1831 CE and immediately prior to the stratospheric S fallout. This tephra matches the chemistry of the youngest Plinian eruption of Zavaritskii, a remote nested caldera on Simushir Island (Kurils). Radiocarbon ages confirm a recent (<300 y) eruption of Zavaritskii, and erupted volume estimates are consistent with a magnitude 5 to 6 event. The reconstructed radiative forcing of Zavaritskii (−2 ± 1 W m−2) is comparable to the 1991 CE Pinatubo eruption and can readily account for the climate cooling in 1831–1833 CE. These data provide compelling evidence that Zavaritskii was the source of the 1831 CE mystery eruption and solve a confounding case of multiple closely spaced observed and unobserved volcanic eruptions
(E)-3-Mesityl-1-(2,3,5,6-tetramethylphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one
No full textWe report the synthesis and characterisation of the previously unknown (E)-3-Mesityl-1-(2,3,5,6-tetramethylphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one by NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, melting point, mass spectrometry, and X-ray crystallography
Encounters with New Cultures:Critical Incidents for Developing Intercultural Competence
No full textLiving in another country is an enriching and rewarding experience, but can also cause confusion and conflict. Different groups of people have different ways of behaving and looking at the world, and the “rules” behind them are often unspoken.This website is designed to provide a range of Cultural Encounter Exercises, which can be used in classes or in the workplace in order to simulate difficult or confusing situations that people may find themselves in when living or traveling abroad. These exercises are reflective and have been created to encourage dialogue and understanding
Ten years of accounting for human rights:a critical review of how practice has evolved and what might come next
No full textThe text discusses the evolution of corporate accountability for human rights, emphasizing the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) and the shift toward mandatory human rights due diligence. Despite progress in the business and human rights (BHR) field, the challenge lies in integrating human rights into accounting. The chapter reviews developments since the UNGPs' endorsement, urging the international accounting community to address human rights impacts effectively. It explores social and environmental accounting (SEA) frameworks, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the International Integrated Reporting (IR) Framework, highlighting differences in their focus on stakeholders and materiality. The text calls for innovative approaches to measure and account for companies' impacts on people and their rights within the evolving institutional environment
Literature, science, and the voice of the 1870s
No full textThis chapter argues that, throughout the 1870s, literary understandings of voice were transformed by, and also helped to shape, acoustic technologies and sciences. Developments in physics and physiology, and the invention of the telephone and the phonograph at the decade’s end, offered new ways of describing how the human voice was formed, transmitted, and heard. However, these developments also reimagined voice as something not exclusively human, continuous with a wide spectrum of inarticulate and non-human sounds. This dehumanisation threatened to undermine established definitions of literary voice, but literary and scientific writers also identified similarities between their respective theorisations of speech and sound, and ‘voice’ became a keyword that was frequently used to examine the wider relations between science and literature. After discussing George Eliot’s views on the possible implications of new vocal technologies for prose fiction, the chapter turns to the sonnets of Emily Pfeiffer, which examine how scientific models of voice might complicate and reimagine poetry’s conventional status as the most essentially vocal of literary forms
<i>Self-similar and Self-affine Sets and Measures</i>, by Balázs Bárány, Karoly Simon,and Boris Solomyak, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, No. 276, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2023, 451 pp., ISBN 9781470470463
No full textOne-pot fabrication of sodium deoxycholate based supramolecular self-healing antibacterial double network hydrogels
No full textDouble network (DN) hydrogels have emerged as a significant technology for enhancement of mechanical strength of weak supramolecular gels. In the present study, we report the one-pot route for design of a low molecular weight gelator based DN hydrogel wherein sodium deoxycholate (NaDC) forms the primary network entangled with agar matrix. Various compositions of the reported agar-NaDC hydrogels were examined through FTIR, sol-gel transition temperature (Tsg), XRD, circular dichroism (CD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), hydrophobicity probe studies, Zeta potential studies and rheology measurements. Analysis of all studies together reveal that 1 mg/ml agar-NaDC DN hydrogel is the optimum composition that exhibits dense networking with primarily β-sheet like structure, highest mechanical strength as well as self-healing characteristics with reversed optical activity and highest Tsg. Antibacterial activity studied using inhibition zone method suggests that 1 mg/ml agar-NaDC gel demonstrates significant bactericidal effect unlike the pure gel with an inhibition zone of ∼25 mm against E.coli after 24 h and ∼32 mm after 48 h incubation. The antibacterial activity was unique for this composition of the DN hydrogel which is attributed to its reversal in optical activity exhibiting positive cotton effect resulting in stronger interaction with the bacterial cell wall. Additionally, nearly 2 times reduced water absorption capacity of the 1 mg/ml agar-NaDC DN hydrogel compared to pure NaDC hydrogel ensures the retention of its mechanical strength as well as other properties in high moisture containing environment. Hence, the 1 mg/ml agar-NaDC DN hydrogel holds appreciable potential as a novel strong supramolecular self-healing antibacterial hydrogel with sustained release characteristics primarily important for biomedical applications