Sorcery and well-being: bodily transformation at Beckeranta.

This paper examines bodily transformation and well-being within the context of a millenarian movement that emerged during the 1840s in the area surrounding Mount Roraima at the periphery of Brazil, Guyana (British Guiana at the time), and Venezuela. The site of this movement was Beckeranta - meaning 'Land of the Whites' - where up to 400 Amerindians were reportedly killed in a quest that is described in its sole historical account as centred around a goal of bodily transformation into white people. In examining this movement, the paper engages with longstanding debates in medical anthropology concerning the body, as well as conversations among Amazonianists concerning the social formation of bodies, and examines sorcery and shamanism as practices that go 'beyond the body'. Notions of bodily transformation in Amazonia, which are often activated by strong emotions, facilitate conceptual expansions of the body in medical anthropology. The paper suggests that bodily transformations tied to sorcery and shamanism are in some contexts, such as at Beckeranta, associated with desires for well-being.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2020.1807726.

A faux hawk fullerene with PCBM-like properties.

Reaction of C60, C6F5CF2I, and SnH(n-Bu)3 produced, among other unidentified fullerene derivatives, the two new compounds 1,9-C60(CF2C6F5)H (1) and 1,9-C60(cyclo-CF2(2-C6F4)) (2). The highest isolated yield of 1 was 35% based on C60. Depending on the reaction conditions, the relative amounts of 1 and 2 generated in situ were as high as 85% and 71%, respectively, based on HPLC peak integration and summing over all fullerene species present other than unreacted C60. Compound 1 is thermally stable in 1,2-dichlorobenzene (oDCB) at 160 °C but was rapidly converted to 2 upon addition of Sn2(n-Bu)6 at this temperature. In contrast, complete conversion of 1 to 2 occurred within minutes, or hours, at 25 °C in 90/10 (v/v) PhCN/C6D6 by addition of stoichiometric, or sub-stoichiometric, amounts of proton sponge (PS) or cobaltocene (CoCp2). DFT calculations indicate that when 1 is deprotonated, the anion C60(CF2C6F5)- can undergo facile intramolecular SNAr annulation to form 2 with concomitant loss of F-. To our knowledge this is the first observation of a fullerene-cage carbanion acting as an SNAr nucleophile towards an aromatic C-F bond. The gas-phase electron affinity (EA) of 2 was determined to be 2.805(10) eV by low-temperature PES, higher by 0.12(1) eV than the EA of C60 and higher by 0.18(1) eV than the EA of phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). In contrast, the relative E1/2(0/-) values of 2 and C60, -0.01(1) and 0.00(1) V, respectively, are virtually the same (on this scale, and under the same conditions, the E1/2(0/-) of PCBM is -0.09 V). Time-resolved microwave conductivity charge-carrier yield × mobility values for organic photovoltaic active-layer-type blends of 2 and poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) were comparable to those for equimolar blends of PCBM and P3HT. The structure of solvent-free crystals of 2 was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The number of nearest-neighbor fullerene-fullerene interactions with centroid···centroid (⊙···âŠ™) distances of ≤10.34 Å is significantly greater, and the average ⊙···âŠ™ distance is shorter, for 2 (10 nearest neighbors; ave. ⊙···âŠ™ distance = 10.09 Å) than for solvent-free crystals of PCBM (7 nearest neighbors; ave. ⊙···âŠ™ distance = 10.17 Å). Finally, the thermal stability of 2 was found to be far greater than that of PCBM.

An elusive fulvene 1,7,11,24-C60(CF3)4 and its unusual reactivity.

The X-ray crystal structure of a trifluoromethylfullerene (TMF), 1,7,11,24-C60(CF3)4, is reported for the first time. This elusive intermediate, while highly air stable as a solid, exhibits highly regioselective reactivity towards molecular oxygen in polar solvents, and only when exposed to light.

Structure of 7,9,12,15,18,20,39,24,45,57-C60(CF3)10(1,2:3,4-O)2. The first regiospecific diepoxidation of a fullerene derivative.

An unusual regiospecific diepoxidation of an isomer of C60(CF3)10 was discovered to slowly occur in solution while exposed to air. This is the only known example of a perfluoroalkyl fullerene undergoing epoxidation under ambient conditions. This compound was characterized by a variety of analytical methods including 19F NMR spectroscopy, APCI-MS, UV-vis spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. Numerous oxidation methods were explored including ozonation, photolysis, thermolysis, and the chemical oxidation by m-chloroperoxobenzoic acid, none of which has yielded the diepoxide. This indicated that the process is kinetically very slow, presumably due to steric crowding around the oxygen addition sites. These findings of spontaneous diepoxidation of the otherwise stable compound have far reaching implications as more fullerenes and fullerene derivatives are being used in organic electronics, and their instability toward oxidation in ambient conditions may alter the performance of the device.

Executive impairment determines ADHD medication response: implications for academic achievement.

Methylphenidate (MPH) often ameliorates attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) behavioral dysfunction according to indirect informant reports and rating scales. The standard of care behavioral MPH titration approach seldom includes direct neuropsychological or academic assessment data to determine treatment efficacy. Documenting "cool" executive-working memory (EWM) and "hot" self-regulation (SR) neuropsychological impairments could aid in differential diagnosis of ADHD subtypes and determining cognitive and academic MPH response. In this study, children aged 6 to 16 with ADHD inattentive type (IT; n = 19) and combined type (n = 33)/hyperactive-impulsive type (n = 4) (CT) participated in double-blind placebo-controlled MPH trials with baseline and randomized placebo, low MPH dose, and high MPH dose conditions. EWM/ SR measures and behavior ratings/classroom observations were rank ordered separately across conditions, with nonparametric randomization tests conducted to determine individual MPH response. Participants were subsequently grouped according to their level of cool EWM and hot SR circuit dysfunction. Robust cognitive and behavioral MPH response was achieved for children with significant baseline EWM/SR impairment, yet response was poor for those with adequate EWM/ SR baseline performance. Even for strong MPH responders, the best dose for neuropsychological functioning was typically lower than the best dose for behavior. Findings offer one possible explanation for why long-term academic MPH treatment gains in ADHD have not been realized. Implications for academic achievement and medication titration practices for children with behaviorally diagnosed ADHD will be discussed.

Chemical tailoring of fullerene acceptors: synthesis, structures and electrochemical properties of perfluoroisopropylfullerenes.

High-temperature syntheses of the new C(60)(i-C(3)F(7))(2,4,6) and C(70)(i-C(3)F(7))(2,4) isomers and their characterization by spectroscopic methods, X-ray crystallography, cyclic voltammetry and density functional theory provide compelling evidence that they are superior electron acceptors than trifluoromethylfullerenes.