A Recyclable Electrochemical Reduction of Aldehydes and Ketones to Alcohols Using Water as the Hydrogen Source and Solvent.

There are several challenging problems such as the usage of combustible and hazardous hydrogen sources and severe environmental pollution in the conventional reduction of aldehydes/ketones to alcohols. We report here a practical, safe, and green electrochemical reduction, which solves these problems to a large extent. Through an undivided cell, Zn(+) and Sn(-) as the electrode, tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBAC) as the electrolyte, water as the solvent and hydrogen source, a wide range of aldehydes and ketones are converted into the corresponding alcohols in mild conditions. Furthermore, the electrolytes and water can be recycled, and reductive deuteration can be achieved by simply using D2O as the solvent. Finally, the reduction can be smoothly scaled up to a kilogram level.

Electrochemical Aerobic Oxidative Cleavage of (sp3)C-C(sp3)/H Bonds in Alkylarenes.

An electrochemistry-promoted oxidative cleavage of (sp3)C-C(sp3)/H bonds in alkylarenes was developed. Various aryl alkanes can be smoothly converted into ketones/aldehydes under aerobic conditions using a user-friendly undivided cell setup. The features of air as oxidant, scalability, and mild conditions make them attractive in synthetic organic chemistry.

Driver behaviour and traffic accident involvement among professional heavy semi-trailer truck drivers in China.

The purpose of this study was to develop a driving behavior scale for professional drivers of heavy semi-trailer trucks in China, and study the causes of such driving behavior and its impact on traffic safety operation. Data was processed by IBM SPSS 25. In addition to principal component analysis, Promax rotation, Bartlett's test, Cronbach's alpha, correlation analysis and binary logistic regression were examined. A DBQ with 4 dimensions and 20 items, and a PDBQ with 1 dimension and 6 items were developed for professional drivers of heavy semi-trailer trucks in China. The KMO coefficients of PDBQ and DBQ were 0.822 and 0.852, respectively, and the significant level of Bartlett's popularity test was p < 0.0001. The accident prediction model showed that the variables related to traffic accidents were negligence/lapses and driving time of heavy semi-trailer truck drivers. 1-5 a.m. was found to be the most dangerous period for drivers of medium and heavy semi-trailer trucks, during which accidents were most likely to happen. As negligence/lapses increased by one unit, the probability of traffic accidents increased by 2.293 times.

Genomic evidence for the Chinese mountain cat as a wildcat conspecific (Felis silvestris bieti) and its introgression to domestic cats.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau endemic Chinese mountain cat has a controversial taxonomic status, whether it is a true species or a wildcat (Felis silvestris) subspecies and whether it has contributed to cat (F. s. catus) domestication in East Asia. Here, we sampled F. silvestris lineages across China and sequenced 51 nuclear genomes, 55 mitogenomes, and multilocus regions from 270 modern or museum specimens. Genome-wide analyses classified the Chinese mountain cat as a wildcat conspecific F. s. bieti, which was not involved in cat domestication of China, thus supporting a single domestication origin arising from the African wildcat (F. s. lybica). A complex hybridization scenario including ancient introgression from the Asiatic wildcat (F. s. ornata) to F. s. bieti, and contemporary gene flow between F. s. bieti and sympatric domestic cats that are likely recent Plateau arrivals, raises the prospect of disrupted wildcat genetic integrity, an issue with profound conservation implications.

Site-Specific Oxidation of (sp3)C-C(sp3)/H Bonds by NaNO2/HCl.

A site-specific oxidation of (sp3)C-C(sp3) and (sp3)C-H bonds in aryl alkanes by the use of NaNO2/HCl was explored. The method is chemical-oxidant-free, transition-metal-free, uses water as the solvent, and proceeds under mild conditions, making it valuable and attractive to synthetic organic chemistry.

Molecular Oxygen-Mediated Radical Alkylation of C(sp3)-H Bonds with Boronic Acids.

A direct and site-specific alkylation of (sp3)C-H bond with aliphatic boronic acid was achieved. By simply heating glycinates and amines together with alkylboronic acids under an oxygen atmosphere, a variety of unnatural α-amino acids and peptides could be obtained in good yields.

Exploring the impact of access designs on crash injury severity on multilane highways.

OBJECTIVE: Access design is a critical factor that influences the safety and mobility of urban/suburban multilane highways due to the interactions between access movements and through traffic. An effective way for improving the safety and mobility of multilane highways is to control access maneuvers by implementing appropriate access designs. Understanding the impact of access designs on crash injury severity is beneficial for implementing effective countermeasures to mitigate crash injury at access points. Thus, the objectives of this article are to investigate the impact of access designs on crash injury severity and identify contributing factors of crash injury severity at access points of multilane highways. METHODS: A total of 1830 crash records were collected at 149 access points with different access designs for a period of 3 years (2008-2010) in Florida. A heterogeneous logit model, relaxing the constraint of identical variances across observations in the traditional ordered choice models, was developed to evaluate the impact of access designs on crash injury severity and identify contributing factors. The marginal effects of the developed model were used to interpret the impact of access designs and other contributing factors. RESULTS: At 4-leg access points, given that a crash has occurred, replacing full median openings with closed medians will reduce the probability of severe injury (fatality, incapacitating injury, or nonincapacitating injury) by 9.73 percent; substituting full median openings with directional median openings will reduce the probability of severe injury by 11.02 percent. At 3-leg access points, given that a crash has occurred, closed medians significantly experience a lower risk of severe injury than full median openings; however, there is no evidence that directional median openings are similarly effective. Other contributing factors of crash injury severity at access points were identified as number of lanes, shoulder width, median width, driveway density, left-turn bay on major roads, speed limit, average annual daily traffic (AADT), high-density residential area, daylight, driver age, and truck involvement. CONCLUSIONS: Installation of directional median openings is a reasonable safety treatment at 4-leg access points because this access design has better safety performance than full median openings in terms of crash injury severity; in addition, it provides fewer restrictions on accessibility than closed medians. Other effective treatments include installing left-turn storage bays at median openings and increasing the width of shoulders and medians. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.