A catalytic, multi-component coupling reaction for the synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles has been developed, via the reaction of an imine, α-diazoester and unsaturated coupling partner in the presence of a copper(I) or rhodium(II) transition metal catalyst with excellent diastereo-selectivities and high yields. The transition metal-catalyzed decomposition of a diazo compound...
The use of processes based on microorganisms to produce fuels, monomers, and pharmaceuticals from renewable feedstocks is increasing today due to their environmental and economic advantages over petrochemical-based processes. In order to unlock the full potential of microorganisms to produce a sustainable industry centered on biosynthesis, an improved understanding of...
It is critical to genomic integrity that DNA is replicated completely and faithfully during each cell cycle. The essential replication factor Cdt1 is a critical protein in preventing reinitiation of replication. Overexpression of Cdt1 causes re-replication in p53 null cells and transforms NIH3T3 cells, causing them to form tumors in...
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many images of dwarves, hirsutes, and castrati depict them in the guise of the monstrous, either as jokes of nature or indices of courtly wit. However, there are some Renaissance portraits of physically deformed individuals that transcend these categories. These portraits point to the...
As technology moves into deep submicron and nanoscale era, undesirable trends such as increasing power density, leakage power, and temperature variation within chips have made thermal effects emerge as a major bottleneck in further technology scaling. Thermal effects are no longer considered as just a reliability issue, but it also...
In the first chapter, I study how political institutions can affect policymaking when the economy is in transition. I develop a framework where a transition process gradually restructures economic institutions so that the population's long-term preference may differ from its short-term preference. A democracy may fail to implement the optimal...
Next generation of high performance nano-optoelectronic integrated circuits will require an integral combination of highly efficient all-optical nanophotonic devices and electrically-pumped nanophotonic devices, which will enable the chip to process optical information all optically with ultrafast speed and electro-optically to interface with the electronic control plane. The realizations of such...
At the heart of nonlinear optimization methods lies the solution of linear systems of equations. As the size of the problem increases, it is imperative to use iterative methods, such as the conjugate gradient algorithm, to solve these linear systems. In the context of constrained optimization, it has proved to...
Entangled photons serve as an important tool in the field of quantum information processing. Traditionally, spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in second-order nonlinear crystals has been the workhorse source for generating entangled photons. However, those SPDC-generated photons are notoriously difficult to couple into single-mode optical fibers due to mode mismatch, thus...
In "Optimal Delegation" I analyze the design of decision rules by a principal who faces an informed but biased agent and who is unable to commit to contingent transfers. The contracting problem reduces to a delegation problem in which the principal commits to a set of decisions from which the...