Orientador: Cintia Duarte de Freitas Milagre / Banca: Luciana Gonzaga de Oliveira / Banca: Leandro Helgueira Andrade / Resumo: Os biocatalisadores (enzimas e/ou micro-organismos) são amplamente utilizados na síntese de moléculas bioativas, em especial os fármacos, para gerar ou resolver centros quirais. O levetiracetam, comercialmente conhecido como Keppra®, é um composto quiral com propriedades anticonvulsivantes cuja atividade farmacológica está relacionada ao enantiômero (S). O aumento da opção pelo uso do levetiracetam em detrimento a outros fármacos anticonvulsivantes está intimamente associado à baixa ocorrência de efeitos colaterais provocados por este. Diversas rotas quimiossintéticas para sua produção são relatadas na literatura. A maioria delas envolve um elevado número de etapas, alto consumo energético, uso de catalisadores metálicos e baixos rendimentos globais. Em contrapartida, este projeto teve por objetivo empregar uma rota quimioenzimática, com menor número de etapas, condições mais brandas e ambientalmente amigáveis de reação para a síntese do levetiracetam e análogos (série alifática). A respectiva série aromática também foi sintetizada, uma vez que trata-se de blocos construtores quirais para a síntese de compostos com reconhecida atividade anti-malária. A primeira etapa consistiu na síntese das cianidrinas racêmicas seguida da substiuição da hidroxila destas por heterociclos nitrogenados. Uma coleção de enzimas do tipo nitrila hidratases (E.C. 4.2.1.84) foi empregada para catalisar a conversão das nitrilas α-substituidas por N-heterociclos nas respectivas amidas quirais. As enzimas foram utilizadas tanto na forma isolada (obtidas comercialmente) quanto em células íntegras de bactérias e leveduras da Coleção de Micro-organismos do Laboratório de Biocatálise do IQ-UNESP Araraquara. As reações enzimáticas foram conduzidas em meio aquoso tamponado e em sistemas binários líquido iônico : solução tampão (10, 20, 40 e 80%) a fim de avaliar a influência do... / Abstract: Biocatalysts (enzymes and/or microorganisms) are widely used in the synthesis of bioactive molecules, in particular pharmaceuticals, to generate or resolve chiral centers. Levetiracetam, commercially known as Keppra®, is a chiral compound with anticonvulsant properties whose pharmacological activity is related to the (S)-enantiomer. The increase in option for the use of levetiracetam over the others anticonvulsant drugs is closely associated with low incidence of side effects caused by this. Several chemosynthetic routes for its production are reported in the literature. Most of them involve numerous synthetic steps, high energy consumption, use of metal catalysts and low overall yields. On the other hand, this project aims to develop a chemoenzymatic route, with fewer steps, milder conditions and environmentally friendly reaction for the synthesis of levetiracetam and analogues (aliphatic series). The respective aromatic series was also synthesized, since it is chiral building blocks for the synthesis of compounds with known antimalarial activity. The first step was the synthesis of racemic cyanohydrin followed by substitution of the hydroxyl group by nitrogen heterocycles. Collections of nitrile hydratase enzymes type (EC 4.2.1.84) were used to catalyze the conversion of N-heterocycles α-substituted nitriles in the respective chiral amides. The enzymes were used both in isolated form (obtained commercially) as in whole cells bacteria and yeast Collection of Microorganisms of Biocatalysis Laboratory of IQ-UNESP Araraquara. The enzymatic reactions were performed in buffered aqueous medium and ionic liquid : buffer (10, 20, 40 and 80%) binary systems in order to evaluate the influence of the solvent on the enantioselectivity and yield of these reactions. The ionic liquids synthesized and used in this work were 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium... / Mestre

Process development of new complex reactions in the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries is challenging, and expensive. The field is beginning to see a bridging between fundamental first-principles investigations, and utilisation of data-driven statistical methods, such as machine learning. Nonetheless, process development and optimisation in these industries is mostly driven by trial-and-error, and experience. Approaches that move beyond these are limited to the well-developed optimisation of continuous variables, and often do not yield physical insights. This thesis describes several new methods developed to address research questions related to this challenge. First, we investigated whether utilising physical knowledge could aid statistics-guided self-optimisation of a C-H activation reaction, in which the optimisation variables were continuous. We then considered algorithmic treatment of the more challenging discrete variables, focussing on solvents. We parametrised a library of 459 solvents with physically meaningful molecular descriptors. Our case study was a homogeneous Rh-catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation to produce a chiral γ-lactam, with conversion and diastereoselectivity as objectives. We adapted a state-of-the-art multi-objective machine learning algorithm, based on Gaussian processes, to utilise the descriptors as inputs, and to create a surrogate model for each objective. The aim of the algorithm was to determine a set of Pareto solutions with a minimum experimental budget, whilst simultaneously addressing model uncertainty. We found that descriptors are a valuable tool for Design of Experiments, and can produce predictive and interpretable surrogate models. Subsequently, a physical investigation of this reaction led to the discovery of an efficient catalyst-ligand system, which we studied by operando NMR, and identified a parametrised kinetic model. Turning the focus then to ligands for asymmetric hydrogenation, we calculated versatile empirical descriptors based on the similarity of atomic environments, for 102 chiral ligands, to predict diastereoselectivity. Whilst the model fit was good, it failed to accurately predict the performance of an unseen ligand family, due to analogue bias. Physical knowledge has then guided the selection of symmetrised physico-chemical descriptors. This produced more accurate predictive models for diastereoselectivity, including for an unseen ligand family. The contribution of this thesis is a development of novel and effective workflows and methodologies for process development. These open the door for process chemists to save time and resources, freeing them up from routine work, to focus instead on creatively designing new chemistry for future real-world applications.

Chiral amines are ubiquitous functionalities found in the architecture of the natural world and have been embedded into materials, catalysts, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and bioactive natural products. However, limited approaches are accessible for the construction of an enantioenriched tertiary or quaternary-containing amine. This thesis describes the development of new methodologies for the synthesis of 7-membered nitrogen-containing heterocycle and 1,2-diamine compounds. Chapter one describes the application of dynamic kinetic asymmetric amination (DYKAT) of branched allylic acetimidates in the synthesis of 2-alkyldihydrobenzoazepin-5-ones. These 7-membered-ring aza-ketones are generated in good yield with high enantiomeric excess through sequential rhodium-catalyzed allylic amination with 2-amino aryl aldehydes followed by intramolecular olefin hydroacylation of the resulting alkenals. This two-step procedure is efficient, straightforward and convenient for the enantioselective preparation of these ring systems. In Chapter two, we further extended the methodology towards the allylic amination of racemic secondary and tertiary allylic trichloroacetimidates possessing β-nitrogen substituents, and proximal nitrogen-containing heterocycles, using the DYKAT transformation to provide branched allylic 1,2-diamines with high enantioselectivity. The catalytic system is versatile in the synthesis of 1,2-diamines possessing two contiguous stereocenters, with excellent diastereoselectivity. Additionally, the nitrogen-containing heterocycles suppress competing vinyl azirdine formation, allowing for the high enantioselective syntheses of 1,2-diamines possessing tertiary and quaternary centers. Chapter three gives a very brief outlook on our efforts in rhodium-catalyzed amination strategy in providing access to a variety of enantiopure α-fluoromethylated allylic amines.

Carbonyl allylation and propargylation reactions have been an important tool for the stereocontrolled formation of carbon-carbon bonds for synthetic chemists. The chiral homoallylic and homopropargylic alcohols obtained from these reactions serve as versatile intermediates for the synthesis of natural and pharmaceutical products. Over the past three decades and continuing on, various synthetic groups around the globe have directed their research towards the efficient synthesis of these chiral moieties. In spite extensive research, asymmetric allylation and propargylation reactions remain an enduring challenge in organic chemistry. Chapter 1 of this thesis describes the first phosphoric acid catalyzed asymmetric allylboration of aldehydes. We found that the BINOL-derived phosphoric acids can efficiently catalyze the allylation reaction under specific conditions. Homoallylic alcohols were obtained in high yields and enantioselectivities from a wide variety of substrates. The optimized conditions were also found to be effective towards crotylboration of aldehydes. Chapter 2 describes the extension of the Br[o/]nsted acid catalyzed allylboration methodology to the propargylation of aldehydes. Homopropargylic alcohols were obtained with high selectivities with TRIP-PA as the catalyst. Synthesis of various important synthetic scaffolds from these chiral alcohols is also presented. The mechanistic insights studied by research groups of Kendall Houk and Jonathan Goodman have been outlined in chapter 3. These studies show that the major isomer is formed via a transition state involving the hydrogen bonding interaction between the hydroxyl group of the catalyst and the pseudoaxial oxygen of the boronate, with a stabilizing interaction of the phosphoryl oxygen to the formyl hydrogen. These insights helped us in developing new and highly efficient boronates that are described in the next chapter.

Wnt/β-catenin signaling and asymmetric cell division are essential to development and homeostasis in metazoans; these two mechanisms join into one in the Wnt/β-catenin Asymmetry (WβA) pathway in the nematode C. elegans. In WβA, nuclear asymmetry of two β-catenins, SYS-1 and WRM-1, is achieved by two parallel pathways that reduce SYS-1 and WRM-1 levels in the anterior daughter and increase their levels in the posterior daughter. While it is known that many conserved regulators of Wnt signaling are involved in WβA, how these components interact to achieve SYS-1 and WRM-1 asymmetry is not well understood. In this thesis, genetics, transgenics, and live-imaging are used to demonstrate how WβA regulates it’s multiple outputs. It is shown that APR-1/APC and PRY-1/Axin control asymmetric localization of both SYS-1 and WRM-1, and that Wnt signaling explicitly controls APR-1 regulation of either β-catenin via the kinase KIN-19/CKIα. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the Dishevelled proteins DSH-2 and MIG-5 are positive regulators of SYS-1, but negative regulators of WRM-1. Additionally, data from a screen designed to identify novel kinase regulators of Wnt signaling/asymmetric cell division is presented. Overall, this thesis takes current knowledge of conserved Wnt signaling component function and provides a compelling model of how those components are adapted to asymmetric cell division.

There are many diverse classes of biologically active natural products containing chiral 1,5- or 1,5,7-polyol moieties, including the novel fibrinogen receptor antagonist tetrafibricin, a potential antiplatelet therapeutic drug to treat various arterial thrombotic diseases. There have been some elegant synthetic strategies developed to synthesize these challenging 1,5-diol motifs; however, many of them suffer from a variety of inherent limitations. To overcome many of these challenges, our group has developed an iterative configuration-encoded strategy to access 1,5-polyols with unambiguous stereocontrol by exploiting Julia–Kocienski couplings of enantiopure α-siloxy-γ-sulfononitrile building blocks with alcohol stereocenters previously established via asymmetric catalysis. Our method is a strategy level innovation that allows for the efficient and rapid access to all stereoisomers of a 1,5-polyol family from cheap and easily accessible reagents, without the need to determine the configuration of each alcohol stereocenter in the growing polyol chain. We were able to modify our configuration-encoded 1,5-polyol methodology to access the anti,syn-1,5,7-triol within the C15–C25 fragment of tetrafibricin with excellent selectivity by incorporating differentiable protection and merging this approach with the tactic of diastereoselective intramolecular conjugate addition via benzylidene acetal construction to access the syn-1,3-diol functionality. We also applied our iterative configuration-encoded strategy to the synthesis of the 1,5-polyol-containing C26–C40 fragment of tetrafibricin with excellent stereoselectivity by modifying our previous route to the C27–C40 segment. By overcoming the challenges associated with the reduction of α-siloxynitriles and extending the carbon chain to alter the subsequent Mukaiyama aldol coupling location, we were able to furnish the C26–C40 fragment with the correct protection and functionality for further coupling to the C15–C25 segment. With the C15–C25 and C26–C40 fragments in hand, we joined these segments via asymmetric BF3⋅OEt2-mediated Mukaiyama aldol construction with high 1,3-anti stereoinduction. We determined the preceding stereoselectivity by first using the simplified model C26–C40 fragment and found that replacing the TBDPS with TBS protection of the β-siloxy aldehyde increased the level of 1,3-anti induction. To complete the C15–C40 fragment of tetrafibricin, we performed an intramolecular hydroxyl-directed anti-reduction to furnish the desired anti,anti,anti-1,3,5,7-tetraol moiety. We were able to establish the configurations of these chiral alcohols using a battery of 2D NMR experiments. Finally, to complete the total synthesis of tetrafibricin, we have proposed a route to couple our C15–C40 fragment with the C8–C14 segment via a precedented asymmetric aldol reaction, followed by coupling to the known C1–C7 polyene fragment. With minor functional group transformations and a global deprotection, access to the natural product tetrafibricin should be achievable.

Doctor of Philosophy / The apparent increase in market concentration and vertical integration in the Indonesian crude palm oil (CPO) industry has led to concerns about the presence of market power. For the Indonesian CPO industry, such concerns attract more attention because of the importance of this sector to the Indonesian economy. CPO is used as the main raw material for cooking oil (which is an essential commodity in Indonesia) and it contributes significantly to export earnings and employment. However, dominant producers argue that the increase in economies of scale and scope lead to an increase in the efficiency, which eventually will be beneficial for the end consumers and export earnings. This research seeks to examine whether the dominant producers do behave competitively and pass the efficiency gains to the end consumers, or they enhance inefficiency through market power instead. In order to identify the most suitable model to measure market power in the Indonesian CPO industry, different market power models are explored. These models can be divided into static and dynamic models. In general, all of them accept the price–cost margins as a measure of market power. However, static models fail to reveal the dynamic behaviour that determines market power; hence the dynamic models are likely to be more appropriate to modelling market power. Among these dynamic models, the adjustment model with a linear quadratic specification is considered to be a more appropriate model to measure market power in the Indonesian CPO industry. In the Indonesian CPO industry, producers can be divided into three groups, namely the public estates, private companies and smallholders. However, based on their ability to influence market price, smallholders are not considered as one of the dominant groups. By using the adjustment cost model, the market power of the dominant groups is estimated. The model is estimated using a Bayesian technique annual data spanning 1968–2003. The public estates and private companies are assumed to engage in a noncooperative game. They are assumed to use Markovian strategies, which permit firms to respond to changes in the state vector. In this case, the vector comprises the firms and their rivals’ previous action, implying that firms respond to changes in their rivals’ previous action. The key contribution of this thesis is the relaxation of the symmetry assumption in the estimation process. Although the existence of an asymmetric condition often complicates the estimation process, the different characteristics of the public estates and private companies lead to a need for relaxing such an assumption. In addition, the adjustment system—which can be seen as a type of reaction function—is not restricted to have downward slopes. Negative reaction functions are commonly assumed for a quantity setting game. However, the reverse may occur in particular circumstances. Without such restrictions, the analysis could reveal the type of interaction between the public estates and private companies. In addition, it provides insights into empirical examples of conditions that might lead to the positive reaction function. Furthermore, the analysis adds to the understanding of the impact of positive reaction functions to avoid the complicated estimation of the asymmetric case. As expected, the public estates act as the leader, while the private companies are the follower. Interestingly, results indicate that as well as the private companies, public estates do exert some degree of market power. Moreover, the public estates enjoy even higher market power than the private companies, as indicated by market power indices of -0.46 and -0.72, respectively. The exertion of market power by both the public estates and the private companies cast some doubts about the effectiveness of some current policies in the Indonesian CPO industry. With market power, the underlying assumption of a perfectly competitive market condition—that serves as the basis for the government interventions—is no longer applicable. Hence, many government interventions are unlikely to have the desired effect. The Indonesian competition law that has been imposed since 1999 might be effective in preventing firms to sign collusive contracts. In fact, even without such an agreement, firms in the CPO industry are likely to exert some degree of market power. As an alternative, eliminating the ‘sources’ of market power might be a better solution. If the public estates have the aim of maximising welfare, privatisation might improve their efficiency, hence they have ability to suppress the private companies’ market power. However, if in fact, the public estates deliberately reduce output to gain higher profit, privatisation might increase the degree of market power of both groups of companies even further. In such a condition, addressing the long term barriers of entry stemming from the requirement of high investment might be a better alternative to address the market power problem in the CPO industry.

The ortho metallation of some aromatic ring systems has been investigated in regard to the influence of several types of phosphorus-centred directing groups upon the reactivity, regioselectivity, and utility in later synthetic elaboration. The metallation step allows derivatisation in several useful ways, offering several routes to the synthesis of novel chiral ditertiary phosphines. Thus, an ortho lithiation of N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-P-phenylphosphonic diamide (10) led to the interesting primary phosphine, 2-(diphenylphosphino)phenylphosphine (14), after elaboration of the phosphonic diamide directing group. This primary phosphine undergoes an unprecedented facile phenyl group exchange process between its two phosphorus atoms, upon di-lithiation of the primary phosphorus centre. The primary phosphorus centre of (14) has been elaborated in several ways to yield new ditertiary phosphines. The alkylation of this centre in the copper(I) chelate complex has been investigated in several directions. In another direction, (14) has been chemically elaborated to give a new hybrid chiral ditertiary phosphine ligand, &quotSemiPHOS&quot, containing both a chiral phospholane ring and an adjacent diphenylphosphino group. SemiPHOS has been obtained in optically pure forms by a stereoselective synthesis and, independently, by a resolution procedure on its racemate. The molecular design of SemiPHOS was devised such that, when chelated to a metal atom, a subtle steric interaction appears to allow the chirality of the phospholane ring to influence the neighbouring diphenylphosphino group to adopt a complementary chiral conformation. This idea was tested and evaluated by applying SemiPHOS in catalytic asymmetric hydrogenations of (Z)-a-(Nacylamino) acrylate substrates to produce the R-amino acid precursors. Aryl species lithiated ortho to phosphorus-centred directing groups were coupled oxidatively by a convenient in situ method, to yield biaryl species that could then be elaborated to give biaryl ditertiary phosphine ligands. This method was used to make several atropisomeric chiral ditertiary phosphines.

<p><strong><p>Title</p><p>The anatomy of financial crises and the current one´s effects on the Swedish<strong> economy.</strong></p><p>Authors</p>Ifete Binaku and Niklas Holmström<strong><p>Background</p></strong></strong></p><p>The subprime crisis started in the United States, but was soon transmitted to other<strong> </strong>countries and even to Sweden. The impact of the financial crisis has had negative consequences for the Swedish real economy, especially in its output. Since Sweden is a big exporting country, its macro economy has been negatively affected by the present global financial crisis.</p><p><strong><p>Purpose</p></strong></p><p>We are interesting to illustrate how the theories can explain the causes and effects<strong> </strong>of financial crises. Therefore, the aim of this study is simply to acquire knowledge on how the impacts on the Swedish economy can be described by theories on financial crises.<strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>Method</p><p> </p><p>The theoretical models guided our choices of the financial and economic<strong> i</strong>ndicators. The thesis employed a quantitative research approach where the empirical materials are collected from the yearly data period: 2005 to 2009. The secondary analysis has been applied where yeas 2005 to 2009 were selected in order to get an overview of variables developments before financial crises started and in meantime.</p><p><strong><p>Results</p></strong></p><p>Our findings showed that the financial crisis has affected the Swedish economy negatively. Furthermore, the repercussion on the Swedish economy can be better explained by certain parts of the theories combined, than by one theory left alone.</p><p> </p>

During the course of this work we have synthesized and evaluated a series of new enantiopure silyl triflmides as catalysts for asymmetric reactions. 3-Phenyl dialkylsilyl ketones, which were the key precursors to the target silyl triflmides were prepared by 1,4-addition of the corresponding silyl cuprate to enones, and resolved by chiral HPLC. Enantiopure trans silyl ketones were successfully reduced via the corresponding tosylhydrazones by the NaBH3CN/ZnCl2 system. However, due to an isomerization of the tosylhydrazone during the reaction, cis isomers (m = 0) were reduced via the corresponding dithioketals followed by desulfurization. The diastereoselective synthesis of enantiopure silyl triflimides from enantiomerically pure compounds has been also studied. The enantiopure trialkylsilyl triflimides were generated in situ by protodesilylation of the corresponding phenylsilanes with bis-(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide. The Diels-Alder reaction of methyl acrylate with cyclopentadiene was used as the model reaction for testing the new chiral catalysts : 1) Almost all silyl triflimides were efficient catalysts giving high yields and excellent diastereoselectivities in favour of the endo-isomer. 2) the best ee's (up to 56%) were obtained from catalysts carrying an aryl group directly attached to the cyclohexane ring (m = 0) which were much better than those obtained from catalysts carrying a benzyl-type group (m = 1). Interestingly catalysts of the same configuration carrying phenyl or naphthyl group gave cycloadducts of opposite configuration. 3) When m = 0, additional substituents at position-3 or 6 of the cyclohexyl ring had little influence on the ee. However, for m = 1, a methyl group at C2 increased the ee from 3% to 35%. 4) The replacement of the methyl groups connected to the silicon atom by bulkier ethyl groups decreased the ee (m = 0). 5) When m = 0, ee's for cycloaddition reactions of N,N-dimethyl acrylamide or acryloxazolidinone with cyclopentadiene were lower than those obtained with methyl acrylate.