Description: This article discusses Senda Darwin Biological Station (SDBS). SDBS is a field research center immersed in the rural landscape of northern Chiloé island (42°S), where remnant patches of the original evergreen forests coexist with open pastures, secondary successional shrublands, Sphagnum bogs, Eucalyptus plantations and other anthropogenic cover types, constituting an agricultural frontier similar to other regions in Chile and Latin America. Since 1994, the authors have conducted long-term research on selected species of plants (e.g., Pilgerodendron uviferum) and animals (e.g., Aphrastura spinicauda, Dromiciops gliroides) that are considered threatened, poorly known or important for their ecological functions in local ecosystems, and on ecosystems of regional and global relevance (e.g., Sphagnum bogs, North Patagonian and Valdivian rain forests). Research has assessed the responses of species and ecosystems to anthropogenic land-use change, climate change, and the impact of management. During this period, more than 100 scientific publications in national and international journals, and 30 theses (graduate and undergraduate) have been produced by scientists and students associated with SDBS. Because of the authors' understanding of the key role that humans play in ecological processes at this agricultural frontier, since the establishment of SDBS the authors have been committed to creative research on the communication ...

Description: In this article, L-shell x-ray production cross sections by ₁¹H+ ions are reported. The data are compared to the first Born approximation (plane-wave Born approximation for direct ionization and Oppenheimer-Brinkman-Kramers approximation for electron capture) and to the ECPSSR (energy-loss and Coulomb-deflection effects, perturbed stationary-state approximation with relativistic correction) theory. The energy of the protons ranged from 0.25 to 2.5 MeV in steps of 0.25 MeV. The targets used in these measurements were ₂₈Ni, ₂₉Cu, ₃₂Ge, ₃₃As, ₃₇Rb, ₃₈Sr, ₃₉Y, ₄₀Zr, and ₄₆Pd. The first Born theory generally agrees with the data found in the literature at high energies and overpredicts them below 1.5 MeV. The ECPSSR predictions are in better agreement with experimental cross sections. At 0.25 MeV the authors' data, however, are underestimated by this theory and tend to agree with the first Born approximation.

Description: This article discusses single-electron oxidation of monomeric copper(I) alkyl complexes. Monomeric Cu(I) alkyl complexes (NHC)Cu(R) (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene; R = Me or Et) and (dtbpe)Cu(Me) (dtbpe = 1,2-bis(di-tert-butylphosphino)ethane) have been prepared, isolated, and characterized. Single-electron oxidation of the Cu(I) alkyl complexes upon reaction with AgOTf to form putative Cu(II) intermediates of the type [(L)Cu(R)]+ (L = NHC or dtbpe, R = Me or Et) results in the rapid production of (L)Cu(X) (X = OTf) and R2. Experimental studies suggest that the reductive elimination of R2 from Cu(II) occurs through a nonradical bimolecular mechanism. Computational studies of the Cu-Cmethyl yield bond dissocation enthalpies of [(SIPr)Cu-CH3]n+ (80 kcal/mol for n = 0 {Cu(I)} and 38 kcal/mol for n = 1 {Cu(II)}).

Description: This article discusses six-, five-, and four-coordinate ruthenium(II) hydride complexes. The Ru(II) hydride complex (IMes)2Ru(Cl)(H)(CO) (1) {IMes = 1,3-bis-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene} was synthesized from [Ru(CO)2Cl2]n and free IMes. Complex 1 rapidly reacts with CO to produce the cis-dicarbonyl Ru(II) complex (IMes)2Ru(Cl)(H)(CO)2 (2). The reaction of 1 with NaBAr'4 {Ar' = 3,5-(CF3)C6H3} produces the four-coordinate Ru(II) cationic complex [(IMes)2Ru(H)(CO)][BAr'4] (4), which can be trapped by two equivalents of tert-butylisonitrile to produce [(IMes)2Ru(H)(CO)(CNtBu)2][BAr'4] (5). Experimental and computational studies suggest that complex 4 is a diamagnetic system that adopts a sawhorse structure. The hydride ligand of complex 2 is readily displaced as dihydrogen upon reaction with HCI to produce (IMes)2Ru(CI)2(CO)2 (3). Both complex 1 and 4 were found to react with D2 (30 psi) at room temperature to produce the isotopomers (IMes)2Ru(CI)(D)(CO) (1-d1) and [(IMes)2Ru(D)(CO)][BAr'4] (4-d1), respectively, with the rate of formation of 4-d1 at least 28 times faster than the conversion of 1/D2 to 1-d1. In the presence of excess D2 complex 4 reversibly incorporates deuterium into the ortho methyl groups of the IMes ligands, whereas complex 1 does not show evidence of H/D exchange with the IMes ligands. Both 1 and 4 were found to catalyze the hydrogenation of olefins, ketones, and aldehydes.

Description: This article presents a study of the influence of solar activity on the earth's temperature. In particular, the authors focus on the repercussion of the fluctuations of the solar irradiance on the temperature of the Northern and Southern hemispheres as well as on land and ocean regions. While solar irradiance data are not directly analyzed, the authors make use of a published solar irradiance reconstruction for long-time-scale fluctuations, and for short-time-scale fluctuations the authors hypothesize that solar irradiance and solar flare intermittency are coupled in such a way that the solar flare frequency fluctuations are stochastically equivalent to those of the solar irradiance. The analysis is based upon wavelet multiresolution techniques and scaling analysis methods for processing time series. The limitations of the correlation analysis applied to the short-time-scale fluctuations are discussed. The scaling analysis uses both the standard deviation and the entropy of the diffusion generated by the temperature signals. The joint use of these two scaling methods yields evidence of a Levy component in the temporal persistence of the temperature fluctuations within the temporal range from a few weeks to a few years. This apparent Levy persistence of the temperature fluctuations is found, by using an appropriate model, ...