Yadav and co-workers have recently published in Tetrahedron Letters on a Prins cyclization reaction using a homopropargyl silyl alkyne and an aldehyde in the presence of iodine to afford cis-substituted tetrahydropyrans.

TL paper

When you think of the enantioselective Nazarov reaction, you might think of Marcus Tius, who has contributed a lot to Nazarov chemistry.  Recently Tius and co-workers at the University of Hawaii have published in Organic Letters on another enantioselective version of this transformation using a chiral diamine catalyst, which reacts with a ketoenone to form an enamine-iminium intermediate that undergoes the Nazarov cyclization with 97:3 er.  It’s a very nice addition to the few already known methods of this reaction.

OL paper

On December 3rd we had a special edition of the Didactic Design Discussion in the MIL course, since both Terry Anderson and Ross McKerlich visited us to talk about the Community of Inquiry (COI) model. The COI model was developed in the late 1990’ies as framework for evaluating educational experience in text-based online environments by D. Randy Garrison, Terry Anderson and Walther Archer. Given the COI model’s wide spread use in different educational settings it is by no means coincidental that one of the original founders, Terry Anderson, has found it important to explore the applicability of the model in new online environments such as the 3D virtual world, Second Life (SL). Together with McKerlich Anderson conducted a preliminary, qualitative exploratory study in SL in 2007 and basically confirmed that the model also can be used in assessing educational experience in 3D virtual environments (McKerlich & Anderson. 2007). Anderson and McKerlich later invited Brad Eastmann and I to participate in the continued study of COI in 3D virtual worlds and as part of this study we record different educational experiences in SL to be used for later analysis.

Terry presenting COI to the MIL students

Besides being an excellent tool with regard to analyzing interaction and communication the COI model, which consists of 3 different  types of presence indicators (cognitive, social and teaching), can also be used as a heuristic tool for designing online educational experiences. The MIL students in this year’s course are all educators involved in course designing within blended learning and they all seemed to find the COI model interesting and relevant to their current work. What I appreciate about the model is the fact that it deals with presence and not immersion which otherwise seems to be the buzz word when studying 3D virtual worlds. Even though both presence and immersion have to do with the user experience, I do find there is an important difference between the two concepts. Based on the fours research cycles I’ve completed in my PhD research so far, my experience is that all users achieve a sense of presence when they enter a virtual environment like SL, which I think above all has to do with the avatar and its ability to move around and meet other avatars, communicate and interact in real time. It is, however not my impression that all users in these types of environments achieve the sense of immersion – at least not if immersion is defined by a sense of “willing suspension of disbelief” as proposed by Dede. 2005 among others.  An important part of this discussion is of course how one chooses to define the concepts and since I intend to use both presence and immersion in my own model this is something I’ll return to.

After the presentation, McKerlich introduced to our survey related to the COI study and we went on to use The Opinionater, which once again proved its worth as a great tool for initiating discussions.

/Mariis

Let me address the teacher’s own speech in greater detail. This is an important factor to consider in answering our main question about which pronunciation we should teach our students. It is not so simple to say, for example, that standard American English should be taught in ESL programs in the U.S. It is also not so simple to say, for example, that British English (RP) should be the norm in EFL programs in Russia. Why? In the case of ESL, not all teachers speak the standard form of English in that country. In the U.S., for instance, a person from Texas and a person from New Jersey can have very different accents. In the case of EFL, there is often increased diversity among teachers. At one school alone, there may be native and non-native speakers, and the native speakers may all be from different countries: Ireland, Wales, Canada, the U.S., and more.

In the face of such variation among teachers, how can consistency be achieved? I stated that consistent models are needed for learners to establish a solid pronunciation base. Let me take this idea further now that we are considering the realities of ESL and EFL programs. There does not have to be only one form of English taught at one school, but within a single classroom pronunciation instruction should be limited to one form of English. Consistency is created by the teacher. The teacher’s own speech needs to be natural and consistent.

Let me first address native speakers teaching in the classroom. I can comment more boldly on this group, since it is the one I belong to. I believe there is a danger if teacher tries to change his or her natural pronunciation to conform to a standard form of English. It is my opinion that the effort to produce speech sounds and patterns that radically go against one’s native speech can lead to an inconsistent model for students. A teacher who speaks a regional or cultural dialect (e.g., Boston English) should speak clearly yet in a way that is natural and authentic. This teacher should also make students aware that his or her speech varies from the standard. For the most part, I believe I speak standard American English. However, I am aware that I fall into the group of speakers who pronounce words like cot and caught the same. When I must cover these vowel sounds in a pronunciation lesson, I am careful to note this pattern of mine. I have used audio samples of other speakers to supplement my instruction so that learners could hear the two distinct sounds.

Both as EFL and ESL teachers, native speakers should strive for consistency. Even when native speakers find themselves in an EFL setting, and their form of English is not the one generally preferred in that country, I would argue that it is best to continue speaking with their native pronunciation and not try to adopt another accent. For example, when I taught English in Russia, I made no attempt to adopt a British accent, though British English was often favored there. My Russian students heard my North American flapped Ts, hard Rs, and everything else considered standard in that form of English. I should note that most students came to me with previous study of English, so a pronunciation base was already in place. If they spoke to me with sounds and patterns more typical of British English, I allowed it. I only corrected their pronunciation when clarity was lacking.

In the case of teachers who are non-native speakers, I can comment with much less authority. My experience is secondhand: I have observed foreigners in the ESL setting who taught pronunciation lessons competently and effectively. My conclusion for this group of teachers would be that solid training, especially when followed by full immersion in a particular form of English, provides a pronunciation base that non-native speakers can rely on while teaching. Whether the setting be EFL or ESL, the need for consistency is just as strong for the non-native speaker. In fact, this need is coupled with a second one: the need for an accurate assessment of one’s own accent. For non-natives who are aware of a lack of accuracy in their own pronunciation (e.g., with a particular vowel sound), recorded materials can supplement and increase the consistency of instruction.

I want to emphasize a final time the need for consistency – consistency in production. I make this point to teachers and students alike. Be consistent in production, but learn to comprehend varieties of English. From around the world English learners often write to me, asking which accent they should try to master. I have noted that other online teachers give the same advice that I do: We tell students that the ultimate goal is to be understood and not to sound exactly like a native American speaker, a native British speaker, or anyone else. Unless you are training to be an actor or voice artist, accent elimination should not be the goal. Reducing the influence of L1 to achieve clarity in L2 is the goal. Having a foreign accent does not necessarily interfere with communication. Which pronunciation should we teach our students? Clear pronunciation.

There are a lot of biologically active compounds out there with 5,7-bicyclic ring systems and because of these compounds exist, many different approaches for obtaining 5,7-ring systems are attempted.  Chi-Sing Lee and co-workers at Peking UniVersity Shenzhen Graduate School have recently published in Organic Letters on the synthesis of clavukerin A, a natural product that possesses this 5,7-bicyclic ring system.  The carbon skeleton is interesting, but I have to admit that the new reaction that was developed is even more interesting!  The starting substrate is an alpha,beta-ketone activated with an electron withdrawing group on the alpha position with an alkyne and an aldehyde.  Basically, they use a secondary amine (diethylamine) to do some enamine chemistry – specifically, a Michael addition of the aldehyde onto the enone and then with the presence of zinc (II) iodide, a Conia-ene reaction occurs to form the five membered ring.

OL paper

Yuji Hanzawa and co-workers from Showa Pharmaceutical University have recently published in Organic Letters on the synthesis of pyrroles from N-propargyl enaminones.

OL paper

The Claisen condensation is the classic way to make 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds.  In synthetic organic chemistry it’s always useful to know alternatives to certain transformations because sometimes for some reason the reaction to acquire the target might not work.  Seijiro Matsubara and co-worker at Kyoto University have recently published in JACS on a new way to make these compounds using an alpha,beta-unsaturated ketone with an acetoxy group on the gamma position and a zinc reagent.

JACS paper

Sketchnote Army is dedicated to finding and showcasing sketchnotes and sketchnoters from around the world, from events, conferences, workshops or wherever sketchnotes are captured or created. If you sketchnote, Mike Rohde your sketchnotes URL.

From: Konigi

From this must-read of Jonah Lehrer (via Abi):

Dunbar came away from his in vivo studies with an unsettling insight: Science is a deeply frustrating pursuit. Although the researchers were mostly using established techniques, more than 50 percent of their data was unexpected. (In some labs, the figure exceeded 75 percent.) “The scientists had these elaborate theories about what was supposed to happen,” Dunbar says. “But the results kept contradicting their theories. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to spend a month on a project and then just discard all their data because the data didn’t make sense.” Perhaps they hoped to see a specific protein but it wasn’t there. Or maybe their DNA sample showed the presence of an aberrant gene. The details always changed, but the story remained the same: The scientists were looking for X, but they found Y.

Dunbar was fascinated by these statistics. The scientific process, after all, is supposed to be an orderly pursuit of the truth, full of elegant hypotheses and control variables. (Twentieth-century science philosopher Thomas Kuhn, for instance, defined normal science as the kind of research in which “everything but the most esoteric detail of the result is known in advance.”) However, when experiments were observed up close — and Dunbar interviewed the scientists about even the most trifling details — this idealized version of the lab fell apart, replaced by an endless supply of disappointing surprises. There were models that didn’t work and data that couldn’t be replicated and simple studies riddled with anomalies. “These weren’t sloppy people,” Dunbar says. “They were working in some of the finest labs in the world. But experiments rarely tell us what we think they’re going to tell us. That’s the dirty secret of science.”

But that is not really the surprising part of the piece. It is this:

How did the researchers cope with all this unexpected data? How did they deal with so much failure? Dunbar realized that the vast majority of people in the lab followed the same basic strategy. First, they would blame the method. The surprising finding was classified as a mere mistake; perhaps a machine malfunctioned or an enzyme had gone stale. “The scientists were trying to explain away what they didn’t understand,” Dunbar says. “It’s as if they didn’t want to believe it.”

The experiment would then be carefully repeated. Sometimes, the weird blip would disappear, in which case the problem was solved. But the weirdness usually remained, an anomaly that wouldn’t go away.

This is when things get interesting. According to Dunbar, even after scientists had generated their “error” multiple times — it was a consistent inconsistency — they might fail to follow it up. “Given the amount of unexpected data in science, it’s just not feasible to pursue everything,” Dunbar says. “People have to pick and choose what’s interesting and what’s not, but they often choose badly.” And so the result was tossed aside, filed in a quickly forgotten notebook. The scientists had discovered a new fact, but they called it a failure.

The reason we’re so resistant to anomalous information — the real reason researchers automatically assume that every unexpected result is a stupid mistake — is rooted in the way the human brain works. Over the past few decades, psychologists have dismantled the myth of objectivity. The fact is, we carefully edit our reality, searching for evidence that confirms what we already believe. Although we pretend we’re empiricists — our views dictated by nothing but the facts — we’re actually blinkered, especially when it comes to information that contradicts our theories. The problem with science, then, isn’t that most experiments fail — it’s that most failures are ignored.

A must-read piece (if I haven’t said that already)!

One of this year’s most fascinating intellectual developments has been the dawning realisation that much of contemporary academic macro-economics is simply wrong.  Wrong in the quite literal sense that it just doesn’t accord with reality – which, as it turns out, should not surprise us, because much of it is based on assumptions that turn out to be flawed.

In the US, this point has been made with devastating effect by Paul Krugman. In Australia, the forthcoming book by John Quiggin looks set to be the best explanation of the “zombie ideas” that continue to haunt the profession.

But one set of ideas – associated with the British thinker, policy-maker and economist John Maynard Keynes – are back with a vengeance. There have been many who have written about the return to prominence of Keynesianism, including the undisputed expert on the man himself, Robert Skidelsky.

But, so far, the best short discussion of the renewed importance of Keynes’ economic ideas is by eminent US legal scholar Richard Posner:

We have learned since September that the present generation of economists has not figured out how the economy works. The vast majority of them were blindsided by the housing bubble and the ensuing banking crisis; and misjudged the gravity of the economic downturn that resulted; and were perplexed by the inability of orthodox monetary policy administered by the Federal Reserve to prevent such a steep downturn; and could not agree on what, if anything, the government should do to halt it and put the economy on the road to recovery. By now a majority of economists are in general agreement with the Obama administration’s exceedingly Keynesian strategy for digging the economy out of its deep hole. Some say the government is not doing enough and is too cozy with the bankers, and others say that it is doing too much, heedless of long-term consequences. There is no professional consensus on the details of what should be done to arrest the downturn, speed recovery, and prevent (so far as possible) a recurrence. Not having believed that what has happened could happen, the profession had not thought carefully about what should be done if it did happen.

Baffled by the profession’s disarray, I decided I had better read The General Theory. Having done so, I have concluded that, despite its antiquity, it is the best guide we have to the crisis.

Read the rest here.

Julia Stephanidou-Stephanatou and co-workers at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece have recently reported in Tetrahedron on a multicomponent strategy to access thiazolo[3,2-a]pyridines.  The products are dependent on the temperature used in DME.

Tetrahedron paper

Huw Davies and co-worker at Emory University have recently published in JACS on a [3+2] cycloaddition involving the use of an indole and a alpha-diazo-carbonyl compound.

JACS paper

As a PMO member, probably one of the most productive things you could do for your customers is to get out from your desk and get into businessland.

By physically staying in the PMO team area (and let’s face it many do), you risk becoming isolated – organizationally, culturally as well as physically.  Your value and relevance to the organization dwindles and you begin to be asked to justify your existence.  The day you get asked this is the day you should start polishing your CV and call employment agents.

Getting out and about has a number of effects:

1. It forces you to think who your customers are.  Sometimes this is obvious, but often there are indirect customers and stakeholders you may have not considered
2. Your visibility in the organization grows, and if you’re truly adding value in the company, you build your reputation
3. You get firsthand experience of what is being done and what problems are occurring.  Email is a strong filter – stronger than we realize.  We need to know things that people are often reluctant to write in an email
4. You can provide immediate support and relay the types of training and support needed back to the other members of your PMO team

The AFD indicator is a useful tool to see if you’re doing a good job as PMO (in addition to your projects performing well)

A. Count the number of hours you spend in userland

B. Count the number of hours spent behind your desk

Divide A by B

If the result is greater than or equal to one, you’re doing a good job

If the result is less than one, get out from your desk!!

Are we obsessed with perfection? We are taught to strive for the perfect education, the perfect house, the perfect career. The list can go on. Is it any surprise that projects are constantly striving for the perfect solution with an enormous set of requirements and capabilities?

This inevitably has a detrimental impact on the overall programme as it will usually result in project overrun in terms of cost and delivery schedule. The overall complexity of the programme spirals upwards and for no tangible business benefits.

Pragmatists learn to deal with uncertainty and are flexible enough to workaround the imperfections that is all around us. The real world is in a constant state of flux and dominating forces seek to establish a new equilibrium. The greatest facet of any system must be it’s abilitiy to adapt to new challenges.

Well engineered systems are designed to tolerate imperfections and incorporate infrastructures that are flexible and adaptable. A strong set of foundations and robust design principles form the building blocks for an agile, flexible and extensible solution that can rapidly evolve to support the changing business needs without costing a fortune.

If I send my kid to a fantastic fee based school, does that guarantee me a well founded adult with a amazing career prospects? Probably. Is it possible for someone who has gone to a less than perfect school to achieve incredible success despite the constraints of their educational background? Absolutely.

Can we learn from the realities of imperfection and make it work to our advantage? Whilst we should always aim for high standards, the reality is that in complex corporate environments, it is near impossible to please everyone. So why not aim for less and get there quicker and for cheaper?

Business success relies upon innovation, cost and speed to market. Speed is of the essence. If I can get half of what I think I need then that is a lot better than getting all of what I realize is not what I need. Let’s embrace uncertainty and seek to achieve our dreams through greater collaboration in smaller steps.

Some time ago, my digital camera mysteriously disappeared on campus and I’ve been missing it.

As a student, you might know how crucial and important a camera might be in our lives: You might want to take pictures of the most memorable parties you have attended and you might also want to capture your favorite rock band coming to perform on campus. You might use your camera in a casual way, taking pictures of your friends on and off campus or you could also want to be the “official photographer” at every event organized at your school. For some of us studying film or photography, a camera is even more important as it might be a daily used professional tool tomorrow. In brief, because we, students, use our cameras a lot, I decided to re-invest in one (that I would not leave unattended this time).

I like photography a lot so I decided to invest a fair amount of money in order to get a decent picture quality. I would love my camera to be compact enough for me to carry it everywhere. Since I am planning to spend plenty of time taking pictures on campus, I would also like it to be somehow stylish. As I down selected three cameras, each one of them had its strengths and weaknesses.

My dilemma was the following: The smallest camera and also the most pocket able one, was the less versatile because you could not switch lenses and also had the simplest design. The best in terms of picture quality was the biggest, heaviest but had a cool professional look. The third one was somewhere in between the previous two in terms of picture quality and size and had an attractive retro design. Tough choice!

But picking the one I wanted was not my only issue. Christmas is approaching and at this time of the year, getting the exact item you want at your local shop starts being unsure. I needed a plan B maybe even a plan C, just in case my initial pick would be out of stock. This is was the perfect situation to use AHP and its Pairwise comparisons.

Dealing with too many variables could be confusing, but dealing with two at the time is a lot easier. This is the reason why it is simpler to use Pairwise comparison in those cases. Instead of comparing the cameras as a whole to one another, I will try determine how important a feature is to me compared to another one. I will be asked how much more do I value design over picture quality, or how much more important the size is compared to the design. All this data are going to be analyzed, checked for inconsistency then summarized into a nice ranking of what would be the best fit for me.

We can look at it that way and focus on one particular aspect of the cameras: the design. If I am looking at 50 different cameras, and I have to determine which one is the most attractive to me; it would probably be a long and possibly hard task. In the other hand, if I was asked to perform the same task facing 2 different models, it will be a lot easier.

We can look at it yet in another way when comparing objectives. When choosing my camera, I had 3 main criteria (or objectives) in mind: the design, the picture quality and the size. If I was asked which one of this objective is the most important to me, I would have a hard time telling you right away (and there are only three objectives). The same problem facing 50 or 60 different objectives would be almost impossible for me to solve accurately. But if I was asked to choose between two of them (design and picture quality for example), the problem becomes easy; even when facing hundreds of objectives.

With the help of Pairwise Comparisons, we can simplify the issue so we only compare two things at the time whether they are alternatives or objectives. Simply because it is easier for the human mind to deal with two variables at the time; Pairwise Comparison will help us determine which camera is the smallest or which feature is the most important, always comparing only two items at the time. Even when facing thousands of variables.

When it comes to ranking, people usually assign it with ordinal number (1,2,3,..) or other verbal scales (high, medium, low) without using Pairwise Comparisons. By doing this, you don’t really know how much better one alternative was compared to another one. In a car race for instance, knowing who is first doesn’t tell us if he won by a millisecond or by an entire lap. With Pairwise Comparisons and the methodology behind it, you actually derive weights by telling how much more important is one thing compared to another, instead of just assigning weights. As a result you can determine how much better your first alternative is compared to your second.

Once again, AHP has been proven a helpful tool throughout my decision process. Because size and picture quality were the most important for me, I chose the second camera with the retro design. However, if it was not available at the store, I was prepared for my next pick.

Babu Tekwani and co-workers at the University of Mississippi have recently reported on some anti-malarial compounds that were synthesized – it looks like the structure was based on the structure of suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA).

Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters paper

William Moore and co-workers at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals have recently published in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters on the synthesis and biological studies of piperidinyl diphenylsulfonyl sulfonamide compounds.  They are secreted-frizzled-related protein (sFRP-1) inhibitors with nM IC50 values.

Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters article

Peter Langer and co-workers at the Universitat Rostot have recently reported on a multi-component approach to form substituted benzene rings.  The key substrate was the tetra-alkoxymethane compounds he used with his usual bis-silyl enol ether substrates.

Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Paper

I recently took a critical thinking course at Athabasca University. While Venn diagrams interrupted my sleep and threatened my sanity, I left the course challenged and better equipped to, well, think critically. A major component of the course was common fallacious argument types. This was pretty intriguing. One of the types that jumped out at me was the straw man. A straw man is a deliberate misrepresentation of a person’s views for the purpose of easily deconstructing them. The quote that was repeated through out my text was “a straw man is easier to knock down than a real man.” In other words it is easier to create a caricature of a belief then mock it and deconstruct it than to actually deal with the belief in its entirety. We do this all the time in the church with both theology and each other.

We need to be passionate about truth and at times truth must be wrestled out, debated and searched out. We place ourselves in danger if we preserve our theology and way of life apart from prayerful biblical exegesis and deep introspection.

Food for thought:
What things have you embraced and are defending by making the “other side” a straw man?

This question was posed by a woman training for her teaching certificate in an EFL program. Her background information is very relevant, and it prompts me to identify the most salient factor to be the context in which we are teaching: EFL or ESL. In the context of ESL, it is logical to teach the form of English as spoken in that country: British English in the U.K, Australian English in Australia, etc. In the context of EFL, I would argue the logic of teaching the form of English that dominates in most spheres of that society. Factors go beyond geographical proximity and include economic, political, historical, and social ties to a particular English-speaking country.

Of course, the matter cannot be settled so easily. We should also consider which pronunciation a certain student wants to follow. In this day and age, thanks to increased international travel and the development of e-learning and blended classrooms, students have access to virtually any speech model they want. Two ELLs living in the same non-English speaking country may favor two different accents. Why should they be denied what is readily available?

There are other factors, of course. We must acknowledge the teacher’s own speech. This ultimately decides what pronunciation a given set of learners will be exposed to during the time period they are under that teacher’s instruction. What model is the teacher able to provide? There are native and non-native speakers. In which accent was the non-native speaker trained? Among the native speakers, regional and cultural variations may be used. I would argue that above all consistency is needed. Students need a consistent model to follow in order to create a solid pronunciation base. Ideally, within the context of a course or a program, one form of English pronunciation should be taught.

Notice how I specified one form of English pronunciation. I did not say simply one form of English. I want to argue the need for consistency when it comes to production, but in the matter of comprehension, exposure to different varieties of English is necessary. A good course or program will not limit students’ exposure to different accents. A learner will avoid confusion and achieve greater clarity if one set of speech sounds and patterns is used in production, but the learner must be trained to comprehend variations of speech sounds and patterns. How this is achieved is decided by the curriculum. For example, a school might have separate courses for pronunciation and listening skills. However, if listening and speaking are combined, it is necessary for the teacher to provide a consistent set of models (his/her own speech and recorded materials) for students to follow when production is the focus. Then when listening skills become the focus, variations in accent should be welcomed.

I will continue discussing this topic in my next posting. Until then, let me pose two questions:

• What is an EFL teacher to do when his or her native language is a form of English other than the one given preference in that country?
• Should ESL teachers who speak a regional or cultural dialect attempt to conform to the standard form of English in the pronunciation classroom?

Yoshinori Yamamoto and co-worker at Tohoku University have recently published in Organic Letters on a reaction without the use of a metal in order to form an aromatic ring using an alkyne, carbonyl and an amine.

OL paper

Bid’ah (innovation) indicates evil dangers:

Firstly: It indicates a belying of the saying of Allâh, Exalted is He:

“This day I have perfected your religion for you.” (Al-Mâ’idah 5:3)

Because when somebody comes with an innovation and considers it as a form of religion; its implication is that the religion is not perfect.

Secondly: It indicates a defamation of the Sharî’ah, and that it is imperfect, so this innovator is the one who makes it perfect with his act of innovation.

Thirdly: It indicates a defamation of the Muslims, who do not practice this innovation; so, those people who lived before this innovation; their religion is incomplete – this is a grave danger!

Fourthly: Among the implications of this innovation is that what prevails is that whoever is occupied with an innovation, he would be distracted from a Sunnah, as some of the Salaf said: “People will not innovate an innovation, except that they will demolish its like from the Sunnah.”

Fifthly: These innovations lead to separations in the Ummah, because these innovators believe that they are the upholders of the truth, and that the others are misguided! And people of the truth say: “You are the ones upon misguidance.” So, their hearts separate.

All of these grave evils result from an innovation because it is an innovation, in addition to the fact that this innovation is accompanied by foolishness in one’s reason, and an imbalance in religion.

Muammad bin Sâlih al-‘Uthaymîn
Commentary on Ibn Taymiyyah’s ‘Al-‘Aqîdah al-Wasitiyyah’, vol. 2, pp. 450-451