Composites and Materials Prepared from Boron Cluster Anions and Carboranes.

Here, we present composites and materials that can be prepared starting with boron hydride cluster compounds (decaborane, decahydro--decaborate and dodecahydro--dodecaborate anions and carboranes). Recent examples of their utilization as boron protective coatings including using them to synthesize boron carbide, boron nitride, metal borides, metal-containing composites, and neutron shielding materials are discussed. The data are generalized demonstrate the versatile application of materials based on boron cluster anions and carboranes in various fields.

A New Approach to the Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Cobalt Boride in the Course of the Thermal Decomposition of Cobalt Complexes [Co(DMF)] with Boron Cluster Anions.

In the course of the study, nanocrystalline cobalt monoboride was prepared by thermal decomposition of precursors [Co(DMF)][An], where [An] = [BH] (), [-BH] () or [BCl] () in an argon atmosphere. Three new salt-like compounds - were prepared when Co(NO) was allowed to react with (EtNH)[An]. Compound is new; the structures of compounds and have been previously reported.

The Root of Flowering Plants and Total Evidence.

Support for Amborella as the sole survivor of an evolutionary lineage that is sister to all other angiosperms comes from positions in DNA multiple-sequence alignments that have a poor fit to time-reversible substitution models. These sites exhibit significant levels of homoplasy, compositional heterogeneity, and strong heterotachy. We report phylogenetic analyses with observed, randomized, and simulated data which show there is little or no expectation that these sites provide useful information for understanding relationships among basal angiosperms.

Phylogenetic analysis of 47 chloroplast genomes clarifies the contribution of wild species to the domesticated apple maternal line.

Both the origin of domesticated apple and the overall phylogeny of the genus Malus are still not completely resolved. Having this as a target, we built a 134,553-position-long alignment including two previously published chloroplast DNAs (cpDNAs) and 45 de novo sequenced, fully colinear chloroplast genomes from cultivated apple varieties and wild apple species. The data produced are free from compositional heterogeneity and from substitutional saturation, which can adversely affect phylogeny reconstruction.