Deprotonation of bispyridinium salt 7b affords bispyridinylidene 10, a very powerful neutral organic two-electron donor [E1/2 (DMF)=-1.13 V vs Ag/AgCl/KCl (sat)], presumably via the pyridinylidene 8. Donor 10 reduces aryl iodides and bromides to aryl anions in excellent yield and also reductively cleaves selected phenylalkylsulfones very efficiently.

Background Lack of regular physical activity is a significant risk to health. The aim of this study was to objectively measure the levels and patterns of activity of adults with intellectual disabilities, to inform the design of studies aimed at increasing activity and health in this population. Materials and Methods Interviews were conducted with 62 community-based adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities at the start and at the end of a 7-day period of physical activity ⁄ inactivity measurement using an activity monitor.Results Forty-one (66%) participants wore the activity monitor at least 5 days. Of these, only 11 (27%) achieved the recommended 10 000 steps per day, and only six (15%) were achieving the recommended ‡30 min of moderate ⁄ vigorous activity at least 5 days per week. Conclusions Adults with mild to moderate learning disabilities have low levels of physical activity.

SummaryThe effects on the redox properties of modifying the molecular skeleton of neutral bis-2-(4-dimethylamino)pyridinylidene electron donors, derived from 4-dimethylaminopyridine (4-DMAP), have been explored, by varying two parameters: (i) the length of a polymethylene chain linking the two pyridine-derived rings and (ii) the nature of the nitrogen substituents on the 4 and 4′ positions of the precursor pyridines. Restricting the bridge length to two methylene units significantly altered the redox profile, while changes in the nitrogen-substituents at the 4 and 4′ positions led to only slight changes in the redox potentials.

One hundred children aged five to thirteen were asked to demonstrate their comprehension of ambiguous and unambiguous double-object constructions of English sentences. In the unambiguous cases article or disjuncture clues were used to indicate which words of the sentence predicates belonged to the indirect and direct object constituents. Results indicate that children tend to prefer a reading of the ambiguous sentences in which the last two nominal elements of nominal + nominal + nominal predicates are assigned to the direct object (as opposed to assigning only the last noun to the direct object). For unambiguous sentences, the younger children have great difficulty in correctly assigning the indicated constituent structure while the older children (and adults) have little difficulty. The use of the article as the indicator of constituent structure is found to be, for the children, a superior clue to the use of disjuncture, and the acquisition of the two comprehensional skills appears to proceed independently.