Reaction of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine with Dichloromethane Under Common Experimental Conditions.

A large number of clinically used drugs and experimental pharmaceuticals possess the N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) structural core. Previous reports have described the reaction of this motif with dichloromethane (DCM), a common laboratory solvent used during extraction and purification, leading to the formation of an undesired quaternary ammonium salt byproduct. However, the kinetics of this reaction under various conditions have not been thoroughly described. Here, we report a series of experiments designed to simulate the exposure of DMT to DCM that would take place during extraction from plant material, biphasic aqueous work-up, or column chromatography purification. We find that the quaternary ammonium salt byproduct forms at an exceedingly slow rate, only accumulates to a significant extent upon prolonged exposure of DMT to DCM, and is readily extracted into water. Our results suggest that DMT can be exposed to DCM under conditions where contact times are limited (<30 min) with minimal risk of degradation and that this byproduct is not observed following aqueous extraction. However, alternative solvents should be considered when the experimental conditions require longer contact times. Our work has important implications for preparing a wide-range of pharmaceuticals bearing the DMT structural motif in high yields and purities

Trends in Parliamentary Oversight: Proceedings from a Panel at the 2004 Southern Political Science Association Conference

World Bank Institute Working Paper- Series on Contemporary Issues in Parliamentary Development, Washington D

First Amendment Interests and Copyright Accomodations

Copyright law exists to encourage the creation of works of authorship by granting exclusive rights. But copyright’s incentive function seems in tension with the public’s First Amendment interests to use and freely hear copyrighted speech. Conventional wisdom holds, however, that copyright law serves to encourage much more speech than it discourages, and resolves First Amendment concerns with protections internal to copyright law like the fair use defense and the idea/expression dichotomy. This Article argues that the conventional wisdom no longer holds given the unprecedented expansion of copyright’s scope and corresponding drastic diminution of the public domain in the last three decades. This Article extends the U.S. Supreme Court’s reasoning in Eldred v. Ashcroft, which rejected the notion that courts should never subject copyright laws to First Amendment analysis, to read First Amendment accommodations into copyright laws where use of copyrighted materials implicates significant speech interests

On NPES, Holdups, and Underlying Faults in the Patent System

This piece offers commentary on two essays in the current volume of the Cornell Law Review: James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer’s The Direct Costs from NPE Disputes and David L. Schwartz and Jay P. Kesan’s Analyzing the Role of Non-Practicing Entities in the Patent System. Schwartz and Kesan’s essay critiques Bessen and Meurer and offers some further thoughts on the role of empirical work regarding non-practicing entities (NPEs). Before I begin my substantive comments on the two pieces, I must say that these two essays, which engage each other fulsomely, carefully, and respectfully, are models of how academic debate should be conducted. They provide great value to the reader in their thoughtful responses to each other’s arguments. The pieces are each individually made more useful to the reader concerned about patent policy because they take opposing positions on a number of issues but do so in a way that illuminates both commonalities and differences in their analyses and arguments. This type of policy debate is exactly what the numerous policy disputes and empirical questions in patent law need

Characteristics of Inmates in the Cook County Jail

Provides a detailed description of the characteristics of those admitted to and released from the Cook County Jail in 2010

Métiers, loyers et bout de rue : l’armature de la société montréalaise, 1881 à 1901

La représentation graphique et cartographique des loyers payés par un échantillon de résidents, rue par rue, permet de saisir l'échelle sociale de Montréal, en pleine évolution entre 1881 et 1901, et de déceler divers « patterns » dans le tissu social, lequel sert de toile de fond aux conflits de travail, de classe et d'ethnie à cette époque. Les données sont tirées des rôles d'évaluation établis par la ville de Montréal pour le calcul de la taxe d'eau.The graphic presentation of the rents of household heads from selected occupations, street by street, offers an image of the social ladder (or pecking order) of Montréal in its growth between 1881 and 1901. It reveals multiple patterns— micro and macrostructures— in the social fabric which is the backdrop to the social conflicts of the times. The data are taken from the rolls of the city water tax levied on every household