KAMEDO Report No. 92: Evacuation of Swedes from Lebanon--observational studies in connection with the war in Lebanon in summer 2006.

A large-scale armed conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in July 2006 caused the evacuation of a large number of Swedish residents from Lebanon. This report describes the evacuation throughout its various stages. Swedish authorities were prepared for an event of this type from the experience of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster. Lessons learned from the management and medical care during the evacuations are presented in this report.

Side reactions in the H-phosphonate approach to oligonucleotide synthesis: a kinetic investigation on bisacylphosphite formation and 5'-O-acylation.

A kinetic study on the reactions of pivaloyl chloride with a nucleoside H-phosphonate (bisacylphosphite formation), or a protected nucleoside with a free 5'-OH (5'-O-pivaloylation) has been carried out in the presence of differently substituted pyridines. The bisacylphosphite formation is a result of acylation of the mixed carboxylic-phosphonic acid anhydride to give the corresponding bispivaloylphosphite derivative. The rate of this reaction is dependent on the concentration of pyridine derivative and pivaloyl chloride. The 5'-O-pivaloylation reaction is also dependent on the concentration of pyridine derivative and pivaloyl chloride. The rate of both reactions is dependent on the basicity of the pyridine derivative, displaying a higher rate with more basic pyridines. The dependence of log k vs. pKa of pyridine is linear but the slopes are quite different for the two reactions (0.84 for bisacylation and 0.21 for 5'-O-pivaloylation). For both reactions considerably lower rates in the presence of sterically hindered pyridines suggest the existence of nucleophilic catalysis on pivaloyl chloride in reactions with non-hindered pyridines.