Amino acids and peptides. XXXVIII. Facile synthesis of laminin-related peptide-poly(ethylene glycol) hybrids by the solid phase method

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) has been studied as a drug-carrier for proteins, but not for small peptides. Laminin, a cell adhesive protein, has Tyr-Ile-Gly-Ser-Arg (YIGSR) sequence and peptides containing this sequence inhibit experimental metastasis. We have studied PEG hybrids of YIGSR and other small laminin-related peptides. In a previous paper, we reported preparation of YIGSR-PEG hybrids by combination of the solid phase method and the solution method, but the synthetic procedure was problematic. Here we report a facile synthesis of PEG hybrids of YIGSR (PEG-YIGSR, YIGSR-PEG, PEG-YIGSR-PEG) by the solid phase method.     

Fate of the black string instability

Gregory and Laflamme showed that certain nonextremal black strings (and p-branes) are unstable to linearized perturbations. It is widely believed that this instability will cause the black string horizon to classically pinch off and then quantum mechanically separate, resulting in higher dimensional black holes. We argue that this cannot happen. Under very mild assumptions, classical event horizons cannot pinch off. Instead, they settle down to new static black string solutions which are not translationally invariant along the string.     

Two-kaon correlations in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 a GeV/c

Two-particle interferometry of positive kaons is studied in Pb+Pb collisions at mean transverse momenta approximately 0.25 and 0.91 GeV/c. A three-dimensional analysis was applied to the lower p(T) data, while a two-dimensional analysis was used for the higher p(T) data. We find that the source-size parameters are consistent with the m(T) scaling curve observed in pion-correlation measurements in the same collisions, and that the duration time of kaon emission is consistent with zero within the experimental sensitivity.     

Double-Modulation Submillimeter-Wave Spectroscopy of HOC(+) in the nu(2) Excited Vibrational State

The submillimeter-wave rotational transitions of HOC(+) in the nu(2) excited state are first detected using the double-modulation method, and the precise transition frequencies and the much improved molecular constants are obtained. The measurements of the ground state HOC(+) and DOC(+) submillimeter-wave lines are extended up to the 840-GHz region. It is found that the higher order centrifugal distortion constant, H, is necessary to fit the observed transition frequencies to the experimental accuracy. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Sensitive H(2) detection by use of thermal-lens Raman spectroscopy without a tunable laser

A new nonlinear Raman spectroscopy technique for trace-gas detection was proposed and demonstrated. The technique involved the use of a thermal-lens detection scheme to monitor thermal emission from the stimulated Raman process. We termed this technique thermal-lens Raman spectroscopy, and it was combined with a novel scheme involving a nonlinear Raman spectroscopy without a tunable laser. This technique was applied to detecting trace hydrogen molecules in the atmosphere by use of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser and a continuous-wave He-Ne probe laser. A detection limit of 9 parts in 10(6) was attained.     

Saturation transfer ratio imaging in invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast

A prospective study was performed to investigate the correlations between saturation transfer ratio (STR) and histologic parameters of invasive ductal carcinomas in human breast. The histologic parameters investigated were the extent of fibrosis in the intercellular matrix, dysplastic changes of nuclei, and mitotic index. Twenty-seven patients with breast carcinoma were examined using an off-resonance saturation pulse in conjunction with conventional field-echo T(1)-weighted imaging at frequency offsets of 448 Hz and 1200 Hz from water resonance. The values of STR at frequency offset of 1200 Hz (STR(1200)) increased from non-scirrhous carcinoma to scirrhous carcinoma. Although STR(1200) showed correlation with the extent of fibrosis in the intercellular matrix (p<0.01, n = 27), they did not correlate with the dysplastic changes of nuclei or mitotic index. On the other hand, the values of STR at frequency offset of 448 Hz (STR(448)) demonstrated close correlation to dysplastic changes of nuclei and mitotic index (p<0.01, n = 27). STR(1200) correlates with the structural characteristics and STR(448) correlates with the nature of malignant cells with regard to nuclear dysplasia and mitotic potential.     

Precision measurement of vector and tensor analyzing powers in elastic deuteron-proton scattering

High-precision vector and tensor analyzing powers of elastic deuteron-proton ( d + p) scattering have been measured at intermediate energies to investigate effects of three-nucleon forces. Angular distributions in the range of 70^°-120^° in the center-of mass frame for incident-deuteron energies E _d ^lab = 130 and 180 MeV were obtained using the RIKEN facility. The beam polarization was unambiguously determined by measuring the ^12C (d, α)^10B(2⁺) reaction at 0^°. Results of the measurements are compared with state-of-the-art three-nucleon calculations. The present modeling of nucleon-nucleon forces and its extension to the three-nucleon system is not sufficient to describe the high-precision data consistently and requires, therefore, further investigation.     

The origin of spectral distortion in electric field modulation spectroscopy based on scanning tunneling microscopy

Electric field modulation spectroscopy using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM-EFMS) measurements were performed for a Si(1 1 1) surface with epitaxially-grown β-FeSi₂ islands. STM-EFMS spectra acquired around the indirect energy gap of Si reproduced the photon energy peak position observed in conventional macroscopic EFMS experiments. However, a considerable discrepancy was found in the energy position of the accompanying spectral dip. We examined two possibilities for the cause of this discrepancy. The first interpretation is that the STM-‘EFMS’ spectra may simply reflect the local density of states based on essentially the same principle as that of tunneling spectroscopy. However, this interpretation is ruled out by the facts that almost identical STM-EFMS spectra are obtained also out of the regime of tunneling. The second interpretation is a spectral distortion due to a large electric field steadily built in the sample surface, which is supported experimentally by a spectral shift of the dip energy that is induced by altering the tip-induced band bending.