Investigation of non-acoustical parameters of compressed melamine foam materials

A series of careful non-acoustical parameters measurements using 5 ‘Illtec’ melamine foam and 10 ‘Basotect TG’ melamine foam samples have been made. Flow resistivity, tortuosity, porosity, viscous characteristic length and thermal characteristic length of two types of compressed melamine foam materials with different foam magnifications have been investigated. It has been found that a relationship between the flow resistivity, fibre equivalent diameter and bulk density exists for each of the compressed melamine foam materials.This paper also discusses relationships between the non-acoustical parameters and compression rates in the compressed melamine foam media.     

Preparation and properties of polyamides from 2,2′-p-phenylenebis-5-oxazolones with diamines

Novel phenylated polyamides having inherent viscosities in the range of 0.2–0.4 were prepared by the ring-opening polyaddition of 2,2′-p-phenylenebis(4,4-diphenyl-5-oxazolone) with aliphatic diamines in polar aprotic solvents. Similarly, unsubstituted polyamides were obtained from 2,2′-p-phenylenebis-5-oxazolone and both aliphatic and aromatic diamines. The phenylated polyamides were highly soluble in a wide range of solvents including tetrahydrofuran and dioxane, while the unsubstituted polymers showed limited solubility in the solvents. No marked differences in thermal stability between the phenylated and unsubstituted polyamides were noted, and all the polyamides began to decompose at around 250°C in both air and nitrogen.     

Analysis of the intensity and phase delay of photoinduced infrared absorption from poly(2,5-thienylenevinylene)

Photoinduced infrared absorption spectra have been measured from poly(2,5-thienylenevinylene) by the phase-modulation method with modulation frequencies between 0.8 and 15 kHz. The modulation-frequency dependencies of the intensity and phase delay of the photoinduced infrared absorption have been numerically simulated by the use of a model based on second-order kinetics involving a neutralization recombination process between the positive and negative polarons. This numerical method is useful in analysing the nonlinear response associated with a bimolecular process.     

Variationally optimized basis orbitals for biological molecules

Numerical atomic basis orbitals are variationally optimized for biological molecules such as proteins, polysaccharides, and deoxyribonucleic acid within a density functional theory. Based on a statistical treatment of results of a fully variational optimization of basis orbitals (full optimized basis orbitals) for 43 biological model molecules, simple sets of preoptimized basis orbitals classified under the local chemical environment (simple preoptimized basis orbitals) are constructed for hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur atoms, each of which contains double valence plus polarization basis function. For a wide variety of molecules we show that the simple preoptimized orbitals provide well convergent energy and physical quantities comparable to those calculated by the full optimized orbitals, which demonstrates that the simple preoptimized orbitals possess substantial transferability for biological molecules.     

Theoretical investigation on electron transport through an organic molecule: effect of the contact structure

Knowing how the contact geometry influences the conductance of a molecular wire junction requires both a precise determination of the molecule/metallic-electrode interface structure and an evaluation of the conductance for different contact geometries with a fair accuracy. With a greatly improved method to solve the Lippmann-Schwinger equation, we are able to include at least one atomic layer of each electrode into the extended molecule. The artificial effect of the jellium model used for the electrodes is therefore significantly reduced. Our first-principles calculations on the transport properties of a single benzene dithiolate molecule sandwiched between Au(111) surfaces show that the transmission of the bridge site contact, which is the most stable adsorption configuration in equilibrium, displays different features from those of other configurations, and that the inclusion of the surface layers of Au electrodes into the extended molecule shifts and broadens the transmission peaks due to a stronger and more realistic S-Au bonding. We discuss the geometry dependence of the transport properties by analyzing the density of states of the molecular orbitals.     

Synthesis of polyamides by ring-opening polyaddition: Reaction of 4,4′-disubstituted bisazlactones with diamines

Ring-opening polyaddition of 4,4′-disubstituted bisazlactones with various diamines was carried out in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone to afford polyamides with pendant amide group having inherent viscosities of 0.17-0.51 in quantitative yields. The solution polymerization with aliphatic diamines was almost complete at room temperature within 24 hr. Nearly all of the polyamides were soluble in polar in polar aprotic solvents and in acidic solvents. These polymers began to decompose at around 200–300°C as determined by DTA and TGA under nitrogen.     

Development of a molecular recognition ion gating membrane and estimation of its pore size control

We have fabricated a molecular recognition ion gating membrane. This synthetic membrane spontaneously opens and closes its pores in response to specific solvated ions. In addition to this switching function, we found that this membrane could control its pore size in response to a known concentration of a specific ion. The membrane was prepared by plasma graft copolymerization, which filled the pores of porous polyethylene film with a copolymer of NIPAM (N-isopropylacrylamide) and BCAm (benzo[18]crown-6-acrylamide). NIPAM is well-known to have an LCST (lower critical solution temperature), at which its volume changes dramatically in water. The crown receptor of the BCAm traps a specific ion, and causes a shift in the LCST. Therefore, selectively responding to either K(+) or Ba(2+), the grafted copolymer swelled and shrank in the pores at a constant temperature between two LCSTs. The solution flux in the absence of Ba(2+) decreased by about 2 orders of magnitude over a solution flux containing Ba(2+). The pore size was estimated by the filtration of aqueous dextran solutions with various solute sizes. This revealed that the membrane changed its pore size between 5 and 27 nm in response to the Ba(2+) concentration changes. No such change was observed for Ca(2+) solutions. Furthermore, this pore size change occurred uniformly in all pores, as a clear cut-off value for a solute size that could pass through pores was always present. This membrane may be useful not only as a molecular recognition ion gate, but also as a device for spontaneously controlling the permeation flux and solute size.     

Possible cause of G-C-->C-G transversion mutation by guanine oxidation product, imidazolone

BACKGROUND: The genome is constantly assaulted by oxidation reactions which are likely to be associated with oxygen metabolism, and oxidative lesions are generated by many types of oxidants. Such genotoxin-induced alterations in the genomic message have been implicated in aging and in several pathophysiological processes, particularly those associated with cancer. The guanine base (G) in genomic DNA is highly susceptible to oxidative stress due to having the lowest oxidation potential. Therefore, G-C-->T-A and G-C-->C-G transversion mutations frequently occur under oxidative conditions. One typical lesion of G is 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-guanine (8-oxoG), which can pair with A. This pairing may cause G-C-->T-A transversion mutations. Although the number of G-C-->C-G transversions is rather high under specific oxidation conditions such as riboflavin photosensitization, the molecular basis of G-C-->C-G transversions is not known. RESULTS: To determine which oxidative products are responsible for G-C-->C-G transversion mutations, we photooxidized 5'-d(AAAAAAGGAAAAAA)/5'-d(TTTTTTCCTTTTTT) using either riboflavin or anthraquinone (AQ) carboxylate under UV irradiation. Prolonged low-temperature (4 degrees C) enzymatic digestion of photoirradiated sample indicated that under both conditions the amount of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) initially increased with decreasing amounts of 2'-deoxyguanosine (dG), then decreased with the formation of 2-amino-5-[(2-deoxy-beta-D-erythro-pentofuranosyl)amino]-4H-imidazol-4-one (dIz), suggesting that nascent 8-oxoG was further oxidized to 2,5-diamino-4H-imidazol-4-one (Iz) in duplex DNA. Photoirradiation of an AQ-linked oligomer with a complementary strand containing 8-oxoG indicated that 8-oxoG residues were oxidized to Iz. These results indicate that Iz is formed from 8-oxoG through long-range hole migration. Primer extension experiments using a template containing Iz demonstrated that only dGTP is specifically incorporated opposite Iz suggesting that specific Iz-G base pairs are formed. The 'reverse' approach consisting of DNA polymerization using dIzTP showed that dIzTP is incorporated opposite G, further confirming the formation of a Iz-G base pair. CONCLUSIONS: HPLC product analysis demonstrated that Iz is a key oxidation product of G through 8-oxoG in DNA photosensitized with riboflavin or anthraquinone. Photoreaction of AQ-linked oligomer confirmed that Iz is formed from 8-oxoG through long-range hole migration. Two sets of primer extension experiments demonstrated that Iz can specifically pair with G in vitro. Specific Iz-G base pair formation can explain the G-C-->C-G transversion mutations that appear under oxidative conditions.     

Remarkable effect of tris(4-fluorophenyl)phosphine oxide on the stabilization of chiral lanthanum complex catalysts. A new and practical protocol for the highly enantioselective epoxidation of conjugated enones

A new and efficient chiral catalyst system, lanthanum-chiral BINOL-tris(4-fluorophenyl)phosphine oxide-cumene hydroperoxide, was developed for the epoxidation of alpha, beta-unsaturated ketones thus providing the corresponding epoxy ketones with excellent enantioselectivities (up to >99% ee) in good to excellent yields at room temperature.