Novel molecular drug carrier: encapsulation of oxaliplatin in cucurbit[7]uril and its effects on stability and reactivity of the drug

Oxaliplatin forms a stable 1:1 inclusion complex with cucurbit[7]uril as indicated by NMR, mass spectrometry, isothermal titration calorimetry and X-ray crystallography. The encapsulation of the drug results in a large enhancement in stability, a moderate decrease in reactivity toward guanosine but a much larger decrease in reactivity toward L-methionine, which suggests the encapsulation not only increases the stability of the drug but also may reduce unwanted side effects caused by protein binding of the platinum drug. A preliminary in vitro assay using various tumor cell lines reveals that the encapsulation results in a decrease in the antitumor activity of oxaliplatin.     

Magnetic properties of monodisperse NiHx nanoparticles and comparison to those of monodisperse Ni nanoparticles

We produced, for the first time, monodisperse NiH(x) nanoparticles with particle diameters of 7.0 nm and investigated their magnetic properties. We also produced monodisperse Ni nanoparticles with nearly the same particle diameters as those of NiH(x) nanoparticles as a comparison. The magnetic properties of NiH(x) nanoparticles were quite different from those of Ni nanoparticles. We observed two compositional phases in NiH(x) nanoparticles, similar to bulk material: one is the nearly pure Ni phase with the blocking temperature (T(B)) of 11 K and the other is the hydride phase. We observed T(B) of 40 K in Ni nanoparticles.     

Synthesis of novel amorphous boron carbonitride ceramics from the borazine derivative copolymer via hydroboration

A preceramic polymer for boron carbonitride was synthesized for the first time by the hydroboration of borazine derivatives, B-triethynyl, N-trimethyl borazine and borazine, without a catalyst. A homogeneous, amorphous boron carbonitride ceramic was prepared by the thermolysis of a hydroborated copolymer in an argon atmosphere.     

Selective inhibition of bovine plasma amine oxidase by homopropargylamine, a new inactivator motif

Propargylic and activated allylic amines are known to inactivate the quinone-dependent plasma amine oxidases, possibly through active-site modification by the alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehyde turnover products. Although homopropargylamine (1-amino-3-butyne, 1) is a nonobvious candidate as a mechanism-based inhibitor, 1 was found to be an unusually potent time- and concentration-dependent irreversible inactivator of bovine plasma amine oxidase (BPAO), exhibiting a 30 min IC(50) of 2.9 microM at 30 degrees C ([BPAO] = 1.2 microM). Preserved cofactor redox activity of the denatured inactivated enzyme indicates that inactivation by 1 involves either a cofactor modification that reverses upon enzyme denaturation or a modification of an active-site residue. Because inactivation by 1 may involve enzyme alkylation by the reactive 2,3-butadienal (3) tautomer of the 3-butynal turnover product of 1, aldehyde 3 was prepared and was found to inactivate BPAO, but only at high concentration. In addition, whereas inhibition by 3 was blunted by the presence of mercaptoethanol, no such protection was observed against 1. The amine whose turnover should lead directly to 3 was prepared (1-amino-2,3-butadiene, 4) and was found to be an even more potent inactivator of BPAO than 1, exhibiting a 5 min IC(50) of 1.25 microM. Rat liver mitochondrial monoamine oxidase was also inactivated by 4, as expected, but only very weakly by 1. Potential mechanisms explaining the selective inhibition of BPAO by 1 are discussed.     

Microscopic verification of topological electron-vortex binding in the lowest Landau-level crystal state

When two-dimensional electrons are subjected to a very strong magnetic field, they are believed to form a triangular crystal. By a direct comparison with the exact wave function, we demonstrate that this crystal is not a simple Hartree-Fock crystal of electrons but an inherently quantum mechanical crystal characterized by a nonperturbative binding of quantized vortices to electrons. It is suggested that this has qualitative consequences for experiment.     

Search for coherent charged pion production in neutrino-carbon interactions

We report the result from a search for charged-current coherent pion production induced by muon neutrinos with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV. The data are collected with a fully active scintillator detector in the K2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. No evidence for coherent pion production is observed, and an upper limit of is set on the cross section ratio of coherent pion production to the total charged-current interaction at 90% confidence level. This is the first experimental limit for coherent charged pion production in the energy region of a few GeV.     

Expression of 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and P450 side chain cleavage enzyme in the human uterine endometrium

The enzyme complex 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/Delta5-Delta4-isomerase (3beta-HSD) is involved in the biosynthesis of all classes of active steroids. The expression of 3b-HSD in human uterine endometrium during the menstrual cycle and decidua was examined in an effort to understand its role during ova implantation. 3beta-HSD was weakly expressed in the glandular epithelium of the proliferative phase and moderately expressed in the glandular epithelium of secretory phase of the endometrium. In the decidua of the ectopic pregnancy, 3beta-HSD was strongly expressed. The human uterine endometrial 3beta-HSD was identified as being the same type as the placental 3beta-HSD by RT-PCR and sequence analysis. In addition to the expression of 3beta-HSD, P450scc was expressed in the decidua of the ectopic pregnancy. These results suggest that pregnenolone might be synthesized from cholesterol by P450scc de novo and then, it is converted to progesterone by 3beta-HSD in the uterine endometrium. The data implies that the endometrial 3beta-HSD can use not only the out-coming pregnenolone from the adrenal gland but also the self- made pregnenolone to produce progesterone. The de novo synthesis of progesterone in the endometrium might be a crucial factor for implantation and maintenance of pregnancy.     

Discrete qualocation methods for logarithmic-kernel integral equations on a piecewise smooth boundary

We consider a fully discrete qualocation method for Symm’s integral equation. The method is that of Sloan and Burn (1992), for which a complete analysis is available in the case of smooth curves. The convergence for smooth curves can be improved by a subtraction of singularity (Jeon and Kimn, 1996). In this paper we extend these results for smooth boundaries to polygonal boundaries. The analysis uses a mesh grading transformation method for Symm’s integral equation, as in Elschner and Graham (1995) and Elschner and Stephan (1996), to overcome the singular behavior of solutions at corners. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

All orders transport theory from the multiple scattering expansion of the self-energy: The central cuts

We use the full multiple scattering expansion of the retarded self-energy to obtain the gain and loss rates present in the Kadanoff-Baym relativistic transport equation. The rates we obtain include processes with any number of particles. As a first approximation, we only consider central cuts in the self-energies, but otherwise our results are general. We specialize to the case of scalar field theory to compare with lowest order results. The main application of this work is relativistic transport theory of very dense systems, such as the quark-gluon plasma or the early universe, where multi-particle interactions are important.     

Optical encryption of gray-level image using on-axis and 2-f digital holography with two-step phase-shifting method

In this paper we propose an encryption/decryption technique of gray-level image information using an on-axis 2-f digital holographic optical encrypting system with two-step phase-shifting method. This technique reduces the number of holograms in phase-shifting digital holography and minimizes the setup of the encryption system more than multistep phase-shifting technique. We are able to get the complete decrypted image by controlling the K-ratio which is defined as the reference beam intensity versus the object beam intensity. We remove the DC-term of the phase-shifting digital hologram to reconstruct and decrypt the original image information. Simulation results show that the proposed method can be used for encryption and decryption of a 256 gray-level image. Also, the result shows some errors of the decrypted image according to K-ratio.