Novel pattern formation in the collapse process of floating monolayer at the air-water interface

We have observed a remarkable two-armed spiral in the collapse process of a floating monolayer at the air-water interface by phase contrast microscopy. This demonstrates that the floating monolayer as a form of soft condensed matter reorganizes itself due to a certain kind of macroscopic or collective behavior of molecules as it collapses. This pattern formation is caused by the breakdown of a critical dynamical balance between the deformation of solid domain and the applied surface pressure. The fragility as well as the flexibility of the floating monolayer can be associated with the observed pattern growth. There are also observed interesting, periodically arranged collections of molecules in numerous collapsed regions. Received: 8 July 1997 / Accepted: 4 November 1997     

AC calorimetric study of phase transitions in phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol systems

Using an ac calorimetric method, detailed behaviour of the heat capacity in dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol system was studied in the cholesterol concentration less than 5 mol%. It was revealed that the heat capacity near the main transition was composed of at least four anomalies, i.e., multipeak took place in the heat capacity. This fact indicates that a simple theory explaining coexistence of two phases in two component systems does not work in the multipeak region. Then, relation between the multipeak heat capacity and the change of the ripple structure with the cholesterol concentration should be taken into account, when we consider thermodynamical behaviour of the systems.

---

Zusammenfassung Mittels AC-Kalorimetrie wurde bei Cholesterol-Konzentrationen von weniger als 5 mol% das Verhalten der Wärmekapazität im System Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholin-Cholesterol untersucht. Es wurde gezeigt, daß sich die Wärmekapazität in der Nähe der Hauptumwandlung aus mindestens vier Anomalien zusammensetzt, d.h. bei der Wärmekapazität kann ein Multipeak beobachtet werden. Diese Tatsache zeigt, daß eine einfache Theorie, welche die Koexistenz zweier Phasen in einem Zweikomponenten-System erklärt, für die Multipeakregion nicht geeignet ist. Weiterhin sollte bei Überlegungen zum thermodynamischen Verhalten von Systemen eine Beziehung zwischen der Multipeak-Wärmekapazität bzw. der Welligkeitsstruktur und der Cholesterol-Konzentration berücksichtigt werden.

     

Synthesis and photochemical properties of photoactivated antitumor prodrugs releasing 5-fluorouracil

A new family of antitumor prodrugs (1-3) of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) possessing photolabile 2-nitrobenzyl chromophores have been designed and synthesized to investigate the efficiency and mechanism of photoactivated 5-FU release upon UV-irradiation at lambda(ex)= 365 nm. The photoactivated prodrug 3 derived from conjugation of 2 with a tumor-homing cyclic peptide Cys-Asn-Gly-Arg-Cys (CNGRC) was so designed as to manifest a tumor-targeting function.     

Conductive characteristics of radical‐bearing polythiophenes using a microcomb‐shaped electrode

The electric conductivity of π‐conjugated and radical‐bearing polymers, i.e., polythiophenes bearing pendant galvinoxyl and phenoxyl radical groups, was measured using a microcomb‐shaped electrode. The electric conductivity was found to be enhanced by the radical content in the polymer. The infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopies suggested a structural change from an aromatic form to a quinoid one in the polythiophene backbone by the phenoxyl radical generation. The effect of the pendant galvinoxyl radical's unpaired electron on the electric conductivity of the polythiophene was discussed by comparing the conductivity of a radical‐bearing polystyrene and a polythiophene mixed with low‐molecular radical molecules. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of polyamides by the polyaddition of bisimidazoline with dicarboxylic acids

N,N′-Dipropionylethylenediamine was synthesized by the ring-opening addition reaction of 2-ethyl-2-imidazoline with propionic acid at 220°C. By applying this reaction to polymerization, polyamides were synthesized by the ring-opening polyaddition reaction at 220°C. of 1,4-bis(imidazoline-2-yl)butane with adipic acid, succinic acid, sebacic acid, and terephthalic acid. The reaction product of 1,4-bis(imidazoline-2-yl)butane with adipic acid, which was proposed to be nylon 26, was compared with an authentic sample of nylon 26 and shown to possess a very similar infrared spectrum and melting point.     

Calculation of local insulating structure of CaCuO2 with interplanar oxygen defects

The electronic band structures of CaCuO₂ with various planar structures have been computed with the spin polarized, full potential pseudofunction method. The perfect tetragonal structure has metallic bands. If the CuO plane is puckered as proposed on the basis of pulsed neutron experiments, a semi-metallic-like behavior is found. When some of the oxygen atoms are moved from the basal plane into interplanar sites that are coplanar with Ca, an insulating ground state is obtained with antiferromagnetic moments of 0.21 _B . Around this interplanar oxygen defect site, the charge and magnetic moment distributions resemble those of a CuO chain structure with strong coupling to Cu atoms from different basal planes. Small displacements of defect oxygens at interplanar sites along the CaO planar directions produces large changes in band shape near E _F , suggesting strong electron-lattice coupling. The coupling is much weaker for displacements of O atoms within the CuO basal plane. Such interplanar defects could occur in superconducting cuprates and thus create small insulating regions for the pinning of magnetic flux lines.     

Synthesis of 1-arylacenaphtho[1,2-d]pyrazoles and 5,7-Dehydro-5H,7H-benzo[b]acenaphtho[1,2-e]-1,3a,6a-triazapentalenes

2-Benzoyl- 5 and 2-acetylacenaphthenone 6 , prepared from the corresponding 1-acyl-2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-acenaphthylenes 2 and 3 , reacted with arylhydrazines 8 under acidic conditions to give the corresponding 1-arylacenaphtho[1,2-d]pyrazoles 9 and 10 . Novel heteropentalene mesomeric betaines, 5,7-dehydro-5H,7H-benzo[b]acenaphtho[1,2-e]-1,3a,6a-triazapentalenes 13 and 14 were prepared by reductive cyclization of 1-(o-nitrophenyl)acenaphtho[1,2-d]pyrazoles 9d and 10d , respectively.     

Temperature dependence of the energy gap in Bi2223 metal oxide superconductor

Spectroscopic studies of the silver-optimum-doped Bi2223 contacts show that the temperature dependence of the parameter Δ follows the BCS curve. However, the tunnel measurements performed for the same series of specimens did not reveal any temperature dependence of the energy gap Δ. The feature observed in the tunnel density of states was retained at temperatures T>T _c , manifesting the presence of the temperature-independent pseudogap E _p . The difference between the data obtained with tunnel spectroscopy and Andreev reflection spectroscopy is explained by the fact that the latter measures the true superconducting energy gap Δ_s(T), whereas the peaks of the tunneling conductivity are related to the total energy gap Δ of cuprates, which includes both the parameter Δ_s and the pseudogap $E_p :\Delta \approx \sqrt {\Delta _s^2 + E_p^2 } $ .