Comparison between Abel test stability and thermal decomposition behavior of nitrocellulose

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Nitrocellulose (NC) is prone to spontaneous decomposition with exothermic heat release and thus is generally evaluated for stability during the storage...     

Enhancement of Magneto-Optic Effect in Optical Isolator with Semiconductor Guiding Layer by Selective Oxidation of AlInAs

Selective oxidation of an AlInAs layer was investigated for enhancement of magneto-optic effect in an optical isolator. Twelve times nonreciprocal phase shift enhancement was estimated from a measured AlInAs-oxide refractive index.     

Optical current transducer with bulk type Bi12SiO20 faraday sensor for power systems

Two types of optical current transducers (OCTs) have a bulk Faraday sensor inserted into the gap of an iron core and a porcelain insulator with optical fiber. The sensor consists of Bi₁₂SiO₂₀ (BSO) single crystal, a polarizer, and an analyzer. The OCTs satisfied the target performance requirement for fault location and metering and demonstrated maintained performance at some power utilities in Japan and the US. We have developed a fault location system that immediately detects the fault current with the OCTs, there by locating the fault section. The OCT can easily replace the existing support insulators for the disconnecting switch without any modifications to structure height or bus-bar. For metering requiring 0.3% class accuracy, use of a BSO with right optical rotatory power combined with BSO with left optical rotatory power results in a Faraday sensor with improved temperature characteristics. The OCT demonstrated 0.3% class accuracy for metering described in the current transformer Specifications of IEEE C57–13, 1993.     

Application of Automatic Chromatic Dispersion Compensation for Realization of All-Optical Network

We have studied the algorithm for the automatic chromatic dispersion compensation using bit error rate (BER) and Q-factor optimization for realization of dynamically reconfigurable all-optical network. We have made sure good performance using the compensation system by laboratory experiments.     

Metal components analysis of metallothionein-III in the brain sections of metallothionein-I and metallothionein-II null mice exposed to mercury vapor with HPLC/ICP-MS

Mercury vapor is effectively absorbed via inhalation and easily passes through the blood–brain barrier; therefore, mercury poisoning with primarily central nervous system symptoms occurs. Metallothionein (MT) is a cysteine-rich metal-binding protein and plays a protective role in heavy-metal poisoning and it is associated with the metabolism of trace elements. Two MT isoforms, MT-I and MT-II, are expressed coordinately in all mammalian tissues, whereas MT-III is a brain-specific member of the MT family. MT-III binds zinc and copper physiologically and is seemed to have important neurophysiological and neuromodulatory functions. The MT functions and metal components of MTs in the brain after mercury vapor exposure are of much interest; however, until now they have not been fully examined. In this study, the influences of the lack of MT-I and MT-II on mercury accumulation in the brain and the changes of zinc and copper concentrations and metal components of MTs were examined after mercury vapor exposure by using MT-I, II null mice and 129/Sv (wild-type) mice as experimental animals. MT-I, II null mice and wild-type mice were exposed to mercury vapor or an air stream for 2 h and were killed 24 h later. The brain was dissected into the cerebral cortex, the cerebellum, and the hippocampus. The concentrations of mercury in each brain section were determined by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry. The concentrations of mercury, copper, and zinc in each brain section were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The mercury accumulated in brains after mercury vapor exposure for MT-I, II null mice and wild-type mice. The mercury levels of MT-I, II null mice in each brain section were significantly higher than those of wild-type mice after mercury vapor exposure. A significant change of zinc concentrations with the following mercury vapor exposure for MT-I, II null mice was observed only in the cerebellum analyzed by two-way analysis of variance. As for zinc, the copper concentrations only changed significantly in the cerebellum. Metal components of metal-binding proteins of soluble fractions in the brain sections were analyzed by size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) connected with ICP-MS. From the results of HPLC/ICP-MS analyses, it was concluded that the mercury components of MT-III and high molecular weight metal-binding proteins in the cerebellum of MT-I, II null mice were much higher than those of wild-type mice. It was suggested that MT-III is associated with the storage of mercury in conditions lacking MT-I, and MT-II. It was also suggested that the physiological role of MT-III and some kind of high molecular weight proteins might be impaired by exposure to mercury vapor and lack of MT-I and MT-II.     

De novo designed contrasteric Diels-Alder reactions of 5-(2-oxazolynyl)-1,2,3,4,5-pentamethylcyclopentadiene

5-(2-Oxazolynyl)cyclopentadiene was designed on the basis of the orbital mixing rule to react with dienophiles with highly contrasteric manner in Diels-Alder reactions. The design was validated by the synthesis and reactions of the corresponding pentamethyl derivative, 5-(2-oxazolynyl)-1,2,3,4,5-pentamethylcyclopentadiene, to afford the products with the ratios of syn/anti=89-93/11-7.     

Chromium- and tungsten-triggered valence isomerism of cis-1-acyl-2-ethynylcyclopropanes via [3,3]sigmatropy of (2-acylcyclopropyl)vinylidene-metal intermediates.

The reaction of cis vicinal acetylethynylcyclopropanes 1 with a catalytic amount of M(CO)5(THF) (M = Cr or W) in the presence of Et3N at room temperature gave ortho-substituted phenols 7 in good yields as valence isomerized products. In the absence of Et3N the reactions did not work at all. The reaction of a cyclopropane having an ester or an amide instead of an acetyl moiety with M(CO)5(THF) did not take place, whereas an ethynylvinylcyclopropane gave a mixture of 1- and 2-substituted 1,3,5-cycloheptatrienes. These valence isomerization reactions are assumed to proceed via the formation of vinylidene-metal intermediates 2 from terminal alkynyl moieties followed by [3,3]sigmatropy of 2 to give seven-membered carbene complexes 3.     

Liquid-liquid extraction of copper(I) by cyclic tetrathio ethers

The liquid-liquid extraction of copper(I) with 12-, 13-, 15- and 16-membered cyclic tetrathio ethers ([n]aneS₄, where n represents the total number of carbon and sulphur atoms in the cyclic ligand ring) was examined stoichiometrically using picrate ion (Pic^?) for the formation of the ion pair. Copper(I) was extracted with four ligands (L) into 1,2-dichloroethane as the ion-pair compound, [Cu(I)L]⁺Pic^?. The extraction constant, K_ex, with each ligand was determined. As the ring size of cyclic tetrathio ethers increases, the log K_ex values, including that previously reported for [14]aneS₄, increase from 7.7 to 9.4. The value of Δ log K_ex, which represents the increase in log K_ex due to the addition of one carbon atom to the macrocyclic ring, was large between [13]aneS₄ and [14]aneS₄ (Δ log K_ex=1.0) and small between [14]aneS₄ and [15]aneS₄ (Δ log K_ex=0.1).     

Epsilon -N,N,N-trimethyllysine-specific ions in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-tandem mass spectrometry

Epsilon -N,N,N-trimethyllysine (K(me3)) is a component of a number of proteins and plays an important role in the expression of their biological functions. Trimethylation, which causes an incremental increase in mass of 42.0470 Da from that of the corresponding MH(+) ion, cannot be distinguished from the acetylation (+42.0106 Da), which also occurs on epsilon-amino groups of Lys or alpha-amino groups in many proteins, without high-accuracy mass measurement which is accurate to within the second decimal place. MALDI-MS and MS/MS have been applied for the analyses of post-translational modifications of histone H3, which is known to contain both multiple acetylation and methylation sites in its sequence. During the measurements of the modified peptides, a novel fragmentation which involves the loss of trimethylamine from K(me3) was found. This characteristic fragmentation, which was observed to produce ions separated by 59 Da from the conventional precursor ion or sequence ions, would be useful for probing K(me3) units in the sequence.