Consumer attitudes to radiation and irradiated potatoes at “radiation fair” in Osaka, Japan

“Radiation Fair” has been held in summer vacation season in August for more than 10 years in Osaka, the largest city of western Japan, for the purpose of public education and information transfer of radiation and radiation-related technology. We distributed questionnaires to the visitors for recent 3 years to inquire their status toward radiation and irradiated products including irradiated potatoes as well as impression toward the displays. According to the survey results, more than 60% of the kids visitors were satisfied with this exhibition as informative, more than half of the older visitors (16 years old and upward) indicated that they recognized the word of “radiation” when they were at elementary school and the most significant sources of this information were school lessons and the mass media. Consumer's image toward radiation seems to shift to more “positive” when correct knowledge about radiation is given. More than half of consumers did not know “irradiated potatoes” but the percentage indicating that irradiated potatoes was definitely hazardous was less than 10%.     

The “Facilitated Transition” hypothesis as an explanation for the gemdialkyl effect

A new technique of searching the conformational space of transition states was used to explore the cause of the rate acceleration in the gem-dialkyl effect in intramolecular cyclization reactions. Several previous hypotheses were discarded and a new hypothesis was advanced based on this new data. This hypothesis, the “Facilitated Transition” hypothesis, states that increased steric hindrance reduces the overall activation energy by facilitating rotation through the transition state. The older “Reactive Rotamer” hypothesis was eliminated by generating all conformations of the starting materials using the and computer programs and demonstrating that no relationship is found between rate increase and a change in the concentration of “reactive rotamers”.     

“Hole-burning spectra”. A new method for obtaining fine structure in absorption spectra of organic molecules

A new method is proposed for obtaining fine structure in broad-band absorption spectra of organic molecules in solid solutions at low temperature. This method is based on the laser burning of a series of narrow gaps in inhomogeneously broadened absorption spectra. A special spectral set-up has been developed for the measurement of the differential spectrum (a “hole-burning spectrum”) of “burnt” and “unburnt” samples. As an example the hole-burning spectrum of Zn-tetraphenylporphine in ethanol has been considered.     

Syntheses of heparin - like pentamers containing “opened” uronic acid moieties

The syntheses of four analogues of pentasaccharide Ia, which corresponds to the minimal AT III binding region of heparin, are presented and the biological activities of these analogues will be discussed. Three of these analogues (i.e. compounds II, III and IV) contain an R-glyceric acid oxymethylene residue (i.e. B in fig.3) instead of -L-iduronic acid and in the other analogue (i.e. compound V) the β-D-glucuronic acid unit has been replaced by an s-glyceric acid oxymethylene residue (i.e. A in fig3). The R and S-glyceric acid oxymethylene residues represent an “opened” iduronic acid unit and an “opened” glucuronic acid unit, respectively, containing the essential carboxylate function in the appropriate configuration. The crucial step in the syntheses of these “opened” uronic acid pentamer analogues, was the preparation of the required glyceric acid oxymethylene residues 8a, 8b and 8c.

Analogues II and III, containing an “opened” iduronic acid moiety, display a significant AT III mediated Xa activity. Compound III contains two extra sulphate groups at unit 2. Removal of the contributing O-sulphate groups at position 3 and 6 of unit 6 of compound II (i.e. compound IV) results in a seven-fold drop in Xa activity. Replacement of the β-D-glucuronic acid unit by an S-glyceric acid oxymethylene residue (i.e. compound V) leads to almost a complete loss of Xa activity, notwithstanding the fact that all the essential and contributing charged groups are present in the molecule.     

Vapor liquid equilibrium modeling of alkane systems with Equations of State: “Simplicity versus complexity”

Two types of Equations of State (EoS), which are characterized here as “simple” and “complex” EoS, are evaluated in this study. The “simple” type involves two versions of the Peng–Robinson (PR) EoS: the traditional one that utilizes the experimental critical properties and the acentric factor and the other, referred to as PR-fitted (PR-f), where these parameters are determined by fitting pure compound vapor pressure and saturated liquid volume data. As “complex” EoS in this study are characterized the EoS derived from statistical mechanics considerations and involve the Sanchez–Lacombe (SL) EoS and two versions of the Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (SAFT) EoS, the original and the Perturbed-Chain SAFT (PC-SAFT).

The evaluation of these two types of EoS is carried out with respect to their performance in the prediction and correlation of vapor liquid equilibria in binary and multicomponent mixtures of methane or ethane with alkanes of various degree of asymmetry. It is concluded that for this kind of systems complexity offers no significant advantages over simplicity. Furthermore, the results obtained with the PR-f EoS, especially those for multicomponent systems that are encountered in practice, even with the use of zero binary interaction parameters, indicate that this EoS may become a powerful tool for reservoir fluid phase equilibria modeling.     

The radiation resistance of the bioburden from medical devices

An extensive study of the radiation resistance of microbial species constituting the bioburden of a number of different medical devices obtained from Japanese medical device manufacturers has been carried out. A standard protocol for determining radiation resistance was used and validated at the fourteen centres involved in the study. Individual microbial isolates from the bioburden obtained from seven different devices manufactured in these centres were studied. A total of 3742 unselected isolates were obtained, of which 197 failed to survive long enough for subsequent radiation resistance studies. The remainder were subjected to an initial screen test to identify those organisms that were sensitive to the lethal effects of radiation with a D₁₀ of < 1.5kGy. The 465 isolates that survived the screen doses were then tested for survival in an incremental series of radiation doses using methods similar to those of Whitby (1979) and Yan and Tallentire(1995). The isolates from “dry” devices were more resistant than those obtained from the one water filled (“wet”) device studied. The overall distribution of radiation resistance among the isolates was considered to be similar to that forming the “Standard Distribution of Resistance” (SDR) included in the ISO International Standard 11137 “Sterilization of Health Care Products — Requirements for validation and routine control — Radiation sterilization”.     

Can triorganoboroxins exist in a “monomeric” R---B=O form? MNDO calculations and ebulliometric molecular weight determination

MNDO calculations were made for triethylboroxin (EtBO)₃ and triphenylboroxin (PhBO)₃ using both X-ray determined and optimized geometry of these molecules. The results were compared with hypothetical “monomeric” molecules R---B=O. Calculated energies of trimerization are about −200 kJ mol⁻¹ for both compounds and confirm the much higher stability of the “trimer”. Ebulliometric determination of molecular weight of triphenylboroxin in 2-pentanone confirms its trimeric character.     

Comment on “chiral discrimination in spherical tops”

The difference in the interaction energies of two co-rotating, and two counter-rotating, spherical-top molecules is of second order in the rotational constant B, and not first order. Co- and counter-spinning alkali-metal atoms exhibit a similar but numerically much larger “chiral” discrimination.     

Spectral interferences in the determination of traces of scandium, yttrium and rare earth elements in “pure” rare earth matrices by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry: Part VII — Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium and Thulium

This article is the seventh part of a series of papers discussing the spectral interferences of rare earth elements (REEs) in ICP-AES. Radial viewing 27.12 MHz inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) was used in the determination of scandium, yttrium and rare earth elements in Tb₂O₃, Dy₂O₃, Ho₂O₃ and Tm₂O₃ as “pure” rare earth matrices. The quantification of the interferences in terms of Q-values for line interference Q_I(_a) and wing background interference Q_W(Δλ_a) were used in accordance with Boumans and Vrakking [Spectrochim. Acta Part B 43 (1988) 69]. The “best” analysis lines from point of view of spectral interferences were selected. The true detection limits by using the “best” analysis lines were calculated.     

Zur nomenklatur der phane—II

The new term “Phanes” has been clearly defined and a nomenclature system tentatively developed. This system is comprehensible and of general application and at the same time relatively simple. The notations “nucleus”, “bridge”, “number of bridge members” and “number of ring members” are defined. In order to get a definite characterisation of the phanes which contain a carbocyclic nucleus, a carbocyclic and heterocyclic bridge the following terms: “carbophanes”, “carba-phanes” and “hetera-phanes” have been newly introduced. The prefix “hetera-” has been proposed as a general expression and as a representative term for the syllables “aza-”, “oxa-”, “thia-” and so on. The so called “a-nomenclature” is clearly called “hetera-nomenclature”. The new expressions “heteralogous” and “substitulogous” are explained. As the various examples will show, the “Phane-Nomenclature” can also be applied to the naming of complicated metallocenophanes.     

“Model-free” kinetic analysis?

All kinetic analyses aim to determine a sufficient number of kinetic parameters, usually at least an apparent Arrhenius activation energy and pre-exponential factor, and a conversion function or kinetic model (making up a ‘kinetic triplet’), so that accurate extrapolations of kinetic behaviour can be made. “Model-free” methods of kinetic analysis postpone the problem of identifying a suitable kinetic model until an estimate of the activation energy has been made. A major reason for doing this is that misidentification of the kinetic model has a marked effect on the values obtained for the Arrhenius parameters in both isothermal and non-isothermal kinetic analyses. Some aspects of this problem are discussed.

The non-parametric kinetics (NPK) method [1 and 2] is a “model-free” method of kinetic analysis that does not seem to have received the attention that it deserves. This is probably because of its mathematical sophistication and the fact that the matrix and non-linear regression calculations involved are not readily automated. The principle of the method appears to be that of “forcing” a set of non-isothermal data into the set which should have been obtained if the experiments had been carried out isothermally. The method deserves wider testing and also raises some interesting aspects of the philosophy behind non-isothermal kinetic analysis.     

Kosmotrope character of maltose in water mixtures

It is well known that water plays a fundamental role for living beings, because the nature of water transformations provides for the ability to preserve biostructures. Solute can be classified as “kosmotropes” or “chaotropes” depending on the interaction strength with water. In the case of solutes destroying the natural hydrogen bonded network of water, called “kosmotropes” or “structure-makers”, the denaturation processes can be inhibited.

The aim of this work is to investigate the vibrational behaviour of maltose/H₂O mixtures in order to characterise the changes induced by the sugar on the H₂O hydrogen-bonded network. The obtained findings point out that maltose has a destructuring effect on the water tetrahedral network and emphasise its kosmotrope character.     

Crystal structure of Fe(η-C5H5BCMe3)2 a “problem structure”

The complex Fe(η⁶-C₅H₅CMe₃)₂ crystallizes in the centrosymmetric triclinic space group P (C_i¹; No. 2) with unit cell dimensions of a 8.770(1) Å, b 8.878(1) Å, c 11.991(1) Å, 107.56(1)°, β 90.85(1)°, γ 90.13(1)°, V 890.0(2) ų and Z = 2. A full sphere of data was collected on a four-circle diffractometer. The structure was solved and refined to R 7.93% for all 3155 independent reflections and R 4.98% for those 2002 data with | F₀ | > 6σ. | F₀ |. The molecules lie on crystallographic inversion centers at 0, 0, 0 and 1/2, 0, 1/2; the crystallographic asymmetric unit therefore consists of two independent half molecules. The molecule centered at 0, 0, 0 (molecule “A”) is ordered and well-defined; that centered on 1/2, 0, 1/2 (molecule “B”)is probably disordered, as indicated by larger “thermal parameters” and a greater range of apparent interatomic distances. Discussion em phasizes the geometry of molecule A, which has precise C_i symmetry with Fe(1A)-B(1A) 2.297(4) Å and Fe(1A)-C(ring) distances ranging from 2.057(6) Å to 2.138(4) Å.     

Stereoselective propene polymerization at a metallocene/alumoxane catalyst derived from the chirally-substituted “meso-like” (p-R,p-S)-bis[1-(neoisopinocamphyl)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindenyl]-zirconium dichloride

Isopinocamphyl-tosylate (2) was treated with indenyllithium to yield 3-(neoisopinocamphyl)-indene (3). Treatment of 3 with methyllithium gave 1-(neoisopinocamphyl)indenyllithium (4) which was then treated with 0.5 molar equivalents of ZrCl₄(thf)₂ to give a 52:48 mixture of one of the “racemic-like” isomers of bis[1-(neoisopinocamphyl)indenyl]ZrCl₂ (5A) and its “meso-like” diastereomer 5C. Hydrogenation of the 5A/5C mixture (50 bar H₂, Pt) furnished a mixture of the corresponding tetrahydroindenylzirconium complexes 6A and 6C, from which the “meso-like” bis[1-(neoisopinocamphyl)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindenyl]zirconium dichloride diastereoisomer (6C) was isolated. Treatment of 6C with an excess of methylalumoxane in toluene/propene generated an active -olefin polymerization catalyst. At −30°C partly isotactic polypropylene ( _η = 39000) was obtained. The catalyst derived from the chirally-substituted “meso-like” metallocene complex 6C produced polypropylene predominantly under enantiomorphic site control.     

Spectres de rotation de la molécule de chlorobenzéne : I. Variétés isotopiques monosubstituées et structure rs

The microwave spectra of chlorobenzene “(1)-³⁵Cl”, all eight mono-[“(1)-³⁷Cl”, “(1)-³⁵Cl, (2)D”, “(1)-³⁵Cl, (3)D”, “(1)-³⁵Cl, (4)D”, “(1)-³⁵Cl, (1)-¹³C”, “(1)-³⁵Cl, (2)-¹³C”, “(1)-³⁵Cl, (3)-¹³C”, “(1)-³⁵Cl, (4)-¹³C”], one di[“(1)-³⁵Cl, (2,6)D₂,”] and one trisubstituted species [“(1)-³⁷Cl, (2,6)D₂”] have been investigated. From the moments of inertia of the vibrational ground state the r_s structure was derived. The reliability of the two small a coordinates could be enhanced through use of the multiply substituted species. The errors of the moments of inertia were propagated to the structural parameters. It could be shown that the benzene ring is deformed. However the quantitative deformation could not be established due to the rather large errors of some structural parameters.     

On “vapour---liquid” phase equilibrium in a finite system

A system of a finite number of particles (atoms, molecules) is considered under the condition N. T. V. = const. A “one drop-vapour” approximation is proposed, adapting the Mayer cluster-expansion formalism to describe the heterogeneous equilibrium state of the system. The mean cluster size distribution function obtained is compared with computer simulation results by Rao, Berne and Kalos and shows quite good agreement. The difficulties of applying the Boltzmann entropy hypothesis to the heterogenous (i.e. bistable) state of the system are discussed.     

Not the enolate Claisen rearrangement. A surprising route to the “right-wing” of indanomycin (X-14547A)

A synthesis of the “right-wing” equivalent 22 of the ionophore antibiotic indanomycin is described, wherein an unexpected retro hetero Diels-Alder/intramolecular Diels-Alder pathway gives the desired product of the planned Claisen [3,3]-shift.     

“Armed-disarmed” glycosidation strategy based on glycosyl donors and acceptors carrying phosphoroamidate as a leaving group: A convergent synthesis of globotriaosylceramide

A stereocontrolled synthesis of globotriaosylceramide with three different glycosidic linkages has been accomplished by linear and convergent routes exploiting “armed-disarmed” glycosidation methodology based on glycosyl donors and acceptors carrying tetramethylphosphoroamidate as a leaving group. In particular, the convergent strategy featuring a coupling of a galactosyl-(1→4)-galactosyl donor with a glucosylceramide derivative has proven to be extremely efficient.     

Coupled Hartree-Fock calculations of the electric dipole polarizability and first hyperpolarizability of some “inorganic benzenes”

Extended basis sets of gaussian functions were used to calculate near Hartree-Fock estimates of the electric dipole polarizabilities, , and first hyperpolarizabilities, β, of the “inorganic benzenes” B₃N₃H₆, B₃O₃H₃, B₃P₃H₃ and Al₃N₃H₆. Assuming that electron delocalization is responsible for the enhanced polarizabilities of aromatic systems, an aromaticity scale can be set up according to the trend of theoretical polarizabilities obtained in this work, i.e. (B₃O₃H₃) < (B₃N₃H₆ ) < (C₆H₆ ), which is consistent with previous calculations of the degree of delocalization in these compounds.