Photocatalytic syntheses of azoxybenzene by visible light irradiation of silica-coated cadmium sulfide nanocomposites

Photoirradiation (lambda= 436 nm) of a deaerated 2-propanol aqueous solution containing nitrobenzene and rhodium-loaded silica-coated cadmium sulfide nanoparticles produced azoxybenzene with relatively high selectivity (68%), the photocatalytic activity being enhanced with a decrease in the size of the semiconductor particle core.     

Ion channels of N-terminally linked alamethicin dimers: enhancement of cation-selectivity by substitution of Glu for Gln at position 7

Alamethicin forms voltage-gated ion channels that have moderate cation-selectivity. The enhancement of the cation-selectivity by introducing negatively charged residues at positions 7 and 18 has been studied using the tethered homodimers of alamethicin with Q7 and E18 (di-alm-Q7E18) and its analog with E7 and Q18 (di-alm-E7Q18). In the dimeric peptides, monomer peptides are linked at the N-termini by a disulfide bond. Both the peptides formed long lasting ion channels at cis-positive voltages when added to the cis-side membrane. Their long open duration enabled us to obtain current-voltage (I-V(m)) relations and reversal potentials at the single-channel level by applying a voltage ramp during the channel opening. The reversal potentials measured in asymmetric KCl solutions indicated that ionized E7 provided strong cation-selectivity, whereas ionized E18 little influenced the charge selectivity. This was also the case for the macroscopic charge selectivity determined from the reversal potentials obtained by the macroscopic I-V(m) measurements. The results are accounted for by stronger electrostatic interactions between permeant ions and negatively charged residues at the narrowest part of the pore than at the pore mouth.     

Extension of the fast multipole method for the rectangular cells with an anisotropic partition tree structure

The fast multipole method (FMM) is an order N method for the numerically rigorous calculation of the electrostatic interactions among point charges in a system of interest. The FMM is utilized for massively parallelized software for molecular dynamics (MD) calculations. However, an inconvenient limitation is imposed on the implementation of the FMM: In three-dimensional case, a cubic MD unit cell is hierarchically divided by the octree partitioning under isotropic periodic boundary conditions along three axes. Here, we extended the FMM algorithm adaptive to a rectangular MD unit cell with different periodicity along the axes by applying an anisotropic hierarchical partitioning. The algorithm was implemented into the parallelized general-purpose MD calculation software designed for a system with uniform distribution of point charges in the unit cell. The partition tree can be a mixture of binary and ternary branches, the branches being chosen arbitrarily with respect to the coordinate axes at any levels. Errors in the calculated electrostatic interactions are discussed in detail for a selected partition tree structure. The extension enables us to execute MD calculations under more general conditions for the shape of the unit cell, partition tree, and boundary conditions, keeping the accuracy of the calculated electrostatic interactions as high as that with the conventional FMM. An extension of the present FMM algorithm to other prime number branches, such as 5 and 7, is straightforward.     

Thermal expansion and spontaneous strain of KMnF3 near the 186 K-structural phase transition

Abstract

By means of high-angle double-crystal X-ray diffractometry (HADOX), the thermal expansivity of KMnF₃ has been determined. The linear thermal expansion coefficient along each crystallographic axis exhibits a divergent anomaly at the structural phase transition at 186 K. The critical exponents of these coefficients are determined: in the cubic phase α = 0.21 ± 3, and in the tetragonal phase α′ = 0.19 ± 3 for the a axis and α″ = 0.35 ± 3 for the c axis.

In addition, the critical exponent of the spontaneous strain, c/a ? 1, is determined to be 0.4248 ± 8, which is smaller than that of the order parameter 2β = 0.5714 ± 12. These values are reasonable if the transition occurs in the vicinity of a tricritical point.     

Study of electronic states for V thin films deposited on 6H-SiC substrates by soft X-ray emission spectroscopy

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a candidate material for electronic devices to operate upon crucial environment. Electronic states of silicides and/or carbide/graphite formed in metal/SiC contact system is fundamentally important from the view point of device performance.We study interface electronic structure of vanadium (V) thin-film deposited on 6H-SiC(0 0 0 1) Si-face by using a soft X-ray emission spectroscopy (SXES). For specimens of V(38 nm)/6H-SiC (substrate) contact systems annealed at 850 °C, the Si L_2,3 emission spectra indicate different shapes and peak energies from the substrate. The product of materials such as silicides and/or ternary materials is suggested. Similarly, the C Kα emission spectra show the shape and peak energy characteristic of vanadium carbide including substrate 6H-SiC signal.     

Amber Extract Reduces Lipid Content in Mature 3T3-L1 Adipocytes by Activating the Lipolysis Pathway

Amber—the fossilized resin of trees—is rich in terpenoids and rosin acids. The physiological effects, such as antipyretic, sedative, and anti-inflammatory, were used in traditional medicine. This study aims to clarify the physiological effects of amber extract on lipid metabolism in mouse 3T3-L1 cells. Mature adipocytes are used to evaluate the effect of amber extract on lipolysis by measuring the triglyceride content, glucose uptake, glycerol release, and lipolysis-related gene expression. Our results show that the amount of triacylglycerol, which is stored in lipid droplets in mature adipocytes, decreases following 96 h of treatment with different concentrations of amber extract. Amber extract treatment also decreases glucose uptake and increases the release of glycerol from the cells. Moreover, amber extract increases the expression of lipolysis-related genes encoding perilipin and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and promotes the activity of HSL (by increasing HSL phosphorylation). Amber extract treatment also regulates the expression of other adipocytokines in mature adipocytes, such as adiponectin and leptin. Overall, our results indicate that amber extract increases the expression of lipolysis-related genes to induce lipolysis in 3T3-L1 cells, highlighting its potential for treating various obesity-related diseases.     

Quasiparticle scattering induced by charge doping of iron-pnictide superconductors probed by collective vortex pinning

Charge doping of iron-pnictide superconductors leads to collective pinning of flux vortices, whereas isovalent doping does not. Moreover, flux pinning in the charge-doped compounds is consistently described by the mean-free path fluctuations introduced by the dopant atoms, allowing for the extraction of the elastic quasiparticle scattering rate. The absence of scattering by dopant atoms in isovalently doped BaFe2(As(1-x)P(x))(2) is consistent with the observation of a linear temperature dependence of the low-temperature penetration depth in this material.     

A Twist‐Assisted Biphenyl Photosensitizer Passable Through Glucose Channel

While the development of low‐molecular‐weight drugs is saturating, agents for photodynamic therapies (PDTs) may become alternative seeds in pharmaceutical industry. Among them, orally administrative, cancer‐selective, and side effect‐free photosensitizers (PSs) that can be activated by tissue‐penetrative near‐infrared (NIR) lights are strongly demanded. We discovered such a PS from scratch by focusing on a twist‐assisted spin‐orbit charge transfer intersystem crossing (ISC) mechanism in a biphenyl derivative, which was demonstrated by thorough photophysical studies. The unique ISC mechanism enables the PS to be small and slim so as to pass through glucose transporters and exert a PDT effect selectively on a cancer cell line. The smallness will allow for oral administration and fast clearance, which have been agenda of approved PSs with larger molecular weights. We also demonstrated that our PS was able to be activated with an NIR pulse laser through two‐photon excitation.     

Preparation of silver nanoparticles by laser ablation in polyvinylpyrrolidone solutions

We performed laser ablation of a silver plate in polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) aqueous solutions to prepare silver nanoparticles. Secondary laser irradiation onto the prepared colloidal solutions was also carried out. It was revealed that the formation efficiency was increased by addition of PVP as well as the stability of nanoparticles. The result of shadowgraph measurements suggested that the increased ablation efficiency by PVP is attributable to increased secondary etching efficiency by the solvent-confined plasma toward the silver plate. On the other hand, the size decrease of the nanoparticles by addition of PVP was more remarkable during the secondary irradiation process than in the laser ablation (nanoparticle preparation) process. This result indicates that emitted materials interact less sufficiently with PVP molecules in the laser ablation process than in the secondary laser irradiation process.