Determination of boron and other elements in volcanic rocks by prompt gamma-ray analysis: An application to magma genesis in Kyushu island,SW-Japan

Neutron induced prompt gamma-ray activation analysis (PGAA) is applied for determining boron contents in volcanic rocks, which is an important element in the discussion of material circulation in volcanic arc systems. To evaluate the recycling of oceanic crust in Kyushu, we analyzed boron and other trace element contents in basaltic rocks from the area. The basalts from volcanic front have high B/Nb (2.9–3.7), B/Zr (0.1–0.2) and B/Sm (2.8–6.0) ratios, whereas those ratios in the basalts from backarc are extremely low (<0.5; <0.1; 0.5–1.7), respectively. This indicates that the recycling of subducted oceanic crust to the arc crust is limited in the volcanic front.     

Excited-state structure and dynamics of 1,3,5-tris(phenylethynyl)benzene as studied by Raman and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

Excited-state structure and dynamics of 1,3,5-tris(phenylethynyl)benzene (TPB) have been studied in n-hexane and n-heptane solutions. Time-resolved fluorescence spectra, fluorescence anisotropy, and lifetime of TPB were recorded with femtosecond to nanosecond time resolution. Raman depolarization ratio was also measured to elucidate a nonplanar structure of the ground state. Two fluorescence components, the short-lived component with 150 fs lifetime and the long-lived component with 10 ns lifetime, were observed. The analysis of the fluorescence anisotropy values combined with the Raman depolarization data has led to a conclusion that TPB is primarily excited to a short-lived excited singlet state with a nonplanar structure, and then it relaxes to a long-lived excited singlet state with a 3-fold axis. A rapid structural change from a nonplanar to a planar structure is suggested to take place in the process of relaxation.     

Rheological and DSC studies of mixtures of gellan gum and konjac glucomannan

The interaction between gellan gum (GELL) and konjac glucomannan (KGM) with and without sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride and magnesium chloride has been monitored using mechanical spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The rheological results indicated that the synergism occurred at sufficient low temperatures where individual helices of GELL molecules were sufficiently aggregated. With progressive addition of monovalent cations, storage shear modulus G' and loss shear modulus G” for mixtures gradually increased, and not only the helix-coil transition temperature of GELL molecules in mixtures but also the sol-gel transition temperature for mixtures shifted to higher temperatures with increasing concentration of salts. Moreover, in the presence of sufficient monovalent cations, mixtures formed an elastic gel with large thermal hysteresis. In the presence of divalent cations, the synergistic interaction was promoted up to a certain concentration, however, with more progressive addition of divalent cations, the main structure formed by aggregates of GELL helices would be smaller, so that mixtures could not form a gel in the presence of excessive divalent cations. DSC results indicated that the intermolecular binding complexes between GELL and KGM molecules would not occur, but KGM markedly influenced the disorder-order transition of GELL molecules. We have suggested that KGM was attached to the surface of large aggregates of GELL helices, and since cations promote GELL self-aggregation by a screening effect, the synergistic interaction between GELL and KGM was promoted with increasing concentration of salts. However, excessive divalent cations formed various aggregates of GELL helices with different thermal stabilities, so that the phase-separation in GELL/KGM mixtures was promoted in the presence of excessive divalent cations.     

Channeling of Auroral Kilometric Radiation During Geomagnetic Disturbances

JETP Letters - The electromagnetic fields measured on the ERG satellite are presented and their comparative analysis with measurements on the WIND satellite is carried out. The possibility of...     

Oxythallation of norbornene derivatives with thallium(III) acetate in methanol

Treatment of norbornene, norbornadiene, benzonorbornadiene, and chloro- and methoxy-benzonorbornadiene with thallium(III) acetate in methanol affords only the corresponding cis-exo-acetoxythallation adducts in a sharp contrast to oxymercuration of such strained olefins where methoxymercuration prevails. In the cases of substituted benzonorbornadienes the products are obtained as the regioisomeric mixtures, the isomer ratio being determined by ¹³C NMR. In the cases of 5-norbornene-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride, 5-norbornene-2-methyl-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride, and 5-norbornen-2-endo-carboxylic acid, lactonization occurs to give a trans-oxythallation adduct having a lactone ring, no introduction of either methoxy or acetoxy groups being observed. ¹H and/or ¹³C NMR data for several new oxythallation adducts are provided. The alkaline sodium borohydride reduction of adducts in methanol affords mainly the parent olefin together with 10–16% yields of the corresponding exo-alcohol.     

Every 4k-edge-connected graph is Weakly 3k-linked

We prove:

1. Fork ≥ 2 andα = 0, 1, every (4k + 2α)-edge-connected graph is weakly (3k + 2α)-linked.
2. IfG is ak-edge-connected graph (k ≥ 2),s, t are vertices andf is an edge, then there exists a pathP betweens andt such thatf ? E(P) andG ? E(P) ? f is (k ? 2)-edge-connected, whereE(P) denotes the edge set ofP.

     

Long RNA dangling end has large energetic contribution to duplex stability

Long terminal unpaired nucleotides known as dangling ends play interesting roles in biological systems. Previous studies, however, only dealt with the energy contributions of single dangling bases. The energy contributions of long dangling ends on the stability of duplexes have not been systematically studied. We now report a quantitative increase in stability of RNA-RNA and DNA-DNA duplexes containing a long dangling end. We found a larger enhancement of the stability by the long RNA dangling end of the RNA-RNA duplex than has been observed for the DNA duplexes. It is also found that structural stabilizations by long dangling ends seem to originate from the single-stranded stacking interactions of nucleotides. These results indicate that RNA stability can be achieved by increasing the length of the dangling end. The thermodynamic parameters of the long dangling ends are useful for designing ribozymes and antisense oligonucleotides, and for the prediction of the RNA secondary structure like the pseudoknot.