Novel technique for connecting waveguides and fibers

A practical technique with low coupling loss has been developed for connecting waveguides and fibers by adjusting and fixing them one by one. A thin strip of glass is permanently cemented on the side of the fiber near the tip to be joined. This strip is used as a manipulator, after which it is cemented to the substrate.     

Biosynthesis of citreothiolactone,citreopyrone and pyrenocine B

¹³C NMR spectroscopy using INADEQUATE pulse sequence method has been used to deduce the labelling patterns of the three metabolites of $\text{Penicillium citreo-viride}$ B. derived from [1,2-¹³C]acetate, indicating that their carbon skeletons consist of two different units [CH₃COCH₂COCH₂COS-Enzyme and CH₃COCH₂COS-Enzyme].     

Helical structures induced by laterally-connected chiral twin molecules

A novel chiral twin material, (R)-bis[5-octyloxy-2-(4-octyloxyphenoxycarbonyl)phenyl] 3-methyladipate, has been prepared, where two mesogenic parts are connected laterally by a spacer possessing a chiral centre. A weaker helical structure, in particular in the chiral smectic C (S*_c) phase, was found to be induced by the laterally-connected twin material than by the analogous terminally-connected twin material. If laterally-connected chiral twin molecules prefer to stay in the smectic layer structure so that the two mesogenic parts exist in the same smectic layer, the twist interaction between adjacent layers cannot be produced by direct correlation of motion and directions of two mesogenic parts. Thus, the helical structure in the S*_c phase induced by laterally-connected chiral twin molecules becomes weak. An analogous laterally-branched 'monomeric' compound, (S)-5-octyloxy-2-(4-octyloxyphenoxycarbonyl)phenyl 3-methyl-pentanoate, has also been prepared, and the induced helical structures compared.     

Computational exploration of the catalytic mechanism of dopamine beta-monooxygenase: modeling of its mononuclear copper active sites

Dopamine hydroxylation by the copper-superoxo, -hydroperoxo, and -oxo species of dopamine beta-monooxygenase (DBM) is investigated using theoretical calculations to identify the active species in its reaction and to reveal the key functions of the surrounding amino acid residues in substrate binding. A 3D model of rat DBM is constructed by homology modeling using the crystal structure of peptidylglycine alpha-hydroxylating monooxygenase (PHM) with a high sequence identity of 30% as a template. In the constructed 3D model, the CuA site in domain 1 is coordinated by three histidine residues, His265, His266, and His336, while the CuB site in domain 2 is coordinated by two histidine residues, His415 and His417, and by a methionine residue, Met490. The three Glu268, Glu369, and Tyr494 residues are suggested to play an important role in the substrate binding at the active site of DBM to enable the stereospecific hydrogen-atom abstraction. Quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) calculations are performed to determine the structure of the copper-superoxo, -hydroperoxo, and -oxo species in the whole-enzyme model with about 4700 atoms. The reactivity of the three oxidants is evaluated in terms of density-functional-theory calculations with small models extracted from the QM region of the whole-enzyme model.     

Evidence for the importance of conformational equilibria in Rh-diphosphine complexes for the enantioselection in Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation

The conformations of the chelate cycles in the X-ray structures of norbornadiene- and cyclooctadiene-rhodium complexes of (R,R)-1,2-bis[(o-methylphenyl)phenylphosphino]ethane are dramatically different. Nevertheless, they demonstrate the same sense of enantioselection in asymmetric hydrogenation of dehydroamino acids.     

Synthesis of 2-decenedioic acid (royal jelly acid) by sequential carbonylation of butadiene catalyzed by a palladium—phosphine complex and dicobalt octacarbonyl

Carbonylation of butadiene in t-butyl alcohol catalyzed by a palladium complex gave t-butyl-3,8-nonadienoate (I). Further carbonylation of I in methanol with Co₂(CO)₈ afforded t-butylmethyl-3-decenedioate (II) as the main product. Hydrolysis and base-catalyzed isomerization of II produced E-2-decenedioic acid.     

Characterization of a lactate oxidase from a strain of gram negative bacterium from soil

A lactate oxidase was purified about 36-fold from a newly screened strain KY6 of gram negative bacterium from soil to yield a homogeneous protein. The native enzyme had a molecular mass of 204 kDa measured by Sephadex G-200 and that of subunit on the SDS-PAGE was found to be 45 kDa. The enzyme was optimally active at pH 7.7 and showed stability at pH range of 5.7 to 9.5 for 24 h at 4?C. The optimum temperature was 70?C and the enzyme activity was stable for 10 min up to 45?C. The half-life of the enzyme activity was about 10 min at 55?C. The best substrate of the enzyme was D-lactate and Km value for D-lactate was 0.14 mM. The Km value for DL-lactate was 0.20 mM. Substrate inhibition of the enzyme was observed at higher concentrations than 20 mM of DL-lactate and 10 mM of D-lactate.