Asymmetric synthesis of a highly functionalized β-amino acid: the key amino acid of sperabillins B and D

The asymmetric synthesis of the highly functionalized (3R,5R,6R)-3,6-diamino-5-hydroxyheptanoic acid, the key amino acid fragment of sperabillins B and D, was achieved by an asymmetric Michael addition of lithium (R)-(-methylbenzyl)allylamide 10 to (E,E)-2,5-heptadienoate establishing the C-3 stereogenic centre, the information from which was propagated to the C-5 and C-6 centres by a highly stereoselective iodocyclocarbamation reaction.     

High rate performances of hydrogen titanate nanowires electrodes

In this study, H₂Ti₃O₇ nanowires were successfully synthesized via a hydrothermal process and post-treatments. The diameter of the nanowires is found to be about 30 nm and the length up to several micrometers. A lithium battery using H₂Ti₃O₇ nanowires as the active material of the positive electrode exhibits a discharge capacity of 100 mA hg⁻¹ and still keeps stable after 200 cycles at a current density as high as 40 Ag⁻¹, demonstrating excellent high rate performance.     

Asymptotic Solutions of Hamilton–Jacobi Equations with Semi-Periodic Hamiltonians

We study the long time behavior of viscosity solutions of the Cauchy problem for Hamilton–Jacobi equations in ? ⁿ . We prove that if the Hamiltonian H(x, p) is coercive and strictly convex in a mild sense in p and upper semi-periodic in x, then any solution of the Cauchy problem “converges” to an asymptotic solution for any lower semi-almost periodic initial function.     

Albumin-mediated selenium transfer by a selenotrisulfide relay mechanism

In this study, we demonstrated a human serum albumin (HSA)-mediated selenium transfer; the selenium exported from red blood cells (RBCs) was bound to HSA through the selenotrisulfide and then transferred into the hepatocyte. After the treatment of the RBCs with selenite, the selenium efflux from the RBCs occurred in an HSA concentration-dependent manner. Pretreatment of HSA with iodoacetamide almost completely inhibited the selenium efflux from the RBC to the HSA solution. The selenium efflux experiment was carried out in an HSA solution (45 mg/mL), and subsequently the HSA solution was subjected to gel permeation chromatographic separation. The peak fraction of the selenium content was consistent with that of the HSA. The selenium bound to HSA in this solution was completely eliminated by a treatment with penicillamine (Pen), which resulted in the generation of penicillamine selenotrisulfide, PenSSeSPen. The selenium efflux from the RBCs was also occurred in a Pen solution, and PenSSeSPen was observed in the resulting Pen solution. The selenium exported from the RBC was thought to bind to the HSA via a selenotrisulfide linkage with its single free thiol. A model of the selenium-bound HSA was prepared by the reaction of the HSA with PenSSeSPen. The selenium from PenSSeSPen can bind to HSA by a thiol exchange between Pen and the free thiol of HSA, which produces the selenotrisulfide-containing HSA (HSA-SSeSPen). When HSA-SSeSPen was incubated with isolated rat hepatocytes, the selenium content in the hepatocytes increased along with its decrease in the incubation medium. To verify the results from the model experiments using HSA-SSeSPen, we conducted the HSA-mediated selenium transfer experiment from RBC treated with selenite to the hepatocytes. The selenotrisulfide-containing HSA was able to transport the selenium into the hepatocyte. Overall, the selenium transfer from the RBC to the hepatocytes involves a relay mechanism of thiol exchange that occurs between the selenotrisulfide and thiol compounds (selenotrisulfide relay mechanism: R-SSeS-R + HSA-SH --> HSA-SSeS-R + R'-SH --> R-SSeS-R').     

Coherent and Incoherent Excitations of Electron-Doped SrTiO3

Resonant photoemission at the Ti 2p and O 1s edges on a Nb-doped SrTiO(3) thin film revealed that the coherent state (CS) at the Fermi level (E(F)) had a mainly Ti 3d character whereas the incoherent in-gap state (IGS) positioned approximately 1.5 eV below E(F) had a mixed character of Ti 3d and O 2p states. This indicates that the IGS is formed by a spectral-weight transfer from the CS and subsequent spectral-weight redistribution through d-p hybridization. We discuss the evolution of the excitation spectrum with 3d band filling and rationalize the IGS through a mechanism similar to that proposed by Haldane and Anderson.     

Total reactivity of pyridine and quinoline via the reactions of arylbenzoates with hydroxide ion. Apparent substituent constants for some N-heteroaromatic groups

A new set of apparent σ values was evaluated for the aza substitution of all positions in pyridyl and quinolyl groups on the basis of the alkaline hydrolysis of aryl benzoates. The enhanced reactivities of 4-pyridyloxy- and 4-quinolyloxy- groups were first estimated quantitatively.     

Heegaard Gradient of Seifert Fibered 3-Manifolds

The infimal Heegaard gradient of a 3-manifold was defined andstudied by Marc Lackenby in an approach towards proving thewell-known virtually Haken conjecture. As instructive examples,Seifert fibered 3-manifolds are considered in this paper. Theauthor shows that a compact orientable Seifert fibered 3-manifoldhas zero infimal Heegaard gradient if and only if it virtuallyfibers over either the circle or a surface other than the 2-sphereor, equivalently, if it has infinite fundamental group. 2000Mathematics Subject Classification 57M10 (primary), 57N10, 57M50(secondary).     

X‐ray diffraction study of the thermal expansion behavior of cellulose triacetate I

Highly crystalline samples of cellulose triacetate I (CTA I) were prepared from highly crystalline algal cellulose by heterogeneous acetylation. X‐ray diffraction of the prepared samples was carried out in a helium atmosphere at temperatures ranging from 20 to 250 °C. Changes in seven d‐spacings were observed with increasing temperature due to thermal expansion of the CTA I crystals. Unit cell parameters at specific temperatures were determined from these d‐spacings by the least squares method, and then thermal expansion coefficients (TECs) were calculated. The linear TECs of the a, b, and c axes were α_a = 19.3 × 10^?5 °C^?1, α_b = 0.3 × 10^?5 °C^?1 (T < 130 °C), α_b = ?2.5 × 10^?5 °C^?1 (T > 130 °C), and α_c = ?1.9 × 10^?5 °C^?1, respectively. The volume TEC was β = 15.6 × 10^?5 °C^?1, which is about 1.4 and 2.2 times greater than that of cellulose I_β and cellulose III_I, respectively. This large thermal expansion could occur because no hydrogen bonding exists in CTA I. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 517–523, 2009     

Criticality of viscous Hamilton–Jacobi equations and stochastic ergodic control

This paper deals with nonlinear additive eigenvalue problems for viscous Hamilton–Jacobi equations which appear in stochastic ergodic control. Certain qualitative properties of principal eigenvalues and associated eigenfunctions are studied. Such analysis plays a key role in studying the recurrence and transience of feedback diffusions for the corresponding stochastic control problems. Our results can be regarded as a nonlinear extension of the criticality theory for Schrödinger operators with decaying potentials.