The most favorable condition for lipid hydrolysis by Rhizopus delemar lipase in combination with a sugar–ester and alcohol W/O microemulsion system

The hydrophobic interfacial characterization of sugar–ester alcohol W/O microemulsion was investigated in order to develop a suitable design for reaction media. A W/O microemulsion system was prepared as a combination of sugar–ester, DK-ester-F-110 with alcohol as a cosolvent. The diameter of the sub-micron-sized water pool, the hydrophobicity of the water pool, and the fluidity of the micro-interface were studied to analyze the reactivity of Rhizopus delemar lipase in lipid hydrolysis. The diameter of the sub-micron sized water pool was measured by dynamic laser light scattering. It was proportional to the 0.33 power of W_soln and decayed with increasing alcohol concentration. The initial reaction rate of the hydrolysis of triolein in W/O microemulsion depended on the solubilized water content. The hydrophilic character of the micro-water pool was estimated from the fluorescence wavelength indicated by Coumarin 343. The maximum initial reaction rate appeared at 450–460 nm. The fluidity of the micro-interface was investigated by fluorescence anisotropy using TMA-DPH. A suitable physicochemical reaction condition for high reactivity to occur was found, satisfying both the hydrophilicity and the fluidity of the micro-interface.     

An improvement of discrete Tardos fingerprinting codes

It has been proven that the code lengths of Tardos’s collusion-secure fingerprinting codes are of theoretically minimal order with respect to the number of adversarial users (pirates). However, the code lengths can be further reduced as some preceding studies have revealed. In this article we improve a recent discrete variant of Tardos’s codes, and give a security proof of our codes under an assumption weaker than the original Marking Assumption. Our analysis shows that our codes have significantly shorter lengths than Tardos’s codes. For example, when c = 8, our code length is about 4.94% of Tardos’s code in a practical setting and about 4.62% in a certain limit case. Our code lengths for large c are asymptotically about 5.35% of Tardos’s codes. A part of this work was presented at 17th Applied Algebra, Algebraic Algorithms, and Error Correcting Codes (AAECC-17), Bangalore, India, December 16–20, 2007.     

A new method for the high performance liquid chromatographic determination of TA-870, a dopamine prodrug (catechol ester compound)

A new method for the high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) determination of N-(N-acetyl-L-methionyl)-O,O-bis(ethoxycarbonyl)dopamine (TA-870), a dopamine prodrug, in biological fluid has been developed. In order to measure with an electrochemical detector (ECD), TA-870 was passed first through an immobilized carboxylesterase column to be converted to the electrochemically active deethoxycarbonylated TA-870 (DEC-TA-870). The properties of this carboxylesterase immobilized on Sepharose 4B were examined by this flow injection system. Hydrolysis of TA-870 with this immobilized carboxylesterase was a maximum at pH 7-8 and 50 degrees C, and the activity decreased in the presence of organic solvent such as acetonitrile. For the determination of TA-870 in biological fluids, an HPLC-immobilized enzyme-ECD system using a column-switching technique was developed. The blood was deproteinized with ethanol, and TA-870 in the ethanol extracts was adsorbed in Bond Elut C18. The dichloromethane eluate from Bond Elut C18 was injected into the HPLC system. The HPLC apparatus was composed of three pumps, two separation columns (LiChrosorb Si 60 and mu Bondasphere), a trap column (Bond Elut), an enzyme column, ECD and the column-switching system. The calibration curve for TA-870 in blood was linear in the range from 2 to 200 ng/mL. This new assay method might be useful also for the determination of other catechol ester compounds.     

Heterocyclic effect for optical properties of naphthoquinone-based pigment: 2-methyl-3-heteroarylthio-1,4-naphthalenedione

Three novel naphthoquinone-based heterocyclic pigments, 2-methyl-3-[(1-methyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)thio-1,4-naphthalenedione, (4-methyl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)thio-1,4-naphthalenedione, and (1-methyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)thio]-1,4-naphthalenedione, are synthesized, and their optical properties in both solution and solid states are investigated. Depending on the heteroarylthio ring in the pigment, variation in optical properties is observed, e.g. characteristic colours for each pigment in the solution and solid states. The achiral pigment containing the 1-methyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl ring exhibits a chiral space group and a CD signal in the solid state.     

Optically transparent superhydrophobic TEOS-derived silica films by surface silylation method

Optically transparent silica films were prepared at room temperature (~27°C) by keeping the molar ratio of TEOS:MeOH:H₂O (0.001 M NH₄F) constant at 1:19.29:6.20, respectively. A surface chemical modification of the films was done with alkylchlorosilanes at different concentrations from 0 to 1 vol. % and aging times varied from half to 2 h. The DMCS and TMCS surface modified silica films showed the static water contact angle of 146° and 162°, respectively. When the DMCS and TMCS modified films were cured at temperatures higher than 240 and 275°C, respectively, the films became superhydrophilic. Further, the humidity study was carried out at a relative humidity of 90% at 30°C temperature over 60 days. We characterized the water repellent silica films by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, % of optical transmission, humidity tests and contact angle measurements.     

Optical and electronic properties of siloxane-bridged cyclic dimers with naphthylene or pyrenylene moieties

The optical and electronic properties of novel siloxane-bridged cyclic dimers with naphthylene (CD1) or pyrenylene (CD2) moieties are described. CD1 and CD2 were obtained by the cyclic dimerization of 1,4-bis(dimethylhydroxysilyl)naphthalene (M1) and 1,6-bis(dimethylhydroxysilyl)pyrene (M2), respectively. CD1 and CD2 mainly exhibited the emission from their excimers owing to their short distances between aryl moieties in CD1 and CD2, which were determined to be 3.44 Å and 3.41 Å by the X-ray crystallographic analysis, respectively. The absorption spectra of CD2 in the presence of 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) revealed that CD2 has the ability to form 1:1 charge-transfer complex with TCNQ, indicating the existence of the transannular π-π interaction between closely located pyrene components in CD2.     

Energy transport in a concentrated suspension of bacteria

Coherent structures appear in a concentrated suspension of swimming bacteria. While transport phenomena in a suspension have been studied extensively, how energy is transported from the individual cell scale to the larger mesoscale remains unclear. In this study, we carry out the first successful measurement of the three-dimensional velocity field in a dense suspension of bacteria. The results show that most of the energy generated by individual bacteria dissipates on the cellular scale. Only a small amount of energy is transported to the mesoscale, but the gain in swimming velocity and mass transport due to mesoscale coherent structures is enormous. These results indicate that collective swimming of bacteria is efficient in terms of energy. This paper sheds light on how energy can be transported toward smaller wave numbers in the Stokes flow regime.     

Hall effect of FeTe and Fe(Se1–xTex) thin films

The Hall effect is investigated in thin-film samples of iron–chalcogenide superconductors in detail. The Hall coefficient (R_H) of FeTe and Fe(Se_1–xTe_x) exhibits a similar positive value around 300 K, indicating that the high-temperature normal state is dominated by hole-channel transport. FeTe exhibits a sign reversal from positive to negative across the transition to the low-temperature antiferromagnetic state, indicating the occurrence of drastic reconstruction in the band structure. The mobility analysis using the carrier density theoretically calculated reveals that the mobility of holes is strongly suppressed to zero, and hence the electric transport looks to be dominated by electrons. The Se substitution to Te suppresses the antiferromagnetic long-range order and induces superconductivity instead. The similar mobility analysis for Fe(Se_0.4Te_0.6) and Fe(Se_0.5Te_0.5) thin films shows that the mobility of electrons increases with decreasing temperature even in the paramagnetic state, and keeps sufficiently high values down to the superconducting transition temperature. From the comparison between FeTe and Fe(Se_1–xTe_x), it is suggested that the coexistence of ‘itinerant’ carriers both in electron and hole channels is indispensable for the occurrence of superconductivity.