Fluorescence labeling of oligosaccharides useful in the determination of molecular interactions.

A simple method to label oligosaccharides with a multifunctional fluorescent group was developed. Oligosaccharides were quantitatively labeled at their reducing termini with pyrene butanoic acid hydrazide. The pyrene-labeled oligosaccharides were successfully applied to fluorescence polarization measurements and ELISA at picomole quantity, which was not previously reached by other procedures. This labeling method should prove to be useful in a variety of aspects in glycobiology.     

Crystallization of filled nylon 6 III. Non-isothermal crystallization

Summary DSC data on crystallization kinetics from the melt at different cooling rates of nylon 6 containing various amonts of untreated and surface-treated fillers, were analyzed in terms of a modified Kolmogorov-Avrami equation. It was established that mechanism of crystallinity development in molten nylon 6 does not change appreciably in presence of aminosilane-treated glass beads and small amounts of untreated glass beads, whereas time exponentn was found to decrease with increasing filler content in samples containing untreated glass beads and Aerosil. On the other hand, dependence of temperature of the onset of crystal nucleation on cooling rate obeyedm = 2 law for pure nylon 6 and samples containing surface-treated filler, whilem = 4 law seemed to hold for samples containing large amounts of untreated fillers at low cooling rates (m is the exponent at degree of supercooling). It was concluded that although isothermal conditions of crystallization should be preferred for further quantitative investigations of polymer-filler interactions in highly filled polymer melts, the above results qualitatively are consistent with trends discovered in isothermal crystallization experiments.     

2-Oxo-1,3-dioxoles as specific substrates for measurement of arylesterase activity

Various 4-arylthiomethyl-2-oxo-1,3-dioxole derivatives IIIa-o were synthesized. Their hydrolysis rates by arylesterase (EC 3.1.1.2) and cholinesterase (EC 3.1.1.8) in human serum were evaluated. Some of them were not hydrolyzed by cholinesterase, but were hydrolyzed easily by arylesterase. Among the substrates, sodium 4-((5-methyl-2-oxo-1,3-dioxol-4-yl)methylthio)benzenesulfonate (IIIg) was selected for its substrate reactivity toward arylesterase and its good water solubility. In addition, neither aliesterase (EC 3.1.1.1), acetylesterase (EC 3.1.1.6) nor cholesterol esterase (EC 3.1.1.13) hydrolyzed the compound. IIIg is thus concluded to be a specific substrate for arylesterase. Our assay system for serum arylesterase using IIIg can be readily applied to an automatic analyzer in the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis.     

Conformational studies of sequential polypeptides of L-Alanine and β-Alanine

Summary In order to investigate the effect of the -alanine residue on the conformational stability of -helical poly(L-alanine), studies have been made on the conformations of sequential copolypeptides having the following repeating sequences: (L-Ala--Ala) _n , (L-Ala-L-Ala--Ala) _n , (L-Ala--Ala-L-Ala-L-Ala) _n and (L-Ala-L-Ala-X) _n , where X is D,L--amino-isobutyric acid residue. Conformations of these polypeptides were measured both in the solution and solid states by means of optical rotatory dispersion, infrared and far-infrared spectroscopies and X-ray diffractions. All the copolypeptides studied here did not give the -helix. It may be, therefore, concluded that the -alanine residue is not incorporated in but impairs the -helix of poly(L-alanine), since the hydrogen bond periodicity in the -helical chain is disturbed by the introduction of such a -amino acid as -alanine.With 5 figures and 2 tables     

Electron-cyclotron-resonance plasma heating with broadband microwave radiation: Anomalous effects

Affects of microwave bandwidth on the high-charge-states of ion beams extracted from a conventional minimum-B-geometry ECR ion source are first demonstrated. The high-charge-state intensities, produced with broadband microwave radiation are observed to be factors ?2 than those produced with narrow bandwidth microwave radiation at the same power level.     

Observation of two resonant structures in e+ e- -->pi+ pi- psi(2S) via initial-state radiation at Belle

The cross section for e+ e- --> pi+ pi- psi(2S) between threshold and sqrt[s]=5.5 GeV is measured using 673 fb(-1) of data on and off the Upsilon(4S) resonance collected with the Belle detector at KEKB. Two resonant structures are observed in the pi+ pi- psi(2S) invariant-mass distribution, one at 4361 +/- 9 +/- 9 MeV/c2 with a width of 74 +/- 15 +/- 10 MeV/c2, and another at 4664 +/- 11 +/- 5 MeV/c2 with a width of 48 +/- 15 +/- 3 MeV/c2, if the mass spectrum is parametrized with the coherent sum of two Breit-Wigner functions. These values do not match those of any of the known charmonium states.     

Study of decay mechanisms in B--->Lambdac+ppi- decays and observation of low-mass structure in the Lambdac+p system

Using a sample of 152 x 10(6) BB pairs accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider, we study the decay mechanism of three-body charmed decay B- --> Lambdac+ ppi-. The intermediate two-body decay B--->Sigmac (2455)0 p is observed for the first time with a branching fraction of (3.7 +/- 0.7 +/- 0.4 +/- 1.0) x 10(-5) and a statistical significance of 8.4sigma. We also observe a low-mass enhancement in the (Lambdac+p) system, which can be parametrized as a Breit-Wigner function with a mass of (3.35(-0.02)(+0.01) +/-0.02) GeV/c2 and a width of (0.07(-0.03)(+0.04) +/-0.04) GeV/c2. We measure its branching fraction to be (3.9(-0.7)(+0.8) +/- 0.4 +/- 1.0) x 10(-5) with a statistical significance of 6.2sigma. The errors are statistical, systematic, and that of the Lambdac+-->pK- pi+ decay branching fraction.