Refractive-index dispersion measurement of bulk optical materials using a fiber raman laser widely tunable in the visible and near-infrared

We propose a simple, highly sensitive fiber-optic autocollimation method for refractive-index dispersion measurement of solid-state and liquid bulk optical materials using a double-pass fiber Raman laser with Littrow-prism-tuned emission. The optical fiber is a key element of the scheme and serves simultaneously as a point laser source for the test, as a highly sensitive point receiver (or spatial filter) of the autocollimation backreflectance signal and as a medium for nonlinear frequency conversion and generation of a broadband continuum spectrum. When the Raman medium is a graded-index multimode fiber with powerful pumping (over 100 kW) using the second harmonic of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (λ_p=532nm), we obtain widely tunable (0.54-1.01 μm) generation in both the visible and near-IR ranges. The results obtained in the refractive-index dispersion measurements are fitted to the Sellmeier dispersion equation and the standard deviation of the experimental data from the analytical curve does not exceed 5x10^-5.     

Higher order structure of proteins solubilized in AOT reverse micelles

The higher order structure of proteins solubilized in an bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate sodium (AOT) reverse micellar system was investigated. From circular dichroic (CD) measurement, CD spectra of cytochrome c, which is solubilized at the interface of reverse micelles, markedly changed on going from buffer solution to the reverse micellar solution, and the ellipticity values in the far- and near-UV regions decreased with decreasing the water content (W₀: molar ratio of water to AOT), indicating that the secondary and tertiary structures of cytochrome c changed with the water content. The ellipticity of ribonuclease A, which is solubilized in the center of micellar water pool, in the near-UV region was dependent on W₀ and became minimum when W₀ of ca. 8 while the ellipticity in the far-UV region was almost constant, indicating that the tertiary structure of ribonuclease A was affected by the water content, but the secondary structure was conserved. The degree of curvature of the micellar interface appears to influence the protein structure because the reverse micelle size is linearly proportional to the W₀ value. As evidence of this, when the micelle size was comparable to the protein's dimensions, the structures were more affected by the water content. Judging from the dependence of the factor influencing the protein structure on the protein species, the location of solubilized protein in reverse micelles is significantly related to whether the protein structure in the system is affected by the micellar interface. In the cases of cytochrome c and lysozyme, the ellipticity against W₀ was dependent on the AOT concentration. In contrast, ribonuclease A gave very similar ellipticity values whatever the AOT concentration. In the n-hexane micellar system, cytochrome c exhibited lower ellipticity values and ribonuclease A in the lower W₀ range (W₀ < ca. 8) higher ellipticity values. These results indicated that the interaction between the protein and the micellar interface is a dominant factor influencing the protein structure in reverse micelles, and that it is governed by the location of solubilized proteins and the state of the micellar interface.     

Construction of monomeric and polymeric porphyrin compartments by a Pd(II)-pyridine interaction and their chiral twisting by a BINAP ligand

The construction of chirally twisted porphyrin-based molecular capsule 6 and polymeric capsule 8 was investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and (1)H NMR, UV-visible, and CD spectroscopic observations. Molecular capsule 6 and polymeric capsule 8 were constructed by the reaction of chiral cis-Pd(II) complex 4 bearing a (R)-(+)-2,2'-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1'-binaphthyl (BINAP) ligand with porphyrin 1 bearing four pyridyl groups and porphyrin 2 bearing eight pyridyl groups, respectively. The peak-splitting pattern of the beta-pyrrole protons in the (1)H NMR spectrum and the specific CD spectral pattern bearing an exciton coupling band indicate that both molecular capsule 6 and polymeric capsule 8 are chirally twisted. Moreover, it was found that the CD intensity of the polymeric capsule plotted against [4]/([4] + [3]) shows a sigmoidal curvature, reflecting a unique cooperativity among the ligand groups; that is, the ligand existing in excess over the other dominates the twisting direction. These results consistently demonstrate that "chirality" in these molecular assembly systems is conveniently controlled by the use of chiral ligands.     

Analytical method of chondroitin/dermatan sulfates using high performance liquid chromatography/turbo ionspray ionization mass spectrometry: application to analyses of the tumor tissue sections on glass slides

We established a highly sensitive quantitative analytical method for chondroitin/dermatan sulfates by LC/MS method. By this method, the unsaturated disaccharides produced after the enzymatic digestion of chondroitin/dermatan sulfates can be determined in the amounts as low as 0.5 pmol levels. The use of tetrabutylammonium hydroxide as an ion-pair reagent for LC/MS allowed us to separate unsaturated 4-sulfated disaccharide and unsaturated 6-sulfated disaccharide. Furthermore, the peak areas of unsaturated disaccharides were increased almost 10 times by the postcolumn addition of acetonitrile. We applied this LC/MS method to the analyses of unsaturated disaccharides from chondroitin/dermatan sulfates in the tissues sections on glass slides, which were prepared from MethA tumor-bearing mice. This method brought about considerable reduction in the time distance from sample collection to preparation of analytical results.     

Fluorimetric determination of hydrogen peroxide by use of the fluorescence reaction between N-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-N-(4-methylquinolinyl)amine and cobalt(II) in the presence of trimethylstearylammonium chloride

The fluorimetric determination of hydrogen peroxide by using the fluorescence reaction between N-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-N-(4-methylquinolinyl)amine (HPMQ), cobalt(II) and hydrogen peroxide in the presence of trimethylstearylammonium chloride (STAC) as a cationic surfactant was proposed. The calibration graph was linear in the range 0-2500 ng of hydrogen peroxide per 10 ml of solution at an emission wavelength of 522 nm with excitation at 410 nm. The recovery tests in foods were good.     

A novel electrochemical strategy for developing alkaline air electrodes by a combined use of dual functional catalysts

A novel electrochemical strategy for the development of new alkaline air electrodes has been proposed based on a combined use of dual catalysts for redox-mediating O2 reduction and disproportionating the reduction intermediates, i.e., superoxide and peroxide in alkaline media.     

NMR study on the quasi one-dimensional quantum spin magnet with ladder structure

The two-legged spin ladder Cu(CO₃)_0.5(ClO₄)(H₂O)_0.5(NH₃)_2.5 consists of a rung formed by two Cu(II)’s and of a spacing molecule CO\(_{3}^{2-}\) between each two rungs. The non-centrosymmetric shape of CO\(_{3}^{2-}\) molecule brings a slight bond alternation along the leg, and hence the system can be considered as an alternating spin chain, which is confirmed so far by the temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility. In order to investigate its spin state at low temperatures, we have performed experiments of ¹H-NMR, magnetization and specific heat under wide range of magnetic field, and have found the critical diverging of longitudinal relaxation rate 1/T ₁, the spectral broadening and the lambda-type anomaly in specific heat at T _N? 3.4 K, indicating the existence of long range magnetic order. In paramagnetic state well above T _N, 1/T ₁ showed a power-law temperature dependence, suggesting the realization of Tomonaga Luttinger liquid state.     

Synthesis of readily recyclable biobased plastics by Diels-Alder reaction

Readily recyclable biobased plastics were designed and synthesized utilizing the thermally reversible DA reaction. Furyl-telechelic poly(butylene succinate) prepolymers (PBSF(2)) were extended with bis- and tris-maleimide linkers (M(2) and M(3)) by the DA reaction in the bulk state to produce linear and network polymers, respectively. The DA reaction was able to proceed at 25-80 degrees C, at which crystalline domains of PBSF(2) were present. In the linear polymer system, the molecular weight in the reaction equilibrium was dependent on the chain length of the prepolymer, but almost independent of the reaction temperature. The cycle of DA and retro-DA reactions was repeatable with no prepolymer deterioration.     

Study of the dissociation of a charge-reduced phosphopeptide formed by electron transfer from an alkali metal target

Doubly protonated phosphopeptide (YGGMHRQET(p)VDC) ions obtained by electrospray ionization were collided with Xe and Cs targets to give singly and doubly charged positive ions via collision-induced dissociation (CID). The resulting ions were analyzed and detected by using an electrostatic analyzer (ESA). Whereas doubly charged fragment ions resulting from collisionally activated dissociation (CAD) were dominant in the CID spectrum with the Xe target, singly charged fragment ions resulting from electron transfer dissociation (ETD) were dominant in the CID spectrum with the Cs target. The most intense peak resulting from ETD was estimated to be associated with the charge-reduced ion with H2 lost from the precursor. Five c-type fragment ions with amino acid residues detached consecutively from the C-terminal were clearly observed without a loss of the phosphate group. These ions must be formed by N--Calpha bond cleavage, in a manner similar to the cases of electron capture dissociation (ECD) and ETD from negative ions. Although the accuracy in m/z of the CID spectra was about +/-1 Th because of the mass analysis using the ESA, it is supposed from the m/z values of the c-type ions that these ions were accompanied by the loss of a hydrogen atom. Four z-type (or y--NH3, or y--H2O) ions analogously detached consecutively from the N-terminal were also observed. The fragmentation processes took place within the time scale of 4.5 micros in the high-energy collision. The present results demonstrated that high-energy ETD with the alkali metal target allowed determination of the position of phosphorylation and the amino acid sequence of post-translational peptides.