Vertical Distribution of Particulate Mercury as Measured on a Meteorological Observation Tower (213m)

Abstract

The concentration of mercury in airborne particles was determined in samples collected at heights of 1m and at 175m up the Meteorological Observation Tower (213m) at the Meteorological Research Institute, Tsukuba between August 1985 and April 1986. The concentrations of particulate mercury at the two heights were compared with gaseous mercury levels at a height of 10m and with other chemical components in the particles. The concentrations of particulate mercury at both heights showed no positive correlation with those of gaseous mercury, total suspended particles, sulfate, chloride, sodium or calcium. However, there was some positive correlation between particulate mercury and nitrate concentrations especially at 175m; the concentrations of these components were found to be high when the wind direction was southwesterly. These results suggest that these components were transported from the Tokyo Metropolitan area.     

Crystalline Supramolecular Nanofibers Based on Dehydrobenzoannulene Derivatives

Supramolecular nanofibers (SNFs) composed of low‐molecular‐weight π‐conjugated molecules exhibit attractive optical and electrical properties and are expected to be the next optoelectronic materials. In this work, five crystalline SNFs have been constructed from three dehydrobenzoannulene (DBA) derivatives. The DBAs were designed to assemble in one dimension in a strategy based on anisotropic crystal growth. The crystallinity of the SNFs allowed the molecular arrangements in the SNFs to be determined. Therefore the mechanism of construction and correlations between the molecular arrangements and optical and electrical properties could be considered. The results clearly indicate that the properties of the SNFs are affected by the chemical structures and molecular arrangements. Moreover, one of the SNFs exhibits a high charge‐carrier mobility (Σμ=0.61 cm² V^?1 s^?1) because of its crystallinity and appropriate molecular arrangement. This systematic experimental study based on a proposed strategy has provided information for improving the electrical properties of SNFs. This strategy will lead to highly functional SNFs.     

An Ireland–Claisen rearrangement/RCM based approach for the construction of the EF-ring of ciguatoxin 3C

The EF-ring of ciguatoxin 3C, a marine toxin from the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus, was stereoselectively synthesized by iterative use of a cyclic ether formation process based on chirality-transferring Ireland-Claisen rearrangement and ring-closing olefin metathesis.     

Oxazaborolidine-catalyzed enantioselective reduction of alpha-methylene ketones to allylic alcohols

Oxazaborolidine-catalyzed enantioselective reduction of alpha-methylene ketones was efficiently carried out by using borane-diethylaniline as a stoichiometric reducing agent. The combination of this method and subsequent hydrogenation of thus-formed allylic alcohol improved stereoselectivity in the reduction of 24-oxocholesteryl ester to 24-(R)-hydroxycholesteryl ester.     

HPLC determination of methylphenidate and its metabolite,ritalinic acid,by high-performance liquid chromatography with peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence detection

An HPLC–peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence (PO-CL) method for simultaneous determination of methylphenidate (MPH) and ritalinic acid (RA) was developed. The method was used to monitor MPH and RA after administration of MPH to rats. Deproteinized plasma spiked with 1-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl)piperazine (IS) was dried and labeled with 4-(N,N-dimethylaminosulfonyl)-7-fluoro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (DBD-F). The labeled sample was cleaned with two kinds of solid-phase extraction cartridge, and the DBD-labels were separated on an ODS column with gradient elution using a mixture of CH₃CN and imidazole–HNO₃ buffer. Separation of MPH and RA can be achieved within 33 min. The LODs of MPH and RA at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 were 2.2 and 0.4 ng mL⁻¹, respectively. Moreover, monitoring of MPH and RA after MPH administration (10 mg kg⁻¹) to rat could be performed. The concentration of RA 480 min after administration was eight times higher than that of MPH. The proposed HPLC–PO-CL method was useful for determination of MPH and RA in rat plasma and was successfully used to monitor these substances after MPH administration.     

C−F Arylation of Polyfluorophenols by Means of Sigmatropic Dearomatization/Defluorination Sequence

Selective C−F arylation of polyfluorophenols with aryl sulfoxides has been accomplished by means of a sigmatropic dearomatization/defluorination sequence. This sequence consists of three processes: 1) interrupted Pummerer reaction to form S−O-tethered sulfonium salt; 2) C−C-forming [3,3] sigmatropic rearrangement with dearomatization; and 3) Zn-mediated defluorinative rearomatization. The present biaryl construction provides a facile access to polyfluorinated biaryls that is difficult to synthesize by other methods. The synthetic utility of the strategy is clearly demonstrated by the synthesis of a fluorinated analogue of Maxipost, a potassium channel modulator.     

Construction of Biaryls from Aryl Sulfoxides and Anilines by Means of a Sigmatropic Rearrangement

An unprecedented S−N variant of the benzidine rearrangement for construction of biaryls has been developed. Aryl sulfoxides underwent dehydrogenative coupling with anilines by successive treatment with trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid to provide the corresponding 2-amino-2′-sulfanyl- and/or 4-amino-4′-sulfanylbiphenyls. Mechanistic studies indicate that the C−C-bond-forming sigmatropic rearrangement proceeds intramolecularly from dicationic S−N-tethered species.     

Rapid diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma with machine learning and probe electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Frozen section examination could provide pathological diagnosis for surgery of thyroid nodules, which is time-consuming, skill- and experience-dependent. This study developed a rapid classification method for thyroid nodules and machine learning. Total 69 tissues were collected including 43 nodules and 26 nodule-adjacent tissues. Intraoperative frozen section was first performed to give accurate diagnosis, and the rest frozen specimen were pretreated for probe electrospray ionization mass measurement. By multivariate analysis of mass scan data, a series compounds were found downregulated in the extraction solution of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), but some were found upregulated by mass spectrometry imaging. m/z 758.5713 ([PC[34:2] + H]⁺), m/z 772.5845 ([PC[32:0] + K]⁺), and m/z 786.6037 ([PC[36:2] + H]⁺) were firstly identified as potential biomarkers for nodular goiter (NG). Machine learning was employed by means of support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) algorithms. For classification of PTC from NG, SVM and RF algorithms exhibited the same performance and the concordance was 94.2% and 94.4% between prediction and pathological diagnosis with positive and negative mass dataset, respectively. For the classification of PTC from PTC adjacent tissues, SVM was better than RF and the concordance was 93.8% and 83.3% with positive and negative mass dataset, respectively. With the identified compounds as training features, the sensitivity and specificity are 87.5% and 88.9% for the test set. The developed method could also correctly predict the malignancy of one medullary thyroid carcinoma and one adenomatous goiter (benign). The diagnosis time is about 10 min for one specimen, and it is very promising for the intraoperative diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma.