Size regulation by bandgap-controlled etching: Application to germanium nanoparticles

A germanium (Ge) nanoparticle surface was etched in an aqueous solution under monochromatic light irradiation in the infrared-to-ultraviolet region. Since the bandgap widened up to the photon energy of the irradiating light, the average size of the nanoparticles was controlled and the size distribution narrowed. The quantum size effect explained the correlation between the resulting bandgap energy and the final size. The etched nanoparticles showed blue-green or red-infrared photoluminescence (PL) after the surfaces were terminated with organic molecules or hydrogen atoms. The PL peak energy was independent of size, indicating PL was due to radiative recombination via localized states at the Ge core surface.     

Pd0‐Mediated Rapid Coupling between Methyl Iodide and Heteroarylstannanes: An Efficient and General Method for the Incorporation of a Positron‐Emitting 11C Radionuclide into Heteroaromatic Frameworks

The Pd⁰‐mediated rapid trapping of methyl iodide with an excess amount of a heteroaryl‐substituted tributylstannane has been investigated with the aim of incorporating a short‐lived ¹¹C‐labelled methyl group into the heteroaromatic carbon frameworks of important organic compounds, such as drugs with various heteroaromatic structures, in order to execute a positron emission tomography (PET) study of vital systems. The reaction was first performed by using our previously developed CH₃I/stannane/[Pd₂(dba)₃]/P(o‐CH₃C₆H₄)₃/CuCl/K₂CO₃ (1:40:0.5:2:2:2) system in DMF at 60 °C for 5 min (conditions A), however, the reaction gave low yields for various heteroaromatic compounds. Increasing the amount of phosphine ligand (conditions B) led to a significant improvement in the yield, but the conditions were still not suitable for a range of basic heteroaromatic structures. Use of the CuBr/CsF system (conditions C) also provided a result similar to that obtained under conditions B with an increased amount of the phosphine. Thus, pyridine and related heteroaromatic compounds remained less reactive substrates. The problem was overcome by replacing the DMF solvent with N‐methyl‐2‐pyrolidinone (NMP). The reaction in NMP at 60–100 °C for 5 min using a CH₃I/stannane/[Pd₂(dba)₃]/P(o‐CH₃C₆H₄)₃/CuBr/CsF (1:40:0.5:16:2:5) combination (conditions D) gave the methylated products in yields of more than 80 % (based on the reaction of CH₃I) for all of the heteroaromatic compounds listed in this study. Thus, the combined use of NMP and an increased amount of phosphine is important for promoting the reaction efficiently. The use of this general approach to rapid methylation has been well demonstrated by the synthesis of the PET tracers 2‐ and 3‐[¹¹C]methylpyridines by using [Pd₂(dba)₃]/P(o‐CH₃C₆H₄)₃/CuBr/CsF (1:16:2:5) in NMP at 60 °C for 5 min, which gives the desired products in HPLC analytical yields of 88 and 91 %, respectively.     

Critical Switching of Cyclization Modes of Polyepoxides in Acidic Aqueous Media and Neutral Water: Synthesis and Revised Structure of a Nerolidol‐Type Sesquiterpenoid

Biomimetic epoxide‐opening cascades of polyepoxides enable the efficient and rapid construction of polyether frameworks. Herein, we show that the epoxide‐opening cascade cyclization that affords tetrahydrofuran products in acidic aqueous media produces tetrahydropyran (THP) in neutral water. THP formation proceeded by simply heating polyepoxides in neutral water and followed a different cyclization mode from those observed so far. The novel cascade cyclization in H₂O was applied to the synthesis of a new nerolidol‐type sesquiterpenoid, resulting in revision of the proposed structure and determination of the absolute configuration.     

Effects of Early Physical Therapist-supervised Walking on Clinical Outcomes after Liver Resection: Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Objective: The study aimed to demonstrate the significance of early postoperative physical therapy interventions on clinical outcomes by determining the influence of the distance walked under the supervision of a physical therapist in the early postoperative period after liver cancer. Methods: All consecutive patients who underwent surgery for liver cancer between April 2018 and March 2020 were eligible for enrollment in the study. The total walking distance during physical therapy till the third postoperative day was examined. The clinical outcomes comprised duration of postoperative hospital stay, time to independent walking, and occurrence of postoperative complications. For data analysis, the patients were divided into two groups: those who walked more than the median total distance (the long-distance group) and those who walked less than the median distance (the short-distance group). We used propensity score matching to match the background characteristics between the groups. Results: Of the 65 patients who were eligible, 14 patients were included in the two groups each, after matching. The long-distance walking group had a significantly shorter hospital stay (9.0 days vs. 11.0 days, p=0.008) and a shorter time to independent walking (3.5 days vs. 7.5 days, p=0.019) than the short-distance walking group. There were no significant differences in postoperative complications between the two groups (7.1% vs. 42.8%, p=0.08). Conclusion: In the early postoperative period after liver cancer surgery, increasing the walking distance under the supervision of a physical therapist is important for improving clinical outcomes. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm the findings of this study.     

Aerial video-calling system with eye-matching feature based on polarization-modulated aerial imaging by retro-reflection (p-AIRR)

Optical Review - We propose a method to realize video calling with an aerial display using a camera that has a direct view of the speaker's face, but which is not visible to the speaker....     

Bisecting a 4-connected graph with three resource sets

Let G=(V,E) be an undirected graph with a node set V and an arc set E. G has k pairwise disjoint subsets T₁,T₂,…,T_k of nodes, called resource sets, where |T_i| is even for each i. The partition problem with k resource sets asks to find a partition V₁ and V₂ of the node set V such that the graphs induced by V₁ and V₂ are both connected and |V₁∩T_i|=|V₂∩T_i|=|T_i|/2 holds for each i=1,2,…,k. The problem of testing whether such a bisection exists is known to be NP-hard even in the case of k=1. On the other hand, it is known that if G is (k+1)-connected for k=1,2, then a bisection exists for any given resource sets, and it has been conjectured that for k?3, a (k+1)-connected graph admits a bisection. In this paper, we show that for k=3, the conjecture does not hold, while if G is 4-connected and has K₄ as its subgraph, then a bisection exists and it can be found in O(|V|³log|V|) time. Moreover, we show that for an arc-version of the problem, the (k+1)-edge-connectivity suffices for k=1,2,3.     

Braiding a link with a fixed closed braid

We show that every oriented link diagram with a closed braid diagram as a sublink diagram can be deformed into a closed braid diagram by a deformation keeping the sublink diagram and, under a mild condition, the number of Seifert circles fixed. As an application, we give an upper bound for the braid index of the link obtained by reversing the orientation of its sublink by using only the information of an original link.     

Bowen–Franks Groups for Subshifts and Ext-Groups for C*-Algebras

We generalize the Bowen–Franks groups for topological Markov shifts to general subshifts as the Ext-groups for the associated C ^*-algebras. The generalized Bowen–Franks groups for subshifts are shown to be invariant under flow equivalence and, hence, invariant under topological conjugacy. They are regarded as the indices of Fredholm operators related to extensions of the associated C ^*-algebras so that they are described in terms of symbolic dynamical systems. In particular, the group for a sofic subshift is determined by the adjacency matrix of its left Krieger cover graph. The Bowen–Franks groups for some non sofic subshifts are calculated, proving that certain subshifts with the same topological entropy are not flow equivalent.     

Total synthesis of dehydroaltenusin

First total synthesis of dehydroaltenusin, a natural enzyme inhibitor, is described. The key step involves Suzuki-couplig reaction of aryl triflate prepared from 2,4,6-trihydroxy benzoic acid with a catechol-derived boronic acid. The synthetic sample was evaluated as a potent inhibitor against an eukaryotic DNA polymerase α.