New concept of solute distribution around a diffusive crystal-solution interface of a binary Lennard-Jones mixture from the viewpoint of molecular dynamics

Directional crystallization from a binary mixture was performed by pseudo-NpT ensemble molecular dynamics. The initial crystal phase having a face-centered-cubic (fcc) structure grew toward the whole cell according to the temperature gradient in the universal cell. The growing crystal phase was not planar even though the solute molecules grew in two-dimensional coordinates because the solvent molecules disturbed the crystallization of the solute molecules at the diffusive crystal-solution interface. This represented the essential phenomenon of solute distribution during crystallization. Consequently, the growing crystal phase still contained solvent molecules having a liquid structure. The time change of the solute composition in the early phase of crystal growth showed an increase in solute composition as the time step proceeded. The resulting solute composition in this early phase was considered at different temperature gradients in the universal cell and it increased as the temperature of the initial crystal-solution interface increased. A new distribution coefficient model was proposed as a function of the difference between the local solute composition and bulk solute composition in the solution around the crystal-solution interface. The impurity-solvent distribution coefficient could be represented by the new model for faster growth of the lower temperature's initial interface. As regards a better distribution coefficient, there was found to be a very dilute solution phase over the crystal phase. The new variable "distribution rate" instead of the ambiguous variable "growth rate" was considered as a function of temperature gradient in the universal cell.     

A Bioinspired Synthesis of (±)‐Rubrobramide, (±)‐Flavipucine,and (±)‐Isoflavipucine

A biomimetic synthesis of naturally occurring lactams rubrobramide, flavipucine, and isoflavipucine is described. The key step is a regioselective Darzens reaction between isobutyl glyoxal and an α‐bromo‐β‐ketoamide. The construction of the core tricyclic ring system of rubrobramide was achieved by a cascade reaction in a single step from an α,β‐epoxy‐γ‐lactam. Furthermore, the absolute configuration of naturally occurring (+)‐rubrobramide was determined by vibrational circular dichroism. (±)‐Flavipucine and (±)‐isoflavipucine were synthesized from an epoxyimide, which was prepared by reaction of isobutyl glyoxal with a protected α‐bromo‐β‐ketoamide. Deprotection of the epoxyimide and formation of the pyridone ring gave (±)‐flavipucine, which was converted into (±)‐isoflavipucine by thermal isomerization.     

Synthesis of phenyl furyl sulfides and phenyl furyl ethers by nucleophilic substitution of nitrofurans

Phenyl furyl sulfides ( 3a‐j ) and phenyl furyl ethers ( 3k‐n ), which are useful in synthesizing furocondensed 3‐ring compounds, can be synthesized by nucleophilic substitution of nitrofurans having electron withdrawal groups. In our experiments using 5‐nitrofurans having electron withdrawal groups ( 2a‐i ), nucleophilic substitution readily occurred with the benzenethiolate anion of thiosalicylic acid ( 1a ), the benzenethiolate anion of thiosalicylate ester ( 1b ), and the phenylate anions of salicylate esters ( 1c‐d ) to yield phenyl furyl sulfides ( 3a‐j ) and phenyl furyl ethers ( 3k‐n ).     

Analysis of voice source characteristics using a constrained polynomial representation of voice source signals

To analyze the characteristics of voice source signals from speech, a model is presented in the form of polynomial function by expanding the definition of the Rosenberg model. In combination with the all-pole assumption of the vocal-tract filter, methods are described for the pitch-synchronous speech analysis and temporal search of the glottal opening and closing instants. Because the source and filter models are both linear, the parameter estimation problem can be conveniently solved. In addition, the temporal search method can refine the locations of the glottal events and improve the accuracy of the parameter estimation. Analyses of non-nasalized voiced speech are conducted using an electroglottographic device from which the initial estimate of the temporal information is given.     

Optical Spectrogram Scope Using Time-to-Two-Dimensional Space Conversion and Interferometric Time-of-Flight Cross Correlation

We demonstrate a new tool called optical spectrogram scope for visualization of a spectrogram or a scalogram of optical ultrafast phenomena. The optical spectrogram scope is constructed on the basis of the time-to-two-dimensional-space conversion technique capable of converting a set of time-varying frequency distributions into two-dimensional spatial ones.     

Enantiomer separation of hydrophobic amino compounds by high-performance liquid chromatography using crown ether dynamically coated chiral stationary phase

CROWNPAK CR(+) column, which is powerful for the separation of amino acid enantiomers, must be used at a column temperature below 50°C and a mobile phase containing less than 15% methanol, because the chiral crown ether moiety of the stationary phase is dynamically coated on an ODS matrix. The second peak of the enantiomers of alanine-β-naphthylamide (Ala-β-NA) appeared at 204 min (k₂=148) by using ordinary mobile phase, that is, a mixture of 10 mM perchloric acid and 15% methanol. In this study, enantiomer separations of Ala-β-NA and 1-(1-naphthyl)ethylamine (1-NEA), both of which are hydrophobic amino compounds, were investigated through the modification of the mobile phase. Addition of crown ether, cyclodextrins (CDs), cations, etc., affected the stability of the complex between an analyte and the chiral moiety, leading to fast separation. The second peak of the enantiomers of Ala-β-NA appeared at 68 min (k₂=49) through the addition of 10 mM β-CD, or at 61 min (k₂=44) using potassium dihydrophosphate as a buffer component. This method was applied for the optical purity testing of -Ala-β-NA, which is used as one of the chiral derivatization reagents for carboxylic compounds. Validations such as reproducibility and linearity were also demonstrated and this method was found to be sufficient as a quality control method for the optical purity testing of -Ala-β-NA. As little as 0.05% -form in -Ala-β-NA could be determined.     

Preparation of alpha-elastin nanoparticles by gamma irradiation

Nanoparticles were prepared by utilizing the thermosensitive aggregation of alpha-elastin and gamma ray crosslinking. Three different heating process, “Slow heating”, “Fast heating”, and “Heat shock”, were applied for the aggregation of the alpha-elastin and examined to yield nanoparticles by gamma rays crosslinking. As a result, only “Slow heating” process yielded nanoparticles with diameters of about ca. 300 nm above cloud point (CP) and about ca. 100 nm below CP, and a narrow size distribution above 1.0 mg/ml concentration (exclude 1.0 mg/ml).     

Prototype Demonstration of Discrete Correlation Processor-2 Based on High-Speed Optical Image Steering for Large-Fan-Out Reconfigurable Optical Interconnections

We present a discrete correlation processor-2 (DCP-2), which is an optical processor with reconfigurability of interconnection patterns for large-fan-out optical interconnection systems. To our knowledge, there is no reconfigurable optical processor satisfying the requirements for large fan-outs such as high-speed reconfiguration of interconnection pattern, high optical efficiency, and high contrast ratio, because existing spatial light modulators (SLM#x0027;s) lack at least one of these features. The DCP-2 architecture fulfills the requirements by using a hybrid configuration composed of a high-speed image steerer and a spatial light modulator, which work in a complementary manner to shorten the setup time of the SLM. We constructed two kinds of prototype demonstrators based on this architecture. In the experiment, reconfiguration speed of the DCP-2 prototype with shift-invariant optical interconnections, in which a liquid crystal SLM cooperated with a two-dimensional acousto-optic beam deflector, was about 26,000 times faster than that of the standalone SLM at the cost of 50#x0025; energy loss by the deflector.