Near-IR absorption and fluorescence spectra and AFM observation of the light-harvesting 1 complex on a mica substrate refolded from the subunit light-harvesting 1 complexes of photosynthetic bacteria Rhodospirillum rubrum

The subunit light-harvesting 1 (LH 1) complexes isolated from photosynthetic bacteria Rhodospirillum rubrum using n-octyl-beta-glucoside were reassociated and adsorbed on a mica substrate using spin-coat methods with the aim of using this LH complex in a nanodevice. The near-IR absorption and fluorescence spectra of the LH 1 complexes indicated that the LH 1 complex on the mica was stable, and efficient energy transfer from a carotenoid to a bacteriochlorophyll a was observed. Atomic force microscopy of the reassociated LH 1 complexes, under air, showed the expected ringlike structure. The outer and inner diameters of the ringlike structure of the LH 1 complex were approximately 30 and 8 nm, respectively, and the ringlike structure protruded by 0.2-0.6 nm.     

Flavonoids that mimic human ligands from the whole plants of Euphorbia lunulata

In our investigation of a cell proliferation-based screening assay using human ligand-dependent cell lines for medicinal herbal extracts, the acetone extract of the whole plants of Euphorbia lunulata (EL) was observed for its proliferation activity for insulin- and interleukin-10 (IL-10)-dependent cell lines. Fractionation of the active extract led to the isolation of one new flavonoid galactoside, quercetin 3-O-(2',3'-digalloyl)-beta-D-galactopyranoside (1), and four known ones, quercetin 3-O-(2'-galloyl)-beta-D-galactopyranoside (2), hyperin (3), quercetin (4), and gallic acid (5). Compounds 1 and 2 showed insulin-like activity. Compounds 4 and 5 showed IL-10-like activity. This is the first report of these activities of EL, and 1 and 2 will become the seed compounds for the development of a nonpeptidyl insulin substitutional medicine. Compounds 4 and 5 support the pharmacological use of EL, which has been employed as an herbal medicine for the treatment of bronchial asthma.     

Novel asymmetric michael addition of alpha-cyanopropionates to acrolein by the use of a bis(oxazolinyl)phenylstannane-derived rhodium(III) complex as a chiral Lewis acid catalyst

The rhodium complex prepared in situ by simply mixing [[RhCl(c-octene)2]2] and [(Phebox)SnMe3] (1) (Phebox = 2,6-bis(oxazolinyl)phenyl) was found to serve as an efficient catalyst for the asymmetric Michael addition of alpha-cyanopropionates (4) to acrolein under mild and neutral conditions. In the present catalytic system, both the temperature of catalyst preparation and the order of the addition of the substrates were very important for the catalytic efficiency and enantioselectivity. Detailed mechanistic studies of this catalytic system revealed that the [(Phebox)RhIII(SnMe3)Cl] complex (9), generated by oxidative addition of [[RhCl(c-octene)2]2] to 1, is an active catalyst and the turnover number (TON) of the present actual catalyst existing in a reaction mixture is greater than 10,000. The obtained (R) stereochemistry of the Michael adducts 5 can be explained by N-bonded enol intermediates C', which are formed by enolization of 4 bound to the Lewis acidic rhodium complex 9. We also found that the active catalyst 9 gradually decomposed in the presence of the remaining [[RhCl(c-octene)2]2] in the reaction mixture to form the catalytically nonactive [(Phebox)RhCl2] fragment A, whose structure was characterized by an X-ray crystallographic study after converting to the tBuNC complex 10.     

Effect of the Head Group of Surfactant on the Miscibility of Sodium Chloride and Surfactant in an Adsorbed Film and Micelle

The thermodynamic treatment of a surfactant mixture was applied to the mixture of sodium chloride, NaCl, with octyl methyl sulfoxide (OMS) and that with decyldimethylphosphine oxide (DePO). The surface tension of aqueous solutions of the mixtures was measured as a function of the total concentration and the composition of the mixtures at 298.15 K. The total surface densities of the mixtures and the composition of the adsorbed films and micelles were evaluated by applying thermodynamic equations to the expeimental results. It was found that the adsorbed film and micelle are almost composed of the surfactant and there is slight attractive interaction between the ions of NaCl and the head groups of OMS and DePO molecules in the adsorbed films and micelles. A difference in the miscibility of NaCl and surfactant was observed between the OMS and DePO systems and attributed to the difference in the hydration of the head group between OMS and DePO molecules. The comparison of these results with those of the mixtures of NaCl with tetraethylene glycol monooctyl ether (C(8)E(4)) and dodecylammonium chloride (DAC) indicated that the small difference in the miscibility in an adsorbed film and micelle among these nonionic surfactant systems arises from the difference in hydration and structure of the head groups and the large one between the nonionic surfactant and DAC systems results from electrostatic interactions between dodecylammonium and sodium ions. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Halovinylsulfones 4 . Synthesis and some reactions of 2-phenylsulfonyl-2-propenyl isothiocyanate

The title compound, isothiocyanate 2 , was obtained in good yield from the reaction of α-chloromethylvinyl-sulfone 1 with lead thiocyanate. The isothiocyanate 2 was reacted with aromatic amines to give 2-amino-5,6-dihydro-4H-1,3-thiazines 3 in good to moderate yields. The formation pathways are discussed.     

Characteristics of all-optical 3R regenerators using cascaded second-order nonlinear effect in quasi-phase matched lithium niobate devices

We numerically show that quasi-phase matched (QPM) lithium niobate (LN) devices employing the cascaded second-order nonlinear effect of second harmonic generation (SHG) and difference frequency mixing (DFM) have all-optical decision gate characteristics. The decision gate function is realized by a parabolic transmittance for a low-power region and a limiting characteristic for a high-power region. The limiter function is attributed to the large group-velocity mismatch between the fundamental and second harmonic pulses. This operation principle differs from those of other all-optical 2R (reamplification and reshaping) or 3R (2R and retiming) regenerators that have been proposed in the past. Furthermore, we show that an initial time offset between the signal and clock pulses can improve the output signal power or the switching efficiency of the device. Based on the numerical results, we propose a method for designing all-optical 3R regenerators using the cascade of SHG and DFM in the QPM-LN devices. Following the design method, all-optical 3R operation at the bit rate of 200 Gbps can be achieved using a 1-cm-long waveguide device.     

Simultaneous measurements of reactive scalar and velocity in a planar liquid jet with a second-order chemical reaction

This paper presents a new experimental approach for simultaneous measurements of velocity and concentration in a turbulent liquid flow with a chemical reaction. For the simultaneous measurements, we developed a combined probe consisting of an I-type hot-film probe and an optical fiber probe based on the light absorption spectrometric method. In a turbulent planar liquid jet with a second-order chemical reaction $(\mathrm{A}+\mathrm{B}\rightarrow \mathrm{R})$ , streamwise velocity and concentrations of all reactive species are measured by the combined probe. The turbulent mass fluxes of the reactive species are estimated from the simultaneous measurements. The results show that the influence of the chemical reaction on the turbulent mass flux of the reactant species near the jet exit is different from its influence in other regions, and the turbulent mass flux of the product species has a negative value near the jet exit and a positive value in other regions.     

Magnetoresistance of untwinned YBa(2)Cu(3)O(y) single crystals in a wide range of doping: anomalous hole-doping dependence of the coherence length

Magnetoresistance (MR) in the a-axis resistivity of untwinned YBa(2)Cu(3)O(y) single crystals is measured for a wide range of doping ( y = 6.45-7.0). The y dependence of the in-plane coherence length xi(ab) estimated from the fluctuation magnetoconductance indicates that the superconductivity is anomalously weakened in the 60-K phase; this observation, together with the Hall coefficient and the a-axis thermopower data which suggest the hole doping to be 12% for y approximately equal to 6.65, gives evidence that the origin of the 60-K plateau is the 1/8 anomaly. At high temperatures, the normal-state MR data show signatures of the Zeeman effect on the pseudogap in underdoped samples.     

Trace determination and characterization of some proteins in blood serum by high-performance liquid chromatography with a time-resolved laser fluorimetric detector

Protein in human serum is measured by high-performance liquid chromatography with a time- resolved laser fluorimetric detector. The detection limit is 2.3 pmol for bovine serum albumin; the value is governed by fluctuation of the background fluorescence from free 1-anilino-8-naphthalene sulfonate (ANS) used as the fluorescence probe. Micropolarity of the binding site in protein is estimated by measuring the fluorescence lifetime of ANS bound to protein; the micropolarity for albumin is lower than those for α- and γ-globulins.     

Seed polymerization of tetraethyl orthosilicate in the presence of anionic and cationic polystyrene colloidal spheres

Kinetic analyses are made for the seed polymerization of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in the presence of anionic and cationic polystyrene colloidal sphere seeds by turbidity and dynamic light-scattering measurements. Transmission-electron microscopy pictures of the spheres formed are also used. The seed polymerization of TEOS is difficult to take place on the surface of anionic polystyrene spheres (44–212 nm in diameter). On the other hand, the reaction proceeds easily on the cationic polystyrene spheres. Hairy and soft surfaces of polystyrene spheres will disturb the seed polymerization. Furthermore, the electrostatic attraction between the anionic hydrolytic products of TEOS molecules and cationic polystyrene spheres plays an important role for the seed polymerization.