Liquid membrane transport of cytochrome c using a calix[6]arene carboxylic acid derivative as a carrier

The present study examined the liquid membrane transport of the cationic protein cytochrome c, using the macrocyclic compound calix[6]arene, which is a carboxylic acid derivative, as a carrier. The transport rate was governed by carrier concentration and the pH gradient between the feed and the receiving phases, as well as the salt concentration in the aqueous phases. Transport of cytochrome c was examined using a series of calix[n]arene carboxylic acid derivatives (n = 4, 6 and 8). Cytochrome c successfully permeated membranes in the presence of the calix[6]arene derivative. Liquid membrane separation of cytochrome c from a mixture of cationic proteins was demonstrated under optimal conditions. Cytochrome c was selectively extracted by the calix[6]arene carboxylic acid derivative and 77% of the extracted cytochrome c was recovered into the receiving phase. In this liquid membrane system, which discriminates between the number of lysine residues on the surface of proteins, cationic proteins with similar molecular weights and pIs were separated with macrocyclic compounds.     

Laser ablation of silver in different liquids: Optical and nonlinear optical properties of silver nanoparticles

The optical, structural, and nonlinear optical properties of silver nanoparticles prepared using the method of laser ablation in various liquids at wavelengths of 397, 532, and 795 nm with laser pulses of different duration are studied. An analysis of the dimensional and spectral characteristics of the silver nanoparticles revealed a time dynamics of the nanoparticle size distribution in solutions. It is shown that thermal self-defocusing is observed for the case of nanosecond or shorter pulses generated with a high repetition rate. For picosecond and femtosecond pulses with a low repetition rate, the effects of self-focusing (γ = 3 × 10^?13 cm² W^?1) and saturated absorption (β = ?1.5 × 10^?9 cm W^?1) were observed in the solutions under study. The third-order nonlinear susceptibility of the silver nanoparticles was found to be 5 × 10^?8 esu at a wavelength of 397 nm.     

Finite Element Analysis Of Thermal Characteristics in Continuous Wave Long Wavelength Surface Emitting Lasers (I): Dielectric Cavity Structures

We numerically analyzed the thermal characteristic in continuous wave (cw) GalnAsP/InP surface emitting lasers with dielectric multilayer mirrors by using finite element method. From the simulation of temperature distribution in cw devices, we found that MgO/Si multilayer mirror which has a high thermal conductivity is effective for heat sinking; the thermal resistance of device using MgO/Si mirror is nearly half of that using SiO₂/Si one, almost independently of their thicknesses. It was also indicated that the optimum design for other structural parameters, especially the thickness of active region, is important to effectively suppress the temperature increase. The minimum threshold current was estimated to be 3 mA under cw condition for the active region diameter of 4 μm and thickness of 0.5 μm.     

Observational Results of Stellar Speckle Interferometric Spectroscopy

Stellar speckle spectroscopy is a speckle interferometric method enabling us to separate point by point spectra on a stellar object with a diffraction-limited spatial resolution of a telescope. We describe observational results obtained with our system for speckle spectroscopy. Data of two binary stars, of which separations are closer than seeing disc, were taken and processed by cross-correlation method. In each object, spectral images of two component stars around the Hα line (656.3 nm) were spatially resolved with nearly diffraction-limited resolution. The separated spectra of ADS940 reveal different spectral types of the component stars. These results demonstrate the ability of the speckle spectroscopic method.Presented at the International Commission of Optics Topical Meeting, Kyoto, 1994.     

Barrier height to inversion of aliphatic carbonyl compounds in the S1(n,π*) state; ab initio study of formaldehyde

Recently the double-minimum potentials for the pyramidal distortion in the S₁(n,π*) state of a number of aliphatic carbonyl compounds like acetaldehyde, acetone and cyclic ketones have been determined using the supersonic nozzle beam technique We have found a good correlation between the barrier height to inversion and the angle between the two bonds adjacent to the carbonyl carbon atom. In order to elucidate the correlation in more detail, we performed ab initio calculations for the S₁ state of formaldehyde with the HCH angle as a parameter. The SCFCI calculation verified the observed correlation. It is postulated that the barrier height can be correlated with a single geometric parameter, the HCH angle.     

Nucleon transfer in highly mass-asymmetric reaction systems between197au and relatively light projectiles in the energy region below 10 MeV/u

Mechanisms of heavy-ion induced nuclear reactions in mass-asymmetric systems were studied by focusing on the nucleon transfer reaction. Excitation functions and projected mean recoil ranges for the target-like products in³⁷-,¹⁶O-,¹⁴N-, and¹²C-induced reactions on¹⁹⁷Au were measured by means ofγ-ray spectrometry. The energy range studied was near the Coulomb barrier of the systems with incident energies below 10 MeV/u. Nucleon transfer reactions were discussed by distinguishing the products from quasi-elastic transfer (QET) and those from deep inelastic transfer (DIT). The tendency towards equilibration of theN/Z value and the energy damping, which are the characteristic features of DIT, were found in the production of Au isotopes. Observations are consistent with the generally accepted concept that QET takes place along a trajectory near the Coulomb trajectory. QET was made to be connected with the interaction radius and most of the cross section ratios were reproduced well by an extended tunneling model.     

Theoretical study on the excited states of psoralen compounds bonded to a thymine residue

Time-dependent density functional theory calculations have been performed for the excited states of psoralen, 5-methoxypsoralen, and 8-methoxypsoralen in systems and furan and pyrone monoadducts bonded to a thymine residue. The theoretical assignments to ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectra of isolated systems have been performed. The present calculations have clarified that the excitation energies of the first singlet excited (S1) state of monoadducts are blue-shifted compared with the isolated systems. It is shown that, in particular, the S1 excitation energy of the pyrone monoadduct is significantly blue-shifted and, therefore, the pyrone monoadduct is not excited by UV-A light (300-400 nm), which is used in the photochemotherapy.     

Anomalously fast migration of triplet-repeat DNA in capillary electrophoresis with linear polymer solution

We investigated the capillary electrophoretic behavior of single-stranded DNA fragments in methylcellulose solution, and found that triplet-repeat DNA showed anomalously faster mobilities than DNA markers with random sequence. Through the further study on the electrophoretic data, reptation model is proven appropriate to describe the migration of DNA under our experimental conditions. Accordingly, with the equations based on reptation theory, we could obtain the persistence length of DNA fragments and find that these values of triplet-repeat DNAs are larger than that of DNA markers with random sequence, which means the former DNAs are less flexible than the latter ones when they migrate in the electric field. This phenomenon is supposed to result from the characteristic higher-order structure formed by GC base pairs within triplet-repeat DNA, which is further proven by the resumed migration order in accordance with DNA size when the denaturant is added into the sieving matrix.