Full automatic synthesis of [<Superscript>18</Superscript>F]THK-5351 for tau protein PET imaging in Alzheimer’s disease patients: 1 year experience

[¹⁸F]THK-5351, a new candidate for tau protein imaging, is based on an aryl quinoline structure. We report the full automatic synthesis using disposable cassettes under pH controlled [¹⁸F]fluorination. After the trapping of 88.5 ± 21.9 GBq of [¹⁸F]fluoride, it was eluted with potassium methansulfonate (KOMs) (pH 7.8)/K₂₂₂. After drying, 3 mg of the precursor was added to 1 mL DMSO and subjected to [¹⁸F]fluorination at 110 °C for 10 min. After hydrolysis, the final product was purified by HPLC. The overall radiochemical yield was 31.9 ± 11.1% (n = 22), satisfying all quality control criteria. It was stable for up to 6 h with high radiochemical purity as 99.8 ± 0.5%.     

Reversible photo-regulation of the properties of liquid crystals doped with photochromic compounds

Photochromic reactions in liquid crystals induce re-alignments of the host molecules, accompanied by changes in the optical properties and various other properties of the materials. Since the first report by Sackmann in 1971, various combinations of photochromic compounds and liquid crystals have been studied to elicit the reversible photo-regulated changes of various properties. In this report we review the advances of this field during the past 5 years, which include the creation of mechanical functions, the regulation of novel optical properties, cholesteric liquid crystals doped with azobenzene compounds in high concentrations, the regulation of ferroelectric liquid crystals, the induction of chirality by circularly polarized light, photoresponsive chiral dopants, and the photo-regulation of the oscillation wavelength of mirrorless lasers.     

Ion-pair structure of vaporized ionic liquid studied by matrix-isolation FTIR spectroscopy with DFT calculations: a case of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate

The matrix-isolation infrared spectrum of a thermally evaporated ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate ([Emim][OTf]), was measured by FTIR spectroscopy and analyzed with the aid of DFT calculations. The main chemical species in the observed IR spectrum was mainly identified as the 1:1 cation-anion pair, which corresponds to the second stable ion-pair structure bonded through five hydrogen bonds between three O atoms of the anion side and four H atoms of the cation.     

Efficient decoherence-free entanglement distribution over lossy quantum channels

We propose and demonstrate a scheme for boosting the efficiency of entanglement distribution based on a decoherence-free subspace over lossy quantum channels. By using backward propagation of a coherent light, our scheme achieves an entanglement-sharing rate that is proportional to the transmittance T of the quantum channel in spite of encoding qubits in multipartite systems for the decoherence-free subspace. We experimentally show that highly entangled states, which can violate the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality, are distributed at a rate proportional to T.     

Monte carlo simulations for blue-phase structure in liquid crystals

Blue-phase liquid crystals form three-dimensional structures in a self-organizing manner and are similar to living tissue structures such as the teeth of mice and collagen tissues. This study presents numerical results regarding the conditions under which blue-phase liquid crystals occur. The Monte Carlo simulations are performed by employing an improved Lennard–Jones potential that considers anisotropy and chirality. The conditions for the formation of the blue phase, which vary with respect to the chirality, are examined first. The relationship between the anisotropic parameters and the chiral parameter for the formation of the blue phase is discussed. Identical blue-phase structures are obtained, even when the cell size and molecular number are varied drastically. This discussion is useful for considering the scale-up problem, which is almost always a difficult issue for molecular-scale simulations.     

Selective photocatalytic oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes in water by TiO2 partially coated with WO3

Semiconductor TiO₂ particles loaded with WO₃ (WO₃/TiO₂), synthesized by impregnation of tungstic acid followed by calcination, were used for photocatalytic oxidation of alcohols in water with molecular oxygen under irradiation at λ>350 nm. The WO₃/TiO₂ catalysts promote selective oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes and show higher catalytic activity than pure TiO₂. In particular, a catalyst loading 7.6 wt % WO₃ led to higher aldehyde selectivity than previously reported photocatalytic systems. The high aldehyde selectivity arises because subsequent photocatalytic decomposition of the formed aldehyde is suppressed on the catalyst. The TiO₂ surface of the catalyst, which is active for oxidation, is partially coated by the WO₃ layer, which leads to a decrease in the amount of formed aldehyde adsorbed on the TiO₂ surface. This suppresses subsequent decomposition of the aldehyde on the TiO₂ surface and results in high aldehyde selectivity. The WO₃/TiO₂ catalyst can selectively oxidize various aromatic alcohols and is reusable without loss of catalytic activity or selectivity.     

A New Flexible Multibody Beam Element Based on the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation Using the Global Shape Function and the Analytical Mode Shape Function

Several techniques for the reduced dimensionality of finite elementformulations were considered as component mode reduction methods in themiddle sixties. These techniques are widely used in flexiblemultibody simulations for solving small deformation problems. Theabsolute nodal coordinate formulation for solving large rotation anddeformation problems has been established as a full finite elementmethod instead of using similar kinds of reduction techniques. In thispaper, a reduced order absolute nodal coordinate formulation is newlyestablished by introducing the global beam shape function and theanalytical deformation modes as a full finite element. This formulationleads to a constant and symmetric mass matrix as the conventionalabsolute nodal coordinate formulation, and makes it possible to reducethe number of elements and system coordinates of the beam structurewhich undergoes large rotations and large deformations. Numericalexamples show that the excellent agreements between thepresent formulation and the conventional absolute nodal coordinateformulation using a large number of elements are examined. These results demonstratethat the present formulation has high accuracy in the sense that thepresent solutions are similar to the conventional ones with fewersystem coordinates, and high efficiency in computation.     

Multiple solutions of semilinear degenerate elliptic boundary value problems

The purpose of this paper is to study a class of semilinear elliptic boundary value problems with degenerate boundary conditions which include as particular cases the Dirichlet problem and the Robin problem. The approach here is based on the super‐sub‐solution method in the degenerate case, and is distinguished by the extensive use of an L^p Schauder theory elaborated for second‐order, elliptic differential operators with discontinuous zero‐th order term. By using Schauder's fixed point theorem, we prove that the existence of an ordered pair of sub‐ and supersolutions of our problem implies the existence of a solution of the problem. The results extend an earlier theorem due to Kazdan and Warner to the degenerate case. © 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim     

Synthesis and structural,electrochemical, and optical properties of Ru(II) complexes with azobis(2,2'-bipyridine)s

Two new ditopic ligands, 5,5"-azobis(2,2'-bipyridine) (5,5"-azo) and 5,5"-azoxybis(2,2'-bipyridine) (5,5"-azoxy), were prepared by the reduction of nitro precursors. Mononuclear and dinuclear Ru(II) complexes having one of these bridging ligands and 2,2'-bipyridine terminal ligands were also prepared, and their properties were compared with previously reported Ru(II) complexes having 4,4"-azobis(2,2'-bipyridine) (4,4"-azo). The X-ray crystal structure showed that 5,5"-azo adopts the trans conformation and a planar rodlike shape. The X-ray crystal structure of [(bpy)(2)Ru(5,5"-azo)Ru(bpy)(2)](PF(6))(4) (Ru(5,5"-azo)Ru) showed that the bridging ligand is in the trans conformation and nearly planar also in the complex and the metal-to-metal distance is 10.0 A. The azo or azoxy ligand in these complexes exhibits reduction processes at less negative potentials than the terminal bpy's due to the low-lying pi level. The electronic absorption spectra for the complexes having 5,5"-azo or 5,5"-azoxy exhibit an extended low-energy metal-to-ligand charge-transfer absorption. The ligands, 5,5"-azo and 5,5"-azoxy, and the mononuclear complex, [(bpy)(2)Ru(5,5"-azo)](2+), isomerize reversibly upon light irradiation. The low-energy MLCT state sensitizes the isomerization of the azo moiety in this complex. While [(bpy)(2)Ru(4,4"-azo)Ru(bpy)(2)](PF(6))(4) exhibits light switch properties, namely, significant electrochromism and a large luminescence enhancement, upon reduction, Ru(5,5"-azo)Ru does not show these properties. The radical anion formation upon reduction of these complexes has been confirmed by ESR spectroscopy.