Rational design and synthesis of a novel class of active site-targeted HIV protease inhibitors containing a hydroxymethylcarbonyl isostere. Use of phenylnorstatine or allophenylnorstatine as a transition-state mimic.

A novel class of HIV-1 protease inhibitors containing a hydroxymethylcarbonyl (HMC) isostere were designed from the substrate transition state and synthesized. Phenylnorstatine [Pns; (2R,3S)-3-amino-2-hydroxy-4-phenylbutyric acid] and the 2S diastereomer, (2S,3S)-3-amino-2-hydroxy-4-phenylbutyric acid, named allophenylnorstatine (Apns) were effective transition-state mimics, and incorporation of Pns-Pro or Apns-Pro at the P1-P1' site gave potent and specific HIV-1 protease inhibitors. In the inhibitory assays, the chemically synthesized [Ala67,95] HIV-1 protease was used.     

Application of the vapor phase supporting (VPS) method for preparing SnO2/SiO2 catalysts

Supported SnO₂/SiO₂ catalysts have been prepared by the reaction of the surface hydroxy groups of silica gel and gas phase tin chloride (PS method). The catalytic properties have been examined in the reaction of 2-propanol to show the effect of VPS cycles on the amount and nature of the active sites.

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SnO₂/SiO₂ . 2- VPS .

     

Simultaneous determination of cocaethylene and cocaine in blood by gas chromatography with surface ionization detection

Summary Cocaethylene together with cocaine spiked in human whole blood has been found measurable at high sensitivities by capillary gas chromatography with surface ionization detection. The drugs could be rapidly extracted by Sep-Pak C₁₈ cartridges with recovery of more than 60%. The calibration curves for both cocaethylene and cocaine using cocapropylene as internal standard were linear in the range 50–300 pmol mL⁻¹ of whole blood. The detection limits of cocaethylene and cocaine were 5–10 pmol mL⁻¹ (0.1–0.2 pmol on column if recovery is 100%). Cocaethylene could be determined for whole blood obtained from rats (ca. 200 g body wt.), which had received subcutaneous injection of 10 mg cocaine hydrochloride and 2.0 mL of 30% (v/v) ethanol 3 h before sampling; the mean levels of cocaethylene and cocaine were 101 and 1230 pmol mL⁻¹, respectively.     

Preparation of active platinum hydrogenolysis catalyst supported on TiO2 phase dispersed on SiO2

Platinum catalysts supported on a TiO₂ phase well-dispersed on SiO₂ (TiO₂/SiO₂) exhibited a high activity for butane hydrogenolysis; activity was 12 orders of magnitude higher than those of platinum catalysts supported on SiO₂ and TiO₂.

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Pt, TiO₂, SiO₂ (TiO₂/SiO₂), ; 12 , SiO₂ TiO₂.

     

Molecular crystalline capsules that release their contents by light

Here, we present single crystalline capsules of a photoresponsive molecule produced by simple recrystallization from organic solutions without direct human processing. During the crystal growth process, a movie was taken of the capsule taking in the organic solution. The capsules responded rapidly (<1 s) to the UV light stimuli and released the captured solution or solute. In principle, they can take in any substance dissolved in organic solvents, and their size can be controlled. Moreover, the capsule can be broken by multi-photon excitation using a near-infrared laser within the biological window. Furthermore, because the molecular packing in the crystal is unidirectional, the response can be controlled by the polarization of the light. This study shows the new potential of photoresponsive molecules.

A novel diarylethene formed “crystalline capsules” containing liquid inclusions, and chemicals trapped in the capsules were released by photoinduced breaking. Operations by multiphoton and linear polarized light were demonstrated.     

An integral invariant from the view point of locally conformally Kähler geometry

In this article we study an integral invariant which obstructs the existence on a compact complex manifold of a volume form with the determinant of its Ricci form proportional to itself, in particular obstructs the existence of a Kähler-Einstein metric, and has been studied since 1980s. We study this invariant from the view point of locally conformally Kähler geometry. We first see that we can define an integral invariant for coverings of compact complex manifolds with automorphic volume forms. This situation typically occurs for locally conformally Kähler manifolds. Secondly, we see that this invariant coincides with the former one. We also show that the invariant vanishes for any compact Vaisman manifold.     

Self-avoiding paths on the pre-Sierpinski gasket

Summary We study a statistical mechanics of self-avoiding paths on the pre-Sierpinski gasket. We first show the existence of the thermodynamic limit of the (appropriately scaled) free energy. Then we show that there are two domains in the weight parameters (i.e. two phases) between which the scaling differs; i.e. there is a certain kind of phase transition in our model, and we find the critical exponents of the free energy at the phase transition point. We also show the convergence of the distribution of the scaled length of the paths at thermodynamic limit.