RECENT PROGRESS OF NANO-MECHANICAL MAPPING

 Nano-mechanical mapping by atomic force microscopy has been developed as an useful application to measure mechanical properties of soft materials at nanometer scale. To date, the Hertzian theory was used for analyzing force-distance curves as the simplest model among several contact mechanics between elastic bodies. However, the preexisting methods based on this theory do not consider the adhesive interaction in principle, which cannot be neglected in the ambient condition. A new analytical method was introduced to estimate the elasticity and the adhesive energy simultaneously by means of the JKR theory, describing adhesive contact between elastic materials. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and isobutylene-co-isoprene rubber (IIR) were analyzed to verify the applicable limit of the JKR analysis. For elastic samples such as PDMS, the force-deformation plots obtained experimentally were consistent with JKR theoretical curves. Meanwhile, for viscoelastic samples, especially for IIR, the experimental plots revealed large deviations from JKR curves depending on scanning velocity and maximum loading force. Some nano-rheological arguments were employed based on the difference between these specimens.     

Purification and characterization of recombinant murine endostatin in E. coli

Endostatin, a carboxyl-terminal fragment of collagen XVIII is known as an anti-angiogenic agent, that specifically inhibits the proliferation of endothelial cell and the growth of several primary tumor. We report here the purification and characterization of the recombinant murine endostatin (rmEndostatin) which was expressed in a prokaryotic expression system. This rmEndostatin has similar physiochemical properties of yeast-produced recombinant endostatin, and it also specifically inhibits the proliferation and migration of bovine capillary endothelial cells stimulated by basic fibroblast growth factor. The biological activity of rmEndostatin was also shown by its anti-angiogenic ability on the chorioallantoic membrane of chick embryo in vivo. In this article, we demonstrate the refolding and purification of rmEndostatin, expressed using E. coli system, to a biologically active and soluble form. In addition, these results confirm the activity of endostatin as a potent anti-angiogenic agent.     

Copper diisobutyl-t-butoxyaluminum hydride: A novel reagent for chemoselective reduction of tertiary amides over esters

We demonstrate that copper diisobutyl-t-butoxyaluminum hydride, readily prepared from lithium diisobutyl-t-butoxyaluminum hydride and CuI, effectively and chemoselectively reduces tertiary amides over esters at ambient temperature, affording the corresponding aldehydes in excellent yields.     

Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization of Bicyclic α,β‐Unsaturated Anhydrides for Ready‐to‐be‐grafted Polymers Having Tailored pH‐Responsive Degradability

Polymers having α,β‐unsaturated anhydrides as repeating units were synthesized by ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). The anhydride moieties were ready‐to‐be‐grafted with amines to form acid‐labile cis‐α,β‐unsaturated acid amide linkages. The pH‐responsive reversible de‐grafting can be controlled by changing the intramolecular accessibility between acid and amide groups. The alendronate‐grafted ROMP polymers showed distinct pH‐dependent cytotoxicity according to the anhydride structures.     

Salting-out solvent extraction for the off-line preconcentration of benzalkonium chloride in capillary electrophoresis

The use of salting-out effect for the off-line preconcentration of charged analytes in capillary electrophoresis is demonstrated for the first time. Using benzalkonium chloride (BAK) as model compound, a mixture of cationic surfactants consisting of even-numbered alkylbenzyl quaternary ammonium homologues (C8-C18), the addition of appropriate amounts of sodium chloride and acetonitrile in the sample solution (2 mL sample volume) was found to be capable of providing ca. 40-fold enhancement in detection sensitivity. In addition to affording a preconcentrating effect due to the extraction of BAK in the smaller volume water-miscible organic solvent phase (acetonitrile), the organic solvent also serves to improve the peak area and shape of the longer chain surfactants. Optimal experimental conditions, such as volume of acetonitrile and concentration of sodium chloride, for the preconcentration of BAK with good preconcentration factors and reproducibility were investigated. The usefulness of the present method was demonstrated for the improved determination of BAK present in commercially available industrial and pharmaceutical products.     

Discriminantal arrangement, 3 × 3 minors of Plücker matrix and hypersurfaces in Grassmannian Gr(3,n)

We show that points in specific degree-2 hypersurfaces in the Grassmannian $Gr(3,n)$ correspond to generic arrangements of n hyperplanes in ${\mathbb{C}}^3$ with associated discriminantal arrangement having intersections of multiplicity three in codimension two.     

When to rebuild or when to adjust scorecards

Data-based scorecards, such as those used in credit scoring, age with time and need to be rebuilt or readjusted. Unlike the huge literature on modelling the replacement and maintenance of equipment there have been hardly any models that deal with this problem for scorecards. This paper identifies an effective way of describing the predictive ability of the scorecard and from this describes a simple model for how its predictive ability will develop. Using a dynamic programming approach one is then able to find when it is optimal to rebuild and when to readjust a scorecard. Failing to readjust or rebuild a scorecard when they aged was one of the defects in credit scoring identified in the investigations into the sub-prime mortgage crisis.     

Support vector machines for default prediction of SMEs based on technology credit

In Korea, many forms of credit guarantees have been issued to fund small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a high degree of growth potential in technology. However, a high default rate among funded SMEs has been reported. In order to effectively manage such governmental funds, it is important to develop an accurate scoring model for selecting promising SMEs. This paper provides a support vector machines (SVM) model to predict the default of funded SMEs, considering various input variables such as financial ratios, economic indicators, and technology evaluation factors. The results show that the accuracy performance of the SVM model is better than that of back-propagation neural networks (BPNs) and logistic regression. It is expected that the proposed model can be applied to a wide range of technology evaluation and loan or investment decisions for technology-based SMEs.     

Computing inertia sets using atoms

We consider the problem of computing inertia sets for graphs. By using tools for combining the inertia sets of smaller graphs we can reduce this problem to understanding the inertia sets for three-connected graphs that are not joins. We term such graphs atoms and give the inertia sets for all atoms on at most seven vertices. This can be used to compute the inertia sets for all graphs on at most seven vertices.