Langmuir monolayer of artificial pulmonary surfactant mixtures with an amphiphilic peptide at the air/water interface: comparison of new preparations with surfacten (Surfactant TA)

Interfacial behavior was studied on the pulmonary lipid mixture containing a newly designed amphiphilic alpha-helical peptide (Hel 13-5) that consists of 13 hydrophobic and 5 hydrophilic amino acid residues. Moreover, the data obtained were compared with those of commercially available Surfacten (Surfactant TA) which has been clinically used for neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS) in Japan. Surface pressure (pi)-A and surface potential (DeltaV)-area (A) isotherms were measured for our synthetic preparations and Surfacten. Herein, a mixture of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC)/egg-phosphatidylglycerol (PG)/palmitic acid (PA) (68:22:9 by weight) was used as the constituent of basic preparations. Monolayers were spread on 0.02 M Tris buffer (pH 7.4) with 0.13 M NaCl at the air/liquid interface, and the surface behavior was investigated by employing the Wilhelmy method, an ionizing electrode method, and fluorescence microscopy (FM). Cyclic compression and expansion isotherms of the prepared materials (or products) (DPPC/PG/PA/Hel 13-5) were examined to confirm the spreading and respreading ability. For the prepared products, a plateau region exists on pi-A and DeltaV-A isotherms at approximately 42 mN m(-1), indicating that Hel 13-5 is squeezed out of surface monolayers together with fluid components (PG) upon lateral compression. That is, the squeeze-out phenomenon induces a 2D-3D phase transformation. In particular, the inclination of the pi-A isotherms at X(Hel 13-5) = 0.1 in the plateau region was almost zero irrespective of the molecular area. As proposed in the earlier report (Nakahara, H.; Lee, S.; Sugihara, G.; Shibata, O. Langmuir 2006, 22, 5792-5803), an observed refluorescence phenomenon was discussed for FM measurements. This phenomenon provides evidence of the squeeze-out motion with fluid molecules. Furthermore, the cyclic pi-A and DeltaV-A isotherms show larger hysteresis areas and better respreading abilities in comparison with the previous ternary systems (DPPC/PG/Hel 13-5 and DPPC/PA/Hel 13-5) that are very important properties in pulmonary functions. FM photographs and the temperature dependence of pi-A and DeltaV-A isotherms suggest that the phase behavior of the present preparation product is very similar to that of Surfacten in terms of the domain size and in parameters such as collapse pressures, maximum DeltaV values, and so on. These results demonstrate that PG and PA even in the present preparations work well for compression-expansion cycling as is the case in the previous ternary systems, and the present preparations show comparable properties to Surfacten in vitro.     

Rotational dynamics of benzene and water in an ionic liquid explored via molecular dynamics simulations and NMR T1 measurements

The rotational dynamics of benzene and water in the ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride are studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and NMR T(1) measurements. MD trajectories based on an effective potential are used to calculate the (2)H NMR relaxation time, T(1) via Fourier transform of the relevant rotational time correlation function, C(2R)(t). To compensate for the lack of polarization in the standard fixed-charge modeling of the IL, an effective ionic charge, which is smaller than the elementary charge is employed. The simulation results are in closest agreement with NMR experiments with respect to the temperature and Larmor frequency dependencies of T(1) when an effective charge of ±0.5e is used for the anion and the cation, respectively. The computed C(2R)(t) of both solutes shows a bi-modal nature, comprised of an initial non-diffusive ps relaxation plus a long-time ns tail extending to the diffusive regime. Due to the latter component, the solute dynamics is not under the motional narrowing condition with respect to the prevalent Larmor frequency. It is shown that the diffusive tail of the C(2R)(t) is most important to understand frequency and temperature dependencies of T(1) in ILs. On the other hand, the effect of the initial ps relaxation is an increase of T(1) by a constant factor. This is equivalent to an "effective" reduction of the quadrupolar coupling constant (QCC). Thus, in the NMR T(1) analysis, the rotational time correlation function can be modeled analytically in the form of aexp (-t/τ) (Lipari-Szabo model), where the constant a, the Lipari-Szabo factor, contains the integrated contribution of the short-time relaxation and τ represents the relaxation time of the exponential (diffusive) tail. The Debye model is a special case of the Lipari-Szabo model with a = 1, and turns out to be inappropriate to represent benzene and water dynamics in ILs since a is as small as 0.1. The use of the Debye model would result in an underestimation of the QCC by a factor of 2-3 as a compensation for the neglect of the Lipari-Szabo factor.     

Investigation of in situ oxalate formation from 2,3-pyrazinedicarboxylate under hydrothermal conditions using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

We have investigated the assembly of a two-dimensional coordination polymer, Nd(2)(C(6)H(2)N(2)O(4))(2)(C(2)O(4))(H(2)O)(2), that has been prepared from the hydrothermal reaction of Nd(NO(3))(3)·6H(2)O and 2,3-pyrazinedicarboxylic acid (H(2)pzdc). In situ oxalate formation as observed in this system has been been investigated using (1)H and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and a pathway for C(2)O(4)(2-) anion formation under hydrothermal conditions has been elucidated. The oxalate ligands found in Nd(2)(C(6)H(2)N(2)O(4))(2)(C(2)O(4))(H(2)O)(2) result from the oxidation of H(2)pzdc, which proceeds through intermediates, such as 2-pyrazinecarboxylic acid (2-pzca), 2-hydroxyacetamide, 3-amino-2-hydroxy-3-oxopropanoic acid, 2-hydroxymalonic acid, 2-oxoacetic acid (glyoxylic acid), and glycolic acid. The species are generated through a ring-opening that occurs via cleavage of the C-N bond of the pyrazine ring, followed by hydrolysis/oxidation of the resulting species.     

Dynamic and 2D NMR studies on hydrogen-bonding aggregates of cholesterol in low-polarity organic solvents

Self-diffusion coefficients (D) are measured for normal (nondeuterated) and deuterated cholesterol-d(6) (C26 and C27 methyl groups deuterated) in 1-octanol, chloroform, and cyclohexane at concentrations of 1-700 mM by varying the impurity water concentration (>2 mM) and temperature (30-50 degrees C). The pulsed field gradient spin-echo (PGSE) (1)H and (2)H NMR were used, respectively, at 600 and 92 MHz. At 30 degrees C, the hydrodynamic radius (R) obtained at 20 mM from the D value and solvent viscosity is 5.09, 7.07, and 6.17 A, respectively, in 1-octanol, chloroform, and cyclohexane when the impurity water is negligible. The R value in 1-octanol is the smallest and comparable with the average length of the molecular axes for the cholesterol molecule. In 1-octanol, R is invariant against the concentration variation, whereas in chloroform, R is larger and increases almost linearly with cholesterol concentration. At the highest concentration, 700 mM, the R in chloroform is 13.5 and 16.7 A, respectively, when the impurity water is at negligible and saturated concentrations. The R value larger than that in hydrogen-bonding 1-octanol indicates that cholesterol forms an aggregate through hydrogen bonding. The aggregate structure is confirmed by comparing NOESY spectra in chloroform and 1-octanol. The NOESY analysis reveals the presence of one extra cross peak (C4-C19) in chloroform compared to 1-octanol. Because the carbon atoms related to the cross peak are close to the hydroxyl group (C3-OH), cholesterol molecules are considered to be not piled but are found to be OH-centered in the aggregate. This is supported also by larger rotational hydrodynamic radii measured on cholesterol deuterated at positions C2, C3, C4, and C6. This shows that the aggregate formation is driven by the hydrogen-bonding between cholesterol molecules.     

Self-diffusion of supercritical water in extremely low-density region

The self-diffusion coefficient D for super- and subcritical water is determined by using the proton pulsed-field-gradient spin echo method at high temperatures and low densities. The density of water is ranged in the steamlike region from 0.0041 to 0.0564 g [corrected] cm(-3) at a supercritical temperature of 400 degrees C, also at 0.0041-0.0079 and 0.0041-0.0462 g [corrected] cm(-3) (the steam-branch densities on the coexistence curve and lower) at 200 and 300 degrees C, respectively. The density is precisely determined on the basis of the PVT dependence of the proton chemical shift. The density-diffusivity products in the zero-density limit divided by the square root of the temperature, (rho D)0/square root of T, are 0.94, 1.17, and 1.35 mg m(-1) s(-1) K(-1/2) (mg=10(-3)g) [corrected] at 200, 300, and 400 degrees C, respectively. The (rhoD)0/square root of T obtained decreases with decreasing temperature and is significantly smaller than the temperature-independent value from the hard sphere model, 1.95 mg [corrected] m(-1) s(-1) K(-1/2). The marked temperature dependence reflects the presence of the strong attractive interaction between a pair of water molecules. The magnitude of the experimental D values and the temperature dependence are well reproduced by the molecular dynamics simulation using TIP4P-FQ model. The initial slope of the product rhoD/square root of T against rho is slightly negative at 300 and 400 [corrected] degrees C.     

On Singularity of Energy Measures on Self-Similar Sets II

We provide a criterion for the energy measures of regular Dirichletforms on post-critically finite self-similar sets to be singularwith respect to every self-similar measure. A probabilisticinterpretation of the singularity is also discussed. 2000 MathematicsSubject Classification 60G30 (primary), 28A80, 31C25, 60J60(secondary).     

Analyzing consumers’ shopping behavior using RFID data and pattern mining

The development of sensor networks has enabled detailed tracking of customer behavior in stores. Shopping path data which records each customer??s position and time information is attracting attention as new marketing data. However, there are no proposed marketing models which can identify good customers from huge amounts of time series data on customer movement in the store. This research aims to use shopping path data resulting from tracking customer behavior in the store, using information on the sequence of visiting each product zone in the store and staying time at each product zone, to find how they affect purchasing. To discover useful knowledge for store management, shopping paths data has been transformed into sequence data including information on visit sequence and staying times in the store, and LCMseq has been applied to them to extract frequent sequence patterns. In this paper, we find characteristic in-store behavior patterns of good customers by using actual data of a Japanese supermarket.