Effect of initiators on grafting in the initial stage of the emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate using poly(vinyl alcohol) as a protective colloid

 To make clear the reason of unsuitability of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) protective colloid for the emulsion polymerization of conjugated monomers, a model experiment of emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was carried out with ammonium persulfate (APS) or azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) initiators, where a small amount of MMA (1/100th of the concentration compared with ordinary emulsion polymerization) was employed. This corresponds to the initial stage of the emulsion polymerization. Grafting of MMA onto PVA took place remarkably irrespective of the kind of the initiators. Formation of homo-poly(MMA) was observed to a small extent. The formation of new emulsion particles smaller than 100 nm continued to increase to almost the end of the polymerization. PVA molecules in the grafted polymer are supposed to act as stabilizers of newly formed particles. From kinetic treatment using the experimental data, the important issues were derived as follows. Firstly, the sulfate anion radical from APS is much more reactive than the isobutyronitrile radical from AIBN in terms of hydrogen abstraction from PVA. Secondly, high grafting ability of the latter initiator system, notwithstanding the much lower reactivity in the hydrogen abstraction compared with the APS system, is attributed to the relative reactivity of the primary radicals, i.e., hydrogen abstraction reaction from PVA to initiation reaction with MMA. The much slower rate of addition of the isobutyronitrile radical to the monomer compared with that of hydrogen abstraction from PVA facilitates the grafting, although the rate constant of hydrogen abstraction is far smaller than that with the sulfate anion radical by 10⁻⁴ times. Received: 26 April 2001 Accepted: 6 September 2001     

Reaction of Aln clusters with oxygen and ammonia

Aluminum clusters were generated by a laser vaporization method. Ionization potential of Al₂ was found to be lower than that of Al. In the reaction with oxygen at high concentration, the mixed cluster Al₉O₇ survives predominantly as a stable cluster. Ammonia was found to be adsorbed weakly on the Al_n surface.     

Spatial geometric arrangements of disulfide-crosslinked loops in nonplanar proteins

The method presented earlier [T. Kikuchi, G. Némethy, and H.A. Scheraga, (1986) J. Comput. Chem. 7 , 67] for the classification of patterns of the three-dimensional folding of a covalently crosslinked polypeptide chain has been extended to nonplanar proteins. The procedure described earlier was applicable only to proteins termed planar, i.e., with a connexity of the crosslinks (e.g., disulfide bonds) that can be represented in a planar diagram. The procedure described in the present work is applicable to any (planar or nonplanar) pattern of crosslinking. The classification is based on a systematic and objective method of enumeration of spatial geometric arrangements of loops (SGAL) using no information other than the location of the disulfide bonds in the amino acid sequence. Various SGAL classes correspond to the presence of different ways of mutual penetration of loops, called thrustings and entanglements. Information on SGAL classes can be of use in structural predictions of folding patterns of proteins.     

Furanodictine A and B: amino sugar analogues produced by cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum showing neuronal differentiation activity

We investigated the constituents of Dictyostelium discoideum to clarify the diversity of secondary metabolites of Dictyostelium cellular slime molds and to explore biologically active substances that could be useful in the development of novel drugs. From a methanol extract of the multicellular fruit body of D. discoideum, we isolated two novel amino sugar analogues, furanodictine A (1) and B (2). They are the first 3,6-anhydrosugars to be isolated from natural sources. Their relative structures were elucidated by spectral means, and the absolute configurations were confirmed by asymmetric syntheses of 1 and 2. These furanodictines potently induce neuronal differentiation of rat pheochromocytoma (PC-12) cells.     

Design, synthesis, and binding affinities of pyrrolinone-based somatostatin mimetics

[structure: see text] Tetrapyrrolinone somatostatin (SRIF) mimetics (cf. 1), based on a heterochiral (D,L-mixed) pyrrolinone scaffold, were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for biological activity. The iterative synthetic sequence, incorporating the requisite functionalized coded and noncoded amino acid side chains, comprised a longest linear synthetic sequence of 23 steps. Binding affinities at two somatostatin receptor subtypes (hsst 4 and 5) reveal micromolar activity, demonstrating that the d,l-mixed pyrrolinone scaffold can be employed to generate functional mimetics of peptide beta-turns.     

Fluorogenic probes for detecting deacylase and demethylase activity towards post-translationally-modified lysine residues

Reversible enzymatic post-translational modification of the ε-amino groups of lysine residues (e.g. N-acylation reactions) plays an important role in regulating the cellular activities of numerous proteins. This study describes how enzyme catalyzed N-deprotection of lysine residues of non-fluorescent peptide-coumarin probes can be used to generate N-deprotected peptides that undergo spontaneous O- to N-ester transfer reactions (uncatalyzed) to generate a highly fluorescent N-carbamoyl peptide. This enables detection of enzyme catalyzed N-deacetylation, N-demalonylation, N-desuccinylation and N-demethylation reactions activities towards the N-modified lysine residues of these probes using simple ‘turn on’ fluorescent assays.

We developed “turn-on” fluorescent probes that detect enzymatic lysine deacylation and demethylation critical for epigenetic and other cellular phenomena, using intramolecular O- to N-ester transfer reactions.     

A catalytic immuno-reactor for the amperometric determination of human serum albumin

A catalytic immuno-reactor for the determination of human serum albumin (HSA) was constructed by using immobilized antibody and an amperometric detector. A sandwich assay with hemin-labeled antibody to catalyze the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide was used, the catalytic activity of the hemin-antibody conjugate being determined by measuring the decrease in hydrogen peroxide concentration. The reaction of hemin-labeled antibody with antigen was complete within 30 min and the current decrease was correlated with the HSA concentration. The relative standard deviation was about 9% at an HSA concentration of 1 mg ml^?1.     

Asymmetric synthesis of dipeptides by means of homogeneous hydrogenation catalyzed by chiral rhodium complexes

Asymmetric hydrogenation of dehydrodipeptides, α-acylaminocinnamoyl-(S)-amino esters, catalyzed by rhodium complexes with chiral diphosphines gave either (R)-N-acylphenylalanyl-(S)-amino esters or (S)-N-acylphenylalanyl-(S)-amino esters with high diastereomeric purity up to 98–99% on using proper chiral ligands.     

Signals for scalar top quark atep collider HERA

In the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) and theR-parity breaking model (RBM), we investigate production processes of the scalar top (stop) at HERA energies. These models are characterized by the possible existence of the light stop whose mass is lighter than those of the top quark and the other squarks. It is shown that in the MSSM the stop pair production via boson-gluon fusion gives a sizeable cross section and the most serious background $ep \to ec\bar cX$ could be suppressed by appropriate kinematical cuts. We also show that in the RBM the stop is singly produced in the neutral current processes and we have a clear signal as a sharp peak in the Bjorken parameterx distribution of the scattered electron.