Chemoselective Suzuki coupling of diborylmethane for facile synthesis of benzylboronates

The chemoselective Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction using a diborylmethane is reported. The use of an equimolar amount of base with a diborylmethane realized chemoselective coupling for the synthesis of various benzylboronate derivatives. Sterically hindered aryl bromides can give products in moderate to excellent yields.     

Authenticity assessment of beef origin by principal component analysis of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric data

It has become necessary to assess the authenticity of beef origin because of concerns regarding human health hazards. In this study, we used a metabolomic approach involving matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry to assess the authenticity of beef origin. Highly accurate data were obtained for samples of extracted lipids from beef of different origin; the samples were grouped according to their origin. The analysis of extracted lipids in this study ended within 10 min, suggesting this approach can be used as a simple authenticity assessment before a definitive identification by isotope analysis.     

Abnormal phospholipids distribution in the prefrontal cortex from a patient with schizophrenia revealed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry

Schizophrenia is one of the major psychiatric disorders, and lipids have focused on the important roles in this disorder. In fact, lipids related to various functions in the brain. Previous studies have indicated that phospholipids, particularly ones containing polyunsaturated fatty acyl residues, are deficient in postmortem brains from patients with schizophrenia. However, due to the difficulties in handling human postmortem brains, particularly the large size and complex structures of the human brain, there is little agreement regarding the qualitative and quantitative abnormalities of phospholipids in brains from patients with schizophrenia, particularly if corresponding brain regions are not used. In this study, to overcome these problems, we employed matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (IMS), enabling direct microregion analysis of phospholipids in the postmortem brain of a patient with schizophrenia via brain sections prepared on glass slides. With integration of traditional histochemical examination, we could analyze regions of interest in the brain at the micrometric level. We found abnormal phospholipid distributions within internal brain structures, namely, the frontal cortex and occipital cortex. IMS revealed abnormal distributions of phosphatidylcholine molecular species particularly in the cortical layer of frontal cortex region. In addition, the combined use of liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry strengthened the capability for identification of numerous lipid molecular species. Our results are expected to further elucidate various metabolic processes in the neural system.     

On localizations of the characteristic classes of ℓ-adic sheaves and conductor formula in characteristic p > 0

Abbes, Kato and Saito generalize the Grothendieck-Ogg-Shafarevich formula to an arbitrary dimension (Kato and Saito in Ann. Math. 168:33–96, 2008; Abbes and Saito in Invent. Math. 168:567–612, 2007). In this paper, assuming the strong resolution of singularities, we prove a localized version of a formula proved using the characteristic class of an ?-adic sheaf by Abbes and Saito (Invent Math 168:567–612, 2007). We prove a localized version of the Lefschetz-Verdier trace formula proved in Grothendieck (Formule de Lefschetz, exposé III, SGA 5, Lect. Notes Math., vol 589, pp 372–406, Exp. X, Springer, Berlin, 1977 [Théorème 4.4]). As an application, we prove a conductor formula in an arbitrary dimension in the equal characteristic case.     

Stereoselective vinylogous Mukaiyama aldol reaction of α-haloenals

We have developed a high-yielding and stereoselective vinylogous Mukaiyama aldol reaction (VMAR) of α-haloenals. Contrary to the simple α,β-unsaturated aldehyde, α-haloenals were found to be reactive affording the corresponding VMAR adducts in excellent yields. Some transformations of VMAR adducts by Pd-mediated cross-coupling were also examined in order to demonstrate the synthetic utility of VMAR of α-haloenals.     

Liquid phase formation of alkyl- and perfluoro-phosphonic acid derived monolayers on magnesium alloy AZ31 and their chemical properties

Alkyl- and perfluoro-phosphonic acid derived SAMs were successfully formed on Mg alloy by liquid phase method for the first time. The chemical and anticorrosive properties of the prepared SAMs on magnesium alloys were characterized using contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and electrochemical measurements. Water contact angle measurements revealed that the maximum advancing/receding water contact angles of n-octyl (OP: CH(3)(CH(2))(7)PO(OH)(2)), n-dodecyl (DP: CH(3)(CH(2))(11)PO(OH)(2)), n-octadecyl (ODP: CH(3)(CH(2))(17)PO(OH)(2)) phosphonic acid, and 2-(perfluorohexyl)ethyl (PFEP: CF(3)(CF(2))(5)CH(2)CH(2)PO(OH)(2)) phosphonic acid were 105.1/64.7°, 108.3/69.6°, 111.9/75.2°, and 115.2/67.4° respectively. In the case of alkylphosphonic acid SAMs (OP, DP, and ODP), the advancing and receding water contact angles increased with an increase in the preparation time. The angle-resolved XPS (AR-XPS) data revealed that the film thicknesses of the OP, DP, ODP, PFEP on Mg alloy were estimated to be 0.8, 1.2, 1.7, and 1.1 nm, respectively. The XPS O 1s data support that the phosphonic acid derived SAM is covalently bound to the oxide or hydroxide surface of the Mg alloy in a monodenate or bidenate manner. Chemical stability of the alkyl- and perfluoro-phosphonic acid modified Mg alloy surfaces was investigated using aqueous solutions at pH=4.0, 7.0, and 10.0. The contact angles of OP, DP, and PFEP modified Mg surface decreased rapidly within the first 5 min after immersion in all the aqueous solutions and were less than 20°. On the other hand, the contact angles of the ODP modified Mg alloy after immersion in aqueous solutions at pH 4, 7 and 10 for 5 min were 45.1°, 89.3,° and 85.5°, respectively. The ODP modified Mg alloy had highest chemical stability in four types of the phosphonic acid derived SAMs used in this study, indicating that the molecular density of ODP on Mg alloy would be higher than those of OP, DP, PFEP on Mg alloy. The corrosion resistance of ODP modified Mg alloy was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization curve measurements. The ODP modified Mg alloy exhibits protective properties in a solution containing Cl(-) ions compared to unmodified Mg alloy.     

Synthesis of thermosensitive polymer/mesoporous silica composite and its temperature dependence of anion exchange property

An anion exchanger consisting of amino-functionalized MCM-41 type mesoporous silica coated with temperature-responsive polymer, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), was synthesized in this study. The structure of this composite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and elemental analysis. The XRD pattern showed that the synthesized composite had the ordered hexagonal structure and the interplanar spacing, d(100), was around 40?. The amount of surface-grafted thermosensitive polymer was estimated to be about 0.8wt.% by elemental analysis. The adsorption-desorption behavior of methyl orange in this synthesized material depended on the temperature of aqueous solution: at 25°C, the reversible adsorption-desorption of methyl orange was repeated with changing pH of the solution; at 40°C, the methyl orange was not adsorbed and desorbed independent of pH of the solution.     

Model study of CO inhibition of [NiFe]hydrogenase

We propose a modified mechanism for the inhibition of [NiFe]hydrogenase ([NiFe]H(2)ase) by CO. We present a model study, using a NiRu H(2)ase mimic, that demonstrates that (i) CO completely inhibits the catalytic cycle of the model compound, (ii) CO prefers to coordinate to the Ru(II) center rather than taking an axial position on the Ni(II) center, and (iii) CO is unable to displace a hydrido ligand from the NiRu center. We combine these studies with a reevaluation of previous studies to propose that, under normal circumstances, CO inhibits [NiFe]H(2)ase by complexing to the Fe(II) center.     

Effect of co-adsorbed CO and reaction temperature on the dynamics of N2 desorption under steady-state N2O-CO reaction on Rh(110)

We have investigated the effect of co-absorbed CO and reaction temperature on the angular distribution of N(2) desorption by N(2)O decomposition under the steady state of N(2)O-CO reaction on Rh(110). Spatial distributions of desorbing product N(2) emission have been measured at various surface temperatures and CO coverages. The decomposed N(2) collimates at 48°-61° off normal in the parallel plane to [001] and [110] directions, indicating that adsorbed N(2)O just before the decomposition is oriented along the [001] direction. Although the inclined and collimated N(2) desorption is always observed at any steady-state CO coverage and reaction temperature, the shape of the collimated N(2) distribution varied dependent on the co-adsorbed CO coverage. The distribution becomes sharp and shifts toward the surface normal direction with increasing CO coverage. These effects of adsorbed CO on the angular distribution of N(2) are interpreted by the collision of desorbed N(2) with co-adsorbed CO.     

Go-and-Back method: effective estimation of the hidden motion of proteins from single-molecule time series

We present an effective method for estimating the motion of proteins from the motion of attached probe particles in single-molecule experiments. The framework naturally incorporates Langevin dynamics to compute the most probable trajectory of the protein. By using a perturbation expansion technique, we achieve computational costs more than 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the conventional gradient descent method without loss of simplicity in the computation algorithm. We present illustrative applications of the method using simple models of single-molecule experiments and confirm that the proposed method yields reasonable and stable estimates of the hidden motion in a highly efficient manner.