Energy extraction in dual-wavelength Q-switched laser with a common upper laser level

The effect of lower-laser-level lifetimes on Q-switched pulse generation in a dual-wavelength solid-state laser with a common upper laser level was numerically and experimentally investigated. A rate-equation model that accounts for finite lower-laser-level lifetimes was developed, and for a Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 and 1319 nm, numerical simulations of dual-wavelength pulse generation were performed with and without the effects of lower-laser-level lifetimes. In the laser experiments, characteristics of the dual-wavelength Q-switched pulses agree reasonably well with theoretical predictions. As a result, we found that both the total energy of the two Q-switched pulses and the ratio of 1064–1319-nm pulse energies were strongly affected by the lower-laser-level lifetimes when the Q-switched pulse width was comparable or shorter than the lower-laser-level lifetime.     

Fluorometric detection with a packed flow cell in micro high-performance liquid chromatography

Summary A packed flow cell was used for fluorometric detection in micro high-performance liquid chromatography. The flow cell consisted of fused-silica tubing packed with the same material as the separation column. A focusing effect of the stationary phase on the signal intensity was observed, leading to an improvement of the mass detection limit, as achieved by on-column detection.     

Initiation and propagation of detonation waves in combustible high speed flows

The initiation and propagation of detonation waves in combustible high speed flows were studied experimentally. A planar detonation wave traveling in an initiation tube was transmitted into a test section where a combustible high speed flow was induced by an incident shock wave generated in a shock tube. In this study, the flow Mach numbers were obtained as 0.9 and 1.2. The experimental results show that depending on the flow velocity, the apparent propagation velocity of a detonation wave is higher in the upstream and lower in the downstream direction than the CJ velocity. Smoked plate records reveal cellular patterns deformed in the flow direction, and the calculated aspect ratios of the cell were found to agree well with the experimental ones on the basis of the assumption that the velocity of the transverse wave is not affected by the flowing mixture. By analyzing the shock-wave diffraction at the position where there is an abrupt change in the area, on the basis of Whitham’s theory, it was deduced that in the present experimental set-up, the detonation was initiated by the reflection of the diffracted shock waves on the sidewalls of the test section. The agreement between the experimental and calculated results regarding the position of the cellular patterns on the smoked plate record indicated that the position of detonation initiation in high speed flows is shifted downstream due to the flow velocity.     

Evidence for Endocyclic Cleavage of Conformationally Restricted Glycopyranosides

2,3‐trans‐carbamate‐ and ‐carbonate‐carrying pyranosides were very easily anomerised from the β to the α direction in the presence of a Lewis acid compared to other pyranosides. This reaction is caused by endocyclic cleavage of the pyranosides. Evidence for endocyclic cleavage of conformationally restricted pyranosides in the chair form was obtained by intra‐ and intermolecular Friedel–Crafts reactions, chloride addition, and reduction of the generated cation. On the other hand, pyranosides with the distorted conformation were never cleaved in an endocyclic manner.     

siRNA-mediated Knockdown of the Heme Synthesis and Degradation Pathways: Modulation of Treatment Effect of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid-based Photodynamic Therapy in Urothelial Cancer Cell Lines

Photodynamic therapy mediated by 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA-PDT) has been developed as a therapeutic modality for refractory superficial bladder cancers. Here, in experiments using urothelial cancer cell lines, we investigated the effects of siRNA modulating heme-synthetic and degradation pathways for ALA-PDT. Targeted knockdown of ferrochelatase (FECH) suppressed heme synthesis and significantly increased intracellular protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) accumulation, leading to enhanced phototoxicity in four of five cell lines. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is recognized as important for cytoprotection against oxidative stress such as PDT. Targeted knockdown of HO-1 leads to decreased intracellular PpIX accumulation, resulting in a failure to enhance ALA-PDT effect in four cell lines. Knockdown of HO-1 caused marked growth inhibition in UM-UC-2 overexpressing HO-1, whereas no inhibitory effect was observed in UM-UC-3 lacking HO-1 expression. Moreover, HO-1 protein levels and (GT) _n repeat polymorphism of the HO-1 gene promoter region were examined with the implication that the constitutive expressions of HO-1 protein were associated with a shorter (GT) _n repeat. Our results suggested that (1) FECH siRNA improved the phototoxicity of ALA-PDT, (2) overexpression of HO-1 was associated with shorter (GT) _n repeat of the promoter region, and (3) siRNA-mediated knockdown of HO-1 could suppress the growth of bladder cancer cells overexpressing HO-1.     

Greedy approximation for the source location problem with vertex-connectivity requirements in undirected graphs

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a simple undirected graph with a set V of vertices and a set E of edges. Each vertex $v\in V$ has a demand $d(v)\in Z_{+}$, and a cost $c(v)\in R_{+}$, where $Z_{+}$ and $R_{+}$ denote the set of nonnegative integers and the set of nonnegative reals, respectively. The source location problem with vertex-connectivity requirements in a given graph G asks to find a set S of vertices minimizing ${\sum }_{v\in S}c(v)$ such that there are at least $d(v)$ pairwise vertex-disjoint paths from S to v for each vertex $v\in V?S$. It is known that the problem is not approximable within a ratio of $O(\ln {\sum }_{v\in V}d(v))$, unless NP has an $O(N^{\log \log N})$-time deterministic algorithm. Also, it is known that even if every vertex has a uniform cost and $d^1=4$ holds, then the problem is NP-hard, where $d^1=\max \{d(v)|v\in V\}$.In this paper, we consider the problem in the case where every vertex has uniform cost. We propose a simple greedy algorithm for providing a $\max \{d^1,2d^1?6\}$-approximate solution to the problem in $O(\min \{d^1,\sqrt{|V|}\}{d}^1{|V|}^2)$ time, while we also show that there exists an instance for which it provides no better than a $(d^1?1)$-approximate solution. Especially, in the case of $d^1?4$, we give a tight analysis to show that it achieves an approximation ratio of 3. We also show the APX-hardness of the problem even restricted to $d^1?4$.     

One-Pot synthesis of gamma,delta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds from allyl alcohols and vinyl or isopropenyl acetates catalyzed by [IrCl(cod)]2

One-pot synthesis of gamma,delta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds from allyl alcohols and vinyl or isopropenyl acetates was achieved through in situ generation of allyl vinyl ethers by the action of the [IrCl(cod)]2 complex followed by Claisen rearrangement of the resulting ethers. For instance, the reaction of trans-2-methyl-3-phenyl-2-propen-1-ol with isopropenyl acetate in the presence of [IrCl(cod)]2 (1 mol %) and Cs2CO3 (5 mol %) at 100 degrees C for 3 h followed by 140 degrees C for 15 h afforded 5-methyl-4-phenyl-5-hexen-2-one in 72% yield. When vinyl acetate was employed in place of isopropenyl acetate, 4-methyl-3-phenyl-4-pentenal was obtained in 83% yield.