Novel surface-modification techniques for polymer-based separation media. Stimulus-responsive phenomena based on double polymeric selectors

A pair of polymeric selectors potentially responding to stimulation was introduced onto monosized porous polymer particles to be evaluated as a packing material for HPLC. Possible complexes formed between polyacrylamide (PAAm) and poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) were utilized as stimulus responsive polymeric selectors. Uniformly sized base polymer particle was prepared by multi-step swelling and polymerization method, while the introduction of PAAm and PMAA was done by newly invented modification technique. In this technique, a solvent in which both acrylamide (AAm) and methacrylic acid (MAA) monomers are soluble, but PAAm and PMAA are insoluble, was utilized as a modification medium. The polymer particle doubly modified with PAAm and PMAA was utilized as packing material for HPLC and the stimulus responses were evaluated by changing temperature or pH to check change of the slope of a Van't Hoff plot. By using water as a mobile phase, the expected inflection point of the Van't Hoff plot was observed at upper critical solution temperature (UCST) of the polymer complexes and the temperature responsive ability was observed. Moreover, pH responsive ability was studied by using buffer of either pH 4 or 10 as mobile phase. Slope of the plot was changed in buffer of pH 4, but no change of slope was observed in the buffer of pH 10.     

Syntheses of cystothiazole A and its stereoisomers: importance of stereochemistry for antifungal activity

The enantiocontrolled total syntheses of all the stereoisomers of a myxobacterial antibiotic, cystothiazole A, are described. The natural syn stereochemistry at the C4-C5 position was controlled by the asymmetric Evans aldol process, whereas the anti relationship was introduced by a modified Evans aldol methodology. Starting with a known aldehyde, the common substrate of the aldol reactions, cystothiazole A and its three stereoisomers were synthesized in 9 steps. All three stereoisomers did not show antifungal activity even at a dosage 2500-fold that of cystothiazole A.     

Arching a bay area of triphenyleno[1,12-bcd]thiophene with group 14 functionalities: Synthesis of the first triphenylene derivatives having thiophene and metallafluorene moieties

Arching a bay area of triphenyleno[1,12-bcd]thiophene with group 14 functionalities gave the first triphenylene derivatives whose two pairs of bay carbons are connected by two different heteroatom functionalities. Triphenyleno[1,12-bcd:4,5-b′c′d′]dithiophene, which had been only accessible through the very severe reaction conditions, was synthesized under the mild reaction conditions. Photophysical properties of newly-obtained heterolotriphenylene derivatives are discussed with theoretical calculations.     

A novel biosurfactant, 2-acyloxyethylphosphonate, isolated from waterblooms of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae

A novel biosurfactant, 2-acyloxyethylphosphonate, was isolated from waterblooms of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae. Its structure was elucidated by chemical degradation and HRFABMS, GC/EI-MS and 1D- and 2D-NMR spectral analyses. The surfactant contained one mole of 2-hydroxyethylphosphonate and one mole of fatty acid, with hexadecanoic acid accounting for 84.1% of the total fatty acid content. The structure was confirmed by synthesis of 2-oleoyloxyethylphosphonate from ethylene oxide, phosphorus acid and oleic acid chloride. Considering the isolated surfactant molecule as hexadecanoyloxyethylphosphonic acid (mw. 364), the critical micelle concentration (CMC) was about 22 mM.     

Experimental comparison of a Kerr nonlinearity figure of merit including the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold for state-of-the-art nonlinear optical fibers

We introduce a new figure of merit (FOM) including the input pump power limit associated with stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) for evaluation of the Kerr nonlinearity efficiency of optical fibers. The new FOM is expressed as gammaL(eff)P(SBS) (gamma is a nonlinearity parameter, L(eff) is effective length, and P(SBS) is the SBS threshold), while the conventional FOM is given by gammaL(eff). Using the new FOM, we perform an efficiency comparison among four types of state-of-the-art nonlinear optical fiber: a Bi2O3-based nonlinear fiber, a silica-based holey fiber, a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber, and a conventional dispersion-shifted fiber. The Bi2O3-based nonlinear fiber is found to have the best Kerr nonlinearity efficiency owing to the superior nonlinear property of the Bi2O3 glass compared with that of the silica.     

Polymer-based adsorption medium prepared using a fragment imprinting technique for homologues of chlorinated bisphenol A produced in the environment

A polymer-based adsorption medium having molecular recognition ability for homologues of chlorinated bisphenol A produced in environment was prepared using a fragment imprinting technique. 2,6-Dimethyl phenol was utilized as a pseudo-template molecule and the adsorption media prepared was evaluated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and solid-phase extraction (SPE). As results, the adsorption medium showed preferable chromatographic retention and specific adsorption ability for the chlorinated bisphenol As having chlorine substituents at 3,5-positions through fragment imprinting effect.     

Design and fabrication of bismith-silicate photonic crystal fiber

The process of design and fabrication of bismuth-silicate photonic crystal fiber (Bi-PCF) is reported. The Bi-PCF was fabricated by stack and draw method. This is the first trial of the fabrication of photonic crystal fiber made of bismuth-based glass with stack and draw method. The Bi-PCF structure was designed to reduce group-velocity-dispersion (GVD) in a plausible process. Thermal properties of the glass are investigated to establish the fabrication process. The applying pressure and pumping in fiber preform preparation were effectively utilized to control the air-hole diameter and arrangement. The fabricated Bi-PCF shows the well reduced GVD as the numerical calculation predicted. Fusion splicing between Bi-PCF and SMF-28 was also demonstrated.     

Reverse correlation analysis of chromatic contrast perception based on chromatic mechanism models

We applied the classification image (CI) method to examine the effects of heterochromatic noise on color perception. Moreover, rather than the typical CI analysis procedure, we analyzed the CI data based on chromatic mechanism models. The stimulus was a superposition image of two uniformly colored squares (signal images) and a multicolored texture (a noise image), whose colors were chosen from an isoluminant plane of the Derrington-Krauskopf-Lennie color space. The observers judged the relative chromatic contrasts of the two signal squares on the different noise textures. The CI showed strong color modulations, whose color directions differed from the signal. Additionally, the model analysis demonstrated that the model with four mechanisms and the cardinal mechanisms model were not inferior to the model with more mechanisms with regard to explaining our experiment data; the cardinal model’s fit with the observer’s behaviors was improved by simply adjusting the relative sensitivities of the four mechanisms.