Consecutive adenine sequences are potential targets in photosensitized DNA damage

Based on direct spectroscopic measurements of hole transfer in DNA and quantification of the yield of DNA oxidative damage, consecutive adenine sequences were found to be a good launching site for photosensitizers to inject a hole in DNA, where the following rapid hole transfer between adenines causes a long-lived charge-separated state leading to DNA oxidative damage. According to the results, the essential requisites for an efficient and/or harmful photosensitizer are determined as follows: to be able to oxidize adenine to trigger hole transfer between adenines, and react rapidly with molecular oxygen following its reduction, avoiding charge recombination and making the reaction irreversible. These results will greatly help us to classify photosensitizers harmful to human health, and to design an improved photosensitizer for biochemical applications.     

Inter- and intramolecular radical couplings of ene-ynes or halo-alkenes promoted by an InCl3/MeONa/Ph2SiH2 system

[reaction: see text] An effective generation of indium hydride (HInCl(2)) under nonacidic conditions is achieved by transmetalation between Ph(2)SiH(2) and InCl(2)OMe. The presented system achieves the titled coupling reactions in a radical manner. In particular, the nonacidic character enables the applications to acid-sensitive inter- and intramolecular ene-yne couplings.     

Precise Asymptotic Formulas for Semilinear Eigenvalue Problems

. We consider the nonlinear Sturm-Liouville problem¶¶-u"(t) = | u(t) | ^p-1u(t) - lu(t), t ? I :=(0,1), u(0) = u(1) = 0 -u'(t) = \mid u(t)\mid^{p-1}u(t) - \lambda u(t), t \in I :=(0,1), u(0) = u(1) = 0 ,¶¶ where p > 1 and l ? R \lambda \in {\bf R} is an eigenvalue parameter. To investigate the global L²-bifurcation phenomena, we establish asymptotic formulas for the n-th bifurcation branch l = l_n (a) \lambda = \lambda_n (\alpha) with precise remainder term, where a \alpha is the L² norm of the eigenfunction associated with l \lambda .     

Transverse Josephson plasma mode in T* phase SmLa(1-x)Sr(x)CuO(4-delta) single crystals

Far-infrared reflectivity along the c axis in T* phase SmLa(1-x)Sr(x)CuO(4-delta) single crystals is measured down to 8 cm(-1). Below T(c), the conductivity peak is observed at 25 cm(-1) for x = 0.15 ( T(c) = 30 K) along with two reflectivity edges at 13 and 27 cm(-1). The conductivity peak is attributed to the transverse Josephson plasma mode between two longitudinal Josephson plasma modes, while the oscillator strength of the peak is found to be smaller than that calculated using the Josephson-coupled multilayer model. The difference is explained by assuming that only a few junctions at the disordered (La,Sr)(2)O(2-delta) block layer take part in the plasma oscillation with omega(pI(')) = 27 cm(-1).     

Stable operation of a 300-m laser interferometer with sufficient sensitivity to detect gravitational-wave events within our galaxy

TAMA300, an interferometric gravitational-wave detector with 300-m baseline length, has been developed and operated with sufficient sensitivity to detect gravitational-wave events within our galaxy and sufficient stability for observations; the interferometer was operated for over 10 hours stably and continuously. With a strain-equivalent noise level of h approximately 5x10(-21)/sqrt[Hz], a signal-to-noise ratio of 30 is expected for gravitational waves generated by a coalescence of 1.4M-1.4M binary neutron stars at 10 kpc distance. We evaluated the stability of the detector sensitivity with a 2-week data-taking run, collecting 160 hours of data to be analyzed in the search for gravitational waves.     

Synthesis of new fused pyrimidines by isocyanate and isothiocyanate

o-Aminonitrile or o-aminoester compounds were cyclized to fused pyrimidines by reacting with ethyl iso(thio)cyanatoacetate in pyridine, and then were methylated, halogenated and subsequently displaced by the amines studied.     

Transfer effects on sound localization performances from playing a virtual three-dimensional auditory game

Transfer effects of playing an auditory game with a virtual auditory display (VAD) were investigated. Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of playing the VAD game on sound localization performance under subjects’ own head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) and HRTFs fitted from those of 16 other adults. Participants performed sound localization tasks initially and 2 weeks later to show the effects. The VAD game players were of three groups, using own HRTFs, fitted HRTFs, and no playing (control). The VAD game-playing results revealed that: (1) the hit rate of the sound localization task for real sound sources increased approximately 20%; (2) the vertical and horizontal localization error decreased significantly; (3) sound localization performance using fitted HRTFs was similar to performance using own HRTFs. Follow-up tests revealed that transfer effects persisted more than 1 month, suggesting that the effects of playing the VAD game transfer to sound localization performance.     

A novel and efficient synthesis of 3-fluorooxindoles from indoles mediated by Selectfluor

[reaction: see text] Treatment of several 3-substituted indoles, including derivatives of tryptophan and serotonin, with commercially available Selectfluor in acetonitrile/water furnished 3-substituted 3-fluorooxindoles in good to high yields. Since 3-fluorooxindoles obtained are sterically similar to both oxindoles and 3-hydroxyoxindoles, they should be useful as probes for investigating the enzymatic mechanism of indole biosynthesis and metabolism.     

Measurement of charge asymmetries in charmless hadronic B meson decays

We search for CP-violating charge asymmetries (alpha(CP)) in the B meson decays to K(+/-)pi(-/+), K(+/-)pi(0), K(0)(S)pi(+/-), K(+/-)eta('), and omega pi(+/-). Using 9.66 million upsilon(4S) decays collected with the CLEO detector, the statistical precision on alpha(CP) is in the range of +/-0.12 to +/-0.25 depending on decay mode. While CP-violating asymmetries of up to +/-0.5 are possible within the standard model, the measured asymmetries are consistent with zero in all five decay modes studied.