A Capture‐and‐Release Catalytic Flow System

Supported transition‐metal catalysts offer the promise of catalyst reuse in order to make chemical transformations more environmentally friendly and less expensive; however, catalysts that are supported on insoluble scaffolds often exhibit significantly reduced selectivities and rates. A capture/release strategy that unites the benefits of heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis would overcome these current shortcomings. Herein, we report on a novel capture‐and‐release flow system that takes advantage of a non‐covalent pyrene? single wall nanotube (SWNT) interaction. We demonstrate that a Pd complex containing one or two pyrene arms is captured and released from a SWNT column at different rates and can be utilized for the homogeneous catalysis of Suzuki and Heck reactions.     

Synthesis of oxovanadium complexes and their apoptosis-inducing activity in leukemia cells

Vanadium complexes with different ligands were synthesized and evaluated for antiproliferative activity on U937 cells. The alkyl chain length of the ligands affected the antiproliferative activity, and two complexes-3b and 4-exhibited strong activities with IC(50) values of 6.02 and 3.90 μM respectively. Annexin V staining and DNA ladder formation indicated that these complexes induced apoptosis in U937 cells.     

A novel method of control using chaotic dynamics in systems having many degrees-of-freedom

Chaotic dynamics in systems having many degrees of freedom are investigated from the viewpoint of harnessing chaos and is applied to complex control problems to indicate that chaotic dynamics has potential capabilities for complex control functions by simple rule(s). An important idea is that chaotic dynamics generated in these systems give us autonomous complex pattern dynamics itinerating through intermediate state points between embedded designed attractors in high-dimensional state space. A key point is that, with the use of simple adaptive switching between a weakly chaotic regime and a strongly chaotic regime, complex problems can be solved. As an actual example, a two-dimensional maze, where it should be noted that the set context is one of typical ill-posed problems, is solved with the use of chaos in a recurrent neural network model. Our computer experiments show that the success rate over several hundreds trials is much better, at least, than that of a random number generator. Our functional simulations indicate that harnessing of chaos is one of essential ideas to approach mechanisms of brain functions. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Emission spectrographic determination of trace elements in atmospheric particulate matter

Air containing particulate material was passed continuously for one month through a low-volume air sampler equipped with a cyclone to exclude particulates greater than 10 μm in diameter. The samples and filters were ashed in a low-temperature plasma and, after addition of In₂O₃ support, palladium internal standard and graphite buffer, the ashes were analyzed by a.c. are emission spectrometry. Standard samples were prepared from a commercial standard containing 49 elements. The procedure allows the determination of 14 trace metals (Ag, Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ga, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sn, Ti, V, Zn) with relative standard deviations of 1.4–15.1%. The procedure has been applied successfully to monthly determinations of the average atmospheric concentrations of these elements in Kobe City for the past three years.     

Alternating copolymerization of 1- and 2-vinylnaphthalene with methyl methacrylate by using diethylaluminum chloride

The alternating copolymerization of 1- and 2-vinylnaphthalene (1-VNap and 2-VNap) with methyl methacrylate (MMA) by using diethylaluminum chloride (Et₂AlCl) in toluene at 0°C has been studied. No polymerization could occur without Et₂AlCl, and alternating copolymers were obtained only when an equimolar amount of Et₂AlCl with MMA was supplied. Through ¹H-NMR analyses on both dyad and triad of alternating deuterated 1- and 2-α-d-VNap–MMA copolymers, each configuration could be described successfully by a single parameter, coisotacticity σ, whose value was estimated as 0.41 for the former and 0.56 for the latter copolymer, respectively. A rather low coisotacticity of copoly(1-VNap–MMA) was explained in the terms of steric effect (peri effect) of 1-VNap monomer.     

Selective determination of trace arsenic and antimony species in natural waters by gas chromatography with a photoionization detector

Traces amounts of arsenic and antimony in water samples were determined by gas chromatography with a photoionization detector after liquidnitrogen cold trapping of their hydrides. The sample solution was treated with sodium hydroborate (NaBH₄) under weak-acid conditions for arsenic(III) and antimony(III) determination, and under strong-acid conditions for arsenic(III+V) and antimony(III+V) determination. Large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water vapor obscured determination of arsine and stibine. Better separation from interference could be achieved by removing CO₂ and water vapor in two tubes containing sodium hydroxide pellets and calcium chloride, respectively. The detection limits of this method were 1.8 ng dm^?3 for arsenic and 9.4 ng dm^?3 for antimony in the case of 100-cm³ sample volumes. Therefore, it is suitable for determination of trace arsenic and antimony in natural waters.     

Biomimetic reactions of some macrocyclic diterpenes

Some macrocyclic diterpenes derived from euphohelioscopin A and euphornin have been stereoselectively converted into the jatropholane- and daphnane-type compounds and the known tricyclic compound which has been treated with phCOCl - pyridine to afford euphohelionone, the new type of diterpene isolated from euphorbia helioscopia L.     

Mean curvature flow through singularities for surfaces of rotation

In this paper, we study generalized “viscosity” solutions of the mean curvature evolution which were introduced by Chen, Giga, and Goto and by Evans and Spruck. We devote much of our attention to solutions whose initial value is a compact, smooth, rotationally symmetric hypersurface given by rotating a graph around an axis. Our main result is the regularity of the solution except at isolated points in spacetime and estimates on the number of such points.