Measurement of the branching fraction and CP asymmetry in B+ --> rho+pi0

We report a measurement of the branching fraction for the decay B+ --> rho(+) pi(0) based on a 140 fb(-1) data sample collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric e(+)e(-) collider. We measure the branching fraction B(B(+) --> rho(+)pi(0)) = (13.2 +/- 2.3(stat)(+1.4)(-1.9)(syst)) x 10(-6), and the CP-violating asymmetry A(CP)(B-/+ -->rho(-/+)pi(0))=0.06 +/- 0.17(stat)(+0.04)(-0.05)(syst).     

A structure-biological activity study based on cluster analysis and the nonlinear mapping method of pattern recognition

Cluster analysis is used in a study of structure—activity relationships of biologically active compounds. A hierarchal clustering technique was applied to 29 typical antibiotics using 27 antibacterial activities. These antibiotics were of various types; penicillins, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, macrolides, tetracyclines, and peptides. The result was obtained as a branching tree diagram. The technique allowed the antibiotics to be distributed into 6 clusters, each cluster mostly consisting of compounds with a similar structure. Nonlinear mapping was used to display the 27-dimensional data structure of the antibiotics. The nonlinear map was compared with the clusters obtained by cluster analysis.     

Structure-activity relationship study of leucinostatin A,a modulator of tumor−stroma interaction

Structure-activity relationship study of leucinostatin A, a natural nonapeptide, was performed to gain insight into the structural requirements for leucinostatin A to exhibit antiproliferative activity against DU-145 prostate cancer cells under cocultured conditions with the corresponding stromal cells. Twenty truncated peptide analogs of leucinostatin A revealed that the nonapeptide structure as a whole is essential for the biological activity. Alanine scanning demonstrated the importance of some of the amino acid components, including hydroxyleucine and the second leucine from the N-terminus. Two of the three aminoisobutyric acids could be substituted with one of the enantiomers of alanine, clearly demonstrating that each methyl group in these portions has a distinct influence on the growth-inhibitory activity.     

Indirect Synthesis System for Ammonia from Nitrogen and Water Using Nonthermal Plasma Under Ambient Conditions

The indirect synthesis of NH₃ from N₂ and H₂O through plasma processing is proposed and demonstrated. NH₃ is a promising hydrogen storage material because of its high hydrogen storage density. Mg₃N₂ is a key material for indirect NH₃ synthesis, because the reaction of Mg₃N₂ with water easily generates NH₃ at room temperature. In this paper, therefore, we focus on generating Mg₃N₂ by nitridation of MgO with nonthermal atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma in a N₂ atmosphere. By intermittent DBD nitridation treatment while the reaction device was cooled in a water bath, a maximum Mg₃N₂ generation efficiency of 93 mg/kWh was estimated. Because NH₃ is generated through a simple chemical reaction, our scheme does not cause NH₃ decomposition by plasma, which is one of the greatest concerns associated with plasma synthesis. Contrary to the conventional NH₃ generation process, which emits CO₂ and requires high temperature and pressure, our scheme enables NH₃ synthesis from N₂ and H₂O without CO₂ emissions. This allows for an onsite small-scale NH₃ synthesis system to be realized under mild conditions, which is necessary for a future low-carbon society.     

On subset-resilient hash function families

Designs, Codes and Cryptography - In this paper, we analyze the security of subset-resilient hash function families, which is first proposed as a requirement of a hash-based signature scheme called...