A self-assembled helical anthracene nanofibre whose P- and M-isomers show unequal linear dichroism in a vortex

An anthracene derivative, having benzamide substituents bearing optically active alkyl chains, in hexane forms one-handedly biased helical supramolecular nanofibres, which show unequal linear dichroism (LD) in right- and left-handed vortex flows.     

Metric adjusted skew information and uncertainty relation

We show that an uncertainty relation for Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information proved by Yanagi (2010) [10] can hold for an arbitrary quantum Fisher information under some conditions. This is a refinement of the result of Gibilisco and Isola (2011) [4].     

Development of a far-red to near-infrared fluorescence probe for calcium ion and its application to multicolor neuronal imaging

To improve optical imaging of Ca(2+) and to make available a distinct color window for multicolor imaging, we designed and synthesized CaSiR-1, a far-red to near-infrared fluorescence probe for Ca(2+), using Si-rhodamine (SiR) as the fluorophore and the well-known Ca(2+) chelator BAPTA. This wavelength region is advantageous, affording higher tissue penetration, lower background autofluorescence, and lower phototoxicity in comparison with the UV to visible range. CaSiR-1 has a high fluorescence off/on ratio of over 1000. We demonstrate its usefulness for multicolor fluorescence imaging of action potentials (visualized as increases in intracellular Ca(2+)) in brain slices loaded with sulforhodamine 101 (red color; specific for astrocytes) that were prepared from transgenic mice in which some neurons expressed green fluorescent protein.     

Selective two-step labeling of proteins with an off/on fluorescent probe

We present a novel design strategy for off/on fluorescent probes suitable for selective two-step labeling of proteins. To validate this strategy, we designed and synthesized an off/on fluorescent probe, 1-Ni(2+), which targets a cysteine-modified hexahistidine (His) tag. The probe consists of dichlorofluorescein conjugated with nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA)-Ni(2+) as the His-tag recognition site and a 2,4-dinitrophenyl ether moiety, which quenches the probe's fluorescence by photoinduced electron transfer (PeT) from the excited fluorophore to the 2,4-dinitrophenyl ether (donor-excited PeT; d-PeT) and also has reactivity with cysteine. His-tag recognition by the NTA-Ni(2+) moiety is followed by removal of the 2,4-dinitrophenyl ether quencher by proximity-enhanced reaction with the cysteine residue of the modified tag; this results in a marked fluorescence increase. Addition of His-tag peptide bearing a cysteine residue to aqueous probe solution resulted in about 20-fold fluorescence increment within 10 min, which is the largest fluorescence enhancement so far obtained with a visible light-excitable fluorescent probe for a His-based peptide tag. Further, we successfully visualized CysHis(6)-peptide tethered to microbeads without any washing step. The probe also showed a large fluorescence increment in the presence of His(6)Cys-tagged enhanced blue fluorescent protein (EBFP), but not His(6)-tagged EBFP. We consider this system is superior to large fluorescence tags (e.g., green fluorescent protein: 27 kDa), which can perturb protein folding, trafficking and function, and also to existing small tags, which generally show little fluorescence increase upon target recognition and therefore require a washout step. This strategy should also be applicable to other tags.     

The Effect of pH on Emulsion Polymerization of Styrene in the Presence of an Amphoteric Emulsifier

The emulsion polymerization of styrene in the presence of an amphoteric emulsifier of the amino acid type, N-lauroyl-1-N, N-dimethyllysine (DMLL), has been studied at various pH values. The polymerization rate and the particle number concentration increased with increasing pH of the aqueous DMLL solution and these curves changed in slope at approximately pH 4 and pH 9. The physicochemical properties of the aqueous DMLL solution, such as CMC and the aggregation number, changed with the pH and similarly changed in slope at almost the same pH as the emulsion polymerization. These pH values were in good agreement with the pH at which the ionic form of the DMLL molecule changes. The number of latex particles formed changed in proportion to the number of DMLL micelles in the solution. The particle size and the molecular weight of the synthesized latex particles were also dependent on the physicochemical solution properties accompanying the change in the ionic forms of DMLL.     

A simple strategy for constructing bounded convection schemes for unstructured grids

Due to the great geometrical flexibility, popularity for unstructured grid methods in fluid dynamics has been increasing in recent years. In parallel with this interest there is a need for bounded second or higher order convection schemes which can be implemented easily in the unstructured setting. In the present work a simple strategy for achieving convective boundedness in the context of a vertex‐centered unstructured finite volume algorithm is demonstrated. Testing is carried out on an inviscid oblique step problem using both structured and unstructured grid arrangements. Further testing for numerical diffusion is done using a distorted grid in a two dimensional channel. The proposed scheme is straightforward to implement and is found to perform well for the cases considered. The overall algorithm converges well and the limiter appears to introduce little extra numerical diffusion beyond that inherently present in the base scheme. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rational Design of a Near‐infrared Fluorescence Probe for Ca2+ Based on Phosphorus‐substituted Rhodamines Utilizing Photoinduced Electron Transfer

Fluorescence imaging in the near‐infrared (NIR) region (650–900 nm) is useful for bioimaging because background autofluorescence is low and tissue penetration is high in this range. In addition, NIR fluorescence is useful as a complementary color window to green and red for multicolor imaging. Here, we compared the photoinduced electron transfer (PeT)‐mediated fluorescence quenching of silicon‐ and phosphorus‐substituted rhodamines (SiRs and PRs) in order to guide the development of improved far‐red to NIR fluorescent dyes. The results of density functional theory calculations and photophysical evaluation of a series of newly synthesized PRs confirmed that the fluorescence of PRs was more susceptible than that of SiRs to quenching via PeT. Based on this, we designed and synthesized a NIR fluorescence probe for Ca²⁺, CaPR‐1 , and its membrane‐permeable acetoxymethyl derivative, CaPR‐1 AM , which is distributed to the cytosol, in marked contrast to our previously reported Ca²⁺ far‐red to NIR fluorescence probe based on the SiR scaffold, CaSiR‐1 AM , which is mainly localized in lysosomes as well as cytosol in living cells. CaPR‐1 showed longer‐wavelength absorption and emission (up to 712 nm) than CaSiR‐1 . The new probe was able to image Ca²⁺ at dendrites and spines in brain slices, and should be a useful tool in neuroscience research.     

Comprehensive analysis of short peptides in sera from patients with IgA nephropathy

We analyzed serum short peptides comprehensively to know whether they were useful to characterize IgA nephropathy (IgAN). Serum samples from 26 patients with untreated IgAN and 25 healthy donors were tested. Short peptides with molecular weights of ～7 kDa, purified from the serum samples by magnetic‐beads‐based weak cation exchange, were detected by mass spectrometry. Then the peptide peaks detected were subjected to the multivariate data analysis by SIMCA‐P+® containing principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial‐least‐squares‐discriminate analysis (OPLS‐DA). A total of 92 peptide peaks were detected in the tested serum samples. The OPLS‐DA analysis revealed that the profile of all the peptide peak intensities discriminated the IgAN group and the healthy group completely with a high R2 value (0.919) and a high Q2 value (0.861). Further, the profile of only five peptide peaks was found to discriminate the two groups. By tandem mass spectrometry and database searching, three of the five peptides which increased in the IgAN group were identified as fragments of fibrinogen alpha chain, and the two peptides which increased in the healthy group were identified as fragments of complement C3f and kininogen‐1 light chain. Taken together, the profile of the serum short peptides would be useful to discriminate IgAN and healthy conditions. Further, the five peptides may be candidate serum markers for IgAN and may be related to pathogenesis of IgA. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability of spatially homogeneous periodic solutions of reaction-diffusion equations

When a certain condition is satisfied, a reaction-diffusion equation has a spatially homogeneous periodic solution, i.e. a temporally periodic solution that does not depend on spatial variables. We analyse the orbital stability of this periodic solution. A sufficient condition is given for the homogeneity breaking instability, which is stated in terms of the manner of dependency of its temporal period on a certain parameter of the system.