Evaluation of thallium-201 myocardial emission computed tomography based on a comparison with postmortem findings

The correlative study of myocardial perfusion assessed by 201Tl myocardial ECT with the pathological finding of the heart was performed in 10 autopsied cases with mean age of 77 years old (range: 60-90 y). In 6 cases with myocardial infarction (MI) 7 perfusion defects were observed, that was, 3 in anteroseptal wall, 1 in anterolateral wall and 3 in posterior wall on the images of SPECT. Seven MIs were also found in postmortem examination. Six MIs were observed at autopsy corresponding to perfusion defect on SPECT images. In one myocardial perfusion defect at inferoposterior portion on SPECT, a non-transmural MI was found at anteroseptum. In one case with valvular disease a false positive result was obtained at posterior wall where neither myocardial necrosis nor fibrosis was observed at autopsy. This case had aortic stenosis due to bicuspid aortic valve by autopsy. The ventricle was divided into 16 segments in each of 4 short axial images to evaluate extent of MI. SPECT for extent of MI showed sensitivity of 81.9%, specificity of 96.0% and diagnostic accuracy of 92.5%. False negative segment was apt to be observed at the surrounding of non-transmural MI or basal half of left ventricle (LV) with transmural MI, while false positive segment was at posterior portion of basal half of LV. It was concluded that myocardial ECT was useful for evaluation of the site and extent of MI.     

Numerical method of non-isothermal curve analysis by means of electrical resistance measurement during cooling

The temperature-dependence of the electrical resistance of Al-Zn 78 wt.% was measured during linear cooling of the samples in the range of eutectoidal decomposition. The resulting resistancevs. temperature curves were analysed by:

deriving the temperature-dependence of the volume fractionx(T) of theη precipitate;

fitting the theoretical functionx(T)=x _h (T)+x _c (T) following from numerical integration of the reaction rate equations for the simultaneously occurring homogeneous (H) and cellular (C) precipitation processes.

As a result, the activation energiesE _h andE _c , the JMA exponentsn _h andn _c , the rate constantsk _h andk _c , and the critical temperaturesT _o of the two processes were estimated.     

A general and convenient method for the synthesis of unesterified carbamoyl- and thiocarbamoyl-phosphonic acids

Unesterified carbamoyl- and thiocarbamoyl-phosphonic acids were prepared in high yields by the reaction of tris(trimethylsilyl) phosphite with isocyanates and isothiocyanates followed by treatment of the 1:1 carbonyl adducts with aniline-containing methanol.     

Immobilized cobalt/rhodium heterobimetallic nanoparticle-catalyzed silylcarbocylization and carbonylative silylcarbocyclization of 1,6-enynes

Reaction of 1,6-enynes with a hydrosilane in the presence of immobilized cobalt/rhodium bimetallic nanoparticles gives 2-methyl-1-silylmethylidene-2-cyclopentanes in the absence of carbon monoxide and 2-formylmethyl-1-silylmethylidene-2-cyclopentanes under 1 atm of carbon monoxide, respectively. [reaction: see text]     

A theoretical study of the sulphonium cation SH+3

Ab initio Hartree—Fock calculations with STO-3G functions have been performed to determine the structure (1.371 Å and 95.33°) of SH⁺₃ and the proton affinity (≈196 kcal/mol) of H₂S. Inclusion of a sulphur 3d function in the basis has been found essential to give a better geometry of SH⁺₃.     

Third- and fourth-order perturbation corrections to excitation energies from configuration interaction singles

Complete third-order and partial fourth-order Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation corrections to excitation energies from configuration interaction singles (CIS) have been derived and termed CIS(3) and CIS(4)(P). They have been implemented by the automated system TENSOR CONTRACTION ENGINE into parallel-execution programs taking advantage of spin, spatial, and index permutation symmetries and applicable to closed- and open-shell molecules. The consistent use of factorization, first introduced by Head-Gordon et al. in the second-order correction to CIS denoted CIS(D), has reduced the computational cost of CIS(3) and CIS(4)(P) from O(n(8)) and O(n(6)) to O(n(6)) and O(n(5)), respectively, with n being the number of orbitals. It has also guaranteed the size extensivity of excited-state energies of these methods, which are in turn the sum of size-intensive excitation energies and the ground-state energies from the standard M?ller-Plesset perturbation theory at the respective orders. The series CIS(D), CIS(3), and CIS(4)(P) are usually monotonically convergent at values close to the accurate results predicted by coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) with a small fraction of computational costs of CCSD for predominantly singly excited states characterized by a 90%-100% overlap between the CIS and CCSD wave functions. When the overlap is smaller, the perturbation theory is incapable of adequately accounting for the mixing of the CIS states through higher-than-singles sectors of the Hamiltonian matrix, resulting in wildly oscillating series with often very large errors in CIS(4)(P). Hence, CIS(3) and CIS(4)(P) have a rather small radius of convergence and a limited range of applicability, but within that range they can be an inexpensive alternative to CCSD.     

A novel synthesis of 2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐thieno[3,4‐b]pyrroles via ring transformation of cyclic sulfonium ylides by titanium(IV) chloride‐triethylamine system

A series of cyclic sulfonium ylides 4a‐h reacted with titanium( IV ) chloride in the presence of triethyl‐amine to give the corresponding fused 2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐thieno[3,4‐b]pyrroles 5a‐h , via a ring opening and recyclization. In contrast, treatment of compounds 4a, 4b, 4e and 4f with titanium(IV) chloride, triethy‐lamine and dimethylamine hydrochloride gave the corresponding thiophenes 6a, 6b, 6e and 6f . Furthermore, compounds 6a and 6b easily underwent cyclization with sodium hydride to afford the corresponding 5a and 5b .     

Electron paramagnetic resonance study of partially oriented clay platelets intercalated with copper(II) 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of powder and oriented films of montmorillonite, hectorite, and saponite intercalated with [Cu(cyclam)](2+) (cyclam = 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane) exhibit three components: an orientation-dependent component without hyperfine features, an orientation-dependent component with hyperfine features, and an orientation-independent component without hyperfine feature. EPR spectra of [Cu(cyclam)](2+)-saponite, which exhibit only two components and the best resolved hyperfine features, were simulated. The spectra indicate that a large portion of the saponite platelets are inclined to the glass surface, although they tend to align with their basal planes parallel to the glass surface. The orientation-dependent spectra could be simulated by introducing a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation of 20 degrees for the inclination angle. The standard deviation may be used as a disorder parameter for the microcrystals assembled on glass plates. Spectral simulation also shows that the CuN(4) plane of [Cu(cyclam)](2+) is parallel to the clay layers. EPR spectra of some other partially oriented systems are also discussed.     

Purification and characterization of recombinant murine endostatin in E. coli

Endostatin, a carboxyl-terminal fragment of collagen XVIII is known as an anti-angiogenic agent, that specifically inhibits the proliferation of endothelial cell and the growth of several primary tumor. We report here the purification and characterization of the recombinant murine endostatin (rmEndostatin) which was expressed in a prokaryotic expression system. This rmEndostatin has similar physiochemical properties of yeast-produced recombinant endostatin, and it also specifically inhibits the proliferation and migration of bovine capillary endothelial cells stimulated by basic fibroblast growth factor. The biological activity of rmEndostatin was also shown by its anti-angiogenic ability on the chorioallantoic membrane of chick embryo in vivo. In this article, we demonstrate the refolding and purification of rmEndostatin, expressed using E. coli system, to a biologically active and soluble form. In addition, these results confirm the activity of endostatin as a potent anti-angiogenic agent.