ESR study of molecular dynamics and orientation of TEMPO included in organic 1-D nanochannel

A mixture of 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxyl (TEMPO) radical and 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidine (TEMP) was included into organic 1-D nanochannels of tris(o-phenylenedioxy)cyclotriphosphazene (TPP) crystal. Dilution of the paramagnetic TEMPO radical was achieved with excess TEMP, thereby isolating a TEMPO molecule in the nanochannel. For inclusion compounds of TPP with TEMPO and TEMP (TEMPO/all guest compounds = 0.017, and 0.15), temperature-dependent electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra were observed to investigate their molecular dynamics and orientation. In the temperature range from 112 K to room temperature, the spectra depended remarkably on the temperature. Temperature dependence was well interpreted by uniaxial rotation, suggesting that TEMPO molecules undergo uniaxial rotation about a channel axis with a molecular orientation in which the N-O bond in the nitroxide group is perpendicular to the channel axis. The activation energy of uniaxial rotation was evaluated as 4.5 +/- 0.3 kJ mol(-1).     

High-speed solubility screening assay using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry in drug discovery

Ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) was investigated as an alternative to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for analyzing pharmaceutical drug candidates. We previously developed a 96-well-based high-speed solubility assay system (HSSOL) using HPLC/UV and a LogD assay system (HSLogD) using HPLC/MS [Y. Dohta, T. Yamashita, S. Horiike, T. Nakamura, T. Fukami, Anal. Chem. 79 (2007) 8312]. We have introduced the UPLC/MS system into this previously developed HSSOL system to increase throughput. Results obtained by the UPLC/MS and HPLC/UV systems showed good agreement, validating the usefulness of the UPLC/MS system. A high-speed solubility assay system was developed employing the UPLC/MS system, thereby tripling the throughput.     

The unexpected isolation of CTP-431, a novel thiopyrone from the sponge Cacospongia mycofijiensis

A reinvestigation of a Fijian collection of Cacospongia mycofijiensis has yielded the known mycothiazole and a novel heterocyclic, CTP-431 (1). Its structure including absolute configuration as 8R,9R,10S,13S was established using NMR data, calculated DFT (13)C chemical shifts and results from X-ray crystallography. It is possible that the tricyclic skeleton of CTP-431 (1) is biosynthetically related to the macrolide latrunculin A, however the thiopyrone moiety of 1 has no previous precedent in natural products chemistry.     

Mammalian laryngseal air sacs add variability to the vocal tract impedance: physical and computational modeling

Cavities branching off the main vocal tract are ubiquitous in nonhumans. Mammalian air sacs exist in human relatives, including all four great apes, but only a substantially reduced version exists in humans. The present paper focuses on acoustical functions of the air sacs. The hypotheses are investigated on whether the air sacs affect amplitude of utterances and/or position of formants. A multilayer synthetic model of the vocal folds coupled with a vocal tract model was utilized. As an air sac model, four configurations were considered: open and closed uniform tube-like side branches, a rigid cavity, and an inflatable cavity. Results suggest that some air sac configurations can enhance the sound level. Furthermore, an air sac model introduces one or more additional resonance frequencies, shifting formants of the main vocal tract to some extent but not as strongly as previously suggested. In addition, dynamic range of vocalization can be extended by the air sacs. A new finding is also an increased variability of the vocal tract impedance, leading to strong nonlinear source-filter interaction effects. The experiments demonstrated that air-sac-like structures can destabilize the sound source. The results were validated by a transmission line computational model.     

Formation mechanism of one-dimensional Si islands on a H/Si(001) surface

The formation mechanism of one-dimensional Si islands on a H/Si(001)-(2x1) surface is studied using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. We observed that one-dimensional islands that are made from dimer chains are formed at the initial growth stages similar to the bare Si(001) surface. It is found that the number of odd-numbered dimer chains is larger than that of even-numbered dimer chains. We propose the growth processes of the two types of growth edges to explain the observation.     

Adsorption of pyridine on a polycrystalline gold electrode surface studied by infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy

The adsorption behavior of pyridine on a smooth polycrystalline gold electrode surface was investigated over a wide wavenumber region (2000–500 cm⁻¹) by in situ infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS). The reversible adsorption/desorption of pyridine was observed upon the change in applied electrode potential, and the adsorption state at positive potentials was found to depend strongly on the kind of halide ion used as a supporting electrolyte. Symmetry analysis of absorption bands observed revealed that pyridine molecules adsorb with the molecular axis (C₂ axis) perpendicular to the electrode surface (vertical configuration) at positive potentials in 0.5 M KF, KCl and KBr solutions. A band due to the out-of-plane bending mode of the adsorbed pyridine molecule was observed at potentials more negative than ca. 0 V for 0.5 M KF solution containing 100 mM pyridine. We concluded that even in the 100 mM pyridine solution, adsorbed pyridine forms a monolayer and that the molecules reorient from a flat (parallel) to the vertical configuration as the potential becomes less negative. No bands due to adsorbed pyridine were detected for 0.5 M KI solution. The amount of adsorbed pyridine was found to depend strongly on the strength of specific adsorption of halide ions.     

Limits of Hodge Structure in Several Variables

We define the notion of a morphism of generalized semi-stable type, which is a generalization of the notion of a semistable degeneration over a curve. We partially generalize Steenbrink's results on the limit of Hodge structures to the case of such a morphism. As an application we prove the E1-degeneration of the relative Hodge–De Rham spectral sequence for this case.     

Positron annihilation and Xe NMR studies of free volume in polymers

The existence and the average size of free volume in bisphenol-A polycarbonate (PC), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), poly (2,6-dimethyl-phenyleneoxide)(PPO), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) were studied by positron annihilation and ¹²⁹Xe NMR measurements. The ¹²⁹Xe NMR chemical shifts for xenon adsorbed in the polymers indicated that the average pore size of the free volume increased in the following order: PC, LDPE, PPO, and PTFE. This order of the pore size of the free volume agrees well with that estimated from the longest lifetime (τ₃) of ortho-positronium formed in the polymers. The unique correlation that δ⁻¹∝ r is established between the ¹²⁹Xe NMR chemical shift (δ) and the pore size (r), which is deduced from the positron annihilation measurements.