Thermosonimetry of the phase II/III transition of hexachloroethane

A thermosonimetric study has shown that the Phase II/III polymorphic transition of hexachloroethane emits acoustic signals. This solid-solid phase transition is known to occur by a nucleation-growth process during which a nucleus of the new phase, once formed, grows at the expense of the mother phase to form a complete crystal without fracture. Acoustic emissions from a conditioned multi-crystal sample have been used to study the transition. Acoustic activity correlated well with dilatometric measurements. Frequency analysis on waveforms of many hundreds of individual acoustic emissions revealed marked differences between individual signals. Principal-components analysis on 24 signal features revealed a single dispersed cluster with a highly non-uniform distribution of signals. These experiments provided highly reproducible average power spectra. Time-resolved acoustic power spectra were also generated. These additional types of information cannot be obtained by other techniques.     

Molecular characteristics of the inhibition of human neutrophil elastase by nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs

Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs(NSAIDs) are known as clinically effective agents for treatment of inflammatory diseases. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase has been thought to be a major facet of the pharmacological mechanism of NSAIDs. However, it is difficult to ascribe the antiinflammatory effects of NSAIDs solely to the inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis. Human neutrophil elastase (HNElastase; HNE, EC 3.4.21.37) has been known as a causative factor in inflammatory diseases. To investigate the specific relationship between HNElastase inhibition and specificity of molecular structure of several NSAIDs, HNElastase was purified by Ultrogel AcA54 gel filtration, CM-Sephadex ion exchange, and HPLC (with TSK 250 column) chromatography. HNElastase was inhibited by aspirin and salicylate in a competitive manner and by naproxen, ketoprofen, phenylbutazone, and oxyphenbutazone in a partial competative manner, but not by ibuprofen and tolmetin. HNElastase-phenylbutazone-complex showed strong Raman shifts at 200, 440, 1124, 1194, 1384, 1506, and 1768 cm(-1). The Raman bands 1194, 1384, and 1768 cm(-1) may represent evidences of the conformational change at -N=N-phi radical, pyrazol ring, and -C=O radical of the elastase-drug complex, respectively. Phenylbutazone might be bound to HNElastase by ionic and hydrophobic interaction, and masked the active site. Inhibition of HNElastase could be another mechanism of action of NSAIDs besides cyclooxygenase inhibition in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Different inhibition characteristics of HNE-lastase by NSAIDs such as aspirin, phenylbutazone-like drugs and ineffective drugs could be important points for drawing the criteria for appropriate drugs in clinical application.     

Evaluation of Poisson solvation models using a hybrid explicit/implicit solvent method

Implicit solvent methods have become popular tools in the field of protein dynamics simulations, yet evaluation of their validity has been primarily limited to comparisons with experimental and theoretical data for small molecules. In this paper, we use a recently developed hybrid explicit/implicit solvent methodology to evaluate the accuracy of several Poisson-based implicit solvent models. Specifically, we focus on the calculation of electrostatic solvation free energies of various fixed conformations for two proteins. We show that, among various dielectric boundary definitions, the Lee-Richards molecular surface has the best agreement with hybrid solvent results. Furthermore, certain modifications of the molecular surface Poisson protocol provide varied results. For instance, simple modifications of atomic radii on charged residues generally improve absolute errors but do not significantly reduce relative errors among conformations. On the other hand, using a water-probe radius of 1.0 A, as opposed to the standard value of 1.4 A, to generate the molecular surface, moderately improves both absolute and relative results.     

Total internal reflection-based biochip utilizing a polymer-filled cavity with a micromirror sidewall

A total internal reflection (TIR)-based biochip utilizing a polymer-filled cavity with a micromirror sidewall has been designed and fabricated. The implementation of the micromirror sidewall cavity facilitates precise alignment of the excitation light beam into the system. The incident angle of illumination can be easily modified by selecting polymers of different indices of refraction while optical losses are minimized. The design enables the hybrid, vertical integration of a laser diode and a CCD camera, resulting in a compact optical system. Brownian motion of fluorescent microspheres and real-time photobleaching of rhodamine 6G molecules is demonstrated. The proposed TIR-based chip simplifies current TIR optical configurations and could potentially be used as an optical-microfluidic platform for an integrated lab-on-a-chip microsystem.     

Preferred dimerization of tetra-tolyl- and tetra-tosylurea derivatives of flexible and rigidified calix[4]arenes

The dimerization of tetratolyl- and tetratosyl-urea derivatives 1 and 2, derived from a tetrapentoxy calix[4]arene in the cone conformation and of the corresponding tetra-urea derivatives 3 and 4, in which the cone conformation is rigidified by the two crown-3 tethers, have been studied. All six possible equimolar mixtures were examined by 1H NMR using CDCl3 and CD2Cl2 as solvents. While no heterodimers are found for the combinations 1/3 and 2/4 in either solvent, all remaining combinations lead to the (exclusive) formation of heterodimers in CD2Cl2. In CDCl3 heterodimers are only observed for the combinations of 3 with 2 or 4. These results are discussed in terms of entropic and enthalpic contributions and compared with MD-simulations in a box of chloroform solvent molecules.     

Importance of the diamine reactant in the production of polyphosphonamides by the interfacial technique

The stirred interfacial polycondensation of phenylphosphonic dichloride and 1,6-hexanediamine has been studied as a function of several reaction variables. The reaction is rapid, being completed in less than 1 min. When organic solvent is varied and reactant molar ratio is varied with an excess of the acid chloride, yield is constant. When reactant molar ratio is varied polymer yield increases with increase in amine concentration. When reactant concentration is increased yield increases. With the addition of a soluble salt in the aqueous phase yield is increased. The above indicates that the diffusion of the amine to the reaction zone is of primary importance in determining polymerization rate and that the diffusion of the acid chloride is relatively unimportant. Polymer yield was found to be dependent on the pH of the amine in the aqueous phase. The observed trend is related to the apparent solubility of the amine in the aqueous phase such that the greater the apparent solubility of the amine, the less the polymer yield. Polymer molecular weight is found to be independent of reaction variables tested. Polymer was also formed from the condensation of phenylphosphonic dichloride with p-phenylenediamine, H₂N-D-NH₂ (where D is a 36-carbon hydrocarbon chain), 1,3-di-4-piperidylpropane, and 4-aminomethylpiperidine; phenyl phosphorodichloridate with 1,6-hexanediamine; chloromethyl phosphonic dichloride with 1,6-hexanediamine.     

Mössbauer and molecular orbital study of the myoglobin-CO complex

Experimental Mössbauer spectra of the Fe⁵⁷-enriched CO complex of sperm whale myoglobin (MbCO) at T= 4.2 K with and without applied magnetic field (H⊥γ) were measured to derive the sign of the electric field gradient (EFG), the quadrupole splitting ΔE _Q, and the isomer shift δ of the heme iron. We find a positive EFG, δE _Q = 0.363 mm/sec, and δ + 0.266 mm/sec. Molecular orbital calculations were carried out to obtain theoretical estimates of EFG and ΔE _Q for several steric arrangements of the CO ligand relative to the heme group. Our results are most consistent with the conclusion that the iron is situated in the heme plane, and that a bent geometry with a Fe-C-O angle of about 135 ° is more favorable than a more symmetric structure with a linear Fe-C-O geometry.     

Phenylated polyimides: Diels-Alder reaction of biscyclopentadienones with dimaleimides

A series of phenylated polydihydrophthalimides has been synthesized by the Diels-Alder reactions of 3,3′-(oxydi-p-phenylene)bis(2,4,5-triphenylcyclopentadienone) and 3,3′-(p-phenylene)bis(2,4,5-triphenylcyclopentadienone) with N,N′-o-, -m-, and -p-phenylenedimaleimide. The polydihydrophthalimides were soluble in dimethylformamide (DMF) and had intrinsic viscosities that ranged from 0.33 to 1.01, the polymers were dehydrogenated thermally and chemically to afford the corresponding phenylated polyphthalimides. The totally aromatic polyimides were also soluble in DMF but had intrinsic viscosities only as high as 0.41. The thermogravimetric analyses of the polyphthalimides showed breaks near 530°C in air and in nitrogen atmospheres.