Isolation of mitogenic substance from sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum IFO 9395 extracted with phosphate buffer.

The buffer extracts (3S) of sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum IFO 9395 contained mitogenic substance(s) to murine splenocytes (Shinohara et al. Chem. Pharm. Bull., 38, 2219 (1990)). Although the native 3S was slightly mitogenic, heating of 3S induced significant mitogenic activity. To isolate the mitogen, we separated 3S by ion-exchange and gel filtration chromatographies. The isolated mitogen, named sclerogen, has a molecular mass of 32 kilodaltons (kDa) on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and the isoelectric point (pI) of 5.9 by chromatofocusing. Sclerogen was significantly mitogenic in vitro against murine splenocytes after heat denaturation, and also showed the augmentation of the primary mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) in vitro. However, sclerogen did not show the activation of an alternative pathway of complement and hemagglutination activity. These results suggest that sclerogen is a unique mitogen which differs from lectins and shows mitogenicity after heat denaturation.     

Influence of copper solute on the creep rate sensitivities of aluminium

The presence of copper atoms as continuous networks at the grain boundaries of an aluminium-copper alloy has been considered not preventing the moving of dislocations during creep (or at least partially). The dislocations can bs absorbed by these boundaries and penetrate through them. That leads to changés of shape and structure of grains and also to the sliding of grains against each other. This was deduced from the accelerating increase in the sensitivity of the steady state creep rate to the applied stress of an aluminium 2·8 wt% copper alloy examined at wide range of temperatures (50–350 °C) and applied stresses (7–170 MPa). This rapid increase in the sensitivity parameter of the steady state creep rate occurs in Al-Cu alloys at quite higher ranges of applied stresses and may be attributed mainly to the contribution of the grain boundary movements to the creep strain.     

Exact soliton solutions of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We study matter-wave solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold gaseous atoms with spin degrees of freedom and present a class of exact solutions based on the inverse scattering method. The one-soliton solutions are classified with respect to the spin states. We analyze collisional effects between solitons in the same or different spin state(s), which reveals a very interesting possibility: we can manipulate the spin dynamics by controlling the parameters of colliding solitons.     

3D-TOFSIMS characterization of black spots in polymer light emitting diodes

The occurrence and formation of black spots areas in PolyLED devices has been studied by time-of-flight SIMS (TOFSIMS). The composition, shape and position of the black spots is visualised by three-dimensional (3D)-TOFSIMS depth-profiling. It has been established that the formation of non-emissive spots is due to the growth of aluminium oxide clusters at the AlBa/polymer interface. Electron injection in the black spots is lost by the resulting local increase of the resistivity of the cathode.     

Specific features of photoisomerization of provitamin D 3 in a nematic liquid crystal

Photoisomerization of provitamin D ₃ (7-dehydrocholesterol) in a nematic liquid crystal (ZLI-1695, Merck) is investigated in detail by UV absorption spectroscopy. It is found that dissolution of chiral molecules of provitamin D ₃ induces the cholesteric phase in a nematic. The spectral kinetics of photoisomerization in this phase changes significantly from that in an ethanol solution. A sharp nonmonotonic dependence of the increase in accumulation of trans isomer tachysterol in a liquid crystal matrix with a decrease in the induced cholesteric pitch from 2200 to 25 μm is revealed.     

Negative molecular ions of azafullerenes and their hydrogenated derivatives

The formation and decay of negative molecular ions of azafullerenes and their hydrogenated derivatives are investigated by mass spectrometry. The mechanisms of resonant electron capture and the lifetimes of negative molecular ions with respect to the electron autodetachment in azafullerene molecules are discussed. A comparative analysis of the data obtained for azafullerenes and hydrogenated fullerene derivatives is carried out.     

C- and N-Amidotrichloroethylation of Azoles

1H-Pyrazoles, triazoles, and imidazoles in reaction with ethoxycarbonylimine and arylsulfonylimines of chloral yield addition products, corresponding 1-(1-amidotrichloroethyl)azoles. Derivatives of 1-alkylpyrazoles and pyrazolones react with chloral 4-chlorophenylsulfonylimine to furnish products of C-amidotrichloroethylation into position 4 of the azole ring.     

Rehabilitation of the Gauss-Jordan algorithm

Summary In this paper a Gauss-Jordan algorithm with column interchanges is presented and analysed. We show that, in contrast with Gaussian elimination, the Gauss-Jordan algorithm has essentially differing properties when using column interchanges instead of row interchanges for improving the numerical stability. For solutions obtained by Gauss-Jordan with column interchanges, a more satisfactory bound for the residual norm can be given. The analysis gives theoretical evidence that the algorithm yields numerical solutions as good as those obtained by Gaussian elimination and that, in most practical situations, the residuals are equally small. This is confirmed by numerical experiments. Moreover, timing experiments on a Cyber 205 vector computer show that the algorithm presented has good vectorisation properties.