Multiplex amplified product-length polymorphism analysis for rapid detection of human mitochondrial DNA variations.

A number of mutations in coding and noncoding regions of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have previously been studied. In the present study, we simultaneously typed six mutation sites in the coding region by use of amplified product-length polymorphism (APLP) analysis. The mtDNA variations of 2471 individuals from 20 populations of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and German were examined and classified into 18 haplotypes. Two of these haplotypes, B1 (estimated ancestral haplotype) and C1, were distributed among all populations tested. However, the haplotypes A1, A2, B2, B3, and C2 were mostly restricted to the Mongoloid populations, whereas haplotypes B5 and C5 appeared almost exclusively in the German population. Phylogenetic analysis by the neighbor-joining method revealed that the Japanese populations were more closely related to each other than to the other East Asian populations surveyed. The multiplex APLP method is suitable for large-scale screening studies of mtDNA variability because it is both rapid and economical.     

Statistical behavior of post-shock overpressure past grid turbulence

When a shock wave ejected from the exit of a 5.4-mm inner diameter, stainless steel tube propagated through grid turbulence across a distance of 215 mm, which is 5–15 times larger than its integral length scale \(L_{u}\) , and was normally incident onto a flat surface; the peak value of post-shock overpressure, \(\Delta P_{\mathrm{peak}}\) , at a shock Mach number of 1.0009 on the flat surface experienced a standard deviation of up to about 9 % of its ensemble average. This value was more than 40 times larger than the dynamic pressure fluctuation corresponding to the maximum value of the root-mean-square velocity fluctuation, \(u^{\prime }= 1.2~\hbox {m}/\hbox {s}\) . By varying \(u^{\prime }\) and \(L_{u}\) , the statistical behavior of \(\Delta P_{\mathrm{peak}}\) was obtained after at least 500 runs were performed for each condition. The standard deviation of \(\Delta P_{\mathrm{peak}}\) due to the turbulence was almost proportional to \(u^{{\prime }}\) . Although the overpressure modulations at two points 200 mm apart were independent of each other, we observed a weak positive correlation between the peak overpressure difference and the relative arrival time difference.     

Formation of transient pairs of F and H centers at next nearest neighbor sites in alkali chloride crystals studied by the time delayed double excitation spectroscopy in picosecond range

Abstract

By making use of the time delayed double excitation spectroscopy, transient absorption spectra just after the excitation of self-trapped excitons (STE) from the lowest triplet state to higher excited states have been observed to find the transient F-H center pair [F-H]. Absorption bands due to transient [F-H] appeared as a doublet peaking at 2.70eV and 2.86eV (NaCl), at 2.25eV and 2.38eV (KCl) and at 1.97eV and 2.09eV (RbCl) at 108ps after the excitation. The ratio of peak heights between bands at low and high energy sides was 2:1 in all crystals. The results were tentatively understood by a recent theory for the STE by Song et al. (1987).     

Development of an energy‐domain 57Fe‐Mössbauer spectrometer using synchrotron radiation and its application to ultrahigh‐pressure studies with a diamond anvil cell

An energy‐domain ⁵⁷Fe‐Mössbauer spectrometer using synchrotron radiation (SR) with a diamond anvil cell (DAC) has been developed for ultrahigh‐pressure measurements. The main optical system consists of a single‐line pure nuclear Bragg reflection from an oscillating ⁵⁷FeBO₃ single crystal near the Néel temperature and an X‐ray focusing device. The developed spectrometer can filter the Doppler‐shifted single‐line ⁵⁷Fe‐Mössbauer radiation with a narrow bandwidth of neV order from a broadband SR source. The focused incident X‐rays make it easy to measure a small specimen in the DAC. The present paper introduces the design and performance of the SR ⁵⁷Fe‐Mössbauer spectrometer and its demonstrative applications including the newly discovered result of a pressure‐induced magnetic phase transition of polycrystalline ⁵⁷Fe₃BO₆ and an unknown high‐pressure phase of Gd⁵⁷Fe₂ alloy placed in a DAC under high pressures up to 302 GPa. The achievement of Mössbauer spectroscopy in the multimegabar range is of particular interest to researchers studying the nature of the Earth's core.     

Kinetic and theoretical studies of metal ion adsorption in KDP solution

Metal ion adsorption in saturated aqueous potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution was analyzed using kinetic, equilibrium model and computational chemistry approaches. The isotherm constants (K_F and n) in the Freundlich model and the first order Lagergren kinetic model parameter k assist with a general understanding of the fundamental adsorption behavior of trivalent and divalent metal ions. The electrostatic force based on electrostatic potential distribution was found to be an essential feature for metal ion adsorption via a correlation between the ESP values of each metal ion and these experimental parameters.     

Vortex states in mesoscopic single crystals Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ in high magnetic fields

The c-axis resistivity measurements were performed in the vicinity of the ab-plane in order to investigate the interaction between Josephson vortices and pancake vortices in Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δ mesoscopic single crystals. It was found that the angular dependence of the c-axis resistivity drastically changes in high magnetic field regime. The vortex lock-in transition becomes considerably broad in high magnetic fields, while the angular dependence of resistance exhibits the sharp lock-in features in low magnetic field region.     

Synthesis of cinnamyl-sesamol derivatives

A simple synthetic route to cinnamyl-sesamols has been developed starting from sesamol via Claisen rearrangement followed by olefin metathesis reaction.     

Clarification of the role of protein in carbonmonoxy myoglobin by investigating electronic states

This article reports the proton tautomerization effects of distal histidine residues in carbonmonoxy myoglobin according to the density functional calculations of the whole protein. The electron eigenstates and electrostatic potential (ESP) distributed around heme and its pocket vary significantly depending on the protonation positions of the distal histidine residues. To investigate the range over which the electronic structures are affected by the proton tautomerization, the quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) method is applied to probe the QM size to reproduce the atomic partial charges and ESP around the active center. Consequently, we show that these properties converged for the 300 pm QM/MM system in this study. During the analysis, we also find that amino residues such as Phe43, Val68, and Phe138 interact strongly with heme through orbital mixing, indicating that the protein is a medium not only interacting with the reaction center, but also buffering on electrons. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Synthesis and crystal structure of a Pr5Ni19 superlattice alloy and its hydrogen absorption-desorption property

The intermetallic compound Pr(5)Ni(19), which is not shown in the Pr-Ni binary phase diagram, was synthesized, and the crystal structure was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Two superlattice reflections with the Sm(5)Co(19)-type structure (002 and 004) and the Pr(5)Co(19)-type structure (003 and 006) were observed in the 2θ region between 2° and 15° in the XRD pattern using Cu Kα radiation. Rietveld refinement provided the goodness-of-fit parameter S = 6.7 for the Pr(5)Co(19)-type (3R) structure model and S = 1.7 for the Sm(5)Co(19)-type (2H) structure model, indicating that the synthesized compound has a Sm(5)Co(19) structure. The refined lattice parameters were a = 0.50010(9) nm and c = 3.2420(4) nm. The high-resolution TEM image also clearly revealed that the crystal structure of Pr(5)Ni(19) is of the Sm(5)Co(19) type, which agrees with the results from Rietveld refinement of the XRD data. The P-C isotherm of Pr(5)Ni(19) in the first absorption was clearly different from that in the first desorption. A single plateau in absorption and three plateaus in desorption were observed. The maximum hydrogen storage capacity of the first cycle reached 1.1 H/M, and that of the second cycle was 0.8 H/M. The 0.3 H/M of hydrogen remained in the metal lattice after the first desorption process.