Spontaneous formation of narrowly‐distributed self‐assembly from polyamidoamine dendron‐poly(L‐lysine) block copolymers through helix‐coil transition of poly(L‐lysine) block

The self‐assembly of head‐tail type block copolymers composed of polyamidoamine dendron head block and poly(L ‐lysine) (PLL) tail block was studied using a light scattering technique and transmission electron microscopy. A PLL tail block in a head‐tail type block copolymer exhibits a coil‐to‐helix transition as a result of the change in solvent quality from water to methanol. When the PLL tail block takes a helical conformation in high methanol content, the resulting head‐tail type block copolymer has a defined three‐dimensional structure like that of a protein molecule. Self‐assemblies of such block copolymers having a totally fixed molecular shape spontaneously form polymersome‐like self‐assemblies with an extremely narrow size distribution through converging to a thermodynamically stable assembling state. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 1217–1223, 2009     

Engineering strain-sensitive yellow fluorescent protein

Various biological events including muscle contraction and vesicle transport can be described as a mechanical process. Many of the corresponding proteins are thus required to generate or sense a force. Here we describe a strain-sensitive yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) recombinant that can detect the intramolecular strains these proteins experience.     

Thiacalix[3]pyridine produces a stable mononuclear rhodium(II) complex with mutual Jahn-Teller effect

Thiacalix[3]pyridine (Py3S3) consists of pyridines and bridging sulfur atoms producing a stable octahedral mononuclear Rh(II) complex [Rh(II)(Py3S3)2]2+ showing mutual Jahn-Teller effect, a metal based reversible redox couple of Rh(III/II) at 0.02 V vs. SCE and a g(perpendicular) > g(||) relationship in EPR measurements.     

A note on integral bases of unramified cyclic extensions of prime degree. II

Let p be a prime number and K a number field containing a primitive p-th root of unity. It is known that an unramified cyclic extension L/K of degree p has a power integral basis if it has a normal integral basis. We show that for all p, the converse is not true in general. Received: 18 July 2000 / Revised version: 18 October 2000     

Positronium in a layered-structure material: Montmorillonite

Positron-lifetime and Doppler-broadened spectra were measured for ion-exchanged (Na⁺, Zn²⁺, Al³⁺, Cu²⁺ and alkylammonium) montmorillonites (mont). The line-shape parameters of the spectra for alkylammonium-intercalated monts were almost equal to those observed for the corresponding alkylammonium salts used for the intercalation. Upon exchange of diamagnetic ions in the interlayer spaces of mont for paramagnetic Cu²⁺ ions, the longest-lived component ascribed to ortho-positronium (Ps) was shortened from ca 1 to 0.62 ns, and the Doppler-broadened spectrum was narrowed. These results demonstrate that Ps atoms are predominantly distributed in the interlayer spaces of mont, rather than in the aluminosilicate layers.     

Solid-state photoelectron transfer in powdery nanocomposites comprised of a sensitiser, photoacid generators and silica nanoparticles

The dry beads milling of a mixture of 9,10-dipropoxyanthracene (DPA) as an electron donor and surface-modified silica nanoparticles was conducted in the absence or in the presence of a photoacid generator (PAG) as an electron acceptor to give powdery nanocomposites. Fluorescence measurements indicated no mechanochemical change in the crystal structure of DPA after the nanohybridisation. The co-milling with PAG resulted in solid-state fluorescence quenching, whereas quenching efficiency was considerably dependent on the nature of PAG. The solid-state sensitised photoacid generation through the electron transfer was demonstrated by the solid-state photocolouration of leuco-dye of crystal violet lactone.     

Cu(II)-selective fluorescence of a bis-quinolylimine derivative

A new bis-quinolylimine ligand containing an azadiene moiety, 1,4-bis(2-quinolyl)-2,3-diaza-1,3-buthadiene (1), was synthesized by one-step facile condensation. This simple ligand, when dissolved in acetonitrile, shows a Cu²⁺-selective fluorescence enhancement. Coordination of 1 with Cu²⁺ produces two kinds of complexes with 1:1 and 1:2 stoichiometries. The 1:2 complex shows a strong fluorescence (Φ_F = 0.37), while the 1:1 complex does not (Φ_F < 0.01). Ab initio molecular orbital calculation reveals that the 1:1 complex has a distorted structure, while the 1:2 complex has a planar structure. The planar configuration of the 1:2 complex, therefore, allows an extended π-conjugation over the entire molecule and, hence, results in fluorescence enhancement.     

Triviality of Iwasawa module associated to some abelian fields of prime conductors

Let p be an odd prime number and \(\ell \) an odd prime number dividing \(p-1\). We denote by \(F=F_{p,\ell }\) the real abelian field of conductor p and degree \(\ell \), and by \(h_F\) the class number of F. For a prime number \(r \ne p,\,\ell \), let \(F_{\infty }\) be the cyclotomic \(\mathbb {Z}_r\)-extension over F, and \(M_{\infty }/F_{\infty }\) the maximal pro-r abelian extension unramified outside r. We prove that \(M_{\infty }\) coincides with \(F_{\infty }\) and consequently \(h_F\) is not divisible by r when r is a primitive root modulo \(\ell \) and r is smaller than an explicit constant depending on p.     

CALET Results after Three Years on Orbit on the International Space Station

Physics of Atomic Nuclei - The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is an astroparticle physics experiment installed on the International Space Station since August 2015. The CALET mission was...