Evaluation of hydrophobic interaction between acidic drugs and bovine serum albumin by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

The contribution of hydrophobic interaction to the protein binding of acidic drugs has been evaluated in terms of a new hydrophobic index (r-value), defined as the slope of the log-log plots of capacity factor vs. reciprocal of methanol concentration in an aqueous binary mobile phase, measured by the reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The logarithms of the binding constants (log K1) of the selected acidic drugs and the related aromatic carboxylic acids indicated linear relationship with their r-values, suggesting that the effect of hydrophobicity on protein binding can be explained similarly to that on the retention onto the reversed-phase stationary ligand.     

Degree of roots of disk twists on 3-dimensional handlebodies

Margalit and Schleimer (Geom Topol 13(3):1495–1497, 2009) discovered a nontrivial root of the Dehn twist about a nonseparating curve on a closed oriented connected surface. McCullough and Rajeevsarathy (Geom Dedicata 151(1):397–409, 2011) and Monden (Rocky Mt J Math, to appear) obtained the evaluation of the degrees of roots of Dehn twists. In this paper, we discuss existence and degrees of homeomorphisms whose power is equal to disk twist about a nonseparating disk in the mapping class group of the 3-dimensional handlebody.     

Surfaces in 4-manifolds and their mapping class groups

A surface in a smooth 4-manifold is called flexible if, for any diffeomorphism ? on the surface, there is a diffeomorphism on the 4-manifold whose restriction on the surface is ? and which is isotopic to the identity. We investigate a sufficient condition for a smooth 4-manifold M to include flexible knotted surfaces, and introduce a local operation in simply connected 4-manifolds for obtaining a flexible knotted surface from any knotted surface.     

Synthesis and properties of optically active phosphine-boranes possessing an l-menthyloxy group

(SP)-9-Anthryl(l-menthyloxy)phenylphosphine-borane and (SP)-(1-l-menthyloxy)benzo[b]phosphole-borane were synthesized, and their structures were characterized by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The latter compound was reduced by lithium naphthalenide at −78°C with cleavage of the P O bond, and the subsequent reaction with electrophiles afforded the corresponding tertiary phosphine-boranes possessing good to excellent enantiomeric excesses.     

Effect of filler shape on mechanical properties of rigid polyurethane composites containing plant particles

The effect of types of fillers on mechanical properties of rigid polyurethane composite samples was investigated. Polyurethane (PU) composites were prepared using a molasses polyol (MP, a mixture of molasses and polyethylene glycol, Mw=200) diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) and fillers. The following plant particles, bamboo powder, roast bamboo powder, wood meal, coffee grounds, ground coffee bean parchment and cellulose powder, were used as fillers. The mixture of MP and fillers was reacted with MDI by adding an adequate amount of acetone as a solvent. The content of fillers was defined as the ratio of filler weight to total weight of polyol and fillers. The filler content was varied from 10 to 90 wt%. Polyurethane (PU) composites were prepared using fillers with MP. Lengths of major axis and minor axis for each particle regarded as an ellipse were measured using an optical microscope. Averages of diameter and aspect ratio were derived for each plant particle. The relationships between these average values and the mechanical properties, such as strength and elastic modulus, determined by the compression tests were investigated. The effect of filler content was estimated using the apparent volume ratio which is determined as the ratio of the apparent volume of fillers to the reciprocal values of the apparent density of samples. The master curves of the relationships between the specific values of mechanical properties and the apparent volume ratio were obtained. It was found that the compression strength and the elastic modulus for composite samples with different fillers showed maximum values at average aspect ratio around 3. It was also found that the apparent volume ratio, where the mechanical properties showed maximums, decreases with increasing aspect ratio. Using master curves, it is possible to evaluate the mechanical properties of plant particle filled polyurethane composites are described.