Structures of the dimeric and monomeric chromanones, gonytolides A-C, isolated from the fungus Gonytrichum sp. and their promoting activities of innate immune responses

Innate immunity is the front line of self-defense against microbial infection. After searching for natural substances that regulate innate immunity using an ex vivo Drosophila culture system, we identified a novel dimeric chromanone, gonytolide A, as an innate immune promoter from the fungus Gonytrichum sp. along with gonytolides B and C. Gonytolide A also increased TNF-α-stimulated production of IL-8 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells.     

Mechanistic understanding of multistep assembly of DNA with a carbazole ligand by simple adjustment of host-guest concentrations

Two alternative binding states are identified in interaction of calf thymus DNA with a partially hydrophobic carbazole ligand [(Im(+))(2)Cz], where biphasic UV-vis and circular dichroic (CD) spectral changes are apparent during the titration of calf thymus DNA with the carbazole ligand.     

syn-Selective asymmetric cross-aldol reactions between aldehydes and glyoxylic acid derivatives catalyzed by an axially chiral amino sulfonamide

syn-Selective asymmetric cross-aldol reactions of aldehydes with tert-butyl glyoxylate and glyoxamide were realized by the use of an axially chiral amino sulfonamide (S)-1. The cross-aldol products obtained are densely functionalized and readily converted to synthetically useful and important chiral building blocks such as γ-lactone and γ-lactam.     

On a Bound for Amplitudes of Navier�CStokes Flow with almost Periodic Initial Data

For any bounded (real) initial data it is known that there is a unique global solution to the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations. This paper is concerned with a bound for the sum of the modulus of amplitudes when initial velocity is spatially almost periodic in 2D. In the case of general dimension, it is bounded on local time of existence shown by Giga et al. (Methods Appl Anal 12:381–393,2005). A class of initial data is given such that the sum of the modulus of amplitudes of a solution is bounded on any finite time interval. It is shown by an explicit example that such a bound may diverge to infinity as the time goes to infinity at least for complex initial data.     

Optimal smoothing and interpolating splines with constraints

This paper considers the problem for designing optimal smoothing and interpolating splines with equality and/or inequality constraints. The splines are constituted by employing normalized uniform B-splines as the basis functions, namely as weighted sum of shifted B-splines of degree k. Then a central issue is to determine an optimal vector of the so-called control points. By employing such an approach, it is shown that various types of constraints are formulated as linear function of the control points, and the problems reduce to quadratic programming problems. We demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness by numerical examples including approximation of probability density functions, approximation of discontinuous functions, and trajectory planning.     

Shape-controllable gold nanocrystallization using an amphiphilic polythiophene

Fine shape-control of gold nanoparticles was achieved in the presence of an amphiphilic polythiophene with an isothiouronium pendant, by varying the experimental conditions for the crystallization; we succeeded to prepare π-conjugated polythiophene-capped Au nanoplates, Au nanocubes and Au nanoparticles with an average spherical diameter of (7.7 ± 1.6) nm.     

Preparation of high‐selective HPLC packing materials based on alternating copolymer‐grafted silica

Three alternating copolymer‐grafted silica stationary phases for use in high‐selective RP‐HPLC were prepared from two vinyl monomers selected from styrene, N‐methylmaleimide, N‐octadecylmaleimide, and octadecyl acrylate; they were characterized by elemental analyses, thermogravimetric analysis, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, and ¹³C cross‐polarization magic‐angle spinning NMR spectroscopy. Aspects of molecular‐shape selectivity were evaluated for three different columns using Standard Reference Material 869b, Column Selectivity Test Mixture for Liquid Chromatography. The best selectivity for isomer separations was obtained for the stationary phase prepared with a copolymer of octadecyl acrylate and N‐octadecylmaleimide, which was able to separate 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Standard Reference Material 1647e) in an isocratic elution. In this paper, the effectiveness of this phase is also demonstrated by separation of tocopherol isomers.     

Peptide Nanofibers Modified with a Protein by Using Designed Anchor Molecules Bearing Hydrophobic and Functional Moieties

Self‐assembly of peptides and proteins is a key feature of biological functions. Short amphiphilic peptides designed with a β‐sheet structure can form sophisticated nanofiber structures, and the fibers are available as nanomaterials for arranging biomolecules. Peptide FI (H‐PKFKIIEFEP‐OH) self‐assembles into nanofibers with a coiled fine structure, as reported in our previous work. We have constructed anchor molecules that have both a binding moiety for the fiber structure and a functional unit capable of capturing target molecules, with the purpose of arranging proteins on the designed peptide nanofibers. Designed anchors containing an alkyl chain as a binding unit and biotin as a functional moiety were found to bind to peptide fibers FI and F2i (H‐ALEAKFAAFEAKLA‐NH₂). The surface‐exposed biotin moiety on the fibers could capture an anti‐biotin antibody. Moreover, hydrophobic dipeptide anchor units composed of iminodiacetate connected to Phe–Phe or Ile–Ile and a peptide composed of six histidine residues connected to biotin could also connect FI peptide fibers to the anti‐biotin antibody through the chelation of Ni²⁺ ions. This strategy of using designed anchors opens a novel approach to constructing nanoscale protein arrays on peptide nanomaterials.