Formation of Supramolecular Nanostructures through in Situ Self-Assembly and Post-Assembly Modification of a Biocatalytically Constructed Dipeptide Hydrazide**

Aqueous self-assembly of short peptides has attracted growing attention for the construction of supramolecular materials for various bioapplications. Herein, we describe how the thermolysin-assisted biocatalytic construction of a dipeptide hydrazide from an N-protected amino acid and an amino acid hydrazide leads to the formation of thermally stable supramolecular hydrogels. In addition, we demonstrate the post-assembly modification of the supramolecular architectures constructed in situ tethering hydrazide groups as a chemical handle by means of fluorescence imaging.     

Determination of triazine pesticides and related compounds in environmental water by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A method for the determination of 5 triazine herbicides and 12 degradation products in environmental water samples using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC/ESI/MS) has been developed. The pesticides in water were extracted with two types of solid phase: a styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer and a graphitized carbon black. Desorption solvents for the extracted compounds were acetone for the styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer and methanol for the graphitized carbon black. Overall recoveries from ground water and river water ranged from 73% to 111%. The limits of detection (LODs) were 0.2 to 28 ng l(-1). This method was applied to several ground water samples.     

RSOS Models and Jantzen–Seitz Representations of Hecke Algebras at Roots of Unity

A special family of partitions occurs in two apparently unrelated contexts: the evaluation of one-dimensional configuration sums of certain RSOS models, and the modular representation theory of symmetric groups or their Hecke algebras H_m. We provide an explanation of this coincidence by showing how the irreducible H_m-modules which remain irreducible under restriction to H_{m_1} (Jantzen–Seitz modules) can be determined from the decomposition of a tensor product of representations sl_n.     

Phase rotation scheme of laser-produced ions for reduction of the energy spread

In order to widely spread out particle beams utilized in cancer therapy, laser-produced ions are developed as the injection beam for an ion synchrotron dedicated for cancer therapy. Such a laser ion source is expected to contribute largely to the realization of compactness of the size and low cost of the cancer therapy accelerator. The energy spectrum of the laser-produced ions, however, has no peak, but their intensities decrease exponentially according to the increase of the energy. For the purpose of modifying such a situation, we have proposed a scheme to rotate the beam in the longitudinal phase space with the use of the RF electric field, which is phase-adjusted with the pulse laser. We aim for a reduction of the energy spread of ± 5% selected by an energy analyzer and slits to ±1% by such phase rotation. For this purpose, a quarter wavelength resonator with two gaps with the same resonant frequency as the source laser has already been fabricated, together with its RF power source. The above phase rotation system and its recent experimental realization are presented.     

Validation of a method for predicting the precision, limit of detection and range of quantitation in competitive ELISA.

The mathematical model for predicting the precision, limit of detection (LOD) and range of quantitation (ROQ) in a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) proposed by Hayashi et al. (Anal. Chem., 2004, 76, 1295) was validated. The model describes the relative standard deviation (RSD) of concentration estimates by the RSDs of pipetting volumes of analyte, enzyme-conjugated antigen, antibody and substrate solutions, and the standard deviation (SD) of inherent absorbances between the wells in an ELISA plate. For 6 kinds of direct competitive ELISA kits, the LOD and ROQ predicted by the model agreed well with those obtained by experiments with real samples. It was also confirmed that the model is applicable to the prediction of uncertainty that depends on the pipetting error of the viscous antiserum solution. The model was demonstrated to be useful for estimating the LOD and ROQ of competitive ELISA.     

Stable marker-particle method for the Voronoi diagram in a flow field

The Voronoi diagram in a flow field is a tessellation of water surface into regions according to the nearest island in the sense of a “boat-sail distance”, which is a mathematical model of the shortest time for a boat to move from one point to another against the flow of water. The computation of the diagram is not easy, because the equi-distance curves have singularities. To overcome the difficulty, this paper derives a new system of equations that describes the motion of a particle along the shortest path starting at a given point on the boundary of an island, and thus gives a new variant of the marker-particle method. In the proposed method, each particle can be traced independently, and hence the computation can be done stably even though the equi-distance curves have singular points.     

Preparation and condensation reactions of a new light-fluorous Mukaiyama reagent: reliable purification with fluorous solid phase extraction for esters and amides

A modified light-fluorous Mukaiyama reagent bearing a C₈F₁₇ tag was prepared and examined in ester and amide forming condensation reactions. Following the reactions, the desired product was effectively separated from the fluorous pyridone by-product using a simple fluorous solid phase extraction.     

Discrimination of poly(vinyl chloride) samples with different plasticizers and prediction of plasticizer contents in poly(vinyl chloride) using near-infrared spectroscopy and neural-network analysis.

In the recycling of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), it is required to discriminate every plasticizer for quality control. For this purpose, the near-infrared spectra were measured for 41 kinds of PVC samples with different plasticizers (DINP, DOP, DOA, TOTM and Polyester) and different plasticizer contents (0-49%). A neural-network analysis was applied to the near-infrared spectra pretreated by second-derivative processing. They were discriminated from one another. The neural-network analysis also allowed us to propose a calibration model which predicts the contents of plasticizers in PVC. The correlation coefficient (R) and the root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) for the DINP calibration model were found to be 0.999 and 0.41 wt%, respectively. In comparison, a partial least-squares regression analysis was carried out. The R and RMSEP of the DINP calibration model were calculated to be 0.993 and 1.27 wt%, respectively. It is found that a near-infrared spectra measurement combined with a neural-network analysis is useful for plastic recycling.     

Non-existence of phase transition of oriented percolation on Sierpinski carpet lattices

 A percolation problem on Sierpinski carpet lattices is considered. It is obtained that the critical probability of oriented percolation is equal to 1. In contrast it was already shown that the critical probability p _c of percolation is strictly less than 1 in Kumagai [9]. This result shows a difference between fractal-like lattice and ℤ ^d lattice. Received: 15 May 2002 / Revised version: 11 October 2002 / Published online: 21 February 2003 Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): Primary: 60K35, 82B43; Secondary: 82B26     

Improved method for measurement of rhodanese activity using methanethiosulfonate as sulfur donor substrate and its application to human serum.

We have developed a sensitive method for the measurement of rhodanese activity in human serum which is based on the colorimetric method for the determination of thiocyanate produced from methanethiosulfonate and cyanide as substrates. Thiocyanate gives a red complex with ferric ion in an acidic condition. The present method is about 70-fold more sensitive than the conventional method using cyanide and thiosulfate as substrates and correlates well (r = 0.997) with the conventional method in bovine liver rhodanese. Within-run precision of the method is 0.91% for 420 units/l serum and the calibration curve is linear up to 1850 units/l. The normal value for human serum, determined by the present method on 31 healthy persons, was 20.9 +/- 20.0 units/l (mean +/- 2S.D.). Rhodanese activity was clearly elevated in some serum samples which were observed at abnormal values in some biochemical diagnostic tests and showed significant positive correlations with guanase activity (r = 0.728, p less than 0.01) and glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase activity (r = 0.625, p less than 0.01).