Preparation of benzoylchitosans and their chiroptical properties in dilute solutions

Two benzoyl substituted chitosan derivatives, 3,6‐O‐dibenzoylchitosan (DBC) and 2‐N‐3,6‐O‐tribenzoylchitosan (TBC), were prepared, and their optical activities in organic solvent were investigated by circular dichroism (CD). For TBC, two splitting bands (a negative one at 288 nm and a positive one at 274 nm) corresponding to the ¹L_b transition of the benzoyl group were observed in chloroform and dichloromethane, while only a negative CD band was recorded in N, N‐dimethylformamide (DMF). These results indicated that the transition moments of benzoyl groups were orderly arranged along the helical polymer chain when TBC was dissolved in a solvent with low polarity, but the same ordered structure did not appear in a polar solvent of DMF. For DBC, only negative CD signals corresponding to the ¹L_b transition of the benzoyl group were observed, regardless of the solvent property, which indicated that the chromophores were not arranged in an ordered fashion with appropriate geometry to interact with one another to induce bi‐signate CD signals. Adding methanol or DMF to the solution of TBC/chloroform resulted in a progressive decrease of the intensity of the positive split band at 274 nm. The intensity of the positive band was weakened upon heating a solution of TBC/chloroform from 20 to 60 °C. The results suggested that the ordered arrangement of the chromophores in the TBC system was dependent on solvent and sensitive to temperature. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4107–4115, 2004     

Achievement of laser fusion of biological cells using UV pulsed dye laser beams

This paper reports a successful achievement of laser-induced biological cell fusion using an excimer laser excited dye laser. To our knowledge, we examined for the first time the dependence of fusion rate on laser pulse energy, number of laser pulses, and laser wavelength. Maximum fusion rate of approximately 50% was obtained by this laser fusion technology.     

Uptake and excretion of total inorganic arsenic by the freshwater alga Chlorella vulgaris

Arsenic-tolerant freshwater alga Chlorella vulgaris which had been collected from an arsenicpolluted environment were tested for uptake and excretion of inorganic arsenic. Approximately half the quantity of arsenic taken up by C. vulgaris was estimated to be adhered to the extraneous coat (10 wt %) of the cell. The remainder was bioaccumulated by the cell. Both adhered and accumulated arsenic concentrations increased with an increase in arsenic(V) concentration of the aqueous phase. Arsenic(V) accumulation was affected by the growth phse: arsenic was most actively accumulated when the cell was exposed to arsenic during the early exponential phase and then accumulation decreased with an increase in culture time exposed to arsenic. The alga grew well in the modified Detmer (MD) medium containing 1 mg As(III) dm^?3 and the growth curve was approximated by a ‘logistic equation’. Arsenic(III) was accumulated up to the second day of the culture time and arsenic(III) accumulation decreased with an increase in the culture time after that. Arsenic accumulation was also largely affected by various nutrients, especially by managanese, iron and phosphorus compounds. A modified MD medium with the three nutrients was proposed for the purpose of effective removal of arsenic from the aqueous phase. Using radioactive arsenate (Na₂H⁷⁴AsO₄), the arsenic accumulated was found to be readily excreted under conditions which were unfavourable for the multiplication of C. vulgaris.     

Analysis of tetracycline antibiotics using HPLC with pulsed amperometric detection.

The analysis of tetracycline, oxytetracyline, chlortetracycline and doxycycline by high-performance liquid chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection using an anodized boron-doped diamond thin film (BDD) electrode is originally reported. The analyses were carried out using the mobile phase, phosphate buffer (0.01 M, pH 2.5)-acetonitrile (80:20; v/v), on a C18 column (250 x 4.6 mm i.d., 5 microm) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The optimal PAD waveform parameters at the anodized BDD were 1.5 V (versus Ag/AgCl) detection potential (E(det)) for 290 ms (200 ms delay time and 90 ms integration time), 2.0 V (versus Ag/AgCl) oxidation potential (E(oxd)) for 200 ms oxidation time (t(oxd)) and 0.4 V (versus Ag/AgCI) reduction potential (E(red)) for 200 ms reduction time (t(red)). The proposed method showed the simultaneous determination of tetracycline, oxytetracyline, chlortetracycline and doxycycline with a linear range of 0.1 - 100 microg/mL, detection limits of 0.05 - 0.1 microg/mL and recoveries of 70.8 - 96.0%. The application of this method to real samples was demonstrated and validated using a shrimp sample.     

Security Applications of Optical Face Recognition System: Access Control in E-Learning

The educational system has gradually shifted from a face-to-face to an e-learning system, which has become prevalent in advanced countries with the advance of information technology, and connection of global networks. Accordingly, a growing demand is emerging for more reliable individual certification with technical precision in order to measure and record learning achievements and credentials of participants. The present system has a limit in terms of registration capacity, therefore, its accuracy has often been questioned. Against this background, an individual certification system is proposed particularly for access control in e-learning. Under our proposed system, a compact optical correlator for facial recognition is employed. This correlator was previously tested for of biometrics authentication accuracy and proved highly reliable, having recorded remarkably low error rates (below 1%). The recorded error rate is sufficiently robust that the system itself can be regarded as a valid and practical viable attestation system.     

Investigation of the drying conditions for amidosulfuric acid.

The drying conditions for primary standards of volumetric analysis have a significant effect on the titration results due to changes in the purity, stability and homogeneity. Amidosulfuric acid, a strong acid used as a reference material for volumetric analysis in Japan, was dried in a vacuum desiccator or heated at different temperatures, and then measured by Karl-Fischer titration, thermogravimetry/mass spectroscopy (TG-MS), ion chromatography and coulometric titration. The optimum drying conditions were at 50 degrees C for 24 h with crushing.     

Magnetisation reversal in media with perpendicular anisotropy

In this paper, we discuss two key aspects of magnetisation reversal in magnetic thin films with perpendicular anisotropy. Firstly, a study has been made of the additional field required to erase data written perpendicular to a thin film recording disk as the linear data density is increased. It has been found that an increase in data density from 40 to 360 kfci results in an increase of 1.25 kOe in the field required to erase the data. Secondly, the effect of varying the level of exchange coupling by co-sputtering CoCrPt samples with SiO₂ has been studied using a characterisation technique that is independent of the self-demagnetising field. It has been found that the samples are fully exchange de-coupled when the film contains >9.8% SiO₂ and the activation volume of reversal remains constant for higher levels of SiO₂.     

Synthesis of poly(vinylene-arsine)s: alternating radical copolymerization of arsenic atomic biradical equivalent and phenylacetylene

Novel organoarsenic polymers, poly(vinylene-arsine)s, were synthesized by a free-radical alternating copolymerization of phenylacetylene with cyclooligoarsines as an atomic biradical equivalent. The polymerization between pentamethylpentacycloarsine (1a) or hexaphenylhexacycloarsine (1b) with phenylacetylene (2) in the presence of a catalytic amount of AIBN (in benzene; refluxing; for 12 h) gave the corresponding poly(vinylene-arsine)s. The obtained polymers were soluble in common organic solvents such as THF, chloroform, and benzene. From gel permeation chromatographic analysis (chloroform, PSt standards), the number-average molecular weights of the polymers from 1a and 1b were found to be 11500 and 3900, respectively. The structures of the polymers were supported by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopies. The corresponding polymer was also obtained by irradiation of a benzene solution of 1a and 2 with xenon lamp at room temperature. After the polymer from 1a was stirred vigorously with 30% H2O2, the 1H NMR spectrum of the polymer showed the methyl proton that was assigned to As(III)-Me, suggesting the insensitivity of the trivalent state arsenic in the main chain to the oxidation. The structures and the molecular weights of the polymers were insensitive to the feed ratio of the monomers. This result indicates that the addition of the arsenic radical to phenylacetylene was a rate-determining step in the copolymerization.     

Reactions of hydropolysilanes with alcohols catalysed by tris(triphenylphosphine)chlororhodium

[RhCl(PPh₃)₃] is a very effective catalyst for the cleavage of Si-Si bonds by alcohols.     

Study of a high-dimensional chaotic attractor

The nature of a very high-dimensional chaotic attractor in an infinite-dimensional phase space is examined for the purpose of studying the relationships between the physical processes occurring in the real space and the characteristics of high-dimensional attractor in the phase space. We introduce two complementary bases from which the attractor is observed, one the Lyapunov basis composed of the Lyapunov vectors and the another the Fourier basis composed of the Fourier modes. We introduce the exterior subspaces on the basis of the Lyapunov vectors and observe the chaotic motion projected onto these exteriors. It is shown that a certain statistical property of the projected motion changes markedly as the exterior subspace goes out of the attractor. The origin of such a phenomenon is attributed to more fundamental features of our attractor, which become manifest when the attractor is observed from the Lyapunov basis. A counterpart of the phenomenon can be observed also on the Fourier basis because there is a statistical one-to-one correspondence between the Lyapunov vectors and the Fourier modes. In particular, a statistical property of the high-pass filtered time series reflects clearly the difference between the interior and the exterior of the attractor.