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.     

Synthetic study of (+)-anthramycin using ring-closing enyne metathesis and cross-metathesis

Synthesis of (+)-anthramycin was examined. A pyrrolobenzodiazepine skeleton could be synthesized by reductive cyclization of pyrrolidine derivative, which was obtained by enyne metathesis. The conjugated enamide ester part of (+)-anthramycin derivative was constructed by cross-metathesis.     

Conjugacy relationship between M-convex and L-convex functions in continuous variables

By extracting combinatorial structures in well-solved nonlinear combinatorial optimization problems, Murota (1996,1998) introduced the concepts of M-convexity and L-convexity to functions defined over the integer lattice. Recently, Murota–Shioura (2000, 2001) extended these concepts to polyhedral convex functions and quadratic functions in continuous variables. In this paper, we consider a further extension to more general convex functions defined over the real space, and provide a proof for the conjugacy relationship between general M-convex and L-convex functions.Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 90C10, 90C25, 90C27, 90C35This work is supported by Grant-in-Aid of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan     

Phase Conjugation in Saturable Absorbing Dye Films by Degenerate Four-Wave Mixing and Holographic Processes Using Nanosecond Pulse and CW Lasers

We report on the simultaneous generation of phase-conjugate signals by degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) and holographic processes using a nanosecond pulse and a CW lasers in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films doped with four kinds of saturable absorbing dyes. For the pulse laser, of the four kinds of dye-doped PVA films, the erythrosine B-doped PVA and uranine doped-PVA films generate PC signals only by the DFWM process, while the other dye-doped PVA films generate PC signals simultaneously by not only the DFWM process but also the holographic process. Especially, the safranin T-doped PVA film generates strong PC signals by the holographic process. In contrast, all of the dye-doped PVA films generate the two types of PC signals for the CW laser. The fading of dye molecules is found to result in the generation of the holographic component of PC signals which governs the temporal behavior of the total PC signals.     

Fast Optical Switching Using Oriented Cyanine Dye-Doped Nematic Liquid Crystal

A cyanine dye, 2-[7-（1,3-dihydro-1,3,3-trimethyl-2H-indol-2-ylidene）-1,3,5-heptatrienyl]-1,3,3-trimethyl-3H-indolium iodide （NK-125）, is doped in 4-cyano-4＇-pentylbiphenyl （5 CB）, and the mixture is sandwiched between two pieces of rubbed glass plates. The third-order nonlinear optical properties of the oriented NK-125-SCB layers are measured by the resonant femtosecond degenerate four-wave mixing （DFWM） technique at 760 nm. The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility of one of the present samples is 5.5×10^-8 esu. The slow DFWM response of the NK-125-SCB layers due to a population grating is accelerated by the increasing laser power because of amplified spontaneous emission （ASE）. On the other hand, we do not observe a similar phenomenon for NK-125- polyethylene glycol （PEG-400）. Oriented NK-125 molecules in nematic liquid crystals must have very high ASE efficiency. Hence the population grating in a DFWM signal disappears within about 4 ps. It is expected that NK-125-SCB can be used as a material for very fast all-optical switching.     

Lithographic design of photosensitive polyarylates based on reaction development patterning

The factors affecting pattern‐forming properties in reaction development patterning were examined with polyarylates with various bisphenol moieties. The developability of the photosensitive polyarylates was dependent on the properties of the subtituent (R) in the bisphenol moieties. The development time decreased in the following order: R?C(CH₃)₂ > fluorenyl unit ? phenolphthalein unit > C(CF₃)₂ > SO₂. This order agreed with that of the reactivity between the polyarylates and ethanolamine, and these orders can be explained by pK_a of the bisphenol used to prepare the polyarylates. The development with NH₂? R′? OH resulted in successful positive‐tone pattern formation. However, pattern formation with the developers containing NH₂? R′? OCH₃ was unsuccessful. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 2694–2706, 2006