Color appearance seen through a colored filter of various sizes

It will provide us an effective method to study the color perception of the elderly if we can employ for young subjects a pair of glasses with color property chosen to simulate that of the elderly. One problem has to be solved before using such glasses based on the concept of the recognized visual space of illumination, that is, the size of the glasses. When a piece of a white paper is seen through a yellow filter in a room, it naturally appears yellowish. But if the observer uses the filter to cover his/her eyes entirely the white paper returns to its original white; this is known as color constancy. Between these two extreme cases, the color is expected to change from yellow to white. Chromaticness and hue of an achromatic test chart of a small or large size were determined by the elementary color naming method when the chart was seen monocularly through a red, yellow, green or blue filter, respectively, placed at various distances from the eyes. Chromaticness was large at around 40% when the visual field through the filter was equal to or smaller than the test chart, but it rapidly decreased when the visual field extended over the test chart so that objects other than the test chart were included in the visual field. It decreased to almost zero when the filter was about 5 cm or less away from the eye. It was concluded that we do not necessarily have to use goggles to cover the entire visual field but can use a normal pair of glasses made of colored filters for young subjects to study the color perception of the elderly with understanding that the study is only for the color perception experienced while wearing the glasses.     

Single-Fluorophore Dynamic Imaging in Living Cells

Recently, observation and tracking of single fluorophores, which we term single fluorophore dynamic imaging (SFDI) in this review, in living cells have been achieved. In particular, the recent success of SFDI of individual proteins tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) in live cells has opened new important possibilities for studying events occurring in living cells at the level of single molecules. Specifically, SFDI of GFP allows the tracking of movement and oligomerization levels of individual oligomers (monomers) in living cells and, thus, provides powerful means to investigate the movement, assembly, localization, and activation that signaling molecules undergo following an external stimulus. In this short account, we first review technologically important points for SFDI of GFP molecules in living cells, then give examples of its application, and, finally, propose a synergistic use of SFDI and single-particle tracking, a technique used for investigating single or small groups of molecules in live cells over the past 15 years.     

Cellulose fiber biodegradation in natural waters: river water,brackish water,and seawater

Cellulose, the main component of plant cell walls, is degradable in nature. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that compares the biodegradability of cellulose fibers with different structures in natural waters. River water, brackish water, and seawater were collected from the Kamo River and Osaka Bay, Japan. Biodegradation of cellulose fibers with different structures and crystallinities, ramie, mercerized ramie, and regenerated cellulose fibers in the collected natural water was investigated in the dark at 20 °C for 30 days. The primary and aerobic ultimate biodegradability were evaluated by weight loss and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) tests, respectively. In the weight-loss test, cellulose fibers were found to be degraded by more than 50% in any natural water within 30 days. However, in the BOD test, biodegradation was diminished, with values of 40%, 20–30%, and 2–10% in river water, brackish water, and seawater, respectively. These results indicate that cellulose fibers are easily degraded into fine fragments, but it is difficult to cause their ultimate decomposition into water and carbon dioxide. Existence of such a tendency in the degree of biodegradation among the cellulose fibers remains unclear. The molecular weight of cellulose fibers in natural water was also measured during their degradation. The degradation behavior in river water and seawater was observed to be different from that in brackish water. The results thus obtained indicate that the microorganisms and enzymes that degrade cellulose fibers differ depending on the natural water, which influences the degree and mechanism of biodegradation.

     

Isolation and absolute configuration determination of aliphatic sulfates as the Daphnia kairomones inducing morphological defense of a phytoplankton

2,6-Dimethylheptyl sulfate (1) and 6-methyloctyl sulfate (3) were isolated from Daphnia pulex as the Daphnia kairomones that induced morphological defense of a freshwater phytoplankton Scenedesmus gutwinskii var. heterospina (NIES-802). The absolute stereochemistry at C2 of 1 was determined by (1)H-NMR analysis of the (R)-MTPA ester of alcohol 2. The absolute configuration at C6 of 3 was determined by Ohrui's method applied to alcohol 4.     

Synthesis of new photochromic compounds from the dimer of arylphenanthroimidazoles

Treatment of the dimer of 2-arylphenanthro[9,10-d]imidazoles with nucleophilic compounds such as alcohols, aliphatic amines, and carboxylic acids afforded 2-substituted-2H- and 4-substituted-4H-2-arylphenanthro[9,10-d]isoimidazoles. These products showed a characteristic photochromism by dissociation to a stable imidazolyl radical.     

Influence of the conformation of methoxy-(2-naphthyl)acetates (2NMA esters) on their chemical reactions

An SN2 reaction (NaI) of 1,7-di(methanesulfoxyl)heptadien-4-yl methoxy-(2-naphthyl)acetate and a tributyltin hydride reduction of 1,7-diiodo-4-yl methoxy-(2-naphthyl)acetate (2NMA) is crucial for determination of the absolute configuration of secondary alcohols.     

Cellulose alkyl ester/poly(<Emphasis Type="Italic">ε</Emphasis>-caprolactone) blends: characterization of miscibility and crystallization behaviour

Cellulose valerate (CV)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) blends were investigated to clarify the effect of the degree of substitution (DS) of the cellulose ester component on the miscibility. CVs of DS > 2.15 were miscible with PCL in their amorphous states, as judged from the detection of a single T _g by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). This result and other complementary data for cellulose acetate (CA), propionate (CP), and butyrate (CB) blends with PCL made up a miscibility map as a function of the number N of carbons in the normal acyl substituent as well as of DS. CB of N = 4 and CV of N = 5, the ester side-chains of which make a higher similarity in chemical structure with a repeating unit of PCL, were found to be miscible with the aliphatic polyester at a comparatively lower DS; the critical butyryl DS of ∼1.85 being still lower than 2.15. For PCL-rich compositions of CB(DS > 2.0)/PCL and CV(DS > 2.2)/PCL blends, isothermal melt-crystallization behaviour was characterized by calorimetry and polarized optical microscopy. The CB and CV components gave rise to a marked diminution of the crystallization rate of PCL, as a result of the diluent action of the cellulose esters in the respective miscible, molten mixtures. Through a quantitative analysis of the kinetics, it is suggested regarding the supramolecular morphology that the bulky cellulose esters would be trapped not only on the fold surfaces but also on the growth faces of PCL lamellar crystals, to form a non-crystalline mixed polymer phase in the crystal boundary regions.     

Integrated and diffusion-based micro-injectors for open access cell assays

Currently, most microfluidic devices are fabricated with embedded micro-channels and other elements in a close form with outward connections. Although much functionality has been demonstrated and a large number of applications have been developed, they are not easy for routine operation in biology laboratories where most in vitro cell processing still relies on the use of culture dishes, glass slides, multi-well plates, tubes, pipettes, etc. We report here an open access device which consists of an array of isolated micro-channels plated on a large culture surface, each of them having tiny nozzles for localized drug delivery. In a diffusion dominant regime, steady gradients of molecule concentration could be obtained and varied by changing the flow rate inside the micro-channels. As assay examples, cell staining and drug-induced cell apoptosis were demonstrated, showing fast cell responses in close proximity of the nozzles.     

Unified approach to catechin hetero-oligomers: first total synthesis of trimer EZ-EG-CA isolated from Ziziphus jujuba

A catechin hetero-trimer isolated from Ziziphus jujuba has been synthesized. Among three constituent monomers, (-)-epiafzelechin and (-)-epigallocatechin were prepared by de novo synthesis. Trimer formation relied on the unified approach to oligomers based on the bromo-capping and the orthogonal activation, reaching the reported structure of the natural product.