Chiral Interlocked Corrole Dimers Directly Linked at Inner Carbon Atoms of Confused Pyrrole Rings

A facile synthetic strategy towards conformationally stable chiral chromophores based on dimeric porphyrinoids has been established. A peculiar class of face-to-face intramolecularly interlocked corrole dimers were formed by the oxidative C−C coupling linked at the inner carbon sites upon simple treatment of copper(II) ions. Their intrinsic electronic structures were modulated by the peripheral corrole ring annulations, which lead to distinct optical properties and redox profiles. The stereogenic carbon centers implemented in the confused corrole skeleton provided a rationale for designing novel chiral materials.     

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering from oleate-stabilized silver colloids at a liquid/liquid interface.

Oleate-stabilized silver colloids of 5-nm-diameter were adsorbed to a toluene/water interface, and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra from these colloids were measured under the total internal reflection (TIR) condition. From the observed spectra, we examined the states of oleate ions and toluene molecules on silver colloids at the liquid/liquid interfacial region. The TIR-SERS spectra of oleate ions showed stronger peaks of the carboxylate group and the ethylene group than those of alkyl chains. From these results, it was found that the oleate ions were adsorbed on the silver surface in two different ways at the liquid/liquid interface; the carboxylate group adsorbed in the organic phase side, while the ethylene group adsorbed in the aqueous phase side. The shifts of the toluene in the interfacial SERS spectra were identical to those of bulk toluene, though the relative intensities among the peaks were not same. This result suggested that the toluene was adsorbed with a weak interaction, but was significantly enhanced by the local electromagnetic field at the colloid surface.     

Endoscopic Observation of Tissue by Narrowband Illumination

We propose a new illumination method for a medical endoscope: narrow band imaging (NBI), in which the spectral bandwidth of the filtered light is narrowed. To confirm how the spectral specifications of the filtered light influence a reproduced image, an experiment was conducted observing the endoscopic images of the back mucosa of a human tongue. In addition, the effect of NBI on endoscopic images was investigated through preliminary clinical tests in colonoscopy and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. It has been shown that NBI can enhance the capillary pattern and the crypt pattern on the mucosa. These patterns are useful features for diagnosing an early cancer.     

Mesorbitolina (Cretaceous larger foraminifera) from the Yezo Group in Hokkaido,Japan and its stratigraphic and paleobiogeographic significance

In this paper, we describe an Aptian (Early Cretaceous) larger foraminiferal species Orbitolina (Mesorbitolina) parva from the limestone olistoliths in the lower part of the Yezo Group in the Yubari–Ashibetsu area, central Hokkaido and from limestone pebbles in the lowermost part of the Yezo Group in the Nakagawa area, northern Hokkaido. This is the first report of this species from the circum-North Pacific regions. Based on its occurrences, the shallow-marine carbonates, re-deposited in the lower part of the Yezo Group, are precisely assigned in age to the Late Aptian. Comparison of the lower part of the Yezo Group in central and northern Hokkaido indicates differences of the Aptian–Albian depositional history between the two areas. This study reveals that after Late Aptian, Mesogean key taxa (typical Cretaceous Tethyan biota) demised in the Northwest Pacific.     

Analysis of Spectral Reflectance Using Normalization Method from Endoscopic Spectroscopy System

Objective assessment of gastrointestinal mucosal color is extremely important in the endoscopic diagnosis of digestive tract disease. In this paper, we propose a method to clarify the spectral characteristics of gastric and colon cancer. A large number of spectral reflectance data of mucous membrane are measured by the endoscopic spectroscopy system (ESS) in the National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan and the Department of Internal Medicine, Self-Defense Force Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. We assume that early cancer appears primarily in the spectral data of short wavelength, because it is usually present in a superficial cell where short wavelength light is scattered more strongly than long wavelength light. To identify the features in the short wavelength components, the spectral reflectance was divided by the reflectance of a long wavelength. We investigated the possibility of distinguishing early cancer from normal spectral data through statistical analysis, employing the projection axis as the mean difference between them. Early cancer and normal spectral data were projected on the projection axis, and the Student’s T-test was applied to evaluate the mean of the distribution between these data.     

WIDE RANGE DETECTOR USING PARABOLIC CYLINDRICAL MIRROR FOR THz APPLICATIONS

A new, wide-band, high-speed and high-sensitivity THz detector has been developed. The prototype detector consists of a parabolic cylindrical mirror, a long wire antenna and a Schottky barrier diode. Direct detection measurements have shown a stable sensitivity of 150 ± 50 V/W for 1–2 THz without any adjustments. The long wire antenna was fixed at the focus of parabolic cylindrical mirror then it has been realized less operation steps, easy coupling to the external THz signals and a dramatic enhancement in the practicality of this system. The optically polished mirror and frosted surface one showed comparable sensitivities, thus easy polishing and less cost mirror fabrication can be applied for this system. The radiation pattern showed a maximum radiation angle of approximately 23° with its dominant main lobe, which was attributed to the wire antenna character and confirmed good agreements with classical antenna theory.     

Semi-classical limit of the bottom of spectrum of a Schrödinger operator on a path space over a compact Riemannian manifold

We determine the limit of the bottom of spectrum of Schrödinger operators with variable coefficients on Wiener spaces and path spaces over finite-dimensional compact Riemannian manifolds in the semi-classical limit. These are extensions of the results in [S. Aida, Semiclassical limit of the lowest eigenvalue of a Schrödinger operator on a Wiener space, J. Funct. Anal. 203 (2) (2003) 401-424]. The problem on path spaces over Riemannian manifolds is considered as a problem on Wiener spaces by using Ito's map. However the coefficient operator is not a bounded linear operator and the dependence on the path is not continuous in the uniform convergence topology if the Riemannian curvature tensor on the underling manifold is not equal to 0. The difficulties are solved by using unitary transformations of the Schrödinger operators by approximate ground state functions and estimates in the rough path analysis.     

High-performance liquid chromatographic method for determining trichothecene mycotoxins by post-column fluorescence derivatization

The method described here is based on a separation of deoxynivalenol, nivalenol and fusarenon-X on a C18 column using aqueous acetonitrile, and successive post-column fluorescence derivatization involving an alkaline decomposition to form formaldehyde and modified Hantzsch reaction with methyl acetoacetate and ammonium acetate (lambda ex = 370 nm and lambda em = 460 nm). By this method, 5-10 ng of the standard trichothecenes could be determined. By employing a clean-up procedure with a florisil column and a Sep-Pak CN cartridge, 61.4-96.9% recoveries were obtained for deoxynivalenol and nivalenol added to corn, wheat and barley at concentration levels of 0.05-1 ppm.