Feasibility of zeolites in converting butyric acid into propylene for biorefineries

The biorefinery has been recognized as a new industry to produce both energy and chemical materials such as olefins and BTX from renewable resources. In this context the conversion of butyric acid over zeolites was investigated for establishing a new production route of propylene. Propylene was mainly generated by decarbonylation and dehydration of butyric acid. Our study proved that H-ZSM-5 (750) and silicalite were the best industrial catalyst among the tested ones. For H-ZSM-5 (750), the selectivity of propylene reached 64.2 C% and the ratio of the yield for propylene to theoretical yield (75 C%) became 85.6%.     

A Pyropheophorbide Analogue Containing a Fused Methoxy Cyclohexenone Ring System Shows Promising Cancer-Imaging Ability

Herein we report the synthesis, photophysical properties, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT) efficacy of methyl 3-(1′-m-iodobenzyloxy)ethyl-3-devinyl-verdin 4 (with or without the ¹²⁴I isotope). The PET imaging ability and ex vivo biodistribution of [¹²⁴I] 4 were compared with the well-studied methyl [3-(¹²⁴1′-m-iodobenzyloxy)ethyl]-3-devinyl-pyropheophorbide-a methyl ester (PET-ONCO or [¹²⁴I] 2 ) and [¹⁸F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([¹⁸F]FDG) in BALB/c mice bearing colon-26 tumors. Whole-body PET images of [¹²⁴I] 4 containing a fused methoxy cyclohexenone ring system showed excellent tumor contrast with time (72>48>24 h post-injection). Ex vivo biodistribution results indicate that relative to the current clinical standard [¹⁸F]FDG and [¹²⁴I] 2 in 2 % ethanol formulation, [¹²⁴I] 4 , at the same radioactive dose (25 μCi per mouse), showed higher tumor uptake at 24 h post-injection and longer tumor retention. In biological environments, compound 4 showed lower fluorescence and lower singlet oxygen yield than 2 , which is possibly due to higher aggregation caused by the presence of a fused cyclohexenone ring system, resulting in limited in vitro/in vivo PDT efficacy. Therefore, the chlorophyll-a analogue [¹²⁴I] 4 provides easy access to a novel PET imaging agent (with no skin phototoxicity) to image cancer types—brain, renal carcinomas, pancreas—in which [¹⁸F]FDG shows limitations.     

Enzymatic Synthesis of 1‐Alkyl‐2‐hydroxy‐sn‐glycero‐2,3‐cyclic‐phosphate Using a Novel Lysoplasmalogen‐Specific Phopholipase D

Many phospholipase Ds (PLDs) are known to catalyze transphosphatidylation as well as hydrolysis of phospholipids. Transphosphatidylation of lysoplasmalogen (LyPls)‐specific phospholipase D (LyPls‐PLD), which catalyzes hydrolysis of ether lysophospholipids such as LyPls and 1‐hexadecyl‐2‐hydroxy‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine (Lyso‐PAF), still remains unclear. This study aims to reveal the transphosphatidylation activity of LyPls‐PLD, that is, the production of cyclic ether lysophospholipid. The enzymatic reaction is conducted in a buffer system, and the reaction products of a novel LyPls‐PLD from Thermocrispum sp. are investigated using mass spectrometry (MS). MS analyses demonstrate the reaction products to consist of 100% 1‐hexadecyl‐2‐hydroxy‐sn‐glycero‐2,3‐cyclic‐phosphate (cLyPA) and choline from Lyso‐PAF; however, 1‐alkenyl‐2‐hydroxy‐sn‐glycero‐2,3‐cyclic‐phosphate from 1‐O‐1′‐(Z)‐octadecenyl‐2‐hydroxy‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine and 1‐O‐1′‐(Z)‐octadecenyl‐2‐hydroxy‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphoethanolamine is not produced. These results are expected to help in elucidating the catalytic mechanism of LyPls‐PLD, that is, the rate‐limiting step, and indicate LyPls‐PLD to be useful for the one‐pot synthesis of cLyPA. Practical Applications: A novel phospholipase D, LyPls‐PLD, can exclusively synthesize cLyPA from Lyso‐PAF using a one‐step enzymatic reaction without an organic solvent. cLyPA could be expected to show bioactivities similar to those of cyclic phosphatidic acid, which promotes normal cell differentiation, hyaluronic acid synthesis, antiproliferative activity in fibroblasts, and inhibitory activity toward cancer cell invasion and metastasis.     

Predicting nitrogen leaching with the modified LEACHM model: validation in soils receiving long-term application of animal manure composts

A variety of process-based models have been developed for predicting nitrogen (N) dynamics in agro-ecosystem; however, no reliable models have been validated for N leaching from soils receiving a long-term application of different types of animal manure composts. The Leaching Estimation and Chemistry Model (LEACHM) was recently modified by incorporating the basic structure of Rothamsted Carbon Model for extending its ability to describe soil organic matter decomposition and subsequent N leaching in soils rich in organic matter. We evaluate the applicability of the modified LEACHM in cropped Yellow soils receiving 10-year application of cattle or swine manure compost in addition to chemical fertilizers, where high-frequency field monitoring data of soil water contents, soil N contents and leachate N concentrations were available for the last 3 years. Particular attention was paid to determine all input parameters from independent measurements, parameterization from known soil properties or databases without optimisation to fit the measured field data. The model reasonably predicted temporal changes in the soil NH₄-N and NO₃-N contents, and inorganic N concentrations in the leachate as well as their differences due to different manure compost/chemical fertilizer applications. The simulations of leached N concentration yielded a Willmott index of agreement (IA) of 0.62–0.68, with those for soil moisture, soil nitrate content and crop N uptake all within an acceptable IA range. In view of the good performance without site-specific calibrations, the modified LEACHM appears to be a valuable tool for predicting N leaching from cropped soils receiving long-term manure compost applications.     

Fundamental Evaluation of Power Supply and Rectifiers for Wireless Power Transfer Using Magnetic Resonant Coupling

This paper provides a fundamental analysis of a power supply and rectifiers for wireless power transfer using magnetic resonant coupling (MRC). MRC enables efficient wireless power transfer over middle‐range transfer distances. MRC for wireless power transfer should operate at a high frequency in the industry science medical band, such as 13.56 MHz, because the size of the transfer device decreases at higher transfer frequencies. Therefore, the output frequency of the power supply on the transmitting side should be 13.56 MHz. In addition, the rectifier on the receiving side is operated at a high frequency. This paper focuses on the reflected power in the power supply and rectifiers. Thus, the parametric design method is clarified for the power supply, including a low‐pass filter to match the output, the impedance of the power supply with the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. In addition, the effects on the rectifiers of silicon carbide and gallium nitride diodes are confirmed by performing an experiment and a loss analysis.     

Design,Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Lysine Demethylase 5 C Degraders

Lysine demethylase 5 C (KDM5C) controls epigenetic gene expression and is attracting great interest in the field of chemical epigenetics. KDM5C has emerged as a therapeutic target for anti-prostate cancer agents, and recently we identified triazole 1 as an inhibitor of KDM5C. Compound 1 exhibited highly potent KDM5C-inhibitory activity in in vitro enzyme assays, but did not show strong anticancer effects. Therefore, a different approach is needed for the development of anticancer agents targeting KDM5C. Here, we attempted to identify KDM5C degraders by focusing on a protein-knockdown strategy. Compound 3 b , which was designed based on compound 1 , degraded KDM5C and inhibited the growth of prostate cancer PC-3 cells more strongly than compound 1 . These findings suggest that KDM5C degraders are more effective as anticancer agents than compounds that only inhibit the catalytic activity of KDM5C.     

MISCELA: discovering simultaneous and time-delayed correlated attribute patterns

This article addresses a new pattern mining problem in time series sensor data, which we call correlated attribute pattern mining. The correlated attribute patterns (CAPs for short) are the sets of attributes (e.g., temperature and traffic volume) on sensors that are spatially close to each other and temporally correlated in their measurements. Although the CAPs are useful to accurately analyze and understand spatio-temporal correlation between attributes, the existing mining methods are inefficient to discover CAPs because they extract unnecessary patterns. Therefore, we propose a mining method Miscela to efficiently discover CAPs. Miscela can discover not only simultaneous correlated patterns but also time delayed correlated patterns. Furthermore, we extend Miscela to automatically search for correlated patterns with any time delays. Through our experiments using three real sensor datasets, we show that the response time of Miscela is up to 20.84 times faster compared with the state-of-the-art method. We show that Miscela discovers meaningful patterns for urban managements and environmental studies.