Preparation of bifunctional chelating fiber containing iminodi(methylphosphonate) and sulfonate and its performances in column-mode uptake of Cu(II) and Zn(II)

The bifunctional chelating fiber, FNPS, was prepared from vinylbenzyl chloride (CMS) grafted polyethylene-coated polypropylene fiber (PPPEf-g-CMS). In addition to the primary iminodi(methylphosphonate) chelating groups, FNPS has sulfonate groups as secondary functional group. FNPS was prepared by the following four steps. First, PPPEf-g-CMS was reacted with potassium phthalimide to substitute chlorine atoms in PPPEf-g-CMS with phthalimide groups. Second, sulfonate groups were introduced into the phenyl groups of benzyl moieties on the grafted polymer chains by the reaction with 95% sulfuric acid. Third, phthalimide moieties were hydrolyzed with ethanol solution of hydrazine hydrate to give the primary amino groups at the end of benzyl moieties on the grafted chains. Finally, these primary amino groups were converted into iminodi(methylphosphonate) groups by Mannich condensation reaction, in which the precursory fiber was reacted with large excess phosphorous acid and paraformaldehyde in 6 M hydrochloric acid media under the refluxed conditions for 6 h. The sulfonate and iminodi(methylphosphonate) groups in the resulting FNPS were identified by FT-IR spectroscopy. Contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur in FNPS were found to be 1.53, 2.80, and 0.99 mmol/g, respectively. The phosphorus to nitrogen molar ratio was 1.83. This is very close to the ideal value of 2. The sulfur to nitrogen molar ratio was 0.65. The column-mode test on the Cu(II) uptake from a 0.1 mM Cu(II) aqueous solution revealed that FNPS can take up Cu(II) rapidly even in the extremely high feed flow rate range from 1000 to 7000 h^?1 in space velocity. The breakthrough capacity of FNPS for Cu(II) is as high as ca. 0.8 mmol/g at the flow rate of 7000 h^?1. In addition, it is expected that the FNPS packed column will make it possible to purify huge volumes of waters contaminated with 10^?4 M levels of Zn(II), as long as the concentrations of the co-existing Ca(II) and Mg(II) are nearly equal to those in river waters.     

Fluorescent aplyronine a: intracellular accumulation and disassembly of actin cytoskeleton in tumor cells

Nonstick: Aplyronine A (ApA) is an antitumor and apoptogenic macrolide of marine origin. We prepared a fluorescent derivative of ApA that accumulated strongly throughout the cytoplasm and caused the rapid disassembly of the actin cytoskeleton in tumor cells. We also established that ApA caused malfunction of cell adhesion and dephosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase with apoptosis.     

Using optical vortex to control the chirality of twisted metal nanostructures

We discovered for the first time that light can twist metal to control the chirality of metal nanostructures (hereafter, chiral metal nanoneedles). The helicity of optical vortices is transferred to the constituent elements of the irradiated material (mostly melted material), resulting in the formation of chiral metal nanoneedles. The chirality of these nanoneedles could be controlled by just changing the sign of the helicity of the optical vortex. The tip curvature of these chiral nanoneedles was measured to be <40 nm, which is less than 1/25th of the laser wavelength (1064 nm). Such chiral metal nanoneedles will enable us to selectively distinguish the chirality and optical activity of molecules and chemical composites on a nanoscale and they will provide chiral selectivity for nanoscale imaging systems (e.g., atomic force microscopes), chemical reactions on plasmonic nanostructures, and planar metamaterials.     

Two-step curing reaction of epoxy resin studied by thermal analysis and infrared spectroscopy

A curing reaction of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether epoxy resin with 4,4'-diaminodicyclohexyl methane hardener was investigated by means of modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy. MDSC observation revealed that the curing process of the resin occurred in two steps. Mid-infrared and near-infrared spectra of the resin were measured as a function of temperature. The obtained spectra were analyzed by perturbation-correlation moving-window two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (PCMW2D-COS). The first step was revealed as a polymerization reaction among the oxirane group and primary and secondary amine groups, followed by etherification; the second step of the curing process occurred in the vicinity of the gelation point and was characterized by the growth of a three-dimensional cross-linking structure with tertiary amine and etherification of the hydroxyl group.     

Heterogeneous nucleation of hydroxyapatite on protein: structural effect of silk sericin.

Acidic proteins play an important role during mineral formation in biological systems, but the mechanism of mineral formation is far from understood. In this paper, we report on the relationship between the structure of a protein and hydroxyapatite deposition under biomimetic conditions. Sericin, a type of silk protein, was adopted as a suitable protein for studying structural effect on hydroxyapatite deposition, since it forms a hydroxyapatite layer on its surface in a metastable calcium phosphate solution, and its structure has been reported. Sericin effectively induced hydroxyapatite nucleation when it has high molecular weight and a beta sheet structure. This indicates that the specific structure of a protein can effectively induce heterogeneous nucleation of hydroxyapatite in a biomimetic solution, i.e. a metastable calcium phosphate solution. This finding is useful in understanding biomineralization, as well as for the design of organic polymers that can effectively induce hydroxyapatite nucleation.     

Effects of middle‐level static magnetic field on metabolic activity of mitochondria

This study intends to clarify the effect of a static magnetic field on cellular activities. It is concerned with the metabolic activity of mitochondria from the viewpoint of their energy level. As a preliminary examination, the time required to render the cells to the low‐energy state (G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle) and to reduce their energy level was examined by maintaining the cells in medium with low‐density fetal bovine serum. Then, we examined the effect of the magnetic field on mitochondrial energy activity from the viewpoint of cell metabolism estimated by the MTT assay. We also examined the cell respiration, expecting that the mitochondrial energy activity level would be reflected in the respiration. The magnetic field was kept at 100 mT, with 0 mT as the control. The results of the MTT assay indicated that the mitochondrial energy activity was enhanced by a factor of 1.5. We found that the cell respiration was increased by a factor of 1.3 on exposure to the magnetic field. The t‐test showed the difference to be statistically significant. It is thus concluded that mitochondrial energy activity is enhanced in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle by exposure to a magnetic field. On the other hand, we also found that the mitochondrial energy cycle period is little affected. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 137(1): 36–41, 2001     

40 Gbit/s single-channel transmission over standard singlemodefibre using distributed Raman amplification

A 40 Gbit/s single-channel transmission experiment over standard singlemode fibre has been conducted using distributed Raman amplification. Distributed Raman amplification reduced the effect of pulse interactions and improved the transmission performance     

Nanostructured Fe-Pd thin films for thermoelastic shape memory alloys—electrochemical preparation and characterization

Nanostructured Fe-Pd thin films with about 30 at.% Pd have been successfully synthesized on the substrates of Pt buffer layer/Cr seed layer/Si by an electrodeposition process from a plating bath containing ammonium tartrate, citric acid and ammonia solution as complexing agents. Results clearly show that the as-deposited films with body-centered cubic structure were transformed into face-centered cubic structure by heating at 900 °C for 45 min followed by quenching into iced water. The in situ X-ray diffraction analysis results indicate that the quenched film with 29.8 at.% Pd undergoes a reversible thermoelastic austenite-to-martensite transformation with a narrow temperature hysteresis and a martensite transformation temperature of about −30 °C. The present study demonstrates the effectiveness of electrodeposition for synthesizing nanostructured Fe-Pd thin films for the application of low-temperature-type thermoelastic shape memory alloys.     

40 Gb/s single-channel soliton transmission over transoceanicdistances by reducing Gordon-Haus timing jitter and soliton-solitoninteraction

Forty Gb/s single-channel soliton transmission experiments using periodic dispersion compensation were conducted. The impact of the dispersion map on the transmission performance was experimentally investigated. The transmission performance was significantly varied with the dispersion map. The improvement of the transmission performance by the polarization division multiplexing, which reduced soliton-soliton interaction furthermore, was also confirmed. By using the polarization division multiplexing in the optimum dispersion map, 40 Gb/s single-channel transmission over 10200 km has been successfully demonstrated without any active inline transmission control