Syntheses and antitumor activity of cis-restricted combretastatins: 5-membered heterocyclic analogues

A series of cis-restricted combretastatin analogues with 5-membered heterocycles were synthesized and their inhibitory activity against microtubule assembly and cytotoxic activity against the colon 26 adenocarcinoma cancer cell line were evaluated. Some of the heterocyclic analogues showed potent antitubulin activity and cytotoxicity. Compounds 16 and 35 showed marked tumor growth suppression in the colon 26 murine tumor model.     

A novel helix termination mutation in keratin 10 in annular epidermolytic ichthyosis, a variant of bullous congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma

Annular epidermolytic ichthyosis is a distinct phenotypic variant of bullous congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma that has recently been described in two separate kindreds. Individuals with this variant present with bullous ichthyosis in early childhood and hyperkeratotic lichenified plaques in the flexural areas and extensor surfaces at later ages. Characteristically, they also develop intermittent bouts of annular and polycyclic, erythematous, scaly plaques on the trunk and proximal extremities. We now describe a third kindred with annular epidermolytic ichthyosis. Molecular analysis of this family revealed a novel mutation resulting in an isoleucine to threonine substitution at residue 107 (codon 446) within the highly conserved helix termination motif at the end of the rod domain of keratin 10.     

Paget's disease and sensori-neural deafness: temporal bone histopathology of Paget's disease

Four cases with Paget's disease of the temporal bone are presented to illustrate the pathogenesis of the associated deafness. One case illustrates the combination of severe deafness due to bilateral otosclerosis with probably asymptomatic bilateral Paget's disease. One case with advanced Paget's disease presents features to explain early stages of sensori-neural deafness before actual cellular invasion of the inner ear. One case of profound deafness due to Paget's disease presents a different stage of cellular invasion of the inner ear by the disease on each side. One case illustrates invasion of the internal auditory meatus by Paget's disease with infiltration of the acoustic division of the nerve and profound deafness.     

A case of V-type Hyperlipidemia with mycoses

Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) has been crystallized in 2 forms. Orthorhombic crystals, space group P2(1)2(1)2, diffracted to 2.8 A and have cell dimensions a = 39.1 A, b = 54.0 A, and c = 65.5 A. The second form is space group P4(3)2(1)2, with cell dimensions a = b = 67.1 A, and c = 107.9 A. The tetragonal crystals diffract to 2.8 A at room temperature and 2.5 A at -100 degrees C. The unit cell dimensions change significantly upon freezing, a = b = 66.1 A, and c = 102.8 A. Phases for the orthorhombic form were obtained by molecular replacement using nerve growth factor as the search model. A partially refined model of the NT-3 dimer (75% complete) was then oriented and positioned in the tetragonal cell.     

1.5-GHz high-T c superconducting microstrip bandpass filter of miniaturized configuration

A 1.5-GHz four-stage microstrip bandpass filter was designed with the miniaturized hairpin resonator structure to reduce the configuration in size. The filter was fabricated using high-T _c superconducting films on a 12 × 12 mm² LaAlO₃ substrate. The passband insertion loss of the filter was measured to be -0.4 dB at 77 K, while it was estimated by a planar electromagnetic simulator to around -19 dB when gold films are used instead of the superconducting films.     

Effect of the surface treatment on the room-temperature bonding of Al to Si and SiO2

Bonding of polycrystalline Al to Si(1 0 0) and SiO2 (fused silica) was carried out at room temperature by means of surface-activated bonding method. In the present work, different means of surface activation such as irradiation of an argon fast atom beam (FAB) and a hydrogen radical beam (RB) were used. Influence of the exposure to a vacuum atmosphere of the activated surfaces by fast atom irradiation on the bonding behaviour was investigated. The strength of the Al–Si joints sputter cleaned by FAB before bonding reaches as much as 32 MPa. When the activated surfaces were exposed to 30 L (where L is the abbreviation for langmuir (1.33×10-4 Pa s)) in the residual gases (mainly vapour), the strength of the Al–Si joint decreased to 20 MPa and approached that of the Al–SiO2 joint. This indicates that the fracture strength of the joint of Al and Si with an intermediate layer of OH groups and oxide is close to that of Al and Si oxide. The adhesion between Al and Si deteriorated strongly because of hydrogen termination on the Si surface which had been irradiated by the hydrogen RB. On the contrary, bonding of Si with native oxides to Al was successful with the hydrogen RB irradiation.     

Electron-beam-induced-current investigation of GaN/AlGaN/Si heterostructures using scanning transmission electron microscopy

An electron-beam-induced-current technique has been applied to scanning transmission electron microscopy to characterize GaN/AlGaN/n-Si heterostructures. The structure was formed by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy using AlGaN as an intermediate layer. Two samples with nominal intermediate layer thicknesses of 60 and 120 nm were studied. It was found that there is a junction in the n-type Si region underneath the nitride/Si interface irrespective of the intermediate layer thickness, whereas induced current occurred neither in the nitride region nor at the nitride/Si interface. The junction formed was found to be undulated. The sample with the thin intermediate layer had undulations of a shorter periodicity than that with the thick intermediate layer. The formation of the junction is attributed to the diffusion of Al during the nitride growth.     

Syntheses and characterizations of a new calixarene-porphyrin conjugate as electron transfer system

A new calixarene-based donor-acceptor system, cone conformer 1, was prepared for the first time. In this compound, the calix[4]arene serves to juxtapose a tri-chloroquinone acceptor near the porphyrin photo-donor plane. As to the conformational control, the cone conformer 1 gave two peaks of phenolic OH groups at 8.40 and 8.43 ppm. This shows that cone conformer 1 is stabilized by intramolecular hydrogen bonds. The fluorescence intensity of 1 was 35% of that for the control compound 2. This means the tri-chloroquinone group in 1 efficiently quenched the fluorescence of ZnP*. The shortest edge-to-edge separation of the chromophores of 1 is ca. 8 A (as judged by CPK models). This provides a new calixarene-based supramolecular system in which through-space donor-to-acceptor electron transfer is observed upon photoexcitation.     

High speed and reproducible analysis of nitrosamines by capillary electrophoresis with a sulfonated capillary

Recently environmental control is regarded as important for good human health conditions, and toxic substances, including carcinogens and endocrine disruptors should be eliminated from our living environment. Hence easy quantitative methods are expected for a high level of environmental control. Our previous paper describes an easy quantitative analysis of nitrosamines (NAs) by capillary electrophoresis with an untreated fused silica capillary installed in an ordinary apparatus. In this paper, utilizing a novel type capillary column having sulfonated inner wall was investigated for improvements of separation performance and reproducibility. A sulfonated capillary causes fast and stabile electroosmotic flow because its inner wall is strongly negative charged. On a performance comparison of a sulfonated capillary with an untreated fused silica, analysis time reduction of c.a. forty percent was achieved, and relative standard deviations of migration times and peak responses were less than one third. In addition sample concentrations giving detection and quantitation limits were also reduced to a half.