Phonologically mediated access to meaning for Kanji: Is a rows still a rose in Japanese Kanji?

It is generally assumed that access to phonology for words written in logographic Japanese Kanji must be mediated by access to their meaning. This proposal was examined in a semantic categorization task with homophones. If the assumption about Kanji processing were true, then homophony should have no effect on semantic judgments. However, there was a significant homophone effect: Reaction times (RTs) were longer and more errors occurred to homophone foils than to control foils. There was also a significant effect of visual similarity: Incorrect target words that were visually similar to correct exemplars of the category names yielded longer RTs and higher error rates. The effects of both visual similarity and homophony were obtained even under conditions of pattern masking (though only on errors). The data suggest that the reading of Kanji is characterized by parallel access to semantics from orthographic and phonological representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Severe bradyarrythmia induced by tricyclic antidepressants in an elderly patient

The fluoroquinolones have an established role in treatment of infection with aerobic gram negative rods. The increased importance of gram positive nosocomial infection and of acquired fluoroquinolone resistance has stimulated a search for new compounds with enhanced potency and spectrum. CP-99,219 is a novel compound in this class with enhanced activity against gram positive organisms. We have studied the activity of CP-99,219 relative to ciprofloxacin, fleroxacin, ofloxacin, and sparfloxacin using test panels of organisms with a high proportion of ciprofloxacin resistance. CP-99,219 is more potent than any of the other four compounds against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. The activity of CP-99,219 against many bacteria resistant to the established agents, warrants further in vitro and clinical studies.     

Enzymatic synthesis of (R)- and (S)-2-cyclohepten-1-ol

The synthetically useful chiral synthons, (R)- and (S)-2-cyclohepten-1-ol, can be prepared by an enantioselective transesterification of racemic trans-2-(phenylseleno) cycloheptanol using lipases, followed by selenoxide elimination and hydrolysis.     

The inconsistency of consistency effects in reading: The case of Japanese Kanji.

Most Japanese Kanji characters have several different pronunciations, at least one ON-reading (of Chinese origin) and a KUN-reading (of Japanese origin); the appropriate pronunciation is determined by intraword context. There are also Kanji characters that have a single ON-reading and no KUN-reading. With 2-character ON-reading Kanji words as stimuli, naming experiments were carried out to investigate print-to-sound consistency effects. The consistent Kanji words were those in which neither constituent character had an alternative ON-reading or a KUN-reading, hence there can be no pronunciation ambiguity for these words. The inconsistent items were ON-reading words composed of characters that have KUN-readings that are appropriate to other words in which the characters occur, hence there should be some ambiguity about the pronunciation of the constituent characters. Six experiments yielded reliable effects of both word and character frequency and familiarity on speed and accuracy of word naming but virtually no evidence for consistency effects. It was concluded that for Kanji, phonology is dominantly computed at the word rather than at the character level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrical communication between NAD-dependent enzyme and metal electrode using ferrocene-labeled NAD derivatives

The target N6-ferrocene substituted NAD derivatives (ferrocene-labeled NAD, Fc-NAD) were synthesized as an electron-relay NAD cofactor. The synthesized NAD derivatives possessed some biological activities as substrates in the alcohol dehydrogenase systems. The oxidation current depended on both addition of ethanol and spacer length of Fc-NAD.     

Micromechanical characterization of electroplated permalloy films for MEMS

In order to improve the reliability of MEMS designs, evaluating the mechanical properties of soft magnetic materials is needed. In this paper, we present a tensile testing method to characterize the mechanical properties of microscale electroplated permalloy (80 wt% Ni, 20 wt% Fe) films. The gauge section of the specimen is 50 μm wide, 100 μm long and 5 μm thick. The measured Young’s modulus of permalloy films is 96.4 GPa, and the tensile strength is 1.61 GPa. The fracture strain measured by the images of specimens is about 2%.     

Baker's yeast reduction of α-(alkoxycarbonylamino)acetophenones and Lipase-catalysed resolution of 2-(alkoxycarbonylamino)-1-arylethanols

Enzymatic reduction of α-(alkoxycarbonylamino)acetophenones with baker's yeast afforded optically active (R)-2-(alkoxycarbonylamino)-1-arylethanols. However, the reduction of α-(benzyloxycarbonylamino)-4-methoxyacetophenone ( 3c ) with immobilized baker's yeast gave (S)-2-(benzyloxycarbonylamino)-1-(4-methoxyphenyl) ethanol. The lipase PS-catalysed transesterification of 2-(allyloxycarbonylamino)-1-arylethanols ( 5 ) using vinyl acetate as an acyl donor resulted in the formation of (S)-2-(allyloxycarbonyl-amino)-1-arylethyl acetates [( S )- 9 ] and (R)-2-(allyloxycarbonylamino)-1-aryle-thanols [( R )- 5 ].     

Chemoenzymic synthesis of optically active 3-methyl- and 3-butylphthalides

Optically active (S)-3-methylphthalide was synthesized by the enzymic reduction of 2-iodoacetophenone using baker's yeast, followed by palladium-catalysed carbonylation under carbon monoxide. With enzymic reduction using baker's yeast, however, 2-bromo- or 2-iodovarelophenones were not reduced, even after 25 days. On the other hand, the enantioselective hydrolysis of α-alkylated 2-halobenzyl acylates using pig liver esterase, horse liver esterase or lipase from Candida rugosa resulted in the formation of (R)-α-alkylated 2-halobenzyl alcohol and (S)-acylate, and the following palladium-catalysed carbonylation of the products yielded the (R)- and (S)-3-alkylated phthalides, respectively.     

Monitoring Photosynthetic Activity in Microalgal Cells by Raman Spectroscopy with Deuterium Oxide as a Tracking Probe

Microalgae offer great potential for the production of biofuel, but high photosynthetic activity is demanded for the practical realisation of microalgal biofuels. To this end, it is essential to evaluate the photosynthetic activity of single microalgal cells in a heterogeneous population. In this study, we present a method to monitor the photosynthetic activity of microalgae (in particular Euglena gracilis, a microalgal species of unicellular, photosynthetic, flagellate protists as our model organism) at single-cell resolution by Raman spectroscopy with deuterium from deuterium oxide (D₂O) as a tracking probe. Specifically, we replaced H₂O in culture media with D₂O up to a concentration of 20 % without disturbing the growth rate of E. gracilis cells and evaluated C−D bond formation as a consequence of photosynthetic reactions by Raman spectroscopy. We used the probe to monitor the kinetics of the C−D bond formation in E. gracilis cells by incubating them in D₂O media under light irradiation. Furthermore, we demonstrated Raman microscopy imaging of each single E. gracilis cell to discriminate deuterated cells from normal cells. Our results hold great promise for Raman-based screening of E. gracilis and potentially other microalgae with high photosynthetic activity by using D₂O as a tracking probe.