From designer Lewis acid to designer Brønsted acid towards more reactive and selective acid catalysis

This review focuses on the development of acid catalysis for selective organic transformations conducted in our laboratories for the past 30 years. Several important concepts in designing of catalysts are described with some examples. Further, recent developments in super Brønsted acid and their applications in a one-pot procedure to construct complex molecules with high diastereoselectivities are described

Numerical study on suppression of tsunami with under-sea breakwater

Large-scale tsunami occurs every 100 or 150 years statistically, and 95% of these tsunami lead to great disasters which kill over 1,000 people. In order to avoid, suppress or mitigate such damage, it is necessary to perform a risk management from the point of view of disaster prevention engineering. There are breakwaters as one of existing measures for tsunami, and the effectiveness of breakwaters has been demonstrated. However, a conventional breakwater can be disrupted by the impact of tsunami, and then it turns into debris that causes to expand the damage. There is also the problem of impairing the landscape by locating a large-scale breakwater along a sea shore. Construction of under-sea breakwaters is one possible way to coping with these problems. In this paper, tsunami behavior when the under-sea breakwater is located is numerically simulated using MPS method, which is one of the particle methods. And the effectiveness on suppression of tsunami with the under-sea breakwater is researched and verified. Through the present study, it was confirmed that the under-sea breakwater can suppress tsunami. The higher the under-sea breakwater is, the more it suppresses tsunami. However, if the height of the breakwater is too low, the effect on tsunami suppression is small. In addition, it was found that, by setting under-sea breakwater at a suitable position, arrival time of a tsunami can be delayed

Enantioselective Protonation of Ketene Bis(trimethylsilyl) Acetals Derived from α-Aryl-α-haloacetic Acids Using LBA

Optically active α-halocarboxylic acids and derivatives are important and versatile building blocks in organic synthesis. Lewis acid assisted chiral Brönsted acid (LBA) was recently prepared in situ from tin(IV) tetrachloride and optically pure binaphthol and shown to be an effective reagent for enantioselective protonation of pro- chiral silyl enol ethers and ketene bis(trialkylsilyl) acetals. In this paper we describe highly enantioselective protonation of ketene bis(trimethylsilyl) acetals prepared from α-aryl-α-haloaeetic acids using LBA. This is a new methodology for the enantioselective synthesis of α-aryl-α-haloacetic acid derivatives, and the commercially available chiral binaphthol can be recovered efficiently for reuse

Coevolutionary genetic algorithm for constraint satisfaction with a genetic repair operator for effective schemata formation

We discuss a coevolutionary genetic algorithm for constraint satisfaction. Our basic idea is to explore effective genetic information in the population, i.e., schemata, and to exploit the genetic information in order to guide the population to better solutions. Our coevolutionary genetic algorithm (CGA) consists of two GA populations; the first GA, called “H-GA”, searches for the solutions in a given environment (problem), and the second GA, called “P-GA”, searches for effective genetic information involved in the H-GA, namely, good schemata. Thus, each individual in P-GA consists of alleles in H-GA or “don't care” symbol representing a schema in the H-GA. These GA populations separately evolve in each genetic space at different abstraction levels and affect with each other by two genetic operators: “superposition” and “transcription”. We then applied our CGA to constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) incorporating a new stochastic “repair” operator for P-GA to raise the consistency of schemata with the (local) constraint conditions in CSPs. We carried out two experiments: First, we examined the performance of CGA on various “general” CSPs that are generated randomly for a wide variety of “density” and “tightness” of constraint conditions in the CSPs that are the basic measures of characterizing CSPs. Next, we examined “structured” CSPs involving latent “cluster” structures among the variables in the CSPs. For these experiments, computer simulations confirmed us the effectiveness of our CGA</p

Medium component improvement for β-galactosidase production by a probiotic strain Lactobacillus fermentum CM33

Plackett and Burman statistical design was applied to screen the nutritional factors affecting β-galactosidase production by Lactobacillus fermentum CM33. Accordingly, lactose, tryptone and Tween80 were found to be the positive effective factors at the significant level above 80%. Central composite design (CCD) and response surface plot predicted that the maximum enzyme activity of 49.81 U/100 ml would be obtained at 3.23 (w/v) lactose, 4.91% (w/v) tryptone and 0.62% (w/v) Tween80 and a trial experiment validated the activity total at 114% at 24 h of cultivation. However, the maximum activity of 63.31 U/100 ml culture was found at 16 h. The initial pH range 6.0 to 6.5 was found to be the most suitable for enzyme production. The final stage of optimization increased the productivity by 14.60 folds over that obtained with the non-optimized medium. The replacing of the expensive ingredients such as yeast extract, peptone and beef extract composed in the optimized medium by skimmed milk, did not significantly alter the enzyme productivity.Keywords: Medium optimization, Lactobacillus sp., β-galactosidase, experimental desig

Regulation of dendritic spine morphology by an NMDA receptor-associated Rho GTPase-activating protein, p250GAP

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66364/1/j.1471-4159.2008.05335.x.pd

A Case of Liposarcoma With Peritonitis Due to Jejunal Perforation

A 21-year-old man, who had been treated for congenital dilatation of the bile duct 13 years previously, presented with an acute abdomen. The physical examination suggested peritonitis, and an emergent laparotomy was performed. A perforation was foundin the jejunum approximately 100 cm distal to the ligament of Treitz, followed by resection of a 60-cm jejunal segment. No tumorous lesions were found during the operation, and the resected jejunal segment showed only focal myxomatous thickening of the serosa. Despite intensive therapy, he died of uncontrollable septic shock 2 days after the operation. Unexpectedly, however, histological examination revealed a liposarcoma, showing an unclassifiable histology. From the distribution of the lesion and the histological findings, it is thought that a primary lesion was somewhere else, covered by severe adhesions due to the previous operation, and that the tumor cells spreading from it could have caused the jejunal perforation through vascular involvement. Although extremely rare, liposarcomas in the abdomen can cause intestinal perforation. It is important for both clinicians andpathologists to carefully investigate the cause of an unusual clinical presentation such as intestinal perforation