We have shown that zeolite microcrystals can be readily organized in the form of uniformly oriented monoand multilayers on various substrates by well-defined chemical linkages based on covalent, ionic, and hydrogen bondings between the microcrystals and the substrates. This finding establishes the fact that micrometer-scale building blocks can be readily organized into organized entities through interconnection of the surface-tethered large number of functional groups. Since zeolite crystals have highly regular and uniform nanochannels and nanopores within them, the resulting mono and multilayers of zeolite microcrystals bear great potential to be utilized in various novel applications.

The relaxed torsional potential of a liquid crystalline polymer containing an ester functional group in a mesogenic unit (hereafter 12-4 oligomer) has been calculated with the ab initio self-consistent-field using 6-31G$^*$ basis set. GIAO^{13}C NMR chemical shifts also have been calculated at the B3LYP/6-31G$^*$ level of theory for each conformational structure obtained from torsional potential calculation. The results show that the phenyl ring-ester linkages are coplanar with the dihedral angle of about 0$^{\circ}$ and the ring-ring linkages in the biphenyl groups are tilted with the dihedral angle of around 43-44$^{\circ}$ in the lowest energy conformer. The biphenyl ring has a comparatively lower energy barrier of internal rotation potential in the ring-ring than that of phenyl ring-ester. The ^{13}C chemical shifts of carbonyl carbons were found to move to upfield due to $\pi$ -conjugation with phenyl ring and slightly affected about 0.5 ppm by dihedral angle of the ring-ring linkage.

New organotin(IV) derivatives with general formulae R_2SnL_2 and R_3SnL, where R = methyl, n-butyl, n-octyl and phenyl and HL is either 3-[N-(4-nitrophenyl)amido]-propenoic acid or 3-[N-(4-nitrophenyl)amido] propanoic acid have been synthesized in 1 : 2 and 1 : 1 molar ratio by different methods. The FTIR spectra clearly demonstrated that the organotin(IV) moieties react with [O,O] atoms of the ligands. The bonding and coordination behavior in these complexes are discussed on the basis of multinuclear (^1H,\,^{13}C,\,^{119}Sn) NMR and mass spectrometric studies. Antibacterial, and antifungal screening tests were performed for these compounds and reported here. These values were compared to those of the precursors and it was found that diorganotin(IV) complexes exhibit less activity as compared to triorganotin(IV) complexes . LD_{50} data were obtained by Brine Shrimp assay method. Insecticidal activity was performed for selective compounds by contact toxicity method.

A powder of destructive adsorbent was prepared by impregnating Mn and Cu on the surface of amorphous aluminosilicate. It catalytically dimerized tert-butyl mercaptan into di-tert-butyl disulfide on its surface. Turnover of the dimerization was strongly dependent on the surface morphology of the adsorbent, which could be altered by modification of aluminosilicate support. During the process of impregnation, which involved heat treatment at 500 ${^{\circ}C}$, the shape of the pore was preserved, though large fraction of micropores were eliminated. The reactive sites on the surface were poisoned as dimerization products strongly adhered on them. Therefore, high surface area was not always desirable. When the surface was heavily populated with “inkbottled” pores with a narrow entrance in uniform size, heavy poisoning of the reactive sites turned the destructive adsorbents almost useless.

Unlike other viral polymerases, HCV RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) has not been successfully inhibited by nucleoside analogues presumably due to its strong substrate specificity for RNA. Thus, in order to understand the RNA-specificity of HCV RdRp, the structural characteristics of the active site was investigated. The hereto unknown 2-OH binding pocket at the active site of RdRp provides invaluable implication for the development of novel anti-HCV nucleoside analogues.

An amperometric glucose biosensor has been developed based on the use of the nanoporous composite film of sol-gel-derived zirconia and perfluorosulfonated ionomer, Nafion, for the encapsulation of glucose oxidase (GOx) on a platinized glassy carbon electrode. Zirconium isopropoxide (ZrOPr) was used as a sol-gel precursor for the preparation of zirconia/Nafion composite film and the performance of the resulting glucose biosensor was tuned by controlling the water content in the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of sol-gel stock solution. The presence of Nafion polymer in the sol-gel-derived zirconia in the biosensor resulted in faster response time and higher sensitivity compared to those obtained at the pure zirconia- and pure Nafion-based biosensors. Because of the nanoporous nature of the composite film, the glucose biosensor based on the zirconia/Nafion composite film can reach 95% of steady-state current less than 5 s. In addition, the biosensor responds to glucose linearly in the range of 0.03-15.08 mM with a sensitivity of 3.40 $\mu$A/mM and the detection limit of 0.037 mM (S/N = 3). Moreover, the biosensor exhibited good sensor-to-sensor reproducibility (~5%) and long-term stability (90% of its original activity retained after 4 weeks) when stored in 50 mM phosphate buffer at pH 7 at 4 ${^{\circ}C}$.

Porous polymer monolithic columns were prepared by the direct free radical copolymerization of methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate within the confines of a chromatographic column in the presence of toluene-dodecanol as a porogenic solvent. The separation characteristics of the monolithic columns were tested by a homologous series of xanthine derivatives, theophylline and caffeine. The effects of the polymerization mixture composition and polymerization condition, mobile phase composition, flow rate and temperature on the retention times and separation efficiencies were investigated. The results showed that the selection of correct porogenic solvents and appropriate polymerization conditions are crucial for the preparation of the monolithic stationary phases. The separation efficiency was only extremely weakly dependent on flow rate and temperatures. Hydrogen-bonding interaction played an important role in the retention and separation. Compared with conventional particle columns, the monolithic column exhibited good stability, ease of regeneration, high separation efficiency and fast analysis.

The commercially available Amberlite XAD-2 and XAD-4 resins were modified with macrocyclic protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) or tetrakis(p-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP) to enhance the adsorption capacity for phenol and chlorophenols. The chemically modified polymeric adsorbents (XAD-2+PPIX, XAD-2+TCPP, XAD-4+PPIX, and XAD-4+TCPP) were applied to the solid phase extraction as an adsorbent material for the preconcentration of phenol and chlorophenols in environmental waters. Generally, the synthesized adsorbents showed higher recoveries than underivatized adsorbents, XAD-2 and XAD-4, without matrix interferences. Especially, XAD-4+PPIX showed more than 90% recoveries for all compounds used in this study including hydrophilic phenol. The major factor for the increase of the adsorption capacity was the increase of $\pi$-$\pi$ interaction between adsorbents and samples due to the introduction of the porphyrin molecule. However, the breakthrough volumes and recovery values of the XADs+TCPP columns were slightly decreased for the bulky chlorophenols such as TCP and PCP. Using molecular mechanics methods, the structures of TCPP and PPIX were compared with that of porphine, the parent molecule of porphyrin. Four bulky p-carboxyphenyl groups of TCPP were torsional each other, thus the molecular plane of TCPP were not on the same level. In conclusion, the decrease of breakthrough volumes and recovery values of XADs+TCPP columns for bulky phenols can be explained by the steric hindrance of the $\pi$-$\pi$ interaction between porphyrin plane and the phenols.

Propylene Carbonate (PC) has the interesting properties of being able to dissolve and dissociate lithium salts, thus leading to highly conducting electrolytes even at low temperatures. Moreover, electrolytes that contain PC are stable against oxidation at voltages up to ~5 V. However, it is known that, when lithium is intercalated into graphite in pure PC based electrolytes, solvent co-intercalation occurs, leading to the destruction of the graphite structure. (i.e., exfoliation). The objective of this study was to suppress PC decomposition and prevent exfoliation of the graphite anode by co-intercalation. Electrochemical characteristics were studied using Kawasaki mesophase fine carbon (KMFC) in different 1 M $LiPF_6$/PC-based electrolytes. Electrochemical experiments were completed using chronopotentiometry, cyclic voltammetry, impedance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. From the observed results, we conclude that the MA and $Li_2CO_3$ additive suppressed co-intercalation of the PC electrolyte into the graphite anode. The use of additives, for reducing the extent of solvent decomposition before exfoliation of the graphite anode, could therefore enhance the stability of a KMFC electrode.

Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) recruits and activates procaspase-8 through interactions between the death effector domains of these two proteins. Cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (c-FLIP) was identified as a molecule with sequence homology to caspase-8. It has been postulated that c-FLIP prevents formation of the competent death-inducing signaling complex in a ligand-dependent manner, through its interaction with FADD and/or caspase-8. However, the interaction of FADD and $c-FLIP_s$ (short form) in apoptosis signaling has been controversially discussed. We show the purification and the characterization of human full-length FADD and $c-FLIP_s$ expressed in Escherichia coli. The purified FADD and $c-FLIP_s$ are shown as homogeneity, respectively, in SDS-PAGE analysis and light-scattering measurements. The folding properties of the $\alpha$-helical structure of FADD and the super-secondary structure of $c-FLIP_s$ proteins were characterized by circular dichroism spectroscopy. Furthermore, we report here a series of biochemical and biophysical data for FADD-$c-FLIP_s$ binding in vitro. The binding of both FADD and $c-FLIP_s$ proteins was detected by BIAcore biosensor, fluorescence measurement, and size-exclusion column (SEC).

Two new compounds 1'-(stigmast-11,20(21),25-trien 3$\alpha$,9$\alpha$-diolyl)-3'-(pimara-11,15-dien-3$\alpha$-olyl) glycerol (1) and stigmast-5-en-3$\alpha$,26-diol (2) along with known fatty acids n-hexacosanoic acid (3) and hexadecanoic acid (4), have been isolated from the methanol extract of rice hulls of Oryza sativa. The structures of the compounds were elucidated using 1D and 2D NMR spectral methods, viz; $^1H, ^{13}C, ^{13}C$-DEPT, $^1H-^1H$ COSY, $^1H-^{13}C$ HETCOR, HSQC and HMBC aided by IR, EIMS, FABMS and HRFABMS. Compound (1) showed inhibition to radish germination, growth of shoot and root length.

Polyamine dendrimers functionalized with electrochemiluminescent (ECL) polypyridyl Ru(II) complexes, dend-$[CO-(CH_2)_3-mbpy{\cdot}Ru(L)_2]_3(PF_6)_6$ (dend: N$(CH_2CH_2NH)_3$-, L: bpy, o-phen, phen-Cl, DTDP), were synthesized through the complexation of dendritic polypyridyl ligands to Ru(II) complexes. Their electrochemical redox potentials, photoluminescence (PL), and relative ECL intensities were studied. The ECL emissions produced by the reaction between the electro-oxidized $Ru^{3+}$ species of polyamine dendrimers and tripropylamine as a coreactant were measured in a static system with potential cycles between 0.8 and 1.3 V or through flow injection analysis with a potential of +1.3 V, and were compared to that of $[Ru(o-phen)_3](PF_6)_2{\cdot}Dend-[CO-(CH_2)_3-mbpy{\cdot}Ru(bpy)_2]_3(PF_6)_6$ showed an ECL intensity that was two-fold greater than that of the reference complex $[Ru(o-phen)_3](PF_6)_2$.

Photocatalytic electron transfer reactions of aryl benzyl sulfides using 2,4,6 triphenylpyrilium tetrafluoroborate ($TP^+BF_4^-$) resulted in the oxidation of these sulfides to the corresponding sulfoxides and also in most cases in the C-S bond cleavage of them along with formation of aromatic aldehydes. In these reactions, the formation of sulfide radical cation has been proposed, which undergoes either oxidation to the corresponding sulfoxide or C-S bond cleavage to the formation of aromatic aldehydes. The further oxidation of sulfoxides to sulfones has not been observed. The influence of substrate structures on the reaction pathways as well as the role of $O_2$ in this respect is discussed.