In this paper the electrochemical behaviors of hydroquinone ($H_2Q$) were investigated on a carbon paste electrode using room temperature ionic liquid N-butylpyridinium hexafluorophosphate ($BPPF_6$) as binder (ILCPE) and further applied to $H_2Q$ determination. In pH 2.5 phosphate buffer solution (PBS), the electrochemical response of H2Q was greatly improved on the IL-CPE with a pair of well-defined quasi-reversible redox peaks appeared, which was attributed to the electrocatalytic activity of IL-CPE to the $H_2Q$. The redox peak potentials were located at 0.340 V (Epa) and 0.240 V (Epc) (vs. the saturated calomel electrode, SCE), respectively. The formal potential ($E^0$') was calculated as 0.290 V and the peak-to-peak separation (${\Delta}E_p$) was 0.100 V. The electrochemical parameters of $H_2Q$ on the IL-CPE were further calculated by cyclic voltammetry. Under the selected conditions the anodic peak current was linear with $H_2Q$ concentration over the range from $5.0\;{{\times}}\;10^{-6}$ to $5.0\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;mol\;L^{-1}$ with the detection limit as $2.5\;{\times}\;10^{-6}\;mol\;L^{-1}$ (3$\sigma$ ) by cyclic voltammetry. The proposed method was successful applied to determination of $H_2Q$ content in a synthetic wastewater sample without the interferences of commonly coexisting substances.

Discovery of $\alpha$-glucosidase inhibitors has been actively pursued with the aim to develop therapeutics for the treatment of diabetes and the other carbohydrate mediated diseases. As a method for the discovery of new novel inhibitors of $\alpha$-glucosidase, we have addressed the performance of the computer-aided drug design protocol involving the homology modeling of $\alpha$-glucosidase and the structure-based virtual screening with the two docking tools: FlexX and the automated and improved AutoDock implementing the effects of ligand solvation in the scoring function. The homology modeling of $\alpha$-glucosidase from baker’s yeast provides a high-quality 3-D structure enabling the structure-based inhibitor design. Of the two docking programs under consideration, AutoDock is found to be more accurate than FlexX in terms of scoring putative ligands to the extent of 5-fold enhancement of hit rate in database screening when 1% of database coverage is used as a cutoff. A detailed binding mode analysis of the known inhibitors shows that they can be stabilized in the active site of $\alpha$- glucosidase through the simultaneous establishment of the multiple hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interactions. The present study demonstrates the usefulness of the automated AutoDock program with the improved scoring function as a docking tool for virtual screening of new $\alpha$-glucosidase inhibitors as well as for binding mode analysis to elucidate the activities of known inhibitors.

A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with poly(p-aminobenzene sulfonic acid) [Poly(p-ABSA)] film is fabricated by voltammetric technique in phosphate buffer solution (pH 8.0) containing $5.0\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;mol\;L^{-1}$p- ABSA. Electrochemical behaviors of tryptophan at the Poly(p-ABSA) film electrode are investigated with voltammetry. The results indicate that the electrochemical response of tryptophan is improved significantly in the presence of poly(p-ABSA) film. Compared with the bare glassy carbon electrode, the Poly(p-ABSA) film electrode remarkably enhances the irreversible oxidation peak current of tryptophan. Some parameters such as voltammetric sweeping segments for the electrochemical polymerization, pH, accumulation potential and accumulation time are optimized. Under the optimal conditions, the oxidation peak current is proportional to tryptophan concentration in the range of $1.0\;{\times}\;10^{-7}$ to $1.0\;{\times}\;10^{-6}\;mol\;L^{-1}$, and $2.0\;{\times}\;10^{-6}$ to $1.0\;{\times}\;10^{-5}\;mol\;L^{-1}$ with a detection limit of $7.0\;{\times}\;10^{-8}\;mol\;L^{-1}$. The proposed procedure is successfully applied to the determination of tryptophan in a commercial amino acid oral solution.

2,4-Di-(2'-hydroxyethoxy)benzylidenemalononitrile (3) was prepared and polymerized with terephthaloyl chloride and adipoyl chloride to yield novel Y-type polyesters 4 and 5 containing dioxybenzylidenemalononitrile groups as NLO-chromophores, which constituted parts of the polymer backbone. The resulting polymers 4 and 5 are soluble in common organic solvents such as acetone and N,N-dimethylformamide. Polymers 4 and 5 showed thermal stability up to 300 ${^{\circ}C}$ in thermogravimetric analysis with glass-transition temperatures obtained from differential scanning calorimetry in the range 83-94 ${^{\circ}C}$. The second harmonic generation (SHG) coefficients ($d_{33}$) of poled polymer films at the 1064 nm fundamental wavelength were around $6.48\;{\times}\;10^{-9}$ esu. The dipole alignment exhibited high thermal stability even at 10 ${^{\circ}C}$ higher than $T_g$ and no significant SHG decay was observed below 105 ${^{\circ}C}$ partially due to the main-chain character of polymer structure, which is acceptable for NLO device applications.

Photoelectrochemical deposition of CdZnSe thin films on the Se-modified Au electrode using electrochemical quartz crystal microgravimetry (EQCM) and voltammetry is described. Corrosion of pre-deposited Se electrodes by illumination at a fixed potential resulted in $Se^{2-}$ species, which was manifest from the EQCM frequency changes. $Se^{2-}$ species generated from the photocorrosion reacted with $Cd^{2+}$ and $Zn^{2+}$ ions in the electrolyte to form CdZnSe films on the Au electrode. The effect of electrolyte composition on the composition and band gap of CdZnSe films was studied in detail. Also, photoelectrochemistry, EDX, Raman spectroscopy were used for the characterization of CdZnSe thin films.

A phosphate-specific and fluorescent probe was prepared for label-free phosphatase assays based on fluorescence polarization. By using the probe, dephosphorylation reactions of DNA and protein substrates by calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase (CIP) could effectively be monitored in real-time. Since this assay method does not require additional materials such as labeled substrates and phosphospecific antibodies to obtain fluorescence polarization signals, it is simple, cost-effective, and expected to be useful not only for measuring activity of phosphatases but also for high-throughput screening of phosphatase inhibitors.

The molecular association of acceptors with electron donors is studied in the highly-polar solvent $CH_3CN$. Tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) forms a stable charge-transfer complex with donor molecules such as 4- aminobiphenyl (4-AB), benzidine (BD) and 2-aminobiphenyl (2-AB) with high association constants. The complexes of TCNQ with 4-AB or BD show new absorption bands at around 800 and 500 nm, which can be identified as reduced $TCNQ^{{\bullet}-}$ and $TCNQ^{2-}$ species, respectively. These bands grow quickly upon photoirradiation, implying that the charge-transfer complexes are easily formed in an excited state. Conversely, a small spectral manifestation of the charge transfer was observed in the case of 2-AB complex. It is demonstrated that the structural orientation between the geminate ion pairs could play an important role in building a stable complex.

A novel anthraquinone diamino-bridged bis($\beta$ -cyclodextrin) 2 was synthesized. The inclusion complexation behaviors of the native $\beta$ -cyclodextrin 1 and the novel bis($\beta$ -cyclodextrin) 2 with guests, such as acridine red (AR), neutral red (NR), ammonium 8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS), sodium 2-(p-toluidinyl) naphthalenesulfonate (TNS) and rhodamine B (RhB) were investigation by fluorescence, circular dichroism and 2D NMR spectroscopy. The spectral titrations were performed in phosphate buffer (pH 7.20) at 25 ${^{\circ}C}$ to give the complex stability constants (Ks) and Gibbs free energy changes (−${\Delta}G^0$) for the stoichiometric 1:1 inclusion complexation of host 1 and 2 with guests. The results indicated that the novel bis($\beta$ -cyclodextrin) 2 greatly enhanced the original binding affinity of the native $\beta$ -cyclodextrin 1. Typically, bis($\beta$ -cyclodextrin) 2 showed the highest binding constant towards ANS up to 34.8 times higher than that of 1. The 2D NMR spectra of bis($\beta$ -cyclodextrin) 2 with RhB and TNS were performed to confirm the binding mode. The increased binding affinity and molecular selectivity of guests by bis($\beta$ -cyclodextrin) 2 were discussed from the viewpoint of the size/shape-fit concept and multipoint recognition mechanism.

We have performed FlexX docking experiments to predict the best docking poses of 5-androst-16-en-3-ol or 5-androst-16-en-3-one to Boar salivary lipocalin (SAL). Since no steroids were found inside of the binding pocket of the X-ray structure of 1GM6, we tried to find docking structures after opening the pocket using the random tweak option implemented in SYBYL. This operation allowed the ligand to enter the pocket. The best poses generated from FlexX were different from the structures reported earlier, which calculated docking poses by manual docking followed by minimization. Analysis of docking poses allowed us to identify pharmacophores. From this information, virtual screening experiments using UNITY were performed. Among six candidates, 3-(3,7-dimethyloct-6-enylamino)propane-1,2-diol (Leadquest code name: 5755) was chosen for further development. Future work will involve synthesis of some derivatives of 5755 and biological experiments if any derivatives can control the biostimulation and improve reproductive efficiency in pigs.

For the [$Cr_2(H_2tmp)_2Cl_4$] compound, simplified models with two bridging methoxo ligands have been studied. The influence of the bridging Cr-O-Cr bond angles on the exchange coupling between metal atoms in the model compound has been analyzed by means of density functional calculations with the broken-symmetry approach. Coupling constant calculated for the full structure is in good agreement with the experimentally reported value, confirming the validity of the computational strategy used in this work to predict the exchange coupling in a family of related dinuclear Cr(III) compounds. The calculations indicate a good correlation between the calculated coupling constant and the sum of the squared energy gap of three pairs of metal $t_{2g}$ OMSOs with a limited variation of the Cr-O-Cr angle. The spin density distribution and the mechanism of magnetic coupling interactions are discussed.

Solvent extraction using a Schiff-base, salen$(NEt_2)_2$, as a chelating agent has been conducted on several water samples to study the determination of trace Cu(II), Mn(II) and Zn(II). Experimental conditions for the formation and extraction of metal complexes were optimized with an aqueous solution similar in composition to the samples. The matrix difference between the sample and standard solutions was approximately matched, and the pH of each sample solution was adjusted to 9.5 with $NaHCO_3/NaOH$ buffer. The concentration of salen$(NEt_2)_2$ was $7.3\;{\times}\;10^{-3}$ mol/L, and the complexes were extracted into MIBK solvent followed by the measurement of AAS absorbance. The potential interference of concomitant ions was investigated, but no interference from alkaline and alkali earth ions was shown in this procedure. The given procedure is precise, as judged from the relative standard deviation of less than 5% for five measured data. The recovery of 93-103% shows that this method is quantitative for such trace metal analysis.

Removal of heavy metal ions ($Cd^{2+}$ and $Zn^{2+}$) by electrocoagulation (ECG) was investigated in an acidic condition, which is necessary for re-using or discharging the mediated electrochemical oxidation (MEO) media. Effects of various parameters such as electrolytes, current densities, and electrode materials were examined for a metal-contaminated MEO system using $Fe^{2+}/Fe^{3+}$ pairs as a mediator. It was found that ECG with Al electrodes is greatly affected by the presence of $Fe^{2+}$. [$Cd^{2+}$] and [$Zn^{2+}$] remain constant until [$Fe^{2+}$] reaches a certain concentration level (ca. 10 mM). This preferential removal of $Fe^{2+}$ during ECG with Al electrodes is not alleviated by controlling current densities, potential programs, and solution mixing. ECG with Fe electrodes, on the other hand, resulted in relatively fast removal of $Cd^{2+}$ and $Zn^{2+}$ under coexistence of $Fe^{2+}$, indicative of the different role between $Fe^{n+}$ generated from an electrode and $Fe^{2+}$ initially present in a solution. When ECG was performed with Fe electrodes until [$Fe^{n+}$] became the same as the concentration of initially present $Fe^{2+}$, [$Cd^{2+}$] and [$Zn^{2+}$] were reduced to one-tenth of the initial concentrations, suggesting the possibility of a continuous use of the medium for a subsequent MEO process.

In this study, 8 solutes (aniline, caffeine, p-cresol, ethyl benzene, methylparaben, phenol, pyridine, and toluene) have been tested in terms of linear solvation energy relationships (LSER). Several micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) systems using cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and a mixture of water with (methanol, n-propanol, and n-butanol) modifiers were characterized using the LSER solvation parameter model. The effects of the surfactant and modifier concentration on the retention in MLC were discussed. LSER model had demonstrated high potential to predict retention factors with high squared correlation coefficients ($r^2$ > 0.99). A comparison of predicted and experimental retention factors suggests that LSER formalism is able to reproduce adequately the experimental retention factors of the solutes studied in the different experimental conditions investigated. This model is a helpful tool to understand the solute-surfactant interactions and evaluate the retention characteristic of micellar liquid chromatography.

Parathion is an organophosphate pesticide being legally applied for the purpose of agriculture and is being manufactured in Korea. A gas chromatography/mass spectrometric method was developed for the determination of parathion urinary metabolite, p-nitrophenol. p-Nitrophenol was extracted from weak acidic urine, and then measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (selected ion monitoring). The recovery of pnitrophenol in the overall procedure was 88.2%. The detection limit of the assay was 1.0 $\mu$ g/L based upon assayed urine of 2.0 mL. The method was applied to the determination of p-nitrophenol in urine of workers of a parathion industry. Spot urines of workers of a parathion industry were sampled at the end of shift and pnitrophenol was analyzed using above developed method. p-Nitrophenol could be detected in all of the urine samples at concentrations varying from 3.0 to 681 $\mu$ g/L.

A poly(methyl red) film-modified glassy carbon electrode (PMRE) was fabricated for determination of norfloxacin (NFX). The electrochemical behavior of NFX was investigated and a well-defined oxidation peak with high sensitivity was observed at the film electrode. PMRE greatly enhanced the oxidation peak current of NFX owing to the extraordinary properties of poly(methyl red) film. Based on this, a sensitive and simple voltammetric method was developed for measurement of NFX. A sensitive linear voltammetric response for NFX was obtained in the concentration range of $1\;{\times}\;10^{-6}\;-\;1\;{\times}\;10^{-4}$ mol/L and the detection limit was $1\;{\times}\;10^{-7}$ mol/L using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The proposed method possessed advantages such as low detection limit, fast response, low cost and simplicity. The practical application of this new analytical method was demonstrated with NFX pharmaceuticals.

Two directional ring-closing metathesis (RCM) was applied successfully to the synthesis of 4'-vinylated carbocyclic nucleoside analogues from the trivinyl intermediate 12, which was readily made using a sequential Claisen rearrangement and ring-closing metathesis (RCM) starting from Weinreb amide 5. An antiviral evaluation of the synthesized compounds against various viruses such as HIV, HSV-1, HSV-2 and HCMV revealed that the guanine analogue 20 have moderate anti-HIV activity in the MT-4 cell line ($EC_{50}$ = 10.2 $\mu$ M).

The gel electrolytes were prepared with sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid, where hydrophilic fumed silica was used as a gelling agent. The influences of gel electrolyte on performance of the valve regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries were investigated employing capacity tests, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The initial capacities of the sulfuric gel VRLA batteries were higher than that of phosphoric gel VRLA batteries. The sulfuric gel VRLA battery using 1.210 specific gravity of sulfuric acid with hydrophilic fumed silica exhibited the highest capacity of 0.828Ah. In the impedance measurements, the ohmic and charge transfer resistances for the phosphoric gel VRLA batteries were higher thanthat of sulfuric gel batteries. The morphology of electrodes of phosphoric gel VRLA batteries were more deteriorated in the SEM image.

Highly efficient syntheses of cylindol A (1) and the proposed structure of cylindol B (2) have been accomplished using common synthetic transformations from symmetrical starting materials 7 and 11, respectively. The latter synthesis revealed that the proposed structure of the natural cylindol B was assigned incorrectly. Isomers of 2 such as 15 and 16 were synthesized as a possible candidate of the natural cylindol B. However, their spectral data also did not match that of the natural cylindol B. Therefore, the structure of the natural cylindol B is yet to be resolved.

Spray pyrolysis has been found as an excellent method for the preparation of mesoporous barium sulfate at higher temperature. Ethylene glycol, a reducing agent, and solvents had good inhibition effect for the preparation of $BaSO_4$ nano particles. The $BaSO_4$ solution was sprayed at 500 & 800 ${^{\circ}C}$ using different solvents such as methanol, ethanol, propanol and n-butyl alcohol. $N_2$ adsorption-desorption isotherm revealed that $BaSO_4$ is micropore free, possessing narrow mesopores size distribution and high BET surface areas of 72.52 $m^2\;g^{-1}$ at 800 ${^{\circ}C}$ using propanol as an additive. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicates that the morphology of $BaSO_4$ nano material shows uniform shell like particles. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) proved that the resulting BaSO4 nano particles were uniform in size and the average particle size was 4-8 nm. The surface functionality and ethylene glycol peaks were assessed by Fourier transform infrared resonance (FTIR) spectroscopy. Low intensity ethylene glycol specific absorption peak was observed in propanol which proved that propanol had good inhibition effect on the structural morphology of nano particles.

Syndecan-3 is a cell-surface heparan sulfate proteoglycan, which performs a variety of functions during cell adhension process. It is also a coreceptor for growth factor, mediating cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction. Syndecan-3 contains a cytoplasmic domain potentially associated with the cytoskeleton. Syndecan-3 is specifically expressed in neuron cell and has related to neuron cell differentiation and development of actin filament in cell migration. Syndecans each have a unique, central, and variable (V) region in their cytoplasmic domains. And that region of syndecan-3 may modulate the interactions of the conserved C1 regions of the cytoplasmic domains by tyrosine phosphorylation. Cytoplasmic domain of syndecan-3 has been synthesized for NMR structural studies. The solution structure of syndecan-3 cytoplasmic domain has been determined by two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy and simulated-annealing calculation. The cytoplasmic domain of the syndecan proteins has a tendency to form a dimmer conformation with a central cavity, however, that of syndecan-3 demonstrated a monomer conformation with a flexible region near C-terminus. The structural information might add knowledge about the structure-function relationships among syndecan proteins.

Photolysis of 2-(pentamethyldisilanyloxy)phenylpentamethyldisilane 1 in methanol provides five photoproducts 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Compounds 3 and 4 were probably formed from the methanol addition reactions of silene intermediate 2 and the formation of 5, 6, and 7 can best be explained by the nucleophilic attack of methanol to silicon atom in pentamethyldisilanyloxy or pentamethyldisilanyl group of the photoexcited state of 1. Irradiation of 1 in n-hexane gives a photoproduct 6 via silyl radical intermediate 8 and a novel intramolecular cyclization photoproduct 11 via silene 9 and silyl radical intermediate 10. Irradiation of 1 in deaerated methylene chloride in the presence of acetone affords a novel photoproduct 11 and phenol 7 but the expected photoproducts from the reaction of the silene intermediate with acetone were not obtained.

(4,5-Dichloro-6-oxo-6H-pyridazin-1-yl)phosphoric acid diethyl ester (3a) are efficient and selective coupling agents for the amidation of carboxylic acids. Amidation of aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids with aliphatic and aromatic amines using 3a under mild condition gave chemoselectively the corresponding amides in good to excellent yield. Three protected-dipeptides were also synthesized from N-BOC-Phe and O-Me-amino acid hydrochlorides using 3a under mild condition.

A copper cyclam-type complex was successfully immobilized onto mesoporous silica SBA-16. Characterization by NIR spectroscopy and TGA analysis confirmed that copper cyclam complex is immobilized onto mesoporous SBA-16. The Cu(II)-Cyclam-SBA-16 was proven to be a good catalyst for oxidation reaction of cyclohexene with conversion up to 77.8% after 13 h reaction and providing a high selectivity to cyclohexenol and 3-hydroperoxycyclohex-1-ene. The results suggest that the copper species play a major role as catalyst via reversible redox cycles as proven by cyclic voltammetry analysis.

Mono and multilayer TiO2(Fe, $PEG_{600}$) films were deposited by the dip-coating on $SiO_2$/glass substrate using sol-gel method. In an attempt to improve the antibacterial properties of doped $TiO_2$ films, the influence of the iron oxides and polyethilenglycol ($PEG_{600}$) on the morphological, optical, surface chemical composition and biological properties of nanostructured layers was studied. Complementary measurements were performed including Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) coupled with the fractal analysis, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and antibacterial tests. It was found that different concentrations of Fe and $PEG_{600}$ added to coating solution strongly influence the porosity and morphology at nanometric scale related to fractal behaviour and the elemental and chemical states of the surfaces as well. The thermal treatment under oxidative atmosphere leads to films densification and oxides phase stabilization. The antibacterial activity of coatings against Escherichia Coli bacteria was examined by specific antibacterial tests.

Simultaneous determination of amitraz, bromopropylate, coumaphos, cymiazole and 2,4-dimethylaniline in 200 honey samples purchased in Korea was performed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with multiple UV detection. 2% Acetone in hexane was used for a liquid-liquid extraction and 20-40% water in acetonitrile solutions were used as mobile phases. The LOD for the analytes varied between 0.4 and 1.5 $\mu$g/L and the recoveries were yielded between 64 and 94%. Relative standard deviation of the repeatability of the method is less than 15%. Amitraz was not present in amount above 10 $\mu$ g/L and one for coumaphos and cymiazole and two for bromopropylate, and three for 2,4-dimethylanilne were detected in amount above 10 $\mu$ g/ L. Levels of the acaricide residues found were less than 50 $\mu$ g/L.

Electric current flow was observed through imogolite film when imogolite ($(HO)_3Al_2O_3SiOH$) was exposed to water molecules and connected to external electrodes. Current flow was due to the bound water on the surface of imogolite. Current flow increased as the pH of the water decreased. The current-voltage (I-V) measurements from a field effective transistor (FET) using $H_2O$/imogolite film revealed that the current carrier in $H_2O$/ imogolite had p-type characteristics, i.e. the carrier was probably $H^+$. The possible mechanism for current transportation in imogolite/water was also suggested in this paper.

The entropy production in a non-equilibrium state based on the reversible Oregonator model of the Belousov-Zhabotinskii (BZ) reaction system has been studied. The reaction affinity and the reaction rate for the individual steps have been calculated by varying the concentrations of key variables in the system. The result shows a linear relationship between the reaction affinity and the reaction rate in the given concentration range. However, the overall entropy calculated on the basic assumption that the entropy in a reaction system corresponds to the summation of a product of reaction affinity and reaction rate of individual steps shows a nonlinearity of the reaction system. The results well agrees with the fact that the entropy production is not linear or complicated function in a non-linear reaction system.