SYNTHESIS AND PHASE-BEHAVIOR STUDIES OF 2 NEW CHIRAL LIQUID-CRYSTALS OF SCHIFF-BASE - THE INFLUENCE OF INTRAMOLECULAR HYDROGEN-BOND ON THE PHASE-BEHAVIOR

Two new chiral liquid crystals of schiff-base type have been synthesized. This series of compounds contain a-chloro acidic ester chain prepared from commercially available L-valine. Both of the compounds exhibit tilted smectic phases; their phase transitions were studied using DSC and polarized optical microscopy; the influence of intramolecular hydrogen bonds on the phase behavior was studied as well.

SYNTHESIS OF SOME CHIRAL LIQUID-CRYSTALS AND STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF INTRAMOLECULAR HYDROGEN-BONDING ON THE PHASE-BEHAVIOR

The synthesis of three new series of chiral Schiffs bases containing benzilideneaniline and 2-hydroxybenzilideneaniline moieties as mesogenic cores is presented. Differential scanning calorimetry, optical polarizing microscopy and X-ray diffraction measurements were used to study the phase transition temperatures and behaviour. The results reveal that most of these materials show chiral smectic mesomorphism.

SYNTHESIS OF 2 NEW HYDROGEN-BOND INDUCED LIQUID-CRYSTALS

Two new hydrogen bond induced liquid crystals with 4-butoxy benzoic acid as the proton donor and two chiral substituted stilbazole as the proton acceptor have been synthesized. Their liquid crystal transitions were studied by DSC and optical polarized microscope, the IR spectra of the complexes show the existence of the intermolecular hydrogen bond. The results of DSC and optical polarized microscope show that one of them (4BA-VSZ) has a chiral smectic C phase.

CHEMICAL-BONDS AND DIELECTRIC-CONSTANTS OF REM (RE=RARE EARTH, M=N, P, AS, SB) CRYSTALS

By using Pillips and van Vechten theory, the chemical bond parameters and dielectric constants of REM (RE=rare earth, M=N, P, As, Sb) crystals were calculated. The values calculated of dielectric constants agree with the experimental values.

SPECTRAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ER3+-ACTIVATED AND CE3+-SENSITIZED YTTRIUM-ALUMINUM-GARNET LASER CRYSTALS

We report in this paper the spectral characteristics of Er3+ (2 at.%)-activated and Ce3+ (0.3 at.%)-sensitized yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG:Er,Ce) laser crystals grown by the Czochralski technique. The absorption and emission spectra were measured at room temperature. By using absorption spectra and Judd-Ofelt theory the experimental oscillator strengths of the Er3+ transitions in the YAG:Er,Ce crystals were calculated. The energy transfer between the Er3+ and Ce3+ ions is also discussed.

CALCULATION METHOD OF LATTICE ENERGY ON COMPLEX-CRYSTALS

In this paper, based on the consideration of covalent behavior of adjacent ions in crystals, a calculation formula of lattice energy was proposed. In which, the concept of ionic effective valence and the empirical formula covalent energy were introduced,

EFFECT OF THE CONCENTRATION OF THE ER3+ ION ON THE SPECTRAL INTENSITY PARAMETERS OF ER-YAG CRYSTALS

The absorption spectra of Er:YAG (YAG, yttrium-aluminium-garnet) crystals containing different concentrations of the trivalent erbium ion were measured and the spectral intensity parameters were calculated from these experimental spectra using the Judd-Ofelt model. The results indicate that the phenomenological intensity parameters, OMEGA(lambda) (lambda = 2, 4 and 6), vary as a function of the concentration of the Er3+ ion in the Er:YAG crystal, but no variation in the fluorescence-branching ratios as a function of the concentration of the Er3+ ion is found. An empirical formula is proposed to describe the relationship between the spectral intensity parameters and the Er3+ ion concentration in the Er:YAG crystal. The spectral intensity parameters exhibit a maximum in Er:YAG crystals containing about 1-1.5 at.% Er3+ ion. The effect of the Er3+ ion concentration on the spectral intensity parameters may be attributed to the inhomogeneous lattice distortion in the cell of the Er:YAG crystal caused by the dopant erbium ions.

LUMINESCENCE AND ENERGY-TRANSFER IN GDP5O14-EU3+,SM3+ SINGLE-CRYSTALS

In this paper we report on the luminescence and energy transfer in GdP4O14:Eu3+,Sm3+ (GdPP:Eu,Sm) in single crystals grown by the hydrothermal method. The room temperature excitation, emission, absorption and IR spectra of the crystals have been measured and analysed. The energy transfer from Gd3+ and Sm3+ to Eu3+ ions in GPP:Eu,Sm crystals is also discussed.

The polymorphism of lysozyme gene in Zhikong scallop (Chlamys farreri) and its association with susceptibility/resistance to Listonella anguillarum

Lysozyme functions as a crucial biodefence effector against the infection of bacterial pathogens in innate immunity. The nucleotide sequence polymorphisms in promoter region of a nuclear goose type lysozyme gene from Zhikong scallop Chlamys farreri (designated as CFLysG) were investigated to explore their association with susceptibility/resistance to Listonella anguillarum infection. Eight sites of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and two sites of insert-deletion (ins-del) polymorphisms were identified in the promoter region of CFLysG. Two of them, -753 TATCTCGATCAGG ins-del polymorphism and -391 A-G SNP were selected to analyze their distribution in the susceptible and resistant stocks, which were identified according to the survival time after L. anguillarum challenge. Using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), two genotypes were found at each site, which were ins/del and ins/ins at locus -753, and A/A and A/G at locus -391, respectively. The -753 ins/del genotype was more prevalent in the resistant stock than that in the susceptible stock, 30% vs 16.67% in frequency, but there was no significant difference in the frequency distribution between these two stocks (P=0.15). In contrast, the frequency of -391A/G genotype in the resistant stock was significantly higher (30%) than that in the susceptible stock (7.14%) (P=0.007), indicating a significant association with the resistance of Zhikong scallop to L anguillarum. To confirm the presumption, another independent challenge experiment was performed, in which the cumulative mortality of scallops with -391 A/A genotype (96.8%) was significantly higher than those with -391 A/G genotype (64.5%) (P=0.001), which further validate the association between -391 A/G genotype and the resistance of Zhikong scallop to L anguillarum. These results suggested that the -391 A/G could be a potential marker applied in future selection of Zhikong scallop with enhanced resistance to L anguillarum. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The lysosome and lysozyme response in Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis to Vibrio anguillarum and laminarin stimulation

The effect of laminarin and Vibrio anguillarum on neutral red retention (NRR) time of lysosome and lysozyme activity in blood cells was investigated in Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis. In addition the variation, of total haemocyte counts (THC) and differential haemocyte counts (DHC) were dtermined simultaneously The. results showed that the lysosome membrane stability was significantly elongated with the longest NRR time for 180 min at 3 h after lamianrin injection, (p<0.05). The lysozyme activity of haemocytes showed a moderate increase simultaneously. THC also increased and with a highest percentage of semi-granular cell counts at 3 h after laminarin injection. However, the NRR time sharply decreased with the shortest NRR time for 13 min at 1.5 h after V. anguillarum injection. Compared to the control group, the lysozyme activity obviously increased after injection, which was demonstrated at 1.5 h though the THC decreased. The percentage of hyaline cells increased obviously after V. anguillarum injection (p<0.05). The results suggested that the shrimp immune status could be evaluated by using lysosome membrane stability and lysozyme activity. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Molecular cloning of an invertebrate goose-type lysozyme gene from Chlamys farreri, and lytic activity of the recombinant protein

Lysozyme is a widely distributed hydrolase possessing lytic activity against bacterial peptidoglycan, which enables it to protect the host against pathogenic infection. In the present study, the cDNA of an invertebrate goose-type lysozyme (designated CFLysG) was cloned from Zhikong scallop Chlamys farreri by expressed sequence tag (EST) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques. The full-length cDNA of CFLysG consisted of 829 nucleotides with a canonical polyadenylation signal sequence AATAAA and a poly(A) tail, and an open reading frame (ORF) of 603 bp encoding a polypeptide of 200 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular weight of 21.92 kDa and theoretical isoelectric point of 7.76. The high similarity of CFLysG with goose-type (g-type) lysozymes in vertebrate indicated that CFLysG should be an invertebrate counterpart of g-type lysozyme family, which suggested that the origin of g-type lysozyme preceded the emergence of urochordates and even preceded the emergence of deuterostomes. Similar to most g-type lysozymes, CFLysG possessed all conserved features critical for the fundamental structure and function of g-type lysozymes, such as three catalytic residues (Glu 82, Asp 97, Asp 108). By Northern blot analysis, mRNA transcript of CFLysG was found to be most abundantly expressed in the tissues of gills, hepatopancreas and gonad, weakly expressed in the tissues of haemocytes and mantle, while undetectable in the adductor muscle. These results suggested that CFLysG could possess combined features of both the immune and digestive adaptive lysozymes. To gain insight into the in vitro lytic activities of CFLysG, the mature peptide coding region was cloned into Pichia pastoris for heterogeneous expression. Recombinant CFLysG showed inhibitive effect on the growth of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria with more potent activities against Gram-positive bacteria, which indicated the involvement of CFLysG in the innate immunity of C. farreri. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.