Spectroscopic investigations on the interaction of gabapentin (GBP) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) were reported. The association constant of GBP-BSA system was determined at different temperatures (298, 302, 306 and 311 K) based on the fluorescence quenching results. The GBP was found to quench the fluorescence of BSA through static mechanism. Thermodynamic parameters, the standard enthalpy change, $({\Delta}H^o)$ and the standard entropy change $({\Delta}S^o)$ were observed to be $-9.61{\pm}0.008\;kJ\;mol^{-1}$ and $3.58{\pm}0.011\;Jmol^{-1}K{-1}$ respectively. These indicated that the hydrophobic and electrostatic forces played a role in the interaction of GBP with BSA. The negative value of ${\Delta}G^o$ revealed that the binding reaction is spontaneous. The circular dichroism studies indicated the conformational changes in BSA upon interaction with GBP. The effect of some metal ions on the binding constant was also investigated.

The photophysical properties of coumarin 6 laser dye have been studied in two solvents; ethanol and acetonitrile using steady-state fluorescence depolarization technique. The experimentally measured reorientation time of coumarin 6 is more or less the same in given solvents at particular temperature. It is found that coumarin 6 rotates slower in acetonitrile than in ethanol especially at higher values of viscosity over temperature. We also measure the ground and excited state dipole moments of coumarin 6 by solvent perturbation method. The results found that excited state dipole moment is greater than ground state dipole moment, which indicates that excited state is more polar than the ground state.

The polyclonal antibody was generated against the peptide fragment of 62 amino acid residues (D 181-T242) near the COOH-terminal region of the extracellular domain of epithelial-cell adhesion molecule (Ep-CAM) and shown to be able to recognize Ep-CAM in competitive ELISA. Then, sulforhodamine 101 acid chloride (so called Texas red), a fluorescence dye, was conjugated to the affinity-purified anti-Ep-CAM antibody utilizing the reaction between the aliphatic amines of antibody and the sulfonyl chloride of Texas red. The molar ratio of Texas red to antibody was estimated to be approximately 1.86 by measuring optical densities at 280 nm and 596 nm, implying that the two molecules of Texas red at most were conjugated to antibody. The anti-Ep-CAM antibody-Texas red conjugate was then used for immunohistochemistry of CT-26 murine colon carcinoma cells. Based upon the fluorescence microscope images, anti-Ep-CAM antibody is able to deliver Texas red specifically to the surface of CT-26 cells on which Ep-CAM was actively expressed. This result indicates that anti-Ep-CAM antibody could be useful for the tissue-specific delivery of photosensitizers via antigen-antibody interaction.

The psbC gene, encoding the intrinsic chlorophyll-binding protein of CP43, one of the PS core complex polypeptides, was cloned from the Panax ginseng chloroplast, which is composed of 1,422 nucleotides and the overall nucleotide sequence shows more than 84% identity to those of eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms. The predicted topology of CP43, based on hydropathy analysis, includes six membrane-spanning ${\alpha}-helices$ resulting in three lumenal and four stromal loops. The putative translation start codon for the psbC gene is located at 48 nucleotides upstream from the stop codon of the psbD gene whose product is also a component of the PSII reaction center, implying that the promoter of the psbC gene is possibly located in the middle of the structural gene of the psbD gene. Northern blot analysis of the in vivo accumulation of the psbC transcript from the plants grown under the various growth light intensities (5%, 10%, 20%, and 100%) of daylight indicated that the steady-state level of the psbC transcript was not significantly affected by light intensity.

We confirmed that the 1 compound, N,N'-di(p-dimehylaniline)benza1d-1,4-diimine, with two imine bond showed a reversible trans-cis photoisomerization which was recovered to the original state in 8 minutes through the spectroscopic studies.

The chemiluminescence reaction of lophine with $H_2O_2$ in alkaline solution has been investigated for use in determination of $Cu^{2+}$ ions. The observed chemiluminescence intensity is found to be a function of the concentration of $Cu^{2+}$. Under the optimum reagent concentrations such as $4{\times}10^{-4}M$ lophine, 0.8 M KOH, 0.2M $H_2O_2,{\lambda}_{em}$, 533nm, the linear range and the detection limit were found to be 0.048ug/ml-48.32ug/ml (R=0.99897) and 0.005ulg/ml respectively. Relative standard deviation for five determinations of 24.16ug/ml $Cu^{2+}$ is 2.35%. The interference from other species was investigated. The proposed method was applied to the determination of $Cu^{2+}$ in different water samples.

The simultaneous determination of harman, harmaline and norharman has been described using synchronous fluorescence technique. The method has been based on their natural fluorescence. It is difficult to analyze and determine their contents by conventional fluorescence method because of their similar molecular structures. The synchronous spectrum, maintaining a constant wavelength difference of ${\Delta}{\lambda}=185nm$ between the excitation and emission monochromators, was selected as optimum to perform the determination. The method was also performed in aqueous medium at pH 4.0 and in presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), $1{\times}10^{-5}M$. Under the optimum conditions, each analyte has the linear determination range of $1{\times}10^{-7}M-\;1{\times}10^{-4}M$.

A chemiluminescence (CL) method for the determination of ascorbic acid was proposed, which is based on the enhancement of the CL intensity of $Ru(bipy)_3^{2+}$ - Ce (IV) system with the addition of ascorbic acid. The CL intensity is proportional to the concentration of ascorbic acid in the range of $1{\times}10^{-10}\;to\;1{\times}10^{-5}M$ with a correlation coefficient of 0.9985. The detection limit is $3{\times}10^{-11}M$. The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) of 10 determinations of 0.1 mM ascorbic acid was 1.75%. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of ascorbic acid in the commercia] drinks. The possible mechanism of the CL reaction was studied.

Results of studies of SET-promoted dipole-forming photochemical group transfer reactions of phthalimide and ${\alpha}-ketoamide$ derivatives are discussed. Azomethine ylide forming photochemical reactions, which are initiated by intramolecular SET from tethered silylmethyl-, carboxymethyl-, and ${\beta}-hydroxyethyl$ containing electron donors to excited states of phthalimides, related maleimides, and conjugated imides, are presented first. Following this, investigations of regioselective 1,4-dipole forming photochemical reactions of N-trialkylsilylmethyl- and N-trialkylstannyl-${\alpha}$-ketoamides are described.

Recent reports suggest that floral organs such as sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels are specified by quaternary MADS protein complexes with different combinations. The formation of quaternary complexes of ABCDE MADS proteins may be the molecular basis of ABCDE model for the floral organ development. The MADS complexes involved in each floral organ development seem to be conserved in at least dicot species although detailed molecular mechanism is slightly different depending on species. Even in monocot, at least rice, MADS complexes similar to those in dicot exist, suggesting that the floral organ specification by MADS protein complexes may be conserved in most of plants. The MADS protein complexes may have more specific recognition of target genes or more transcription activation ability than monomers or dimers, resulting in finely regulated floral organ development.

The relationship between porous surfaces and photoluminescence (PL) behavior of porous silicon carbide (PSC) in various solvents has been studied. The porous surfaces of p-type silicon carbide can be fabricated by electrochemical anodization from the 6H, 15R, 4H-${\alpha}$-SiC substrates in dark-current mode (DCM) condition. We have been investigated the dependence of the PL spectra of PSC under the medium having the different dielectric constants. It has been found that PL depends sensitively on the environment surrounding the surface. The extent of chemically stability on the surface of PSC due to the various solvents was confirmed by reflectance Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Detailed IR experiments on the PSC samples were carried out before and after various solvents immersion. These results will be offered important information on the origin of PL in porous structure.

Plants dissipate excess excitation energy from their photosynthetic apparatus by a process called non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). The major part of NPQ is energy dependent quenching (qE) which is dependent on the thylakoid pH and regulated by xanthophyll cycle carotenoids associated with photosystem (PS) II of higher plants. The acidification of the lumen leads to protonation and thus conformational change of light harvesting complex (LHC) proteins as well as PsbS protein of PSII, which results in the induction of qE. Although physiological importance of qE has been well established, the mechanistic understanding is rather insufficient. However, recent finding of crystal structure of LHCII trimer and identification of qE mutants in higher plants and algae enrich and sharpen our understanding of this process. This review summarizes our current knowledge on the qE mechanism. The nature of quenching sites and components involved in this process, and their contribution and interaction for the generation of qE appeared in the proposed models for the qE mechanism are discussed.

The electronic structure of photoskinsensitizing psoralens has been investigated by the ab initio calculations. The photocycloaddition reaction of 8-methoxypsoralen with thymine is studied as a model for the photosensitizing reaction of psoralen with DNA bases. The photocycloadduct was inferred to be a C4-cycloaddition product with the stereochemistry of Syn, H-H, Syn, H-T formed through [2+2] addition reaction between the 3,4-double bonds of 8-methoxypsoralen and 5,6-double bond of thymine base.