Possibility of Japanese Cedar Pollen Causing False Positives in the Deep Mycosis Test

Because Japanese cedar pollen (JCP) contains beta-1,3-d-glucan (BG), there is concern that its lingering presence in the atmosphere, especially during its scattering period, may cause false positives in the factor-G-based Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay used to test for deep mycosis (i.e., G-test). Hence, we examined whether the LAL assay would react positively with substances contained in JCP by using the G-test to measure JCP particles and extracts. BG was purified from the JCP extract on a BG-specific affinity column, and the percentage extractability was measured using three different BG-specific quantitative methods. The G-test detected 0.4 pg BG in a single JCP particle and 10 fg from a single particle in the extract. The percentage extractability of JCP-derived BG was not significantly different among the three quantitative methods. As the JCP particles should technically have been removed during serum separation, they should be less likely to be a direct false-positive factor. However, given that the LAL-assay-positive substances in the JCP extract were not distinguishable by the three BG-specific quantitative methods, we conclude that they may cause the background to rise. Therefore, in Japan false positives arising from JCP contamination should be considered when testing patients for deep mycosis.     

Improvement of the Nelder-Mead method using Direct Inversion in Iterative Subspace

Optimization and Engineering - The Nelder-Mead (NM) method is a popular derivative-free optimization algorithm owing to its fast convergence and robustness. However, it is known that the method...     

Influence of metal ion concentration in the glycol mediated synthesis of Gd2O3:Eu nanophosphor

The solvothermal synthesis of highly luminescent and homogeneous Gd₂O₃:Eu³⁺ nanophosphor using diethylene glycol as medium, followed by controlled combustion with citric acid as fuel is reported. The influence of concentrations of carboxylic acid and metal cations on the structure, morphology and luminescence properties are investigated in detail. The microscopic investigations indicate the nanocrystalline nature and the strong influence of cation concentration on the size, shape and agglomeration of the particles. It is found that increase in concentration of metal cations lead to the reduction in agglomeration of nanophosphors. The large value of intensity parameter Ω_2, suggested that Eu³⁺ ions reside in a more asymmetric environment, resulted in intense emission due to ⁵D₀–⁷F₂ electric dipole transition. Emission decay analysis of the samples exhibited one exponential nature. The samples prepared under optimum conditions showed a quantum efficiency of 78.63% and a moderately high life time of 1.217 ms.     

Capillary rise properties of porous mullite ceramics prepared by an extrusion method with various diameters of fiber pore formers

Porous mullite ceramics with unidirectionally oriented pores were prepared by an extrusion method using rayon fibers as the pore formers. Rayon fibers of 8.1, 9.6, 16.8, and 37.6 μm in diameter were used as the pore formers and were kneaded with alumina powder, kaolin clay, China earthen clay, and water to form pastes. These pastes were extruded into cylindrical tubes, dried, and fired at 1500 °C for 4 h. The apparent porosities ranged from 45.7 to 48.2 %. The pore size distributions showed a sharp peak at 9.4, 10.0, 15.6, and 30 μm with increasing fiber diameters. The height of the capillary rise was 1780, 1670, 1320, and 950 mm with increasing fiber diameter. The maximum capillary rise is much higher than previously reported. The contact angle and effective pore radius that determine the capillary rise ability were calculated by fitting the capillary rise curves using the Fries and Dreyer’s equation.     

Thermoelectric Properties of Rare Earth-Doped SrTiO3 Nanocubes

A giant Seebeck coefficient of ?890 μV/K at 500 °C has been observed in Y_0.2Sr_0.8TiO₃ prepared using nanocubes. Doping rare earth elements, RE, has revealed that small RE is effective to enhance the Seebeck coefficient. Through soft mode observations by Raman spectroscopy and structural calculations based on density functional theory, it has been found that the breakdown of inversion symmetry of the perovskite structure near the surface of nanocubes can be recovered by doping with small RE. Because the dielectric constant is strongly related to the surface structure in this compound, we suggest that RE doping modulates the potential barrier at the grain boundary, resulting in a pronounced energy filtering effect in Y doped SrTiO₃.     

Investigation of continuous-wave and Q-switched microchip laser characteristics of Yb:YAG ceramics and crystals

Continuous-wave and passively Q-switched microchip laser performance of Yb:YAG ceramics and single-crystals was investigated. Highly efficient continuous-wave Yb:YAG laser performance was observed at 1030 nm and 1049 nm for both Yb:YAG ceramics and crystals with different transmissions of output couplers. The laser performance of Yb:YAG ceramic is comparable to that of Yb:YAG single crystal. Meanwhile, the laser performance of laser-diode pumped Yb:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG all-ceramics- and all-crystals-combination passively Q-switched microchip lasers were investigated. Sub-nanosecond laser pulses with peak power over 150 kW were obtained with different Yb:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG combinations. Linearly polarized laser was observed in Yb:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG all-crystals combination and circular polarized laser was obtained in Yb:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG all-ceramics combination. The best laser performance was obtained with Yb:YAG/Cr⁴⁺:YAG all-crystals combination.     

The influence of solder composition on the impact strength of lead-free solder ball grid array joints

This study aims to investigate the shear and tensile impact strength of solder ball attachments. Tests were conducted on Ni-doped and non-Ni-doped Sn-0.7wt.% Cu, Sn-37wt.% Pb and Sn-3.0wt.% Ag-0.7wt.% Cu solder ball grid arrays (BGAs) placed on Cu substrates, which were as-reflowed and aged, over a wide range of displacement rates from 10 to 4000 mm/s in shear and from 1 to 400 mm/s in tensile tests. Ni additions to the Sn-0.7wt.% Cu solders has slowed the growth of the interface intermetallic compounds (IMCs) and made the IMC layer morphology smooth. As-reflowed Ni-doped Sn-0.7wt.% Cu BGA joints show superior properties at high speed shear and tensile impacts compared to the non-Ni-doped Sn-0.7wt.% Cu and Sn-3.0wt.% Ag-0.7wt.% Cu BGAs. Sn-3.0wt.% Ag-0.7wt.% Cu BGAs exhibit the least resistance in both shear and tensile tests among the four compositions of solders, which may result from the cracks in the IMC layers introduced during the reflow processes.     

Porous ceramics mimicking nature—preparation and properties of microstructures with unidirectionally oriented pores

Porous ceramics with unidirectionally oriented pores have been prepared by various methods such as anodic oxidation, templating using wood, unidirectional solidification, extrusion, etc. The templating method directly replicates the porous microstructure of wood to prepare porous ceramics, whereas the extrusion method mimics the microstructures of tracheids and xylems in trees. These two methods are therefore the main focus of this review as they provide good examples of the preparation of functional porous ceramics with properties replicating nature. The well-oriented cylindrical through-hole pores prepared by the extrusion method using fibers as the pore formers provide excellent permeability together with high mechanical strength. Examples of applications of these porous ceramics are given, including their excellent capillary lift of over 1 m height which could be used to counteract urban heat island phenomena, and other interesting properties arising from anisotropic unidirectional porous structures.