Colour-odour correspondences in women during the menstrual cycle: Comparative analysis between the menstrual and ovulation phases

Women might experience modulation in their perception and cognition of colours and odours during the menstrual cycle, but how women's impressions of and correspondence between colours and odours differ according to the cycle changes remains unknown. Here, we experimentally examined women's performance of several tasks, including evaluation of impressions of colours and odours, matching/nonmatching of colours with odours, and identification of odours, comparing two phases: the beginning of menstruation and ovulation. The results showed that participants had similar impressions of colours and odours and made similar colour choices for odours in both the menstrual and ovulation phases, while “pleasant-unpleasant” impressions of colour and odour might vary according to the menstrual cycle. We found no significant differences in odour identification between the phases. The findings imply that hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle might affect “pleasant-unpleasant” impressions of colour and odour but not other features regarding impressions or crossmodal correspondence. In future studies, examination with a large number of participants is necessary.     

Correspondence between colour and odour for women in pre‐menopause and post‐menopause

Cross‐modal correspondences in the human sensory systems often appear for different levels of sensory inputs, such as colour and odour. However, whether there is hormonal modification of such colour‐odour correspondence has remained unclear. Here, we experimentally investigated the influence of hormonal changes in menopausal women by conducting evaluations of colour and odour impressions, matching tasks between colour and odour, and odor identification tasks, comparing two groups of women: premenopausal and postmenopausal. The results showed that both premenopausal and postmenopausal women had similar impressions and images of colours for odors, while postmenopausal women had significantly lower abilities of odor identification than premenopausal women. This suggested that the degree of conviction about an odor's identification might slightly affect the subjects’ impressions of odors and their corresponding colour choices. Menopause might not directly affect cognitive aspects regarding colour or odor, but might instead affect their perceptions.     

Dynamic mechanical properties of three‐component composites (acrylic polymer/epoxy/SiO2) in the glass‐transition region

In previous studies, we reported the linear and nonlinear rheological properties of three‐component composites consisting of acrylic polymer (AP), epoxy resin (EP), and various SiO₂ contents (AP/EP/SiO₂) in the molten state. In this study, the dynamic mechanical properties of AP/EP/SiO₂ composites with different particle sizes (0.5 and 8 μm) were investigated in the glass‐transition region. The EP consisted of three kinds of EP components. The α relaxation due to the glass transition shifted to a higher temperature with an increase in the volume fraction (?) for the AP/EP/SiO₂ composites having a particle size of 0.5 μm, but the α relaxation scarcely shifted for the composite having a particle size of 8 μm as a general result. This result suggested that the SiO₂ nanoparticles that were 0.5 μm in size adsorbed a lot of the low‐glass‐transition‐temperature (T_g) component because of their large surface area. The AP/SiO₂ composites did not exhibit a shift in T_g; this indicated that the composite did not adsorb any component. The modulus in the glassy state (E′_g) exhibited a very weak &phis; dependence for the AP/EP/SiO₂ composites having particle sizes of 0.5 and 8 μm, although E′_g of the AP/SiO₂ composites increased with &phis;. The AP/EP/SiO₂ composites exhibited a peculiar dynamic mechanical behavior, although the AP/SiO₂ composites showed the behavior of general two‐component composites. Scanning electron microscopic observations indicated that some components in the EP were adsorbed on the surface of the SiO₂ particles. We concluded that the peculiar behavior of the AP/EP/SiO₂ composites was due to the selective adsorption of the EP component. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40409.     

Fabrication of dense β-calcium orthophosphate with submicrometer-sized grains and its high-temperature superplastic deformation

High-density β-calcium orthophosphate (β-Ca₃(PO₄)₂, also called β-tricalcium phosphate: β-TCP) ceramics with submicrometer-sized grains were fabricated using a pulse-current pressure firing route. The maximum relative density of the β-TCP compacts was 98.7% at 1050 °C and this was accompanied by a translucent appearance. The mean grain size of the β-TCP compacts increased slightly with temperature to reach 0.78 μm at 1000 °C. However, upon further increasing the firing temperature to 1050 °C the mean grain size increased significantly to 1.6 μm. The extent of plastic deformation during tensile testing was examined at temperatures between 900 and 1100 °C using a strain rate in the range 9.26 × 10⁻⁵ to 4.44 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. The maximum tensile strain achieved was 145% for a test temperature of 1000 °C and strain rate of 1.48 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ and this was attributed to the relatively high density and small grain size.     

Effect of Oxygen Adsorption on Adhesion of W to Au Studied by Field Ion Microscopy

A field ion microscope has been used to investigate the influence of oxygen adsorption on adhesion of W to Au. An adhesion contact in ultrahigh vacuum of the field ion microscope was carried out using a W tip either with or without oxygen adsorption. It was found that adhesion force decreased with increasing oxygen exposures up to 60 Langmuirs (L). With an oxygen exposure of 16 L, an intermediate adhesion resulted. Adhesion is thus dependent upon the coverage of oxygen. The depth of adhesion-induced lattice defects was studied using the field evaporation technique. Over 200 L, adhesion force was not detectable, nor was distortion of W atoms.     

Improvement of mechanical properties of ferritic stainless steel weld metal by ultrasonic vibration

Authors investigated the effect of ultrasonic vibration on the solidification microstructure and mechanical properties of the weld metal of ferritic stainless steel by introducing directly ultrasonic vibration into the weld molten pool using ultrasonically vibrating filler metal. The main results obtained in this study are as follow.