Nuclear Magnetism of Submonolayer Solid 3He on Graphite

Submonolayer solid ³ He adsorbed on graphite has been studied with NMR measurement down to the order of 0.1 mK. The magnetization curves are well fitted to the Curie-Weiss law in the whole investigated density region (5.0 nm ^–2 - 8.5 nm ^–2 ). The obtained Weiss temperatures are found to be positive at a commensurate phase and an incommensurate one. However they are negative in the intermediate density region, which suggests the existence of an antiferromaynetic phase also in the Submonolayer. The change from an antiferro to a ferromagnetic behavior at around 7.3 nm ^–2 is similar to that of the second layer, and can be explained by a multiple spin exchange model. Therefore the ferromagnetic behavior in the second layer is not necessarily due to the liquid overlayer. While the ferromagnetic behavior at the phase is not reproduced by a simple density dependence of competing multiple exchange interactions and indicates the importance of the corrugation potential from the graphite substrate.     

Median Photometric Stereo as Applied to the Segonko Tumulus and Museum Objects

One of the necessary techniques for constructing a virtual museum is to estimate the surface normal and the albedo of the artwork which has high specularity. In this paper, we propose a novel photometric stereo method which is robust to the specular reflection of the object surface. Our method can also digitize the artwork arranged inside a glass or acrylic display case without bringing the artwork out of the display case. Our method treats the specular reflection at the object surface or at the display case as an outlier, and finds a good surface normal evading the influence of the outliers. We judiciously design the cost function so that the outlier will be automatically removed under the assumption that the object’s shape and color are smooth. At the end of this paper, we also show some archived 3D data of Segonko Tumulus and objects in the University Museum at The University of Tokyo that were generated by applying the proposed method.     

Flow control valve for pneumatic actuators using particle excitation by PZT vibrator

This paper reports a new flow control valve for pneumatic actuators that has a lightweight and simple structure and uses particle excitation by PZT vibrator. The flow control valve in this report consists of an orifice plate which has plural orifices, PZT vibrator which is adhered on the orifice plate and iron particles. The valve is normally closed, because air flow carries the particles on to the orifice and particles seal the air flow. Because the orifice plate excitation by the PZT vibrator works to make the particles away from the orifice plate, the air flows through the orifices. It is driven at resonance mode and can be used as a variable speed controller for pneumatic actuators. The new flow control valve avoids the stopping shock of pneumatic actuators at the stroke ends while retaining the advantages of pneumatic actuators.     

Reflective LCD with high reflectance and color reproducibility for reduced eye strain

We fabricated a prototype of a 434‐ppi 5.9‐in reflective liquid crystal display for use as an e‐book reader. With high‐level optical characteristics with a reflectance of 28.7% and an NTSC ratio of 37%, we achieved eye‐friendly reflective liquid crystal display.     

Vibration suppression for mass‐spring‐damper systems with a tuned mass damper using interconnection and damping assignment passivity‐based control

This paper considers a vibration suppression control method using feedback for a mass‐spring‐damper system with a tuned mass damper. For vibration suppression, we adopt the interconnection and damping assignment passivity‐based control, whereby the system is transformed to a system with a skyhook damper with an artificial structure matrix. The feedback law includes no accelerometer signal and uses only information on relative displacements and velocities. The proposed control method can simultaneously suppress the influences of the floor vibration and the disturbance force acting on the main body. A guideline for choosing parameters of the desired system is shown. The proposed method can be easily extended to nonlinear cases, which is demonstrated for a nonlinear‐spring case. We also show the input‐to‐state stability property of closed‐loop systems for linear cases and nonlinear cases. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a Highly Sensitive β-Glucan Detection System Using Scanning Single-Molecule Counting Method

To overcome the limitations of the Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay method for the diagnosis of invasive fungal infection, we applied a reaction system combining recombinant β-glucan binding proteins and a scanning single-molecule counting (SSMC) method. A novel (1→3)-β-D-glucan recognition protein (S-BGRP) and a (1→6)-β-glucanase mutant protein were prepared and tested for the binding of (1→6)-branched (1→3)-β-D-glucan from fungi. S-BGRP and (1→6)-β-glucanase mutant proteins reacted with β-glucan from Candida and Aspergillus spp. Although LAL cross-reacted with plant-derived β-glucans, the new detection system using the SSMC method showed low sensitivity to plant (1→3)-β-D-glucan, which significantly improved the appearance of false positives, a recognized problem with the LAL method. Measurement of β-glucan levels by the SSMC method using recombinant β-glucan-binding proteins may be useful for the diagnosis of fungal infections. This study shows that this detection system could be a new alternative diagnostic method to the LAL method.     

Identification of Novel Histone Deacetylase 6-Selective Inhibitors Bearing 3,3,3-Trifluorolactic Amide (TFLAM) Motif as a Zinc Binding Group

Pharmacological inhibition of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is an effective therapeutic strategy for cancer and immunological diseases. Most of the previously reported HDAC6 inhibitors have a hydroxamate group as a zinc binding group (ZBG), which coordinates to the catalytic zinc ion of HDAC6. The hydroxamate group is liable to metabolically generate mutagenetic hydroxylamine; therefore, non-hydroxamate HDAC6 inhibitors would be advantageous. In this study, to identify novel non-hydroxamate HDAC6-selective inhibitors, screening of a chemical library and the subsequent structural optimization were performed, which led to the identification of HDAC6-selective inhibitors with 3,3,3-trifluorolactic amide (TFLAM) as a novel ZBG. The identified inhibitor showed potent and selective HDAC6-inhibitory activity in cells and induced regulatory T (Treg) cell differentiation.     

Composition depth profile analysis of bulk heterojunction layer by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry with gradient shaving preparation

Composition depth profile analysis of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) layer was performed by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry with gradient shaving preparation. The BHJ layer comprised of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) was formed on the substrate coated with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) followed by annealing. The P3HT component increased toward the top surface in the BHJ layer. In addition, C₈H₇SO₃⁻ was detected inside the BHJ layer, suggesting penetration of PSS. P3HT was uniformly distributed in the BHJ layer without PEDOT:PSS. The P3HT-rich distribution in the top surface may be attributed to PSS penetration.     

A fast algorithm for computing least-squares cross-validations for nonparametric conditional kernel density functions

Nonparametric conditional density functions are widely used in applied econometric and statistical modelling because they provide enriched information summaries of the relationships between dependent and independent variables. Although least-squares cross-validation is considered to be the best criterion for bandwidth selection of the kernel estimator of the conditional density, the number of computations required for this procedure grows exponentially as the number of observations increases. A fast algorithm is proposed to reduce this computational cost, and its accuracy and efficiency are verified via numerical experiments. A practical application is also presented to demonstrate the algorithm’s potential usefulness.     

Reliability evaluation for Blu-Ray laser diodes

With this paper we describe an extensive analysis of the reliability of InGaN-based laser diodes, emitting at 405 nm. These devices have excellent characteristics for application in the next-generation optical data storage systems. The analysis aims at describing the degradation process, as well as at investigating the role of current in determining the degradation rate. The results obtained within this paper suggest that the degradation of the laser diodes is correlated to the increase in the non-radiative recombination rate, with subsequent worsening of the optical properties of the devices. Furthermore, our findings support the hypothesis that current is the main driving force for degradation, while temperature and optical power play only a limited role in determining the degradation kinetics.