Recent Spin Pump Experiments on Superfluid 3He–A1

The superfluid ³He A₁ phase, containing a spin-polarized condensate allows us to explore the dynamics of superfluid spin current. In the mechano-spin effect (MSE), a mechanically applied pressure gradient and a superleak-spin filter enable one to directly boost spin polarization of ³He in a small chamber. We are developing new apparatus for achieving greater enhancement of spin density. A development of a new-type ³He-hydraulic actuator has been already reported. We present here the construction of new-type of superleak-spin-filter made of packed powder aluminum oxide (referred as PAP-SL). The PAP-SL is popular in the study of superfluid ⁴He, but has not been established for that of the superfluid ³He. The attempt to construct the PAP-SL for the spin pump experiment was made by using aluminum oxide powder with nominal 1 μm powder diameter and with packing fraction of 40 %. Before executing the experiment, the nuclear demagnetization cryostat of ISSP, Univ. Tokyo which has been used for this experimental activity, was heavily damaged by the 2011 Great East Japan (Higashi Nihon) Earthquake. The repair work and earthquake damage protection strengthening has just been accomplished.     

Extracellular secretion of free fatty acids by disruption of a fatty acyl-CoA synthetase gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

To elucidate the molecular mechanism governing fatty acid transport across the cell membrane, we first isolated a Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant, B-1, that exhibits a reduced acyl-CoA oxidase activity and an increase in free fatty acid accumulation. Following mutagenesis of B-1, a mutant, YTS51, which secretes free fatty acids, was isolated. The concentration of free fatty acids in the YTS51 culture medium was about 17 times higher than that in B-1. The mutation that causes the fatty acid secretion phenotype occurred at a single allele, and this phenotype was suppressed by the introduction of a single copy of FAA1, a gene for acyl-CoA Synthetase, to the mutant. Although the mutation expressing this phenotype was not within FAA1 in YTS51, the disruption of FAA1 in the wild-type strain resulted in fatty acid secretion even though the level of fatty acid secretion was less than that in YTS51. We consider that YTS51 is a suitable model to elucidate the molecular basis of the fatty acid transport process.     

Platinum on Carbon‐Catalyzed Hydrodefluorination of Fluoroarenes using Isopropyl Alcohol‐Water‐Sodium Carbonate Combination

We have developed a platinum on carbon‐isopropyl alcohol‐catalyzed and widely applicable defluorination method for fluoroarenes, and the addition of water and sodium carbonate efficiently accelerated the reaction. The defluorination readily occurred under the reaction conditions in comparison with the dehalogenation of other aromatic halides (fluorine>chlorine>bromine≫iodine).     

An Area-Effective Cell-Based Channel Decoder LSI For a Digital Satellite TV Broadcasting

A new channel decoder LSI, which will be used in digital satellite TV broadcasting Set-Top Boxes, has been designed. This LSI's functions include AD/DA conversion, QPSK demodulating, Viterbi decoding, frame synchronization, convolutional deinterleaving, Reed-Solomon (RS) decoding, and descrambling. We use a new method for Viterbi Decoding called the Tracking Survivor State Information (TSSI) method, which not only reduces power consumption, but also solves the problem of increasing memory size. To reduce the size of RS decoder circuit, we used a three-stage-pipeline structure as well as designed a new architecture to realize Euclid's algorithm. This device has been fabricated in a 0.35 µm 3-metal CMOS standard cell-based process and is composed of 670 K transistors. In this paper, we describe the TSSI method of the Viterbi Decoder and the Reed-Solomon Decoder's new 3-stage pipeline architecture.     

Structural changes and biodegradation of PLLA,PCL, and PLGA sponges during in vitro incubation

The structural changes and degradation behaviors of poly(L ‐lactic acid) (PLLA) and poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) sponges were studied by incubation in phosphate buffer solution and compared with those of previously reported poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) sponge. The changes of pH, weight, molecular weight, crystallinity, and thermal properties of glass transition and melting were measured. The influence of incubation temperature on the structural change of each type of sponge was investigated in details. During incubation, the PLLA sponge showed secondary crystallization, the PCL sponge showed lamellar thickening, and the PLGA sponge showed physical aging. Depending on the type of biodegradable polymers, the incubation temperature caused different structural changes during the incubation and the structural changes influenced several degradation behaviors. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 50:1895–1903, 2010. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Two‐Dimensional Orientation in Bi4Ti3O12 Prepared Using Platelet Particles and a Magnetic Field

Tailoring the crystallographic orientation in piezoelectric ceramics is very useful for improving their properties. Orientation in ceramics can be controlled by templated grain growth, hot forging, etc. We have focused on using a strong magnetic field for the crystallographic orientation even in diamagnetic ceramics. In a previous study, although only a one‐directional orientation could be controlled by these methods, it was difficult to control the multi‐axis orientation in the ceramics. In this study, we demonstrated that alignments of the c‐axis and the <100> axis in Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ piezoelectric ceramics were controlled by using a strong magnetic field as well as platelet particles. We also estimated the degree of orientation by an electron back scattering diffraction analysis. When the magnetic field was applied to the platelet particles, appropriately 80% of the grains were aligned with the tilt angle made by the c‐axis and the vertical direction less than 10° and 73% of grains were oriented with the angle between the <100> axis and the magnetic field less than 10°.     

Speech synthesis of emotions using vowel features of a speaker

Recently, methods for adding emotion to synthetic speech have received considerable attention in the field of speech synthesis research. We previously proposed a case-based method for generating emotional synthetic speech by exploiting the characteristics of the maximum amplitude and the utterance time of vowels, and the fundamental frequency of emotional speech. In the present study, we propose a method in which our reported method is further improved by controlling the fundamental frequency of emotional synthetic speech. As an initial investigation, we adopted the utterance of a Japanese name that is semantically neutral. By using the proposed method, emotional synthetic speech made from the emotional speech of one male subject was discriminable with a mean accuracy of 83.9 % when 18 subjects listened to the emotional synthetic utterances of “angry,” “happy,” “neutral,” “sad,” or “surprised” when the utterance was the Japanese name “Taro,” or “Hiroko.” Further adjustment of fundamental frequency in the proposed method made a much clearer impression on the subjects for emotional synthetic speech.     

In situ FTIR study of the Cu electrode/ethylene carbonate + dimethyl carbonate solution interface

The interfacial phenomena between Cu electrode and solution of lithium perchlorate in ethylene carbonate (EC)-dimethyl carbonate (DMC) have been investigated using in situ reflection absorption Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and single reflection ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The ATR spectra confirmed the bands due to free EC and DMC and the molecules solvated to lithium ions in the solution. The bands due to the result of the interaction between ClO₄⁻ and DMC in the mixture solution also appeared in the ATR spectra. In the FTIR spectra, the potential dependence on the concentration of EC and DMC in the vicinity of the Cu electrode was observed. It was understood that the reversible changes in the concentration of free EC and DMC and solvated EC and DMC in the diffuse double layer take place with changing in potential. As the potential decreased, the free EC and DMC concentrations increased, while the concentration of the EC and DMC solvated to lithium ions decreased. Thus, it can be concluded that the equilibrium shifts from Li⁺(EC)₂(DMC)₂ to Li⁺(EC)₂(DMC) + DMC or Li⁺(EC)(DMC)₂ + EC as the potential decreases. The bands due to (CH₂OCO₂Li)₂ and CH₃OCO₂Li were observed for an irreversible reaction.     

Correlation between voltage holding capability and light emission in a 500 keV electrostatic accelerator utilized for fusion application

Voltage holding capability in a 500 keV electrostatic accelerator with large FRP insulators was examined without the beam acceleration. When high voltage was applied, the light with a broad peak at a wavelength of 420 nm was mostly emitted inside the accelerator even though breakdown did not occur. The voltage holding capability has a strong correlation with the light intensity. Stable voltage holding was realized under the conditions in which light emission was well suppressed.