Synthesis of acetonitrile and related compounds from CO-H2-NH3 over Mo/SiO2

In the reaction of CO-H₂-NH₃ on Mo/SiO₂ catalysts, HCN is formed and is considered to be the principal intermediate for the formation of CH₃CN. At low temperature methylamine is also formed.     

Superconducting critical current in MoN

Journal of Materials Science Letters -     

A new detection method for the primary cosmic heavy nuclei by the plastic track detector CR-39

A new multiple scanning method is developed and applied to detect cosmic heavy nuclei. The plastic track detectors CR-39 exposed to cosmic heavy nuclei are over-etched in 8.0N NaOH for 94 h at 80°C. We found that the etched cones can easily be scanned on the plastic plates without using an optical microscope. The trajectories of heavy nuclei can be reconstructed with the naked eyes by superposing four or more over-etched plates. The charge detection threshold is obtained by this method, and appears to be 10. The charge resolution is estimated to be 1.0 charge units for iron nuclei. By adopting this method, the scanning time is much shortened and CR-39 plastic chamber size can easily be scaled up. The method is very useful for detecting particles with low flux intensity, like for searching magnetic monopoles or for measuring the high energy spectra of cosmic heavy nuclei.     

Cooking up an interactive olfactory game display.

It's long been possible to give users outside an actual environment that environment's visual and auditory information and thus contribute to establishing presence. However, we've yet to establish much presence when users require olfactory information - such as in environments focused on foods, flowers, perfumes, or, in some cases, more offensive smells. Recently, several VR researchers have become interested in olfaction and olfactory displays that present smells in virtual environments (VEs). In this article, we describe our interactive olfactory display. One of our development goals is to confirm the assumption that users' interactions with the system increases presence. Thus, we used our interactive olfactory display to develop a cooking game in collaboration with electronic engineers and artists.     

Corrosion evaluation of Au-Cu-Pd ternary alloys

The corrosion resistivity of single-phase Au-Cu-11 at% Pd alloys was evaluated by using a parameterQ which represented the total amount of anodic reaction in a potentiostatic polarization test. The result was compared with those for binary Au-Cu, ternary Au-Cu-11 at % Ag and some commercial alloys. The validity of usingQ as a corrosion parameter was confirmed by the good agreement between the analysed and calculated values of copper ion dissolved into the test solution. By replacing a part of the copper in Au-Cu alloys with palladium the corrosion resistivity can be greatly improved, but silver has no such significant effect. The value ofQ decreased by both treatments of homogenization and grain refinement of the alloy. One of the advantages of the alloy having a single-phase structure is that inhomogeneity in the distribution of the constituents is small even in the as-cast state, which results in a small galvanic effect.     

Oxidative coupling polymerization of racemic 3,3’-dihydroxy-2,2’-dimethoxy-1,1’-binaphthalene with copper(II)-(-)-sparteine complex

Summary The oxidative coupling polymerization of racemic 3,3’-dihydroxy-2,2’-dimethoxy-1,1’-binaphthalene with copper(II) chloride-(-)-sparteine [(-)Sp] in methanol at room temperature was carried out and the enantiomer-selectivity during the polymerization was examined. The (R)-monomer preferentially reacted, and the purity of the unreacted monomer reached 80%ee (S) after 15 h, while that of the polymerized monomer gradually decreased from 26%ee (R) as a function of the polymerization. The ratio of the rate constants of both enantiomers, s=k_R/k_S, was determined to be 2.3. The model coupling reaction of the mono-benzylated (R)-monomer with CuCl₂-(-)Sp showed that the R-configuration with respect to the carbon-carbon bonds between the monomer units was selectively constructed during the polymerization.     

Administration of docosahexaenoic acid influences behavior and plasma catecholamine levels at times of psychological stress

The purpose of the present research was to clarify the effect of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) intake on behavior and plasma catecholamines (CA). In Study 1, 42 students took either DHA-rich oil capsules containing 1.5–1.8 g DHA/d or control oil capsules containing 97% soybean oil plus 3% of another fish oil for 3 mon in a double-blind fashion. They took a psychological test (PF Study) at the start and end of the study. This study started at the end of summer vacation and ended just before the final exams. In the control group, external aggression (aggression against others) in PF Study was significantly increased at the end of the study as compared with that measured at the start (+8.9%), whereas it was not significantly changed in the DHA group (?1.0%). In a similar double-blind study (Study 2), we measured external aggression under nonstressful conditions. External aggression slightly decreased in the control group, whereas there were no significant changes in the DHA group. In Study 3 with 14 students, plasma CA were measured at the start and end of capsule administration period of 2 mon. Subjects were under continuous stress of the final exams that lasted throughout the whole study period. The ratio of plasma epinephrine to norepinephrine concentrations was significantly increased in the DHA group (78%), whereas it stayed at the same level in the control group. In Study 4, mice were fed either DHA-deficient diet or -sufficient diet for 4 wk, and their rearing frequency (an anxiety index) was measured. In the DHA-sufficient group, the rearing frequency was significantly less than in the other group. These effects of DHA intake may be applied to people in an attempt to ameliorate stress-related diseases.     

Aperiodic array consisting of subarrays for use in small mobile Earth stations

A simple yet practical method of designing an aperiodic array consisting of subarrays is shown. By properly controlling the excitation phase of each subarray, the designed aperiodic array has the capability to track a geostationary satellite within some limited angles. Starting with an initial position of the subarrays, their optimum positions in terms of the side lobe performance can be obtained by a newly developed algorithm which uses the steepest descent method together with an appropriately defined cost function. An example of an aperiodic array consisting of 16 subarrays in the 14 GHz band is shown. It can track a geostationary satellite at the maximum of 2/spl deg/ off its mechanical boresight (the direction perpendicular to the surface of the array). Although it is nearly square with the maximum dimension of only 47/spl lambda/ (wavelength), its calculated side lobe patterns satisfy most of the requirements specified in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendations, which must be met by all earth stations with antennas of larger than 50/spl lambda/ in diameter.