Budding of fowlpox and pigeonpox viruses at the surface of infected cells

Chick embryo fibroblasts and chorioallantoic membranes infected with fowlpox virus (FWPV) or pigeonpox virus (PPV) were examined by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Immature virus particles were observed in finely granular areas, i.e. virus factories, of the cytoplasm. These particles had various forms depending on their stages of development. Many tubular structures were also seen in these regions. Mature virus particles with ellipsoidal or brick-shaped forms enclosing electron-dense cores were detected throughout the cytoplasm. Notably, there was a high frequency of virus budding at the cell surface, but only occasional virus wrapping in the cytoplasm. Another remarkable feature of the infected cells was accumulation of many virions just beneath the plasma membrane, indicating that this phenomenon is closely related to virus budding. Based on the observed frequency of budding, this mechanism seems to be the predominant way for FWPV and PPV to exit the cell.     

Terahertz radiation from a shallow incidence-angle InAs emitter in a magnetic field irradiated with femtosecond laser pulses

The optimized incidence angle and magnetic field direction geometry of an InAs terahertz radiation emitter irradiated with femtosecond laser pulses in a magnetic field is reported. The optimum geometric layout is the magnetic field direction parallel to the semiconductor surface and at an incidence angle that is slightly larger than the Brewster angle. Additionally, we also observed a center frequency shift of terahertz radiation spectrum by changing the incidence angle of the excitation laser.     

Vibrational properties of wood along the grain

The dynamic Young's modulus (E_L) and loss tangent (tan _L ) along the grain, dynamic shear modulus (G_L) and loss tangent (tan _S) in the vertical section, and density () of a hundred spruce wood specimens used for the soundboards of musical instruments were determined. The relative acoustic conversion efficiency ( ) and a ratio reflecting the anisotropy of wood (, (E_L/G_L)(tan _S/tan _L)) were defined in order to evaluate the acoustic quality of wood along the grain. There was a positive correlation between and , and the variation in was larger than that in . It seemed logical to evaluate the acoustic quality of spruce wood by a measure of . By using a cell wall model, those acoustic factors were expressed with the physical properties of the cell wall constituents. This model predicted that the essential requirement for an excellent soundboard is smaller fibril angle of the cell wall, which yields higher and higher . On the other hand, the effects of chemical treatments on the and of wood were clarified experimentally and analyzed theoretically. It was suggested that the and of wood cannot be improved at the same time by chemical treatment.     

Basin-scale extrapolation of shipboard pCO2 data by using satellite SST and Chla

A new method for the estimation of basin-scale distribution of pressure of carbon dioxide on the sea surface (pCO₂) by satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll-a concentration (Chla) is presented. 28?557 shipboard pCO₂ data were regressed by second-order multiple regression equations of SST and Chla with a regression error of ±14?µatm and ±17?µatm in the subtropical and subarctic domain, respectively. The monthly-average SST and monthly-maximum Chla (Chlmax) field determined from the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite/Ocean Color Temperature Scanner (ADEOS/OCTS) level 3 Daily Binned Map data were substituted into the multi-regression equation to generate the ‘monthly-typical’ basin-scale pCO₂ field in the North Pacific, and the results agreed well with the climatological field of shipboard pCO₂ observations with an error bar of ±21?µatm except in the case of springtime subarctic North Pacific. The satellite-pCO₂ field also satisfactorily reproduced the principle distribution of pCO₂ in the springtime subarctic North Pacific such as the location of each low-pCO₂ patch observed by the shipboard measurements. The extent of pCO₂ depletion in each pCO₂ patch, however, was not well approximated by the satellite-pCO₂ field. This was caused by the underestimation of Chlmax in these low-pCO₂ patches due to the low frequency of satellite-Chla observations in the springtime subarctic North Pacific due to the cloudiness.     

Design of sampled-data critical control systems based on the fast-discretization technique

The fast-discretization is known as an approximate but efficient technique for design and analysis of sampled-data systems. In this paper, we propose a fast-discretization-based design for sampled-data critical control systems. Supposing a tracking problem or a slow-changing disturbance rejection problem, we assume that an exogenous input is a persistent and/or transient input with bound on the rate of change. It is shown that the critical constraint for such exogenous inputs can be given in the form of the inequality constraint on the unit step response. The design parameters are determined by a numerical search method subject to this constraint. However, instead of evaluating it strictly, we check the corresponding constraint which is obtained from the fast-discretized system. Although this approach is approximate, it provides an efficient numerical procedure for a computer-aided design. To show the validity of the proposed method, an example of a multi-objective critical control system design is presented.     

Transformation of Lower Alkanes into Aromatic Hydrocarbons over ZSM-5 Zeolites

Much attention has been paid to the transformation of lower alkanes such as propane and butanes into aromatic hydrocarbons from both industrial and academic points of view. The aromatic hydrocarbons can be utilized as a booster for high octane number gasoline and are fundamental raw chemicals in petroleum chemistry. The activation of lower alkanes is an intriguing subject. In early work, Csicsery [1–5] described dehydrocyclodimerization of lower alkanes over bifunctional catalysts such as platinum on alumina and Cr₂O₃ on alumina.     

Ultrafine particles of the ZrO2-SiO2 system prepared by the spray-ICP technique

Ultrafine powders of the ZrO₂-SiO₂ system prepared by spraying aqueous mixed solutions of ZrO(NO₃)₂·2H₂O and silicone oil into an ultrahigh temperature inductively coupled plasma (the spray-ICP technique) have been investigated in connection with particle growth and phase change caused by heat treatment. The prepared powders were composed of roundish ultrafine particles 10 to 20 nm in size, and their components were tetragonal ZrO₂ (t-ZrO₂) and amorphous SiO₂ (a-SiO₂).a-SiO₂ alone did not crystallize below 1400° C, though the particles grew above 900° C.t-ZrO₂ converted to monoclinic ZrO₂ (m-ZrO₂) above 400° C, also followed by particle growth. On the other hand composite powders oft-ZrO₂ anda-SiO₂ exhibited no particle growth below 1200° C. Above 1200° Ct-ZrO₂ converted tom-ZrO₂, and its amount decreased with an increase in SiO₂ content. At 1400° C particle growth occurred, and the round particles of ZrO₂ were dispersed in ana-SiO₂ glass medium. These results indicate that ZrO₂ and SiO₂ mutually block particle growth, and that SiO₂ contributes to the quenching oft-ZrO₂ by keeping the particles of ZrO₂ within the critical particle size oft-ZrO₂.     

Preparation of SrBi 2 Ta 2 O 9 Thin Films by Liquid-Delivery MOCVD Without Additional Solvents

SrBi 2 Ta 2 O 9 thin films were prepared by ECR plasma enhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (ECR-MOCVD) with a liquid-delivery system using one cocktail source without an additional solvent. The strontium-tantalum double alkoxide, Sr{Ta[OC 2 H 4 H(CH 3 ) 2 ](OC 2 H 5 ) 5 } 2 , was dissolved in stabilized trimethyl bismuth, Bi(CH 3 ) 3 / dioxane. This source system has been used in a conventional bubbling system. Deposition rate and the composition of the films were strictly controlled by the concentration and the composition of the cocktail source. Therefore, high reproducibility was realized by using this system. The constituent phase of the stoichiometric SBT film as-deposited at 500 C on a (111)Pt/TiO 2 /SiO 2 /Si substrate was a fluorite phase and transformed to the single phase of SBT by the post annealing at 800 C. It showed almost the same ferroelectricity as the stoichiometric composition film.