Receptive-field properties of adult cat's retinal ganglion cells with regenerated axons

Receptive-field properties of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) that had regenerated their axons were studied by recording single-unit activity from strands teased from peripheral nerve (PN) grafts apposed to the cut optic nerve in adult cats. Of the 286 visually responsive units recorded from PN grafts in 20 cats, 49.7% were classified, according to their receptive-field properties, as Y-cells, 39.5% as X-cells, 6.6% as W-cells, and 4.2% were unclassified. The predominant representation of Y-cells is consistent with a corresponding morphological study (Watanabe et al. 1993a), which identified alpha-cells as the RGC type with the largest proportion of regenerating axons. Among the X-cells, we only found ON-center types, whereas both ON-center and OFF-center Y-cells were found. As in intact retinas, the receptive-field center sizes of Y-cells and W-cells were larger than those of X-cells at corresponding displacements from the area centralis. Within the 10 degrees surrounding the area centralis, the receptive fields of X-cells with regenerated axons were larger than those in intact retinas, suggesting that some rearrangement of retinal circuitry occurred as a consequence of degeneration and regeneration. Receptive-field center responses of Y-, X-, and W-type units with regenerated axons were similar to those found in intact retinas, but the level of spontaneous activity of Y- and X-type units was, in general, less than that of intact RGCs. Receptive-field surrounds were weak or not detected in more than half of the visually responsive RGCs with regenerated axons.     

Analog Computation Using Single-Electron Circuits

Analog computation is a processing method that solves a given problem by utilizing an analogy of a physical system to the problem. An idea is presented here for relating the behavior of single-electron circuits to analog computation. As an instance, a method is proposed for solving a combinatorial problem, the three-colorability problem, by using the properties of single-electron circuits. In problem solving, a single-electron circuit is constructed that is analogous to a given problem; then, through an annealing procedure, the circuit is made to settle down to its minimun energy state. The correct solution to the problem can be obtained by checking the final arrangement of electrons in the circuit. Analog computation is a promising architecture for single-electron computing systems.     

Fluoride and apatite formation in vivo and in vitro

In recent years, the biomineralization process has attracted much interest from academics and industries for potential technological application. The rule in biomineralization is to have a variety of interfaces and surfaces which can act as nucleators. The ultimate step in any biomineralization process, i.e. the deposition of mineral, must conform to the driving forces operating on the system. A new paradigm in the assessment of the driving force for biomineralization is that a variety of ions existing in the mineralizing milieu are not a bystander, but are instead an active player that directly regulates the precipitation process and nature of biogenic apatites. Thus, the most putative stoichiometric model of a biomineral is (Ca)(5-x)(Mg)q(Na)u(HPO4)v(CO3)w(PO4)(3-y)(OH,F)(1-z). Fluoride participates in many aspects of calcium phosphate formation in vivo and has enormous effects on its process and on the nature and properties of the final products. In the development of biogenic apatites, fluoride ion in the mineralizing media is supposed to accelerate the hydrolysis of acidic precursor(s) and increase the growth rates by augmenting the driving force for precipitation. Inhibitory activities of ions and molecules are related to their adsorption onto the apatite surfaces. From theoretical and practical points of view, it is of paramount importance to elucidate and predict the effect and outcome of fluoride (accelerator) and inhibitors of biological relevance, because of their use in combination for healthcare in dentistry and medicine, e.g. prevention of dental caries and calculus deposition and in the formulation of antiosteoporosis treatments.     

Decidability for Left-Linear Growing Term Rewriting Systems

A term rewriting system is called growing if each variable occurring on both the left-hand side and the right-hand side of a rewrite rule occurs at depth zero or one in the left-hand side. Jacquemard showed that the reachability and the sequentiality of linear (i.e., left-right-linear) growing term rewriting systems are decidable. In this paper we show that Jacquemard's result can be extended to left-linear growing rewriting systems that may have right-nonlinear rewrite rules. This implies that the reachability and the joinability of some class of right-linear term rewriting systems are decidable, which improves the results for right-ground term rewriting systems by Oyamaguchi. Our result extends the class of left-linear term rewriting systems having a decidable call-by-need normalizing strategy. Moreover, we prove that the termination property is decidable for almost orthogonal growing term rewriting systems.     

Neutron emission spectrum from gold excited with 16.6 MeV linearly polarized monoenergetic photons

ABSTRACT

The neutron-emission spectrum from a 197Au target excited with a 16.6 ±0.2 MeV, monoenergetic, linearly polarized photon beam was measured using the time-of-flight method at the NewSUBARU-BL01. Two components were clearly detected in the neutron spectrum produced by photonuclear reactions. One component [component (A)] shows an evaporation-like spectrum with energies up to 4 MeV. The spectrum of the other component [component (B)] is shaped like a bump and energies ≥4 MeV. The intensity of the component (A) does not show any definite angular dependence, whereas, that of the component (B) follows the relation [a+ b cos(2Θ)] as a function of the angle Θ between the polarization and detector directions.     

Transformation of a system consisting of plane isotropic source and unit sphere detector into a system consisting of point isotropic source and plane detector in Monte Carlo radiation transport calculation

In a nuclear power plant accident, radioactive nuclides may be released which are distributed uniformly on the ground. If estimation of dose rate from such a source by a Monte Carlo calculation is attempted, some difficulty is encountered because the calculation efficiency is very low. To solve this low efficiency problem, we show that a plane isotropic source can be transformed into a point isotropic source by changing the detector shape from a unit sphere to a plane. We verified the validity of this transformation by the numerical comparison of unscattered photon fluence. As an example of this transformation, the ambient dose rate D _i was calculated from the uniform radioactive nuclide distribution on the ground using the EGS5 Monte Carlo code. We also measured the radioactivity and ambient dose rate (M) on the KEK campus within a month after the releases from the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant accident. Using radioactivity data and D _i, we calculated the ambient dose rate (C). The calculated and measured ambient dose rates agreed reasonably well; their ratio (C/M) was 0.62 to 1.28.     

Characterization of an Al-Y-Zn Intermetallic Particle Phase in Extruded Mg96−x Al x Zn2Y1.9La0.1 Alloys

This study focuses on extruded Mg_96?x Al _x Zn₂Y_1.9La_0.1 alloys, which contain the long period stacking ordered Mg₁₂ZnY phase. The presence of Al results in the precipitation of Al-Y-Zn precipitates, the crystal structure of which is not adequately described by ternary Al-Y-Zn phases reported in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to characterize the precipitates morphologically, chemically, and crystallographically. After casting, the precipitates exist as complexly shaped micron-scale clusters within the microstructure. After extrusion, the phase appears as slightly faceted particles with a plate-like morphology. The crystal structure is hexagonal and its space group is $ P6_{3} /mmc $ . For the specific composition of Mg_95.50Al_0.50Zn₂Y_1.9La_0.1, the lattice parameters of this ternary phase are a ≈ 8.98 Å and c ≈ 7.1 Å and the stoichiometry is near equiatomic. However, with decreasing Al content of the alloy, the c parameter, degree of atomic ordering, and Zn content of the phase are all observed to increase. Specifically, for Mg_95.75Al_0.25Zn₂Y_1.9La_0.1, c ≈ 7.3 Å, and the stoichiometry is approximately AlYZn₂.     

Performance improvement and analysis of a 1.6 μm continuous-wave modulation laser absorption spectrometer system for CO2 sensing

In a previous study, we developed a 1.6 μm continuous-wave (cw) modulation laser absorption spectrometer system for CO(2) sensing and demonstrated the measurement of small fluctuations in CO(2) corresponding to a precision of 4 parts per million (ppm) with a measurement interval of 32 s. In this paper, we present the process to achieve this highly specific measurement by introducing important points, which have not been shown in the previous study. Following the results of preliminary experiments, we added a function for speckle averaging on the optical antenna unit. We additionally came up with some ideas to avoid the influences of etalon effects and polarization dependence in optical components. Because of the new functions, we realized a calibration precision of 0.006 dB (rms), which corresponds to a CO(2) concentration precision of less than 1 ppm for a 2 km path. We also analyzed the CO(2) sensing performance after the improvements described above. The measured short time fluctuation of the differential absorption optical depth was reasonably close to that calculated using the carrier-to-noise ratio of the received signal.     

Flow visualization and numerical analysis of a new mixing equipment with vibratory fins

The mixing performance of a new type of mixing equipment which has several fin oscillators on a pair of shafts with a vibrating motor was investigated. This mixing equipment, which is mainly used for industrial plating processes, was usually operated at a vibrating frequency of about 40 Hz with the amplitude 1 mm. The flow visualization in this equipment showed that the flow in the vessel at laminar flow region was vertically divided into two distinct symmetric regions. The numerical simulation of the flow and the mixing patterns agreed well with the visualization result at laminar flow region.     

Precise control of polymer particle properties using droplets in the microchannel

In this study, we examined two types of oil–water, two-phase system polymerization by designing droplets of reaction space aiming precise control of polymer particle properties: (i) suspension polymerization using emulsion droplets, and (ii) slug polymerization using slugs of the segmented flow. For suspension polymerization, the particle size can be controlled up to a limited extend by varying the droplet size. And slug polymerization, which we proposed as a new polymerization method, enables continuous production of particles and independent control of polymer properties by separating the molecular control and precipitation processes. Our proposed method can be expected to contribute to precise control of polymerization reactions.