Derivatization for stabilizing sialic acids in MALDI-MS

While matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) is useful in oligosaccharide analysis, the sialic acid, or N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA), moiety of an oligosaccharide is liable to dissociation in- or postsource during mass measurement. In this study, we tried to stabilize the moiety by amidation, as in the case of peptides (Sekiya, S.; Wada, Y. Tanaka, K. Anal. Chem. 2004, 76, 5894-5902), and found 4-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2yl)-4-methylmorpholinium chloride to be a desirable condensing agent. Amidation stabilized the glycosidic bond with NANA and suppressed its preferential cleavage by in-source decay, postsource decay, or collision-induced dissociation. In addition, the suppressed dissociation considerably improved the yield of the B/Y type ions for structural analysis by MS/MS. These results demonstrate that amidation is an effective derivatization to reinforce the structural analysis of sialylated oligosaccharides by MALDI-MS. In addition, amidation with (15)N-labeled ammonium chloride decreases the mass shift from the acid to amide form to just 0.013, reducing the complexity of mass spectral interpretation and database searching.     

Radiation safety assessment of a system of small reactors for distributed energy

A passively safe small reactor for a distributed energy system, PSRD, is an integral type of light-water reactor with a thermal output of 100 or 300 MW aimed to be used for supplying district heat, electricity to small grids, and so on. Candidate locations for the PSRD as a distributed energy source are on-ground, deep underground, and in a seaside pit in the vicinity of the energy consumption area. Assessments of the radiation safety of a PSRD were carried out for three cases corresponding to normal operation, shutdown and a hypothetical postulated accident for several siting candidates. Results of the radiation safety assessment indicate that the PSRD design has sufficient shielding performance and capability and that the exposure to the general public is very low in the case of a hypothetical accident.     

X-ray telescope onboard Astro-E. III. Guidelines to performance improvements and optimization of the ray-tracing simulator

We present a detailed study of the performance of the Astro-E x-ray telescope (XRT) onboard the Astro-E satellite. As described in preceding papers the ground-based calibrations of the Astro-E XRT revealed that its image quality and effective area are somewhat worse than that expected from the original design. Conceivable causes for such performance degradation are examined by x-ray and optical microscopic measurements at various levels, such as individual reflectors, sectors, and quadrants of the XRT and their alignments. We can attribute, based on detailed measurements, the degradation of the image quality to a slope error in the individual reflectors and the positioning error of reflectors. As for the deficit of the effective area, the shadowing of x rays within the XRT body is the dominant factor. Error budgets for the performance degradation of the Astro-E XRT are summarized. The ray-tracing simulator, which is needed to construct the response function for arbitrary off-axis angles and spatial distributions of any celestial x-ray sources, has been developed and tuned based on the results of detailed measurements. The ray-tracing simulation provides results that are consistent within 3% with the real measurement except for large off-axis angles and higher energies. We propose, based on knowledge obtained from all the measurements and simulations, several plans for future developments to improve the performance of the nested thin-foil mirrors.     

Development of Bi-base high-temperature Pb-free solders with second-phase dispersion: Thermodynamic calculation, microstructure, and interfacial reaction

Bismuth and its alloys are candidates for Pb-free high-temperature solders that can be substituted for conventional Pb-rich Pb−Sn solders (melting point (mp) = 573 – 583 K). However, inferior properties such as brittleness and weak bonding strength should be improved for practical use. To that end, BiCu−X (X=Sb, Sn, and Zn) Pb-free high-temperature solders are proposed. Miscibility gaps in liquid BiCu−X alloys were surveyed using the thermodynamic database ADAMIS (alloy database for micro-solders), and compositions of the BiCu−X solders were designed on the basis of calculation. In-situ composite solders that consist of a Bi-base matrix with fine intermetallic compound (IMC) particles were produced by gas-atomizing and melt-spinning methods. The interfacial reaction between in-situ composite solders and Cu or Ni substrates was investigated. The IMCs at the interface formed a thin, uniform layer, which is an appropriate morphology for a reliable solder joint.     

Combined carbon‐dioxide‐capturing high‐performance power generation system using a solid oxide fuel cell operating on pressurized fuel/air

The authors recently proposed a high‐performance combined carbon‐dioxide‐capturing power generation system using a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and a closed‐cycle MHD generator, in which pure oxygen is used as the oxidant. This combined system makes the best use of the advantages of combustion with pure oxygen but fails to prevent the efficiency deterioration caused by high power demand for oxygen production. In the present study, the authors modified this previous system and proposed an improved combined carbon‐dioxide‐capturing power generation system using SOFC/MHD characterized by a higher overall thermal efficiency. In this system, pure oxygen is supplied only to the combustor to reduce the power required for the oxygen production, and pressurized air is used as the oxidant gas in the SOFC. The power saving amounts to about 5% of the thermal input, resulting in a very high total thermal efficiency of 67.53% (HHV) or 74.94% (LHV), which is considered to be the highest possible value of the overall thermal efficiency of carbon‐dioxide‐capturing systems. Advantages of the proposed system suggest that it is advisable to continue further research in this direction. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 149(4): 21–30, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20010     

Analogue baseband TV transmission experiments using semiconductor laser diodes

The transmission characteristics of analogue video signals are investigated by using semiconductor laser diodes. It is shown that the linearity degradation due to speckle noise depends on the optical-fibre types adopted. Based on this investigation, transmission over 32 km is carried out by using a 1·3 ?m laser diode and single-mode fibres, with 46 dB unweighted s.n.r.     

A 10-GHz 8-b multiplexer/demultiplexer chip set for the SONETSTS-192 system

An ultrahigh-speed 8-b multiplexer (MUX) and demultiplexer (DMUX) chip set has been developed for the synchronous optical network (SONET) next-generation optical-fiber communication systems, which will require data bit rates of about 10 Gb/s. These ICs were designed using three novel concepts: a tree-type architecture giving reliable operation, a dynamic divider with a wide operating range, and a 50-Ω on-chip transmission line with high-speed pulse propagation. They were fabricated using a 0.5-μm WN_x-gate GaAs MESFET process. The DMUX and MUX operated at up to 10.4 and 11.4 GHz, respectively, both with an adequate phase margin of more than 230°     

Stress and temperature effects on optical loss increase for phosphor-doped silica fibre in the long wavelength region

Irreversible loss increase in the long-wavelength region is first observed for phosphor-doped silica fibres with silicone resin layer by applying the stress at high temperature. The loss increment becomes larger for longer wavelengths. Experimental results show that the loss increase is strongly dependent on stress and temperature.     

Two-dimensional numerical analysis of the minimum isolationdistance for GaAs digital large-scale integration

The minimum device isolation distance (L_min) applicable to GaAs digital large-scale integrated circuits is presented. The leakage current between two n-type layers formed in a semi-insulating (SI) substrate is simulated using a two-dimensional numerical model, and the results are compared with measurements. It is found that the leakage current is restricted by a potential hump formed by residual acceptors in the SI GaAs substrate when an isolating layer loses its compensated SI property. L_min is defined as the distance at which there is a leakage current of 1 mA for an isolating layer width of 1 cm. The calculated value of L_min at room temperature is 1.3 μm with a bias voltage of 2 V and an acceptor concentration of 10¹⁵ cm^-3. L_min decreases to 2/3 of this value when the temperature is reduced from 400 to 100 K, to 1/3 when the acceptor concentration is increased by one order, and to 2/3 when the bias voltage is reduced from 5 to 2 V