Electronic structure and surface morphology of [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester films

We investigate the electronic structure of [6,6]-phenyl-C₇₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PC₇₀BM) films by ultraviolet photoelectron and inverse photoemission spectroscopy. We discuss the electronic structure of PC₇₀BM in comparison with C₇₀ and [6,6]-phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PC₆₀BM). The molecular orbitals around the energy gap of PC₇₀BM are broadly distributed due to the low symmetry of the molecular structure. Consequently, the energy gap of PC₇₀BM is smaller than that of C₇₀ and PC₆₀BM. The film deposition method affects the polarization energy between the PC₇₀BM molecules, and thus affects the electronic structure of the films.     

Study of the cause of the temperature rise at the muscle-bone interface during ultrasound hyperthermia

Undesirable temperature rise at the muscle-bone interface has been one of the major problems during ultrasound hyperthermia treatment. In this study, we examined by both computer calculation and phantom experiment the cause of this problem. Ultrasound penetrates a bone in two different waveforms, longitudinal and transversal. The transmission coefficient of these two waves vary greatly with the incident angle. From both theoretical and experimental results, the incident angle dependency of the interface heat was confirmed. When the incident angle is less than the critical angle of the longitudinal wave, the main cause of the temperature elevation is the absorption of the longitudinal wave in the bone. When the incident angle is larger than the critical angle of the longitudinal wave, the transversal wave becomes the major cause of the heat generation. At the incident angles larger than the critical angle of the transversal wave, no temperature rise is produced by the absorption of the ultrasound at the bone; the incident longitudinal wave, strengthened by the reflected wave, is absorbed in the muscle just in front of the bone. The heat generated in the muscle is transported to the interface so that the temperature of the interface and bone increases slightly.     

抗静电预涂钢板的开发

PCM（预涂金属）的涂膜主要由有机树脂（绝缘体）组成，涂膜表面与其它材料（如模具、皮带输送机）摩擦时产生静电，灰尘会粘附在PCM表面。在面涂中加入适当的树脂和添加剂，能抑制与其它材料摩擦所产生的表面静电压，从而防止灰尘的粘附。基于这种想法，开发了抗静电预涂钢板，抑制静电所导致的灰尘粘附。当静电压产生和灰尘粘附时，PCM显示了显著效果。通过选择底涂和预处理，也得到了一种不含铬酸盐型的PCM。希望这种抗静电的PCM将来能广泛应用于各个领域。     

A Cyclic KLVFF‐Derived Peptide Aggregation Inhibitor Induces the Formation of Less‐Toxic Off‐Pathway Amyloid‐β Oligomers

Inhibition of amyloid‐β (Aβ) aggregation could be a target of drug development for the treatment of currently incurable Alzheimer's disease. We previously reported that a head‐to‐tail cyclic peptide of KLVFF (cyclic‐KLVFF), a pentapeptide fragment corresponding to the Aβ16–20 region (which plays a critical role in the generating Aβ fibrils), possesses potent inhibitory activity against Aβ aggregation. Here we found that the inhibitory activity of cyclic‐KLVFF was significantly improved by incorporating an additional phenyl group at the β‐position of the Phe4 side chain (inhibitor 3 ). Biophysical and biochemical analyses revealed the rapid formation of 3 ‐embedded oligomer species when Aβ1–42 was mixed with 3 . The oligomer species is an “off‐pathway” species with low affinity for cross‐β‐sheet‐specific dye thioflavin T and oligomer‐specific A11 antibodies. The oligomer species had a sub‐nanometer height and little capability of aggregation to amyloid fibrils. Importantly, the toxicity of the oligomer species was significantly lower than that of native Aβ oligomers. These insights will be useful for further refinement of cyclic‐KLVFF‐based aggregation inhibitors.     

Viscoelastic flow analysis of surface morphology on injection‐molded polypropylene

The molecular orientation of a frozen layer in an injection‐molded specimen of a polypropylene–rubber blend was investigated. A typical V‐shaped pattern of birefringence was observed from the surface to the core in a crosscut section. From the comparison of the V‐patterns near the gate to the flow end, it was assumed that a frozen layer formed from the surface to a depth of 0.06 mm in a plaque (3 mm thickness) during the injection molding filling process. Numerical viscoelastic analysis of the fountain flow was carried out using an original 2D unsteady flow simulation program and ignored crystallization. A large extensional deformation formed just when the molten polymer contacted the cavity wall and the deformation immediately froze. A layer with a small birefringence between the surface and the shear‐oriented layer was divided into two parts. The depth profile of birefringence was compared to the principal stress difference calculated by numerical analysis. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2010. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Ternary mixing: A simple method to tailor the morphology of organic solar cells

We present a detailed study of the effects of ternary mixing on blend morphology, charge carrier mobility and organic solar cell performance. We investigate ternaries consisting of regio random poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), regio regular P3HT and soluble fullerene derivative, PCBM. By means of absorption, photoluminescence, atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction, we demonstrate that the structure of ternary films consists of crystallites of regular P3HT embedded into a random polymer matrix acting as a soft scaffolding where PCBM can only form nanoscale aggregates but cannot grow the detrimental micron-sized structures often observed in the conventional regular P3HT:PCBM case upon annealing. The ternary films exhibit higher degree of crystallinity than the conventional blends, but with smaller crystallite sizes. Moreover, we show that the addition of the random polymer chains does not prevent good charge carrier transport for regio random P3HT concentrations up to 50% of the total polymer content. Finally, we prove that solar cells based on the ternary systems have a similar short circuit current than the conventional binary, but improved open circuit current (by 100 mV), which leads to an overall enhancement of power conversion efficiency.     

Binary genetic algorithm-based pattern LUT for grayscale digital half-toning

Grayscale digital half-toning is a popular technique to reproduce grayscale images with devices that can support only two levels at output, i.e., black and white. Printers, LCD displays, etc. are some common examples of such devices. Considering 0 and 1 as black and white, respectively, this can be represented as an image-wise binary pattern generation process. The binary patterns are aimed to retain the local tonal and structural characteristics of grayscale image for a faithful illusion of the original grayscale image. Apart from tonal and structural characteristics retention, desired blue-noise characteristics also contribute significantly toward eye pleasant appearance of half-tone images. The paper presents a binary genetic algorithm-based approach to generate such binary patterns through optimizing randomly generated binary strings against a visual cost function. Paper also presents a pattern look-up-table (LUT)-based approach toward conventional clustered dot ordered dithering which is suitable for devices like laser or offset printers that cannot recognize individual pixels. The pattern LUT approach is driven toward green-noise characteristics instead of the blue-noise characteristics. The results obtained with test images are presented pictorially and evaluated through half-tone quality evaluation metrics. The evaluation results and comparison with state-of-art techniques shows the potential of presented technique for practical implementations.     

Resonant coherent excitation of 2s electron of Li-like Fe ions to the n = 3 states

We observed resonant coherent excitation of the 2s electron to the n = 3 states of 83.5 MeV/u Li-like Fe²³⁺ ions planar-channeling in the plane of a Si crystal. A survival fraction of the Li-like ions was measured as a function of the angle between the incident beam and the [0 0 1] axis. Clear resonance dips corresponding to the transitions of a 2s electron to all the n = 3 states were observed. The transition of each resonance dip was identified by comparing with spectroscopic data. The resonance dips at the transition energies corresponding to the optically forbidden 2s_1/2–3s_1/2, 2s_1/2–3d_3/2 and 2s_1/2–3d_5/2 transitions were observed as well as the resonance dips at transition energies corresponding to the optically allowed 2s_1/2–3p_1/2 and 2s_1/2–3p_3/2 transitions.     

The Effect of Ethanol on Disassembly of Amyloid-β1-42 Pentamer Revealed by Atomic Force Microscopy and Gel Electrophoresis

The most common type of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, is associated with senile plaques formed by the filamentous aggregation of hydrophobic amyloid-β (Aβ) in the brains of patients. Small oligomeric assemblies also occur and drugs and chemical compounds that can interact with such assemblies have attracted much attention. However, these compounds need to be solubilized in appropriate solvents, such as ethanol, which may also destabilize their protein structures. As the impact of ethanol on oligomeric Aβ assembly is unknown, we investigated the effect of various concentrations of ethanol (0 to 7.2 M) on Aβ pentameric assemblies (Aβp) by combining blue native-PAGE (BN-PAGE) and ambient air atomic force microscopy (AFM). This approach was proven to be very convenient and reliable for the quantitative analysis of Aβ assembly. The Gaussian analysis of the height histogram obtained from the AFM images was correlated with band intensity on BN-PAGE for the quantitative estimation of Aβp. Our observations indicated up to 1.4 M (8.3%) of added ethanol can be used as a solvent/vehicle without quantitatively affecting Aβ pentamer stability. Higher concentration induced significant destabilization of Aβp and eventually resulted in the complete disassembly of Aβp.     

Methanol synthesis over a Zn-deposited copper model catalyst

Methanol synthesis by the hydrogenation of CO₂ over Zn-deposited polycrystalline Cu was studied using surface science techniques. The Zn sub-monolayer was oxidized by the reaction mixture during the reaction at 523 K, leading to the formation of ZnO species. The kinetic results definitely showed that the ZnO species on the Cu surface promoted the catalytic activity of methanol formation, where the activity of Cu increased by a factor of 6 at the Zn coverage of 0.17. A volcano-shaped curve was obtained for the correlation between the Zn coverage and the catalytic activity, which was very similar to the correlation curve between the oxygen coverage and the specific activity for methanol formation previously obtained for the Cu powder catalysts. The role of ZnO in Cu/ZnO based catalysts was ascribed to the stabilization of Cu⁺ species by the ZnO moieties on the Cu surface.