The magnetic domain and properties of amorphous ribbons

The magnetic behavior of Fe78B13Si9amorphous ribbons has been investigated by means of observations of the magnetic domains and measurements of the magnetization curves and core losses. The Fe78B13Si9samples, which were 10 mm wide and approximately 25 μm thick, were annealed under 10^-3torr, from 200°C to 425°C, in a dc magnetic field of 1600 A/m directed along the ribbon length. The magnetic domains formed simple 180° patterns parallel to the ribbon length, and the ribbons showed the best quality magnetic properties after magnetic field annealing at 350°C. After annealing below this temperature, the domain patterns and magnetic properties of the samples were similar to those of the as-cast ribbons. In contrast, after a magnetic field annealing above 400°C, the domain patterns distorted, and the magnetic properties deteriorated. The resultant air-pockets and holes on the surfaces of the amorphous ribbons trapped the magnetic domains and caused distorted domain patterns. In the stress pattern observed on the convex side of a bent amorphous ribbon, the domain width narrowed as the bending radius was increased.     

Studies on aluminum-doped ZnO films for transparent electrode and antireflection coating of β-FeSi2 optoelectronic devices

β-FeSi₂ can be used for various optoelectronic devices owing to its superior material features including high optical absorption coefficient and direct band gap of about 0.8 eV. Due to its high refractive index (>5.6), however, suitable antireflection coating (ARC) is necessary for practical device applications. In order to increase the effective areas of optoelectronic devices, transparent electrodes should be also developed. In this work, Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films were fabricated by sputtering on β-FeSi₂ thin films and were found suitable for both transparent electrodes and ARC films. Choosing optimum substrate temperature and sputtering rate, high quality AZO films were formed. The conductivity of AZO films was as high as 3×10³ S/cm and ohmic contact was easily achieved between AZO and β-FeSi₂ films, indicating AZO film as an ideal transparent electrode for β-FeSi₂. The transmittance of 400-nm-thick AZO films was >80% and >70% in the wavelength ranges 400-1400 and 1400-1600 nm, respectively. By changing the thickness of AZO film, the central wavelength of minimum reflectance was adjusted to 1550 nm where the total reflectance of AZO/β-FeSi₂/Si structure was reduced below 2%.     

Translating Multi-Agent Autoepistemic Logic into Logic Program

In order to develop a proof procedure of multi-agent autoepistemic Logic (MAEL), a natural framework to formalize belief and reasoning including inheritance, persistence, and causality, we introduce a method that translates a MAEL theory into a logic program with integrity constraints. It is proved that there exists one-to-one correspondence between extensions of a MAEL theory and stable models of a logic program translated from it. Our approach has the following advantages: (1) We can obtain all extensions of a MAEL theory if we compute all stable models of the translated logic program. (2) We can fully use efficient techniques or systems for computing stable models of a logic program. We also investigate the properties of reasoning in MAEL through this translation. The fact that the extension computing problem can be reduced to the stable model computing problem implies that there are close relationships between MAEL and other formalizations of nonmonotonic reasoning.     

Effect of Potato Starch Properties on Instant Noodle Quality in Wheat Flour and Potato Starch Blends

The properties of potato starch and their effect on the quality of Chinese‐style alkaline instant noodles made from wheat flour and potato starch blends were investigated. Starches were extracted from nine potato cultivars, and the phosphorus content of these starches was analyzed together with the median granule size and pasting and gelatinization properties. Instant noodles were manufactured using mixtures of wheat flour and these potato starches. A Rheoner instrument was used to evaluate three textural parameters, namely, the breaking force (BF), breaking energy (BE), and ratio of the breaking force to the breaking deformation (BF/BD), of instant noodles cooked by immersing into boiling water for 3 and 7 min. The phosphorus content, peak viscosity, and breakdown were significantly and positively correlated with the BF of the noodles cooked for 3 min and did not significantly correlate with that of those cooked for 7 min. Other quality parameters of potato starch did not affect the BF significantly. Other textural parameters of instant noodle quality, such as the BE and BF/BD, did not significantly correlate with any of the quality parameters of potato starch. The findings obtained with the use of wheat flour and potato starch blends suggest that phosphate, which is thought to enhance starch viscosity of potato starch, is important for making instant noodles with favorable texture in hardness.     

Antimicrobial Activities of LL-37 Fragment Mutant-Poly (Lactic-Co-Glycolic) Acid Conjugate against Staphylococcus aureus,Escherichia coli,and Candida albicans

Various peptides and their derivatives have been reported to exhibit antimicrobial activities. Although these activities have been examined against microorganisms, novel methods have recently emerged for conjugation of the biomaterials to improve their activities. Here, we prepared CKR12-PLGA, in which CKR12 (a mutated fragment of human cathelicidin peptide, LL-37) was conjugated with poly (lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA), and compared the antimicrobial and antifungal activities of the conjugated peptide with those of FK13 (a small fragment of LL-37) and CKR12 alone. The prepared CKR12-PLGA was characterized by dynamic light scattering and measurement of the zeta potential, critical micellar concentration, and antimicrobial activities of the fragments and conjugate. Although CKR12 showed higher antibacterial activities than FK13 against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, the antifungal activity of CKR12 was lower than that of FK13. CKR12-PLGA showed higher antibacterial activities against S. aureus and E. coli and higher antifungal activity against Candida albicans compared to those of FK13. Additionally, CKR12-PLGA showed no hemolytic activity in erythrocytes, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy suggested that CKR12-PLGA killed and disrupted the surface structure of microbial cells. Conjugation of antimicrobial peptide fragment analogues was a successful approach for obtaining increased microbial activity with minimized cytotoxicity.     

Computational wave optics library for C++: CWO++ library

Diffraction calculations, such as the angular spectrum method and Fresnel diffractions, are used for calculating scalar light propagation. The calculations are used in wide-ranging optics fields: for example, Computer Generated Holograms (CGHs), digital holography, diffractive optical elements, microscopy, image encryption and decryption, three-dimensional analysis for optical devices and so on. However, increasing demands made by large-scale diffraction calculations have rendered the computational power of recent computers insufficient. We have already developed a numerical library for diffraction calculations using a Graphic Processing Unit (GPU), which was named the GWO library. However, this GWO library is not user-friendly, since it is based on C language and was also run only on a GPU. In this paper, we develop a new C++ class library for diffraction and CGH calculations, which is referred to as a CWO++ library, running on a CPU and GPU. We also describe the structure, performance, and usage examples of the CWO++ library.Program summaryProgram title: CWO++Catalogue identifier: AELL_v1_0Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AELL_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen?s University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 109 809No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 4 181 911Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: C++Computer: General computers and general computers with NVIDIA GPUsOperating system: Windows XP, Vista, 7Has the code been vectorized or parallelized?: Yes. 1 core processor used in CPU and many cores in GPU.RAM: 256 M bytesClassification: 18External routines: CImg, FFTWNature of problem: The CWO++ library provides diffraction calculations which are useful for Computer Generated Holograms (CGHs), digital holography, diffractive optical elements, microscopy, image encryption and decryption and three-dimensional analysis for optical devices.Solution method: FFT-based diffraction calculations, computer generated holograms by direct integration.Running time: The sample runs provided take approximately 5 minutes for the C++ version and 5 seconds for the C++ with GPUs version.     

Tailored Synthesis of 162‐Residue S‐Monoglycosylated GM2‐Activator Protein (GM2AP) Analogues that Allows Facile Access to a Protein Library

A synthetic protocol for the preparation of 162‐residue S‐monoglycosylated GM2‐activator protein (GM2AP) analogues bearing various amino acid substitutions for Thr69 has been developed. The facile incorporation of the replacements into the protein was achieved by means of a one‐pot/N‐to‐C‐directed sequential ligation strategy using readily accessible middle N‐sulfanylethylanilide (SEAlide) peptides each consisting of seven amino acid residues. A kinetically controlled ligation protocol was successfully applied to the assembly of three peptide segments covering the GM2AP. The native chemical ligation (NCL) reactivities of the SEAlide peptides can be tuned by the presence or absence of phosphate salts. Furthermore, NCL of the alkyl thioester fragment [GM2AP (1–31)] with the N‐terminal cysteinyl prolyl thioester [GM2AP (32–67)] proceeded smoothly to yield the 67‐residue prolyl thioester, with the prolyl thioester moiety remaining intact. This newly developed strategy enabled the facile synthesis of GM2AP analogues. Thus, we refer to this synthetic protocol as “tailored synthesis” for the construction of a GM2AP library.     

Survival of a non-flocculating bacterium, Thiobacillus thioparus TK-1, inoculated to activated sludge

The survival of a non-flocculating bacterium inoculated to activated sludge and the development of the bacterial activity were examined. Thiobacillus thioparus TK-1, which degrades O,O-dimethyl phosphorodithioate (DMDTP) contained in the wastewater of pesticide manufacturers, shows no flocculation property. This strain was inoculated to activated sludge at the concentration of 5 × 10⁷, 10⁵ and 10³ cfu/ml, and a wastewater containing DMDTP was treated with this sludge. No degradation was observed for the first 3, 5 and 7 days, respectively. However, after this lag time the activated sludge developed the stable degradation activity. The population of the inoculated strain in the activated sludge decreased at first, but then increased very rapidly up to 10⁸ cfu/ml and remained stable at this level.