Preparation of M metal/alumina-pillared mica composites (M = Cu, Ni) by in situ reduction of interlayer M ions of alumina-pillared fluorine micas

Alumina-pillared fluorine micas form micropores in the interlayer region and exhibit cation exchangeability. Reduction of 3d transition metal cations (Cu²⁺ and Ni²⁺) in the interlayer regions of the cation exchanged alumina-pillared micas was attempted using ethylene glycol or diethylene glycol. The Cu²⁺-exchanged pillared mica led to the formation of a pillared mica composite containing interlayer zero-valence Cu⁰ metal clusters along with Cu⁰ metal fine particles on external surfaces of pillared mica flakes when refluxed in either ethylene glycol or diethylene glycol. Ni²⁺ cations in the interlayer region were also found to be reducible by refluxing in diethylene glycol. The zero-valence metal contained in the refluxed products occurs in three forms: M⁰ clusters in the interlayer region, elongated fine particles sandwiched between silicate layers, and submicron spherical particles on external surfaces of mica crystals. The zero-valence metal/alumina-pillared mica composites thus obtained largely retained the micropore properties of the alumina-pillared micas.     

Effects of acute ethanol intoxication on experimental brain injury in the rat: neurobehavioral and phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies

Using the lateral fluid-percussion model of experimental brain injury in the rat, the authors investigated the effect of acute ethanol (EtOH) intoxication on cardiovascular changes, neurological motor deficits, brain bioenergetics, and mortality associated with traumatic brain injury. Two hours after gastric administration of EtOH (low dose in 20 animals, 1.5 g/kg; high dose in 28, 3.0 g/kg) or saline (equal volume), animals were subjected to a fluid-percussion brain injury centered over the left parietal cortex. These injuries were of either moderate (X = 2.2 atm; 10 animals/treatment) or high severity (X = 3.0 atm; 18 animals/saline, 10 animals/low-dose EtOH, and 18 animals/high-dose EtOH). Neurological motor function was evaluated daily over a 1-week period, while a subset of eight animals receiving high-dose EtOH and subjected to brain injury of high severity were monitored for 4 hours using phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to determine intracellular pH, free magnesium, and brain cytosolic phosphorylation potential. A significant (p < 0.05) and prolonged (up to 1 hour) hypotension was observed in animals pretreated with either low- or high-dose EtOH. Neither low-dose (blood-EtOH concentration = 110 +/- 40 mg/dl) nor high-dose (blood-EtOH = 340 +/- 70 mg/dl) EtOH had any effect on survival or neurological motor function after moderate brain injury. Following severe brain injury, animals pretreated with high-dose (blood-EtOH concentration = 352 +/- 65 mg/dl) EtOH showed a significantly increased mortality and markedly worsened neurological deficits at 24 hours postinjury. Following injury, free magnesium and cytosolic phosphorylation potential declined in both groups by approximately 50% to 60%, with no significant differences between groups with respect to these variables. In contrast, brain intracellular pH in the EtOH-treated animals was consistently higher than in the control group after injury. These data suggest that prior exposure to EtOH, particularly at high concentrations, may have detrimental effects on neurobehavioral function and survival in the acute period (up to 24 hours) after severe brain injury, and may be associated with posttraumatic cerebral alkalosis.     

Constant Unary Constraints and Symmetric Real-Weighted Counting Constraint Satisfaction Problems

A unary constraint (on the Boolean domain) is a function from {0,1} to the set of real numbers. A free use of auxiliary unary constraints given besides input instances has proven to be useful in establishing a complete classification of the computational complexity of approximately solving weighted counting Boolean constraint satisfaction problems (or #CSPs). In particular, two special constant unary constraints are a key to an arity reduction of arbitrary constraints, sufficient for the desired classification. In an exact counting model, both constant unary constraints are always assumed to be available since they can be eliminated efficiently using an arbitrary nonempty set of constraints. In contrast, we demonstrate, in an approximate counting model, that at least one of them is efficiently approximated and thus eliminated approximately by a nonempty constraint set. This fact directly leads to an efficient construction of polynomial-time randomized approximation-preserving Turing reductions (or AP-reductions) from #CSPs with designated constraints to any given #CSPs composed of symmetric real-valued constraints of arbitrary arities even in the presence of arbitrary extra unary constraints.     

Venous system playing a key role in transpetrosal approach

A new secondary metabolite was detected in the culture filtrate and extracts of Streptomyces violaceusniger Tü 4113 by HPLC-diode-array and HPLC-electrospray-mass-spectrometry screening. The compound named spirofungin has a polyketide-spiroketal structure and shows various antifungal activities, particularly against yeasts.     

Polynomial time quantum computation with advice

Advice is supplementary information that enhances the computational power of an underlying computation. This paper focuses on advice that is given in the form of a pure quantum state and examines the influence of such advice on the behaviors of an underlying polynomial-time quantum computation with bounded-error probability.     

An application of quantum finite automata to interactive proof systems

Quantum finite automata have been studied intensively since their introduction in late 1990s as a natural model of a quantum computer working with finite-dimensional quantum memory space. This paper seeks their direct application to interactive proof systems in which a mighty quantum prover communicates with a quantum-automaton verifier through a common communication cell. Our quantum interactive proof systems are juxtaposed to Dwork–Stockmeyer's classical interactive proof systems whose verifiers are two-way probabilistic finite automata. We demonstrate strengths and weaknesses of our systems by studying how various restrictions on the behaviors of quantum-automaton verifiers affect the power of quantum interactive proof systems.     

The impact of time windows constraints on metaheuristics implementation: a study for the Discrete and Dynamic Berth Allocation Problem

Applied Intelligence - This paper describes the development of a mechanism to deal with time windows constraints. To the best of our knowledge, the time windows constraints are difficult to be...     

Structural properties for feasibly computable classes of type two

This paper treates classes in the polynomial hierarchy of type two, , that were first developed by Townsend as a natural extension of the Meyer-Stockmeyer polynomial hierarchy in complexity theory. For these classes, it is discussed whether each of them has the extension property and the three recursion-theoretic properties: separation, reduction, and pre-wellordering. This paper shows that every 0$$ " align="middle" border="0"> , lacks the pre-wellordering property by using a probabilistic argument on constant-depth Boolean circuits. From the assumption NP = coNP it follows by a pruning argument that has the separation and extension properties.     

Characterization of polycrystalline SiC films grown by HW-CVD using silicon tetrafluoride

SiC films were synthesized by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition using a tungsten filament and a gas mixture of SiF₄ and CH₄. The etching of the substrate instead of the film growth occurred on the samples prepared using only source gases without H₂ dilution. The atomic or molecular hydrogen was believed to control the density of radicals containing F in a gas phase or on a growth surface. Polycrystalline 3C-SiC(111) films were successfully obtained at substrate temperatures lower than 500 °C by using H₂ dilution. The growth mode limited by source-gas supply was found to be important to obtain polycrystalline SiC films. The SiC film grown at higher deposition pressure was amorphous and contained no Si-H_x bonds but 6% fluorine. In SiF₄/CH₄/H₂ system, the radicals containing F are considered to play very important roles in the reactions both on a growth surface and in a gas-phase.