Stripe-Induced High-Temperature Superconductivity in Cuprates

The single-particle spectral function of the strongly correlated electron system is composed of a coherent peak and incoherent hills on both sides. The non-resonant electronic scattering of the incoherent spectral function becomes the same in the $B_{\rm 1g}$ and $B_{\rm 2g}$ channels and also correlates to the optical conductivity. The mid-infrared hill in the optical conductivity has the same origin as the electronic Raman susceptibility induced by the hole hopping perpendicular to the stripe. The wide-energy Raman spectra in the hole-doped and electron-doped cuprates are different, because the hole-doped cuprates are in the stripe phase while the electron-doped ones are not.     

Analysis of strain rate dependence of tensile elongation for a mechanical milling Al–1.1Mg–1.2Cu alloy tested at 748 K from a dislocation dynamics viewpoint

Tensile deformation was carried out for a mechanically milled and thermo-mechanically treated Al–1.1Mg–1.2Cu (at.%) alloy at 748 K and three nominal strain rates of 10⁻³, 10⁰, and 10² s⁻¹. Despite the prevailing belief that superplasticity occurs by grain boundary sliding which requires slow strain rates at high temperatures, the maximum elongation was observed at the intermediate strain rate of 10⁰ s⁻¹, neither at the lowest nor the highest strain rates. In order to explain this phenomenon, the true stress–true strain behaviors at these three nominal strain rates were analyzed from a viewpoint of dislocation dynamics by computer-simulation with four variables of the thermal stress component σ*, dislocation immobilization rate U, re-mobilization probability of unlocked, immobile dislocations Ω and dislocation density at yielding ρ₀. It can then be concluded that the large elongation (>400% in nominal strain) at the intermediate strain rate is produced by a combination of a very large Ω and a moderate U, resulting in a large strain rate sensitivity m value.     

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Ultrahigh-Speed In-Phase RZ and CS-RZ OTDM Transmission

We report that stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) plays an important role in ultrahigh-speed bitwise phase-controlled optical time-division multiplexing transmissions such as in-phase and carrier-suppressed return-to-zero (RZ). We show that the optical power can easily exceed the SBS threshold for such high-speed coherent RZ signals. The SBS-induced performance limitation in a 160-Gb/s-520 km transmission is described in detail.      

Structural Fluctuations of the Human Proteasome α7 Homo-Tetradecamer Double Ring Imply the Proteasomal α-Ring Assembly Mechanism

The 20S proteasome, which is composed of layered α and β heptameric rings, is the core complex of the eukaryotic proteasome involved in proteolysis. The α7 subunit is a component of the α ring, and it self-assembles into a homo-tetradecamer consisting of two layers of α7 heptameric rings. However, the structure of the α7 double ring in solution has not been fully elucidated. We applied cryo-electron microscopy to delineate the structure of the α7 double ring in solution, revealing a structure different from the previously reported crystallographic model. The D7-symmetrical double ring was stacked with a 15° clockwise twist and a separation of 3 Å between the two rings. Two more conformations, dislocated and fully open, were also identified. Our observations suggest that the α7 double-ring structure fluctuates considerably in solution, allowing for the insertion of homologous α subunits, finally converting to the hetero-heptameric α rings in the 20S proteasome.     

A thread-level parallelization of pairwise additive potential and force calculations suitable for current many-core architectures

In molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, calculations of potentials and their derivatives by coordinate, i.e., forces, in a pairwise additive manner such as the Lennard–Jones interactions and a short-range part of the Coulombic interactions form the main part of arithmetic operations. It is essential to achieve high thread-level parallelization efficiency of these pairwise additive calculations of potentials and forces to use current supercomputers with many-core architectures effectively. In this paper, we propose four new thread-level parallelization algorithms for the pairwise additive potential and force calculations. We implement the four codes in a MD calculation code based on the fast multipole method. Performance benchmarks were taken on the FX100 supercomputer and Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor. The code succeeds in achieving high thread-level parallelization efficiency with 32 threads on the FX100 and up to 60 threads on the Xeon Phi.     

Structure of northern snakehead (Channa argus) meat: Effects of freezing method and frozen storage

This study was conducted to investigate the potential of cryogenic freezing with liquid nitrogen in the shelf-life extension of northern snakehead (Channa argus) and clarify the effects of temperature fluctuations after freezing on the quality attributes and tissue microstructure during frozen storage. The fish fillets were frozen by three methods including freezing using an ultra-low-temperature freezer (?80°C) to the core temperature of ?60°C (T1) or ?18°C (T2), or liquid nitrogen (T3) followed by storage at ?20°C for five months. Cryogenic freezing with liquid nitrogen postponed the decrease in pH and protein extractability. Temperature fluctuations after freezing might promote the accretion of ice crystals and resulted in the loss of tissue integrity and disorganization of myofibrils. The microstructural changes contributed greatly to the increased thawing loss and decreased resilience, as indicated by the enlarged extracellular spacing and the flakiness of myofibrils. Cryogenic freezing with liquid nitrogen showed no superiority in maintaining the microstructure of northern snakehead fillets, which was supposedly attributed to the cracking in tissue during freezing and the accretion of ice crystals during frozen storage.     

Factor Analysis of the Fermentation Process in Barley Shochu Production

It was shown that the components of pearled barley, i.e., the enzyme activity of barley koji and amino acid content of koji, were factors affecting final mash components in the fermentation process. The enzyme activities and content of inorganic components of the pearled barley affected alcohol concentration, density of mash and the main aromatic components. In addition, the growth of koji‐mould on barley was affected by the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content in the pearled barley. The enzyme activities in barley‐koji increased in proportion to mycelial growth.     

EDG1 is a functional sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor that is linked via a Gi/o to multiple signaling pathways, including phospholipase C activation, Ca2+ mobilization, Ras-mitogen-activated protein kinase activation, and adenylate cyclase inhibition

In Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells transiently transfected with an expression vector for EDG1, but not an empty vector, sphingosine-1-phosphate (SP) at a concentration as low as 10(-10) M caused an increase in the intracellular free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) as a result of mobilization of Ca2+ from both intracellular and extracellular pools. In a CHO clone stably expressing EDG1 receptor (CHO-EDG1 cells), SP induced increases in the production of inositol phosphates and the [Ca2+]i and inhibited forskolin-induced increase in the cellular cAMP content, all in a manner sensitive to pertussis toxin. SP also activated mitogen-activated protein kinase in CHO-EDG1 cells in pertussis toxin-sensitive and Ras-dependent manners. To evaluate the spectrum of agonists for EDG1, we used human erythroleukemia (HEL) cells, which at naive state do not respond to SP or structurally related lipids with an increase in the [Ca2+]i. In HEL cells stably expressing EDG1 receptor (HEL-EDG1 cells), SP dose-dependently increased the [Ca2+]i with half-maximal and maximal concentration values of 10(-9) and 3 x 10(-7) M, respectively; sphingosylphosphorylcholine at exclusively high concentrations, but not sphingosine at all, also increased the [Ca2+]i. HEL-EDG1 cells bound 32P-labeled SP, which was displaced dose dependently by unlabeled SP. These results indicate that EDG1, a member of the EDG family G protein-coupled receptors, is a specific, high-affinity SP receptor.