Luteococcus japonicus gen. nov., sp. nov., a new gram-positive coccus with LL-diaminopimelic acid in the cell wall

A new gram-positive, nonmotile coccus is described. Strains IFO 12422T (T = type strain) and IFO 15385 in the Institute for Fermentation, Osaka, culture collection, which were isolated from soil and water, respectively, have the following chemotaxonomic characteristics: menaquinone MK-9(H4); G + C content of DNA of 67 mol%; and LL-diaminopimelic acid, alanine, glycine, and glutamic acid in a molar ratio of ca. 1:2:1:1 (type A3 gamma). Mycolic acids are not present. The taxonomic characteristics of these organisms are different from those of previously described gram-positive, high-G + C-content cocci. The partial 16S rRNA sequence indicated that IFO 12422T represents a distinct line of descent among gram-positive bacteria with a high G + C content. The name Luteococcus japonicus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is strain IFO 12422.     

Doubly-periodic array and zig-zag array of cracks in solids under uniaxial tension

In fatigue of materials, it is often observed that a number of cracks initiate from preexisting defects and propagate to form major cracks causing the final failure. In this paper, we consider a doubly-periodic array and a zig-zag array of cracks in a two-dimensional solid subjected to tension, as simplified models of randomly distributed cracks in materials. The analysis is based on the eigenfunction expansions of the complex stress potentials for properly chosen unit regions. Numerical results for the stress intensity factors, crack opening displacements and effects of cracks on the tensile stiffnesses of these solids are given for various combinations of the parameters. The results are then fitted to reliable polynomial formulae for convenience of engineering applications.     

Effect of the addition of Fe2O3 and heat treatment duration on the magnetic susceptibility of V2O5-P2O5-B2O3 glass system

The effect of the addition of Fe₂O₃ and heat treatment duration on the magnetic susceptibility of vanadium borophosphate glass were studied. The magnetic susceptibility of glass samples was found to increase with increasing Fe₂O₃ content, which may be explained by the formation of the FeO₆ group and the change of Fe²⁺ to Fe³⁺ which has higher paramagnetic properties. No detectable changes in the magnetic susceptibility with heat treatment for the samples containing 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0 mol% Fe₂O₃ was observed. The magnetic susceptibility for the heat treated samples containing 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 mol% Fe₂O₃ decreases sharply with increasing duration of heat treatment up to 6 h and then remains almost constant. The sharp decrease in magnetic susceptibility of 2.5 mol% Fe₂O₃ is attributed to the increase in the number of ferrous ions. The sharp decrease for samples containing 5.0 and 7.5 mol% Fe₂O₃ is attributed to the increase in the number of Fe³⁺ in tetrahedral co-ordination. The rate of crystallization owing to the heat treatment was calculated and was found to increase with increasing iron oxide content. The geometry of crystallization was found to be in three-, two-and one-dimension(s) for samples containing 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 mol% Fe₂O₃, respectively.     

Long distance propagation of a polarized neutron beam in zero magnetic field

A beam of fully polarized cold neutrons was transported through a zero magnetic field region of 70 m length without loss of polarization. The purpose of this exercise was twofold: firstly, to demonstrate that the new zero-field neutron spin-echo method will work also for very long neutron flight paths; secondly, to prove in the most direct way that the neutron free-flight region of the ILL neutron-antineutron oscillation experiment was indeed sufficiently field-free (“quasifree condition”) by using the neutrons themselves as a magnetometer. To this purpose the residual magnetic field integrals in the long “zero-field” region were measured with a conventional neutron spin-echo method. The overall spin precession angle of the neutrons during their flight through the long zero-field region was found to be less than 2°.     

Alumina scale growth at zirconia-MCrAlY interface: a microstructural study

High-temperature oxide scale growth at the ceramic-metal interface is a major contributor to the thermomechanical resistance of thermal barrier coatings for hot stages of gas turbines. In order to better understand this phenomenon, microstructural observations of the alumina scales formed at 1100 and 1200 °C under air, between low-pressure plasma-sprayed NiCrAlY and air plasma-sprayed ZrO₂-8.5 wt % Y₂O₃, have been performed by classical and analytical transmission electron microscopy on transverse thin foil specimens. The evolution of the oxide grain morphology from the metal-oxide to the oxide-oxide interface suggests that the scale growth principally takes place at the metal-oxide interface. Segregation of yttrium at oxide grain boundaries has been detected as well as significant quantities of zirconium inside the alumina grains. The oxide growth seems to be dominated by a classical grain-boundary oxygen diffusion mechanism. The presence of zirconium inside the alumina grains also suggests that Al₂O₃ partially forms by chemical reduction of ZrO₂ by AI. The comparison between the microstructures observed and that of alumina scales grown under similar conditions on bare MCrAlY alloys gives some insight into how the ceramic top-coat modifies NiCrAlY high-temperature oxidation mechanisms.     

Analysis of a resonant-cavity enhanced GaAs/AlGaAs MSMphotodetector

The authors have developed a 2-D device simulator for heterostructure metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors. They have incorporated a model of multilayer optics into the simulator and used it to analyze the temporal response of a resonant-cavity enhanced heterostructure with a confining buffer layer and a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). The authors show that through fine tuning the layer thicknesses, optical resonance enhancement of the light absorption can be obtained