Long Preservation of AAV-Transduced Fluorescence by a Modified Organic Solvent-Based Clearing Method

The development of tissue clearing technologies allows 3D imaging of whole tissues and organs, especially in studies of the central nervous system innervated throughout the body. Although the three-dimensional imaging of solvent-cleared organs (3DISCO) method provides a powerful clearing capacity and high transparency, the rapid quenching of endogenous fluorescence and peroxide removal process decreases its practicability. This study provides a modified method named tDISCO to solve these limitations. The tDISCO protocol can preserve AAV-transduced endogenous EGFP fluorescence for months and achieve high transparency in a fast and simple clearing process. In addition to the brain, tDISCO was applied to other organs and even hard bone tissue. tDISCO also enabled us to visualize the long projection neurons and axons with high resolution. This method provides a fast and simple clearing protocol for 3D visualization of the AAV- transduced long projection neurons throughout the brain and spinal cord.     

Flexible ultraviolet detector with robust ZnO nanoparticle nanoassemblies on catechol-functionalized polysiloxane nanofilms

As a result of the vast Young's moduli difference between an inorganic semiconducting channel and flexible substrates, flexible optoelectronic devices readily lose their functionality through material delamination and local fracturing, which lead to short-circuiting of devices. For this study, we synthesized a catechol-containing polysiloxane (CFPS) adhesive and applied it to ZnO nanoparticle (NP) assembly on plastic substrates for flexible UV detector applications. The 30 nm thick CFPS adhesive can anchor 70 nm thick ZnO NPs strongly through a coordination bond, thereby forming an ultra-stable ZnO NP channel layer. A peeling test of ZnO NP layer was conducted using transparent tape (Scotch®; 3 M Inc.). The ZnO NPs were firmly immobilized, reflecting the outstanding mechanical stability of CFPS adhesives. A UV detector also exhibited stable photo-response performance even after a thousand iterations of bending with 3 mm curvature radii. The result indicates the polycyclosiloxane-based flexible device as promising for wearable detector applications.     

Theoretical study on vapour phase Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime over a high silica MFI zeolite

We have studied an activation mechanism of cyclohexanone oxime in a cavity of high silica MFI zeolite by using PIO analysis proposed by Fujimoto et al. DFT calculation reveals that the bond length of N–OH becomes longer when water coordinates on oxygen of oxime. The PIO clearly shows out-of-phase interaction between N and O. This out-of-phase interaction is also observed in the PIO of oxime/MFI zeolite cluster model and weakens the N---O bond. Hydrogen bond of Si–OH of nest silanols to oxime is a trigger of vapour phase Beckmann rearrangement.     

Daily peak electric load forecasting using an artificial neural network and an improvement method for reducing the forecasting errors

This paper proposes a forecasting method for shortterm peak electric loads using a 3-layer neural network of locally active units. Each unit in the hidden layer of the neural network is activated only by input vectors in a bounded domain of vector space. This characteristic enables additional learning. Furthermore, it is supposed to provide the network structure with information that helps to improve forecasting accuracy. The neural network is applied to daily peak load forecasting simulations in summer. The results show that the proposed method is superior to a conventional neural network with the backpropagation algorithm. To make the best use of the neural network, an error-oriented method of parameter modification is also examined.     

Vinyl polymerization: 414. Polymerization of vinyl monomer initiated by poly(N,N,N-trimethyl-N-2-methacryloxyethyl)ammonium chloride

The polymerization of vinyl monomer initiated by an aqueous solution of poly(N,N,N-trimethyl-N-2-methacryloxyethyl)ammonium chloride (poly(Q-DMAEM-CI) has been carried out at 85°C. The effects of the amounts of vinyl monomer, poly(Q-DMAEM-CI) and water on the conversion of vinyl monomer have been studied. The overall activation energy in the polymerization of MMA is estimated as 41.9 kJ mol^?1. The polymerization proceeds through a radical mechanism. The location in which the polymerization occurs is discussed. The selectivity for vinyl monomer is explained by ‘the concept of hard and soft hydrophobic areas and monomers’.     

Preparation and Characterization of Pt/Al-ZSM-5 Catalysts and their Reactivities for the Oxidation of CO with N2O at Low Temperatures

Al-ZSM-5 was prepared by treating H-ZSM-5 with an aqueous solution of Al(NO₃)₃ and used as a support for Pt catalysts. The Pt-loaded Al-ZSM-5 acts as an efficient catalyst for CO oxidation with N₂O at 273 K. TEM investigations revealed that Pt clusters with an average particle size of around 1–1.5 nm were homogeneously dispersed within Al-ZSM-5. Moreover, FT-IR and XPS analyses indicated that the small Al₂O₃ clusters formed within Al-ZSM-5 plays a significant role in the formation of highly dispersed Pt clusters within the pore structure of the ZSM-5 zeolite, leading to the high catalytic activity of Pt/Al-ZSM-5 as compared to Pt/ZSM-5.     

Relationship between the composition of polycarbonate copolymers and the refractive index

With a polycarbonate (PC)–poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) graft copolymer and a PC–poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) block copolymer, the relationship between the composition of PC copolymers and the refractive index (n_D) was investigated. According to the results, with a PMMA content of 38 wt %, the n_D value of the PC–PMMA graft copolymer was nearly the same as that of electrical (E) glass (n_D = 1.545), and with a PMMA content of 6 wt %, it was nearly the same as that of electrical corrosion resistance (ECR) glass (n_D = 1.579). However, with a PDMS content of 19 wt %, the n_D value of the PC–PDMS block copolymer was nearly the same as that of E glass, and with a PDMS content of 2 wt %, it was nearly the same as that of ECR glass. The combination of the PC–PDMS block copolymer and the glass fibers (GFs) of ECR glass led to haze values of 8 and 16% with GF contents of 10 and 20%, respectively. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 514–521, 2002; DOI 10.1002/app.2355     

Effect of polycarbonate–poly(methyl methacrylate) graft copolymer as a modifier improving the surface hardness of polycarbonate

In this study, poly(2‐acrylamido‐2‐methyl‐1‐propane sulfonic acid) (PAMPS) was synthesized using potassium persulfate (K₂S₂O₈) as initiator. PAMPS (M _n = 36,000 g/mol) was partially converted to a lithium salt (PAMPS–Li), and particle size was determined to be 40 μm. Suspensions of PAMPS–Li at various concentrations were prepared in silicone oil, mineral oil, dioctylphthalate (DOP), and trioctyltrimellitate (TOTM) insulating oils. Colloidal stabilities of these suspensions were determined at 20 and 80°C. The PAMPS–Li suspensions were observed to provide an electrorheological (ER) response upon the application of an external dc electric field. ER properties of these suspensions were investigated at various shear rates (γ˙) and electric field strengths (E). Further, effects of polar promoters and high temperature on ER activity were determined, and excess shear stresses (Δτ) were calculated. A shear‐thinning non‐Newtonian viscoelastic behavior was observed for the PAMPS–Li suspensions. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 1106–1112, 2002     

Synthesis of Nanowire TiO2 Thin Films by Hydrothermal Treatment and their Photoelectrochemical Properties

Nanowire TiO₂ thin films were successfully prepared on Ti metal substrates by hydrothermal treatment of calcined Ti foils in 10 M NaOH. The nanowire TiO₂ thin films exhibited much larger surface area and higher photoelectrochemical performance than the TiO₂ thin films prepared on Ti metal substrates by the calcination of Ti foil. These nanowire films were shown to act as an efficient photoanodes for the photoelectrochemical water splitting reaction.