Reaction kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid

The kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid were studied using a continuous‐flow tubular reactor. The reaction was carried out in the temperature range of 200–260°C and at a pressure of 20 MPa. Deamination was the primary reaction, indicated by the presence of significant amount of ammonia, fumaric acid, or maleic acid in the products. Other reaction products were pyruvic acid, malic acid, and traces of succinic and lactic acid. Traces of alanine were also detected, showing the possibility of decomposing high‐molecular weight amino acids to obtain simple amino acids such as glycine or alanine. Results on the effect of reaction parameters demonstrated that decomposition of aspartic acid is highly temperature dependent under hydrothermal conditions. For a slight temperature difference of 60°C (from 200 to 260°C), the first‐order reaction rate constants of 0.003 significantly increased to 0.231 s^?1. The activation energy was 144 kJ/mol, as calculated by the Arrhenius equation. No significant effect was exhibited by other reaction parameters such as pH and pressure. The results are useful in controlling the hydrolysis of proteinaceous materials toward high yield of aspartic acid under hydrothermal conditions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 39: 175–180, 2007     

The effect of surface modification with silane coupling agent on suppressing the photo-catalytic activity of fine TiO2 particles as inorganic UV filter

The effect of surface modification with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and n-propyltriethoxysilane (PTES) on photo-catalytic activity and UV-shielding ability of fine TiO₂ particles were investigated. The number of surface groups (N_R) [nm⁻²] which shows the density of modifier on TiO₂ surface was calculated from the results of elemental analysis and BET measurement. The modified samples of which N_R are different were obtained by changing the concentration of modifier. When the photo-catalytic activity and UV-shielding ability of modified samples were evaluated, it was found that APTES was more effective modifier than PTES to obtained samples with low photo-catalytic activity and high UV-shielding ability. This is probably because the adsorption mechanisms on TiO₂ surface between modifiers were different and N_R is a key factor to control the performances of fine TiO₂ particles. The result of zeta potential showed that surface character of modified samples was varied by changing N_R. It suggested from these results that N_R affected the photo-catalytic activity and UV-shielding ability because N_R changed surface character of modified samples.     

Imprinting by hot embossing in polymer substrates using a template of silica glass surface-structured by the ablation of LIBWE method

Laser-induced backside wet etching (LIBWE) of silica glass plates was performed to fabricate an imprinting template for hot embossing in polymer substrates such as polystyrene and silicone resin. Well-defined inverse surface-micropatterns of gratings and grid arrays on the substrates were produced by the hot embossing using a surface-structured silica glass as the template. These results indicate that the LIBWE method allows us to generate robust glass molding tools that exhibit the inverse shapes of the intended microstructures. PACS 52.38.Mf; 68.47.Mn; 81.05.Kf; 81.05.Lg; 83.50.Uv     

Breakage of λ-DNA by inorganic tin and organotin compounds as environmental pollutants

In proportion to the environmental pollution problems caused by organotin compounds, the genotoxicities of tin compounds in the environments have become of interest so as to estimate their safety in recent years. In this work, isolated λ-DNA (double-strand DNA) was incubated with inorganic tin(II) and tin(IV) and five organotin compounds [n-butyltin trichloride, di(n-butyltin) dichloride, methyltin trichloride, dimethyltin dichloride and trimethyltin chloride] in reaction systems both with and without hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) content. The tin compounds tested in this study did not induce DNA breakage in the absence of hydrogen peroxide. Divalent inorganic tin (SnCl₂) and tetravalent inorganic tin (SnCl₄) caused DNA breakage in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (10 mM), and the DNA damage activity of inorganic tin was much more potent in divalent inorganic tin (SnCl₂) than in tetravalent inorganic tin (SnCl₄). Divalent inorganic tin (SnCl₂) induced DNA breakage in a concentration-dependent fashion at concentrations greater than 0.1 mM of SnCl₂ in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (10 mM). DNA breakage was not caused by n-butyltin compounds and methyltin compounds either in the presence or in the absence of hydrogen peroxide.     

Nuclearity of a nonnegative definite integral kernel on a separable metric space

The aim of this paper is to characterize the nuclearity of an integral operator, defined by a continuous non-negative definite square integrable kernel on a separable metric space, in terms of the integrability of the trace of the kernel function. Nuclearity here plays a role forU-statistics.     

Characteristic curved structure derived from collagen-containing tubular giant vesicles under static magnetic field

Collagen-containing tubular giant vesicles (Col–tGVs) under a high static magnetic field were found to constitute characteristic curved structures (e.g. circular, 8-figure, and hairpin-loop), which were sustained by polymerization of collagen units inside the tGV. We ascribed the formation of these structures to the elasticity of the tGV and to the competing diamagnetic anisotropies between collagen and the tGV. These curved structures can be well expressed by the equation of elastica.     

Two-step photoionization of cold atoms by two-color evanescent-light waves and application to atom detection with high spatial resolution

We consider a new scheme of optically ionizing atoms with 10-nm-order spatial resolution. In this method, two-color near-field lights are generated on a narrow slit illuminated by two-color evanescent lights via total-internal reflection of two-wavelength light beams. In order to illustrate the feasibility, we first obtain the ionization cross section from two-step photionization of cold Rb atoms by two-color evanescent lights on a plane surface of a prism. Then, we numerically estimate the ionization efficiency as a function of the slit width using Bethe formula. The scheme is useful for detecting ground-state atoms under less perturbation by scattered light.     

Liquid crystal lens with focus movable in focal plane

A liquid crystal lens with focus movable in the focal plane is reported. There are three electrodes in the cell. One electrode with a hole in the center is divided into four subelectrodes. The potential of each subelectrode is adjusted to produce a desired asymmetrical phase transformation resulting in off-axis movement of the focus. The potential of another electrode is adjusted to maintain the focus in the focal plane. Movements of the focus in three directions in the focal plane are demonstrated experimentally, and off-axis movement as large as approximately 800 μm is realized.     

Analytical method for steady state vibration of system with localized non-linearities using convolution integral and Galerkin method

The analytical method using transfer function or impulse response is very effective for analyzing non-linear systems with localized non-linearities. This is because the number of non-linear equations can be reduced to that of the equations with respect to points connected with the non-linear element. In the present paper, analytical method for the steady state vibration of non-linear system including subharmonic vibration is proposed by utilizing convolution integral and the impulse response. The Galerkin method is introduced to solve the non-linear equations formulated by the convolution integral, and then the steady state vibration is obtained. An advantage of the present method is that stability or instability of the steady state vibration can be discriminated by the transient analysis from convolution integral. The three-degree-of-freedom mass-spring system is shown as a numerical example and the proposed method is verified by comparing with the result by Runge-Kutta-Gill method.