Fabrication of column chip made of PMMA for μFIA

We proposed a low cost fabrication procedure of a poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) column chip. 3D microchannel structure consisting of four columns in a chip for a mother die was fabricated using dry film photoresist and photolithography technique. Electroforming was applied to the mother die in order to obtain a Ni mold, then, the pattern was transferred to PMMA by hot press. The column had a dam structure to keep enzyme-immobilized microbeads with volume of 640 nL. The column chip was applied for a micro flow injection analysis (μFIA) system. For a demonstration, we measured lactose using two columns in series. One column was set on upper stream and filled with chitosan microbeads immobilized with β-galactosidase, the other was on downstream and filled with the beads immobilized with glucose oxidase. The lactose detection was accomplished less than 90s after the sample injection. The biosensing system also showed a high performance for lactose detection in wide range of 1 μM to 1mM. These results show that the column chip and our microfluidic biosensing system have the potential to assist minuaturization with small sample volume and short determination time for a sequential analysis.     

Confinement in carbon nanospace-induced production of KI nanocrystals of high-pressure phase

An outstanding compression function for materials preparation exhibited by nanospaces of single-walled carbon nanohorns (SWCNHs) was studied using the B1-to-B2 solid phase transition of KI crystals at 1.9 GPa. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray diffraction examinations provided evidence that KI nanocrystals doped in the nanotube spaces of SWCNHs at pressures below 0.1 MPa had the super-high-pressure B2 phase structure, which is induced at pressures above 1.9 GPa in bulk KI crystals. This finding of the supercompression function of the carbon nanotubular spaces can lead to the development of a new compression-free route to precious materials whose syntheses require the application of high pressure.     

High-throughput and simultaneous analysis of eight central-acting muscle relaxants in human plasma by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry in the positive and negative ionization modes

In this report, a high-throughput and sensitive method for analysis of eight central-acting muscle relaxants in human plasma by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) in the positive and negative ionization modes using tolbutamide as internal standard is presented. After pretreatment of a plasma sample by solid-phase extraction with an Oasis HLB cartridge, muscle relaxants were analyzed by UPLC with Acquity UPLC BEH C₁₈ column and Acquity TQD tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization interface. The calibration curves for muscle relaxants spiked into human plasma equally showed good linearities in the nanogram per milliliter order range. The detection limits (signal-to-noise ratio = 3) was as low as 0.1–2 ng/mL. The method gave satisfactory recovery rates, accuracy, and precision for quality control samples spiked with muscle relaxants. To further validate the present method, 250 mg of chlorphenesin carbamate was orally administered to a healthy male volunteer, and the concentrations of chlorphenesin carbamate in plasma were measured 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 h after dosing; their concentrations in human plasma were between 0.62 and 2.44 μg/mL. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing simultaneous analysis of over more than two central-acting muscle relaxants by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. This has been realized by the capability of our instrument for simultaneous multiple reaction monitoring of the target compounds in both positive and negative ionization modes. Therefore, the present method seems very useful in forensic and clinical toxicology and pharmacokinetic studies.     

Behavior strategies,mixed strategies and perfect recall

When perfect recall is not satisfied, the informational contents of mixed and behavior strategies differ and are more than what the information partition describes. First, we consider two kinds of additional information strategies may carry, and show that such information leads to theperfect recall refinement of a given information partition. This does not, however, imply that the strategies compensate fully for the lack of perfect recall. We give a necessary and sufficient condition on an information partition, calledA-loss, for the informational content of mixed strategies to fully compensate for the lack of perfect recall. The informational content of behavior strategies never fully compensates.     

Visualization of tip vortex flow in an open axial fan by EFD

The behavior of tip vortex in an axial fan without casing wall (called open axial fan) was discussed and analyzed. The velocity measurement was performed by using two-components Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) system. The detailed velocity and vorticity distribution inside blade passage and downstream of rotor were obtained. Thus the structure of tip vortex and its behavior were graphically visualized by experimental fluid dynamics (EFD). The tip vortex flow trace was indicated with the calculation of vorticity. As a result, it was found that tip vortex was generated at blade tip region near leading edge and it extended to downstream of blade exit with its core tending inward to hub direction. In addition, leading edge vortex was also found at the forepart of the experimental open fan.     

Synthesis and crosslinking reaction of poly(hydroxyurethane) bearing a secondary amine structure in the main chain

This article describes the polyaddition of bifunctional five‐membered cyclic carbonates and diethylenetriamine. The polyaddition proceeded via the selective addition of the primary amino group to the cyclic carbonates to give poly(hydroxyurethane)s bearing a secondary amine structure in the main chain. The resulting poly (hydroxyurethane) having a secondary amine structure was crosslinked by a reaction with a bifunctional dithiocarbonate to give a networked poly(hydroxyurethane–mercaptothiourethane). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 5899–5905, 2005     

Superconvergence of the iterated collocation methods for Hammerstein equations

In this paper, we analyse the iterated collocation method for Hammerstein equations with smooth and weakly singular kernels. The paper expands the study which began in [16] concerning the superconvergence of the iterated Galerkin method for Hammerstein equations. We obtain in this paper a similar superconvergence result for the iterated collocation method for Hammerstein equations. We also discuss the discrete collocation method for weakly singular Hammerstein equations. Some discrete collocation methods for Hammerstein equations with smooth kernels were given previously in [3, 18].     

Vertices of Degree 5 in a Contraction Critically 5-connected Graph

An edge of a k-connected graph is said to be k-contractible if the contraction of the edge results in a k-connected graph. A k-connected graph with no k-contractible edge is said to be contraction critically k-connected. We prove that a contraction critically 5-connected graph on n vertices has at least n/5 vertices of degree 5. We also show that, for a graph G and an integer k greater than 4, there exists a contraction critically k-connected graph which has G as its induced subgraph.