A Simple Chaotic Circuit with Impulsive Switch Depending on Time and State

This paper presents a simple chaotic circuit consisting of two capacitors, one linear two-port VCCS and one time-state-controlled impulsive switch. The impulsive switch causes rich chaotic and periodic behavior. The circuit dynamics can be simplified into a one-dimensional return map that is piecewise linear and piecewise monotone. Using the return map, we clarify parameter conditions for existence of chaotic and periodic attractors and coexistence state of attractors.     

Diversification of shotgun process

Three protocols for shotgun process are put forth in which simultaneous multi-fold reactions occur exclusively to each other. The first one involves simple combination of selective and non-selective reactions. Even if the simple protocol fails to give rise to the high selectivity, satisfactory outcome can be achieved by kinetic control or adjustment of functional groups.     

Effect of nitriding on grain oriented silicon steel bearing aluminum (the second study)

All kinds of high-permeability GO are manufactured using AlN as the main inhibitor. From a purely metallurgical viewpoint, three types of inhibitor preparation for high-permeability GO have been shown. They include a complete solution without nitriding, a complete precipitation with nitriding and a partial precipitation with nitriding. In this study, another possibility, i.e., a complete solution method with nitriding, was investigated to avoid the extra high-temperature slab reheating and to examine the effect of nitriding on GO bearing Al. This method can also provide the sharp Goss texture, and nitriding is shown to be very useful for changing the inhibitor intensity, depending on the primary grain size.     

Effects of natural polysaccharide addition on drug release from calcium-induced alginate gel beads

Calcium-induced alginate gel beads (Alg-Ca) containing various polysaccharides, including an alginate hydrolysate, were prepared and the drug release profiles were investigated. Hydrocortisone (HC) was gradually released from Alg-Ca into the mimic gastric fluid, while in intestinal fluid, it was quickly released with the dissolution of Alg-Ca. However, with Alg-Ca containing 5% chitin (CT), dissolution of Alg-Ca was not observed, and release of HC showed apparent zero-order kinetics. Furthermore, addition of the alginate hydrolysate altered the HC-release profile for Alg-Ca.     

Improvement of basic performances of a nickel-metal hydride battery

To develop a sealed-type nickel-metal hydride battery for use in portable equipment or in electric vehicles, investigations were conducted on negative electrodes using AB₅-type hydrogen storage alloy and positive electrodes. For the cycle life performance of the battery, alkaline treatment of the alloy and the substitution of more than 50% to the alloy with Co were effective. For the positive electrode, zinc as a solid solution in the nickel positive electrode obviously prevented γ-NiOOH from being formed in the charging process of β-Ni(OH)₂ and suppressed the migration of the electrolyte solution in the separator to the active material of the positive electrode. Also, hydrophobic treatment of the surface of the alloy was effective to prevent the elevation of the battery internal pressure of the battery in high rate charge.     

One-step synthesis of 4-aminodihydrobenzofurans and 4-hydroxyindoles via dehydrogenation-heteromercuration of 2-alyl-3-aminocyclohexenones using mercury(II) acetate

On treatment of the 2-allyl-3-aminocyclohexenones with mercury(II) acetate, either sequence, dehydrogenation—oxymercuration or dehydrogenation—aminomercuration, occurred depending on the nature of the amino group in the substrate to yield the dihydrobenzofurans or indoles, respectively.     

A novel technique for detecting single nucleotide polymorphisms by analyzing consumed allele-specific primers

We present a simple and rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based technique, termed consumed allele-specific primer analysis (CASPA), as a new strategy for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis. The method involves the use of labeled allele-specific primers, differing in length, with several noncomplementary nucleotides added in the 5'-terminal region. After PCR amplification, the amounts of the remaining primers not incorporated into the PCR products are determined. Thus, nucleotide substitutions are identified by measuring the consumption of primers. In this study, the CASPA method was successfully applied to ABO genotyping. In the present method, the allele-specific primer only anneals with the target polymorphic site on the DNA, so it is not necessary to analyze the PCR products. Therefore, this method is only little affected by modification of the PCR products. The CASPA method is expected to be a useful tool for typing of SNPs.     

A new biodegradable polydepsipeptide microsphere for application in drug delivery systems

A sequential polydepsipeptide containing a tripeptide sequence L-alanyl-Lalanyl-ethyl L-glutamyl and an-hydroxy acid L-lactic acid, poly(Ala-Ala-Glu(OEt)-Lac), was synthesized to prepare the microspherical particles by the solvent evaporation process. In this case, the solvents play the most important role for the preparation of polydepsipeptide microspheres and, as an example, when 200 mg of the polydepsipeptide dissolved in 10 ml of 98/2% chloroform/dichloroacetic acid mixture was stirred at 400 rpm and 30 C, the microspherical particles with mean diameter of 58m were formed after pouring into 200 ml of 1% (w/v) poly(vinyl alcohol) solution. 17-Estradiol was incorporated into the particles, and the resulting particles were found to contain 5 mg of drug per 25 mg of the particle. The in vivo release of drug from the microspherical formulation was evaluated by measuring the pharmacological influence on rat prostate. It was found that the sufficient amount of drug, keeping the effective pharmacological influence, is supplied during the first 12-week period, followed by an incomplete supplying of drug intil the implant is perfectly degraded in vivo in the 25th week from the start of implantation.