Tubular linear actuators using conducting polymer, polypyrrole

Conducting polymers show an electrochemomechanical deformation (ECMD), which is able to be utilized as soft actuators. A tubular linear actuator of polypyrrole film is fabricated and the characteristics are examined. The film was electrochemically prepared on an acryl resin rod in an aqueous electrolyte solution of pyrrole and dodecylbenzensulfonic acid (DBS), followed by removing the rod. The actuations of tubular polypyrrole film due to ECMD in various conditions have been examined to clarify the mechanism. It has been found that the tubular actuator elongates upon reduction with the strain of 7%, which is more than twice of that observed in a rectangular film. The facts indicate that cations play the role of dopants instead of large DBS anion and the tubular structure gives the better performance for large strain.     

Steroidal glycosides from the underground parts of Solanum sodomaeum

A new steroidal glycoside has been isolated from the underground parts of Solanum sodomaeum L., along with seven known steroidal glycosides. Their chemical structures were determined on the basis of spectroscopic data and chemical evidence, and the structure of one known pregnane type glycoside was corrected. In addition, their antiproliferative activity against human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cells was investigated, and five compounds exhibited stronger activity than cisplatin.     

Logarithmic and Linear Potentials of Signed Measures and Markov Property of Associated Gaussian Fields

We consider the family of finite signed measures on the complex plane \(\mathbb {C}\) with compact support, of finite logarithmic energy and with zero total mass. We show directly that the logarithmic potential of such a measure sits in the Beppo Levi space, namely, the extended Dirichlet space of the Sobolev space of order 1 over \(\mathbb {C}\), and that the half of its Dirichlet integral equals the logarithmic energy of the measure. We then derive the (local) Markov property of the Gaussian field \(\textbf {G}(\mathbb {C})\) indexed by this family of measures. Exactly analogous considerations will be made for the Beppo Levi space over the upper half plane \(\mathbb {H}\) and the Cameron-Martin space over the real line \(\mathbb {R}\). Some Gaussian fields appearing in recent literatures related to mathematical physics will be interpreted in terms of the present field \(\textbf {G}(\mathbb {C})\).     

Probing the Ba 5d states in BaTiO3 and BaSO4: A resonant x-ray emission study at the Ba-L3 edge

We have directly probed the Ba 5d states in the ferroelectric barium titanate BaTiO₃ using two bulk-sensitive spectroscopic probes, resonant x-ray emission spectroscopy (RXES) and x-ray absorption spectroscopy in the partial fluorescence mode (PFY-XAS) at the Ba-L₃ edge. The results are compared with those of the non-ferroelectric barium sulfate BaSO₄. While the RXES spectra point to a localized character for the Ba 5d states in both compounds, the main peak of the PFY-XAS spectrum, corresponding to the dipolar transitions from 2p to 5d, is found to be significantly broader for BaTiO₃ than for BaSO₄. On the basis of band structure calculations, this broadening is ascribed to strong hybridization between the unoccupied Ba 5d and O 2p states in the ferroelectric. This suggests that the hybridization between the conduction states of the Ba²⁺ and O^2? ions, and not only Ti⁴⁺ and O^2?, plays a central role in determining the electronic structure of BaTiO₃, and is therefore likely to be indirectly correlated with the occurrence of ferroelectricity in this material.     

Ring-expansion reaction of oximes with aluminum reductants

The ring-expansion reactions of heterocyclic ketoximes and carbocyclic ketoximes with several reductants such as AlHCl2, AlH3 (alane), LiAlH4, LiAlH(OtBu)3, and (MeOCH2CH2O)2AlH2Na (Red-Al) were examined. Among reductants, AlHCl2 (LiAlH4:AlCl3 = 1:3) in cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME) has been found to be a suitable reagent for the reaction, and the rearranged cyclic secondary amines were obtained in good to excellent yields.     

Derivations and automorphisms on non-commutative power series

We define a class of derivations on the algebra of the non-commutative power series in two variables and study the structure of the Lie algebra generated by them. After detecting the corresponding automorphisms under the exponential map explicitly, we clarify the structure of the automorphism group by means of the Hausdorff group associated to the Lie algebra.     

Vanadium isotopic composition of the sea squirt (Ciona savignyi)

Vanadium (V) in the sea squirt (Ciona savignyi) from Onagawa Bay, Miyagi, Japan, was isolated and purified through adsorption on a diamine resin and anion and cation exchanges after the dissolution of sea squirt samples with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The (50)V/(51)V isotope ratio of V thus obtained was mass-spectrometrically determined to be from 2.51×10(-3) to 2.55×10(-3) with the average of 2.53×10(-3) by the thermal ionisation technique. This value agreed with those of vanadyl chloride and vanadyl nitrate both prepared from vanadyl sulphate (Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd., Japan) and of V in coastal seawater (Shimokita Peninsula, Aomori, Japan) within experimental uncertainties (standard deviation of±0.04), which suggested that no appreciable V isotope fractionation occurs accompanying V uptake by the sea squirt from sea water.     

Special values of multiple Hecke L-functions

The purpose of this study is to clarify the structure of the space generated by the special values of multiple Hecke L-functions for the full modular group SL ₂(Z). In this paper we describe the explicit relations among the values by using Manin??s results, and show the numerical example in case of the Ramanujan ??-function.     

Determination of backbone chain direction of PDA using FFM

The effect of backbone chains on friction force was investigated on both Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of 10,12-heptacosadiynoic acid and the (0 1 0) surfaces of single crystals of 2,4-hexadiene-1,6-diol using friction force microscopy (FFM). It was observed that friction force decreased when the scanning direction was parallel to the [0 0 1] direction in both samples. Moreover, friction force decreased when the scanning direction was parallel to the crystallographic [1 0 2], [1 0 1], [1 0 0] and directions in only the single crystals. For the LB films, the [0 0 1] direction corresponds to the backbone chain direction of 10,12-heptacosadiynoic acid. For the single crystals, both the [0 0 1] and [1 0 1] directions correspond to the backbone chain direction, and the [1 0 2], [1 0 0] and directions correspond to the low-index crystallographic direction. In both the LB films and single crystals, the friction force was minimized when the directions of scanning and the backbone chain were parallel.     

Two‐beam multiplexed CARS based on a broadband oscillator

A two‐beam multiplexed coherent anti‐Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy setup is demonstrated by using a broadband (BB) Ti:sapphire oscillator without using any specialty fibres. A well‐defined spectral structure of the source leads to a delay‐sensitive CARS measurement in two‐colour CARS and also provides an efficient means of obtaining three‐colour CARS signals combined with the dispersion compensation of the BB pulse. Our result implies that the background suppression is limited by the onset of the spurious signals caused by the different CARS process, qualitatively differing from what is typically observed in the CARS microscopy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.