Fe K‐Edge X‐ray Absorption Fine Structure Determination of γ‐Al2O3‐Supported Iron‐Oxide Species

The structure of FeO_x species supported on γ‐Al₂O₃ was investigated by using Fe K‐edge X‐ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The samples were prepared through the impregnation of iron nitrate on Al₂O₃ and co‐gelation of aluminum and iron sulfates. The dependence of the XRD patterns on Fe loading revealed the formation of α‐Fe₂O₃ particles at an Fe loading of above 10 wt %, whereas the formation of iron‐oxide crystals was not observed at Fe loadings of less than 9.0 wt %. The Fe K‐edge XAFS was characterized by a clear pre‐edge peak, which indicated that the Fe?O coordination structure deviates from central symmetry and that the degree of Fe?O?Fe bond formation is significantly lower than that in bulk samples at low Fe loading (<9.0 wt %). Fe K‐edge extended XAFS oscillations of the samples with low Fe loadings were explained by assuming an isolated iron‐oxide monomer on the γ‐Al₂O₃ surface.     

Quasi-particle structure around a single vortex in high-Tc superconductors

For analyzing the checker-board like modulation of the local density of states (LDOS) around a vortex observed in the slightly overdoped Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_x, we examined the effect of pseudogap state of high-T_c superconductors to the LDOS around the vortex. We first derived the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation for d-wave superconductivity (d-SC) in the presence of d-spin density wave (d-SDW). Using the Fourier–Bessel expansion, we solved this equation for a single vortex state, numerically. We found that the peak of the bound states around E = 0 becomes small and modulation of the LDOS is observed for larger d-SDW order parameter.     

A survey of metabolic changes in potato leaves by NMR‐based metabolic profiling in relation to resistance to late blight disease under field conditions

Non‐targeted nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)‐based metabolic profiling was applied to potato leaves to survey metabolic changes associated with late blight resistance under field conditions. Potato plants were grown in an experimental field, and the compound leaves with no visible symptoms were collected from 20 cultivars/lines at two sampling time points: (i) the time of initial presentation of symptoms in susceptible cultivars and (ii) 12 days before this initiation. ¹H NMR spectra of the foliar metabolites soluble in deuterium oxide‐ or methanol‐d₄‐based buffers were measured and used for multivariate analysis. Principal component analysis for six cultivars at symptom initiation showed a class separation corresponding to their levels of late blight resistance. This separation was primarily explained by higher levels of malic acid, methanol, and rutin and a lower level of sucrose in the resistant cultivars than in the susceptible ones. Partial least squares regression revealed that the levels of these metabolites were strongly associated with the disease severity measured in this study under field conditions. These associations were observed only for the leaves harvested at the symptom initiation stage, but not for those collected 12 days beforehand. Subsequently, a simple, alternative enzymatic assay for l ‐malic acid was used to estimate late blight resistance, as a model for applying the potential metabolic marker obtained. This study demonstrated the potential of metabolomics for field‐grown plants in combination with targeted methods for quantifying marker levels, moving towards marker‐assisted screening of new cultivars with durable late blight resistance. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Large four-wave mixing of spatially extended excitonic states in thin GaAs layers

We study the size dependence of the nonlinear response of weakly confined excitons for the size region beyond the long wavelength approximation regime. The observed degenerate-four-wave mixing signal of GaAs thin layers exhibits an anomalous size dependence, where the signal is resonantly enhanced at a particular thickness region. The theoretical analysis elucidates that this enhancement is due to the size-resonant enhancement of the internal field with a spatial structure relevant to the nondipole-type excitonic state. These results establish the formerly proposed new type of size dependence of nonlinear response due to the nonlocality induced double resonance.     

Stroboscopic phase portrait and strange attractors

External periodic modulation of a nonlinear oscillator may lead to a chaotic output behaviour. This phenomenon is attributed to the existence of a strange attractor, which embodies essentially a folding motion as is met in Bernoulli shift or the Baker's transformation.     

Luminescence channels of manganese-doped spinel

Two independent luminescence channels are observed from manganese-doped spinel Mn:MgAl₂O₄. The luminescence around 520 nm is assigned to transition from the lowest electronic excited state ⁴T₁ to the ground state ⁶A₁ of Mn²⁺ (3d)⁵ ion by analyzing the excitation spectrum and electron spin resonance measurement. The emission at 650 nm is triggered by the band edge excitation and is assigned similarly to the charge-transfer process associated with the manganese ion.     

PNA for one-base differentiating protection of DNA from nuclease and its use for SNPs detection

By the combination of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) with single-stranded DNA specific nucleases, alteration of a single base to another in DNA has been detected with high accuracy. Only the DNAs in DNA/PNA duplexes involving a mismatch are efficiently hydrolyzed by these enzymes, whereas fully matching sequences are kept intact. This difference is visually scored by adding 3,3'-diethylthiadicarbocyanine, which changes its color from blue to purple upon binding to DNA/PNA duplexes. These findings are applied to the convenient and straightforward detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). When the target site in the sample DNA is completely complementary with the PNA, a notable amount of DNA/PNA duplex remains and thus the solution exhibits purple color. In the presence of even one mismatch between PNA and DNA, however, the DNA is completely digested by the enzyme and therefore the dye shows its intrinsic blue color. The SNPs in the apolipoprotein E gene of human DNA have been successfully genotyped by this method.     

Rayleigh instabilities in multiply charged sodium clusters

The stability of multiply charged sodium clusters Na(q+)(n) (q< or =10) produced in collisions between neutral clusters and multiply charged ions A(z+) ( z = 1 to 28) is experimentally investigated. Multiply charged clusters are formed within a large range of temperatures and fissilities. They are identified by means of a high-resolution reflectron-type time-of-flight mass spectrometer (m/deltam approximately 14 000). The maximum fissility of stable clusters is obtained for z = 28 and is X approximately 0.85+/-0.07, slightly below the Rayleigh limit (X = 1). It is mainly limited by the initial cluster temperature (T approximately 100 K).     

Measurement of interfluorine distances in solids

(19)F homonuclear dipolar recoupling methods were used to measure internuclear distances ranging from 5 to 12 A in fluorinated organic compounds in the solid state. Magic-angle-spinning-based high-resolution techniques were utilized. Trifluoromethyl and aromatic fluorine groups were separated by rigid aromatic spacers; these compounds were diluted into nonfluorinated host molecule matrices to give isolated homonuclear spin pairs with known internuclear distances. Radiofrequency-driven recoupling (RFDR) was used to elicit magnetization exchange between the spin pairs in 1D and 2D experiments. Simulation of the exchange was accomplished using a Monte Carlo-type algorithm to search the parameter space. These methods allow the determination of distances with an accuracy of 1 A at shorter distances and 2 A at longer distances, with the assumption of no prior knowledge of T(2)(ZQ).