Tolerance to Solar Ultraviolet‐B Radiation in the Citrus Red Mite,An Upper Surface User of Host Plant Leaves

Plant‐dwelling mites are potentially exposed to solar ultraviolet‐B (UVB) radiation that causes deleterious and often lethal effects, leading most mites to inhabit the lower (underside) leaf surfaces. However, in species of spider mite belonging to the Genus Panonychus, a substantial portion of individuals occur on upper leaf surfaces. We investigated whether the upper leaf surfaces of citrus trees are favorable for P. citri, and to what extent they are tolerant to UVB radiation. If eggs are not adequately protected from UVB damage, females may avoid ovipositing on the upper surfaces of sunny leaves. To test this, we conducted laboratory experiments using a UVB lamp, and semioutdoor manipulative experiments. As a result, P. citri eggs are tolerant to UVB. Field studies revealed that the ratio of eggs and adult females on upper leaf surfaces were larger for shaded than for sunny leaves. However, 64–89% of eggs hatched successfully even on sunny upper leaf surfaces. Nutritional evaluation revealed that whether on sunny or shaded leaves, in fecundity and juvenile development P. citri reaped the fitness benefits of upper leaf surfaces. Consequently, P. citri is tolerant to UVB damage, and inhabiting the upper surfaces of shaded leaves is advantageous to this mite.     

Specific Transport of Target Molecules by Motor Proteins in Microfluidic Channels

Direct transport powered by motor proteins can alleviate the challenges presented by miniaturization of microfluidic systems. There have been several recent attempts to build motor‐protein‐driven transport systems based on simple capturing or transport mechanisms. However, to achieve a multifunctional device for practical applications, a more complex sorting/transport system should be realized. Herein, the proof of concept of a sorting device employing selective capture of distinct target molecules and transport of the sorted molecules to different predefined directions is presented. By combining the bottom‐up functionality of biological systems with the top‐down handling capabilities of micro‐electromechanical systems technology, highly selective molecular recognition and motor‐protein‐based transport is integrated in a microfluidic channel network.     

New multivariate noise model and data detection using the expectation maximization algorithm

A signal sequence detector in a high areal density recording channel is required to provide robust compensation against unexpected error events. Primarily, a number of error events are caused by media noise and nonlinear distortion. The same problem of signal sequence detection remains to be solved in a future magnetic recording system that comes in predisposed to trend for recording by large-sector size instead of existing single-sector one that consists of 512 information 8-bits bytes. For the above problem, this paper shows the signal estimation method based on statistical inference for such a finite mixture model with known number of degraded noise components. Our signal detection scheme with multivariate autoregressive models for total noise and the expectation maximization algorithm is applied to maximum a posteriori estimation for multivariate mixtures of noise. Furthermore, a non-binary low-density parity-check (LDPC) code is used for an error-correcting code that satisfies the specific run-length limited condition in the proposed system. It shows that the proposed error-correcting and signal detection methods are effective in estimating signal sequences degraded by media noise and in improving the error rate performances with respect to the conventional system using the binary LDPC code and univariate autoregressive model.     

The coloration of tungsten-oxide film by oxygen deficiency and its mechanism

The transmissivity and the optical absorption of a WO₃ film with oxygen deficiencies introduced were characterized and compared with those of an electrochromically colored WO₃ upon injecting a proton (H⁺). The WO₃ film with oxygen deficiencies introduced was clearly colored blue. It was shown that the wavelength regions of optical absorption of both films almost overlapped each other.     

Stochastic Liouville equation studies of FT-EPR spectra of singlet-triplet mixing photo-chemically generated radical pair system

A stochastic Liouville equation (SLE) was numerically solved to obtain pulsed Fourier-transform (FT) EPR spectra on a radical pair system created in a photo-induced chemical reaction. Numerical calculations were applied to the photo-chemical reaction of deuterated acetone and 2-propanol at low temperatures. In this reaction system, the antiphase structures of the EPR signals, so called spin-correlated radical pair (SCRP) signals of two identical isopropyl ketyl radicals and spin-polarized free isopropyl ketyl radicals were observed by FT-EPR and continuous wave time-resolved (CW TR) EPR techniques. In the present work, FT-EPR spectra of the antiphase structure signals of the radical pair themselves as well as spin-polarized free radical signals were simulated. Additionally, rising behavior of free radical signals polarized by the radical pair mechanism (RPM) was also clarified. Furthermore two-dimensional (2D) FT-EPR nutation spectra were simulated in the both cases with and without the radical pairs by the use of SLE. In these simulations, strong DC components in the nutation frequency dimension, were well reproduced as was obtained in experiments. It was shown that relaxation during the microwave pulse was essential for the appearance of the DC components.