Photoluminescence properties of trace amounts of Pr and Tb in yttria-stabilized zirconia

We have investigated the photoluminescence (PL) properties of trace amounts of Pr and Tb in single-crystal samples of yttria-stabilized zironia (YSZ), and found that Pr of the order of 10⁻⁶ mass% and Tb of the order of 10⁻⁵ mass% in YSZ can be detected by the PL spectroscopy. The PL spectra of the YSZ samples for the 280 nm excitation were comprised of several peaks and a broad emission. The peaks were attributed to transitions of Pr³⁺ and Tb³⁺ in the YSZ samples, whereas the broad emission seemed to be attributed to the yttria-associated oxygen vacancies. The peak intensities corresponded to the amounts of Pr and Tb in the YSZ samples, the amounts of which were analyzed by glow discharge mass spectrometry. In the PL excitation spectra, but not in the photoabsorption spectra, small peaks at 376 and 381 nm were observed, and were attributed to the transitions of Tb³⁺ in the YSZ samples. The results of the PL excitation spectra corresponding to the Pr³⁺ line emissions suggest that the charge transfer occurs between the YSZ and Pr ion in it. The trace amounts of these lanthanoids in YSZ would disturb the decay process of the photoinduced electrons to the yttria-associated oxygen vacancies.     

15-deoxy-isoxeniolide-A,new diterpenoid from a bornean soft coral,Xenia sp.

A new xenicane diterpenoid, 15-deoxy-isoxeniolide-A (1) along with four known compounds 9-deoxy-isoxeniolide-A (2), isoxeniolide-A (3), xeniolide-A (4) and coraxeniolide-B (5) were isolated from the Bornean soft coral Xenia sp. The structures of these metabolites were elucidated on the basis of spectral analysis, NMR and HRESIMS. Compound 5 showed cytotoxic activity against ATL cell line, S1T.     

12-Epi-9-deacetoxyxenicin,new cytotoxic diterpenoid from a Bornean soft coral,Xenia sp.

One new compound, 12-epi-9-deacetoxyxenicin (1) along with a hydroperoxide product, 12-epi-9-deacetoxy-8-hydroperoxyxenicin (2) and two known sesquiterpenoids (3–4) were isolated from a population of Bornean soft coral Xenia sp. The structures of these secondary metabolites were elucidated based on their spectroscopic data. Compounds 1 and 2 showed cytotoxic activity against ATL cell line, S1T. In addition, compound 3 exhibited hyphal inhibition of Lagenidium thermophilum.     

Exploring the Condensation Reaction between Aromatic Nitriles and Amino Thiols To Optimize In Situ Nanoparticle Formation for the Imaging of Proteases and Glycosidases in Cells

The condensation reaction between 6-hydroxy-2-cyanobenzothiazole (CBT) and cysteine has been shown for various applications such as site-specific protein labelling and in vivo cancer imaging. This report further expands the substrate scope of this reaction by varying the substituents on aromatic nitriles and amino thiols and testing their reactivity and ability to form nanoparticles for cell imaging. The structure–activity relationship study leads to the identification of the minimum structural requirement for the macrocyclization and assembly process in forming nanoparticles. One of the scaffolds made of 2-pyrimidinecarbonitrile and cysteine joined by a benzyl linker was applied to design fluorescent probes for imaging caspase-3/7 and β-galactosidase activity in live cells. These results demonstrate the generality of this system for imaging hydrolytic enzymes.     

Geometry of Coadjoint Orbits and Multiplicity-one Branching Laws for Symmetric Pairs

Consider the restriction of an irreducible unitary representation π of a Lie group G to its subgroup H. Kirillov’s revolutionary idea on the orbit method suggests that the multiplicity of an irreducible H-module ν occurring in the restriction π|_H could be read from the coadjoint action of H on \(\mathcal {O}^{G} \cap \text {pr}^{-1}({\mathcal {O}}^{H})\), provided π and ν are ‘geometric quantizations’ of a G-coadjoint orbit \(\mathcal {O}^{G}\) and an H-coadjoint orbit \(\mathcal {O}^{H}\), respectively, where \(\text {pr} \colon \sqrt {-1}\mathfrak {g}^{\ast } \to \sqrt {-1}\mathfrak {h}^{\ast }\) is the projection dual to the inclusion \(\mathfrak {h} \subset \mathfrak {g}\) of Lie algebras. Such results were previously established by Kirillov, Corwin and Greenleaf for nilpotent Lie groups. In this article, we highlight specific elliptic orbits \(\mathcal {O}^{G}\) of a semisimple Lie group G corresponding to highest weight modules of scalar type. We prove that the Corwin–Greenleaf number \(\sharp (\mathcal {O}^{G} \cap \text {pr}^{-1}({\mathcal {O}}^{H}))/H\) is either zero or one for any H-coadjoint orbit \(\mathcal {O}^{H}\), whenever (G,H) is a symmetric pair of holomorphic type. Furthermore, we determine the coadjoint orbits \(\mathcal {O}^{H}\) with nonzero Corwin–Greenleaf number. Our results coincide with the prediction of the orbit philosophy, and can be seen as ‘classical limits’ of the multiplicity-free branching laws of holomorphic discrete series representations (Kobayashi [Progr. Math. 2007]).     

Effect of temporal resolution on the estimation of left ventricular function by cardiac MR imaging

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of temporal resolution on the estimation of left ventricular (LV) function by cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging using a steady-state free precession (SSFP) sequence. Left ventricular function was assessed by cine MR imaging using a segmented SSFP sequence in 10 healthy volunteers. Views per segment (VPS) were set at 8 and 20, resulting in high and low true temporal resolution, respectively. Irrespective of VPS, images were reconstructed at 40 cardiac phases, providing high apparent temporal resolution. Data were analyzed using 40, 20 and 10 phases to simulate different apparent temporal resolutions. Increasing the cardiac phases used for analysis slightly decreased mean end-systolic volume (ESV) and slightly increased mean ejection fraction (EF). No substantial difference in estimates of end-diastolic volume (EDV) was found between VPSs of 8 and 20. Imaging with a VPS of 20 yielded a larger ESV and smaller EF than imaging with a VPS of 8 when 40 phases were used. In conclusion, low true temporal resolution causes overestimation of ESV and underestimation of EF. Improvement of apparent temporal resolution mildly reduces but does not eliminate the errors caused by low true temporal resolution.     

Dopant type dependency of domain development in rare-earth-doped ceria: An explanation by computer simulation of defect clusters

Defect clusters in several rare-earth-doped ceria (doped with Y, Sm, Gd, Dy and Yb) containing up to four oxygen vacancies and eight dopant cations have been simulated and compared. In all doped ceria systems, the binding energy of the clusters increases with increasing cluster size and the oxygen vacancies tend to form curved chains in the clusters. Moreover, the capability of the growth of defect cluster is affected by dopant type, which can explain the dopant type dependency of domain development with increasing doping concentration in heavily doped ceria.     

Nearest-neighbor configuration in (GaIn)(NAs) probed by x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Ga(1-x)In(x)N(y)As(1-y) is a promising material system for the fabrication of inexpensive "last-mile" optoelectronic components. However, details of its atomic arrangement and the relationship to observed optical properties is not fully known. Particularly, a blueshift of emission wavelength is observed after annealing. In this work, we use x-ray absorption fine structure to study the chemical environment around N atoms in the material before and after annealing. We find that as-grown molecular beam epitaxy material consists of a nearly random distribution of atoms, while postannealed material shows segregation of In toward N. Ab initio simulations show that this short-range ordering creates a more thermodynamically stable alloy and is responsible for blueshifting the emission.     

Development of a small X-ray source using an ultraviolet laser and pyroelectric crystal

We investigate a miniaturized X-ray source using an ultraviolet (UV) laser and a pyroelectric crystal and discuss potential applications in medicine. The UV laser is the fourth harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 266 nm, repetition rate of 10 Hz, and pulse energy of 40 mJ. The pyroelectric crystal is a LiNbO₃ cylinder of diameter 10 mm and length 6 mm. The prototype X-ray source we fabricated is an aluminum parallelepiped of dimensions 3 × 3 × 5 cm. The X-ray count rate of the X-ray source is maximized at approximately 1,400 cps for UV laser irradiation of approximately 5 min. After 30 min of irradiation by the UV laser, the temperature of the pyroelectric crystal rose from 295 K to 312 K. The principles of X-ray generation ensure that X-ray sources using UV lasers and pyroelectric crystals offer ample opportunity for miniaturization. We believe the X-ray source developed in this work is suitable for medical applications, although further study is needed to address points such as increasing the X-ray count rate and adjusting the temperature of the pyroelectric crystal.