Non-Darcian effects on conjugate natural convection between horizontal concentric cylinders filled with a porous medium

An analysis is presented of steady conjugate free convection between two horizontal concentric cylinders filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium; the innermost cylinder surface is maintained at a high temperature and the outermost cylinder surface at a lower one. The velocity-pressure-gradient relation is taken to be nonlinear, with departure from the linear Darcy situation measured by a parameter F₀. The investigation is based on the numerical solution, by a finite-difference method, of the full momentum and energy equations. The streamline and isotherm patterns as well as the local and mean Nusselt numbers are plotted for several physical parameters to show some of the flow and heat transfer characteristics. It is found that all parameters play an important role in the flow and heat transfer characteristics. The model can be applied to a variety of engineering problems.     

Ammonium chiral borate salt catalyzed asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indoles with α,β-disubstituted enals

In the presence of a catalytic amount of ammonium chiral borate salt, asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indoles with α,β-disubstituted enals proceeded to give the corresponding 1,4-addition products with moderate enantioselectivities.     

Morphological studies of a hydrogen-bonded LC polymer obtained by photopolymerization in LC solvents

Anisotropic morphologies and the phase behaviour of a hydrogen-bonded LC polymer obtained by photopolymerization in two kinds of LC solvent are discussed. The hydrogen-bonded LC monomer, 4-(6-acryloyloxyhexyloxy) benzoic acid (A6OBA), was photopolymerized in 4-cyano-4′-hexyloxybiphenyl (6OCB) and in 4-cyano-4′-undecyloxybiphenyl (11OCB), which show a nematic phase and a smectic A phase, respectively. After photo-polymerization, the LC media were removed by extraction and the pure polymer was observed by scanning electron microscopy. SEM images showed that the polymer possessed fibrous morphology with a fibre diameter of a few micrometers, based on polymerization-induced phase separation. The overall geometries reflected typical LC characteristics such as schlieren and focal-conic fan textures. It was found that the hydrogen bond between benzoic acid groups in the monomer was rigid enough to fix the anisotropic phase-separated structure forming during the early stage of phase separation; however, it could not permanently maintain the fibre structure due to dissociation at elevated temperature. X-ray measurements revealed that a well developed layer structure of the hydrogen-bonded mesogen existed in the polymer obtained from the smectic phase of 11OCB, whereas a polymer layer structure could develop only partially from the nematic phase of 6OCB.     

Characterization of Si-added aluminum oxide (AlSiO) films for power devices

Synthesis of Si-added aluminum oxide (AlSiO) films is attempted as an insulating film with both a wide bandgap and a high dielectric constant. Electrical characteristics of AlSiO films are investigated. Leakage current of the AlO film is suppressed by Si addition and is minimized with Si composition ratio of 12%. Capacitance versus voltage (C-V) measurements are carried out for Au/AlSiO/Si MIS structure. Both flat band shift and hysteresis of the C-V characteristics are suppressed by Si addition. A low leakage current is demonstrated for Au/AlSiO/n-SiC MIS structure.     

On the sampling conditions for reconstruction of an acoustic field from a finite sound source

A simple and accurate method for the estimation of ultrasonic transducer fields is developed. In the method, the angular spectrum is employed to evaluate the three-dimensional propagation from a measured plane to an arbitrary parallel plane. The implementation uses a discrete convolution that is described in detail. Relative to conventional spatial-frequency representations, the implementation of the angular spectrum method in this paper has the advantage of being free from artifacts, enabling sample spacing to be greater than one half wavelength, using memory efficiently, and interpolating the measured data. The loosened sampling requirement and natural interpolation of the method permit efficient reconstruction of the full three-dimensional acoustic field from a coarse sound pressure measurement on single plane.     

Time-resolved fluorometric analysis of carbohydrates labeled with amino-aromatic compounds by reductive amination

We examined the formation of complexes between terbium ion (Tb3+) and carbohydrates labeled with aminobenzene compounds. Of the examined compounds, carbohydrates labeled with 4-aminosalicylic acid showed intense fluorescence with Tb3+ in the presence of cetylpyridinium chloride at pH 6.0. Calibration curves for maltose derivative showed good linearity between 5 pmol and at least 600 pmol, with good reproducibility. We applied the proposed technique to binding studies between manno-oligosaccharides and Concanavalin A.     

Novel family of low molecular weight hydrogelators based on L-lysine derivatives

New L-lysine derivatives with a positively charged terminal can gel water below 1 wt%; particularly, 1a and 2a form a hydrogel at 0.3 wt% corresponding to approximately 12,300 and 12,500 waters/gelator molecule, respectively.     

Magnetic structure,phase diagram,and a new type of spin-flop transition dominated by higher order interaction in a localized 5f system U3Pd20Si6

The magnetic structure of the localized-5f uranium intermetallic compound U3Pd20Si6 has been determined by means of a neutron diffraction experiment. Our data demonstrate that this compound has a collinear coupling of the sublattice ordering of the uranium spins on the 4a and 8c sites. We conclude that higher-order exchange and/or quadrupole interactions are necessary to stabilize this unique collinear structure. We discovered a new type of spin-flop transition against the uniaxial anisotropy induced by this collinear coupling.