Development of Oxidation Sources in Preparation of High-Tc Oxide Superconductor Thin Films Using the Molecular Beam Epitaxy Method

Film preparation of oxide superconductors, mainly of the 1-2-3 (RBa₂Cu₃O_x) and Bi-containing (Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O) systems, by evaporation of either metals or metal compounds by low pressure is summarized, with a particular focus on the development of oxidation sources essential to the technique. Oxidizing reagents that enable the oxidation of metal evaporates to take place in high (0·1 to 10_?3 Pa) or even ultra-high (<10_?5 Pa) vacuum are summarized using the experiments of those who tried to apply the molecular beam epitaxy method to atomically controlled fabrication of thin films of the material, especially for device processing. The evaporation in various kinds of oxidizing atmosphere, including the simple method of in situ annealing of the metal layers in oxygen to the more advanced in situ preparation of the films with strong oxidizing reagents such as atomic oxygen, ozone, nitric oxide, etc. along with the thermochemistry of the oxidation of metals by low pressure with these reagents is reviewed.     

Bottom-up driven involuntary attention modulates auditory signal in noise processing

Background  

Auditory evoked responses can be modulated by both the sequencing and the signal-to-noise ratio of auditory stimuli. Constant sequencing as well as intense masking sounds basically lead to N1m response amplitude reduction. However, the interaction between these two factors has not been investigated so far. Here, we presented subjects tone stimuli of different frequencies, which were either concatenated in blocks of constant frequency or in blocks of randomly changing frequencies. The tones were presented either in silence or together with broad-band noises of varying levels.     

Synthesis and evaluation of 2-Nonylaminopyridine derivatives as PPAR ligands

To find novel PPAR ligands, we prepared several 3-{3 or 4-[2-(nonylpyridin-2-ylamino)ethoxy]phenyl}propanoic acid derivatives which were designed based on the structure of our previous PPARgamma ligand 1. In PPAR binding affinity assays, compound 4, which had an ethoxy group at the C-2 position of the propanoic acid of 1, showed selective binding affinity for PPARgamma. Compound 3, with an ethyl group at the C-2 position, was found to be a PPARalpha/gamma dual ligand. Compound 6, the meta isomer of 1, has been shown to be a PPARalpha ligand. The introduction of methyl (7) and ethyl (8) groups to the C-2 position of the propanoic acid of 6 further improved PPARalpha-binding potency. In cell-based transactivation assay, compounds 3 and 4 showed dual-agonist activity toward PPARalpha and PPARgamma. Compound 6 was found to be a triple agonist and compound 8 proved to be a selective PPARalpha agonist. In the human hypodermic preadipocyte differentiation test, it was demonstrated that the maximal activity of compounds 3 and 4 was higher than that of rosiglitazone.     

Nanoimaging and spectroscopic analysis of rubber/ZnO interfaces by energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy

Energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) was employed for investigating interactions between rubber and ZnO particles in the accelerated vulcanization process. Combining elemental mapping and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) by EFTEM enabled the characterization of the interfaces with spatial resolutions of less than 10 nm and with high elemental detection sensitivity. We found that a sulfur- and zinc-rich compound was generated around ZnO particles, and that product was then revealed to be ZnS-generated as a byproduct in the accelerated vulcanization process. Through this study, it is indicated that the accelerated vulcanization with ZnO does not occur uniformly in the rubber matrix; it occurs locally around ZnO particles at a higher reaction rate, implying that the rubber network structure is not uniform on the nanoscale.     

High-speed optical time-division-multiplexed signal generation

Recent progress in optical time-division-multiplexed (OTDM) signal generation technologies is reviewed. Optical pulse timing control, multiplexing using integrated lightwave circuits, and all-optical regularization are presented, and the possibility of over 100 Gbit/s OTDM signal generation is discussed.     

Functional distribution of with real characters and denseness of quadratic class numbers

We investigate the functional distribution of -functions with real primitive characters on the region as varies over fundamental discriminants. Actually we establish the so-called universality theorem for in the -aspect. From this theorem we can, of course, deduce some results concerning the value distribution and the non-vanishing. As another corollary, it follows that for any fixed with and positive integers , there exist infinitely many such that for every the -th derivative has at least zeros on the interval in the real axis. We also study the value distribution of for fixed with and variable , and obtain the denseness result concerning class numbers of quadratic fields.