Measurement of temporal changes in vocal tract area function from 3D cine-MRI data

A 3D cine-MRI technique was developed based on a synchronized sampling method [Masaki et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Jpn. E 20, 375-379 (1999)] to measure the temporal changes in the vocal tract area function during a short utterance /aiueo/ in Japanese. A time series of head-neck volumes was obtained after 640 repetitions of the utterance produced by a male speaker, from which area functions were extracted frame-by-frame. A region-based analysis showed that the volumes of the front and back cavities tend to change reciprocally and that the areas near the larynx and posterior edge of the hard palate were almost constant throughout the utterance. The lower four formants were calculated from all the area functions and compared with those of natural speech sounds. The mean absolute percent error between calculated and measured formants among all the frames was 4.5%. The comparison of vocal tract shapes for the five vowels with those from the static MRI method suggested a problem of MRI observation of the vocal tract: data from static MRI tend to result in a deviation from natural vocal tract geometry because of the gravity effect.     

Procedure for increasing the detection responses of estrogens in LC–MS based on introduction of a nitrobenzene moiety followed by electron capture atmospheric pressure chemical ionization

A practical procedure for determining estrogens in biological fluids has been studied using liquid chromatography–electron capture atmospheric pressure chemical ionization–mass spectrometry combined with derivatization. Among the commercially available reagents (4-nitrobenzoyl chloride, 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene, 4-nitrobenzenesulfonyl chloride and 4-nitrobenzyl bromide), 4-nitrobenzenesulfonyl chloride was of the most practical use; it rapidly and quantitatively reacted with estrogens and increased the detection responses by 8–23 times. The derivatization method allowed the reproducible and accurate quantification of serum and urine estrone and estradiol of a pregnant woman, which is useful for diagnosis of the fetoplacental function, with small amounts (10 μl) of sample and a simple pretreatment procedure. Tatsuya Higashiis Associate Professor of the Laboratory of Clinical Analytical Sciences (Professor Kazutake Shimada’s research group) at the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology of Kanazawa University. He received the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry Award for Young Scientists in 2003 and the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists in 2006. His current research interests are the development of methods for increasing sensitivity in LC-MS to detect and characterize trace amounts of biologically active steroids, such as estrogens, androgens and neuroactive steroids.     

Electronic spectra of hydrogen-bonded 2-fluoropyridine clusters with water in a supersonic free jet

Fluorescence excitation, multiphoton ionization, and dispersed fluorescence spectra of bare and hydrogen-bonded 2-fluoropyridine with water were measured in a supersonic free jet. For bare 2-fluoropyridine, fluorescence quantum yield decrease in the higher vibronic levels was observed even under collision-free conditions. The inter-system crossing channel was probed experimentally by two color R2PI and found to be negligible. The non-radiative relaxation process of 2-fluoropyridine is mainly governed by the relaxation to the electronic ground state. Electronic spectra of 2-fluoropyridine-(water)(n) (n=1 approximately 3) were also obtained. The hydrogen bond formation with water increases the quantum yield in the higher vibronic levels. Rather low frequency vibrations were observed in the hole burning spectrum of bare 2-fluoropyridine; however, these vibronic bands disappeared with the hydrogen bond formation with water. The appearance of low frequency vibronic bands observed for bare 2-fluoropyridine is ascribed to the existence of closely lying (n,pi) state.     

Oxygen isotope effect in optimally doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ studied by low-energy ARPES

Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) with low-energy tunable photons, we studied the oxygen isotope effect in optimally doped Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+δ (Bi2212). We found the oxygen isotope shift in the real part of the electron self-energies [ReΣ(ω)s] along the nodal direction derived not only from the momentum distribution curves (MDCs) but also from the energy distribution curves (EDCs). Present results indicate straightforwardly the coupling between the nodal electrons and the phonons.     

Interplay among Coulomb interaction, spin-orbit interaction, and multiple electron-boson interactions in Sr2RuO4

Using polarization- and hν-dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we uncovered the fine details of a quasiparticle's dynamics of a typical multiband superconductor, Sr2RuO4. We found strong hybridization between the in-plane and out-of-plane quasiparticles via the Coulomb and spin-orbit interactions. This effect enhances the quasiparticle mass due to the inflow of out-of-plane quasiparticles into the two-dimensional Fermi surface sheet, where the quasiparticles are further subjected to the multiple electron-boson interactions. We suggest that the spin-triplet p-wave superconductivity of Sr2RuO4 is phonon mediated.     

Structural study of NO adsorbed on the reconstructed Pt(110)-(1 x 2) surface with X-ray photoelectron diffraction and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy

The adsorption structure of NO on the reconstructed Pt(110)-(1 x 2) surface was studied with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD), low-energy scanned-angle photoelectron diffraction (LESA-PD), and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. The experiments were performed at 180 K, where no surface lifting from (1 x 2) to (1 x 1) takes place after NO adsorption. XPS indicates that the (1 x 2) unit cell of the Pt(110) surface contains 1.5 NO molecules at the saturated coverage. XPD and LESA-PD analyses allow us to propose a structural model for the NO adlayer, where two-thirds of the NO molecules in the (1 x 2) unit cell are adsorbed on the atop site of the close-packed Pt rows (ridges) along the [10] direction with an inclined geometry and one-third of the NO molecules adsorb on the bridge site between the Pt ridges with an upright configuration. This model is supported by the N K-edge NEXAFS experiments and is consistent with the recently reported model based on the density functional theory (Orita, H.; Nakamura, I.; Fujitani, T. J. Phys. Chem. B 2005, 109, 10312).     

Observation of turbulent-driven shear flow in a cylindrical laboratory plasma device

An azimuthally symmetric radially sheared plasma fluid flow is observed to spontaneously form in a cylindrical magnetized helicon plasma device with no external sources of momentum input. A turbulent momentum conservation analysis shows that this shear flow is sustained by the Reynolds stress generated by collisional drift turbulence in the device. The results provide direct experimental support for the basic theoretical picture of drift-wave-shear-flow interactions.     

On tame pro-p Galois groups over basic {\mathbb{Z}_p}-extensions

For a prime number p and a finite set S of prime numbers congruent to 1 modulo p, we consider the Galois group of the maximal pro-p-extension unramified outside S over the ${\mathbb Z_p}$ -extension of the rational number field. In this paper, we give a family of S for which the Galois group is a metacyclic pro-p group with an application to Greenberg’s conjecture.     

Unusual domain evolution in semiconducting ferroelectrics: A phase field study

The effect of electrical conductivity on the domain evolution of semiconducting ferroelectrics is investigated using a phase field model which includes the drift of space charges. Phase field simulations show that the tail-to-tail 90° charged domain wall appears during the domain formation in the semiconducting ferroelectrics at zero field, which is prohibited in common insulating ferroelectrics. Due to the screening of polarization charges, the domain switching takes place through the motion of head-to-head 180° charged domain wall in the semiconducting single-domain ferroelectrics subjected to an electric field. Comparing to the insulating ferroelectrics, the semiconducting ferroelectrics have a lower speed of domain evolution due to the decrease of mobility of charged domain walls. The response of semiconducting ferroelectrics to a mechanical load is also found different from that of insulating ferroelectrics.