Investigation of piezoelectrically generated synthetic jet flow

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the compressible turbulent synthetic jet flow characteristics of a dual diaphragm piezoelectric actuator. Experimentally, a flow visualization system was established to obtain the particle streak images scattered from 10-μm red fluorescent spheres for observing the synthetic jet flowfield produced by a dual diaphragm piezo actuator. The centerline velocity of the synthetic jet was also measured by using a hot-wire anemometry system. In the analysis, the computational approach adopted the transient three-dimensional conservation equations of mass and momentum with the moving boundary specified to represent the piezo diaphragm motion. The standard k-∈ two-equation turbulent model was employed for turbulence closure. For the actuator operating at the frequency of 648 Hz, the particle streakline images in the cross-sectional plane visualized a turbulent jet flow pattern in the far-field area. The hot-wire anemometry data indicated that the measured centerline velocity of synthetic jets reached 3.8 m/s at y/d= 50. The predictions were compared with the visualized particle streak images and centerline velocity of the synthetic jet in order to validate the computer code. The numerical simulation revealed the time-periodic formation and advection of discrete vortex pairs. Caused by the outward movement of the piezo diaphragms, air near the orifice was entrained into the actuator cavity when the vortex pairs were sufficiently distant from the orifice.     

Soft-landing deposition of radioactive probe atoms on surfaces

We present a method to deposit a wide range of radioactive probe atoms on surfaces, without introducing lattice damage or contaminating the surface with other elements or isotopes. In this method, the probe atoms are mass-separated using an isotope separator, decelerated to 5 eV, and directly deposited on the surface. The method allows for performing hyperfine interactions experiments using trace amounts of radioactive probes located at surfaces and interfaces. The characteristics of the deposition method will be described, with particular attention to the deceleration stage of the isotope separator. The method was tested with perturbed angular correlation (PAC) experiments on the system In on Cu(17,1,1). The results are in agreement with molecular dynamics simulations of the deposition process. New developments, in particular the study of the self-diffusion of Ag atoms on Ag(100) by means of PAC with the ¹¹¹Ag probe, are briefly discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Formation of Silica/Poly(p‐dioxanone) Microspheres by Surface‐Initiated Polymerization

A polymeric film of a biodegradable poly(p‐dioxanone) was grown from 490 nm silica particles by monolayer formation via self‐assembly of hydroxy‐terminated triethoxysilane and subsequent surface‐initiated ring‐opening polymerization of p‐dioxanone. The resulting silica/poly(p‐dioxanone) hybrid particles were characterized by means of ¹H NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, field‐emission scanning electron microscopy, and energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy.

     

N = 2 supergravity action in terms of N = 1 superfields

We construct the full N = 2 supergravity action in terms of N = 1 supergravity and matter fields.     

N=2 super Yang-Mills theory in projective superspace

We constructN=2 Yang-Mills theory in projective superspace by exploiting the analogy to Ward's twistor construction of self-dual Yang-Mills fields.Work supported in part by NSF grant No. PHY 85-07627     

5-azacytidine induces cardiac differentiation of P19 embryonic stem cells

The P19 embryonal carcinoma cell line is a useful model cells for studies on cardiac differentiation. However, its low efficacy of differentiation hampers its usefulness. We investigated the effect of 5-azacytidine (5-aza) on P19 cells to differentiate into a high-efficacy cardiomyocytes. Embryoid-body-like structures were formed after 6 days with 1 mM of 5-aza in a P19 cell monolayer culture, beating cell clusters first observed on day 12, and, the production of beating cell clusters increased by 80.1% (29 of 36-wells) after 18 days. In comparison, the spontaneous beating cells was 33.3% (12 of 36-wells) for the untreated control cells. In response to 1 mM of 5-aza, P19 cells expressed bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), BMP-4, Bmpr1a and Smad1 at day 6 or 9, and also cardiac markers such as GATA-4, Nkx2.5, cardiac troponin I, and desmin were up-regulated in a time-dependent manner after induction of BMP signaling molecules. Immunocytochemistry revealed the expression of smooth muscle a-actin, sarcomeric a-actinin, cardiac myosin heavy chain, cardiac troponin T and desmin, respectively. The proportion of sarcomeric a-actinin positive cells accounted for 6.48% on day 15 after 5-aza exposure as measured by flow cytometry. This study has demonstrated that 5-aza induces differentiation of P19 cells into cardiomyocytes in a confluent monolayer culture in the absence of prior embryoid formation and dimethyl sulfoxide exposure, depending in part on alteration of BMP signaling molecules. These results suggest that 5-aza treatment could be used as a new method for cardiac differentiation in P19 cells.     

Synthesen von Heterocyclen, 31. Mitt.: Über kondensierte N-Heterocyclen

Zusammenfassung Es wird über Synthesen des 4,6-Dioxo-5,6-dihydro-4 Hpyrido[3,2,1-de]-carbazols I und 1,3-Dioxo-2,3-dihydro-1 Hpyrido[3,2,1-kl]-phenothiazins berichtet.Schweizer Priorität vom 9. 6. 1959.     

Piperine from the fruits of Piper longum with inhibitory effect on monoamine oxidase and antidepressant-like activity

A bioassay-guided isolation of the ethanol extract from the fruits of Piper longum yielded a known piperidine alkaloid, piperine, as a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor. Piperine showed an inhibitory effect against MAO-A (IC50 value: 20.9 microM) and MAO-B (IC50 value: 7.0 microM). Kinetic analyses by a Lineweaver-Burk plot clearly indicated that piperine competitively inhibited MAO-A and MAO-B with Ki values of 19.0+/-0.9 microM and 3.19+/-0.5 microM, respectively. The inhibition by piperine was found to be reversible by dialysis of the incubation mixture. In addition, the immobility times in the tail suspension test were significantly reduced by piperine, similar to that of the reference antidepressant fluoxetine, without accompanying changes in ambulation when assessed in an open-field. These results suggest that piperine possesses potent antidepressant-like properties that are mediated in part through the inhibition of MAO activity, and therefore represent a promising pharmacotherapeutic candidate as an antidepressant agent.