Solid‐phase microextraction Arrow for the volatile organic compounds in soy sauce

A novel solid‐phase microextraction Arrow was used to separate volatile organic compounds from soy sauce, and the results were verified by using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Solid‐phase microextraction Arrow was optimized in terms of three extraction conditions: type of fiber used (polydimethylsiloxane, polyacrylate, carbon wide range/polydimethylsiloxane, and divinylbenzene/polydimethylsiloxane), extraction temperature (40, 50, and 60°C), and extraction time (10, 30, and 60 min). The optimal solid‐phase microextraction Arrow conditions were as follows: type of fiber = polyacrylate, extraction time = 60 min, and extraction temperature = 50°C. Under the optimized conditions, the solid‐phase microextraction Arrow was compared with conventional solid‐phase microextraction to determine extraction yields. The solid‐phase microextraction Arrow yielded 6–42‐fold higher levels than in solid‐phase microextraction for all 21 volatile organic compounds detected in soy sauce due to the larger sorption phase volume. The findings of this study can provide practical guidelines for solid‐phase microextraction Arrow applications in food matrixes by providing analytical methods for volatile organic compounds.     

Modulation of Foreign Body Reaction against PDMS Implant by Grafting Topographically Different Poly(acrylic acid) Micropatterns

The surface of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is grafted with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) layers via surface‐initiated photopolymerization to suppress the capsular contracture resulting from a foreign body reaction. Owing to the nature of photo‐induced polymerization, various PAA micropatterns can be fabricated using photolithography. Hole and stripe micropatterns ≈100‐µm wide and 3‐µm thick are grafted onto the PDMS surface without delamination. The incorporation of PAA micropatterns provides not only chemical cues by hydrophilic PAA microdomains but also topographical cues by hole or stripe micropatterns. In vitro studies reveal that a PAA‐grafted PDMS surface has a lower proliferation of both macrophages (Raw 264.7) and fibroblasts (NIH 3T3) regardless of the pattern presence. However, PDMS with PAA micropatterns, especially stripe micropatterns, minimizes the aggregation of fibroblasts and their subsequent differentiation into myofibroblasts. An in vivo study also shows that PDMS samples with stripe micropatterns polarized macrophages into anti‐inflammatory M2 macrophages and most effectively inhibits capsular contracture, which is demonstrated by investigation of inflammation score, transforming‐growth‐factor‐β expression, number of macrophages, and myofibroblasts as well as the collagen density and capsule thickness.     

Vibration analysis of a circular arch with variable cross-section using differential transformation and generalized differential quadrature

Vibration analysis of circular arches is an important subject in mechanics due to its various applications. In particular, circular arches with variable cross-section have been widely used to satisfy modern architectural and structural requirements. Recently, the generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) and differential transformation method (DTM) were proposed by Shu and Zhou, respectively. In this study, GDQM and DTM are applied to vibration analysis of circular arches with variable cross-section. The governing equation of motion is derived and the non-dimensional natural frequencies are obtained for various boundary conditions. The concepts of differential transformation and generalized differential quadrature are briefly introduced. The results obtained by these methods are compared with previously published works. GDQM and DTM showed fast convergence, accuracy and validity in solving the vibration problem for circular arches with variable cross-sections.     

Probe of I(Pj) atoms using two-photon resonant four-wave mixing spectroscopy following the 266-nm photodissociations of various alkyl and perfluoroalkyl iodides

Two-photon resonant four-wave mixing spectroscopy has been utilized successfully for probing I and I^∗ nascent from the 266 nm photodissociations of various alkyl and perfluoroalkyl iodides. The relative quantum yields for I^∗, as well as the recoil anisotropy parameters, were extracted. Recoil anisotropy parameters close to the limit value for parallel transition indicates that the ground-state I(²P_3/2) originates from the curve crossing from the initially prepared ³Q₀ to ¹Q₁ state. The curve-crossing probabilities for alkyl and perfluoroalkyl iodides were obtained and tried to explain using the well-known Landau-Zener model. In the cases of perfluoroalkyl iodides, it is necessary to consider the fluorination effect to describe the detailed dynamics observed in this study and has been revealed that the electronic effect due to fluorine atom substitution is dominant, leading to decrease in the curve-crossing probability.     

Depth-controlled reconstruction of 3D integral image using synthesized intermediate sub-images

In this paper, we propose a method that controls the depth of the three-dimensional (3D) object existing over the depth-of-focus in integral imaging. The depth control method is performed only in a computer by synthesizing the intermediate sub-images between original sub-images obtained by transforming the captured elemental images. In the reconstruction process, we can obtain reconstructed 3D images with the better image quality within depth-of-focus than that reconstructed over the depth-of-focus. To demonstrate the feasibility of our method, optical and computational experiments are carried out and its results are presented.     

Realization of a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture from a two-component Fermi gas

We show the emergence of a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture from a two-component Fermi mixture with population imbalance. By analyzing in situ density profiles of 6Li atoms in the BCS-BEC crossover regime, we identify a critical interaction strength, beyond which all minority atoms pair up with majority atoms and form a Bose condensate. This is the regime where the system can be effectively described as a boson-fermion mixture. We determine the dimer-fermion and dimer-dimer scattering lengths and beyond-mean-field contributions. Our study realizes a gedanken experiment of bosons immersed in a Fermi sea of one of their constituents, revealing the composite nature of the bosons.     

Scaling behavior of the first arrival time of a random-walking magnetic domain

We report a universal scaling behavior of the first arrival time of a traveling magnetic domain wall into a finite space-time observation window of a magneto-optical microscope enabling direct visualization of a Barkhausen avalanche in real time. The first arrival time of the traveling magnetic domain wall exhibits a nontrivial fluctuation and its statistical distribution is described by universal power-law scaling with scaling exponents of 1.34+/-0.07 for CoCr and CoCrPt films, despite their quite different domain evolution patterns. Numerical simulation of the first arrival time with an assumption that the magnetic domain wall traveled as a random walker well matches our experimentally observed scaling behavior, providing an experimental support for the random-walking model of traveling magnetic domain walls.     

Topological defects in spherical nematics

We study the organization of topological defects in a system of nematogens confined to the two-dimensional sphere (S2). We first perform Monte Carlo simulations of a fluid system of hard rods (spherocylinders) living in the tangent plane of S2. The sphere is adiabatically compressed until we reach a jammed nematic state with maximum packing density. The nematic state exhibits four +1/2 disclinations arrayed on a great circle. This arises from the high elastic anisotropy of the system in which splay (K1) is far softer than bending (K3). We also introduce and study a lattice nematic model on S2 with tunable elastic constants and map out the preferred defect locations as a function of elastic anisotropy. We find a one-parameter family of degenerate ground states in the extreme splay-dominated limit K_{3}/K_{1}-->infinity. Thus the global defect geometry is controllable by tuning the relative splay to bend modulus.     

Optical measurement of neural activity using surface plasmon resonance

We demonstrate that surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is applicable to the optical detection of neural signals. A low-noise SPR sensor was developed as a label- and artifact-free method for the extracellular recording of neural activity. The optical responses obtained from a rat sciatic nerve were highly correlated with simultaneously recorded electrical responses. Additional studies with stimulation intensity and lidocaine further confirmed that the optically measured signals originated from neural activities.     

Effect of rapid thermal treatment on photoluminescence of surface passivated porous silicon

The photoluminescence of porous silicon with and without carbon deposition fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique has been investigated. After the deposition, the rapid thermal processes in the temperature ranging from 500 to 1100 °C have been carried out. It was found that after the carbon deposition a new intense blue emission appeared. The rapid thermal processes at 800and 900 °C could enhance the blue emission, while the other rapid thermal processes quenched it. Finally, the mechanism for the effect of carbon deposition and rapid thermal processes on photoluminescence properties of porous silicon was discussed.