Development of a “Built-in” Scanning Near Field Microscope Head for an Atomic Force Microscope System and Stress Mapping of an Al2O3/ZrO2 Eutectic Composite

We constructed a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) on a commercially available atomic force microscopy (AFM) apparatus (SPM-9500J2; Shimadzu Corp.) to measure the stress distribution in ceramic composite materials. Features of our SNOM system are: (1) a compact SNOM head substituted for the original AFM head; (2) a wide scanning range (125 × 125 μm²) inherited from the original scanner; (3) use of conventional shear-force regulation; (4) an optical system for the illumination-collection (I-C) mode; (5) excitation by a 488 nm line of an Ar-ion laser, and (6) light detection by photon counting or a polychromator equipped with an electronically cooled charge coupled device (CCD). This SNOM system was used to measure the surface structure and stress distribution of an Al₂O₃/ZrO₂ eutectic composite. We simultaneously measured topographic images and fluorescence spectra of an Al₂O₃/ZrO₂ eutectic composite. We estimated its peak intensity, peak position, and peak width from the fluorescence spectrum during scanning, which respectively correspond to the abundance of Al₂O₃, stress in the grain, and the anisotropy of that stress. Mapping images showed that the stress and its anisotropy were weaker in the center of the Al₂O₃ grain than its boundary between Al₂O₃ and ZrO₂. That observation suggests that Al₂O₃ underwent intense anisotropic stress induced by volume expansion in the phase transition of ZrO₂ from the cubic phase to the monoclinic phase during preparation.     

Introduction of several trifluoromethyl groups onto the activated aromatic materials with CF3TMS-CuI-KF system

Trifluoromethylation onto the tetrafluorophthalonitrile and tetrafluoroisophthalonitrile has been carried out using CF₃TMS-CuI-KF system, and it was demonstrated that these trifluoromethylation enabled us to successfully construct di- and/or tri-trifluoromethylated benzonitriles via the decyanotrifluoromethylation.     

Numerical reconstruction of an infrared wavefront utilizing an optical phase modulation device

We utilize nitroanisole, that absorbs infrared (IR) radiation as heat, as an optical modulation device based on a thermal process. The nitroanisole exhibits a thermal lens effect, i.e. a temperature dependent refractive index. Hence, the nitroanisole can induce phase modulation to visible light, in direct response to intensity of the incident IR radiation. The proposed method can be used to obtain the phase modulation distribution that corresponds to the IR intensity distribution, i.e. the IR hologram itself, on the nitroanisole by examining the phase map of visible light that is modulated upon passing through the nitroanisole. The IR wavefront can be reconstructed by calculating extracted IR holograms through the Fresnel transform. It is verified that both the amplitude and the phase of the IR wavefront can be reconstructed accurately by proposed method.     

Probing for electrical inclusions with complex spherical waves

Let a physical body Ω in ?² or ?³ be given. Assume that the electric conductivity distribution inside Ω consists of conductive inclusions in a known smooth background. Further, assume that a subset Γ ? ?Ω is available for boundary measurements. It is proved using hyperbolic geometry that certain information about the location of the inclusions can be exactly recovered from static electric measurements on Γ. More precisely: given a ball B with center outside the convex hull of Ω and satisfying (B? ∩ ?Ω) ? Γ, boundary measurements on Γ with explicitly given Dirichlet data are enough to determine whether B intersects the inclusion. An approximate detection algorithm is introduced based on the theory. Numerical experiments in dimension two with simulated noisy data suggest that the algorithm finds the inclusion‐free domain near Γ and is robust against measurement noise. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Tail probabilities of the limiting null distributions of the Anderson–Stephens statistics

For the purpose of testing the spherical uniformity based on i.i.d. directional data (unit vectors) z_i, i=1,…,n, Anderson and Stephens (Biometrika 59 (1972) 613–621) proposed testing procedures based on the statistics S_max=max_u S(u) and S_min=min_u S(u), where u is a unit vector and nS(u) is the sum of squares of u′z_i's. In this paper, we also consider another test statistic S_range=S_max−S_min. We provide formulas for the P-values of S_max, S_min, S_range by approximating tail probabilities of the limiting null distributions by means of the tube method, an integral-geometric approach for evaluating tail probability of the maximum of a Gaussian random field. Monte Carlo simulations for examining the accuracy of the approximation and for the power comparison of the statistics are given.     

Synthesis of Bioactive and Porous Organic-Inorganic Hybrids for Biomedical Applications

Bioactivity has been exhibited by a limited range of ceramics since the invention of Bioglass®. Recently, some bioactive polymeric organic-inorganic hybrids were introduced, including not only organically modified silicates (Ormosils) synthesized from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and tetraethoxysilane but also those with gelatin and 3-glycidoxypropyl-tremethoxysilane. Preparation of the bulk and porous hybrids and their polymeric structures analyzed by Si NMR spectroscopy were presented. In vitro bioactivity or apatite deposition in a simulated body fluid of the Kokubo recipe were also described for those hybrids. Freeze-drying techniques introduced porosity (up to 90%) and pores extending in a preferred direction.     

Antiparasitic agents produced by microorganisms

Microorganisms produce many useful antiparasitic agents. Antiparasitic activities and biochemical targets of antiprotozoal and anthelmintic antibiotics are reviewed. Antimalarial apicidin, thiolactomycin, fosmidomycin, and borrelidin, antitrypanosomal ascofuranone, and nematocidal emodepside, 2-deoxoparaherquamide A, and nafuredin are recently discovered antibiotics, and they have potential as useful drugs.     

Potential-dependent structure of the interfacial water on the gold electrode

Doubly tunable sum frequency generation (SFG) spectra demonstrate that the water molecules at gold/electrolyte interface change their orientation with applied potential. At negative potentials, water molecules in the double layer align with their oxygen atom pointing to the solution. As potential became positive to be close to the potential of zero charge (PZC), the SFG signal decreased, suggesting the OH groups of the water molecule are either in random orientation or parallel to the electrode. As potential became more positive than the PZC, the SFG signal increased again with the oxygen-up orientation as same as in the negative potential region, indicating that water molecules interact with the adsorbed sulfate anions. The peak position of the SFG spectra indicates a relatively disordered state of water molecules at the gold electrode surface, in contrast to the previously observed ice-like structure of water at electrolyte/oxide interfaces.