Miscibility of cellulose acetate with vinyl polymers

Binary blend films of cellulose acetate (CA) with flexible syntheticpolymers including poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc), poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP),and poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone-co-vinyl acetate) [P(VP-co-VAc)] were preparedfrommixed polymer solutions by solvent evaporation. Thermal analysis by DSC showedthat CA of any degree of substitution (DS) was not miscible with PVAc, but CAwith DS less than 2.8 was miscible with PVP to form homogeneous blends. Thestate of mixing in CA/P(VP-co-VAc) blends was affected not only by the DS of CAbut also by the VP/VAc copolymer composition. As far as CAs of DS<2.8 andP(VP-co-VAc)s with VP contents more than ca. 25 mol% were used,theCA/copolymer blends mostly showed a miscible behaviour irrespective of themixing ratio. FT-IR measurements for the miscible blends of CA/PVP andCA/P(VP-co-VAc) revealed the presence of hydrogen-bonding interactions betweenresidual hydroxyls of CA and carbonyls of N-vinyl pyrrolidone units, which maybe assumed to largely contribute to the good miscibility.     

Preparation and Properties of Highly Oriented Sr0.3Ba0.7Nb2O6 Thin Films by a Sol-Gel Process

We succeeded in the preparation of epitaxial or highly oriented strontium-barium niobate (Sr_0.3Ba_0.7Nb₂O₆) thin film by a sol-gel process. A homogeneous coating solution was prepared with Sr and Ba acetates and Nb(OEt)₅ as raw materials, and acetic acid and diethylene glycol monomethyl ether as solvents. Sr_0.3Ba_0.7Nb₂O₆ film sintered at 900°C on MgO(1 0 0) was oriented with c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. Sr_0.3Ba_0.7Nb₂O₆ film sintered at 700°C on SrTiO₃(1 0 0) was an epitaxial and oriented with c-axis in parallel to the substrate surface. Transmittance of Sr_0.3Ba_0.7Nb₂O₆ film (film thickness: 144 nm) was more than 60% at the range from 400 to 800 nm. Refractive index was 2.33 at 633 nm. Dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the Sr_0.3Ba_0.7Nb₂O₆ thin films prepared on polycrystal Pt substrates were 600 and 0.06 at room temperature and 1 kHz, respectively. The curie temperature (T_c) of polycrystalline Sr_0.3Ba_0.7Nb₂O₆ thin films was about 200°C. At room temperature and 50 kHz, remanent polarization (P_r) and coercive field (E_c) of the polycrystalline thin films were 1.79 C/cm² and 2.69 kV/cm, respectively.     

Enantiodivergent Chemoenzymatic Dynamic Kinetic Resolution: Conversion of Racemic Propargyl Alcohols into Both Enantiomers

Natural lipases typically recognize enantiomers of alcohols based on the size differences of substituents near the carbinol moiety and selectively react with the R enantiomers of secondary alcohols. Therefore, lipase-catalyzed dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of racemic secondary alcohols produces only R enantiomers. We report herein a method for obtaining S enantiomers by DKR of secondary 3-(trialkylsilyl)propargyl alcohols by using a well-known R-selective Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase in combination with a racemization catalyst VMPS4, in which the silyl group reverses the size relationship of substituents near the carbinol moiety. We have already reported R-selective DKR of the corresponding propargyl alcohols without substituents on the ethynyl terminal carbon, and the presence of an easily removable silyl group has enabled us to produce both enantiomers of propargyl alcohols in high chemical yields and with high enantiomeric excess. In addition, immobilization of the lipase on Celite was found to be important for achieving a high efficiency of the DKR.     

Photocycloaddition of Quinoxaline-2(1H)-thiones to Alkenes

A synthetically useful C? C bond formation involving the photochemical addition of quinoxaline-2(1H)-thiones to alkenes is described. Irradiation of the quinoxaline-2(1H)-thiones 1–4 in the presence of the alkenes 7 gave the 2-(2′-mercaptoalkyl)quinoxalines 8–11 in moderate-to-good yields via ring cleavage of an intermediate aminothietane with aromatization of the quinoxaline ring. The latter was formed by [2+2] photocycloaddition of the C?S bond of the quinoxaline-2(1H)-thione and the C?C bond of the alkene.     

Liquid-crystalline characteristics of cellulose derivatives: Binary and ternary mixtures of ethyl cellulose,hydroxypropyl cellulose,and acrylic acid

Phase behavior in binary and ternary mixtures of ethyl cellulose (EC), hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), and acrylic acid (AA) was investigated by optical techniques including polarized-light microscopy (POM), refractometry, UV absorption, and circular dichroism (CD) spectrophotometries, and laser-light scattering. Both derivatives of cellulose formed a cholesteric liquid-crystal phase in concentrated solutions in AA. EC and HPC homopolymer solutions in AA showed iridescent colors in the concentration range of 42–50 wt% and 65–80 wt%, respectively. In the 30–50 wt% HPC/AA solutions, an optical image with fingerprint-like patterns was observed between crossed polars. CD revealed that the cholesteric helical sense was right-handed in the HPC/AA mesophase, while the EC/AA mesophase formed left-handed structures. Anisotropic samples of HPC/AA and EC/AA also showed a POM image with a grid-like texture, which was much coarser in the former system compared with that in the latter. A phase diagram constructed for the ternary system EC/HPC/AA was divided into five distinct regions: (1) isotropic (I) monophase, (2) I + HPC mesophase (HLC), (3) I + HLC + EC mesophase (ELC), (4) HLC + ELC, and (5) anisotropic monophase, with the optical appearance changeable depending on polymer composition and concentration. In region 5 the anisotropic system was apparently monophasic in POM observations; however, CD and UV results indicated that the biphasic separation into the two cholesteric structures still occurred. Optical anisotropy and phase behavior were also examined for the EC/ HPC binary blends prepared from solutions and melt.     

An Integrated Circuit for Two-Dimensional Edge-Detection with Local Adaptation Based on Retinal Networks

We designed an integrated circuit for edge detection of a two-dimensional image based on the vertebrate outer retina, which has wide dynamic range in image processing. The unit circuit is simple, and operates as a current-mode analog metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) circuit. In order to extract edges from an image composed of bright and dark domains, the circuit realizes a function called local adaptation in which the sensitivity adapts to local brightness of the image. Simulation results, using the simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE), of two-dimensional Gaussian-distributed images in which the intensity ranged over four orders of magnitude, showed the local adaptation. As a result, the intensity of output images was in the range of one order of magnitude. Furthermore, as the simulation result of real images, it was shown that edges in the dark domain, which was five times darker than the bright domain, were successfully detected as the bright domain in which input photocurrents ranged over two orders of magnitude.     

Measurement of evaporation residue cross-sections of the reaction 30Si + 238U at subbarrier energies

The reaction ³⁰Si + ²³⁸U → ²⁶⁸Sg^* was studied at beam energies close to the Coulomb barrier. At a center-of-mass energy of E _c.m. = 144.0MeV for reactions at half thickness of the target we measured three decay chains of ²⁶³Sg produced by evaporation of five neutrons. The cross-section was ( 67⁺⁶⁷ _-37) pb. At E _c.m. = 133.0MeV we measured three spontaneously fissioning nuclei which we assigned to the isotope ²⁶⁴Sg. The production cross-section was ( 10⁺¹⁰ _-6) pb and a half-life of ( 120⁺¹²⁶ _-44) ms was determined. This half-life is a factor of twenty shorter than theoretical predictions. At E _c.m. = 128.0MeV an upper cross-section limit of 15pb was measured. The cross-section data reveal a strong influence of the orientation of the deformed target nucleus on the production yield. Compared to excitation functions measured for the lighter system ¹⁶O + ²³⁸U → ²⁵⁴Fm^*, a reduction of the fusion probability was observed at low beam energies indicating increasing competition from quasifission processes.     

Performance comparison of bilinear interpolation, bicubic interpolation, and B-spline interpolation in parallel phase-shifting digital holography

To improve the quality of reconstructed images, we apply bicubic interpolation and B-spline interpolation to parallel phase-shifting digital holography for the first time. The effectiveness of bilinear interpolation, bicubic interpolation, and B-spline interpolation in parallel phase-shifting digital holography is shown by a numerical simulation. In the simulation result, the application of bicubic interpolation and B-spline interpolation succeeded in decreasing the rootmean- square error of the reconstructed image by 12.6 and 11.9%, respectively.     

A Network of Analog Metal Oxide Semiconductor Circuits for Motion Detection with Local Adaptation to a Background Image

Inspired by a mechanism of biological vision systems, a model and a network of analog metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) circuits are proposed which display an optical flow with local adaptation to the relative velocity of a background image. A function of displaying an optical flow successfully worked as a result of simulations using the simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE). A function of varying an optical flow at a certain instant by local adaptation was also demonstrated. The proposed network is suitable for the realization of a large-scale integrated circuit (LSI), which displays an optical flow with local adaptation to the local velocity of a background.