A Siegel modular threefold and Saito-Kurokawa type lift to <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis><Subscript>3</Subscript>(Γ<Subscript>1,3</Subscript>(2))

Hulek and others conjectured that the unique differential three-form F (up to scalar) on the Siegel threefold associated to the group Γ_1,3(2) comes from the Saito-Kurokawa lift of the elliptic newform h of weight 4 for Γ₀(6). This F have been already constructed as a Borcherds product (cf. Gritsenko and Hulek in Int Math Res Notices 17:915–937, 1999). In this paper, we prove this conjecture by using the Yoshida lift and we settle a conjecture which relates our theorem. A remarkable fact is that the Yoshida lift using the usual test function cannot give the Saito-Kurokawa type lift of weight 3 associated to the group Γ_1,3(2). So important task is to find special test functions for the Yoshida lift at the bad primes 2 and 3. Dedicated to Professor Tomoyoshi Ibukiyama on his 60th birthday.     

Cosmic-ray positron from superparticle dark matter and the PAMELA anomaly

Motivated by the anomalous positron flux recently reported by the PAMELA Collaboration, we study the cosmic-ray positron produced by the pair annihilation and the decay of superparticle dark matter. We calculate the cosmic-ray positron flux and discuss implications of the PAMELA data. We show that the positron excess observed by the PAMELA can be explained with some of the superparticle dark matter.     

Spin wave and vortex excitations of superfluid 3He-A in parallel-plate geometry

Quantized vortices with half-integer circulation, which are forbidden from existing in a conventional superfluid because of the single valueness of the wave function, are theoretically predicted to exist in superfluid 3He-A if the order parameters l over and d over form l over perpendicular d over texture. To form the l over perpendicular d over texture, we confined the superfluid between parallel plates with a 12.5 microm gap and applied a magnetic field of H=26.7 mT perpendicular to the plates to take NMR and orient d over perpendicular to l over. NMR spectra exhibit a negative-shift peak which probes that the uniform l over perpendicular d over texture is realized in our cell and show a new satellite signal under rotation. The rotation dependence of the satellite signal is interpreted that a Fréedericksz transition of l over texture is induced by rotation above 1.0 rad/s and vortices start to appear above 1.8 rad/s.     

Crucial effect of rubidium cation on catalytic activity of a polycrystalline gold electrode toward oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media

Catalytic activity of a polycrystalline gold electrode toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in aqueous alkaline media in the presence of various alkali-metal sulfates (M₂SO₄, M = Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs) was investigated by hydrodynamic voltammetry. The fraction of 4e^? pathway in low overpotentials (? 0.1 to ? 0.3 V) depended on the alkali-metal cations (Rb ? Na, K, Cs, Li). A complete 4e^? reduction of O₂ was only attained in the presence of Rb⁺ cation in the solution, which was comparable or even superior to that reported at the Au(100) single crystal electrode.     

Controlling the morphology of Ag nanoclusters by ion implantation to different doses and subsequent annealing

Ag ions were implanted at 200 keV into silica with nominal doses ranging from 5x10(16) to 2x10(17) ions/cm2. We find that nanovoid-containing Ag nanoclusters form in the implanted samples with doses higher than 1x10(17) ions/cm2. When the dose is increased to 2x10(17) ions/cm2, the nanovoids gradually shrink and form a sandwiched nanocluster-nanovoid-nanocluster structure. The evolution of sandwiched nanoclusters during annealing was observed by in situ transmission electron microscopy experiments. Potential mechanisms for the formation and evolution of the irradiation-induced nanovoids and the sandwiched structure nanoclusters with increasing doses are discussed. The structural optimization of the sandwiched structure nanoclusters was performed by molecular mechanics calculations.     

Development of quantitative imaging mass spectrometry (q-IMS) for drug visualization using animal tissues

Quantitative imaging mass spectrometry (q-IMS) is a frontier topic of research in drug analysis. Although many q-IMS methodologies have been reported, validation of the method is insufficient. We have investigated the feasibility of coupling q-IMS with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to develop a verifiable method. The approach combines quantitative LC-MS/MS information with the spatial distribution information obtained by IMS. This paper compares measured drug quantities with those estimated using IMS. The target drug, erlotinib, is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of non-small-cell lung cancer. The quantitative accuracy of our q-IMS method in an animal model study is approximately 17%. Measurements were conducted on mouse liver and brain tissues before and after erlotinib administration. Erlotinib is delivered to the brain, although the concentration is 10⁴ times smaller than that found in the liver.     

Simple determination of plasma ibrutinib concentration using high‐performance liquid chromatography

Ibrutinib is an oral inhibitor of Bruton tyrosine kinase, which is one of the key drugs used for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma. In this study, we aimed to develop a simple method for determining plasma ibrutinib concentration. The analysis required extraction of a 200 μL plasma sample and precipitation of proteins using solid‐phase extraction. Ibrutinib and nilotinib, which was used as an internal standard, were separated using high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a mobile phase of acetonitrile–0.5% monopotassium phosphate (KH₂PO₄, pH 3.0; 52:48, v/v) on a Capcell Pack C₁₈ MG II (250 × 4.6 mm) monitored at 260 nm, at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The calibration curve was linear at the plasma concentration range of 10–500 ng/mL with a coefficient of determination (r²) of 0.9999. The coefficients of intra‐day and inter‐day validation were 4.0–6.6 and 2.6–7.7%, respectively. The assay accuracy was ?4.4–8.6%, and the recovery was >84%. This HPLC method coupled with ultraviolet (UV) detection for determining ibrutinib plasma concentration has several advantages such as simplicity and applicability to routine therapeutic drug monitoring at hospital laboratories.     

Ferroelectric properties of vinylidene fluoride copolymers

Ferroelectric properties of copolymers of vinylidene fluoride with trifluoroethylene and tetrafluoroethylene are described with special interest in their polarization reversal and phase transition behavior. The ferroelectric phase consists of all-trans molecules packed in a parallel fashion while molecules adopt irregular TT, TG, T[Gbar] conformations in the paraelectric phase. In the ferroelectric phase, polarization reversal occurs at very high fields (> 100 MV/m) as a result of eventual 180° rotations of individual chain molecules around their axes. The switching time ranges from sec to nsec depending upon the strength of the applied field according to an exponential law with a particularly large activation field (～ 1 GV/m). The value of the observed remnant polarization is consistent with prediction from a simple dipole sum implying a minor contribution from the Coulomb interaction. The ferroelectric-to-paraelectric transition appears most clearly for copolymers containing 50-80 mol% vinylidene fluoride at temperatures from 70 to 140°C. The transition accompanies cooperative dipole motions associated with elementary trans-gauche transformations. Changes in various properties as well as in structures in the vicinity of the Curie point are consistent with an order-disorder transition of first order. Detailed characteristics specifying their ferroelectricity are summarized and discussed in relation to the molecular, crystalline, and higher-order structures inherent to ferroelectric polymers.     

Highly regioselective coupling reactions of allylic and propargylic alcohol derivatives with gamma,gamma-dialkoxyallylic zirconium species via Zr-to-Cu transmetalation

In the presence of CuCN, reaction of gamma,gamma-dialkoxyallylic zirconium species 4, generated in situ by treating triethyl orthoacrylate with zirconocene-butene complex, with allylic and propargylic phosphates proceeded at the alpha-position of 4 in a highly SN2'-selective manner to give the corresponding 5-alkenoates and 4,5-alkadienoates, respectively. In the present Cu(I)-mediated coupling reaction, the gamma,gamma-dialkoxyallylic zirconium species 4 serves as a synthetically useful homoenolate anion equivalent of propionate.     

Removal of lead ions in drinking water by coffee grounds as vegetable biomass

In an attempt to reuse food waste for useful purposes, we investigated the possibility of using coffee grounds to remove lead ions from drinking water. We studied the lead ion adsorption characteristics of coffee beans and grounds by measuring their fat and protein content, adsorption isotherms for lead ions, and adsorption rates for lead ions. The number of lead ions adsorbed by coffee grounds did not depend on the kind of coffee beans or the temperature at which adsorption tests were performed. The rate of lead ion adsorption by coffee grounds was directly proportional to the amount of coffee grounds added to the solution. When coffee grounds were degreased or boiled, the number of lead ions decreased. When proteins contained in coffee grounds were denatured, the lead ion adsorption was considerably reduced. The lead ion adsorption capacity of coffee grounds decreased with increased concentration of perchloric acid used for treating them and disappeared with 10% perchloric acid. The experiments demonstrated that proteins contained in coffee beans depend upon the adsorption of lead ion. The present study gave an affirmative answer to the possibility of using coffee grounds, an abundant food waste, for removing lead ions from drinking water.