Overwrite recording on different recording media

A contact printing model is introduced to explain the re-recording dip in overwrite recording. The first signal on a recording medium is transferred to the medium surface, where the second signal increases the susceptibility to transfer the S-1 signal magnetically with opposite phase. The output signal of S-1 will be compensated by the transferred signal, and will be zero, which is supposed to be the re-recording dip. The contact printing model is confirmed by experiments.     

Excitation of electron cyclotron harmonic waves due to helical electron beams in a plasma

Instabilities of electron cyclotron harmonic waves due to the anisotropy of the velocity distribution of electrons which was produced by the injection of the electron beam perpendicular to the magnetic field have been observed.     

Synthetic studies on quassinoids: a stereoselective construction of the picrasane skeleton

12β-Hydroxypicrasan-3-one, a compound having the correct relative stereochemistry of all the six ring-juncture chiral centers of the picrasane skeleton, was synthesized from a known tricyclic compound, using the orthoester Claisen rearrangement and lead tetraacetate oxidation as key reactions.     

Catalysis by heteropolyacid—VII. catalytic oxidation of cyclohexanol by dodecamolybdate

In the oxidation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone and the further oxidation to adipic acid, a dodecamolybdo-heteropolyanion (HPA) functions catalytically in the presence of aqueous hydrogen peroxide, whereas the HPA without hydrogen peroxide reacts only stoichiometrically. Air- or oxygen-passing through the refluxing system of cyclohexanone and the HPA in the presence of active charcoal, without hydrogen peroxide, has also promoted the oxidation catalytically. Since both hydrogen peroxide and aeration in the presence of active charcoal convert the reduced-form (blue) of the HPA produced by the oxidation of substrate to the oxidized-form (yellow), they play a role as a promoter or a reoxidizing reagent for the oxidation by the HPA. The reoxidizing effect of the aqueous hydrogen peroxide is much the more effective.     

Holograms produced with double-heterojunction laser illumination

Off-axis holograms have been constructed with a double-heterojunction (Ga, Al) As-GaAs semiconductor laser, and image reconstruction has been accomplished using a semiconductor and a He-Ne laser. The reconstructed real images were quite clear, and the signal-to-noise ratio of those images was about 10. Experiments suggest that semiconductor lasers can successfully be applied to coherent optics.     

Gold-reflector-based semiconductor saturable absorber mirror for femtosecond mode-locked Cr4+:YAG lasers

We developed a gold reflector based semiconductor saturable absorber mirror that has a sufficiently high reflectivity and a broad bandwidth and has been used to initiate the mode locking in a Cr⁴⁺:YAG laser. The laser achieved a similar efficiency to the lasers with Bragg-reflector-based semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors, but delivered a much broader spectrum and a shorter pulse.     

Biocleavable polyrotaxane-plasmid DNA polyplex for enhanced gene delivery

A biocleavable polyrotaxane, having a necklace-like structure consisting of many cationic alpha-cyclodextrins (alpha-CDs) and a disulfide-introduced poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), was synthesized and examined as a nonviral gene carrier. The polyrotaxane formed a stable polyplex having positively charged surface even at low charge ratio. This is likely to be due to structural factors of the polyrotaxane, such as the mobile motion of alpha-CDs in the necklace-like structure. Rapid endosomal escape was observed 90 min after transfection. The positively charged surface and the good buffering capacity are advantageous to show the proton sponge effect. The pDNA decondensation occurred through disulfide cleavage of the polyrotaxane and subsequent supramolecular dissociation of the noncovalent linkages between alpha-CDs and PEG. Transfection of the DMAE-SS-PRX polyplex is independent of the amount of free polycation. Those properties played a key role for delivery of pDNA clusters to the nucleus. Therefore, the polyplex nature and the supramolecular dissociation of the polyrotaxane contributed to the enhanced gene delivery.     

The effect of metal cations on the nature of the first electronic transition of liquid water as studied by attenuated total reflection far-ultraviolet spectroscopy

The first electronic transition (?←X?) of liquid water was studied from the perspective of the hydration of cations by analyzing the attenuated total reflection far-ultraviolet (ATR-FUV) spectra of the Group I, II, and XIII metal nitrate electrolyte solutions. The ?←X? transition energies of 1 M electrolyte solutions are higher (Li(+): 8.024 eV and Cs(+): 8.013 eV) than that of pure water (8.010 eV) and linearly correlate with the Gibbs energies of hydration of the cations. The increases in the ?←X? transition energies are mostly attributable to the hydrogen bond formation energies of water molecules in the ground state induced by the presence of the cations. The deviation from the linear relation was observed for the high charge density cations, H(+), Li(+), and Be(2+), which reflects that the electronic energies in the excited states are also perturbed. Quantum chemical calculations show that the ?←X? transition energies of the water-cation complexes depend on the hydration structures of the cations. The calculated ?←X? transition energies of the water molecules hydrating high charge density cations spread more widely than those of the low charge density cations. The calculated transition energy spreads of the water-cation complexes directly correlate with the widths of the ?←X? transition bands measured by ATR-FUV spectroscopy.