The passivation phenomenon of platinum in fused lithium chloride + potassium chloride eutectic: Part II. Chlorine overpotential and superpassivation of platinum

Platinum is known to have a very high chlorine overpotential, about 0.8 V, in fused lithium chloride + potassium chloride eutectic. The high overpotential can be ascribed to the formation of the thick passivation film of platinum chlorides. The high chlorine overpotential was decreased by the addition of alkali metal oxides and a reversible chlorine evolution was revealed in a similar manner as the graphite electrode. The reversible chlorine evolution was ascribed to the formation of the oxide passivation film. The chlorine overpotential at the oxide film was increased stepwise as the applied potential was made more positive. The stepped transitions of the chlorine overpotential was ascribed to the valence change of the oxide film. Platinum shows a typical N-shaped passivation at +0.65 V versus Ag/AgCl(0.1) which has been ascribed to the dissolution of platinum into Pt(II) ions and following formation of the passivation film of supersaturated Pt(II) chloride. Platinum was found to show another passivation phenomenon at high temperatures, above 450°C. The N-shaped current-potential curve was observed at +1.8 V which was far more positive than the potential of the standard chlorine electrode. The dissolution of platinum prior to the passivation was found to occur due to the formation of high valence platinum ions such as Pt⁶⁺ and Pt⁸⁺.     

Continuous measurements of stable isotopes of carbon dioxide and water vapour in an urban atmosphere: isotopic variations associated with meteorological conditions

Isotope ratios of carbon dioxide and water vapour in the near-surface air were continuously measured for one month in an urban area of the city of Nagoya in central Japan in September 2010 using laser spectroscopic techniques. During the passages of a typhoon and a stationary front in the observation period, remarkable changes in the isotope ratios of CO₂ and water vapour were observed. The isotope ratios of both CO₂ and water vapour decreased during the typhoon passage. The decreases can be attributed to the air coming from an industrial area and the rainout effects of the typhoon, respectively. During the passage of the stationary front, δ¹³C–CO₂ and δ¹⁸O–CO₂ increased, while δ²H–H₂Ov and δ¹⁸O–H₂Ov decreased. These changes can be attributed to the air coming from rural areas and the air surrounding the observational site changing from a subtropical air mass to a subpolar air mass during the passage of the stationary front. A clear relationship was observed between the isotopic CO₂ and water vapour and the meteorological phenomena. Therefore, isotopic information of CO₂ and H₂Ov could be used as a tracer of meteorological information.     

Notes on the Elliptic Ruijsenaars Operators

We construct the spaces that the elliptic Ruijsenaars operators act on. It is shown that they are extensible to nonnegative selfadjoint operators on a space of square integrable functions, or preserve a finite dimensional vector space of entire functions. These facts are shown in terms of the R-operators which satisfy the Yang–lBaxter equation. The elliptic Ruijsenaars operators are considered as the elliptic analogues of the Macdonald operators or the difference analogues of the Lamé operators.     

Novel materials for electronic device fabrication using ink-jet printing technology

Novel materials and a metallization technique for the printed electronics were studied. Insulator inks and conductive inks were investigated. For the conductive ink, the nano-sized copper particles were used as metallic sources. These particles were prepared from a copper complex by a laser irradiation process in the liquid phase. Nano-sized copper particles were consisted of a thin copper oxide layer and a metal copper core wrapped by the layer. The conductive ink showed good ink-jettability. In order to metallize the printed trace of the conductive ink on a substrate, the atomic hydrogen treatment was carried out. Atomic hydrogen was generated on a heated tungsten wire and carried on the substrate. The temperature of the substrate was up to 60 °C during the treatment. After the treatment, the conductivity of a copper trace was 3 μΩ cm. It was considered that printed wiring boards can be easily fabricated by employing the above materials.     

Intracellular transport of single-headed molecular motors KIF1A

Motivated by experiments on single-headed kinesin KIF1A, we develop a model of intracellular transport by interacting molecular motors. It captures explicitly not only the effects of adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis, but also the ratchet mechanism which drives individual motors. Our model accounts for the experimentally observed single-molecule properties in the low-density limit and also predicts a phase diagram that shows the influence of hydrolysis and Langmuir kinetics on the collective spatiotemporal organization of the motors. Finally, we provide experimental evidence for the existence of domain walls in our in vitro experiment with fluorescently labeled KIF1A.     

Endoscopic Observation of Tissue by Narrowband Illumination

We propose a new illumination method for a medical endoscope: narrow band imaging (NBI), in which the spectral bandwidth of the filtered light is narrowed. To confirm how the spectral specifications of the filtered light influence a reproduced image, an experiment was conducted observing the endoscopic images of the back mucosa of a human tongue. In addition, the effect of NBI on endoscopic images was investigated through preliminary clinical tests in colonoscopy and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. It has been shown that NBI can enhance the capillary pattern and the crypt pattern on the mucosa. These patterns are useful features for diagnosing an early cancer.     

Back-to-back correlations of high-p(T) hadrons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We investigate the suppression factor and the azimuthal correlation function for high p(T) hadrons in central Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=200 GeV by using a dynamical model in which hydrodynamics is combined with explicitly traveling jets. We study the effects of parton energy loss in a hot medium, intrinsic k(T) of partons in a nucleus, and p (perpendicular) broadening of jets on the back-to-back correlations of high p(T) hadrons. Parton energy loss is found to be a dominant effect on the reduction of the awayside peaks in the correlation function.     

Measurement Accuracy in Phase-Shifting Point Diffraction Interferometer with Two Optical Fibers

A phase-shifting point diffraction interferometer (PS/PDI) with point sources of two single mode optical fibers has been developed, which will be appropriate for the surface figure measurement of large aperture optics on a sub-nanometer scale. To reduce the measurement error factors, a fiber optic plate (FOP) is used as a projection plane for interference pattern. Errors caused by imperfection of optical alignment, such as position of point sources and tilt of FOP, are minimized by analyzing the measured phase data with an original method. Measurement accuracy in the PS/ PDI is estimated with the interference pattern produced by the two optical fiber sources. If inhomogeneity of the FOP and a systematic error of the PS/PDI are eliminated, the measurement accuracy of the present system is estimated to be less than 4nm P-V and 0.7nm rms, respectively, at a measurement wavelength of 632.8 nm.     

Abdominal apparent diffusion coefficient measurements: effect of diffusion-weighted image quality and usefulness of anisotropic images

This study aimed to assess the effect of diffusion-weighted image (DWI) quality on abdominal apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements and the usefulness of anisotropic images. Twenty-six patients (10 men and 16 women; mean, 58.1 years) who underwent DW imaging and were diagnosed not to have any abdominal diseases were analyzed. Single-shot spin-echo echo-planar DW imaging was performed, and one isotropic and three orthogonal anisotropic images were created. ADCs were calculated for liver (four segments), spleen, pancreas (head, body, tail) and renal parenchyma. Image quality for each organ part was scored visually. We estimated the correlation between ADC and image quality and evaluated the feasibility of using anisotropic images. ADCs and image quality were affected by motion probing gradient directions in the liver and pancreas. A significant inverse correlation was found between ADC and image quality. The r values for isotropic images were −.46, −.48, −.70 and −.28 for the liver, spleen, pancreas and renal parenchyma, respectively. Anisotropic images had the best quality and lowest ADC in at least one organ part in 17 patients. DWIs with the best quality among isotropic and anisotropic images should be used in the liver and pancreas.