Fine structure of rainfall

The raindrop size, the raindrop shape, and the raindrop fall velocity measured are shown. It was found that many small raindrops of 50 to 500 μm diameter whose sizes have never been measured, exist in common rainfall. Also the distribution of canting angle of deformed raindrops is measured. For estimating the microwave attenuation due to rainfall, especially that of millimeter waves, a probability distribution function of raindrop size is presented. Finally, it is shown that the raindrop size distribution is not uniquely determined only by rainfall intensity.     

E0 transition and coupling between quadrupole and pairing-vibrational modes

Using a theory of mode-mode coupling between the two-phonon 0⁺ mode and the pairing-vibrational mode, we have extensively investigated the first excited 0⁺(0₂²) states in spherical and transitional nuclei. The results tell us that the 0₂⁺ states in a wide range of nuclei are strongly mixed states of both the modes. By making use of these results, the matrix elements for the E0 transitions from the 0₂⁺ states to the ground states are calculated for the Zn, Ge, Se, Kr, Sr, Zr, Mo, Ru, Pd, Cd and Sn isotopes. For some of the Cd and Sn isotopes, the matrix elements between the 0₂⁺ and 0₂⁺ states are also obtained. These numerical calculations make a rather good fit to the E0 experiments.     

The quantitative prediction of bitterness-suppressing effect of sweeteners on the bitterness of famotidine by sweetness-responsive sensor

The purpose of the present study was the quantitative prediction of the bitterness-suppressing effect of sweeteners (sucrose or sugar alcohols) on the bitterness of famotidine (or quinine sulfate as control) solutions using an artificial taste sensor. Firstly, we examined the response characteristics of the sensor response to sweetness. The sensor membrane is charged negatively in the presence of sweeteners, which tend to receive protons from one of the components of the sensor membrane. The magnitude of the sensor response was shown to increase in direct proportion to the concentration of the sweetener. Secondly, we used direct or indirect methods to evaluate and predict the bitterness-suppressing effect of sweeteners on 1 mg/ml famotidine and 81.4 microM quinine sulfate solutions. In direct method, a regression between the sensor output of the sweetness-responsive sensor and the bitterness intensity obtained in human gustatory tests of famotidine solutions containing sweeteners at various concentrations, was performed. As a result, we were able to predict directly the bitterness intensity of the mixed solution. Finally, we also evaluated the bitterness intensity of the dissolution media of commercially available, orally disintegrating tablets containing famotidine by the combined usage of bitterness- and sweetness-responsive sensor. We found that the sugar alcohols in the tablet seem to be effective in the bitterness-suppression of famotidine from these tablets, especially in the initial phase (within 30 s) of the disintegration process.     

Influence of inserting AlN between AlSiON and 4H-SiC interface for the MIS structure

A control of interface between gate insulating film and semiconductor is required to achieve high-power field effect transistors (FET) using SiC. To improve the interface between the high-k layer and SiC, we propose inserting an AlN layer as an interfacial layer. The reason for selecting AlN film is that it has a wide bandgap, as well as almost the same lattice constant as that of 4H-SiC. The insertion of AlN film between 4H-SiC and the insulating film effectively reduces the interfacial roughness. The roughness of the interface between AlN and SiC can be suppressed compared with that of the thermal oxidized SiC. Moreover, the AlSiON film was deposited on the AlN layer as a high dielectric gate insulating film with low leakage current at high temperature and low space charge. The C-V characteristics of the AlSiON/AlN/SiC MIS structure with an AlN buffer layer are improved by increasing the deposition temperature of the AlN film. This demonstrates that AlSiON/AlN/SiC is one of attractive MIS structures for SiC devices.     

An abnormal temperature dependence of alkylpyrazines' retention in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Retention behaviors of pyrazine and alkylpyrazines on various stationary phases in reversed-phase liquid chromatography were examined. An abnormal temperature effect on the retention of alkylpyrazines with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water was observed when changing the column temperature. On the other hand, no similar trend was found with a methanol-water mobile phase. For all the columns investigated in this work, the above tendency to the temperature-dependence was consistently observed, suggesting that the abnormal temperature effect on the retention of alkylpyrazines could be mainly induced by an acetonitrile-based mobile phase.     

Lipid Bilayer Interactions of Amyloidogenic N-Terminal Fragment of Apolipoprotein A-I Probed by Förster Resonance Energy Transfer and Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The effects of one of the amyloidogenic mutations of apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), G26R, on the thermal stability, structural dynamics and lipid-associating properties of the 1–83 N-terminal fragment of apoA-I (A83) have been investigated using the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The measurements of FRET between the tryptophan residues of the single Trp variants of A83 as donors and the membrane-incorporated fluorescent probe 4-dimethylaminochalcone as an acceptor provided evidence for a less depth of A83/G26R penetration into phosphatidylcholine (PC) bilayer compared to WT counterpart. The unfolding MD simulations showed that G26R mutation destabilizes the overall structure of A83, with individual alpha-helices differing in their thermal stability. The MD simulations performed at physiological temperature revealed that A83 and A83/G26R differ in their conformational behavior in an aqueous solution, PC and PC/Cholesterol bilayers. These findings may prove of importance for deeper understanding of the key determinants of apoA-I amyloidogenesis.