On Potentially Abelian Geometric Representations

The finiteness is proved of the set of isomorphism classes of potentially abelian geometric Galois representations with a given set of data. This is a special case of the finiteness conjecture of Fontaine and Mazur.     

Anisotropic friction model of DNA electrophoresis in polymer solutions: Comparison with direct observations

The electrophoresis of DNA chains in uncrosslinked polymer solutions with a Brownian dynamics simulation with an anisotropic friction tensor was analyzed. According to the degree of anisotropy, three types of migration behavior are obtained: fluctuation without or with periodicity between U‐shaped and compact conformations, or migration with linear conformation. We found good agreement between our simulation results and the direct observations of DNA by fluorescence microscopy. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 1316–1322, 2003     

Direct observation of chemical oscillation at a water/nitrobenzene interface with a sodium-alkyl-sulfate system.

The oscillation of the interfacial tension and electrical potential at a water/nitrobenzene interface was observed with homologous anionic surfactant molecules, sodium-alkyl-sulfates. Concerning small molecules with a short hydrophobic carbon chain, the oscillation period and amplitude decreased with a decrease of the length of the alkyl chain. On the other hand, when surfactant molecules with a long hydrophobic carbon chain were used, no remarkable periodic oscillation occurred after the first oscillation. In all systems, an interfacial flow by Marangoni convection was observed when the oscillation took place. By monitoring the movement of carbon powder scattered on the liquid/liquid interface with a CCD camera, we could observe that the liquid/liquid interface expanded outward from the area on which the surfactant molecules adsorbed when the oscillation occurred. When the small molecule was used, the speed of expansion of the interface (flow speed) was small and shrinkage followed by expansion of the interface repeatedly occurred. However, when the large molecule was used, the flow speed was large and expansion occurred only one time. These results show that hydrodynamic factors and surface activities are important in chemical oscillation systems.     

Effect of Hydrolysis Conditions on the Direct Formation of Nanoparticles of Ceria–Zirconia Solid Solutions from Acidic Aqueous Solutions

The effect of the cation concentration, hydrolysis temperature, and composition in the CeO₂–ZrO₂ system on the direct precipitation of ceria–zirconia solid solutions and the structure of the precipitates from acidic aqueous solutions of (NH₄)₂Ce(NO₃)₆ and ZrOCl₂ by hydrolysis under hydrothermal conditions were investigated. Nanometer-sized (8–10 nm) ceria–zirconia solid solution particles in a composition range of 0 to 60 mol% ZrO₂ were directly precipitated from the solutions with total metal cation concentration less than 0.2 mol/dm³ by simultaneous thermal hydrolysis at 150–240°C. The crystalline phase of the precipitates gradually changed from cubic and/or tetragonal to monoclinic with increasing the cation concentration of the solution from 0.2 to 0.8 mol/dm³ at the starting composition of 50 mol% ZrO₂ under hydrolysis condition of 150°C for 48 h, which was attributed to decrease in the supply of hydrolyzed Ce component caused by decrease in the hydrolysis ratio of (NH₄)₂Ce(NO₃)₆. Ceria–zirconia solid solutions containing large amount of ZrO₂ maintained high specific surface area and small-sized crystallite after heat-treatment at 900–1000°C for 1 h.     

Achievement of laser fusion of biological cells using UV pulsed dye laser beams

This paper reports a successful achievement of laser-induced biological cell fusion using an excimer laser excited dye laser. To our knowledge, we examined for the first time the dependence of fusion rate on laser pulse energy, number of laser pulses, and laser wavelength. Maximum fusion rate of approximately 50% was obtained by this laser fusion technology.     

Arithmetic Hodge Structure and Nonvanishing of the Cycle Class of 0-Cycles

We construct 0-cycles on a self-product of a curve whose cycle classes are linearly independent in the extension group of arithmetic Hodge structure. This is an extended version of Theorem 4.5 of Asakura's contribution to CMR Lecture Notes Ser. 24 ((2000), pp. 133–154).     

Pseudo cyclic ionophores: ‘Binary-effect’ of quinolinyloxy groups at both ends of oligoethylene glycols on the conformational stabilization of their complexes with alkali metal salts

A series of noncyclic neutral ionophores has been synthesized by the reaction of oligoethylene glycol dihalides with 8-quinolinol. Complexation properties for alkali metal picrates were evaluated from solvent extraction and bulk liquid membrane transport experiments. Complexation profiles of the newly synthesized ionophores with a hexyl chain were similar to those of their homologues without the hexyl chain in the extraction experiments. Among them, the pentaethylene glycol derivatives showed the highest extraction efficiency and selectivity towards potassium ion. From the¹H NMR spectra (400 MHz), the change in chemical shifts of the aromatic protons upon the addition of alkali metal thiocyanates suggested the existence of a stabilization effect which is caused by intramolecular stacking conformations between the quinoline rings during complexation. Aryl stacking interactions depend on the size of the cations and on the chain length of the oligoethylene glycol. The relationship between transport ability towards alkali metal cations and lipophilicity of these ionophores is also discussed.     

Micro-phase sorbent extraction for trace analysis via in situ sorbent formation: application to the spectrophotometric determination of nitrite in environmental waters.

A micro-phase sorbent in situ formation from an aqueous solution was proposed for the sensitive spectrophotometric determination of nitrite in environmental waters. Nitrite in a 10 mL sample solution was converted into a cationic azo dye by the reaction with 4-trifluoromethylanilinium ion and N-1-naphthylethylenediammonium ion in an acidic medium. Addition of dodecylbenzenesulfonate ion caused the formation of a suspension of ion associate in the solution. Centrifugation of the solution led to the isolation of a liquid organic phase that extracted the azo dye at the bottom of the centrifuge tube. The volume of the new phase was ca. 5 microL. After the aqueous phase was discarded, the organic phase was dissolved with 1 mL of 2-methoxyethanol to measure the absorbance. Nitrogen as NO2- at concentrations from 1.5 to 30 microg L(-1) was determined with sufficient precision. When 0.2 mL of 2-methoxyethanol was applied to dissolve the organic phase, 0.3-4.8 microg NO2--N L(-1) was determined. The recovery tests for nitrite added to some river water and seawater were satisfactory. This method is very simple and rapid. It takes only 30 min from the dye formation to the measurement of the absorbance.