Long-wavelength light emission from InAs quantum dots covered by GaAsSb grown on GaAs substrates

We fabricated InAs quantum dots (QDs) with a GaAsSb strain-reducing layer (SRL) on a GaAs(0 0 1) substrate. The wavelength of emission from InAs QD is shown to be controllable by changing the composition and thickness of the SRL. An increase in photoluminescence intensity with increasing compositions of Sb and thickness of the GaAsSb SRL is also seen. The efficiency of radiative recombination was improved under both conditions because the InAs/GaAsSb/GaAs hetero-interface band structure more effectively suppressed carrier escape from the InAs QDs.     

A new luciferase reporter gene assay for the detection of androgenic and antiandrogenic effects based on a human prostate specific antigen promoter and PC3/AR human prostate cancer cells.

We developed a new mammalian cell-based luciferase reporter gene assay for androgenic and antiandrogenic activities of chemicals and environmental samples. Environmental samples usually have a complex matrix that may contain the constituents acting as androgen receptor (AR) agonists, AR antagonists or aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonists. AhR agonists are known to elicit the antiandrogenic effect through cross-talk between AR and AhR signal transduction pathways. In this study, PC3/AR human prostate carcinoma cells were transiently transfected with a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) promoter-driven luciferase expression plasmid. The cells were treated with a test compound or an environmental sample for 24 h at 37 degrees C and then measured for luciferase activity. The luciferase activity was induced by dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in a concentration-dependent manner in a concentration range from 10 fM to 1 nM. R1881, a synthetic androgen receptor agonist, induced luciferase activity and its inductive effects was additive to that of DHT. The luciferase activity was not induced by cortisol, a glucocorticoid, progesterone, a progestin, and 17beta-estradiol, an estrogen in a concentration range of up to 1 microM. DHT-induced luciferase activity was reduced by bicalutamide and cyproterone acetate, AR antagonists, and also by benzo[a]pyrene, an aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist, through AhR-mediated pathways. All of these findings indicate that the present assay system correctly responds to AR agonists, AR antagonists and AhR agonist and, therefore, it is a powerful tool for the sensitive and selective screening of chemicals and environmental samples for their androgenic and antiandrogenic activities. We developed the first assay system, in which the expression of luciferase was driven by the promoter of a prostate-specific antigen gene, a typical human androgen-regulated gene.     

Measurement of circular dichroism spectra of liquid/liquid interface by centrifugal liquid membrane method.

The direct measurement of the circular dichroism (CD) spectra of liquid/liquid interface has been achieved for the first time by the centrifugal liquid membrane (CLM) method combined with a conventional CD spectropolarimetry. In the sample chamber of the CD spectropolarimeter, a cylindrical glass cell containing small amounts of organic and aqueous phases was rotated at ca. 7000 rpm to generate a two-phase liquid membrane with a high specific interfacial area. The CD spectra of the J-aggregate of protonated 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin formed at the toluene/sulfuric acid interface in the rotating cell have been measured. The results demonstrated the novelty and advantages of this method.     

‘Me2CuLi·TMSCl in CH2Cl2’. The most powerful methylating agent for sterically congested α,β-enoates

The reaction of Me₂CuLi with sterically congested α,β-unsaturated esters in the presence of TMSCl in CH₂Cl₂ proceeded very smoothly to produce the conjugate addition products in high yields.     

Computation of the quasi-stationary distributions inM(n)/GI/1/K andGI/M(n)/1/K queues

In this paper, we provide numerical means to compute the quasi-stationary (QS) distributions inM/GI/1/K queues with state-dependent arrivals andGI/M/1/K queues with state-dependent services. These queues are described as finite quasi-birth-death processes by approximating the general distributions in terms of phase-type distributions. Then, we reduce the problem of obtaining the QS distribution to determining the Perron-Frobenius eigenvalue of some Hessenberg matrix. Based on these arguments, we develop a numerical algorithm to compute the QS distributions. The doubly-limiting conditional distribution is also obtained by following this approach. Since the results obtained are free of phase-type representations, they are applicable for general distributions. Finally, numerical examples are given to demonstrate the power of our method.     

Experimental Study on Time-Spread/Wavelength-Hop Optical Code Division Multiplexing with Dispersion-Compensating En/Decoder

10Gbit/s time-spread/wavelength-hop optical code generation and decoding are performed by dispersion-compensating fiber Bragg grating (FBG) en/decoder pair. Error-free 10km single mode fiber (SMF) transmission of 10Gbit/s optical code division multiplexing (OCDM) has been experimentally demonstrated.     

Numerical reconstruction of an infrared wavefront utilizing an optical phase modulation device

We utilize nitroanisole, that absorbs infrared (IR) radiation as heat, as an optical modulation device based on a thermal process. The nitroanisole exhibits a thermal lens effect, i.e. a temperature dependent refractive index. Hence, the nitroanisole can induce phase modulation to visible light, in direct response to intensity of the incident IR radiation. The proposed method can be used to obtain the phase modulation distribution that corresponds to the IR intensity distribution, i.e. the IR hologram itself, on the nitroanisole by examining the phase map of visible light that is modulated upon passing through the nitroanisole. The IR wavefront can be reconstructed by calculating extracted IR holograms through the Fresnel transform. It is verified that both the amplitude and the phase of the IR wavefront can be reconstructed accurately by proposed method.     

A precision measurement of the hyperfine structure of87Sr+

The ground state hyperfine splitting of⁸⁷Sr⁺ was measured with a precision of 1×10^–8. The experiments were performed with an RF ion trap connected to an ISOL (isotope separator on-line), where all the possible transitions between Zeeman sublevels were observed by a laser-microwave double resonance method. The magnetic dipole hyperfine constant was determined to beA=–1 000 473.673 (11) kHz.     

Dicationic ((−)-sparteine)palladium-catalyzed enantioselective aldol reaction of aldehydes with 1-phenyl-1-trimethylsilyloxyethene, proceeding via a palladium enolate

A dicationic ((−)-sparteine)palladium complex underwent a superior catalytic enantioselective aldol reaction of aldehydes with 1-phenyl-1-trimethylsilyloxyethene performing satisfactorily, starting with ((−)-sparteine)PdCl₂ and AgSbF₆ as catalyst precursors (1 mol % loading) in the presence of 3 Å molecular sieves over the reaction.     

Laser spectroscopy of trapped 7Be and 10Be at a prototype slow RI-beam facility of RIKEN

A next-generation slow radioactive nuclear ion beam facility (SLOWRI) which provides slow, high-purity and small emittance ion beams of all elements is being build as one of the principal facilities at the RIKEN RI-beam factory (RIBF). High energy radioactive ion beams from the projectile fragment separator BigRIPS are thermalized in a large gas catcher cell. The thermalized ions in the gas cell are guided and extracted to a vacuum environment by a combination of dc electric fields and inhomogeneous rf fields (rf carpet ion guide). From there the slow ion beam is delivered via a mass separator and a switchyard to various devices: such as an ion trap, a collinear fast beam apparatus, and a multi-reflection time of flight mass spectrometer. In the R&D works at the present RIKEN facility, an overall efficiency of 5% for a 100A MeV ⁸Li ion beam from the present projectile fragment separator RIPS was achieved and the dependence of the efficiency on the ion beam intensity was investigated. Recently our first spectroscopy experiment at the prototype SLOWI was performed on Be isotopes. Energetic ions of ¹⁰Be and ⁷Be from the RIPS were trapped and laser cooled in a linear rf trap and the specific mass shifts of these isotopes were measured for the first time.