Novel macroscopic BC3 honeycomb sheet

We have successfully grown a uniform BC₃ honeycomb sheet with high crystalline quality over the entire macroscopic area of the NbB₂ (0001) surface by carbon-substituted technique in a boron honeycomb. This is the first macroscopic uniform sheet of single-crystal BC₃ with a monolayer thickness. So far, only BC₃ micro-crystals with radii of a few nanometres were produced. The properties of the sheet have been investigated by using XPS, AES, LEED, STM, ARUPS and HREELS. All the experimental data and the theoretical calculations, which are concerning with atomic structure, chemical concentration, and phonon structure, indicated that the uniform BC₃ honeycomb sheet was grown in an epitaxial manner to the substrate lattice.     

Bond-based peridynamic modelling of singular and nonsingular crack-tip fields

A static meshfree implementation of the bond-based peridynamics formulation for linearly elastic solids is applied to the study of the transition from local to nonlocal behavior of the stress and displacement fields in the vicinity of a crack front and other sources of stress concentration. The long-range nature of the interactions between material points that is intrinsic to and can be modulated within peridynamics enables the smooth transition from the square-root singular stress fields predicted by the classical (local) linear theory of elasticity, to the nonsingular fields associated with nonlocal theories. The accuracy of the peridynamics scheme and the transition from local to nonlocal behavior, which are dictated by the lattice spacing and micromodulus function, are assessed by performing an analysis of the boundary layer that surrounds the front of a two dimensional crack subjected to mode-I loading and of a cracked plate subjected to far-field tension.     

Synthesis of 1,1,9,9-tetrafluoro[2.2]paracyclophane and its polymerization by vapor deposition method

1,1,9,9-Tetrafluoro[2.2]paracyclophane ( 1 ) was prepared successfully as white crystals in 72% yield via two-step reactions from 1,9-diketo[2.2]-paracyclophane. The polymerization of 1 by the vapor deposition method was carried out at pyrolysis temperature range of 400 to 800°C and deposition temperature range of ?20 to 20°C, and a tough, transparent poly(α,α-difluoro-p-xylylene) film was obtained in 72% yield at the pyrolysis temperature of 750°C and the deposition temperature of ?20°C. It was found that the pyrolysis of 1 gave a reactive α,α-difluoro-p-xylylene, which polymerized on the head-to-tail addition to give poly(α,α-difluoro-p-xylylene). Some properties such as solubility, thermal stability, glass transition temperature, and density for poly(α,α-difluoro-p-xylylene) were studied. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On random observation processes for stochastic approximation

Summary In [1] a new procedure is given to estimate the root of a regression equation. The purposes of this paper are to extend the Lemma 1 in [1] and to give a process involving a randomly determined sequence of observations for finding thermaximum of a regression function. The process is similar to that of [1]. Kiefer and Wolfowitz [2] gave a stochastic approximation procedure for the latter purpose. Their process needs the condition of the unimodality of the regression function which is not required for our case.     

Involvement of DPY19L3 in Myogenic Differentiation of C2C12 Myoblasts

DPY19L3 has been identified as a C-mannosyltransferase for thrombospondin type-1 repeat domain-containing proteins. In this study, we focused on the role of DPY19L3 in the myogenic differentiation of C2C12 mouse myoblast cells. We carried out DPY19L3 gene depletion using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The result showed that these DPY19L3-knockout cells could not be induced for differentiation. Moreover, the phosphorylation levels of MEK/ERK and p70S6K were suppressed in the DPY19L3-knockout cells compared with that of parent cells, suggesting that the protein(s) that is(are) DPY19L3-mediated C-mannosylated and regulate(s) MEK/ERK or p70S6K signaling is(are) required for the differentiation.