The translational and rotational motion of a camphor scraping at an air/water interface was investigated. The characteristics of the rotation depended on the temperature, surface tension, and the chemical structure of the camphor derivative. The direction of rotation, either clockwise or counterclockwise, is determined by asymmetry in the shape of the solid camphor scraping. The essential features of the motion of a camphor scraping were reproduced by a computer simulation. The driving force on this motion is believed to be the spatial heterogeneity of the camphor layer at the air-water interface.

Confocal endomicroscopy is useful in the diagnosis of gastric cancer but good quality images cannot always be obtained. In the future, it may allow virtual biopsy and help reduce unnecessary biopsies.

No abstract

Aspergillus oryzae is a fungus used extensively in the fermentation industry. We constructed cDNA microarrays comprising 2,070 highly expressed cDNAs selected from the approximately 6,000 non-redundant expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in the A. oryzae EST database (http://www.aist.go.jp/RIODB/ffdb/index.html). Using the cDNA microarrays, we analyzed the gene expression profiles of A. oryzae cells grown under the glucose-rich (AC) and glucose-depleted (AN) liquid culture conditions used during the construction of the EST database. The sets of genes identified by the cDNA microarray as highly expressed under each culture condition agreed well with the highly redundant ESTs obtained under the same conditions. In particular, transcription levels of most catabolic genes of the glycolytic pathway (EMP) and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle were higher under AC than AN conditions, suggesting that A. oryzae uses both EMP and TCA for glucose metabolism under AC conditions. We further studied the expression of genes encoding hydrolytic enzymes and enzymes involved in energy catabolism by using three industrial solid-phase biomass media, including wheat-bran. The wheat-bran culture gave the richest gene expression profile of hydrolytic enzymes and the lowest expression levels of catabolic genes (EMP, TCA) among the three media tested. The low expression levels of catabolic genes in the wheat-bran culture may release catabolite repression, consequently leading to the rich expression profiles of the hydrolytic enzymes.

Recently, we proposed a novel method for computing logic operations based on the time-sequential information in a geometrically arranged excitable field. As an extension of this study, in the present article we describe a strategy for creating real-time memory. Using a numerical simulation, we show that input pulse trains can be stored as a sequence of rotating traveling waves in a circular excitable field, by using its characteristics as a diode due to spatially asymmetric arrangement. Furthermore, through an experiment on an excitable chemical reaction, we demonstrate that this real-time memory actually works in the real world.

Active oxidation behavior of chemically vapor-deposited silicon carbide in an Ar-OZ atmosphere at 0.1 MPa was examined in the temperature range between 1840 and 1923 K. The transition from active oxidation (mass loss) to passive oxidation (mass gain) was observed at certain distinct oxygen partial pressures (Po:). The values of Po; increased with increasing temperature and with decreasing total gas flow rates. This behavior was well explained by Wagner's model and thermodynamic calculations. Active oxidation rates (k,) increased with increasing Oz partial pressures and total gas flow rates. The rate-controlling step of the active oxidation was concluded to be O2 diffusion through the gaseous boundary layer. [

Alkali hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite A using blast furnace (BF) slag was investigated. The preliminary experiment was conducted in use of synthetic slag consisting of SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , and CaO powders, and it was made clear that the most optimum slag compositions to synthesize zeolite A were the molar ratio of Si to Al (Si/Al) of 1 and reduction of CaO content down to 15 mass%, and that hydrothermal treating conditions were the temperature range from 328 to 358 K, NaOH solution of 1 M (ϭmol/L) and the ratio of the volume of NaOH solution to total mass of slag (V sol /W slag ) of 15 (mL/g). It was also found that synthetic slag with such a higher content of CaO as 40 % resulted in formation of tobermorite and hydrogarnet. In the experiment using BF slag, zeolite A could be successfully synthesized by optimizing both conditions of the compositions of raw material powders and hydrothermal treatment as noted above, where optimization of the compositions of raw material powders such as Si or Al content were performed by the suitable amount of addition of SiO 2 powder or NaAlO 2 powder as a source of Si and Al. The ball milling type reaction vessel containing numerous small SiC balls which was first adopted in this hydrothermal treating study was confirmed to be very effective for acceleration of synthetic reaction rate, shortening markedly the time period needed for fully synthesis of zeolite A. Temperature dependence of heat capacity of zeolite A powder synthesized in use of BF slag was measured after absorption of vapor at the ambient temperature, showing endothermic behavior with the peak at the temperature of around 473 K.

The oxidation of chemically vapor-deposited SIC in wet O 2 (water vapor partial pressure = 0.01 MPa, total pressure = 0.1 MPa) was examined using a thermogravimetric technique in the temperature range of 1823 to 1923 K. The oxidation kinetics follow a linear-parabolic relationship over the entire temperature range. The activation energies of linear and parabolic rate constants were 428 and 397 kJ-mol-', respectively. The results suggested that the rate-controlling step is a chemical reaction at an SiC/Si02 interface in the linear oxidation regime, and the rate-controlling step is an oxygen diffusion process through the oxide film (cristobalite) in the parabolic oxidation regime. [