We previously demonstrated that safflower seed extract (SSE) and its major antioxidant constituents, serotonin hydroxycinnamic acid amides, suppressed LDL oxidation in vitro, decreased plasma autoantibody titres to oxidized LDL and attenuated atherosclerotic lesion formation in apoE-deficient mice. In this report, we examined whether SSE, rich in serotonin derivatives, could affect markers of oxidative stress, inflammation and aortic stiffness in healthy human subjects. Twenty Japanese male volunteers were studied at baseline, after 2·1 g SSE supplementation daily (providing 290 mg serotonin derivatives/d) for 4 weeks, and after a 4-week washout period. Significant reductions in circulating oxidized LDL, autoantibody titres to malondialdehyde-modified LDL, the soluble form of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), and urinary 8-isoprostane were observed after a 4-week intervention. Although there were no statistically significant differences in blood pressure or brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), an index of arterial stiffness, baPWV was lower than baseline in eleven of twenty subjects and was accompanied by a reduction in blood pressure. Statistically significant negative correlations were observed between the extent of initial cardiovascular risk markers (autoantibody titres, 8-isoprostane, sVCAM-1 and baPWV) and the effect of intervention. This suggested that individuals with elevated oxidative stress, inflammation, and/or arterial stiffness may receive more benefit from SSE supplementation.

We a pplied ellipsometric porosimetry and variable-energy positron annihilation spectroscopy to the pore characterization of spin-on-glass silicon-oxide-backboned porous thin films with different relative dielectric constants between 2.3 and 3.2. It was found that the relative dielectric constant decreases linearly with increasing open porosity deduced by ellipsometric porosimetry. Comparison of the open porosity with the average pore size deduced by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy suggested that mesopores less contribute to open porosity and are not so effective in decreasing film relative dielectric constant in comparison with micropores.

Deuterium dilution instead of hydrogen has been studied in microcrystalline silicon growth using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition with monosilane. It was found that the crystallinity for D2 dilution is significantly improved as compared to that for H2 dilution at the same growth rate. Optical emission spectroscopy measurement shows that the electron temperature of SiH4 + D2 plasma is lower than that of SiH4 + H2, indicating that the bombarding ion energy is reduced for D2 dilution. It was also found that the H-D exchange reaction on the surface has a certain threshold number of events and that microcrystalline formation occurs only above the threshold. The role of atomic hydrogen originating from a diluent in crystal formation is discussed.

The marine red alga known as Laurencia obtusa var. snackeyi (Weber–van Bosse) Yamada (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales) is characterized as follows: (1) production of 4 periaxial cells from each axial cell; (2) a few, percurrent, terete, thick main axes arising from a single discoid holdfast without stolon-like branches; (3) alternate-spiral branching; (4) presence of longitudinally oriented secondary pit-connections between contiguous superficial cortical cells; (5) absence of a palisade-like layer; (6) absence of projecting superficial cortical cells; (7) absence of lenticular thickenings in the walls of medullary cells; (8) parallel arrangement of tetrasporangia; and (9) presence of one corps en cerise per superficial cortical cell and trichoblast cell. It differs from L. obtusa (Hudson) Lamouroux in the absence of stolon-like branches with secondary attachment discs and the presence of thicker axes. The following binomial is proposed: Laurencia snackeyi (Weber–van Bosse) Masuda, stat. nov. Halogenated secondary metabolites of this species were investigated for samples from Vietnam and Malaysia. The major metabolites of the Vietnamese sample are palisadin A and aplysistatin, both sesquiterpenoids, whereas the Malaysian samples contain these compounds along with another monocyclofarnesol-derived sesquiterpenoid, 5-acetoxypalisadin B. L. snackeyi is also characterized by this set of secondary metabolites.

The oxidation of ZrC single crystals having (100) faces was performed at a temperature of 600 °C at an oxygen pressure of 2.6 kPa. A polished cross section of oxide scale was observed by backscattered electron imaging (BEI) in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The oxide scale was observed to consist of two subscales, zones 1 and 2; zone 1 is adjacent to the ZrC. The thickness of zone 1 was kept constant (about 2 μm), independent of oxidation time. The interfacial microstructure between ZrC and cubic ZrO2 (c-ZrO2) phase in zone 1 was observed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy, by using an extremely thin foil of an oxidized crystal. The c-ZrO2 crystallites of 2 to 10 nm in size showing the (111), (200), and (220) lattice fringes were aggregated and distributed in an area about 10 to 20 nm away from the interface, with an amorphous layer observed adjacent to the ZrC. Electron dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) indicated that carbon is concentrated at the interface; a decreasing oxygen concentration gradient in the oxide phase and away from the interface in the ZrC suggests the formation of oxygen-deficient ZrO2–x and oxycarbide on the respective sides of the interface. A black coating layer appeared, resulting from detachment or dissolution of zone 2, when a crystal oxidized for 1 h was treated in a HF solution. The layer was shown by the Raman spectrum to be amorphous carbon.

1. When a permutation group G on a set Ω is given, a transitive extension G of G is defined to be a transitive permutation group on the set Γ which is a union of Ω and a new point ∞ such that the stabilizer of ∞ in G1 is isomorphic to G as a permutation group on Ω. The purpose of this paper is to prove that many known simple groups which can be represented as doubly transitive groups admit no transitive extension. Precise statement is found in Theorem 2. For example, the simple groups discovered by Ree [5] do not admit transitive extensions. Theorem 2 includes also a recent result of D. R. Hughes [3] which states that the unitary group U3(q) q>2 does not admit a transitive extension. As an application we prove a recent theorem of H. Nagao [4], which generalizes a theorem of Wielandt on the non-existence of 8-transitive permutation groups not containing the alternating groups under Schreier’s conjecture.

In his address at the International Congress of Mathematicians at Amsterdam [1] Professor R. Brauer proposed a problem of characterizing various groups of even order by the properties of the involutions contained in these groups and he gave characterizations of the general projective linear groups of low dimensions along these lines. The detail of the one-dimensional case has been published in [5], but the two-dimensional case has not appeared yet in detail. His work was followed by Suzuki [7], Feit [6] and Walter [11]. The present paper is a continuation of [73 and discusses a characterization of the two-dimensional projective unitary group over a finite field of characteristic 2. The precise conditions which characterize the group in question will be stated in the first section. The method employed here is similar to the one used in [7]. An application of group characters provides a formula for the order. However a difficulty comes in when one attempts to identify the group. In order to overcome this difficulty we will use a method primarily designed to study a class of doubly transitive permutation groups (cf. [9]). We need also a group theoretical characterization of a class of doubly transitive groups called (ZT)-groups. This is a generalization of a result in [8], and may be of in dependent interest.