To investigate the effects of adding Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) to TiO2 films on the crystallization, phase transformation, and photocatalysis, films of both TiO2 and TiO2 embedded with AuNPs (Au–TiO2) with various characteristics were prepared by using the dip-coating method with preheating and post-heating treatments. The AuNPs acted as anatase nucleation agents and crystallized a lot of small anatase crystals with sizes of tens of nanometers, which suppressed the growth of anatase crystals that are large enough for them to transform into rutile crystals, resulting in repression of the transformation from anatase into rutile. The AuNPs affected the progress of the photocatalytic and adsorption reactions, resulting in improved photocatalytic activity. Of all the films we tested, the Au–TiO2 film preheated at 400 °C and post-heated at 400 °C (AT400-400), which consisted of small anatase crystals with high covalent character and high crystallinity, contained dispersed AuNPs with the smallest average crystallite size and showed the highest photocatalytic activity. This high activity resulted from the high reaction rate constants for adsorption and photocatalysis.

Three different types of HT-LiCoO2/lithium lanthanum titanate (LLT) assemblies were produced by depositing an HT-LiCoO2 cathode on polycrystalline LLT with various surface finishes, to investigate the effects of the HT-LiCoO2/LLT interface structure on the electrochemical properties of the assemblies. An amorphous layer is confirmed to be introduced by Ar ion irradiation to crystalline LLT. The HT-LiCoO2/LLT assembly composed of the ion-irradiated LLT exhibits good cycle stability and relatively low apparent interface resistivity. These results indicate that the introduction of an amorphous LLT layer by surface modification of crystalline LLT is very effective in improving the structural stability and lithium-ion conductivity of the interface between HT-LiCoO2 and crystalline LLT.

Background and objectives: Endothelial function plays a key role in determining the clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis. Recent reports have shown that healthy elderly subjects with higher trait anxiety tend to have heightened risks of atherosclerotic lesions and cardiovascular disease. The present study was intended to examine whether an association exists between trait anxiety and endothelial function in healthy young and elderly subjects.

Methods: This study examined 26 young male and 30 elderly male subjects using brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) – a non-invasive ultrasound method – to evaluate endothelial function by measuring the dilation responses of vascular smooth muscle to the nitric oxide produced by endothelial cells following hyperemia.

Results: A significant negative correlation was observed between the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)-trait score as a parameter of anxiety and the percentage change of FMD (%FMD) in the elderly subjects, but not in the young subjects. The elderly subjects showed significantly lower %FMD than the young subjects.

Conclusion: These results suggest the possibility that trait anxiety is a predisposing risk factor for cardiovascular damage that might, over a long period, induce atherosclerotic lesions.

We compared the potency of the interaction of three antipsychotic drugs, i.e. chlorpromazine (CPZ), haloperidol (Hal) and sulpiride (Sul), with the plasma membrane in the rat brain. CPZ loading (⩾100 μm) dose-dependently increased both membrane permeability (assessed as [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose-6-phosphate release from brain slices) and membrane fluidity (assessed as the reduction in the plasma membrane anisotropy of 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene). On the other hand, a higher concentration of Hal (1 mm) was required to observe these effects. However, Sul failed to change membrane permeability and fluidity even at a high concentration (1 mm). These results indicated the following ranking of the potency to interact with the membrane: CPZ>Hal>Sul. The difference among antipsychotic drugs in the potency to interact with the plasma membrane as revealed in the present study may be partly responsible for the difference among the drugs in the probability of inducing extrapyramidal side-effects such as parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia.

Two types of samples containing different La2/3-xLi3xTiO3 (LLT) solid electrolyte /LiCoO2 cathode interfaces were prepared by depositing LiCoO2 on polycrystalline LLT with two different surface finishes: cleaved and polished surfaces. Electrochemical properties of the samples were analyzed by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Microstructures of the LLT/LiCoO2 interfaces were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Cyclic voltammograms of the cleaved sample show that the anodic and cathodic peaks respectively shift to higher and lower potential with the number of cycles, while those for the polished samples do not change much during cycles of potential sweeps, indicating the higher stability for the polished samples upon insertion and extraction of lithium ion. The LiCoO2 thin-film cathode is epitaxially deposited with the orientation relationships: {110}LLT//{1120}LiCoO2 and <001>LLT//<4401>LiCoO2 for both samples with different geometric configurations of the interfaces to the Li layers in the LiCoO2. Amorphous regions are observed to exist in places at the interface only in the polished samples. The geometric configuration of the interface and the existence of the amorphous regions are considered to have great influences on the stability of the LLT/LiCoO2 interfaces upon charge / discharge operations.

ZnO (ZO) and Aluminum (Al) doped ZnO (AZO) films were grown on sapphire substrate via oxygen radical assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique. The results of XRD measurement and temperature dependent Hall measurement confirmed that the AZO films were typically highly degenerate semiconductor with good crystallinity. The resistivity of these films were closed to the theoretical lower limit. The optical properties of these films were investigated by photoluminescence (PL) spectra and absorption spectra. Strong band-edge emission was observed in the AZO films with good crystallinity in spite of high carrier concentration more than 1020 cm-3. A sift of absorption edge to higher energy side and a gradual increase of the absorption was observed for the AZO film.

In this study, we evaluated the electrical properties of the bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers with lifetime measurements using a non-contact laser-microwave method. We prepared one group that consisted of bonded SOI wafers with different active layer thicknesses (I0,30,100μm) and another group consisting of bonded SOI wafers with different buried oxide layer thicknesses(0,0.01,0.1,0.75μm). Primary mode lifetime (τ1) was measured by the photoconductivity decay (PCP) method using the laser diode (λ= 774nm) as a carrier-injected light source. Steady-state change in the conductivity was measured by the photoconductivity modulation (PCM) method using a He-Ne laser (λ = 633nm) as a carrier-injected light source. τ1 decreases as the active layer thickness decreases. The PCM intensity also decreases with decreasing active layer thickness. Surface and interface recombination rates of the SOI are increased with decreasing layer thickness. The PCM intensity also decreases as the buried layer thickness decreases.

Both YBa2Cu4O8 and (Y0.95Ca0.05)Ba2Cu4O8 were successfully prepared by firing for 160 h at 850 °C and at oxygen partial pressure of 3 atm without using any catalysts. These samples were characterized in terms of the crystallographic structure and thermal and superconducting properties. The x-ray powder diffraction patterns and superconducting properties for these samples were little changed after post-annealing for 6 h at 1070 °C and at oxygen partial pressure of 400 atm. However, when heat-treated at 700 °C in air and then quenched into liquid nitrogen, samples without post-annealing showed broader superconducting transitions than those post-annealed. Actually, the sharpness of the superconducting transition for a post-annealed sample was little affected by quenching. These observations were in agreement with the results of both transmission electron microscopy and thermal analyses.