There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

The lithium metal battery is strongly considered to be one of the most promising candidates for high-energy-density energy storage devices in our modern and technology-based society. However, uncontrollable lithium dendrite growth induces poor cycling efficiency and severe safety concerns, dragging lithium metal batteries out of practical applications. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the lithium metal anode and its dendritic lithium growth. First, the working principles and technical challenges of a lithium metal anode are underscored. Specific attention is paid to the mechanistic understandings and quantitative models for solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation, lithium dendrite nucleation, and growth. On the basis of previous theoretical understanding and analysis, recently proposed strategies to suppress dendrite growth of lithium metal anode and some other metal anodes are reviewed. A section dedicated to the potential of full-cell lithium metal batteries for practical applicatio...

Toward Safe Lithium Metal Anode in Rechargeable Batteries: A Review.

The author's preface gives an outline: "This book is about weakconvergence methods in metric spaces, with applications sufficient to show their power and utility. The Introduction motivates the definitions and indicates how the theory will yield solutions to problems arising outside it. Chapter 1 sets out the basic general theorems, which are then specialized in Chapter 2 to the space C[0, l ] of continuous functions on the unit interval and in Chapter 3 to the space D [0, 1 ] of functions with discontinuities of the first kind. The results of the first three chapters are used in Chapter 4 to derive a variety of limit theorems for dependent sequences of random variables. " The book develops and expands on Donsker's 1951 and 1952 papers on the invariance principle and empirical distributions. The basic random variables remain real-valued although, of course, measures on C[0, l ] and D[0, l ] are vitally used. Within this framework, there are various possibilities for a different and apparently better treatment of the material. More of the general theory of weak convergence of probabilities on separable metric spaces would be useful. Metrizability of the convergence is not brought up until late in the Appendix. The close relation of the Prokhorov metric and a metric for convergence in probability is (hence) not mentioned (see V. Strassen, Ann. Math. Statist. 36 (1965), 423-439; the reviewer, ibid. 39 (1968), 1563-1572). This relation would illuminate and organize such results as Theorems 4.1, 4.2 and 4.4 which give isolated, ad hoc connections between weak convergence of measures and nearness in probability. In the middle of p. 16, it should be noted that C*(S) consists of signed measures which need only be finitely additive if 5 is not compact. On p. 239, where the author twice speaks of separable subsets having nonmeasurable cardinal, he means "discrete" rather than "separable." Theorem 1.4 is Ulam's theorem that a Borel probability on a complete separable metric space is tight. Theorem 1 of Appendix 3 weakens completeness to topological completeness. After mentioning that probabilities on the rationals are tight, the author says it is an

Convergence of probability measures

Naphthalenesulfonamides such as N-(6-amino-hexyl)-5-chloro-1-naphthalenesulfonamide (W-7) are potent calmodulin (CaM) antagonists and act upon several protein kinases at higher concentration. When the naphthalene ring was replaced by isoquinoline, the derivatives were no longer CaM antagonists but retained the ability to inhibit protein kinases, and some of the derivatives exhibited selective inhibition toward a certain protein kinase. cAMP-dependent, cGMP-dependent, and Ca2+-phospholipid-dependent (protein kinase C) protein kinases were inhibited significantly by addition of 10(-6) M N-[2-(methylamino)ethyl]-5-isoquinoline-sulfonamide (H-8) and 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine (H-7). H-8 was the most active of the inhibitors in this series and inhibited more markedly cyclic nucleotide dependent protein kinases, than other kinases, while the derivative with the sulfonylpiperazine residue (H-7) was the most potent in inhibiting protein kinase C. Apparent Ki values of H-8 were 0.48 and 1.2 microM for cGMP-dependent and cAMP-dependent protein kinases, respectively, and the Ki value of H-7 for protein kinase C was 6 microM. Both the holoenzyme and the catalytic subunit (or fragment), which is active without an enzyme activator, are susceptible to these compounds with a similar concentration dependency, thereby indicating that the inhibitory effect is attributed to the direct interaction of the compound with the active center of the enzyme but not with the enzyme activator. The inhibitions were freely reversible and of the competitive type with respect to ATP and of the noncompetitive type with respect to the phosphate acceptor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Isoquinolinesulfonamides, novel and potent inhibitors of cyclic nucleotide dependent protein kinase and protein kinase C.

Metal Oxides and Oxysalts as Anode Materials for Li Ion Batteries

はじめに 非平衡大気圧プラズマ(NEAPP)を照射したプラズマ活性培養液(PAM)が、がん細 胞の選択的殺傷効果をもつために注目されている[1]。PAM には活性酸素窒素種(RONS)が含ま れ、H2O2と NO2−の相乗的抗腫瘍効果の他に、未解明の RONS も効果を高めることが示唆されて いる[2]。今回、PAM 作製時の雰囲気を N2と O2でパージすることで H2O2と NO2の生成量を制御 し、抗腫瘍効果への影響を調べたので報告する。 実験方法 ボックス内にプラズマ源を配し、N2/O2の混合ガスの比率を 100/0, 90/10, 80/20, 75/25 に変化させてパージした。3 ml の細胞培養液(DMEM) を 35 mm シャーレに満たし、大気圧 Ar プ ラズマ(60 Hz, 9 kV, 2 slm)を照射距離 13 mm として 5 min 間照射し PAM を作製した。子宮頸がん (HeLa)細胞(5000 細胞)を、96 ウェルプレート上で、DMEM で 2 倍に希釈した PAM 及び H2O2 と NO2−を添加した DMEM を用いて 24 h 培養した。PAM 中 H2O2, NO2生成量及び細胞生存率を、 化学プローブ法及び MTS-assay を用いて計測した。 実験結果 N2と O2の比率を変えた時の PAM 内の H2O2と NO2濃度は、酸素比率が上昇するにつ れて、H2O2濃度は減少傾向を示し、O2 20%以上で飽和、一方 NO2濃度は上昇傾向があった。図 1 に、これらの PAM を用いて細胞生存率を計測した結果を示す。H2O2 濃度に差のない O2 20%と O2 25%において、細胞生存率には有意な差が確認された。両条件と同濃度の H2O2と NO2を添加 したDMEMでは細胞生存率に有意な差はみられない。O2 25%の雰囲気で作製した PAMでは、H2O2 の濃度が低減したにも係らず、通常の大気雰囲気で作製した PAM[2]よりも強い抗腫瘍効果が顕れ た。H2O2 と NO2の相乗効果のみなら ず、未解明 RONS の影響が亢進された 可能性が示唆される。 謝辞 本研究は KAKENHI(24108002) の助成を受けた。 参考文献

Enhancement of antitumor effect of plasma-activated medium

Noninvasive estimation of pulmonary capillary wedge pressure in patients with mitral regurgitation by speckle tracking echocardiography

The formation of Pr oxide films by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique using Pr(EtCp)3 and H2O was investigated in this study. The ALD-mode growth of Pr oxide films at a rate of 0.07 nm/cycle and a thickness variation of less than 2% on 3-in. Si wafers was achieved. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images and transmission electron diffraction (TED) patterns revealed that polycrystalline cubic Pr2O3 films were grown on Si(001) substrates. On the other hand, epitaxial growth of the cubic Pr2O3 film was clearly observed on a Si(111) substrate. According to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses, the C content of the ALD-Pr oxide film grown at 130 °C is 1.6%. Relatively fine capacitance–voltage curves were observed for the Al/ALD-Pr oxide/Si(001) capacitors. The interface state density between the 130 °C-grown ALD-Pr oxide film and the Si(001) substrate is about 1×1011 cm-2 eV-1. The dielectric constant of the ALD-Pr oxide film grown at 250 °C was determined to be about 18, assuming that the dielectric constant of the interlayers is similar to that of SiO2.

Formation of Pr Oxide Films by Atomic Layer Deposition using Pr(EtCp) 3 Precursor

Crystal structure of the biotin carboxylase subunit of pyruvate carboxylase

Phenylglycine undergoes transamination with 2-oxoglutaric acid in the presence of N-dodecylpyridoxal chloride (DPL) and hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTACl) under mild conditions. This is the first example of nonenzymatic overall transamination realized in the absence of metal ions.

Hiroki Kondo

Papers

Enhancement of antitumor effect of plasma-activated medium

Noninvasive estimation of pulmonary capillary wedge pressure in patients with mitral regurgitation by speckle tracking echocardiography

Formation of Pr Oxide Films by Atomic Layer Deposition using Pr(EtCp) 3 Precursor

Crystal structure of the biotin carboxylase subunit of pyruvate carboxylase

Nonenzymatic Transamination of Phenylglycine with 2-Oxoglutaric Acid Mediated by a Micellar Pyridoxal Model