Dependence of the Internal Structure on Water/Particle Volume Ratio in an Amphiphilic Janus Particle–Water–Oil Ternary System: From Micelle-like Clusters to Emulsions of Spherical Droplets

Amphiphilic Janus particles (AJP), composed of hydrophilic and hydrophobic hemispheres, are one of the simplest anisotropic colloids, and they exhibit higher surface activities than particles with homogeneous surface properties. Consequently, a ternary system of AJP, water, and oil can form extremely stable Pickering emulsions, with internal structures that depend on the Janus structure of the particles and the system composition. However, the detail of these structures has not been fully explored, especially for the composition range where the amount of the minority liquid phase and AJP are comparable, where one would expect the Janus characteristics to be directly reflected. In this study, we varied the volume ratio of the particles and the minority liquid phase, water, by 2 orders of magnitude around the comparable composition range, and observed the resultant structures at the resolution of the individual particle dimensions by optical microscopy. When the volume ratio of water is smaller than that of the Janus particles, capillary interactions between the hydrophilic hemispheres of the particles induce micelle-like clusters in which the hydrophilic sides of the particles face inward. With increasing water content, these clusters grow into a rodlike morphology. When the water volume exceeds that of the particles, the structure transforms into an emulsion state composed of spherical droplets, colloidosomes, because of the surface activity of particles at the liquid–liquid interface. Thus, we found that a change in volume fraction alters the mechanism of structure formation in the ternary system, and large resulting morphological changes in the self-assembled structures reflect the anisotropy of the particles. The self-assembly shows essential commonalities with that in microemulsions of surfactant molecules, however the AJP system is stabilized only kinetically. Analysis of the dependence of the emulsion droplet size on composition shows that almost all the particles are adsorbed at the water–oil interface; i.e., the particles show ideal surface activity

Clinico-demographic factors associated with the treatment response to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia

Abstract Background Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is among the recommended non-pharmacological treatments for patients with insomnia. While there are multiple reports on the effects of CBT-I treatment, few studies evaluating the factors associated with the treatment response to CBT-I have been reported. The present study aimed to confirm the effects of CBT-I in patients with insomnia and to examine the clinico-demographic factors that can predict the outcomes of CBT-I in these patients. Methods Overall, 62 patients were included in the present study. To confirm the effectiveness of CBT-I, we compared the pre- and post-CBT-I therapy values of several sleep parameters. Furthermore, to identify the clinico-demographic factors that could be predictive of the treatment response to CBT-I, we performed generalized linear model (GLM) analysis. Results The values of several sleep parameters were significantly lower after treatment than at baseline. The results of the GLM analysis revealed that sex and occupation were significantly associated with the treatment response to CBT-I. Conclusions The present results suggest that several clinico-demographic factors should be considered in the treatment of patients with insomnia

Evaluation of superconducting characteristics on the thin-film structure by NbN and Insulator coatings on pure Nb substrate

International audienceIn recent years, it is pointed out that the maximum accelerating gradient of a superconducting RF cavity can be pushed up by coating the inner surface of cavity with a multilayer thin-film structure that consists of alternate insulator and superconductive layers. In this structure, the principal parameter that limits the performance of the cavity is the critical magnetic field or effective Hc1 at which vortices start penetrate into the first superconductor layer. We made a sample that has NbN/SiO2 thin-film structure on pure Nb substrate by DC magnetron sputtering method. In this paper, we will report the measurement results of effective Hc1 of the sample by the third-harmonic voltage method

Lower Critical Field Measurement of Thin Film Superconductor

International audienceSuperconducting thin film is the promising technology to increase the performance of SRF cavities. The lower critical field Hc1, which is one of the important physical parameters characterizing a superconducting material, will be enhanced by coating Nb with thin film superconductor such as NbN. To investigate the Hc1, we developed the Hc1 measurement system using the third harmonic response of applied AC magnetic field. The measurement system consists of helium cryostat with two of GM refrigerators, sample Cu stage, solenoid coil Cu mount, solenoid coil, temperature sensors, and liquid helium level meter. AC magnetic field is produced by a coil which is driven by function generator and power amplifier at around 1 kHz. In order to control the temperature of the sample, we installed heaters and thermal anchors which could be moved by the motor. By this temperature control the sample state can be easily transferred from Meissner state to mixed state. So that the measurement is repeated for various applied magnetic field, and the transition curve can be made. In this report, measurement result of the bulk Nb sample and NbN-SiO2 multilayer thin film sample will be discussed

Lower Critical Field Measurement System of Thin Film Superconductor

International audienceSuperconducting thin film is the promising technology to increase the performance of SRF cavities. The lower critical field Hc1, which is one of the important physical parameters characterizing a superconducting material, will be enhanced by coating Nb with thin film superconductor such as NbN. To investigate the performance of thin film, we developed the Hc1 measurement system using the third harmonic response of applied AC magnetic field. The measurement system consists of helium cryostat with two of GM refrigerators, sample Cu stage, solenoid coil Cu mount, solenoid coil, temperature sensors, and liquid helium level meter. AC magnetic field is produced by a coil which is driven by function generator and power amplifier at around 1 kHz. In order to control the temperature of the sample stage and coil mount, the depth of thermal anchors attached to the stage and the mount can be moved by the motor. By this temperature control the sample state can be easily transferred from Meissner state to mixed state. So that the measurement is repeated for various applied magnetic field, and the transition curve can be made. In this report, performance of the measurement system is described

Precise Evaluation of Characteristic of the Multi-layer Thin-film Superconductor Consisting of NbN and Insulator on Pure Nb Substrate

International audienceIn recent years, it has been pointed out that the maximum accelerating gradient of a superconducting RF cavity can be pushed up by coating the inner surface of the cavity with a multilayer thin-film structure that consists of alternating insulating and superconducting layers. In this structure, the principal parameter that limits the performance of the cavity is the critical magnetic field or effective Hc1 at which vortices start penetrating into the superconductor layer, and it is predicted to depend on the combination of the film thickness. We made samples that have NbN/SiO2 thin-film structure on pure Nb substrate with several thicknesses of NbN film deposited using DC magnetron sputtering method. Here, we report the measurement results of effective Hc1 of the NbN sample with a thickness of 200 nm by using the third-harmonic voltage method. In addition, we report the preliminary results to evaluate the dependence of the effective Hc1 on the thickness of the NbN film in the range 50 nm-200 nm

Application of MinION Amplicon Sequencing to Buccal Swab Samples for Improving Resolution and Throughput of Rumen Microbiota Analysis

The Illumina MiSeq platform has been widely used as a standard method for studying the rumen microbiota. However, the low resolution of taxonomic identification is the only disadvantage of MiSeq amplicon sequencing, as it targets a part of the 16S rRNA gene. In the present study, we performed three experiments to establish a high-resolution and high-throughput rumen microbial profiling approach using a combination of MinION platform and buccal swab sample, which is a proxy for rumen contents. In experiment 1, rumen contents and buccal swab samples were collected simultaneously from cannulated cattle (n = 6) and used for microbiota analysis using three different analytical workflows: amplicon sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene using MiSeq and amplicon sequencing of near full-length 16S rRNA gene using MinION or PacBio Sequel II. All reads derived from the MinION and PacBio platforms were classified at the species-level. In experiment 2, rumen fluid samples were collected from beef cattle (n = 28) and used for 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing using the MinION platform to evaluate this sequencing platform for rumen microbiota analysis. We confirmed that the MinION platform allowed species-level taxa assignment for the predominant bacterial groups, which were previously identified at the family- and genus-level using the MiSeq platform. In experiment 3, buccal swab samples were collected from beef cattle (n = 30) and used for 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing using the MinION platform to validate the applicability of a combination of the MinION platform and buccal swab samples for rumen microbiota analysis. The distribution of predominant bacterial taxa in the buccal swab samples was similar to that in the rumen samples observed in experiment 2. Based on these results, we concluded that the combination of the MinION platform and buccal swab samples may be potentially applied for rumen microbial analysis in large-scale studies