Fossil tubeworms link coastal uplift of the northern Noto Peninsula to rupture of the Wajima-oki fault in AD 1729

The active fault zone on the seafloor off the northern coast of the Noto Peninsula of central Japan is divided into four segments from west to east: Monzen-oki, Saruyama-oki, Wajima-oki, and Suzu-oki. To examine the latest event that occurred in these segments, we investigated the dates and elevations of fossilized intertidal tubeworms along the northern coast of the Noto Peninsula, located on the hanging-wall sides of the faults, using radioactive carbon dating and global positioning measurements. For each fossil, we calculated the difference between the past and present elevation, thereby estimating the elevation of the sea level at the date of the fossil, using a curve for sea level change. This calculation provided us with the elevation change at each site. The vertical changes estimated from the elevations and ages of the intertidal tubeworms revealed that the coastal emergence probably occurred between 1600 and 1800 AD. This area of coastal emergence lies adjacent to active faults within the Wajima-oki segment. A model for rectangular faults with three fault planes and a moment magnitude of 6.6 for the Wajima-oki segment reproduced the observed pattern of coastal emergence well. Only one damaging earthquake, that in 1729, is known to have occurred in this part of the northern Noto Peninsula between 1600 and 1800 AD, and there has not been one since 1800 AD. The slip distribution of the fault predicted by the model is consistent with the distribution of shaking-related damage documented in 1729. We conclude that rupture of the Wajima-oki segment caused the 1729 earthquake. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.Embargo Period 24 month

Tunneling and rattling in clathrate crystal

We present tunneling and rattling motions of an off-center guest atom in cage referring to a clathrate crystal La_3Pd_{20}Ge_6. The elastic constant C_{44} of La_3Pd_{20}Ge_6 shows a Debye-type dispersion around 20 K obeying a relaxation time tau = tau_0exp(E/k_{B}T) with an attempt time tau_0 = 2.0*10^{-12} sec and an activation energy E = 197 K. At low temperatures below 3 K down to 20 mK, the C_{44} shows a softening of C_{44} = C_{44}^0(T-T_C^0)/(T-Theta) with T_C^0 = -337.970 mK and Theta = -338.044 mK. These facts are attributed to two different types of the off-center motions with Gamma_5 symmetry in 4a-site cage of La_3Pd_{20}Ge_6, a thermally activated rattling motion over the potential hill and a tunneling motion through the potential hill at low temperatures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to be published Phys. Rev.

ZnO nanorods prepared via ablation of Zn with millisecond laser in liquid media

ZnO nanomaterials with controlled size, shape and surface chemistry are required for applications in diverse areas, such as optoelectronics, photocatalysis, biomedicine and so on. Here, we report on ZnO nanostructures with rod-like and spherical shapes prepared via laser ablation in liquid using a laser with millisecond-long pulses. By changing laser parameters (such as pulse width and peak power), the size or aspect ratio of such nanostructures could be tuned. The surface chemistry and defects of the products were also strongly affected by applied laser conditions. The preparation of different structures is explained by the intense heating of liquid media caused by millisecond-long pulses and secondary irradiation of already-formed nanostructures

Inverted bulk-heterojunction organic solar cell using chemical bath deposited titanium oxide as electron collection layer

金沢大学理工研究域物質化学系Chemical bath deposited titanium oxide (TiOx ) as an electron collection layer is introduced between the organic layer and the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode for improving the performance of inverted bulk-heterojunction organic thin film solar cells with 1 cm2 active area, where regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) were mainly used as the photo-active layer. The uniform and thin TiOx film was easily prepared onto the ITO electrode in air by simple chemical bath deposition method. The cell performance was almost maintained in an ambient atmosphere under continuous light irradiation of 100 h despite non-sealing. The cell with bulk-heterojunction organic thin film consisted of [6.6] diphenyl C62 bis(butyric acid methyl ester) (bis-PCBM) and P3HT prepared under best condition showed the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.8% under the AM1.5G simulated sunlight. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

CYK4 relaxes the bias in the off-axis motion by MKLP1 kinesin-6

Centralspindlin, a complex of the MKLP1 kinesin-6 and CYK4 GAP subunits, plays key roles in metazoan cytokinesis. CYK4-binding to the long neck region of MKLP1 restricts the configuration of the two MKLP1 motor domains in the centralspindlin. However, it is unclear how the CYK4-binding modulates the interaction of MKLP1 with a microtubule. Here, we performed three-dimensional nanometry of a microbead coated with multiple MKLP1 molecules on a freely suspended microtubule. We found that beads driven by dimeric MKLP1 exhibited persistently left-handed helical trajectories around the microtubule axis, indicating torque generation. By contrast, centralspindlin, like monomeric MKLP1, showed similarly left-handed but less persistent helical movement with occasional rightward movements. Analysis of the fluctuating helical movement indicated that the MKLP1 stochastically makes off-axis motions biased towards the protofilament on the left. CYK4-binding to the neck domains in MKLP1 enables more flexible off-axis motion of centralspindlin, which would help to avoid obstacles along crowded spindle microtubules