Angelica keiskei, an emerging medicinal herb with various bioactive constituents and biological activities.

Angelica keiskei (Miq.) Koidz. (Umbelliferae) has traditionally been used to treat dysuria, dyschezia, and dysgalactia as well as to restore vitality. Recently, the aerial parts of A. keiskei have been consumed as a health food. Various flavonoids, coumarins, phenolics, acetylenes, sesquiterpene, diterpene, and triterpenes were identified as the constituents of A. keiskei. The crude extracts and pure constituents were proven to inhibit tumor growth and ameliorate inflammation, obesity, diabetics, hypertension, and ulcer. The extract also showed anti-thrombotic, anti-oxidative, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-viral, and anti-bacterial activities. This valuable herb needs to be further studied and developed not only to treat these human diseases but also to improve human health. Currently A. keiskei is commercialized as a health food and additives in health drinks. This article presents a comprehensive review of A. keiskei and its potential place in the improvement of human health

Galaxy Bias and its Effects on the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations Measurements

The baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the clustering of matter in the universe serves as a robust standard ruler and hence can be used to map the expansion history of the universe. We use high force resolution simulations to analyze the effects of galaxy bias on the measurements of the BAO signal. We apply a variety of Halo Occupation Distributions (HODs) and produce biased mass tracers to mimic different galaxy populations. We investigate whether galaxy bias changes the non-linear shifts on the acoustic scale relative to the underlying dark matter distribution presented by Seo et al (2009). For the less biased HOD models (b < 3), we do not detect any shift in the acoustic scale relative to the no-bias case, typically 0.10% \pm 0.10%. However, the most biased HOD models (b > 3) show a shift at moderate significance (0.79% \pm 0.31% for the most extreme case). We test the one-step reconstruction technique introduced by Eisenstein et al. (2007) in the case of realistic galaxy bias and shot noise. The reconstruction scheme increases the correlation between the initial and final (z = 1) density fields achieving an equivalent level of correlation at nearly twice the wavenumber after reconstruction. Reconstruction reduces the shifts and errors on the shifts. We find that after reconstruction the shifts from the galaxy cases and the dark matter case are consistent with each other and with no shift. The 1-sigma systematic errors on the distance measurements inferred from our BAO measurements with various HODs after reconstruction are about 0.07% - 0.15%.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. 21 pages, 10 figure

First-Principles Study of Electronic Structure in α\alpha-(BEDT-TTF)2_2I3_3 at Ambient Pressure and with Uniaxial Strain

Within the framework of the density functional theory, we calculate the electronic structure of $\alpha$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$I$_3$ at 8K and room temperature at ambient pressure and with uniaxial strain along the $a$- and $b$-axes. We confirm the existence of anisotropic Dirac cone dispersion near the chemical potential. We also extract the orthogonal tight-binding parameters to analyze physical properties. An investigation of the electronic structure near the chemical potential clarifies that effects of uniaxial strain along the a-axis is different from that along the b-axis. The carrier densities show $T^2$ dependence at low temperatures, which may explain the experimental findings not only qualitatively but also quantitatively.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation Rate in Iron-Pnictide Superconductors

Nuclear magnetic relaxation rate 1/T_1 in iron-pnictide superconductors is calculated using the gap function obtained in a microscopic calculation. Based on the obtained results, we discuss the issues such as the rapid decrease of 1/T_1 just below the transition temperature and the difference between nodeless and nodal s-wave gap functions. We also investigate the effect of Coulomb interaction on 1/T_1 in the random phase approximation and show its importance in interpreting the experimental results.Comment: Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity. To be published in Physica

Incommensurate Mott Insulator in One-Dimensional Electron Systems close to Quarter Filling

A possibility of a metal-insulator transition in molecular conductors has been studied for systems composed of donor molecules and fully ionized anions with an incommensurate ratio close to 2:1 based on a one-dimensional extended Hubbard model, where the donor carriers are slightly deviated from quarter filling and under an incommensurate periodic potential from the anions. By use of the renormalization group method, interplay between commensurability energy on the donor lattice and that from the anion potential has been studied and it has been found that an "incommensurate Mott insulator" can be generated. This theoretical finding will explain the metal-insulator transition observed in (MDT-TS)(AuI$_2$)$_{0.441}$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. at December 24 200

Metallic characteristics in superlattices composed of insulators, NdMnO3/SrMnO3/LaMnO3

We report on the electronic properties of superlattices composed of three different antiferromagnetic insulators, NdMnO3/SrMnO3/LaMnO3 grown on SrTiO3 substrates. Photoemission spectra obtained by tuning the x-ray energy at the Mn 2p -> 3d edge show a Fermi cut-off, indicating metallic behavior mainly originating from Mn e_g electrons. Furthermore, the density of states near the Fermi energy and the magnetization obey a similar temperature dependence, suggesting a correlation between the spin and charge degrees of freedom at the interfaces of these oxides