While the rotation curve of the inner Galactic disk is well determined, study of the outer rotation curve requires observational measurements of distances and proper motions of individual sources in the Outer Galaxy. We report astrometric observation for water maser sources in the Outer Galactic disk conducted with VERA, aiming to measure the Outer Rotation Curve. We have measured annual parallaxes and proper motions for these objects. Our result was consistent with recent other works based on astrometry and classical Cepheid observations. Epicyclic frequency seems to suggest that 2 and 4 spiral mode are dominant in the inner and outer Galaxy, respectively.

The Perseus arm has a gap in Galactic longitudes (l) between 50° and 80° where the arm has little star formation activity. To understand the gap, we conducted VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) astrometry and analyzed archival H <SC>I</SC> data. We report on parallax and proper motion results from four star-forming regions, of which G050.28–00.39 and G070.33+01.59 are associated with the gap. Perseus-arm sources G049.41+00.32 and G050.28–00.39 lag relative to a Galactic rotation by 77 ± 17 km s-1 and 31 ± 10 km s-1, respectively. The noncircular motion of G049.41+00.32 cannot be explained by the gravitational potential of the arm. We discovered rectangular holes with integrated brightness temperatures less than 30 K arcdeg in l vs. VLSR of the H <SC>I</SC> data. Also, we found extended H <SC>I</SC> emission on one side of the Galactic plane when integrating the H <SC>I</SC> data over the velocity range covering the hole. G049.41+00.32 and G050.28–00.39 are moving toward the emission. The Galactic H <SC>I</SC> disk at the same velocity range showed an arc structure, indicating that the disk was pushed from the lower side of the disk. All the observational results might be explained by a cloud collision with the Galactic disk.

The aims of this research communication were to investigate the in vivo tissue accumulation of phytanic acid (PA) and any changes in the tissue fatty acid profiles in mice. Previous in vitro studies have demonstrated that PA is a milk component with the potential to cause both beneficial effects on lipid and glucose metabolism and detrimental effects on neuronal cells. However, there is limited information about its in vivo actions. In this study, mice were fed diets containing either 0.00 or 0.05% 3RS, 7R, 11R-PA, which is the isomer found in milk and the human body. After 4 weeks, adipose tissue, liver and brain were harvested and their fatty acid profiles were determined by gas chromatographic analysis. The results showed that PA and its metabolite pristanic acid accumulated in the adipose tissue of PA-fed mice, and that dietary PA decreased the hepatic compositions of several saturated fatty acids such as palmitic acid while increasing the compositions of polyunsaturated fatty acids including linoleic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. However, dietary PA neither accumulated nor had a high impact on the fatty acid profile in the brain. These results suggested that dietary PA could exert its biological activities in adipose tissue and liver, although the brain is relatively less affected by dietary PA. These data provide a basis for understanding the in vivo physiological actions of PA.

Periodic array of metallic nanocylinder combined with the highly luminous dielectric layer is a good platform to control the intensity, spectral shape and directionality of photoluminescence (PL). In spite of its importance, the effect of cylinder height on the PL properties has not been verified experimentally. Here we investigate the effect of cylinder height on the PL properties both experimentally and numerically. The system consisted of a highly luminous layer made of Eu(III) complex and a series of periodic array of aluminum nanocylinders with different heights. The strongest directional PL was achieved when the height is similar to the diameter, i.e., the aspect ratio close to unity. Our finding is useful for designing the compact and efficient luminescence source with directional output.

We report a recent result of the FUGIN project, a Galactic plane CO survey using the Nobeyama 45-m Telescope and the FOREST receiver. In the third galactic quadrant, 42 square degrees are observed and 4752 molecular clouds are detected. Among them, 12 clouds are located at R (distance from the Galactic center) > 16 kpc. Molecular clouds at R < 16 kpc trace the Local, Perseus, and Outer arms.

We report a non-detection of CO(J=1-0) emission from one of the brightest Hii regions in the extended UV (XUV) disks of M 83 with on-source integration time of 11 hours.

We present high resolution molecular line observations of dusty AGN and starburst in nearby luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), VV 114 (band 3/4/7) and NGC 1614 (band 3/6/7/9), with ALMA. Multi-frequency imaging from 4.8 GHz to 691 GHz of NGC 1614 allows us to study spatial properties of the radio-to-FIR continuum and multiple CO transitions, and we find the CO excitation up to Jupp = 6 can be explained by a single ISM model powered by nuclear starbursts. Our processing line imaging survey for VV 114 detected at least 30 molecular lines which show different chemical composition from region to region. Multi-molecule imaging helps us to diagnose the chemical differences of dusty ISM, while multi-transition imaging allows us to investigate gas physical conditions affected by nuclear activities directly.

We present a measurement of the trigonometric parallax of IRAS 05168+3634 with VERA. The parallax is 0.532 ± 0.053 milli-arcsec, corresponding to a distance of 1.88+0.21−0.17 kpc. This is significantly closer than the previous distance estimate of 6 kpc based on a kinematic distance measurement. This drastic change in the source distance implies the need for revised values of not only the physical parameters of IRAS 05168+3634, but it also impies a different location in the Galaxy, placing it in the Perseus arm rather than the Outer arm. We also measured the proper motion of the source. A combination of the distance and proper motion with the systemic velocity yields a rotation velocity Θ = 227+9−11 km s−1 at the source position, assuming Θ0 = 240 km s−1. Our result, combined with previous VLBI results for six sources in the Perseus arm, indicates that the sources rotate systematically more slowly than the Galactic rotation velocity at the local standard of rest. In fact, we derive peculiar motions in the disk averaged over the seven sources in the Perseus arm of (Umean, Vmean) = (11 ± 3, −17 ± 3) km s−1, which indicates that these seven sources are moving systematically toward the Galactic Center and lag behind the overall Galactic rotation.

We aim to reveal the mass distribution of the Galaxy based on a precise rotation curve constructed using VERA observations. We have been observing Galactic H2O masers with VERA. We here report one of the results of VERA for IRAS 05168+3634. The parallax is 0.532 ± 0.053 mas which corresponds to a distance of 1.88+0.21−0.17 kpc, and the proper motions are (μαcosδ, μδ) = (0.23 ± 1.07, −3.14 ± 0.28) mas yr−1. The distance is significantly smaller than the previous distance estimate of 6 kpc based on a kinematic distance. This drastic change places the source in the Perseus arm rather than in the Outer arm. Combination of the distance and the proper motions with the systemic velocity provides a rotation velocity of 227+9−11 km s−1 at the source assuming Θ0 = 240 km s−1. The result is marginally slower than the rotation velocity at LSR with ~ 1−σ significance, but consistent with previous VLBI results for six sources in the Perseus arm. We also show the averaged disk peculiar motion over the seven sources in the Perseus arm as (Umean, Vmean) = (11 ± 3, −17 ± 3) km s−1. It suggests that the seven sources in the Perseus arm are systematically moving toward the Galactic center, and lag behind the Galactic rotation with more than 3-σ significance.

A series of novel ionic chromophores consisting of a carbazole moiety and pyridinium rings connected by a double bond have been designed and synthesized as nonlinear optical materials. Their linear and nonlinear optical properties were investigated by semiempirical calculation and experiment. The absorption maximum wavelengths (lmax) of these ionic chromophores showed shifting to longer wavelength region than their corresponding electrically neutral compounds. These ionic chromophores possess large first hyperpolarizabilities (b).

In the fabrication of a-Si photoreceptor for electrophotography (Fig.1), it is important to understand physical and chemical reactions in glow-discharge plasma [1] in order to improve film quality and to achieve high deposition rate [2] and uniformity of the film, because of its thickness of about 30 μm and large area.