Estimation and comparison of nitrogen loads and attenuation in agricultural catchments of Japan and Korea.

To help in clarifying the relationship between the time lag and attenuation of nitrogen (N) loads generated in agricultural catchments, long-term trends in activities that generate N loads and in environmental N loads were estimated in catchments in Japan and Korea dominated by non-point-source emissions. Our approach used statistical data and geographical information system software to analyze pollutant loads. The method was successful in both countries because of the availability of well-developed statistics, geographical information, and weather and water quality monitoring systems, and the accumulation of research data concerning the generation of N loads and the fate of N in soils. Comparison of environmental loads with the loads observed in river water at the outlet of each catchment revealed that: (1) the effect of changes in the environmental load in a catchment appeared almost immediately in the river water quality in Korea, but did not appear clearly even 10 years later in Japan; and (2) the strength of the attenuation appeared to be much lower in Korea than in Japan. These findings suggest that regional characteristics play important roles in the sensitivity of water quality to load-generating activities.     

Optical properties of O2 − centres in KCl∶NaCl mixed crystals

The optical properties of O₂ ^– centres in KClNaCl mixed crystals were investigated. The timeresolved spectra and the fluorescence decay time are shown. From the measurements of the radiative decay time, the oscillator strength of the absorption,f _ab=0.045, the oscillator strength of the fluorescence,f _fluo=0.019, and the activation energy E=0.22 eV for the O₂ ^– centre in KClNaCl were determined.     

Efficient Leave-<Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis>-out Cross-Validation of Support Vector Regression by Generalizing Decremental Algorithm

We propose a computationally efficient method for cross-validation of the Support Vector Regression (SVR) by generalizing the decremental algorithm of SVR. Incremental and decremental algorithm of Support Vector Machines (SVM) ^{2, 8, 9)} efficiently update the trained SVM model when a single data point is added to or removed from the training set. The computational cost of leave-one-out cross-validation can be reduced using the decremental algorithm. However, when we perform leave-m-out cross-validation (m > 1), we have to repeatedly apply the decremental algorithm for each data point. In this paper, we extend the decremental algorithm of SVR^{8, 9)} in such a way that several data points can be removed more efficiently. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach can reduce the computational cost. In particular, we observed that the number of breakpoints, which is the main computational cost of the involved path-following, were reduced from \({\mathcal O}(m)\) to \({\mathcal O}(\sqrt{m})\).     

Object oriented programming in Concurrent Prolog

It is shown that the basic operations of object-oriented programming languages — creating an, object, sending and receiving messages, modifying an object’s state, and forming class-superclass hierarchies — can be implemented naturally in Concurrent Prolog. In addition, a new object-oriented programming paradigm, called incomplete messages, is presented. This paradigm subsumes stream communication, and greatly simplifies the complexity of programs defining communication networks and protocols for managing shared resources. Several interesting programs are presented, including a multiple-window manager. All programs have been developed and tested using the Concurrent Prolog interpreter described in.¹⁾     

Col4a3-/- Mice on Balb/C Background Have Less Severe Cardiorespiratory Phenotype and SGLT2 Over-Expression Compared to 129x1/SvJ and C57Bl/6 Backgrounds

Alport syndrome (AS) is a hereditary renal disorder with no etiological therapy. In the preclinical Col4a3^-/- model of AS, disease progression and severity vary depending on mouse strain. The sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) is emerging as an attractive therapeutic target in cardiac/renal pathologies, but its application to AS remains untested. This study investigates cardiorespiratory function and SGLT2 renal expression in Col4a3^-/- mice from three different genetic backgrounds, 129x1/SvJ, C57Bl/6 and Balb/C. male Col4a3^-/- 129x1/SvJ mice displayed alterations consistent with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Female, but not male, C57Bl/6 and Balb/C Col4a3^-/- mice exhibited mild changes in systolic and diastolic function of the heart by echocardiography. Male C57Bl/6 Col4a3^-/- mice presented systolic dysfunction by invasive hemodynamic analysis. All strains except Balb/C males demonstrated alterations in respiratory function. SGLT2 expression was significantly increased in AS compared to WT mice from all strains. However, cardiorespiratory abnormalities and SGLT2 over-expression were significantly less in AS Balb/C mice compared to the other two strains. Systolic blood pressure was significantly elevated only in mutant 129x1/SvJ mice. The results provide further evidence for strain-dependent cardiorespiratory and hypertensive phenotype variations in mouse AS models, corroborated by renal SGLT2 expression, and support ongoing initiatives to develop SGLT2 inhibitors for the treatment of AS.     

Compositional design of Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 for highly reliableferroelectric memories

We have investigated Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) film composition suitable for highly reliable ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) application. To obtain a wide operational margin for 2T/2C (two transistors and two capacitors) FeRAMs, the PZT film capacitor is needed to have a low coercive voltage (V_c) and a high dielectric constant on the polarization switching (ϵ_S) and a low dielectric constant on the nonswitching (ϵ_N), or essentially a large ϵ_S/ϵ_N ratio. Concerning the B-site composition in the perovskite structure, it is found that lowering the Zr/Ti ratio from 47/53 to Ti-richer ones increases the ratio of ϵ_S/ϵ_N as a positive effect on the wide operational margin, but increased V_c as a negative effect. Taking the balance of these factors into consideration, it is concluded that an optimum composition, such as Zr/Ti=30/70, provides the maximum operational margin. The A-site composition, on the other hand, affects the long-term reliability of a PZT capacitor. The endurance to the fatigue and imprint are enhanced by reduction of the Pb-excess and dope of La in the A-site. A La-doped PZT (Zr/Ti =30/70) capacitor is successfully integrated to the 8 kbit FeRAM macro with double-layer Al wiring to confirm the feasibility of this capacitor     

1.3 /spl mu/m InGaAsN vertical cavity surface emitting lasers grown by MOCVD

The first InGaAsN VCSELs grown by MOCVD with CW lasing wavelength longer than 1.3 /spl mu/m are reported. The devices were of conventional p-i-n structure with doped DBR mirrors. CW lasing up to 65/spl deg/C was observed, with a maximum output power at room temperature of 0.8 mW for multimode devices and nearly 0.3 mW for single-mode devices.     

Analysis of an Electromagnetic Field Created by Line Current Using Constrained Interpolation Profile Method

Development of accurate schemes is a technical issue related to calculation of electromagnetic fields. This study uses constrained interpolation profile (CIP) method to analyze electromagnetic fields created by line current. This is a novel method proposed by Yabe. Comparison of results obtained using finite difference time domain (FDTD) analysis and CIP analysis indicates that CIP analysis provides higher accuracy using identical discretization. In addition, given the same level of accuracy, CIP analysis requires less memory and less calculation time