Growth of single-crystals of apatite-type oxide ionic conductor from sintered ceramics by a seeding method

A hexagonal apatite-type La_9.33Si₆O₂₆ single crystal as an oxide ionic conductor has been successfully prepared by a method which is based on the single crystallization of the sintered polycrystalline La_9.33Si₆O₂₆ ceramic on the surface of seed single crystal without their melt. The anisotropy in its conductivity was observed: conductivity component parallel to the c-axis was ca. 100 times higher than the perpendicular component.     

Flow cytometry-based method for isolating live bacteria with meta-cleavage activity on dihydroxy compounds of biphenyl

A new method for isolating targeted live bacterial cells was established with the use of cell sorting by flow cytometry (FCM) based on the fluorescence of the intermediate metabolite of biphenyl degradation. During biphenyl degradation, a PCB degrader, Comamonas testosteroni TK102, produces a meta-cleavage intermediate metabolite, 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhexa-2,4-dienoic acid (HOPDA), which emits green fluorescence. HOPDA was produced from 2,3-dihydroxy biphenyl as a substrate, but it was not appropriate for labeling cells because it was released from the cells into the medium. When we used 4-n-butylbiphenyl and 4-n-heptylbiphenyl, we found that the cells produced and accumulated 2,3-dihydroxy intermediate metabolites. By the addition of synthesized 2,3-dihydroxy-4′-butylbiphenyl (2,3-DHBBP), we were able to label the cells with strong green fluorescence, suggesting the persistence of fluorescent intermediate metabolite in the cells by the introduction of the alkyl tail. 2,3-DHBBP was then used to label strain TK102 and the cells were sorted with FCM. The sorting efficiency of FCM was defined as the percentage of colony numbers per sorting events. Strain TK102 cells were successfully enriched by 4.1-fold from the mixture with environmental indigenous bacteria with a sorting efficiency of 7.3%. The method we present here serves as a basic technique for the specific and direct isolation of live bacterial cells which contain dioxygenases active on dihydroxylated aromatic compounds.     

Preservation of transmission probabilities in the method of characteristics

An efficient calculation scheme for the method of characteristics, which allows coarser ray separation width, is newly proposed. Effective lengths of characteristics lines are evaluated from the viewpoint of preservation of transmission probability in the present method. The effective lengths to preserve transmission probabilities can be rigorously estimated through detailed numerical integrations. However, calculation and storage of all effective lengths is inefficient since the transmission probabilities depend on many parameters such as azimuthal angle, polar angle, position of characteristics line, and total cross section. To resolve this issue, in this paper, the analytical equations for the effective lengths are derived from an assumption that distribution function of actual characteristics lengths can be expressed by a linear function. The new approach introduced in this paper is named as transmission probability preservation through linear approximation (TPPL). Verification results indicate that accurate results can be obtained by the TPPL even if ray separation width becomes coarse.     

Rheological analysis of the adhesion surface with a scanning probe microscope (SPM)

The frictional forces between pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs), including rosin tackifier resin, and a probe tip were measured with scanning probe microscopy (SPM). A peak that appeared in the scanning rate-frictional force curve shifted to a lower scanning rate with decrease in temperature. The frictional force reflects rheological behavior of the PSA. In the case of the miscible system, the tendency of a peak to shift to a lower scanning rate was observed with increase in tackifier content; however, in the case of the immiscible system, no remarkable shift was observed. The frictional force is influenced by viscoelastic properties of the PSA, which systematically changed with miscibility. The high-scanning rate resulted in the interfacial failure on the surface, while the low-scanning rate resulted in the cohesion failure.     

Synthesis,characterization, and photovoltaic applications of dithienogermole-dithienylbenzothiadiazole and -dithienylthiazolothiazole copolymers

New dithienogermole-based conjugated polymers were synthesized by the Stille coupling reactions of distannyldithienogermole and dibromoarene, and their photovoltaic properties were studied. These polymers possess low band gaps with broad absorptions covering the 400–800 nm range, and exhibit good film forming properties. Bulk hetero-junction solar cells prepared from blends of these polymers with PC₇₀BM exhibit high power conversion efficiency up to 2.38%.     

Running stabilization control of electric vehicle based on cornering stiffness estimation

In this paper, novel direct yaw moment control (DYC) with road condition estimation and anti‐slip control is proposed for electric vehicles. An inner‐loop observer controls the vehicle traction, and an outer‐loop observer stabilizes the yawing motion of the vehicle. An immeasurable parameter known as cornering stiffness is estimated from the detected yaw‐rate, steering angle, wheel speed and yaw moment observer output in real time. Thus, the accurate control input can be generated with the estimated parameters. The proposed adaptive control is compared with a conventional robust control method under dry and snowy terrain conditions. Experimental results show that the proposed control algorithm properly attenuates the yaw‐rate error. ©2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 166(4): 97–104, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20569     

A novel printing technique for highly integrated organic devices

A new printing technology is described, which is capable of printing metallic electrodes onto organic layers. Electrodes are defined on top of a sacrificial layer by optical or nano-imprint lithography. To increase the stability of the process the electrodes are coated with several backing layers. The metallic features are released from the sacrificial layer by immersion in water and subsequently transferred onto the target substrate. By the use of nano-imprint lithography, feature sizes below 100 nm are achieved. The strengths of the printing technology are high integration density, versatility and reproducibility.     

Circuits simulation of switch devices furnished with gain cell combined to FeRAM

Abstract

This paper has described a new concept on programmable switch device furnished with gain cell combined to FeRAM. Compared with memories but ferroelectric memories under many aspects, they have even been favorably labeled the ideal memory because of their non-volatility, ease of programming and operation by low voltage. As the programming switch, which is very attractive for logic application, SRAM, anti-fuse, flash type devices are well known. They have been required that satisfy non-volatility and low-voltage programming simultaneously. Some structures with ferroelectric material have been proposed and studied as solution of these problems. However, it seemed hard that these type devices are realized now from a viewpoint of fabrication process and low voltage operation. Therefore, we propose a new switch device furnished with gain cell combined to FeRAM. We have studied and simulated this switch device by SPICE. This basic circuit is composed of two blocks. One is switching block that includes gain cell, and the other is memory block that is FeRAM. Circuits, which we designed, amplify bit line's voltage up to Vdd or ground at sense amplification according to FeRAM data. The bit line voltage determines the logic state for gate electrode of switch transistor. The way to read is destructive read out. However, we can transfer information of bit line voltage during plate line is low-level voltage. The way to write FeRAM is similar to conventional way. It is revealed that the basic circuit with FeRAM connected gain cell could work correctly in simulation. In addition, this kind of device is hopeful of many logic applications.