0.5-μm 3.3-V BiCMOS standard cells with 32-kilobyte cache andten-port register file

BiCMOS standard cell macros, including a 0.5-W 3-ns register file, a 0.6-W 5-ns 32-kbyte cache, a 0.2-W 3-ns table look-aside buffer (TLB), and a 0.1-W 3-ns adder, are designed with a 0.5-μm BiCMOS technology. A supply voltage of 3.3 V is used to achieve low power consumption. Several BiCMOS/CMOS circuits, such as a self-aligned threshold inverter (SATI) sense amplifier and an ECL HIT logic are used to realize high-speed operation at the low supply voltage. The performance of the BiCMOS macros is verified using a fabricated test chip     

Hydrogen absorption by Pd-coated ZrNi prepared by using Barrel-Sputtering System

To improve the durability of hydrogen storage materials against surface poisoning by impurity gases, effectiveness of Pd-coating layer prepared by using a Barrel-Sputtering System was examined for ZrNi powder. The effectiveness of Pd-coating was evaluated by activation temperature, at which Pd/ZrNi poisoned by air could be activated to absorb hydrogen. Characterization of Pd-coated ZrNi (denoted as Pd/ZrNi) by scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis and X-ray diffraction showed that a uniform Pd-coating layer was formed with the barrel-sputtering system. It was found that the poisoned Pd/ZrNi sample could be activated even at 423 K to absorb hydrogen at room temperature. This exhibits remarkable contrast to bare ZrNi, which could be only activated appreciably above 1073 K. It is concluded that the Pd-coating by barrel sputtering is quite effective to avoid the effect of surface poisoning of powdery hydrogen storage materials. However, the activation at excessively high temperature resulted in the loss of high activity to absorb hydrogen. It was concluded that this phenomenon was associated with reactions between Pd and ZrNi to form PdZr and other byproducts.     

Westernized food habits and concentrations of serum lipids in the Japanese

It has recently been reported that there exists a new 'RING-finger' protein family among the zinc-finger (Zf) proteins. Previously, we had isolated the mouse Mel-18 cDNA (mMel-18) encoding the nuclear RING-finger protein that exhibits an ability to bind to a nonspecific DNA column. Here, we have isolated and characterized the human Mel-18 cDNA (hMel-18) using the mMel-18 cDNA as a probe. The deduced hMel-18 protein contains 344 amino acids (38 kDa) with a RING-finger motif, a helix-loop-helix (HLH)-like structure and a Pro/Ser-rich region. The hMel-18 gene is conserved among vertebrates. Its mRNA is highly expressed in placenta, lung and kidney, but the level is low in liver, pancreas and skeletal muscle. Using in situ hybridization, we mapped hMel-18 to band q22 of chromosome 12. It is possible that the Mel-18/bmi-1 gene family represents a mammalian homologue of the Drosophila polycomb gene group.     

Low-threshold, highly reliable 630 nm-band AlGaIP visible laserdiodes with AlInP buried waveguide

Low-threshold, highly reliable 630 nm-band AlGaInP visible laser diodes have been developed by employing a low-loss optical waveguide buried in the AlInP layer. A low-threshold current of 19 mA at 25°C is obtained with a cavity length of 310 μm. This current is the lowest value for 630 nm-band AlGaInP visible laser diodes, to our knowledge. Our AlInP-buried laser diodes with a cavity length of 500 μm operated over 7000 h without significant degradation at 60°C and 5 mW     

A 286 mm2 256 Mb DRAM with ×32 both-ends DQ

This paper describes a 256 Mb DRAM chip architecture which provides up to ×32 wide organization. In order to minimize the die size, three new techniques: an exchangeable hierarchical data line structure, an irregular sense amp layout, and a split address bus with local redrive scheme in the both-ends DQ were introduced. A chip has been developed based on the architecture with 0.25 μm CMOS technology. The chip measures 13.25 mm×21.55 mm, which is the smallest 256 Mb DRAM ever reported. A row address strobe (RAS) access time of 26 ns was obtained under 2.8 V power supply and 85°C. In addition, a 100 MHz×32 page mode operation, namely 400 M byte/s data rate, in the standard extended data output (EDO) cycle has been successfully demonstrated     

Analysis of T-cell receptor beta of the T-cell clones reactive to the human PDC-E2 163-176 peptide in the context of HLA-DR53 in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis

T-cell-mediated autoimmune mechanisms are considered to be involved in the pathogenesis of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). In the previous study, we identified the immunodominant T-cell epitope on the E2 component of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC-E2) in patients with PBC who have HLA-DRB4*0101. In this report, we revealed that the frequency of the T cells reactive to the human PDC-E2 163-176 peptide is significantly increased in the peripheral blood of patients with PBC as compared with healthy subjects. We also confirmed that these T cells were all restricted with HLA-DRB4*01 (DR53) by using HLA-DR-transfected L cells. These results together with the evidence that the immunodominant B-cell epitope overlaps with the human T-cell epitope of the PDC-E2 antigen indicate that the T cells reactive to this epitope are closely associated with the pathogenesis of PBC at least in patients who have HLA-DR53. Therefore, we analyzed the T-cell receptor (TCR) Vbeta sequence of the five different T-cell clones and the three T-cell clones derived from three patients with PBC and healthy subjects, respectively, which are reactive to the human PDC-E2 163-176 peptide in the context of HLA-DR53. The Vbeta- and the Jbeta-gene usages were diverse among the T-cell clones (Vbeta11-Jbeta1.4, Vbeta8-Jbeta1.2, Vbeta12-Jbeta2.1, Vbeta10-Jbeta1.5, and Vbeta20-Jbeta2.1) in patients with PBC. By contrast, in the third complementarity determining region (CDR3), G was frequently found and GXG or GXS motif was identified in all T-cell clones. Moreover, RGXG motif was found in three clones generated from two patients. In healthy subjects, the Vbeta- and the Jbeta-gene usages were also diverse, and GXG and RGXG motif were found. These results indicate that the T cells may recognize the ligand (the human PDC-E2 163-176 peptide/HLA-DR53 complex) using the limited motif in the CDR3 region and that the design of CDR3-specific immunotherapy would be possible using these motifs.     

Lipid-Lowering Effect of Eriocitrin, the Main Flavonoid in Lemon Fruit, in Rats on a High-Fat and High-Cholesterol Diet

ABSTRACT:  Eriocitrin (eriodictyol 7- O -β-rutinoside) is the main flavonoid in lemon fruit. In this study, eriocitrin was investigated for its lowering effect on serum and hepatic lipids in high-fat and high-cholesterol fed rats. Rats in the control group ( N = 6) were fed a 20% lard and 1% cholesterol diet for 21 d, and rats in the 0.35% eriocitrin group ( N = 6) and 0.70% eriocitrin group ( N = 6) were fed a diet supplemented with eriocitrin 0.35% and 0.70%, respectively. The content of hepatic total cholesterol and triglyceride in the eriocitrin group was no different from that of the control group. The total cholesterol, VLDL+LDL, triglyceride, and phospholipid in the serum of the 0.35% eriocitrin group showed significantly lower concentrations than the control group ( P < 0.05), although there was no difference in the HDL concentrations among the groups. The lowering effect of eriocitrin for serum total cholesterol was thought to be caused by a decrease in VLDL+LDL. The 0.35% eriocitrin group was shown to have a significant increase in excretion of fecal bile acid ( P < 0.05) and a tendency for enhanced hepatic m-RNA levels of LDL receptor in comparison with the control group.     

Analysis of lightning surge propagation in wind farm

Wind power generation is expected to become more important in future distribution systems. Although several prospective reports such as IEC 61400‐24 and NREL SR‐500‐31115 indicate an insulation scheme and grounding design for lighting protection, there still seems to be too few investigations on the problems. This paper therefore discusses lightning surge analysis using a wind farm model with 2 or 10 ideal wind turbines. Changing parameters such as grounding resistance and lightning strike points, several cases were studied. As a result of the analysis using digital simulator ARENE, it is clear that the surge tends to propagate toward the end of a distribution line in a wind farm and there is the possibility of insulation accidents at the other wind turbines when lightning attacks a wind turbine. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 162(2): 30– 38, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20364