Investigation of self-assembled monolayer treatment on SiO2 gate insulator of poly(3-hexylthiophene) thin-film transistors

We have investigated self-assembled monolayer (SAM) treatment on SiO₂ gate insulator of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) thin-film transistor (TFT), and demonstrated a correlation between mobility and surface free energy of the insulator. The device with lower surface free energy shows higher mobility. The docosyltrichlorosilane (DCTS)-treated device exhibits the best performance among the various SAM-treated devices examined. Field-effect mobility, on/off ratio and threshold voltage of the DCTS-treated P3HT TFT were 0.015 cm²/Vs, >10⁵ and −14 V, respectively.     

Determination of residual avoparcin in chicken muscle by HPLC with ultraviolet and amperometric detection

An analytical method was developed for determination of residual avoparcin in chicken muscle by measuring alpha- and beta-avoparcin, major components of the pharmaceutical preparation avoparcin, using HPLC with UV and amperometric detectors. The analytical HPLC was run on a Cosmosil 5C18-AR column (4.6 mm x 25 cm) with a gradient formed from A: 2.5% acetic acid, 0.01 mol/L sodium heptane sulfonic acid-acetonitrile (88.5:11.5) (pH 4.0) and B: 2.5% acetic acid-acetonitrile (10:90), using UV and amperometric detection (AMD) with glassy-carbon electrode (+900 mV). Avoparcin was extracted from chicken muscle by homogenization with methanol-0.2 mol/L sulfuric acid (6:4) followed by centrifugation after pH adjustment to 4 with 1 mol/L sodium hydroxide. The supernatant was evaporated to dryness, and the residue was dissolved in water. The aqueous layer was adjusted to pH 4 by adding 1 mol/L sodium hydroxide. Then it was purified on a Sep-Pak tC18 plus ENV cartridge. The cartridge was washed with water, and retained substances were eluted with 50% methanol. The eluate was evaporated to dryness under reduced pressure. The residue was dissolved in water and determined by HPLC. Recoveries of avoparcin spiked in chicken muscle were 73.1-88.1% at levels of 2-10 micrograms/g. The detection limits were 0.5 microgram/g (UV) and 0.2 microgram/g (AMD).     

Uterine Deletion of Bmal1 Impairs Placental Vascularization and Induces Intrauterine Fetal Death in Mice

Recently, it was demonstrated that the expression of BMAL1 was decreased in the endometrium of women suffering from recurrent spontaneous abortion. To investigate the pathological roles of uterine clock genes during pregnancy, we produced conditional deletion of uterine Bmal1 (cKO) mice and found that cKO mice could receive embryo implantation but not sustain pregnancy. Gene ontology analysis of microarray suggested that uterine NK (uNK) cell function was suppressed in cKO mice. Histological examination revealed the poor formation of maternal vascular spaces in the placenta. In contrast to WT mice, uNK cells in the spongiotrophoblast layer, where maternal uNK cells are directly in contact with fetal trophoblast, hardly expressed an immunosuppressive NK marker, CD161, in cKO mice. By progesterone supplementation, pregnancy could be sustained until the end of pregnancy in some cKO mice. Although this treatment did not improve the structural abnormalities of the placenta, it recruited CD161-positive NK cells into the spongiotrophoblast layer in cKO mice. These findings indicate that the uterine clock system may be critical for pregnancy maintenance after embryo implantation.     

Fabrication and flow-sensor application of flexible thermal MEMS device based on Cu on polyimide substrate

A Cu on polyimide (COP) substrate was proposed as a MEMS material, and the fabrication process for a flexible thermal MEMS sensor was developed. The COP substrate application to MEMS devices has the advantage that typical MEMS structures fabricated in a SOI wafer in the past—such as a diaphragm, a beam, a heater formed on a diaphragm—can also be easily produced in the COP substrate in the flexible fashion. These structures can be used as the sensing element in various physical sensors, such as flow, acceleration, and shear stress sensors. A flexible thermal MEMS sensor was produced by using a lift-off process and sacrificial etching of a copper layer on the COP substrate. A metal film working as a flow sensing element was formed on a thin polyimide membrane produced by the sacrificial etching. The fabricated flexible thermal MEMS sensor was used as a flow sensor, and its characteristics were evaluated. The obtained sensor output versus the flow rate curve closely matched the approximate curve derived using King’s law. The rising and falling response times obtained were 0.50 and 0.67 s, respectively.

     

Porous structure and rheological properties of hydrogels of highly water-absorptive cellulose graft copolymers

The porous structures of the highly swollen hydrogels of cellulose—acrylamide graft copolymers were studied by the solute exclusion technique. For these hydrogels, the cumulative volume of pores up to 560 Å in pore width was between 450 and 850 mL/g, and was between 20 and 30% of the total pore volume. With an increasing in the amount of crosslinker added in the grafting procedure, the cumulative pore volume up to 560 Å decreased. Furthermore, larger pores shrunk preferentially. In the range of concentration from 0.003 to 0.3%, the viscosity of the hydrogels increased remarkably with an increase in concentration. The concentration dependence of the viscosity showed a transition at about 0.03%, which corresponded to the reciprocal of the water retention values for each copolymer. At concentrations over 3%, fluidity of the hydrogels was lost and the water swollen copolymers became viscoelastic. This dynamic viscoelasticity remained essentially unchanged in the temperature range of 20 to 80°C. The dynamic viscoelasticity was dependent on the concentration, but the concentration dependence was smaller than that of the viscosity. The larger the amount of the crosslinker added, the larger the value of dynamic modulus became.     

Diffusion of low molecular weight substances into a fiber with skin-core structure—rigorous solution of the diffusion in a coaxial cylinder of multiple components

The diffusion equation of low molecular weight substances (penetrant) into a coaxial cylinder of multiple components (m) was formulated in general and solved rigorously. As the simplest but a practical case of m = 2, which corresponds to the diffusion of penetrant into fibrous material with skin and core structure, the diffusion of penetrant was analyzed in detail. That is, changes in the penetrant concentration distribution within the coaxial dual cylinder of skin and core components and the total amount of penetrant sorbed within the cylinder both with time after exposing the cylinder to atmosphere of fixed penetrant concentration of C_out were calculated with variation of the diffusion coefficient ratio (D₁/D₂) and the radius ratio (R₂/R₁), where D₁ and D₂ are the diffusion coefficients of penetrant in the core and the skin, and R₂ and R₁ are the radii of the fibrous material and the core, respectively. Keeping (R₂/R₁) at a constant value of 1.2 but varying (D₁/D₂) from 10⁴ to 10^?2, the penetrant concentration distribution was calculated and found to be much different particularly within the core between (D₁/D₂) > 1 and (D₁/D₂) < 1. The sorption curves were also found to deviate in their respective ways from that of Fickian curve of a homogeneous cylinder with (D₁/D₂) = 1 except at initial stage of sorption. Further, by keeping (D₁/D₂) constant but varying (R₂/R₁) from 1.1 to 1.5, the effects of relative skin thickness upon the sorption curve were studied.     

Piezoelectric properties of zinc oxide films on glass substratesdeposited by RF-magnetron-mode electron cyclotron resonance sputteringsystem

There are various types of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) sputtering systems, DC-mode, RF-mode, etc. We reported that zinc oxide (ZnO) films on glass substrates deposited by DC-mode ECR and RF-mode ECR sputtering systems had shown excellent piezoelectric properties and c-axis orientations. The RF-mode ECR sputtering system was capable of depositing ZnO films on glass substrates without evidence of column and fiber grains in cross section and driving a 1.1 GHz fundamental Rayleigh surface acoustic wave (SAW). In this paper, the properties of ZnO film deposited by an RF-magnetron-mode ECR sputtering system, which has added magnets to the outside of a cylindrical zinc metal (Zn) target of the RF-mode ECR sputtering system, are investigated. It is confirmed that the SAW filters using ZnO films on an interdigital transducer (IDT)/glass substrate deposited by the RF-magnetron-mode ECR sputtering exhibit almost the same effective electromechanical coupling factors (keff) as the theoretical keff values calculated by finite element method (FEM) using the constants of ZnO single crystal (measured keff values are 97% of the theoretical values) and 0.6~3.7 dB lower insertion loss in comparison with the films deposited by the DC-mode ECR and the RF-mode ECR sputtering system     

Quality assessment models for initial production process control based on stochastic differential equations

It is of great importance to assess an initial production process prior to the regular mass-production. For this purpose, many statistical methods have been proposed for practical use. In this paper, we propose two stochastic models for an assessment method of the initial production process control: a Markov process model and a Markov approximation model. These models are continuous state space models and formulated by applying mathematical techniques of stochastic differential equations. Based on each model, we derive several quantitative assessment measures for initial production process control.     

Induction of peripheral-type benzodiazepine receptors in mouse brain following thioacetamide-induced acute liver failure

To investigate the possible role of peripheral-type benzodiazepine receptors (PBR) in hepatic encephalopathy, we examined expression of PBR in mouse brain following thioacetamide (TAA)-induced acute liver failure. Treatment of mice with TAA resulted in an increase in the number of binding sites of the PBR ligand [3H] Ro5-4864 to brain homogenates, with no significant change in affinity of the ligand. The order of potency of different ligands to compete against [3H] Ro5-4864 binding in the brain of TAA-treated mice was Ro5-4864 > PK11195 > diazepam > protoporphyrin IX, findings similar to those in the control. Northern blot analysis revealed an increase in PBR/isoquinoline binding protein (PBR/IBP) mRNA in mouse brain following TAA treatment, in a time- and dose-dependent manner. These results indicate that the increased number of PBR in the brains of TAA-treated mice relates to the induction of PBR/IBP expression and suggest that the induction of PBR in brain may contribute to pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy.     

Bladder tumors: staging with gadolinium-enhanced oblique MR imaging

To clarify the importance of imaging plane in evaluation of invasion by tumor into muscle, 50 patients with bladder tumors underwent examination with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging performed with an oblique plane and the early phase of contrast enhancement. After the ideal oblique plane was selected, an oblique T2-weighted image was obtained. Gadopentetate dimeglumine was then administered, and an oblique T1-weighted image was obtained. The staging based on oblique T2-weighted and oblique contrast material-enhanced T1-weighted MR images was then correlated with histopathologic staging. The respective accuracies of oblique contrast-enhanced T1-weighted and oblique T2-weighted images were 78% and 60% for overall staging (P < .05), 90% and 74% for differentiation between (a) stage T1 and lower-stage tumors and (b) stage T2 and higher-stage tumors (P < .05), and 92% and 88% for differentiation between (a) stage T2 and lower-stage tumors and (b) stage T3a and higher-stage tumors (P > .05). Oblique MR imaging performed in conjunction with the early phase of contrast enhancement showed significantly high staging accuracy, especially in differentiation between superficial tumors and tumors with superficial muscle invasion.