Electrodeposition of tungsten from ZnCl2-NaCl-KCl-KF-WO3 melt and investigation on tungsten species in the melt

The electrodeposition of tungsten in ZnCl₂-NaCl-KCl-KF-WO₃ melt at 250 °C was further studied to obtain a thicker deposit. In the ordinary electrolysis at 0.08 V vs. Zn(II)/Zn, the current density decreased from 1.2 mA cm⁻² to 0.3 mA cm⁻² in 6 h. A thickness of the obtained tungsten layer was 2.1 μm and the estimated current efficiency was 93%. A supernatant salt and a bottom salt were sampled after 6 h from the melting and were analyzed by ICP-AES and XRD. It was found that the soluble tungsten species slowly changes to insoluble ones in the melt. The soluble species was suggested to be WO₃F⁻ anion. One of the insoluble species was confirmed to be ZnWO₄ and the other one was suggested to be K₂WO₂F₄. Electrodeposition was carried out under the same condition as above except for the intermittent addition of WO₃ every 2 h. The current density was kept at the initial value and the thickness was 4.2 μm. The intermittent addition of WO₃ was confirmed to be effective to obtain a thicker tungsten film.     

Characteristics of a tungsten film electrodeposited in a KF–B<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>–WO<Subscript>3</Subscript> melt and preparation of W–Cu–W three-layered films for heat sink application

A tungsten film of 13 μm in thickness was obtained on a copper substrate by galvanostatic electrolysis at 30 mA cm⁻² for 40 min in a KF–B₂O₃–WO₃ (67:26:7 mol%) melt at 850 °C. By cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy observation and energy dispersive X-ray analysis, the tungsten layer was found to be compact and free from cracks, voids and melt inclusion. The X-ray diffractometry analysis revealed that the phase was α-tungsten, and that (222) plane was significantly oriented parallel to the substrate. By nanoindentation, its hardness was found to be 8.4 GPa, which was larger than that of single crystal tungsten. Its Young’s modulus was measured to be 410 GPa, which was similar with the reported value of single crystal tungsten. Its coefficient of linear thermal expansion and thermal conductivity were 4.5 × 10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ and 178 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹, respectively, which were similar values for the tungsten produced by a conventional powder metallurgy method. Finally, W–Cu–W three-layered films were prepared for a heat sink application. It was confirmed that a three-layered film having a desired coefficient of linear thermal expansion can be prepared easily by this new molten salt method.     

Development of Crystal Al MKIDs by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

We report here the effect of film qualities in superconductors on the properties of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs). The sensitivity of MKIDs between crystal aluminum films and amorphous aluminum films is compared. The good quality and crystallized aluminum films have been prepared by using molecular beam epitaxy. We have confirmed that epitaxial Al(111) films were grown on Si(111) substrates with X-ray diffraction and in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction measurements. The amorphous aluminum films on the Si(111) wafers have been deposited by electron beam evaporation. We have measured transmission losses of MKIDs, noise spectrum and relaxation time against optical pulses, changing MKIDs’ bath temperature from 0.11?K to 0.55?K in a dilution refrigerator. Despite of the improvement in normal resistivity, the quasiparticle decay time of both films are equivalent and 450?μs at 0.11?K. The electrical noise equivalent power of the both MKIDs are also comparable and around $10^{-17}~\mbox{W}/\sqrt{\mbox{Hz}}$ . Fabrication details and performance data of both films are presented.     

Systemic delivery of interleukin 10 by intramuscular injection of expression plasmid DNA prevents autoimmune diabetes in nonobese diabetic mice

We previously demonstrated that intramuscular plasmid injection serves as a useful method of long-term systemic delivery of cytokines. In the present study, we assess intramuscular DNA injection as a means of systemically delivering interleukin 10 (IL-10), a cytokine with immunosuppressive properties, and preventing the progression of autoimmune diabetes in the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse, an excellent model for human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). We injected IL-10 expression plasmid (pCAGGS-IL10) or a control pCAGGS plasmid into the muscles of NOD mice twice at 3 and 5 weeks of age. IL-10 was detectable by ELISA in the sera of mice injected with pCAGGS-IL10 for more than 2 weeks after the injection. Although the severity of insulitis at 13 weeks of age was not improved by the intramuscular injection of pCAGGS-IL10, the incidence of diabetes was markedly reduced in NOD mice injected with pCAGGS-IL10 as compared with those injected with pCAGGS or as compared with nontreated NOD mice. These results show that the progression of autoimmune diseases in mice can effectively be suppressed by intramuscular DNA injection, and suggest that this method is potentially applicable to the treatment of human autoimmune diseases.     

Studies on conformational transition of the maleic acid copolymer with styrene in aqueous salt solution by derivative spectroscopy

The first and second derivative spectra for the optical absorption of maleic acid copolymer with styrene were measured in aqueous 0.09 m NaCl at 25°C within a wavelength range of 240–280 nm, where contributions of groups, other than the phenyl ones, to the second derivatives seem to be negligible. The normal absorption spectra in the range were composed of seven absorption bands and the peak position of each band was determined from the derivative spectra. The peak position of the coiled form copolymer was found to shift to the shorter wavelength range compared with the compact form of the copolymer. From the extent of such blue shifts for each peak, the environment near the phenyl groups in the compact copolymer form was concluded to be similar to aqueous ethanol (40–50 vol%), by comparing with the derivative spectra for $\text{N-}\text{acetyl-}\text{l}\text{-rmphenylalanine}$ in a water-ethanol mixture. However, the first and second derivative spectra and various first derivative spectra were found to have 12 isoderivative points, and all the bands of the different spectra displayed the two-state character of the transition. The degree of transition was determined from the change in the peak height of each band and this coincided well with the pH-titration data.     

PVTEC photovoltaic activity and its integrations to buildings

For dissemination and promotion of photovoltaic power generation systems, it is important to reduce power generation cost because the cost is very expensive compared with conventional power generation methods. The cost of building materials integrated PV modules can be at least partially offsetted by replacing building materials with PV modules, so PV modules integrated with building are extremely effective for cost reduction. In addition, the reduction of installing cost can be expected. PVTEC has started the research and development of new type PV modules integrated with building materials under contract with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as a four-year project from fiscal 1993.     

Instruction buffering to reduce power in processors for signalprocessing

Power consumption analyzes of embedded processors indicate that a significant amount of power is consumed in accessing memory and in the control path. Based on this, and on the runtime characteristics of signal processing applications, we advocate the use of instruction buffering as a power-saving technique for processors for signal processing and multimedia applications. Two approaches, a decoded instruction buffer (DIB) and a decoded instruction cache, are considered. Performance improvements in representative applications in speech processing such as, the vector sum excited linear prediction (VSELP), linear prediction coding coefficient computation (LPC), and two-dimensional 2-D 8×8 DCT which is used in image compression, are provided. The reduction in power obtained is between between 25 and 30%     

Stabilization of photo-induced radicals in hematoporphyrin-IX-doped chitosan film

Induction and stabilization of free radicals were investigated in hematoporphyrin-IX (Hp)-doped chitosan (Hp-Ch) film by electron spin resonance (ESR) following photo-irradiation. Induced radicals were more stable in chitosan and 6-O-carboxymethyl chitin films than in carboxymethyl cellulose and sodium alginate films. Hydroxyl groups on D-glucosamine residues in chitosan are suggested as participating in accepting radicals, since spin trapping was absorbed in ESR spectra of Hp-Ch film by the use of oxygen sensitive spin trapping reagent. An induced circular dichroism spectrum was observed only for Hp-doped chitosan film over a range 360–450 nm among seven pairs of polymers and dyes; it is suggested that Hp molecules are arranged parallel along the carbohydrate backbone of chitosan, resulting in the highest acceptance of photo-induced radicals in the polymer film.