Thermally assisted recording of holographic gratings in semicrystalline azobenzene-containing polymers

We examine optically induced birefringence in semicrystalline azopolymer films that are held at glass-transition temperature Tg. The birefringence increases markedly after interception of the pump beam; the saturation value depends on exposure time. In addition, the induced birefringence is completely erased by irradiation with a circularly polarized beam at Tg. Using this thermally assisted method, we demonstrate the holographic recording of a test image. The intensity of the diffracted beam also increases after interception of the writing beams. Furthermore, the retrieved image is found to have a resolution of approximately 30 lp/mm. This resolution is comparable with that of the optical setup that is used. Accordingly, the thermally assisted recording by use of semicrystalline azopolymers is a promising method for reversible holographic storage.     

Isolation of growth-phase-specific promoters from cultured tobacco cells

Strong promoters are required under several culture conditions for effective transgene expression in tobacco BY2 cells. We have isolated the promoter fragments of 4 genes exhibiting high homology to those of Arabidopsis thaliana 108C1T7 (unknown function) and F1-ATPase-delta, alcohol dehydrogenase and pectin esterase genes from a genomic DNA library of BY2 cells. Two of the four genes were strongly expressed during every phase of growth of BY2 cells, and the other two were expressed only during the stationary phase. Each of the promoter fragments was ligated to the GUS reporter gene and introduced into the chromosome of BY2 cells by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Growth-phase-dependent expression of the GUS gene was reproduced under the control of all 4 promoters observed with the original genes. Significantly higher expression was observed under the control of Nt108p during every phase of cell growth and under the control of NtADHp and NtPESp during the stationary phase than that under the control of the CaMV35S promoter.     

On a compound redundant system with the particular switching devices

This paper considers a standby-redundant system consisting of 2 systems, in which one is main and the other is its standby-redundant system. These systems also consist of 2 subsystems connected in series, in which each one is composed of several identical units connected in parallel.A feature of this system is that the system has 2 switching devices connecting subsystems, in addition to one connecting main and standby systems, in order to utilize surviving units as many as possible. In this consideration it is assumed that all the units are not repairable.We shall obtain the system reliability and the mean time to system failure, and examine numerically the effects of this model to the usual one without particular switching devices.     

The relationships between electrical conductivity of soil and reflectance of canopy,grain, and leaf of rice in northeastern Thailand

Soil salinity is a global environmental problem and the most widespread land degradation problem that reduces crop yields and agricultural productivity. The characteristic of soil salinity is conventionally measured by the electric conductivity (EC) of soil while remote-sensing techniques have been extensively applied to detect the presence of salts indirectly through the vegetation using crop spectral reflectance. This study aims primarily to investigate whether salt stress the rice can be detected by field reflectance or not, and second, to search the significant bands of vegetation indices that can indicate the relationships between the EC of soil and field hyperspectral reflectance of canopy, grain, and leaf of rice, using the normalized difference spectral index (NDSI). Field investigations on various paddy fields in northeastern Thailand were carried out in late November 2010 during the ripening season just before harvest in an attempt to realize the applications of the field hyperspectral technique for monitoring the spread of saline soils and estimation of the effects of soil salinity on rice plants. Jasmine rice and glutinous rice were two different rice species selected for this study. Rice plant investigations were conducted by collecting data on crop length, panicle length, canopy openness, leaf area index, and digital photographs of plant conditions from each site. The statistical analysis revealed that the changes in soil EC were significantly sensitive to the ripening stages of both jasmine rice and glutinous rice planted on different levels of soil salinity. Among reflectance measurements, canopy reflectance was highly correlated with soil EC. However, the estimated accuracies of the relationship between soil EC and reflectance of glutinous rice were relatively lower than those of jasmine rice.     

Forecasting electric power generation in a photovoltaic power system for an energy network

Recently, there has been an increase in concern about the global environment. Interest is growing in developing an energy network by which new energy systems such as photovoltaic and fuel cells generate power locally and electrical power and heat are controlled with a communication network. We developed the power generation forecast method for photovoltaic power systems in an energy network. The method makes use of weather information and regression analysis. We carried out forecasting power output of the photovoltaic power system installed in Expo 2005, Aichi Japan. As a result of comparing measurements with prediction values, the average prediction error per day was about 26% of the measured power. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 167(4): 16–23, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20755     

Free vibration of coil springs of arbitrary shape

This paper is concerned with the method for solving the vibration problem of coil springs of arbitrary shape. In the analysis the exact field transfer matrix is derived from the solution of the fundamental equation of the three-dimensional curved beam theory. The transfer matrix is given by combining this field transfer matrix and the point transfer matrix. The analysis derives the frequency equation which is applicable to coil springs of general shape. Numerical calculations have been carried out for hyperboloidal springs and barrel springs. Experimental tests also have been carried out to verify the present results.     

Current reliability issues and future technologies for systems on silicon – processes, circuits, chip architecture, and design

The progress of silicon technology is opening the era of “systems on silicon” in which a large-scale memory, a CPU, and other logic macros will be integrated on a single chip. These kinds of chips, called system LSIs, have an especially promising future in mobile and multimedia applications but face inherent technical problems related to the reliability of ultrathin oxide film, conflict in the processing of different components, increased gate and subthreshold leakage currents, memory bottlenecks, and design complexity. This paper reviews the system LSIs and then introduces related technologies in processing, circuits, chip architecture, and design. It also discusses the influence of the system LSIs on business strategies.     

Large-Scale Shake Table Experiment and Numerical Simulation on the Nonlinear Behavior of Pile-Groups Subjected to Large-Scale Earthquakes

This paper describes the results of large-scale shake-table experiments involving a 3×3 pile-group. The pile-group was embedded in dry sand and subjected to sinusoidal waves and an earthquake motion recorded from the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake. The load transfer between soil and pile was derived and the group effect was captured. Numerical simulations were also performed using a Beam-on-Nonlinear-Winkler-Foundation approach with a new hysteretic p-y curve. A comparison of the experimental and numerical results revealed that the numerical simulation is capable of accounting for the soil-pile interaction observed in the experiment.     

Secondary neutral and ionized particle measurements under MeV-energy ion bombardment

We have measured both secondary neutral and ionized particles from an InSb target under 3.0 MeV Si ion bombardment. Measurements of both ions and neutrals have not been carried out so far in the MeV-energy range. The mass spectra and axial emission energy distributions of secondary particles were investigated. Secondary ions were measured with a linear- and a reflective-type time-of-flight technique, whereas secondary neutral particles were photo-ionized by a UV pulsed laser (ArF: 193 nm) and measured with a reflective-type time-of-flight technique. Different results were obtained for neutral particles in comparison with ionized particles. The mean energy of neutral Sb atoms was much lower than that of neutral In atoms, whereas the mean energies of secondary In and Sb ions were nearly equal.