Independent Reinforced Soil Structure with Pile Foundation—Piled Geo-Wall: An Experimental Study on the Application to Seismic Measure for Embankment—

Our aim in this study was to achieve an independent reinforced soil structure with pile foundation that can be applied to such structures as earth retaining walls and countermeasures against the collapse of embankments or rockfall impact built on narrow construction sites, such as on slopes. In order to confirm the effectiveness of the application of pile foundation to reinforced soil structures by geogrid for improvement of the lateral resistance of the structure and to investigate the interaction between pile and reinforced soil structure, a dynamic centrifuge model test (25 G) was carried out. Two geogrid reinforced soil, one with piles and one without, were used in a countermeasure to reduce the deformation of a road embankment built on a slope in the event of an earthquake, and the effectiveness of the pile foundation to the reinforced soil structure was considered with regard to it affected the road surface. The details and the results of the dynamic centrifuge model test, as well as the interaction between pile and reinforced soil structure are described, and the effectiveness of the application of pile foundation to reinforced soil structure is discussed in this paper.     

Intraoperative image-based multiview 2D/3D registration for image-guided orthopaedic surgery: incorporation of fiducial-based C-arm tracking and GPU-acceleration

Intraoperative patient registration may significantly affect the outcome of image-guided surgery (IGS). Image-based registration approaches have several advantages over the currently dominant point-based direct contact methods and are used in some industry solutions in image-guided radiation therapy with fixed X-ray gantries. However, technical challenges including geometric calibration and computational cost have precluded their use with mobile C-arms for IGS. We propose a 2D/3D registration framework for intraoperative patient registration using a conventional mobile X-ray imager combining fiducial-based C-arm tracking and graphics processing unit (GPU)-acceleration. The two-stage framework 1) acquires X-ray images and estimates relative pose between the images using a custom-made in-image fiducial, and 2) estimates the patient pose using intensity-based 2D/3D registration. Experimental validations using a publicly available gold standard dataset, a plastic bone phantom and cadaveric specimens have been conducted. The mean target registration error (mTRE) was 0.34 ± 0.04 mm (success rate: 100%, registration time: 14.2 s) for the phantom with two images 90° apart, and 0.99 ± 0.41 mm (81%, 16.3 s) for the cadaveric specimen with images 58.5° apart. The experimental results showed the feasibility of the proposed registration framework as a practical alternative for IGS routines.     

Neutron EDM search using crystal techniques

The importance of initiating new search techniques fpr neutron EDM is emphasised in this short paper. Crystal techniques allow to investigate the interaction of neutrons with electric fields of the order of several 109 V cm⁻¹. This gives the possibility to test CP- and T-violations at stronger electric field levels than ever before.     

A low leakage SRAM macro with replica cell biasing scheme

For mobile applications of SRAMs, there is a need to reduce standby current leakages while keeping memory cell data. For this purpose, we propose a replica cell biasing scheme which controls the cell bias voltage by self-tuning using replica cells. This scheme minimizes the cell leakage regardless of the process fluctuations and the environmental conditions. In addition, leakage reduction in row decoder circuits is also desirable, because standby current leakages in peripheral circuits are dominated by row decoders. We also propose a row decoder circuit which can reduce both the off-leakage and the gate-leakage in the row decoders. We fabricated a 90-nm 512-Kb low-leakage SRAM macro to verify the proposed leakage reduction techniques. With these techniques, 88% reduction of the standby leakage in the sleep mode and 40% reduction of the leakage compared with the conventional diode clamp scheme are realized.     

A 56-nm CMOS 99-mm2 8-Gb Multi-Level NAND Flash Memory With 10-MB/s Program Throughput

A single 3.3-V only, 8-Gb NAND flash memory with the smallest chip to date, 98.8 mm², has been successfully developed. This is the world's first integrated semiconductor chip fabricated with 56-nm CMOS technologies. The effective cell size including the select transistors is 0.0075 mum² per bit, which is the smallest ever reported. To decrease the chip size, a very efficient floor plan with one-sided row decoder, one-sided page buffer, and one-sided pad is introduced. As a result, an excellent 70% cell area efficiency is realized. The program throughput is drastically improved to twice as large as previously reported and comparable to binary memories. The best ever 10-MB/s programming is realized by increasing the page size from 4kB to 8kB. In addition, noise cancellation circuits and the dual VDD-line scheme realize both a small die size and a fast programming. An external page copy achieves a fast 93-ms block copy, efficiently using a 1-MB block size     

Autonomous collaborative environment for project-based learning

The importance of integrating different disciplines of information science and technology is growing for the realization of an information system which works robustly in the real world. Such a system should be achieved by integrating different disciplines, since it is difficult to cover all areas in information science and technology by only one person or group. In order to support collaboration, the autonomous collaborative environment for project- based learning was developed. The environment comprises the workshop “A Hundred Hour Workshop” and the community site “WS100H.NET”. Novel interdisciplinary technology, fusion of recognition and parallel computation was successfully developed whose collaboration process was autonomous.     

Biodegradation of low-density polyethylene,polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride,and urea formaldehyde resin buried under soil for over 32 years

The biodegradation of several polymers that had been buried under soil for over 32 years was examined. No evidence of biodegradation was found for polystyrene, polyvinylchloride, and urea formaldehyde resin. A remarkable degradation was indicated for low density polyethylene thin films which were directly in contact with soil. Severely degraded parts of the film is characterized by whitening. Many small holes were recognized on the surface of the whitened part. The whitened part is specific for the growth of hyphae. FT-IR spectra of the whitened part showed a characteristic band in the vicinity of 1640 cm^?1 which was assigned to the stretching vibration of C?C bond. Although the part which was not in contact with soil was clear, it also showed evidence of degradation from the presence of carbonyl band in FT-IR. It was suggested that the degradation of the clear part is due to the usual thermo-oxidative process, while the degradation of the whitened part is due to the biotic process. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.