A 128-kb FeRAM macro for contact/contactless smart-card microcontrollers

This paper describes a 128-kb FeRAM macro for smart-card microcontrollers. This macro, which was designed and fabricated using a 0.35-/spl mu/m three-metal CMOS and a Capacitor-on-Metal/Via-stacked-Plug (CMVP) process technology, is ideally suited for recent system LSIs such as smart-card microcontrollers. It has a flexible memory size ranging from 32 to 128 kb, a low consumption current of 0.3 mA, and endurance of more than 10/sup 8/ write/read cycles under a wide range of supply voltages, from 2.7 to 5.5 V. These characteristics, which are required of not only contact-type smart-card microcontrollers but also contactless-type ones, were achieved by using four newly developed circuit technologies: 1) a three-metal CMVP memory cell; 2) a voltage-regulating architecture; 3) a main/sub bitline and wordline structure; and 4) a dynamic-type offset sense amplifier.     

Determination of particulate organic carbon in waters by the chemical oxidation method

Particulate organic carbon (POC) in waters was determined by chemical oxidation method which has been widely used for the determination of total organic carbon and/or dissolved organic carbon. In this method, a water sample was filtered through a filter paper and the paper was placed in a glass ampoule, followed by the determination of POC with a total carbon analyzer. This paper discussed the problems of carbon contamination dissolving from filter papers. The selection of filter papers, the carbon blank values resulting from the papers and the pretreatment of the papers were studied. It became clear that the glass-fiber filter paper pretreated at 500°C for 8 h was superior to the filter papers treated under other conditions. The POC's in waters were determined by this method, and the results agreed well with those obtained by an ordinary dry combustion method.     

Palladium‐Catalyzed Hydroxymethylation of Aryl‐ and Heteroarylboronic Acids using Aqueous Formaldehyde

Cyclometallated NHC palladium complexes prepared from palladium(II) acetate [Pd(OAc)₂] and unsymmetrical 1,3‐diarylimidazolinium salts catalyzed the hydroxymethylation of (hetero)arylboronic acids using an excess amount of formalin to afford (hetero)arylmethanols in good to satisfactory yields.

     

Pulse Combustors - Performance and Control

~nonEmphasising time characterishcs and contIDI, onlyfew workll'v is av'ailable among the numerous reports onPulse combustors. Rare work deals with tWin Pulsecombustorsls] or combined pulse combustor-"dinesystemsl']. Kenffield15] obtained with a combinedconvenhonal Pulse combustor-tulbine system acombushon Pressals gain of 3-7% and a totalPerformance Of the combustor-"dine system for Pulsecombushon 40% higher than that of steady'combushonwhat aught also be due tO the brine characteristics.…     

Use of liposome encapsulated hemoglobin as an oxygen carrier for fetal and adult rat liver cell culture

Engineering liver tissue constructs with sufficient cell mass for transplantation implies culturing large numbers of hepatocytes in a reduced volume; however, providing sufficient oxygen to dense cell cultures is still not feasible using only conventional culture medium. Liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin (LEH), an oxygen-carrying blood substitute originally designed for short-term perfusion, may be a good candidate as an oxygen carrier to cultured liver cells. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of maintaining long term hepatocyte cultures using LEH. Primary fetal and adult rat liver cells were directly exposed to LEH for 6 to 14 days in static culture or in a perfused flat plate bioreactor. The functions and viability of adult rat hepatocytes exposed to LEH were not adversely affected in static monolayer culture and were even improved in the bioreactor. However, some cytotoxicity of LEH was observed with fetal rat liver cells after 4 days of culture. LEH, though a suitable oxygen carrier for long-term culture of mature hepatocytes, is not suitable in its present form for perfusing fetal hepatocyte cultures in direct contact with the liposomes; either the LEH will have to be made less toxic or a more sophisticated bioreactor that prevents the direct contact between hepatocytes and perfusates will have to be designed if fetal cells are to be used for liver tissue engineering.     

The interaction between co-polymer of vinylpyrrolidone and vinylacetate and anionic surfactants in aqueous solutions

The interaction of co-polymers of vinylpyrrolidone-vinylacetate with anionic surfactants, such as lithium dodecyl sulfate (LiDS), lithium perfluorooctane sulfonate (LiFOS) in aqueous solution, has been studied. When the content of vinylacetate in the co-polymers increases, reduction in the surface tension of co-polymers alone becomes significant. In mixtures of co-polymers and surfactants, co-polymer-LiFOS complexes are formed at lower surfactant concentration than that of co-polymer-LiDS. The micropolarity of the co-polymers-surfactant complexes depends on the composition of co-polymers and is higher for co-polymer-LiFOS than that for co-polymer-LiDS. Further, the solubilization behavior of α-(o-tolylazo-)-β-naphthylamine (Yellow OB) (Tokyo Kasei Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) in the co-polymer-surfactant complexes is almost independent of the co-polymer composition, but different from the surfactants, where a very low solubilized amount of Yellow OB is observed for co-polymer-LiFOS.     

Crosslinking of PVC and NBR blends

The purpose of our work is to control the interfacial bonds between PVC and NBR using the ammonium salts of triazine thiols and dithiodimorpholine (DTDM) and thereby reveal the relation between the interfacial bonds and the final mechanical properties of products. In the experimental work a two-stage process was used. At first, an NBR/PVC blend was mixed with a mono-tetra-n-butylammonium salt of triazine trithiol at a temperature of 100°C on a two-roll mill to give the branching structure of triazine thiols into PVC. In the second stage branched NBR/PVC reacted with DTDM to afford the branched PVC containing trithiomorphonyl groups. In the presence of ZnO at 160°C trithiomorphonyl groups react with NBR to form a crosslinking structure between NBR and PVC. The mechanical properties of cured NBR/PVC blends were markedly improved by the treatment process and after addition of tetramethylthiuram monosulphide also. The mechanical properties were not improved by increasing the concentration of TT-TBA (tetrabutylammonium salt of 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-trithiol) over 4.2 phr.     

Research and development related to PFM for aged nuclear components

At the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI), research activities related to probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) have been conducted as a part of the research program on aging and structural integrity of LWR components. This paper describes the outline of two activities related to PFM, i.e. the development of a PFM code and a contract research on ‘Application of PFM Methodology to Reliability Assessment of Nuclear Components’ implemented by the Japan Welding Engineering Society (JWES). In the former research, a new PFM code PASCAL (PFM Analysis of Structural Components in Aging LWR) was developed. This code has some new functions in models of semi-elliptical crack extension, elastic–plastic fracture analysis based on R6 method and options for the evaluation of overlay cladding and warm pre-stress (WPS) effect. Besides, the code has the function to evaluate the effect of irradiation embrittlement recovery by thermal annealing of a reactor pressure vessel and re-irradiation embrittlement. Based on the analyses on benchmark problem conducted by USNRC/EPRI, performance and functions introduced in the code were examined. Some case studies were also carried out to investigate the influence of various parameters. On the other hand, JAERI has been sponsoring the PFM related activities in relation to the structural integrity of LWR components. These activities have been conducted at JSME and JWES. The objective of this activity has been to provide for the future need of PFM methodology.