Scaling prospect of optically differential reconfigurable gate array VLSIs

Dynamic reconfigurable devices present new computational paradigms because programmable devices’ activity and performance can be improved dramatically by increasing its reconfiguration frequency. Therefore, this paper presents designs of optically differential reconfigurable gate array (ODRGA) VLSIs using 0.18 μm and 0.35 μm CMOS process technologies. Although they are a type of programmable gate array, they can be reconfigured optically in nanoseconds. This paper also discusses future scaling prospects of ODRGA-VLSIs.     

Structure and expression of the tobacco nuclear gene encoding RNA-binding protein RZ-1: the existence of an intron in the 3''-untranslated region

We investigated prolactin (PRL) and growth hormone (GH) secretion during acute and late abstinence following methylphenidate (MP) administration. Ten male patients who were undergoing acute cocaine abstinence and nine control subjects were randomly assigned into one of two possible sequences of MP and placebo, with each experimental condition occurring on two successive days. This procedure was repeated after 7 days for the patients. Baseline measures were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc tests. Measures of MP challenge were analyzed by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with baseline as the covariate. Acute abstinence was compared with control values and then to late abstinence. Plasma levels of PRL, GH, and MP were measured along with a measure of clinical symptoms. Patients had higher basal PRL concentrations during acute abstinence compared with controls, and patients showed no difference when compared to themselves after 7 days (late abstinence). Provocation with MP yielded exaggerated PRL and GH responses in patients during acute abstinence compared with control values, and ANCOVA also revealed a significant increase in PRL response during late abstinence compared with acute abstinence. GH was a less sensitive indicator than PRL. Craving was exacerbated by MP during both acute and late abstinence and was possibly increased at late abstinence. This indicates that the perturbation in dopamine regulation persists and may be increased as clinical recovery occurs for most subjective symptoms. Blood pressure changes were variable and interpretation was uncertain.     

Debugging methods in recursive structured FORTRAN

A version of structured FORTRAN named STAR is introduced. STAR allows recursive subroutines. Implementation problems such as parameter passing by value and local variable stacking are discussed. The major difficulty in the preprocessor approach is debugging. We claim that execution profiles are strong debugging aids, and demonstrate how to debug a STAR program at source language level with the clue in the profiles plus assertion statements. We make use of a quicksort program as an example.     

Perpendicular anisotropy of evaporated magnetic films

Evidence of the existence of origins of perpendicular anisotropy other than the ordinary magnetostrictive effect is presented with a brief review of other studies. As one of these origins, the effect of the grain boundaries or the microscopic shape effect is discussed. The amount of perpendicular anisotropy observed in the stripped films does not seem capable of explanation by this effect only.     

Submicron bubble garnets and their characterizations

New Submicron (0.5-1.0 mum diam) bubble garnets have been developed. In order to reduce saturation induction4piMsas low as possible, suitable choice of amounts of nonmagnetic ions substituting for ferric ions in both tetrahedral and octahedral sites were studied in (YSm)3(FeAl)5O12, (YSmLu)3- (FeGaSc)5O12, (YSmLu)3(FeAlSc)5O12and (LaLuSm)3- (FeGa)5O12garnet systems. For example, in (YSmLu)3- (FeAlSc)5O12a film with the following properties was grown; strip widthw = 0.7mum, film thicknessh= 0.7mum, quality factorq=2.8, Curie temperatureTc= 140degC and4piMs=770G. The temperature properties of those films could be improved drastically by doping with a small amount of Gd ion. Wall mobilities μw of those films are in the region from 200 to 500cm/s/Oe. Preceding these material studies, several film characterization methods have been investigated. Film thickness was measured by Fluorescent X-ray method, strip width by using a highly sensitivity TV camera, and bubble collapse field by FMR resonance technique respectively.     

Controlled release of biofunctional substances by radiation-induced polymerization: 1. Release of potassium chloride by polymerization of various vinyl monomers

The release behaviour of a drug from flat circular capsules obtained by radiation-induced polymerization at low temperatures and with different hydrophilic properties has been studied. The effect of various factors on release property was investigated. The release process could be divided into three parts, an initial quick release stage, stationary state release stage and a retarded release stage. Release behaviour in the stationary state was examined using Noyes-Whitney and Higuchi equations. It was shown that the hydrophilic property of polymer matrix expressed by water content was the most important effect on diffusion and release rate. Rigidity of the polymer may also affect diffusivity. The first quick release step could be attributed to rapid dissolution of drug in the matrix surface due to polymer swelling.     

Fourier synthesis image reconstruction by use of one-dimensional position-sensitive detectors

An improvement of Fourier synthesis optics for hard x-ray imaging is described, and the basic performance of the new optics is confirmed through numerical simulations. The original concept of the Fourier synthesis imager utilizes nonposition-sensitive hard x-ray detectors coupled to individual bigrid modulation collimators. The improved concept employs a one-dimensional position-sensitive detector (such as a CdTe strip detector) instead of the second grid layer of each bigrid modulation collimator. This improves the imaging performance in several respects over the original design. One performance improvement is a two-fold increase in the average transmission, from 1/4 to 1/2. The second merit is that both the sine and cosine components can be derived from a single grid-detector module, and hence the number of imaging modules can be halved. Furthermore, it provides information along the depth direction simultaneously. This in turn enables a three-dimensional imaging hard x-ray microscope for medical diagnostics, incorporating radioactive tracers. A conceptual design of such a microscope is presented, designed to provide a field of view of 4 mm and a spatial resolution of 400 microm.