A case study: a network system for knowledge amplification in theproduct development process

Future product development is expected to evolve from the current stage, where the final commercial product is most important aspect of production, to the stage where the knowledge required for product development is of greatest significance. This study aims to construct an engineering management information system applicable to this new age of knowledge. Approaches are formulated from the standpoint of knowledge amplification in the engineering process. First, Sony's current product development process which is based on event management, product planning, and the subsequent design processes are analyzed to clarify the sequence of knowledge amplification. Then the sequence of knowledge amplification of individual engineers and that of the organization groups are analyzed, and a new network system supporting the product development process is proposed     

Development of a 1 MV field-emission transmission electron microscope

We developed a 1 MV field-emission transmission electron microscope. This paper reports details and specifications of the instrument. The microscope was designed to obtain a bright and coherent electron beam by using the field emission gun equipped with a pre-accelerating magnetic lens and the high-voltage power supply with high stability (0.5 ppm min(-1)). Using this microscope, the brightness of 1.8 x 10(10) A cm(-2) sr(-1) and the lattice resolution of 49.8 pm were attained.     

Preparation of aqueous dispersible polyurethane: Effect of acetone on the particle size and storage stability of polyurethane emulsion

An aqueous dispersible polyurethane was prepared by the reaction of hydroxyl‐terminated poly(ethylene adipate), dimethylol propionic acid, 4,4′‐diphenylmethane diisocyanate, and ethylene glycol. Formation of the dispersion was achieved by phase inversion of an acetone solution of the polyurethane with water, utilizing carboxylate anion groups as the internal emulsifying sites. The amount of acetone added has a large effect on the particle diameter (0.08 to 8.61 μm) and particle size distribution of the polyurethane emulsion. The storage stability was evaluated in terms of particle size distribution breadth. The aqueous emulsion obtained with no use of acetone was sufficiently stable in storage for at least 6 months. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 3455–3461, 2004     

Energy Problems and Energy Control System in the Japanese Steel Industry

With the second oil crisis as a turning point, energy issues have come to occupy a most vital position in business. For the steel industry in particular, which is a heavy oil consumer, energy conservation is as vital as it is anywhere. Steelmakers are therefore committed to a variety of energy-conserving measures, including (1) the installation of waste heat recovery facilities, (2) the organization of elaborate economizing campaigns, (3) the orientation toward continuous operations (continuous casting, etc.) by integrating indispensable processes and excluding dispensable ones, and (4) the increased use of hot rolling and direct rolling, etc.

On the other hand, the steel industry has energy-generating facilities and by-product energy-generating processes that form a complicated energy supply-demand structure. Energy balance is intimately related to the operating rate and the operating method of each steel works, and this so much so that the minimization of specific energy costs does not necessarily entail total cost minimization.

Because of this, there is a rapidly expanding need for a scientifically built “software system” within which the aforementioned relationships are quantitatively analyzed to minimize overall plant costs in relation to the changing external environment. This paper discusses this system by referring to the developments and achievements made so far by the Yawata works of Nippon Steel Corporation.     

High-Performance Uniaxially Strained SiGe-on-Insulator pMOSFETs Fabricated by Lateral-Strain-Relaxation Technique

Novel uniaxially strained SiGe-on-insulator (SGOI) pMOSFETs with Ge content of 20% have been successfully fabricated by utilizing lateral (uniaxial) strain-relaxation process on globally (biaxially) strained SGOI substrates. Drastic increase of drain current (80%) caused by the change of strain from biaxial to uniaxial and the mobility enhancement of about 100% against the control Si-on-insulator pMOSFETs are observed in SGOI pMOSFET. This high mobility enhancement is maintained in high vertical effective fields as well as in short-channel devices. As a result, significant I_ON enhancement of 80% is demonstrated in 40-nm gate-length uniaxially strained SGOI pMOSFET     

A Low-Power Dual-Band Triple-Mode WLAN CMOS Transceiver

This paper describes a 0.18-mum CMOS direct-conversion dual-band triple-mode wireless LAN transceiver. The transceiver has a concurrent dual-band low-noise amplifier for low power consumption with a low noise figure, a single widely tunable low-pass filter based on a triode-biased MOSFET transconductor for multi-mode operation with low power consumption, a DC-offset compensation circuit with an adaptive activating feedback loop to achieve a fast response time with low power consumption, and a SigmaDelta-based low-phase-noise fractional-N frequency synthesizer with a switched-resonator voltage controlled oscillator to cover the entire frequency range for the IEEE WLAN standards. The transceiver covers both 2.4-2.5 and 4.9-5.95 GHz and has extremely low power consumption (78 mA in receive mode, 76 mA in transmit mode-both at 2.4/5.2 GHz). A system noise figure of 3.5/4.2 dB, a sensitivity of -93/-94 dBm for a 6-Mb/s OFDM signal, and an error vector magnitude of 3.2/3.4% were obtained at 2.4/5.2 GHz, respectively     

Genotoxicity and endocrine-disruption potentials of sediment near an oil spill site: two years after the Hebei Spirit oil spill

The Hebei Spirit oil spill episode (December 7, 2007) has affected the western coastal area of South Korea; however, there is limited information on the potential toxicity of the oil spill to the ecosystem or humans. The potential toxicity of sediments collected from the affected area (n = 22) 2 years after the spill was evaluated. Acute lethal toxicity tests using Vibrio fischeri and Moina macrocopa and tests for genotoxicity and alteration of steroidogenesis using chicken DT40 cells and H295R cells, respectively, were conducted. Both crude and weathered oil extracts were evaluated in order to link the observed toxicity in the sediment extracts to the oil spill. Whereas toxicity to bacteria and daphnids was observed in only two elutriate samples, 10 of the 22 sediment extracts showed genotoxic potential in DT40 cells. The mechanisms of genotoxicity involved nucleotide excision repair (XPA(-/)), homologous recombination (RAD54(-/-)), and translesion synthesis pathways (REV3(-/-)). In addition, nine sediment extracts caused significantly greater production of E2 in H295R cells, and significant up-regulation of CYP19, CYP11B2, and 3βHSD2 by sediment extracts was observed. The pattern of toxicities observed in both crude and weathered oil samples was similar to that observed in the sediment extracts. The genotoxicicity and endocrine-disruption potential of the sediment extracts suggest a need for long-term followup for such toxicity in humans and wildlife in this area.     

Effect of Bi oxide surface treatment on 5 V spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5−xTixO4

The effect of Bi surface treatment on LiNi_0.5Mn_1.5−xTi_xO₄ was examined. As a result, Bi surface film around 20 nm thick was confirmed to be fabricated on the surface of 5 V spinel LiNi_0.5Mn_1.5−xTi_xO₄ by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersion X-ray spectrometer (EDX) analysis. The Bi compound was confirmed to be Bi₂O₃ by X-ray diffraction analysis. Cycle behavior was also found to be improved by Bi treatment. A retention capacity of up to around 85% was achieved after 500 cycles at 20 °C, while a retention capacity as high as 70% was obtained after 500 cycles, even at 45 °C. Storage performance was also improved with Bi treatment. Recovery capacity of more than 90% was obtained with Bi treatment after storage for 1 week at 60 °C. The increased resistance in storage was also suppressed with Bi treatment, which would be due to the suppression of electrolyte decomposition by the Bi coating film. It was found that Bi treatment had the effect of decreasing the dissolution of Mn, Ni and Ti of the elements of the cathode active material, due to inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis. Based on these results, the Bi surface coating was found to have a remarkable effect on the improvement of the cells with 5 V spinel.     

Self-healing of tightly focused scalar and vector Bessel-Gauss beams at the focal plane

The property of self-healing at the focal plane for both scalar and vector Bessel-Gauss (BG) beams is investigated in the tight focusing condition. For the BG beam, which is partially obstructed at the pupil plane, the spatial intensity distribution at the focal plane is well recovered. Furthermore, recovery of not only intensity but also polarization distribution is observed for an obstructed vector BG beam. This self-healing effect for both the intensity and polarization components is recognized even when the half of the beam is obstructed by a semicircular obstacle. The effect of the size of the obstacle on recovery of polarization and intensity distribution is studied. The role of the beam size at the pupil plane is also discussed.