Conducting Langmuir-Blodgett films as electrode materials

Photoelectric cells based on Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films were fabricated using dye monolayers as photoconductors and N-docosylpyridinium-di(tetracyanoquinodimethane) (PT) monolayers as one of the electrode materials. It is found that PT films can be used as a wiring material instead of large work function metals such as silver or Ni-Cr. However, in comparison with the photoelectric cells using the conventional metals, a few different properties were observed for those wired with PT. These differences are assignable to the difference between the LB film-metal and the LB film-LB film contacts.     

GRADE: A software environment for machine translation

GRADE, a software environment for machine translation is described. It has been developed for the Mu machine translation project, which was supported by the Science & Technology Agency of the Japanese Government. GRADE consists of 3 components: (1) a grammar writing language based on flexible tree-to-tree transformation rules with a control mechanism and an interpreter; (2) software tools for constructing and maintaining grammar rules; and (3) software tools for developing dictionary databases which are based on the concept ofneutral dictionary. In this paper, these software packages are discussed from the viewpoint of the development of a large scale machine translation system.The authors thank their colleagues in the Mu project, who helped in the development of the system and already returned to their private companies to develop their own machine translation systems. We also wish to thank the researchers at the Japan Information Center of Science and Technology, and the Electrotechnical Laboratory of Kyoto University for their cooperation.     

Analysis of skew antenna around a square tower for UHF TVbroadcasting

The authors discuss the installation and characteristics of a UHF skew antenna mounted on a tower that already supports seven other VHF arrays used for TV broadcasting. The skew antenna consists of four antenna arrays arranged in a circle with a radius of about 3 m and radiating tangentially. The phase difference between the antenna arrays is 90°. The skew antenna system produces a good omnidirectional pattern, but when located on the tower the reflections from the flat face and the wedge diffractions modify the pattern. The calculation of the horizontal radiation pattern using the geometrical theory of diffraction is compared with the measured pattern. Both the UHF antenna's radiation pattern and its mutual interference are compared with the existing VHF antennas     

An experimental investigation of minimum fluidization velocity at elevated temperatures and pressures

Minimum fluidization data at elevated temperatures and pressures are relatively scarce in the literature. This study was undertaken to provide some new data under these conditions. Minimum fluidization velocities at temperatures up to 800°K and pressures up to 5 MPa were measured for uniformly-sized glass beads with diameters between 0.2 mm and 4 mm in beds ranging in diameter from 30 mm to 50 mm. The experimental results are compared with a number of empirical correlations from the literature to determine the validity of the correlations under these elevated temperature and pressure conditions.     

The extraction of iron(III) from aqueous acid solutions by di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid

The extraction of iron(III) from aqueous solutions containing sulphuric, hydrochloric and nitric acids by di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (DEHPA) in kerosene has been investigated under different conditions. As a result, it is found that although extraction is dominated by an ion-exchange reaction, the rate of iron(III) extraction from sulphuric acid solutions to reach equilibrium is relatively slow in comparison with that from hydrochloric or nitric acid solutions. In the extraction from aqueous solutions containing hydrochloric or nitric acid, however, the DEHPA combines with iron(III) according to the solvating reaction at higher aqueous acidity. From studies on the rate of the extraction from sulphuric acid solutions, examined under non-equilibrium, it is confirmed that dependencies of extraction rate on hydrogen ion and DEHPA concentrations are in the first and inverse first orders, respectively. The hydrolyzed species is considered to interpret the extraction mechanism in this system.     

The SH2 domain of Shc suppresses EGF-induced mitogenesis in a dominant negative manner

Recently, we have shown that an EGF-R-mutant lacking the autophosphorylation sites phosphorylates Shc and retains mitogenic activity. In this report, we have shown that in these cells, in response to EGF, Ras is fully activated with formation of the tyrosine-phosphorylated Shc-Grb2-mSOS complex without the receptor. This pointed out the importance of Shc in EGF-induced Ras activation. To investigate the mechanism of tyrosine phosphorylation of Shc by EGF-R, we carried out in vitro kinase assays using immunoprecipitated EGF-R and bacterially-expressed Shc proteins as substrates. The EGF-R phosphorylated Shc, but not the Shc SH2 mutant, lacking binding ability for phosphotyrosine. This suggests that intact Shc SH2 is essential for the full-length Shc to become phosphorylated, probably by inducing a conformational change in Shc. Thus a Shc SH2 peptide may inhibit competitively Shc phosphorylation. We microinjected the Shc SH2 domain into NIH3T3 cells overexpressing the EGF-R. Microinjected Shc SH2 greatly suppressed EGF-induced DNA synthesis. But microinjection of neither the Shc SH2 mutant nor PLC-gamma 1 SH2 had any effect. This suppressing effect was rescued by comicroinjection of the full-length Shc, suggesting Shc SH2 specifically suppressed the Shc pathway. Thus we concluded Shc phosphorylation is crucial, whereas receptor autophosphorylation is dispensable, in EGF-induced mitogenesis.     

InGaAsP/InP monolithic integrated circuit with lasers and an optical switch

InGaAs/InP monolithic integrated circuits composed of a compact carrier-injection optical switch and distributed feedback laser diodes are fabricated. These integrated circuits have a variety of functions, such as monolithic modulators, switches and optical amplifiers for optical communication systems.     

Optoelectronic Integration and Its Impact on System Application

Optoelectronic monolithic integration is preferable for multigigabit transmission systems because of small waveform degradation due to interconnect parasitics in optoelectronic hybrid integration. Implementation of a wavelength division multiplexing subsystem on the optoelectronic integrated chip will further increase the transmission capacity in optical fibers. A five-wavelength integrated distributed feedback laser array with 50 Å lasing wavelength separation has been developed. Multiquantum-wells are promising as a basic structure in future optoelectronic integration. They show high potential in low threshold current laser diodes, high-frequency modulators, and high-speed detectors.     

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive NK cell line YT, and ALL/LBL of NK-lineage

The YT cells, already known as natural killer (NK) line, were tested for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The simply maintained YT cells (YT-O) and the two different subclones showed and identical length of junctional DNA of terminal repeats in Southern blot with LMP-1 probe, indicating that the 3 had already been positive for EBV before subcloning. YT-O expressed limited amount of EBNA2 or LMP-1 mRNA, whereas the 2 subclones expressed abundant EBNA2 or LMP-1 mRNA in the Northern blot analysis with EBNA2 or LMP-1 probe. Thus, the ex vivo cells were positive for EBV, since the BL (Burkitt lymphoma) type EBV gene expression in the YT-O does not generally occur in in vitro infection. The remaining clinical record indicated that the lymphoma was extranodal (angiocentric lymphoma), involving mediastinum and liver, but not nodal or lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL). Acute lymphoblastic lymphoma (ALL)/LBL of the NK-lineage has not been defined, although such neoplasms should exist. Since T- and NK-lineages are so close in immature stages of differentiation that ALL/LBL of NK may have been sorted into T-lineage. The phenotypic records of the T-ALL/LBL in our laboratory indicated that CD7+CD5+CD2- is much higher in incidence than CD7+CD5-CD2+. This may reflect the size difference of physiological populations of T- and NK-lineage cells. Furthermore, the latter is of CD45RO type in contrast to the rest of the early-thymic (pro-thymic) T-ALL/LBL groups of CD45RA type. A CD56+ case of 4 CD7+CD5-CD2+ cases have been published as a case of LBL of NK-lineage. It is necessary to scrutinize CD7+CD5-CD2+ cells in order to clarify the phenotype of neoplastic and physiological NK cells in immature stages.