The role of familiarity in daily well-being: Developmental and cultural variation.

The present study examined life stage and cultural differences in the degree to which familiarity of one's physical location and interaction partner is associated with daily well-being. Participants reported all the activities they engaged in and how they felt during these activities on a previous day using the Day Reconstruction Method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004). Both Korean and American retirees were happier when in a familiar place than in an unfamiliar place, whereas the reverse was true for both Korean and American working adults. In addition, we found cultural differences in the role of familiarity of the interaction partner. Specifically, Koreans (both retirees and working adults) were substantially happier when they interacted with a familiar person than when they interacted with an unfamiliar person. In contrast, Americans (both retirees and working adults) were no happier with a familiar person than with an unfamiliar person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-threshold operation of 1.5?m buried-heterostructure DFB lasers grown entirely by low-pressure MOVPE

Buried-heterostructure (BH) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers have been fabricated by a three-step low-pressure MOVPE process. The CW threshold currents were as low as 15mA and a high differential efficiency of 0.21 W/A was obtained. The laser operated in a stable single longitudinal mode over a wide range of driving currents and under highspeed direct modulation.     

Study of 90-nm MOSFET subthreshold hump characteristics using newly developed MOSFET array test structure

We report 90-nm MOSFET subthreshold hump characteristics obtained for the first time by using a newly developed MOSFET array test structure. The array contains small-scale device-under-test groups with a new poly-Si gate layout pattern, which eliminates the influence of gate leakage and off leakage currents observed on measured MOSFET parameter data such as Vth, Ion, and subthreshold slope. We confirmed that subthreshold humps occur at random in an array. The rate at which humps occur is expressed as a percentage with respect to the whole array (referred to as the hump occurrence rate); the rate depends on chips from a wafer. It is also confirmed that the influence of subthreshold humps on /spl sigma/(Vth) is not negligible, and we revealed that it is important to design RF/analog circuits with an appropriate current density to reduce their influence. By extracting hump variations using a MOSFET array, it is possible to accurately estimate and reduce the standby current in logic large-scale integration (LSI) chips.     

A newly developed adenovirus-mediated transfer of a wild-type p53 gene increases sensitivity to cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II) in p53-deleted ovarian cancer cells

A new recombinant adenovirus carrying a wild-type p53 gene (AxCAp53) was developed and the combination effect of p53 gene transfer and cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II) (CDDP) was examined in an ovarian cancer cell line, SK-OV-3, with deletion of the p53 gene. AxCAp53 showed a high efficiency of gene transduction and increased sensitivity to CDDP in the SK-OV-3 cells. It was found that the sensitivity of the cells to CDDP correlated with the amount of infectious units of virus per cell of AxCAp53 which correlated with p53 protein expression. The results suggest that the combination of CDDP and AxCAp53 may be a potential strategy for the therapy of CDDP-resistant ovarian cancer.     

Narrow linewidth and low chirping characteristics in high poweroperating butt-jointed DBR lasers grown by MOVPE

High power operation in 1.5 μm butt-jointed DBR lasers, made entirely by MOVPE is demonstrated. An output power of more than 30 mW and 60 mW is observed in the CW and pulsed condition, respectively. The minimum spectral linewidth achieved here is 2.1 MHz, at an output power of 12.5 mW and the wavelength chirping width under NRZ modulation is 60-70% of that of conventional DFB lasers     

Catalytic hydrotreatment of heavy liquids prepared from coals of different rank

Heavy liquids prepared from a bituminous, a sub-bituminous and a brown coal were hydrotreated with commercial and titania-supported nickel-molybdenum catalysts to examine the reactivity and selectivity of the catalysis in relation to catalyst structure and catalytic functions. Liquids from the sub-bituminous and the brown coals behaved very similarly in the depolymerization scheme of conversion from preasphaltene to asphaltene, where the titania-supported catalysts exhibited preferential activity for the preasphaltene fraction with only limited conversion of the asphaltene fraction. The commercial catalyst showed no preferential selectivity in spite of the similar reaction scheme. Preasphaltene from the bituminous coal behaved in a contrasting manner on both catalysts, requiring the ring-opening reaction as deduced from the structural analyses in the same conversion without any preference for asphaltene. The effect of solvent composition was examined in some tests in order to improve conversion.     

Determination of the dissociation constant of molten Li2CO3/Na2CO3/K2CO3 using a stabilized zirconia oxide-ion indicator

An Li₂CO₃/Na₂CO₃/K₂CO₃ eutectic melt has been selected as an example of a molten-carbonate system and the suitability of a stabilized zirconia—air electrode as an oxide-ion concentration indicator for this melt has been confirmed.With this indicator, the dissociation constant of the reaction CO₃^2? (?) = CO₂(g) + O^2? (?) in this melt has been determined to be K_d = P_CO2 [O^2?] = 4.03 × 10^?3 Pa at 873 KReproducible measurements were obtained throughout the experiment and this method might find further application in the study of reactions related to the oxide ion in carbonate melts.     

Construction of highly extensive polymorphic DNA libraries by in-gel competitive reassociation procedure

X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) is usually considered a disorder of B cell development; however, the gene that is defective in XLA encodes a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase called Btk, that is expressed throughout myeloid as well as B cell differentiation. A review of medical records of patients in whom mutations in Btk had been identified indicated that 13 of 50 patients (26%) had experienced episodes of profound neutropenia. In 12 of the 13 patients, neutropenia was part of the acute illness that precipitated an evaluation for immunodeficiency. These boys were more likely to be less than a year of age at the time of diagnosis and they were less likely to have a family history of immunodeficiency. Neutropenia was associated with staphylococcal or pseudomonas sepsis in 6 of the patients. The duration of neutropenia was variable but was often more than 1 week. Neutropenia was not seen in any patient with XLA receiving intravenous gammaglobulin. Although neutropenia was not associated with any specific mutation in Btk, most of the alterations in this gene in the patients with XLA and neutropenia resulted in the absence of Btk protein or in amino acid substitutions in sites thought to be critical to Btk function. Btk may not be required for neutrophil production under normal circumstances; however, it may play a role in the response to stress.     

A 34-ns 16-Mb DRAM with controllable voltage down-converter

A high-speed 16-Mb DRAM with high reliability is reported. A multidivided column address decoding scheme and a fully embedded sense-amplifier driving scheme were used to meet the requirements for high speed. A low-power hybrid internal power supply voltage converter with an accelerated life-test function is also proposed and was demonstrated. A novel substrate engineering technology, a retrograded well structure formed by a megaelectronvolt ion-implantation process, provides a simple process sequence and high reliability in terms of soft error and latch-up immunity.<>