Alpha particle emission from platinum and its influence on DRAM operation

Ferroelectrics such as SrTiO/sub 3/ have been studied as DRAM capacitor insulators. Platinum is commonly used as their electrode material. However, platinum contains the isotope Pt/sup 190/, emitting alpha particles which cause soft errors. The authors measured the alpha particle emissivity of platinum coated silicon wafers. The resultant emissivity is consistent with the calculation. The impact on DRAM operation was estimated.<>     

Edge effect and independently supplied slot currents in tubular linear induction motors

The linear induction motor (LIM) is divided structurally into the flat and the tubular-type. This paper examines one kind of tubular linear induction motor whose primary configuration consists of four pieces of a flat-type core. We call this type of motor “the square tubular LIM.” The square tubular LIM has various merits of the cylindrical tubular LIM in addition to those of the usual flat-type LIM. The two remarkable features of the square tubular LIM that the flat-type LIM does not have are as follows. The first feature is that it has no edge effect, and the second is that the normal force in secondary conductor is cancelled by that of the opposite side of the secondary conductor. In comparison with the cylindrical tubular LIM, moreover, the square tubular LIM is easy to manufacture and maintain. The tubular LIM also has a feature that its primary winding is a kind of ring winding. Thus we can supply independently the primary current in each slot and hence easily obtain various winding schemes. Finally, the features of the square tubular LIM are studied. After numerically analyzing an experimental model, the motor is driven by the independently controlled slot currents, resulting in the expected performance.     

Development of a sensitive ELISA for human leptin, using monoclonal antibodies

A new, sensitive ELISA for human leptin in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was developed, using monoclonal antibodies. The lower limit of detection of this ELISA was 0.78 pg/assay. Both intra- and interassay imprecision values were <7%. The dilution curves of plasma and CSF showed good linearity, and the recovery was 83.2-95.6%. There was good correlation between plasma leptin concentrations by the ELISA and a commercially available RIA (r = 0.99). Our ELISA is advantageous because it does not require radioisotopes, it produces results in hours rather than days, and more importantly, it improves on the detection limit and plasma interference of the RIA kit. The new ELISA enables measurement of low concentrations of leptin, as are seen in CSF and in plasma of patients with anorexia nervosa.     

Amplitude squeezing from singly resonant frequency-doubling laser

We analyze amplitude squeezing from a singly resonant frequency-doubling laser oscillating at a single frequency. In this laser system, the cavity loss depends on the intensity of the oscillating fundamental field, so that conventional analyses based on a mean-field approximation become invalid in a highly pumped regime. To avoid this inconvenience, we consider spatial evolution of fields both in a laser medium and in a nonlinear crystal. It is predicted for the first time that a combination of excess nonlinearity and modest laser saturation can increase the output noise. We propose novel indices to evaluate the possible noise enhancement and suggest a design rule for squeezed light generation     

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Summary The factors that frequently cause the development of acute gastric mucosal lesions (AGML) were studied in 37 mongrel dogs. Bacterial shock was induced by bolus injection of E. coli live bacterial flora (10¹⁰ cells/kg body weight) under parietal cell-stimulated condition by intravenous administration of 0.008 mg/kg per hour of pentagastrin. In addition, 0.01 mg/kg per hour of neostigmine sulfate was administered intravenously during the experiment. Frequent development of AGML was observed in the neostigmine-administered canines without significant changes in the gastric corporal and antral tissue blood flow. In the neostigmine-administered group, AGML was observed in the antrum, although in the other group AGML was mostly observed in the corpus. These results suggest that a neostigmine-induced systemic vagostimulated condition by intravenous administration of neostigmine plays an important role in the development of AGML in dogs subjected to bacterial shock.     

Modification of butadiene rubber with 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. I. Preparation and properties of the modified polybutadiene

Polybutadiene of low cis-content was modified with the precursors of nitrones and nitrile oxide. The carbon-black-filled vulcanizates of the modified rubbers containing isoxazolidine and isoxazoline groups showed good tensile properties. The effect of modification was ascribed to the interaction between active sites of carbon black particles and the heterorings.     

HVI tests on CFRP laminates at low temperature

The paper reports a result of low temperature hypervelocity impact (HVI) tests of aluminum sphere against a 16-ply quasi-isotropic Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) laminate plate at speed ranging from 1.4 to 5.4 km/s in air at 10 Pa. The result was compared with room temperature impacts. At low speed impact on CFRP plates, fracture patterns of specimens varied depending on their temperatures, whereas at high-speed impact, any significant differences in the fracture patterns around penetration holes and independent of the temperatures.     

Identification of a mitochondrial Na+/H+ exchanger

The electroneutral exchange of protons for Na+ and K+ across the mitochondrial inner membrane contributes to organellar volume and Ca2+ homeostasis. The molecular nature of these transporters remains unknown. In this report, we characterize a novel gene (YDR456w; renamed NHA2) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae whose deduced protein sequence is homologous to members of the mammalian Na+/H+ exchanger gene family. Fluorescence microscopy showed that a Nha2-green fluorescent protein chimera colocalizes with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining of mitochondrial DNA. To assess the function of Nha2, we deleted the NHA2 gene by homologous disruption and found that benzamil-inhibitable, acid-activated 22Na+ uptake into mitochondria was abolished in the mutant strain. It also showed retarded growth on nonfermentable carbon sources and severely reduced survival during the stationary phase of the cell cycle compared with the parental strain, consistent with a defect in aerobic metabolism. Sequence comparisons revealed that Nha2 has highest identity to a putative Na+/H+ exchanger homologue (KIAA0267; renamed NHE6) in humans. Northern blot analysis demonstrated that NHE6 is ubiquitously expressed but is most abundant in mitochondrion-rich tissues such as brain, skeletal muscle, and heart. Fluorescence microscopy showed that a NHE6-green fluorescent protein chimera also accumulates in mitochondria of transfected HeLa cells. These data indicate that NHA2 and NHE6 encode homologous Na+/H+ exchangers and suggest they may be important for mitochondrial function in lower and higher eukaryotes, respectively.     

Thin-film strained-SOI CMOS Devices-physical mechanisms for reduction of carrier mobility

We have examined physical mechanisms responsible for the reduction in both electron and hole mobility in strained-silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS devices with thin strained-Si layers. A slight decrease in the electron mobility with thinning strained-Si layers is attributable to the quantum-mechanical confinement effect of the inversion layer electrons, originating in the conduction band offset of the strained-Si layers. Also, the diffusion of Ge atoms into the SiO/sub 2//strained-Si interface is found to generate interface states near the valence band edge, leading to the reduction in hole mobility in the lower E/sub eff/ region through Coulomb scattering. Moreover, the decrease in hole mobility enhancement in both thin and thick strained-Si structures at the higher electric field is caused by the reduction of the energy splitting between the heavy and the light hole bands, with an increase in the electric field. Based on considerations of these factors affecting the mobility reduction, the strained-Si thickness and the Ge content have been designed to realize high-speed strained-SOI CMOS under the 90-nm technology and beyond.