The relationships between electrical conductivity of soil and reflectance of canopy,grain, and leaf of rice in northeastern Thailand

Soil salinity is a global environmental problem and the most widespread land degradation problem that reduces crop yields and agricultural productivity. The characteristic of soil salinity is conventionally measured by the electric conductivity (EC) of soil while remote-sensing techniques have been extensively applied to detect the presence of salts indirectly through the vegetation using crop spectral reflectance. This study aims primarily to investigate whether salt stress the rice can be detected by field reflectance or not, and second, to search the significant bands of vegetation indices that can indicate the relationships between the EC of soil and field hyperspectral reflectance of canopy, grain, and leaf of rice, using the normalized difference spectral index (NDSI). Field investigations on various paddy fields in northeastern Thailand were carried out in late November 2010 during the ripening season just before harvest in an attempt to realize the applications of the field hyperspectral technique for monitoring the spread of saline soils and estimation of the effects of soil salinity on rice plants. Jasmine rice and glutinous rice were two different rice species selected for this study. Rice plant investigations were conducted by collecting data on crop length, panicle length, canopy openness, leaf area index, and digital photographs of plant conditions from each site. The statistical analysis revealed that the changes in soil EC were significantly sensitive to the ripening stages of both jasmine rice and glutinous rice planted on different levels of soil salinity. Among reflectance measurements, canopy reflectance was highly correlated with soil EC. However, the estimated accuracies of the relationship between soil EC and reflectance of glutinous rice were relatively lower than those of jasmine rice.     

Forecasting electric power generation in a photovoltaic power system for an energy network

Recently, there has been an increase in concern about the global environment. Interest is growing in developing an energy network by which new energy systems such as photovoltaic and fuel cells generate power locally and electrical power and heat are controlled with a communication network. We developed the power generation forecast method for photovoltaic power systems in an energy network. The method makes use of weather information and regression analysis. We carried out forecasting power output of the photovoltaic power system installed in Expo 2005, Aichi Japan. As a result of comparing measurements with prediction values, the average prediction error per day was about 26% of the measured power. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 167(4): 16–23, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20755     

Current reliability issues and future technologies for systems on silicon – processes, circuits, chip architecture, and design

The progress of silicon technology is opening the era of “systems on silicon” in which a large-scale memory, a CPU, and other logic macros will be integrated on a single chip. These kinds of chips, called system LSIs, have an especially promising future in mobile and multimedia applications but face inherent technical problems related to the reliability of ultrathin oxide film, conflict in the processing of different components, increased gate and subthreshold leakage currents, memory bottlenecks, and design complexity. This paper reviews the system LSIs and then introduces related technologies in processing, circuits, chip architecture, and design. It also discusses the influence of the system LSIs on business strategies.     

Large-Scale Shake Table Experiment and Numerical Simulation on the Nonlinear Behavior of Pile-Groups Subjected to Large-Scale Earthquakes

This paper describes the results of large-scale shake-table experiments involving a 3×3 pile-group. The pile-group was embedded in dry sand and subjected to sinusoidal waves and an earthquake motion recorded from the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake. The load transfer between soil and pile was derived and the group effect was captured. Numerical simulations were also performed using a Beam-on-Nonlinear-Winkler-Foundation approach with a new hysteretic p-y curve. A comparison of the experimental and numerical results revealed that the numerical simulation is capable of accounting for the soil-pile interaction observed in the experiment.     

Secondary neutral and ionized particle measurements under MeV-energy ion bombardment

We have measured both secondary neutral and ionized particles from an InSb target under 3.0 MeV Si ion bombardment. Measurements of both ions and neutrals have not been carried out so far in the MeV-energy range. The mass spectra and axial emission energy distributions of secondary particles were investigated. Secondary ions were measured with a linear- and a reflective-type time-of-flight technique, whereas secondary neutral particles were photo-ionized by a UV pulsed laser (ArF: 193 nm) and measured with a reflective-type time-of-flight technique. Different results were obtained for neutral particles in comparison with ionized particles. The mean energy of neutral Sb atoms was much lower than that of neutral In atoms, whereas the mean energies of secondary In and Sb ions were nearly equal.     

升温下钢构件的强度设计标准

通过与非线性有限元模拟比较,对结构钢构件在升温下的设计公式进行了评估。比较美国钢协与欧洲标准委员会对温度在800℃侧向无支撑的Ⅰ型柱、梁、柱-梁的设计规定。欧洲规范3的规定与有限元模拟的结果相差10%～20%。另一方面,美国钢协的规范预测的强度与模拟结果相差高达2倍。对于温度超过300℃的中细构件,相差最大。提出了对美国钢协规范计算公式的修正建议,修正后的精度与模拟的结果误差在20%～30%。最后讨论了结构防火工程基于构件评估的局限性、未来的研究以及发展方向。     

Radiation grafting of α,β,β-trifluorostyrene onto poly(ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene) film by preirradiation method. II. Properties of cation-exchange membrane obtained by sulfonation and hydrolysis of the grafted film

A Study was made on certain properties of the cation-exchange membranes obtained by the preirradiation grafting of α,β,β-trifluorostyrene (TFS) noto poly(ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene) (ETFE), followed by sulfonation and hydrolysis of the grafted film. Swelling, water uptake, electric conductivity, and transport number of the membranes were measured as a function of ino-exchange capacity. Thermal and chemical stability were also investigated. These properties were found to be mainly dependent on ion-exchange capacity. The stable membrane properties were established due to a homogeneous ion-exchange group distribution in the membrane, as confirmed by x-ray imcroscopy analysis of the membrane cross sections. In addition, the membranes showed good electrochemical, thermal, and chemical properties, and were found to be scceptable for practical use as cation-exchange membranes.     

Plasma polymerized membranes and gas permeability. II

Thin films were deposited onto porous substrates by plasma polymerization using three kinds of organosilicic compounds, tetramethylsilane (TMS), hexamethyldisiloxane (M₂), and octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D₄). Those composite membranes showed different characteristics of gas permeability. When D₄ was plasma-deposited onto a porous substrate, the composites membrane showed the highest oxygen permeability and the lowest oxygen-to-nitrogen permeability ratio. The composite membrane prepared from TMS showed the permeability characteristics opposite to the membrane obtained from D₄. Infrared spectrum of the polymer from D₄ resembles that of dimethylpolysiloxane. The plasma polymers from TMS and M₂ showed different profiles in Si? O absorption bands in the range 1100–1000 cm^-1 or in absorption bands of SiCH₃ groups in the range 850–750 cm^-1 from respective monomers. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic observation indicated that all the plasma polymers contained more than two species of Si atom with different oxidation states. The greater part of Si atoms in plasma polymers took the same oxidation states in corresponding monomer. The gas permeability characteristics were closely related to the oxidation states of Si atom in the plasma polymers.     

High density packaging technology ultra thin package & new tab package

As electronic devices become more highly integrated, the demand for small, high pin count packages has been increasing. We have developed two new types of IC packages in response to this demand. One is an ultra thin small outline package (TSOP) which has been reduced in size from the standard SOP and the other, which uses Tape Automated Bonding (TAB) technology, is a super thin, high pin count TAB in cap (T.I.C.) package. In this paper, we present these packages and their features along with the technologies used to improve package reliability and TAB. Thin packages are vulnerable to high humidity exposure, especially after heat shock.1 The following items were therefore investigated in order to improve humidity resistance: (1) The molding compound thermal stress, (2) Water absorption into the molding compound and its effect on package cracking during solder dipping, (3) Chip attach pad area and its affect on package cracking, (4) Adhesion between molding resin and chip attach pad and its affect on humidity resistance. With the improvements made as a result of these investigations, the reliability of the new thin packages is similar to that of the standard thicker plastic packages.