Annealing Effect in GaDyN on Optical and Magnetic Properties

The annealing effect on the optical and magnetic properties of the GaDyN layers was studied. The PL intensities of yellow and green bands as well as the intra-4f orbital transition of Dy³⁺ ions were found to decrease for the samples annealed at 900 and 1000 °C. It is supposed that the intra-4f orbital transition is related to the broad peak luminescence coming from defects. Increasing the annealing temperature, the magnetization becomes smaller. It is considerable that the number of electrons coming from defects was reduced by the annealing treatments and that the ferromagnetism in GaDyN is attributed as carrier induced ferromagnetism.     

Saving electricity in commercial buildings with adjustable-speeddrives

Fan and chiller energy savings achievable in commercial buildings with adjustable-speed drives are described. The savings are estimated with the aid of parametric simulations from a sophisticated, hourly building-energy simulation model. Two prototypes-a single-zone retail store and a multizone medium-sized office building-are simulated for five US locations. The model incorporates part-load performance curves for both inlet vane and adjustable-speed drive controls for fans and centrifugal chillers. The results identify economic conditions that justify the added expense of adjustable-speed drives     

Genetically engineered active Qbeta replicase in rabbit reticulocyte cell-free system: a fusion protein of EF-Tu and EF-Ts is functional as the subunit of Qbeta replicase

Qbeta replicase functioning in Escherichia coli is an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase composed of one phage-coded subunit and three host-coded proteins: ribosomal protein S1, and protein elongation factors EF-Tu and EF-Ts. Qbeta replicase lacking ribosomal protein S1 (alpha-less replicase) is capable of replicating some small RNAs. We attempted to create functional alpha-less replicase by co-expression of the mRNAs that code for the subunits of alpha-less replicase in a rabbit reticulocyte cell-free translation system. Replicase activity, however, could not be detected when both EF-Tu and EF-Ts were co-expressed with the phage-coded subunit. On the other hand, active alpha-less replicase was obtained when an EF-Ts-EF-Tu fusion protein was co-expressed with the phage-coded subunit. Consequently, we succeeded in generating genetically engineered active alpha-less Qbeta replicase which functions in a eukaryotic cell-free system.     

Compact and power‐saving polysilicon data driver with common‐decoder DA converter (CD‐DAC)

Abstract— A common‐decoder architecture for a data‐driver circuit fabricated by using a polysilicon process has been developed. The architecture achieves a compact circuit and low‐power consumption. In application to an integrated polysilicon data driver for small‐sized displays, this architecture reduces the area of the data driver by removing the vertical bus lines that occupy a large area. It also suppresses the power consumption of the data bus by reducing the number of driven lines in the data bus during word‐to‐word transitions from six to two. By using a conventional 4‐μm design rule, we fabricated an active‐matrix OLED (AMOLED) panel with an integrated six‐bit data‐driver circuit with 384 outputs. The driver circuit had a height of 2.6 mm and a pitch between output lines of 84 μm. The maximum power consumption of the driver was only 5 mW, i.e., 3.8 mW for logic‐data transfer and 1.2 mW for reference‐voltage source. Furthermore, we also fabricated an active‐matrix LCD (AMLCD) panel including driver circuits of the same type as the integrated elements. Six‐bit full‐color images were successfully displayed on both panels.     

Promotion-sensitive epidermal and mammary epithelial cells maintained in suspension over agarose

The molecular basis of tumour promotion is still largely unknown. In in vitro model of tumour promotion, the promotion-sensitive cells are induced to grow under anchorage-independent conditions in the presence of promoting agent. The customary way of providing such conditions is to immobilize these cells in soft agar, but such cells cannot be readily recovered to study the induced biochemical and molecular events. In the present report, we analysed these events using JB6 mouse epidermal cells maintained in suspension in liquid medium over agarose. 12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) induced anchorage-independent synthesis of DNA in promotion-sensitive P+ (but not in promotion-resistant P-) JB6 cells and this TPA-induced synthesis of DNA positively correlated with TPA-induced formation of colonies in soft agar. The TPA-induced synthesis of DNA began on or shortly before 24 h after the introduction of TPA, peaked at about 48 h and then declined to the control levels over the next several days. All trans-retinoic acid and dexamethasone inhibited and calcitriol (1 alpha,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3) synergistically stimulated this TPA-induced DNA synthesis. Western immunoblot analysis of cyclins (A, B1, D1 and E) and p27Kip1, a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, indicated that TPA induced cyclin A and cyclin B1 expression in P+ (but not in P-) JB6 cells and this induction coincided in time with TPA-induced synthesis of DNA. TPA also strongly induced cyclin D1 expression in P+ (but not in P-) JB6 cells, but this induction started prior to the expression of cyclin A and cyclin B1. TPA did not affect the expression of either cyclin E or p27Kip1 to any significant extent. We also found that NMU38 rat mammary epithelial cells were operationally equivalent to the promotion-sensitive P+ JB6 cells, but in these cells 17 beta-oestradiol exerted a strong synergistic effect on TPA-induced synthesis of DNA. Based on these observations, we tentatively propose a sequence of molecular events which possibly lead to the anchorage-independent synthesis of DNA in these cells.     

Design of multivariable feedback systems with infinite gain margin and decoupling

This letter discusses the problem of designing a feedback compensator that attains the infinite gain margin under the uncertainties of feedback gains. A sufficient condition is given for the existence of compensators and then it is shown that the condition becomes necessary subject to the requirement that the feedback system is decoupled. The nonlinear case is also discussed.     

Ribotyping and a study of transmission of Staphylococcus aureus collected from food preparation facilities

Food poisoning from Staphylococcus aureus is sometimes caused by improper handling of food items in food preparation facilities. Prevention of contamination by employees is particularly important in facilities where a significant amount of food preparation is performed by hand. Some experiments have been performed to describe bacterial cross-contamination in the food preparation process, but there have been few studies of cross-contamination in actual food preparation facilities. Aiming to shed light on the transmission of S. aureus in food preparation facilities, this study collected samples of 66 strains of this bacterium from the fingers of food preparation staff, foodstuffs, prepared foods, cooking utensils, and cooking equipment and typed them with the ribotyping method. S. aureus from the same ribogroup was detected on the hands of a study participant, a faucet, knife, frying pan, and a salad, indicating that bacteria found on the hands of the study participant was transmitted to cooking utensils and prepared foods. Transmission (from a faucet to a frying pan handle) of bacteria by another person, a third party, was also detected.