Fast scanning method for one-dimensional surface profile measurement by detecting angular deflection of a laser beam

A fast scanning method for one-dimensional surface profile measurement is proposed. The profile is measured by integration of a slope distribution of the surface obtained from angular deflection of a scanning laser beam. A scanning optical system that consists principally of a spherical concave mirror and a rotating scanner mirror has reasonably low cost and is insensitive to mechanical vibration because of its high-speed scanning, of the order of milliseconds. A surface profile of a polygonal mirror along a 5-mm width was measured with the scanning method and with an interferometer. The root-mean-square difference between the two measured results is 0.98 nm.     

Antihypertensive activity and pharmacokinetics of KD3-671, a nonpeptide AT1-receptor antagonist, in renal hypertensive dogs

The antihypertensive activity and pharmacokinetics of KD3-671 (previously named KT3-671), a nonpeptide AT1-receptor antagonist, were investigated in renal hypertensive dogs with normal or high plasma renin activity (PRA). A single administration of KD3-671 at 3 and 10 mg/kg, p.o., to the hypertensive dogs with high PRA dose-dependently reduced mean blood pressure (MBP), which was not correlated with plasma KD3-671 concentration. Significant increases in PRA and plasma angiotensin (Ang) II occurred 2 h after KD3-671 dosing. Enalapril at 3 mg/kg, p.o., also reduced MBP. Neither KD3-671 nor enalapril affected heart rate. When given orally once a day for 29 days to the hypertensive dogs with normal PRA, KD3-671 at 3 and 10 mg/kg/day dose-dependently reduced MBP, which was smaller than that in the dogs with high PRA. This was the case for enalapril. The hypotension induced by the first dose of KD3-671 or enalapril was consistently observed after doses 8, 15, 22, and 29. After cessation of repeated dosing, no rebound phenomenon in MBP was observed. Pharmacokinetic parameters of KD3-671 were not influenced by repeated dosing. KD3-671 markedly increased both PRA and plasma Ang II concentration at 2 h after dosing. These results suggest that KD3-671 may be useful for the treatment of hypertension.     

Study on Feasibility of the WCD Guidelines as an Operational Instrument

The feasibility and applicability of the 26 guidelines proposed by the Dams and Development report of the World Commission on Dams are examined. There is much room to enhance these guidelines in order to make them an operational blueprint, in particular for the following major issues: (1) clarification of the background; (2) clarification of the role; (3) examination of the maturity of methodologies; (4) provision of technical standards; (5) clarifications of relations between guidelines; (6) consideration of enforcement; and (7) consideration of the independence of the impact assessments. Only six of the guidelines are considered to be ready (or ready in certain countries) for implementation as they stand.     

CedA is a novel Escherichia coli protein that activates the cell division inhibited by chromosomal DNA over-replication

We isolated and characterized a new gene related to the control of cell division regulation in Escherichia coli. At 30 degrees C, the dnaAcos mutant causes over-replication of the chromosome, and colony formation is inhibited. We found that, at this temperature, the dnaAcos cells form filaments; therefore, septum formation is inhibited. This inhibition was independent of SfiA, an inhibitor of the septum-forming protein, FtsZ. To identify factors involved in this pathway of inhibition, we isolated seven multicopy suppressors for the cold-sensitive phenotype of the dnaAcos mutant. One of these proved to be a previously unknown gene, which we named cedA. This gene encoded a 12 kDa protein and resided at 38.9min on the E. coli genome map. A multicopy supply of the cedA gene to the dnaAcos cells did not repress over-replication of the chromosome but did stimulate cell division of the host, the result being growth of cells with an abnormally elevated chromosomal copy number. Therefore, the expression level of the cedA gene seems to be important for inhibiting cell division of the dnaAcos mutant at 30 degrees C. We propose that over-replication of the chromosome activates a pathway for inhibiting cell division and that the cedA gene modulates this division control. In the dnaA+ background, cedA also seems to affect cell division.     

On frequent sets of Boolean matrices

Given a Boolean matrix and a threshold t, a subset of the columns is frequent if there are at least t rows having a 1 entry in each corresponding position. This concept is used in the algorithmic, combinatorial approach to knowledge discovery and data mining. We consider the complexity aspects of frequent sets. An explicit family of subsets is given that requires exponentially many rows to be represented as the family of frequent sets of a matrix, with any threshold. Examples are given of families that can be represented by a small matrix with threshold t, but that require a significantly larger matrix if the threshold is less than t. We also discuss the connections of these problems to circuit complexity and the existence of efficient listing algorithms. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effect of Water Content on Mechanical Properties of Na2O-SiO2 Glasses

Na₂O-SiO₂ glasses with high water contents (up to =72 wt%) were prepared under high-pressure hydrothermal conditions. Hardness, crack initiation, and glass-transition temperature were investigated. The hardness and the glass-transition temperature decreased and the crack initiation threshold increased with increasing water content, which suggests that dissolved water promotes deformation by plastic flow.     

Reliability of Induction Machines for High Performance Based on Parameter Characteristics

Nowadays induction machines of enclosed slot rotor structure are widely utilised and are also being applied to ac servo drive for high performance. However, since in this types of machines local magnetic saturation is found at relatively small flux levels due to its rotor structure, the parameters have large discrepancies in their values depending on the identification methods. Moreover, stator current is much more distorted immediately after a stepwise change in the stator voltage. This means that distortion of the flux is enhanced even if stator current is controlled sinusoidally.     

Analysis of nano-scale MOSFET including uniaxial and biaxial strain

In this paper, we focus on uniaxial and biaxial strain technologies, and we also investigate an optimum combination of strain method and channel direction. We linked the first principles band calculation program to the FUJITSU ensemble full band Monte Carlo simulator FALCON directly, which enables to incorporate arbitrary Si band structures such as uniaxial and biaxial strained-Si into device characteristics analysis. We show that the combination of biaxial tensile strain and <100> current for NMOS, and compressive uniaxial strain and <110> channel for PMOS are optimum methods for current enhancement. However, considering technological difficulties and process cost, it is one of the candidate methods to use the combination of uniaxial tensile strain and <100> channel direction for NMOS and that of uniaxial compressive strain and <110> channel direction for PMOS.