Boron removal by titanium addition in solidification refining of silicon with Si-Al melt

In order to effectively remove B from Si for its use in solar cells, a process involving B removal by solidification refining of Si using a Si-Al melt with Ti addition was investigated. For clarifying the effect of Ti addition on B removal from the Si-Al melt, TiB₂ solubilities in Si-64.6 at. pct Al melt at 1173 K and Si-60.0 at. pct Al melt at 1273 K were determined by measuring the equilibrium concentrations of B and Ti in the presence of TiB₂ precipitates. The small solubilities of TiB₂ in the Si-Al melt indicate the effective removal of B from the Si-Al melt by Ti addition. Further, solidification experiments of Si-Al alloys containing B by Ti addition were performed, and the effect of Ti addition on the solidification refining of Si with the Si-Al melt was successfully confirmed.     

Fabrication of a polymer-coated silver hollow optical fiber with high performance

The techniques for fabricating a hollow optical fiber with an inner silver layer and a cyclic olefin polymer (COP) layer have been improved to reduce the surface roughness of these two layers. The loss spectrum was thereby drastically reduced over a wide wavelength range, from visible to near infrared. Optimization of the COP layer thickness resulted in low loss simultaneously at several key laser wavelengths. Infrared hollow fiber with low loss was developed for Er:YAG and Nd:YAG lasers. It can also deliver green and red pilot beams with low loss. Use of this fiber in therapeutic and pilot lasers should prove useful for research and development in laser medicine.     

折叠之舞

这所住宅位于日本古老的首都--京都中心传统住宅街区内,由建筑师Kentaro Takeguchi+Asako Yamamoto/ALPHAVILLE共同设计建造。由于地区性建筑规范和邻里关系的制约,住宅外部延续了日本传统木制别墅的特征,尽量低调谦和地融入外部传统街区环境之中。当夜暮降临,透过住宅临街的木质格栅散透出柔和的暖光,晕染着这个     

Two-dimensional full-electromagnetic Vlasov code with conservative scheme and its application to magnetic reconnection

A detailed procedure of full-electromagnetic Vlasov simulation technique is presented. Our new unsplitting conservative scheme exactly satisfies the continuity equation for charge. The implicit Finite Difference Time Domain method is also adopted for computation of electromagnetic fields, which is not restricted by the CFL condition for light. The Geospace Environment Modeling magnetic reconnection challenge problem is adopted as a benchmark test. The characteristics of the present Vlasov code are studied by varying the resolution in configuration space.     

Treatment of gynecologic cancer in elderly patients

Due to the increasingly elderly population and prolonged life span of women in Japan, population of women older than 75 years of age has become 7.3% of all female population in 1995. According to this change, elderly patients with gynecologic malignancies, such as cervical cancer, endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer have increased markedly. Those patients tend to have progressed disease and therefore treatments should be less invasive and tailored based upon individual conditions to maintain their quality of life.     

Intraobserver and interobserver variance in the measurement of ultrasound-estimated bladder weight

Recently, we reported that ultrasound-estimated bladder weight (UEBW) could be used as a noninvasive tool in evaluating the degree of bladder hypertrophy. This study was designed to test the reproducibility of its measurement. The overall mean UEBW of the initial measurement and that of the second one by one observer in 36 cases was 42.8 +/- 22.6 g and 42.9 +/- 22.6 g, respectively. The paired differences between two measurements ranged from -3.4 to 2.7 g, with a mean difference of only -0.1 g. The interobserver variance was also slight. The paired differences between UEBW measurements derived from the two observers in 32 cases ranged from -6.0 to 7.9 g, with a mean difference of only 0.1 g. The Cochran's test statistic of the measurements of UEBW was 0.142 for one observer and 0.130 for two, which were less than its 5% critical value. Due to these favorable characteristics, UEBW could be reliable tool for the investigation of bladder hypertrophy with a sufficient reproducibility.     

1.5-GHz high-T c superconducting microstrip bandpass filter of miniaturized configuration

A 1.5-GHz four-stage microstrip bandpass filter was designed with the miniaturized hairpin resonator structure to reduce the configuration in size. The filter was fabricated using high-T _c superconducting films on a 12 × 12 mm² LaAlO₃ substrate. The passband insertion loss of the filter was measured to be -0.4 dB at 77 K, while it was estimated by a planar electromagnetic simulator to around -19 dB when gold films are used instead of the superconducting films.     

Liquid lens using acoustic radiation force

A liquid lens is proposed that uses acoustic radiation force with no mechanical moving parts. It consists of a cylindrical acrylic cell filled with two immiscible liquids (degassed water and silicone oil) and a concave ultrasound transducer. The focal point of the transducer is located on the oil-water interface, which functions as a lens. The acoustic radiation force is generated when there is a difference in the acoustic energy densities of different media. An acoustic standing wave was generated in the axial direction of the lens and the variation of the shape of the oil-water interface was observed by optical coherence tomography (OCT). The lens profile can be rapidly changed by varying the acoustic radiation force from the transducer. The kinematic viscosity of silicone oil was optimized to minimize the response times of the lens. Response times of 40 and 80 ms when switching ultrasonic radiation on and off were obtained with a kinematic viscosity of 200 cSt. The path of a laser beam transmitted through the lens was calculated by ray-tracing simulations based on the experimental results obtained by OCT. The transmitted laser beam could be focused by applying an input voltage. The liquid lens could be operated as a variable-focus lens by varying the input voltage.     

Molecular structure of La3+-induced methanol dehydrogenase-like protein in Methylobacterium radiotolerans

La(3+) and not Ca(2+) increases methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) activity in Methylobacterium radiotolerans NBRC15690. La(3+)- and Ca(2+)-MDH-like proteins were found to be homodimeric (α(2)) and heterotetrameric (α(2)β(2)), respectively. N-terminal amino acid sequences of these proteins revealed that La(3+)- and Ca(2+)-MDH-like proteins were encoded by xoxF and mxaFI, respectively.