Discrimination of Listeria monocytogenes contaminated commercial Japanese meats

Discrimination was attempted on 14 Listeria monocytogenes strains isolated from commercially available Japanese pork and chicken. Examination of the isolates was performed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the chromosomal DNA and amplified products and comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the amplified products. A polymorphism region containing the repeated sequences in the iap gene was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The genetic analyses could discriminate the 14 isolates in combination with traditional serotyping, and some strains isolated from different meats were confirmed to have a genetically close relationship. Genetic analyses used in the present study would be useful for the elucidation of the pathogen tracks from contaminated sources to humans and of the ecological niche in the food environment.     

Experiment and analyses for 14 MeV neutron streaming through a dogleg duct

There are several vacant channels for diagnosis, RF heating and so on through the shielding structure in fusion reactors. Some of them consist of dogleg ducts, through which neutrons stream in a complex manner. An experiment was conducted with the Fusion Neutronics Source (FNS) facility at JAERI to study the behaviour of neutrons in the duct and assess the reliability of calculation methods for the design of fusion reactors such as ITER. The assembly was an iron slab 180 cm in thickness with a doubly bent duct 30 x 30 cm2 in cross section. The experiment was analysed using a simple design code for radiation streaming, DUCT-III, and the Monte Carlo code MCNP. The results indicate that the simple design code is reliable enough to be used for shielding design analyses as well as the Monte Carlo method, which showed excellent agreement between calculated and measured values.     

Self-assembly of concentric quantum double rings

We demonstrate the self-assembled formation of concentric quantum double rings with high uniformity and excellent rotational symmetry using the droplet epitaxy technique. Varying the growth process conditions can control each ring's size. Photoluminescence spectra emitted from an individual quantum ring complex show peculiar quantized levels that are specified by the carriers' orbital trajectories.     

Echo Canceler with Two Echo Path Models

An adaptive echo canceler with two echo path models is proposed to overcome the false adaptation problem for double-talking. The echo canceler possesses two separate echo path models (EPMs), one (background EPM) for adaptively identifying echo path transfer characteristics and the other (foreground EPM) for synthesizing an echo replica to cancel out echo. The parameter values of the foreground EPM are refreshed by those of the background EPM, according to a transfer control logic, when the logic determines that the background EPM is giving a better approximation of echo path transfer characteristics than the foreground EPM. Completely digital hardware implementation is described. Using the hardware, it is shown that virtually complete double-talking protection is actually realizable by the new method.     

Integrated tapped MOS analogue delay line using switched capacitor technique

A tapped MOS analogue delay line based on the switched capacitor technique for realisation of low-power analogue LSIs is fabricated using a VLSI process. Excellent characteristics such as large signal handling capability, low total harmonic distortion of ?85 dB for 3V(p-p) input and fast operation speed of more than 1 MHz clock rate with negligible charge transfer loss are obtained.     

Absorption, distribution and excretion of 14C-cefatrizine (14C-S-640 P) in rat (author''s transl)

The reliability and rapidity of methods utilizing radioimmunoassay ( RIA) for detecting chorionic gonadotropin (CG) and estrogens in plasma, competitive protein binding assay for plasma progestins, and the hemagglutination inhibition test for urinary CG in the diagnosis of early pregnancy was evaluated in baboons. The hemagglutination inhibition test for detection of urinary CG did not give satisfactory results as late as Day 25 of pregnancy. Confirmation of pregnancy could not be established on Days 8 and 12 of pregnancy by RIA of estrogens, progestins, or CG. However, detection of plasma CG by RIA was 96.6% successful by Day 16, though the method was time-consuming. However, the determination of plasma estrogens and progestins by RIA was determined more quickly on Day 16, and gave equally successful results as the RIA for CG.     

Substantial reduction of critical current for magnetization switching in an exchange-biased spin valve

Great interest in current-induced magnetic excitation and switching in a magnetic nanopillar has been caused by the theoretical predictions of these phenomena. The concept of using a spin-polarized current to switch the magnetization orientation of a magnetic layer provides a possible way to realize future 'current-driven' devices: in such devices, direct switching of the magnetic memory bits would be produced by a local current application, instead of by a magnetic field generated by attached wires. Until now, all the reported work on current-induced magnetization switching has been concentrated on a simple ferromagnet/Cu/ferromagnet trilayer. Here we report the observation of current-induced magnetization switching in exchange-biased spin valves (ESPVs) at room temperature. The ESPVs clearly show current-induced magnetization switching behaviour under a sweeping direct current with a very high density. We show that insertion of a ruthenium layer between an ESPV nanopillar and the top electrode effectively decreases the critical current density from about 10(8) to 10(7) A cm(-2). In a well-designed 'antisymmetric' ESPV structure, this critical current density can be further reduced to 2 x 10(6) A cm(-2). We believe that the substantial reduction of critical current could make it possible for current-induced magnetization switching to be directly applied in spintronic devices, such as magnetic random-access memory.     

MDPSK-OFDM with highly power-efficient block codes forfrequency-selective fading channels

This paper investigates the performance of M-ary differential phase shift keying orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MDPSK-OFDM) systems employing peak power controlling block codes over frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels. The block codes have a capability of both error correction and reduction of the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). To decode the block codes with reasonable complexity, the extended version of the ordered statistic decoding of Fossorier and Lin (see IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol.41, p.1379-96, 1995) is utilized. The bit error rate performance of the block codes is evaluated over typical indoor radio channels by computer simulation and compared with that of the equivalent frequency diversity of the repetition codes. The significant coding gain and improvement of the irreducible error floor are observed under the constraint of the PAPR from 3 to 6 dB     

Three-dimensional thermo-elastoplastic analysis by triple-reciprocity boundary element method

In general, internal cells are required to solve thermo-elastoplastic problems using a conventional boundary element method (BEM). However, in this case, the merit of the BEM, which is ease of data preparation, is lost. The triple-reciprocity BEM can be used to solve two-dimensional thermo-elastoplasticity problems with a small plastic deformation without using internal cells. In this study, it is shown that three-dimensional thermo-elastoplastic problems with heat generation can be solved by the triple-reciprocity BEM without using internal cells. Initial strain and stress formulations are adopted and the initial strain or stress distribution is interpolated using boundary integral equations. A new computer program is developed and applied to solve several problems.     

Facile fabrication and photocatalytic application of Ag nanoparticles-TiO2 nanofiber composites

A novel chemical method has been developed for the fabrication of Ag nanoparticles-coated TiO2 nanofiber composites. The method involves dispersion of TiO2 nanofibers in silver salt solution under ultrasonication, followed by addition of sodium citrate as a reducing agent. The Ag-coated TiO2 composites were characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS). Furthermore, the photocatalytic performance was evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under UV-light irradiation. It was found that the heterogeneous Ag-TiO2 composite showed a higher activity than the pure TiO2 nanofiber; the enhanced activity can be attributed to the excellent distribution and interaction of Ag nanoparticles with the TiO2 nanofiber support. A plausible mechanism for the formation of the Ag-coated TiO2 composite and reasons for the enhancement of photocatalytic activity are also discussed.