Research,technology and development evaluation; developments in Japan

The reseach, technology and development (RTD) evaluation in terms of science and technology policy has come to be important in stimulating research activities and in continuously keeping the vitality and the higher quality of research in RTD institutions. There are two criteria on the RTD evaluation, i.e, in-house evaluation from the stand point of RTD management and independent macroscopic evaluation for the decision making of companies and/or policy making for science and technology policy.The most important point for RTD evaluation in the former criteria is in the mission itself. RTD in universities, public research institutes, and enterprises have different objectives and characteristics. Therefore, the mission and methodology of RTD evaluations should be different, by categorized type and objectives of research institutions, and be developed inhouse. Results of RTD evaluations should be fed back to researchers or engineers and disclosed principally if the mission was to stimulate knowledge creation through RTD activities.The in-house RTD evaluation can be classified in general into three categories: prior evaluation, mid-term review, and ex-post facto review. The methodologies to evaluate RTD in each phase of the RTD process are different, even among those institutes categorized into the same type such as national and regional research institutes. In this paper, two cases of RTD evaluation a) in Riken, which was founded in 1917 as a private research foundation and later reorganized as a semi-public research corporation of the Science and Technology-Agency, b) in regional public research institutes.RTD evaluation from the view point of policy assessment of governmental science and technology policy is discussed through analysis of data obtained by the survey of research activities in regional public research institutes. It can be concluded that developments and introduction of RTD evaluation as a new management system in these institutes is improving the research environment and advancing the quality of research. The differences of RTD evaluation between a Center of Excellence (COE) such as Riken and local technology centers, will be compared and the policy implication of RTD evaluation will also be discussed in terms of promotion of science and technology.     

An application of the hough transform to the recognition of printed hebrew characters

This paper describes computer recognition of printed Hebrew characters, in which the Hough Transform space is used as the feature domain. The sequentially built recognition scheme has a first stage coarse classification by end points of strokes and a second stage classifier divided into two parts: in one part the decision is based on matching features in the transform space and in the other part a structural classification is applied. The method was tested on a sample set of eighteen print-simulated alphabets and a recognition rate of 99.6% was achieved. A performance comparison with two other recognition methods is also given.     

Rhodium‐Catalyzed Asymmetric Cycloisomerization of 1,6‐Ene‐ynamides

The rhodium‐catalyzed asymmetric cycloisomerization of heteroatom‐bridged 1,6‐ene‐ynamides proceeded to give high yields of functionalized 3‐aza‐ and oxabicyclo[4.1.0]heptene derivatives with high enantioselectivity, which was achieved by use of a rhodium/chiral diene catalyst. The 1,6‐ene‐ynamides substituted with 2‐oxazolidinone and 2‐azetidinone moieties at the alkyne terminus were found to display high reactivity towards the rhodium/chiral diene catalyst, where the chelate coordination of the alkyne moiety and the carbonyl oxygen of the ene‐ynamides might be responsible for the high catalytic activity.     

The superiority of Ti plate as the substrate of dye-sensitized solar cells

The photovoltaic properties of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) based on several types of substrates, FTO, Ti and stainless steel, were investigated. The sheet resistances of the substrates were correlated to the photovoltaic properties. The efficiency of the DSC using Ti substrate was higher than that of the DSCs using stainless steel and FTO. For the large-size DSCs based on FTO, the metal track is an important component to retain the decrease in cell performance due to the relatively high sheet resistance of FTO. To minimize the internal resistance of DSCs, the Ti sheet was used as a support of nano-crystalline TiO₂ due to the low sheet resistance. Although the IPCE of DSCs based on Ti substrate was lower than that of DSCs based on FTO in the range from 400 to 500 nm, the DSC based on Ti substrate showed the higher IPCE in red region due to the light reflecting on Ti substrate. The efficiency of 3.2% for the DSC based on Ti substrate was obtained with a Jsc , Voc 0.75 V, and FF 0.610. This result shows that the Ti plate has superiority for producing the large DSCs without metal track and reduces the cost of DSCs.     

Segregation behaviors and radial distribution of dopant atoms in silicon nanowires

Gaining an understanding the dynamic behaviors of dopant atoms in silicon nanowires (SiNWs) is the key to achieving low-power and high-speed transistor devices using SiNWs. The segregation behavior of boron (B) and phosphorus (P) atoms in B- and P-doped SiNWs during thermal oxidation was closely observed using B local vibrational peaks and Fano broadening in optical phonon peaks of B-doped SiNWs by micro-Raman scattering. Electron spin resonance (ESR) signals from conduction electrons were used for P-doped SiNWs. Our results showed that B atoms preferentially segregate in the surface oxide layer, whereas P atoms tend to accumulate in the Si region around the interface of SiNWs. The radial distribution of P atoms in SiNWs was also investigated to prove the difference segregation behaviors between of P and B atoms.     

Effect of rheological behavior of epoxy during precuring on foaming

In this study, the effect of rheological behavior of epoxy during precuring on foaming was investigated. Dynamic time sweep test of epoxy/curing agent (100/1, w/w) was conducted. The viscosities as a function of time showed extremely rapid increase from the order of 10²–10³ to 10⁶Pa · s at a certain time, followed by slow increase of the viscosities. Dynamic frequency sweep test of precured epoxy with curing agent was conducted at 90°C. The critical gelation time was obtained by using rheological criterion proposed by Winter and Chambon. We found that the slopes of G′(ω) and G″(ω) decreased with increasing precuring time. Correspondingly, tan δ showed a change from negative to positive slope at a critical time. By using the results, the critical gelation time was determined as t = 895–935 s. Samples of epoxy/curing agent/blowing agent (100/1/0.5) were precured for 960–1620 s. And then precured samples were foamed at 230°C for 300 s to decompose chemical blowing agent. The formed bubble size distribution becomes sharp with increase of the precuring time. There are roughly two sizes of bubbles when precured for relatively short time (t < 1080 s) before foaming: large bubbles (>100 μm) and small ones (?30 μm). On the other hand, foams precured for long time (t > 1200 s) before foaming, large bubbles disappear, and the average diameter of the bubble becomes small while the porosity is low. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

A laboratory-scale test of anaerobic digestion and methane production after phosphorus recovery from waste activated sludge

In enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) processes, activated sludge microorganisms accumulate large quantities of polyphosphate (polyP) intracellularly. We previously discovered that nearly all of polyP could be released from waste activated sludge simply by heating it at 70 degrees C for about 1 h. We also demonstrated that this simple method was applicable to phosphorus (P) recovery from waste activated sludge in a pilot plant-scale EBPR process. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of this sludge processing (heat treatment followed by calcium phosphate precipitation) on anaerobic digestion in laboratory-scale experiments. The results suggested that the sludge processing for P recovery could improve digestive efficiency and methane productivity at both mesophilic (37 degrees C) and thermophilic (53 degrees C) temperatures. In addition, heat-treated waste sludge released far less P into the digested sludge liquor than did untreated waste sludge. It is likely that the P recovery step prior to anaerobic digestion has a potential advantage for controlling struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate) deposit problems in sludge handling processes.