Growth and structure of heteroepitaxial thin films of homologous compounds RAO3(MO)m by reactive solid-phase epitaxy: Applicability to a variety of materials and epitaxial template layers

A reactive solid-phase epitaxy (R-SPE) method combines deposition of a thick amorphous or polycrystalline layer with a desired chemical composition and post-deposition solid-phase epitaxial growth. The solid-phase epitaxial growth is invoked by thermal annealing with an assistance of a sacrificial layer working as an epitaxial template. Thereby it enables us to grow high-quality epitaxial films of complex oxides whose epitaxial films are not grown by conventional high-temperature growth techniques. It was reported that 2-nm-thick ZnO layers worked as template for growing InGaO₃(ZnO)_m (m = integer) epitaxial films. The present study extended the R-SPE technique to growth of various complex oxides with chemical compositions of RAO₃(MO)_m and to use of various epitaxial template layers. We found that mono oxide epitaxial layers such as In₂O₃ and Ga₂O₃ work as template layers as well. Alternatively, a ZnO epitaxial layer is also applicable to ZnO-free compounds. The films obtained were grown heteroepitaxially on YSZ(111) and single-crystalline when the fabrication conditions are optimized.     

Satellite-Based Energy Balance to Assess Within-Population Variance of Crop Coefficient Curves

Quantifying evapotranspiration (ET) from agricultural fields is important for field water management, water resources planning, and water regulation. Traditionally, ET from agricultural fields has been estimated by multiplying the weather-based reference ET by crop coefficients (Kc) determined according to the crop type and the crop growth stage. Recent development of satellite remote sensing ET models has enabled us to estimate ET and Kc for large populations of fields. This study evaluated the distribution of Kc over space and time for a large number of individual fields by crop type using ET maps created by a satellite based energy balance (EB) model. Variation of Kc curves was found to be substantially larger than that for the normalized difference vegetation index because of the impacts of random wetting events on Kc, especially during initial and development growth stages. Two traditional Kc curves that are widely used in Idaho for crop management and water rights regulation were compared against the satellite-derived Kc curves. Simple adjustment of the traditional Kc curves by shifting dates for emergence, effective full cover, and termination enabled the traditional curves to better fit Kc curves as determined by the EB model. Applicability of the presented techniques in humid regions having higher chances of cloudy dates was discussed.     

Microgravity performance of micro pulsating heat pipes

A micro pulsating heat pipe made of a thin clear Teflon tube of 1.6 mm ID was used to observe the pulsating flow inside a heat pipe under different gravity levels using parabolic flights. More vigorous pulsating flow was observed under microgravity, compared to the depressed movements under hypergravity. Two metallic micro pulsating heat pipes made of an aluminum plate with small internal channels were also tested to investigate the effect of gravity on their heat transfer characteristics. Reduced gravity experiments were performed aboard Falcon 20 aircraft flying parabolic trajectories. Under normal and hypergravity conditions, both the orientation of the pulsating heat pipe and locations of the heated and cooled sections affected the heat transfer performance. Under reduced gravity, however, the heat pipes showed better operating and heat transfer performance than that under normal and hypergravity. These experiments have for the first time confirmed that pulsating heat pipes are capable of operating under reduced gravity and thus are suitable for deployment in space applications such as satellites.     

Control and design problems in material processing—how can process systems engineers contribute to material processing?

‘Process control and systems engineering’ is not just a subject of study for controlling and designing ‘a plant’ and/or ‘a unit operation’. It also deals with any control and design problems related to physical and chemical phenomena occurring in short time-scale and at nano, meso as well as micro-scale levels. In materials processing, controlling the material structure is of primary importance for realizing high material performance and functions. The phenomena determining the material structure often involve phase separation and/or occur on the surface of the materials, at small level and in short time-scale. To control these phenomena, the current feedback design schemes, where controlled variables are measured by ‘externally equipped sensors’ and fed back to a ‘externally designed controller’, are no longer effective due to the shortness of time and smallness of spatial scales of the objects. Making reference to two novel polymer-processing processes, a micro-cellular polymeric foaming process and surface coating injection-molding process, we discuss how process control and process systems engineers can contribute to controlling the structure of materials.     

Parallel processing circuit of line image using neuristor

A simultaneous detecting circuit system of centers and lengths of some lines in one dimension is presented applying an electronic circuit model of the nervous axon with respect to signal transmission. This model consists of series of one basic section, and has functions of Neuristor. The circuit system has a paralell processing function. It is constructed by three layers. In the first layer each visual signal of lines is changed to electric pulse signal. In the second layer edges of each line are detected, and in the third layer these detected signals are converted into voltages which correspond to lengths of the lines. These functions were confirmed experimentally using its hardware.     

Development of an Autonomous Quadruped Robot for Robot Entertainment

In this paper, we present Robot Entertainment as a new field of the entertainment industry using autonomous robots. For feasibility studies of Robot Entertainment, we have developed an autonomous quadruped robot, named MUTANT, as a pet-type robot. It has four legs, each of which has three degree-of-freedom, and a head which also has three degree-of-freedom. Micro camera, stereo microphone, touch sensors, and other sensor systems are coupled with newly developed behavior generation system, which has emotion module as its major components, and generates high complex and interactive behaviors. Agent architecture, real-world recognition technologies, software component technology, and some dedicated devices such as Micro Camera Unit, were developed and tested for this purpose. From the lessons learned from the development of MUTANT, we refined the design concept of MUTANT to derive requirements for a general architecture and a set of interfaces of robot systems for entertainment applications. Through these feasibility studies, we consider entertainment applications a significant target at this moment from both scientific and engineering points of view.     

Fuzzy Linear Programming with Interactive Uncertain Parameters

In this paper, we treat fuzzy linear programming problems with uncertain parameters whose ranges are specified as fuzzy polytopes. The problem is formulated based on fractile optimization model using a necessity measure. It is shown that the problem can be reduced to a semi-infinite linear programming problem and that a solution algorithm based on a relaxation procedure can be applied. A simple numerical example is given to illustrate the solution procedure. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effect of chitosan-gluconic acid conjugate/poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogels as wound dressing on partial-thickness wounds in diabetic rats

We previously developed chitosan cryogels from chitosan-gluconic acid conjugate without using toxic additives for wound care. In this study, we improved physiological characteristics of the previous cryogels by incorporating poly(vinyl alcohol) that also form cryogels. Mechanical strength of the cryogels was more than two times higher than that of the previous cryogels. Furthermore, the incorporation of poly(vinyl alcohol) enhanced water retention and resistance to degradation of the gels by lysozyme. The cryogels retained the favorable biological properties of the previous cryogels that they accelerate infiltration of inflammatory cells into wound sites. Time period for repairing 50 % of initial area of partial-thickness skin wound treated with the cryogels (4.0 ± 1.1 days) was shorter than those with gauze (6.5 ± 0.3 days) or a commercial hydrogel dressing (5.7 ± 0.3 days). Finally, we confirmed that incorporation of basic fibroblast growth factor into the cryogels was effective to further accelerate wound healing (2.7 ± 1.0 days). These results demonstrate that the cryogels in this study are promising for wound care.     

Dynamic Power Integrity Control of ATE for Eliminating Overkills and Underkills in Device Testing

This paper proposes a power integrity control technique for dynamically controlling power supply voltage fluctuations for a device under test (DUT), and demonstrates its effectiveness for eliminating the overkills/underkills due to the difference of power supply impedance between an automatic test equipment (ATE) and a practical operating environment of the DUT. The proposed method injects compensation currents into the power supply nodes on the ATE system in a feed-forward manner such that the ATE power supply waveform matches with the one on the customer’s operating environment of the DUT. A method for calculating the compensation current is also described. Experimental results show that the proposed method can emulate the power supply voltage waveform under a customer’s operating condition and eliminate 95 % of overkills/underkills in the maximum operating frequency testing with 105 real silicon devices. Limitations and applications of the proposed method are also discussed.     

Nanoporous structure of the cell walls of polycarbonate foams

Using CO₂ to prepare microcellular polycarbonate foams resulted in a pore diameter of 45 nm and a pore density of 10⁸ cm^?2 on the walls of microscale cells, which created nano/micro foams with an open cell structure. In this study, the craze nucleation theory and the bubble nucleation theory of foaming were combined to explain the mechanism of the foaming-induced nanopores (microvoids) on the cell walls. In the foaming process, the strain energy was developed in the cell walls by bubble nucleation and growth. With large strain energy, a nanoporous structure of the cell walls was formed by initiation of crazing. Because the foaming temperature affected the strain energy in the cell wall, the temperature became a key factor of forming microcellular structure as well as the nanopores on the cell walls. Our experimental results showed that the diameter and density of the nanopores were determined by the competitive movements between chain stretching and relaxation. Furthermore, certain solvents, such as acetone, were found to increase the nanopore density of the walls by exploiting the plasticization effect of the solvent on the reduction of surface tension and viscosity.