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Rapid and sensitive detection methods for three species of Curtovirus were developed using a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique. A universal primer set for detecting the three main species of Curtovirus at the same time, and three kinds of species-specific primer sets were designed and used for LAMP reactions. Results from the LAMP reactions were visualized both by color changes after adding SYBR Green I staining dye and by DNA laddering on agarose gel electrophoresis. The optimal conditions for the curtovirus LAMP reaction were confirmed at 60°C for the universal primers and at 62°C for the three species-specific primer sets. Amplification of curtoviruses by LAMP reaction was ten-fold more sensitive than that by polymerase chain reaction. Primers designed for curtovirus detection in this study did not anneal to or amplify DNA from other DNA or RNA viruses (tomato yellow leaf curl virus, tomato spotted wilt virus, and potato virus Y). Taken together, the primer sets and reaction conditions developed in this study show that the LAMP technique could be a useful tool to detect the three species of Curtovirus simultaneously and distinguish them in the laboratory and the field.

Estimation of instantaneous exhaust gas flowrate is very useful in engine-related studies such as calculation of crank angle resolved mass flowrates of hydrocarbons, boundary conditions for exhaust gas flow study and so on. The study provides a simple but reasonably accurate tool to calculate the flowrates based on the assumption of a polytropic gas expansion process. The only information needed to calculate the flowrates is cylinder pressure. The polytropic exponent n is obtained from the logarithmic-scale plot of measured cylinder pressure. The calculated instantaneous mass flowrates of the exhaust gas confirm accuracy of within ±5 per cent except for low engine speed, compared with measured intake flowrates. The characteristics of the flowrates also show blowdown and displacement flow regimes typically observed in internal combustion engines.

The temperature induced blue shift of the intersubband absorption peak in GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As multiple quantum wells has been observed and calculated as a function of well thickness (Lw). As the temperature is lowered from 290 to 10 K, the absorption peak shifts to the higher energy by 7.1 meV. Calculation shows that the change in the barrier height dominates the blue shift at small Lw while exchange interaction is important for large Lw. At 80 K, the photocurrent spectrum (PCS) at 0 V bias (Vb) is gradually reduced and cut off by the barrier. The bias induced forbidden transition from the ground state, E1, to the second excited state, E3, is observed in PCS. The broadening of full width at half maximum of PCS is related to the bias induced forbidden transition at small bias (0

Ultrathin SiO2 grown by plasma-assisted oxidation (plasma oxide) has been investigated by high-resolution x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and medium energy ion scattering spectroscopy. We found that the plasma oxide grown at the low temperature of 400°C has a thinner transition layer than conventional thermal oxide. This thinner transition layer in the plasma oxide not only decreased the gate leakage current effectively, but also enhanced the reliability of the gate oxide. We attribute these electrical properties of the plasma oxide to the reduction of the transition layer.

Photoluminescence of AlxGa1−xAs/AlyGa1−yAs heterostructures has been performed in presence of high magnetic fields. Under the magnetic field the broad carbon related peak becomes resolved into several narrow peaks. Experimental results and a theoretical analysis based on the single band model suggest that these peaks are due to the recombination of free electrons with holes bound to neutral carbon atoms distributed in the several atomic layers in the well side of the interfaces of the heterostructures. Magnetic fields reduce the effects of interfacial roughness and make it possible to resolve the carbon related peak into several peaks.

We propose an approach for collaborative workspace management in medical conferencing. A collaborative workspace is a virtual data space shared between medical experts for working out solutions collaboratively while conferencing. Our approach provides medical users with an integrated view of various kinds of multimedia patient data and a unified control over the workspace. For data navigation and conferencing, a tree-like navigation tool, which we named the patient record tree, is provided. And we classify patient data, which is the object of medical collaborative works, into six basic types, and provide a view template for displaying each of these types.

A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the determination of aloesin in plasma was developed. After solid-phase extraction from plasma and derivatization of aloesin and compound AD-1, which was prepared from aloesin as a internal standard, with 9-anthroylnitrile in the presence of quinuclidine, the derivatives were separated on a inertsil ODS-3 column using acetonitrile/methanol/water (3:1:6) as a mobile phase, and detected fluorimetrically at 460 nm with excitation at 360 nm. The detection limit of aloesin was 3.2 ng/ml in plasma (S/N = 3).

We report five cases of complex microphthalmia with other ocular malformations in infants or children, which were evaluated to investigate the relationship between the corneal diameters and total axial length. The size of the globe was measured by using computerized tomographic scans (CT scan), A-scan ultrasonography, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There is a limited range of well-described malformation, including anterior or posterior segment dysgenesis or combined pathology such as corneal opacity, small cornea, iris hypoplasia, lens dislocation, cataract, chorioretinal coloboma, persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous (PHPV), retinal dysplasia, and intraocular tumor. Corneal diameters were correlated significantly with total axial length (r2 = 0.88) and decreased linearly as the total axial length decreased in these cases. However, there was no relationship seen between the total axial length and posterior segment length (r2 = -0.06). The results of this study may aid the clinical ophthalmologist to accurately understand or assess microphthamia combined with other ocular malformations.

Silicon dioxide films were grown using an oxygen plasma generated by an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) source at several low temperatures. The plasma oxidation rate was investigated by varying the growth parameters. The oxide thickness parabolically increases with microwave power but decreases with increasing pressure or flow rate. A complementary model of the Deal–Grove oxidation theory is suggested for the plasma oxidation, and kinetic parameters are compared with the other plasma and thermal oxidation cases. The diffusion rate constant in O2 plasma oxidation at room temperature is enhanced up to the level of the diffusion rate in thermal oxidation and the reaction rate constant is much larger than the thermal oxidation case. This may imply that, due to oxygen atoms dissociated by the ECR plasma, plasma oxidation is related to the atomic diffusion through oxide layer and the atomic chemical reaction at the Si–SiO2 interface. The high quality of the ultrathin oxide film was characterized with a break...

Unintentionally doped GaAs crystals grown by the horizontal Bridgman method were annealed at temperatures in the range from 700 to 910 °C under As overpressure. The n‐type crystals subjected to heat treatment under As overpressure lower than the growing pressure revealed a conductivity‐type conversion to p type. The electrical conductivity, Hall coefficient, and photoionization cross sections were measured on the p‐type samples, and the resulting analysis indicates that the conversion center is a double acceptor, most probably associated with CuGa defect. The activation energies attributable to the singly and doubly ionized states of the acceptor were found to be ∼150 and ∼380 meV at 0 K, respectively. The doubly ionized acceptor states turned out to provide strong space‐charge scattering, which plays a crucial role in determining the hole behavior in the present material at high temperatures.