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This paper investigates tradeoff between complexity and memory size in the 3GPP enhanced aacPlus decoder based on 16-bit fixed-point DSP implementation. In order to investigate this tradeoff, the speed- and the-memory conscious decoders are implemented. The maximum number of operations for the implemented speed-conscious decoder is 29.3 million cycles per second (MCPS) for a 32 kb/s bitstream. The maximum number of operations for the memory-conscious decoder, where 70% of the data are allocated to an external memory area, increases by 5.7 MCPS (19%) for the bitstream. The investigation of this tradeoff provides an actual relationship between the computational complexity and the internal memory size of the 3GPP enhanced aacPlus decoder. The implemented decoders enable music download and streaming services on next-generation mobile terminals.

OBJECTIVES Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) induces apoptosis in a variety of tumor cells through two of its receptors: TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2. In this study, we investigated the susceptibility of human prostate cancer and bladder cancer cells to HGS-ETR2, a human monoclonal agonistic antibody specific for TRAIL-R2. METHODS The cell surface expression of TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2 on prostate cancer and bladder cancer cells was determined using flow cytometry. Cytotoxicity was assessed by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay, and caspase activities were measured by a quantitative colorimetric assay. RESULTS HGS-ETR2 effectively induced apoptotic cell death in DU145, PC3, and LNCaP human prostate cancer cells and J82 and T24 human bladder cancer cells. The increased effectiveness of HGS-ETR2 for inducing cell death might have been affected by differences in the cell surface expression of the two TRAIL receptors, in that TRAIL-R2, but not TRAIL-R1, was frequently expressed in the prostate cancer and bladder cancer cells. HGS-ETR2 significantly activated the caspase cascade, including caspase-3, -6, -8, and -9, which were the downstream molecules of the death receptors in prostate cancer cells. Caspase-3, -6, and -9 were also significantly activated with HGS-ETR2-induced apoptosis in the bladder cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest the potential utility of TRAIL-R2 antibody as a novel therapeutic agent against prostate cancer and bladder cancer.

LIGA process has been developed in the 2.5-dimensional world. We introduced new technologies of a 3D X-ray lithography and a worm injection molding with an unscrewing de-molding mechanism, and succeeded in the deployment of a 3D LIGA process. Furthermore, we fabricated a spiral microcoil using the 3D-LIGA process and a metallization technique combining flat and smooth electroplating and isotropic chemical etching. The microcoil diameter was 0.5 mm and the length was 1 mm. The width of coil lines was 10µm and the pitch was 20µm. Characteristics of this microcoil as an inductor combine the inductance of 91 nH and the quality factor of 5.8 at the frequency of 1 GHz. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 166(1): 43–51, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20679

Investigations of microactuators are actively being pursued in various viewpoint, researchers are exploring output energy sources such as electrostatic, piezoelectric, electromagnetic and etc. We focus attention recently on the electromagnetic microactuator. In generally, electromagnetic actuator is not well suited to miniaturization because of decreased output force when miniaturized. However, we have already developed 3D-LIGA process to produce a spiral microcoil in 2003. Then, the production process of a smaller and higher output force microactuator was devised based on this technology.

LIGA processes have been developed generally in the 2.5D world. We introduced techniques of 3D X-ray lithography and worm injection molding with a unscrewing release mechanism, and succeeded in the development to three dimensions of LIGA process. We called this technology 3D-LIGA process, and came to be able to fabricate the plastic molded product with a spiral microstructure. Furthermore, we succeeded in the trial production of a spiral microcoil using 3D-LIGA process and metallization technique combining flat and smooth electroplating with a leveling agent and an isotropic chemical etching. The diameter of this microcoil was 0.5 mm and the length was 1 mm. The width of the Cu coil line was 10 μm, and the pitch was 20 μm. Moreover, we measured characteristics of this microcoil as an inductor. The inductance and the quality factor at the frequency of 1 GHz were 91 nH and 5.8, respectively. This is the first time successful fabrication of an electric device with a 3D form like a spiral microcoil using the 3D-LIGA process has been achieved.

The authors performed cavernous nerve reconstruction by nerve grafting in 22 patients (unilateral-16, bilateral-6) between August 2001 and June 2004. Harvesting of the sural nerve was unexpectedly more difficult than nerve grafting in the extremities or the head and neck, because a knee and lumbar bending position was impossible due to the pelvic surgical field. Suture of the grafted nerve on the distal side required great effort, because there was only sufficient space for one hand at the maximum in a deep region of the pelvic cavity, and the nerve ends easily become invisible by inflow of even a small amount of urine or blood. The mean time of the nerve harvesting and grafting was 1 hr 50 min for unilateral grafting and 2 hr 40 min for bilateral grafting. Recovery of erectile function was observed in about half the patients who had undergone surgery nearly 1 year before. Since harvesting of the sural nerve and nerve grafting were more difficult than expected, modification and improvement of many surgical elements, such as improvement of surgical devices and application of endoscopic techniques, are necessary.

Objectives: The outcome of laparoscopic partial nephrectomy using a microwave tissue coagulator for treatment of small renal tumors was studied. Patients and Methods: From June 1999 to May 2001, eight patients with small renal tumors of less than 5.0cm in diameter (1.0–5.0cm, T1N0M0) underwent retroperitoneoscopic partial nephrectomy. To control bleeding during the partial nephrectomy, the renal parenchyma around the tumor was coagulated using a microwave tissue coagulator with a needle of 1.5cm length. The tumor was circumscribed within the coagulated area with 8–13 punctures of the coagulation needle, and partial nephrectomy was performed using scissors and bipolar forceps. Results: All eight patients successfully underwent the procedure retroperitoneoscopically. The average operative time was 295 minutes and the average blood loss was 129ml. Three patients showed urine leakage from the renal calyces, which was controlled by suturing retroperitoneoscopically. In two patients, the surgical margin was revealed to be positive for renal cell carcinoma by frozen section pathology and additional resection was performed in these individuals. The patients were discharged from the hospital with almost full convalescence on day 10 on average. Within the mean follow-up period of 10.4 months, no recurrence was found when examined with computer tomography (CT) using contrast media. As a complication, one patient experienced a decrease in function of the operated kidney caused by unknown reason. Conclusion: Retroperitoneal partial nephrectomy using a microwave tissue coagulator is useful for treatment of small renal tumors located at the peripheral area of the kidney. Bleeding from the renal parenchymal incision site is well controlled without occlusion of the renal artery with additional use of a bipolar coagulator, when necessary. Further experience and long-term follow-up are mandatory however, to establish the usefulness of this technique.

A 72-year-old female was admitted to the hospital because of acute appendicitis. Laparotomy was performed and a grape bunch like multi-nodular tumor was found in the appendix. Appendectomy was performed. Pathohistologically it was diagnosed as multiple subserous lipoma. No additional case report has been seen in the literature as far as we could review. This case is extremely rare.

We evaluated low-impedance power distribution network (PDN) of decoupling capacitor embedded interposers for 3-D integrated LSI system. Measurements are carried out using the developed impedance analyzer system of a wide frequency range for evaluating ultralow impedance, and calculations are carried out using 2.5-D finite element method (FEM) electromagnetic field simulator. We fabricated various types of capacitor mounted or capacitor embedded interposers test element group (TEG), such as surface-mounted and embedded chip capacitors, and thin film capacitors on silicon interposers using the same simple design to compare measurement results with calculation ones. As a result, the chip capacitor embedded organic interposer TEG and thin film capacitor embedded silicon interposer TEG could provide low PDN impedance at a wide frequency range of up to 40 GHz. In particular, the interposer TEGs of the thin film capacitor embedded interposer that shows a low impedance of 0.1 Ω could be evaluated and calculated accurately. By using chip capacitor embedded or thin film capacitor embedded interposers for 3-D integrated LSI system, it is expected that the PDN of the system can be achieved ultralow PDN impedance.

We evaluated low-impedance power distribution network (PDN) of decoupling capacitor embedded interposers for 3-D integrated LSI system. Measurements are carried out using the developed impedance analyzer system of a wide frequency range for evaluating ultralow impedance, and calculations are carried out using 2.5-D finite element method (FEM) electromagnetic field simulator. We fabricated various types of capacitor mounted or capacitor embedded interposers test element group (TEG), such as surface-mounted and embedded chip capacitors, and thin film capacitors on silicon interposers using the same simple design to compare measurement results with calculation ones. As a result, the chip capacitor embedded organic interposer TEG and thin film capacitor embedded silicon interposer TEG could provide low PDN impedance at a wide frequency range of up to 10 GHz. In particular, the interposer TEGs of the thin film capacitor embedded interposer that shows a low impedance of approximately 0.001 Ω could be evaluated and calculated accurately. By using chip capacitor embedded or thin film capacitor embedded interposers for 3-D integrated LSI system, it is expected that the PDN of the system can be achieved ultralow PDN impedance.

We developed an impedance analyzer system with a wide frequency range for evaluating ultralow impedance. The four-point impedance measurement technique is introduced using this system. This impedance measurement can be reliably and accurately carried out by a four-point technique where one pair of contacts is used to inject a signal into the device under test (DUT), and a second pair of contacts is used to sense the resulting signal across the DUT. As a result, an evaluation system for the tens of micro-ohms of trans-impedance Z 21 in the frequency range of 10 Hz to 40 GHz can be realized. By using two microwave contact probes, PDN impedance evaluation with contacted pads is realized. Therefore, the PDN impedance can be measured directly without the connectors during the measurement. Moreover, it is expected that the accurate and wideband impedance evaluation of a substrate with an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure can be realized.

This paper presents a versatile echo-and-noise control suite with a user-control capability, which is effective for nonlinear echo and impact noise. The suite consists of an acoustic echo canceller (AEC) and downlink/uplink noise suppressors (NSs). The AEC cancels both linear and nonlinear echoes based on an estimated ratio of the linear echo to the nonlinear echo with a smaller number of computations. The NSs simultaneously achieve low distortion and high suppression with accurate noise estimation. Impact noise is detected by its typical characteristics and selectively applied suppression and/or estimation depending on the speech presence probability. The downlink NS is equipped with a user-control capability to meet the user preference in the distortion-suppression trade-off. Subjective evaluation results demonstrate that this capability is useful for user-preference diversity.

This paper presents implementation of the 3GPP (the 3rd generation partnership project) enhanced aacPlus decoder on a 16-bit fixed-point DSP. Enhanced aacPlus is a 3GPP standard integrating newly standardized MPEG-4 parametric stereo (PS) into MPEG-4 high efficiency advanced audio coding (HE-AAC). PS enables audio coding at a low bitrate for stereo signals by efficiently representing stereo information. The maximum number of operations for the implemented decoder is 29.3 million cycles per second for a 32 kb/s bitstream. This implementation with stereo decoding capability achieves higher sound quality than mono HE-AAC at the cost of 90% increase in computational complexity. 3GPP mobile terminals for music download and streaming services can be realized by using the implemented decoder.

To produce three-dimensional and precise microstructures on a small curved surface, we developed a high-precision 3-dimensional X-ray lithography technique. We succeeded in the production of a master of a metallic mold used for mass producing a spiral microcoil with a diameter of 0.48 mm and a length of 1 mm using this technique. An exposure stage controllable by piezoelectric elements and stepping motors was developed. The adhesion between a resist material and a substrate material was enhanced. We investigated about the effect that X-ray diffraction rounds the edge of a pattern, and a process flow was produced. This product has polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) spiral microstructures with a line width of 10 µm, a thickness of 10 µm, and a pitch of 20 µm.

The authors report the electrical properties of multilayer thin-film interconnects examined under circumstances in which the signal lines were sandwiched between mesh-pattern metal layers (called meshed stripline). Multilayer thin-film substrates with various transmission line structures were manufactured with several mesh patterns (power/ground planes) and signal lines, and the characteristic impedance and crosstalk for these lines were measured. The relations between the electrical properties and the meshed-stripline structures were obtained from the measurements for use in designing multilayer thin-film interconnects. It is shown that, in meshed-stripline structures, the characteristic impedance can be controlled by changing the aperture ratio or the mesh pitch. The fluctuation in the characteristic impedance along the signal-propagation direction was insignificant. It was also found that the crosstalk noise in meshed-stripline structures can be made as low as those in ordinary stripline structures. >

A high‐density module for image processing was developed by chip‐on‐wafer technology. A silicon wafer was used as the substrate and the LSI chips were flip‐chip bonded to the silicon wafer by bumps in chip‐on‐wafer technology. A primary benefit of using a silicon wafer is the little induced thermal stress which affects the bumps. The module contained a digital signal processor, SRAMs and other peripheral LSls. A total of sixteen chips were bonded on the wafer. The LSIs were connected to each other by copper/polyimide multilayer interconnections consisting of eight copper conductive layers and polyimide dielectric layers. The characteristic impedance for the signal lines was controlled to 50 ohms. The LSIs were connected to the wafer electrically and mechanically by solder bumps, which were formed on the LSI bonding pads. A 188 pin AIN ceramic package was used for the module in order to obtain high heat radiation and high reliability. The occupied area for the module was reduced to 20%, compared with the size for conventionally assembled DIPs on a PC board.

We report on a 63-year-old woman with adenocarcinoma and stones in an Indiana pouch. Adenocarcinoma of an Indiana pouch is extremely rare. To our knowledge, only four cases with adenocarcinoma in an Indiana pouch have been reported.

A total of 147 specimens from 93 patients with penile lesions were examined at Nagasaki University Hospital during a 27-year period from 1961 to 1987. The most frequent malignant tumor was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC, 33 cases, 35.5%), followed by extramammary Paget's disease, transitional cell carcinoma, and Bowen's disease. The benign tumors and tumor-like lesions included condyloma acuminatum, cyst of the genitoperineal raphe, and lymphangioma. SCC of the penis accounted for less than 0.1% of all specimens and less than 0.62% of malignant tumors in men filed at our hospital. True phimosis accompanied 81.5% of the SCC cases. The 5- and 10-year survival rates for SCC were 77.2% and 71.3%, respectively. Two patients died of penile SCC. It was considered that an absence of both keratohyaline granules in the granular layer and melanin pigment in the basal layer can serve as a useful histologic indicator for diagnosis of well differentiated SCCs that are otherwise difficult to identify.

The LIGA process has been developed as a 2.5-dimensional processing method on Si wafers to date. However, we have succeeded in extending the LIGA process to 3D for the first time. 3D-LIGA was achieved by the technical development of 3D X-ray lithography and worm injection molding replication technology with unscrewing. These technologies began from the development of equipment and have developed into quite original technologies. By combining this 3D-LIGA process with a metallization technique that consists of flat and smooth electroplating and isotropic chemical etching, a spiral copper microstructure with a linewidth of 10 µm, a pitch of 20 µm and a thickness of 2 µm was formed on a cylindrical surface made from LCP with a length of 1 mm and a diameter of 0.48 mm. Furthermore, we applied the process to fabricate a spiral microcoil and estimated the electrical properties of the microcoil. The numbers of turns were 15, the inductance was 91 nH and the quality factor was 5.8 for a frequency of 1 GHz. Direct-current resistance was measured as 99 Ω.