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Two new different methods for coating aluminide intermetallic compounds on metals have been proposed : one is based on exothermic reaction between droplets of aluminum liquid and metal powder, while the other is based on arc surface alloying with aluminide forming metals. The feasibility of the former method was experimentally investigated using NiAl and SUS 316L stainless steel as demonstration coating material and base material, respectively. As soon as an aluminum droplet was dropped onto the nickel powder that had been placed on steel surface, the droplet and powder exothermically reacted and produced a superheated NiAl liquid bead on the steel surface, and the heat of the liquid bead melted the contact surface of the steel. The superheated NiAl liquid bead solidified on the steel surface, leading to NiAl coating on the steel. On the other hand, the feasibility of the latter method was experimentally confirmed by NbAl3 coating on niobium. When tungsten arc was used to melt an aluminum sheet placed on a niobium plate, the niobium surface was also melted and a melt pool of Al-Nb alloy was formed on the niobium plate. The melt pool solidified into layers of niobium aluminides on the surface of the niobium plate, forming a thick NbAl3 layer on the top surface of the niobium aluminides layers.

Three-dimensional photonic crystals with periodic variations of the dielectric constant were fabricated by using a rapid prototyping method called stereolithography. Millimeter-order epoxy lattices with a diamond structure were designed to reflect electromagnetic waves by forming an photonic bandgap in the GHz range. Titania based ceramic particles were dispersed into the lattice to control the dielectric constant. The diamond lattice structures formed the perfect bandgap reflecting electromagnetic waves for all directions. Diamond structures with stretched lattice spacing were successfully fabricated as well, resulting in the directional transmission of microwaves. A microwave antenna head composed of the normal and stretched diamond structure was fabricated and achieved unidirectional transmission.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of human arthritis. Genetic factors have been implicated in OA. It was reported that an aspartic acid (D)-repeat polymorphism in the gene encoding asporin (ASPN) was associated with OA of knee and hip joints in Japanese; in the three independent studies performed, the D14 allele of the ASPN polymorphism was over-represented and the D13 allele was under-represented. Subsequently, four replication studies, three in Europeans and one in Chinese populations, have been reported; however, they showed inconsistent results. To evaluate between-study heterogeneity and to estimate the common genetic effect of the D-repeat polymorphism on OA, we performed a meta-analysis of the five reports that include seven association studies, using the DerSilmonian-Laird procedure. We detected association between knee OA and the susceptible D14 allele [P = 0.003, summary odds ratio (OR) = 1.46] with significant heterogeneity (P = 0.047) among the studies. We also detected positive association between knee OA and the protective D13 allele (P = 0.026, summary OR = 0.84) with significant heterogeneity (P = 0.040) among the studies. Because of significant heterogeneity, we stratified the studies by ethnicity. We detected positive association between knee OA and the D14 allele (P = 0.0000013, summary OR = 1.95) with non-significant heterogeneity (P = 0.535) in Asian populations. In hip OA, significant heterogeneity was identified and there was no positive association for any allele in any comparison. The present results suggest that the association of the ASPN D14 allele and knee OA has global relevance, but that its effect has ethnic differences.