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We have developed a molten-solder ejection method by which molten-solder droplets from a 13- (1 pL) to 450- mum (48 nL) diameter could be realized. This method has been developed as a technique to supply small solder balls. The authors have developed a newly designed solder ejection head and confirmed that solder balls with almost no surface oxidation can be formed by using this method. The diameter of the molten-solder droplets using an advanced head is 13 mum, which is much smaller than the 35 mum of a conventional minimum droplet. As the relative positioning accuracy, a standard deviation of 0.81 mum was achieved when the diameter of the solder droplets was 13 mum. Furthermore, by changing the drive waveform of the conventional head, we enlarged the diameter of the solder droplets to 450 mum, which was much larger than 200 mum of a conventional maximum droplet. In this case, the standard deviation of 26 mum as the relative positioning accuracy was also achieved when the diameter of the solder droplets was 450 mum.

Magnetic properties under pressure have been investigated on the weak itinerant electron ferromagnet Rh 2 NiGe. The pressure derivative of the Curie temperature T C has been obtained from the results of the temperature dependence of the initial permeability under pressure up to 10 kbar. The value of d T C /d p is found to be −0.60 K/kbar. The pressure change of the spontaneous magnetization σ s at 4.2 K for Rh 2 NiGe has been determined by the subtraction method under pressure up to 10 kbar. The value of d σ s /d p is found to be −0.014 emu/g kbar. The obtained results are analyzed using the spin fluctuation theory.

Rh2NiGe crystallizes in Heusler L21 structure. Precise magnetization measurements have been made on Rh2NiGe. The spontaneous magnetic moment at 4.2 K and the Curie temperature TC are 0.57μB/f.u. and 113 K, respectively. Below 30 K the decrease in the square of the spontaneous magnetization σs(T)2 is proportional to T2. However, over a temperature range from 89 K to the Curie temperature the decrease in σs(T)2 is proportiona to T4/3. The obtained results are analyzed using spin fluctuation theory.

Al-doped In2O3-ZnO films were developed and the influence of Al doping in electrical and optical properties of In2O3-ZnO films was investigated. Amorphous and homologous phases appeared with increasing δ=Zn∕(Zn+In) ratios. The carrier generation mechanism is discussed for these films. Native oxygen defects are the primary donors for the In2O3-ZnO films. Then the low resistivities of 2–4×10−4Ωcm were attained within a narrow range of δ=Zn∕(Zn+In) in the amorphous phase film. Two wt % (percent by weight) Al2O3-doping decreased the resistivity to 1.5–2.1×10−4Ωcm. At doping of 3 and 4 wt % Al2O3, film resistivities of 2–4×10−4Ωcm were attained for a relatively wide range of δ in the amorphous phase due to an increase in carrier concentration at δ=0.3–0.6. However, Al2O3 doping in homologous phase In2O3-ZnO films decreased carrier concentration independently of the levels of Al2O3 doping. Al2O3 doped in the homologous ZnkIn2Ok+3 crystalline films did not act as a donor impurity. The optical band-gap energy for...

The films of ZnO–SnO2 system were deposited on glass substrates by simultaneous dc magnetron sputtering apparatus, in which ZnO and SnO2:Sb (Sb2O5 3 wt % doped) targets faced each other. The substrate temperatures were maintained at 150, 250, and 350 °C, respectively. As an experimental parameter, current ratio δ=IZn/(IZn+ISn), which corresponds to ZnO target current (IZn) divided by the sum of ZnO and SnO2:Sb target currents (IZn+ISn), was adopted. Amorphous transparent films appeared for 0.50⩽δ⩽0.73, which could be correlated to compositions as [Zn]/([Sn]+[Zn])=0.33–0.67 by x-ray fluorescent analysis. At [Zn]/([Sn]+[Zn])=1/2 (δ=0.62), 2/3 (δ=0.73) and all other ratios in as-deposited films, neither crystalline ZnSnO3 nor Zn2SnO4 was obtained. Minimum resistivity of 4–6×10−2 Ω cm was found at δ=0.50, whose composition was approximately SnO2⋅ZnSnO3. Resistivity increased linearly with an increase of the current ratio, until the composition reached Zn2SnO4. The amorphous phase showed a constant Hall mobility of ∼10 cm2/V s and a linear decrease in carrier concentration with increasing Zn content.

Thin ZnO–SnO 2 films were deposited on glass substrates by opposed planar magnetron sputtering, in which ZnO and SnO 2 :Sb (Sb 2 O 5 3 wt% doped) targets face each other. Glass substrate temperatures ( T s ) were held at 150°C and 250°C. As an experimental parameter, current ratio δ , ZnO target current divided by the sum of ZnO and SnO 2 target currents, was used. Compositions of as-deposited film were changed with the current ratio δ . Amorphous transparent films appeared over the range of 0.47⩽ δ ⩽0.80 (Zn/(Zn+Sn)=0.28–0.76) at T s =150°C, over the range of 0.33⩽ δ ⩽0.73 (Zn/(Zn+Sn)=0.32–0.66) at T s =250°C. Crystalline ZnSnO 3 and crystalline Zn 2 SnO 4 was not obtained in any of the as-deposited films, even at δ =0.62 (Zn/(Zn+Sn)=1/2) or δ =0.73 (Zn/(Zn+Sn)=2/3). Amorphous films exist as form of (ZnSnO 3 ) 1− x (SnO 2 ) x over the range of 0.50⩽ δ ⩽0.62 (0⩽ x ⩽0.5) and (ZnSnO 3 ) 1− y (ZnO) y over the range of 0.62⩽ δ ⩽0.73 (0⩽ y ⩽0.5). The minimum resistivity of the deposited amorphous films was 3.6 ×10 −2 Ω cm at δ =0.50 (Zn/(Zn+Sn) =0.33), T s =250°C.

The effects of Al 2 O 3 dopings in pseudobinary (In 2 O 3 ) 1− δ (2ZnO) δ films were investigated, and carrier generation mechanism was discussed. Here the δ value is the ratio of Zn/(Zn+In). For Al 2 O 3 doping below 2 wt%, low-resitivity amorphous films in 2–4×10 −4 Ω cm were deposited over a narrow range of δ =Zn/(Zn+In) (0.2⩽ δ ⩽0.4). At Al 2 O 3 =2 wt% doping, the resistivity was improved in the same narrow range of δ . Using a ZnO:Al target with 3 wt% Al 2 O 3, film resistivities of 2–4×10 −4 Ω cm were attained over a relatively wide range of δ in the amorphous phase (0.2⩽ δ⩽ 0.6). This result was due to the increase in carrier concentration at δ =0.3–0.6. The Al 2 O 3 doping also influenced on optical band gap: band gap shrinkage for Al 2 O 3 =2 wt% and band gap widening for Al 2 O 3 =3 wt%. For homologous crystalline films, Al 2 O 3 doping decreased carrier concentration, independent of the level of Al 2 O 3 doping. The Al 2 O 3 doping increased linearly optical band gap energy. These results indicate that the Al atoms are impurities that distort the lattice in homologous film.

In the alternating current plasma display panel, a widespread discharge can take place accidentally in a large number of cells in the upper or lower panel ends. The undesirable discharge is referred to as global breakdown. This is a serious problem, with consequences not only for display quality, but also for product reliability. The mechanism of the global breakdown was examined experimentally using a surface electrometer and theoretically using plasma simulation. From these examinations, the global breakdown mechanism was clarified as follows. Global breakdown was accompanied by charge separation in the horizontal direction of the panel. This charge separation was caused by electron transport downward in the panel during the address discharge. The electron transport formed a negative wall charge on the phosphor surface. When the wall voltage exceeded the insulation voltage of the protective layer, global breakdown occurred. Furthermore, it was clarified that increasing the front dielectric thickness or ...

In this paper, a bulk-micromachined three-axis accelerometer fabricated with commercial submicrometer CMOS wafers has been developed for low-cost realization of smart accelerometers and improvement of device performance. The signal processing circuits for three-axis detection were formed using a commercial 0.8-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. After that, micromachining processes were performed to the complete CMOS wafers to form accelerometer structures. The important technologies to separate micromachining processes from the CMOS process are wafer thickness control after CMOS fabrication and backside polishing with chemical spin etching. Accelerometers with 3/spl times/3 mm/sup 2/ and 6/spl times/6 mm/sup 2/ die size were fabricated with the developed fabrication technology. As a result of device evaluation, 2.0 mg/sub rms/ resolution of Z-axis acceleration, and 10.8 mg/sub rms/ resolution of X and Y-axis acceleration were obtained by the accelerometers with 6/spl times/6 mm/sup 2/ die size. Comparing for the same die area, the 6/spl times/6 mm/sup 2/ size accelerometer showed about 21.3 times higher resolution of Z-axis acceleration and 37.8 times higher resolution of X, Y-axis acceleration as compared to our previous three-axis accelerometer fabricated with 5.0-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. Temperature dependence and reliability for repetitive vibration loads were also evaluated. Through these evaluations, basic performance of the CMOS integrated three-axis accelerometer has been confirmed.

A current sensor that can be integrated in back-end-of-line in the CMOS process with MTJs is proposed and evaluated. We demonstrated current sensing in Cu wires of widths of 0.24 to 2.4 μm and obtained a sensitivity of up to 4.2%/mA. Moreover, we confirmed that the combination of smaller MTJs and finer wires can suppress the effects of environmental magnetic fields.

A plasma discharge due to a sustaining pulse of an alternating current plasma display panel was analyzed using a two-dimensional particle-in-cell code, and basic characteristics of the plasma discharge were calculated. The characteristics of the plasma discharge due to a sustaining pulse are as follows. (i) A large amount of space charge remained after drawing the discharge current. This excess space charge did not contribute to wall charge formation or ultraviolet radiation. (ii) The electron energy distribution function was evaluated and could be well fitted by the Druyvesteyn distribution in the high-energy region. The Druyvesteyn distribution was a consequence of the cross section for electron-Ne elastic scattering. (iii) The calculated ultraviolet radiation efficiency η of the plasma discharge due to a sustaining pulse was between 5.51% and 30.7%. Examination of the sensitivity of the efficiency to the electron temperature showed that reducing the electron temperature was a key to improving the effic...

This paper describes the design and construction of a neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter and power converter, with outputs of 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 MVA, which use IGBTs. The inverter and converter are suitable for industrial drive applications, such as rolling mills, water pumps, etc., and they are composed of multi-inverter units in parallel. Each inverter unit is composed of four pairs of parallel IGBTs connected in series. In order to achieve current balance among the parallel connected IGBTs, low inductance laminated bus bars are designed by using an electro-magnetic simulator, and switching waveforms of IGBTs are evaluated by the circuit simulator SPICE using power device models. A variable capacitance snubber circuit is also presented for the NPC inverter to reduce both switching voltage swing and power consumption.

In order to develop a high-performance deflection yoke (DY) for CRTs, a simulation system to evaluate the misconvergence and inductance of the DY has been developed. The system can treat the three-dimensional shape and winding pattern of the DY. In the inductance analysis, the inductance calculation is based on an Integral Equation Method (IEM) and magnetic flux method in which vector potential is integrated along the coils. This method requires no spatial mesh. For calculating the self-inductance, the DY coil is modeled by an equivalent radius model. In this model, several turns of coil are represented as one line element with equivalent radius. As this model can reduce the number of coil elements, the equivalent radius model is effective to reduce calculation time. The system has been applied to the DY. The difference between measured and calculated inductance is within 2%. The calculation takes place within 1 h CPU time using the Hitachi H9000/VR460 (PA-8000, 180 MHz). The shape and winding pattern of the DY fringe can be designed by the simulation system.

A method for calculating the electromagnetic wave propagation considering continuity of polarization current is presented. An electric field integral equation is used along with the moment method to develop an efficient procedure for numerical analysis of thin dielectric slabs such as the printed circuit boards (PCBs). In order to accurately treat the polarization charge and current conditions, the basic function of facet elements is used, by which it is possible for divergence of polarization current in a subdivided volume element to be exactly zero. The internal electric field of the dielectric sphere agrees with the theoretical value. The calculated impedance characteristic of the PCBs is in good agreement with prediction of the patch antenna theory.

Putrescine export was found to occur by a non-diffusional highly regulated process using Xenopus oocytes as a model system of polyamine transport. Untreated oocytes were observed to possess high endogenous intracellular putrescine and spermidine levels with no detectable polyamine interconversion or biosynthesis over the assay intervals. The putrescine uptake process demonstrated a rapid saturation within a 5 min interval. Spermidine demonstrated a relatively larger uptake capacity with only a minimal ability to export. A kinetic analysis of the concentration-dependence of the putrescine and spermidine uptake processes indicated that the putrescine uptake process may possess two concurrent uptake components while spermidine uptake may possess a two-component process with an allosteric regulation. Elevated intracellular putrescine levels were observed to decrease against a 10-fold higher extracellular concentration gradient in a rapid and specific manner. No noticeable changes in the intracellular levels of other polyamines were observed over the same time interval. The uptake and export rates of putrescine transport also showed a concurrent, rapid and cyclical regulation. These findings support a non-diffusional putrescine export process which is highly regulated.

Drug resistance is one of the problems severely limiting chemotherapy in cancer patients. Thus, it is very important to develop new drugs that are effective against drug-resistant tumour cells. The novel anti-tumour agent NK109 has been developed from benzo[c]phenanthridine derivatives by Nippon Kayaku (Tokyo, Japan). We have confirmed that NK109 shows anti-tumour effects against a number of human tumour cell lines by inhibiting DNA topoisomerase II activity through the stabilization of the cleavable complex. Further, its efficacy against several drug-resistant tumour cell lines was also shown. NK109 showed potent anti-tumour activity against doxorubicin-resistant human tumour cell lines that have a typical multidrug resistance phenotype caused by P-glycoprotein. NK109 was not pumped extracellularly by P-glycoprotein and, consequently, NK109 accumulated in resistant cells. Cisplatin-resistant human tumour cell lines, which demonstrated decreased cisplatin accumulation, were sensitive to NK109. NK109 non-cross-resistance was confirmed using xenografts of tumour cells that were resistant to cisplatin in SCID mice. Furthermore, etoposide-resistant cells, with decreased topoisomerase II activity, were markedly sensitive to NK109 when compared with their parent cells, suggesting the possibility that the cytotoxic mechanism of NK109 differs from that of etoposide. In conclusion, NK109 is a very promising new anti-tumour drug for clinical use, because the efficacy of NK109 is not susceptible to several known molecular alterations that are associated with drug resistance. A clinical study of this compound is now in progress in Japan. Images Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 7 Figure 8

The inductance per unit length (L') of a railgun barrel is one of the principal parameters to predict the acceleration performance of a complete railgun system. A method is proposed to evaluate L' using the vector potential of the inside of rails obtained by two dimensional transient electromagnetic analyses with the finite element method for cross-sections of railgun barrels. Calculations with the method were carried out for two types of existing barrels. It was confirmed that typical features of the evaluated values agreed well with those of the measured ones. It is also shown that the values are useful for predicting the performance of the whole railgun system with a railgun system simulation code. Finally, parametric studies were carried out for one of the barrel models assessing the effect of changing several design parameters. From these results an idea of a thin steel wire wound barrel is proposed.

An attenuated total reflection (ATR) instrument for the observation of angle‐ and frequency‐scanned ATR spectra has been constructed. Light characterized by various wave vectors and dispersed into a spectrum has been detected by a charge coupled device camera after reflection from a rotating mirror and a diffraction grating. Two elliptic mirrors and a prism‐sample unit have been set between the rotating mirror and the diffraction grating for the purpose of controlling the light path. The images obtained have been analyzed by a digital image processing system so that angle‐scanned ATR signals are obtained for various wavelengths (500–800 nm). The time required to acquire one image has been 0.7 s in the present system. The dependence of the dielectric constant of a Ag film on wavelength is given here as an example measured by our system.

A magnetic analysis to determine the plasma cross-sectional shape and equilibrium parameters in the superconducting tokamak TRIAM-1M is discussed using magnetic data obtained in ohmic discharges. First, it is shown that the eddy currents in the tokamak structures should be taken into account. Two magnetic analysis codes are applied. One is the SHP code in which the plasma current is replaced by several filamental loop currents and the other is the FITEQ code in which the plasma current density is consistent with the MHD equilibrium. The magnetic fields due to eddy currents are expanded into multipole fields. The central safety factor q(0) is fixed at 1.0. The eddy currents reduce the vertical field by 10%. Taking account of them, the accuracy of the magnetic analysis is improved and estimation of the stored thermal energy in a plasma becomes possible. The SHP code has the difficulty that the local plasma surface position can be distorted by the eddy current magnetic field. In addition, it is also noted that the pressure profile analysed by the FITEQ code is consistent with the Thomson scattering measurement and that the energy confinement characteristics are consistent with the neo-Alcator scaling

The ATP-dependent glutathione S-conjugate export pump (GS-X pump) has been suggested to play a role in the mechanism of cisplatin resistance. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between intracellular glutathione (GSH) levels and GS-X pump activity and whether GS-X pump overexpression results in cisplatin resistance. We transfected the human gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (gamma-GCS) gene into a human small-cell lung cancer cell line, SBC-3, producing SBC-3/GCS. The intracellular GSH content of SBC-3/GCS was twice that of the parental line, its GS-X pump activity was significantly enhanced and cellular cisplatin accumulation decreased. SBC-3/GCS showed higher resistance (relative resistance value of 7.4) to cisplatin than the parental line SBC-3. These data indicate that gamma-GCS gene overexpression induces cellular cisplatin resistance associated with increases in both the GSH content and GS-X pump activity, resulting in reduced cisplatin accumulation. In conclusion, GS-X pump expression is related to cellular GSH metabolism and involved in cisplatin resistance.

Two distinct species of amyloid β protein (Aβ) with different carboxyl termini, Aβ40 and Aβ42(43), are deposited in plaques in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease and Down's syndrome. The relationship between these two forms of Aβ and microglial cells was investigated in 16 subjects with Down's syndrome ranging in age from 31 to 64 years. The amount of Aβ40 in plaques was low in persons under 50 years of age, even though high amounts of Aβ42(43) were present, but this former species increased after this age. Microglia were observed most commonly in plaques containing both Aβ40 and Aβ42(43) but less commonly in those with Aβ42(43) alone. The presence of microglial cells in plaques may be associated with the accumulation of Aβ40 and these cells may have a role in the production or processing of this particular molecular species.

The present study considers how the function of vision can be constructed from the experiences of a robot. Specifically, a learning method is proposed for the association between vision and ego-motion. A novel concept of a time evolution operator on sensory inputs is introduced. The time variation of sensory inputs is obtained when the operator is applied to the current inputs. Association between the time evolution operator and the egomotion is learned. Once the learning has been performed, ego-motion can be inferred from the operator constructed from sensory inputs. The main feature of this method is that it does not use any knowledge of image construction obtained by optics and so is flexible with respect to arbitrary image distortion. This flexibility is confirmed by a computer simulation. The proposed method may be considered a method of recovery of structure and motion from motion that remains nearly unaffected by arbitrary image distortion.

In this paper, we aim to support the scheme that visual cognition is organized by natural neural networks based on experiences. In this scheme the networks learn correlation between temporal variation of visual stimulation and self-motion to organize visual cognition. We propose a neural network that detects temporal variations of visual stimulation and combine them with corresponding self-motion. The network does not use any prior knowledge about an image such as optical process of formation or pixels arranged in two dimensional plane. By experiments, we show that the proposed network can combine sensation and motion correctly and can recall pattern of one side by input pattern of the other side.

In this article, we apply the competitive associative net called CAN2 to the processing of the range data of indoor environment acquired by a mobile robot, where the CAN2 is a neural net or a learning machine which performs piecewise linear approximation. After introducing several methods for dealing with range data by the CAN2, we show the following results; (1) an original range image involving lack of data or jump edges can be learned to be recalled as a natural range image by means of modifying the learning and recalling procedure of the CAN2, (2) high data compression ratio can be achieved the CAN2 although the quality of the range image is not reduced so much.

We have developed an advanced molten solder ejection method which realizes to eject 1 picoliter molten solder droplets. The molten solder ejection method has been developed as a technique to supply small solder balls. The authors have developed a newly designed solder ejection head and have confirmed that solder balls with almost no surface oxidation can be formed by using this head. The size of the molten solder droplets using this newly developed method is 1 picoliter, which is much smaller than the previous minimum droplet size of 22 picoliters. A standard deviation in position accuracy of 0.81 mum was achieved.

Exact robust H2 performance analysis is considered for linear time-invariant continuous-time systems whose coefficient matrices are polynomials of a single parameter. A necessary and sufficient condition for the robust H 2 performance is derived as a set of parameterized LMIs whose variable matrix is a polynomial of the parameter, where a bound of its degree is given explicitly. Then, the parameterized LMIs are transformed exactly to parameter-independent and finite-dimensional LMIs. The discrete-time counterpart of the above results is also derived.

Femtosecond lasers which have an extremely high peak power are expected to use for micro-processing, such as drilling and cutting. We have analyzed the drilling process by femtosecond laser pulses on surface of various materials including silicon with image-intensified CCD camera with a high speed gate. A femtosecond laser pulses (single and double pulses) were focused on surface of samples using a lens with a focal length of 100 mm. As a result, it was found that the smaller the pulse energy, the faster the formation of the hole. By measuring the rise time in 12 kinds of materials, it was found that the rise time strongly correlates with the thermal conductivity in these materials. Besides, it was also found that double pulsed laser suppressed the heat influence compared to the single pulse laser. These knowledges are thought to be very important and useful for developing microfabrication using a femtosecond laser.

A 54-year-old-man suddenly experienced severe back pain while eating. On admission to our hospital, contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed an acute type A aortic dissection, and emergency surgical repair was performed the same day. Through median sternotomy, graft replacement of the ascending aorta, including removal of the site of the intimal tear, was carried out under deep hypothermia and retrograde cerebral perfusion. Although the postoperative course was satisfactory, the patient suddenly complained of sever chest pain on postoperative day 23; the ECG trace showed anomalous alterations. Emergency coronary angiography revealed the presence of a wide coronary artery dissection from the entry of the left anterior descending aorta (LAD) to the re-entry of the left circumflex artery (LCX). Multiple stents were implanted in the LAD and LCX. After stenting, the chest symptoms remitted and the ECG trace was normal. The patient was discharged from our hospital on postoperative day 42.

Non-equilibrium ionization plays a critical role in Z-pinch gas discharge produced plasma (GDPP) EUV source. However, the physics of the processes, plasma and surface discharges produced, magneto-hydrodynamic, photon radiation transport, and plasma-electrode interactions, which lead to EUV emission, is intrinsically complex. Many simplifying assumption are inevitable with numerical simulations, resulting in low-credibility outcomes. With the learning and generalization abilities, artificial neural networks (ANN) have been applied to model and optimize a Z-pinch plasma source, which is characterized with a experimental design at varied operational parameters including electric power input, applied voltage/current, pulse repetition, MPC parameters, electrode geometry, xenon flow rate as well as convention efficiency, EUV source size, radiation power etc.

We report for the first time a rapid and high sensitive bio-sensing system by using magnetic beads and an array sensor consisted of MOS Hall elements. This system has been applied to immunoassay and successfully achieved the testing time of 3min and the minimum detection limit of 0.1 ng/ml for antigens.

This paper describes the characteristics of the EUV light source based on z-pinch discharges, which is driven by a low inductance pulsed current generator. The driving circuit with an inductance of 30 nH is capable of delivering the current of 34 kA in 110 ns to the z-pinch load. The z-pinch xenon plasmas are produced in the ceramic tube with the dimension of 3 or 5 mm in diameter and 5 mm in length. According to plasma dynamics observed by a fast framing camera, there are two radiation modes, one is dynamic and the other is quasistatic. Plasma behaves more dynamically with larger diameter discharge tube. The EUV emission from the z-pinch plasma was characterized with respect to spectrum and in-band EUV energy (13.5 nm, 2% bandwidth) as well as temporal behavior of the emission. Presently the maximum in-band EUV energy is 11 mJ/sr in the direction of 15 degree off-axis

Metabolic inhibition (MI) contributes to contractile failure during cardiac ischemia and systolic heart failure, in part due to decreased excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling gain. To investigate the underlying mechanism, we studied subcellular Ca 2+ release patterns in whole cell patch clamped rat ventricular myocytes using two-dimensional high-speed laser scanning confocal microscopy. In cells loaded with the Ca 2+ buffer EGTA (5 mmol/L) and the fluorescent Ca 2+ -indicator fluo-3 (1 mmol/L), depolarization from −40 to 0 mV elicited a striped pattern of Ca 2+ release. This pattern represents the simultaneous activation of multiple Ca 2+ release sites along transverse-tubules. During inhibition of both oxidative and glycolytic metabolism using carbonyl cyanide- p -trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP, 50 nmol/L) and 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG, 10 mmol/L), there was a decrease in inward Ca 2+ current ( I Ca ), the spatially averaged Ca 2+ transient, and E-C coupling gain, but no reduction in sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ content. The striped pattern of subcellular Ca 2+ release became fractured, or disappeared altogether, corresponding to a marked decrease in the area of the cell exhibiting organized Ca 2+ release. There was no significant change in the intensity or kinetics of local Ca 2+ release. The mechanism is not fully explained by dephosphorylation of L-type Ca 2+ channels, because a similar degree of I Ca “rundown” in control cells did NOT result in fracturing of the Ca 2+ release pattern. We conclude that metabolic inhibition interferes with E-C coupling by (1) reducing trigger Ca 2+ , and (2) directly inhibiting sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ release site open probability.

Transitions composed of three via-holes, which are aligned in triangular shape, is proposed. The transition realized a high-frequency signal path from the surface of a thick silicon wafer to the other side. To reduce the reflection loss, the signal via is disposed shifted. The transition is fabricated with our developing molten solder ejection method, which ejects small droplets of solder like an ink-jet-printer. Without utilizing thick metallizing process inside the holes, high aspect ratio structure was achieved. The height of the holes is 250/spl mu/m in this study with diameter of 100/spl mu/m. The measured results showed the shift-aligned GSG transition had 0.4dB loss at 40GHz.

The authors report a case study of a 54-year-old male admitted to our hospital with severe chest pain and ST depression in II, III and aVf lead on the electrocardiogram. The chest X-ray showed an enlarged superior mediastinum. An enhanced computed tomography (CT) was performed and confirmed the diagnosis of acute type A aortic dissection. The patient underwent emergency surgical repair with the replacement of the ascending aorta. The patient recovered without complication until the fifteenth postoperative day, when another severe chest pain appeared. Emergency coronary angiography revealed a remaining dissection in both the left anterior descending artery (LAD) and the left circumflex artery (LCx). Implantation of Elite stents to the LAD and the LCx was performed. The patient recovered uneventfully after this operation. Remaining coronary artery dissection after the replacement of the ascending aorta is very rare. In this case coronary intervention with Elite stents was effective.

Recent concerns of environmental protection encourage the use of a compact indoor air cleaner and various types of electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) have been manufactured. Although a wide range of airborne particles can be collected effectively with an ordinary ESP using a positive DC corona, it is difficult to remove gaseous compounds such as tobacco smoke which induces submicron particles and an offensive odor. In the present paper, the authors investigated the collection of submicron particles and the decomposition of acetaldehyde (CH/sub 3/CHO) using a commercial ESP and a nonthermal plasma reactor because the offensive odor of tobacco smoke is mainly caused by acetaldehyde molecules. For an ESP, the authors evaluated the particle-size dependent collection efficiency using a monodispersed aerosol because little investigations have been conducted in this area. As for acetaldehyde decomposition, more than 90% of decomposition efficiency was obtained with the use of the nonthermal plasma under dry air. However, the decomposition efficiency was deteriorated under humidified conditions. The higher collection efficiency was achieved for a particle size of 0.6 /spl mu/m than that of 0.3 /spl mu/m although the overall over collection efficiency exceeded more than 99%. The combination of ESP and nonthermal plasma technologies leads to the breakthrough of the conventional indoor electronic air cleaner technology.

A new inductance measurement method of a sub-nanohenry order is proposed using an LCR meter. Since parasitic inductances of probes usually decreases the measurement accuracy, we developed two types of special probes to minimize such parasitic inductances. The new measurement methods have special merits, such as separate measurements of each trace and a high spatial resolution. They also enable measurements of inductances not only for simple traces, but also for combined trace-and-sheet conductor systems. The results measured proved to be in good agreement with our electro-magnetic simulator. The eddy current effect was successfully demonstrated by using this method.

An efficient technique to calculate inductance of multiple arbitrary shaped planes is developed based on voltage driven current distribution analysis by the finite element integral equation method. The comparison between calculated and experimental results proved that the present technique is fast and accurate enough for complicated multilayer packaging applications.

We propose an objective-neuron-based active memory, ONBAM, and design it by HDL. The ONBAM is an active topological memory, which is a memory with equivalently a topological space of data and a flexibly content-addressable function, which plays an important role of the memory-based AI machine. >

A 50-year-old female was admitted to our hospital with a chief complaint of disturbance of consciousness (DOC). Left-sided hemiparalysis was noted on examination and cerebral infarction was diagnosed with total occlusion of the right common carotid artery revealed by cerebral angiography. Pharmacological thrombolysis (urokinase 720,000 U) was performed. Dissection of the right common carotid artery was noted after successful thrombolytic therapy. Enhanced chest computed tomography (CT) showed the acute type A aortic dissection involving the cerebral artery. Ascending aortic replacement was performed 4 days after the thrombolytic therapy to avoid brain edema and hemorrhagic infarction during cardiopulmonary bypass. The postoperative course was uneventful. In the case of acute type A aortic dissection with DOC, proper indication and optimal timing of the operation may help to improve patient survival.

Simultaneous switching noise (SSN) on bus lines is calculated by accurately modeling printed circuit boards and LSI packages using coupled circuit and electromagnetic simulation. Contribution of crosstalk and ground bounce to SSN is qualitatively estimated. With relatively low inductance package such as BGA, the main cause of SSN is cross talk which results in increasing SSN voltage along the length of bus line. The results of simulation are compared with those of experiment, the both results agree within 10% difference at maximum peak of SSN.

In the present study, a fabrication technology of bulk-micromachined three-axis accelerometer integrated with commercial CMOS circuits has been investigated for low cost realization and improvement of device performance. The key technologies in the developed fabrication technology are wafer thickness control, backside polishing with chemical spin etching and anisotropic etching with PVD SiO/sub 2/ mask. The signal processing circuits were fabricated with a commercial 0.8 /spl mu/m-CMOS technology, and all the micromachining processes were performed to complete CMOS wafers. Characteristics of the devices and reliability for the repetitive vibration load were evaluated. As a result, basic performance of the accelerometers with this technology was confirmed.

A case of chronic DeBakey IIIb dissecting aneurysm associated with right-sided aortic arch and aberrant left subclavian artery is reported. A 51-year-old man was admitted to our institute for surgical treatment of chronic dissecting aortic aneurysm which occurred 3 years ago. A right posterolateral thoracotomy was made through the 4th intercostal space. Closure of entry was performed under temporary hypothermic circulatory arrest and then, this was followed by plication of false lumen under hypothermic CPB. Post-operative clinical course was uneventful and an intra-venous digital subtraction angiography demonstrated that false lumen in the thorax was completely closed. The patient was discharged from the hospital on 21th POD. Dissecting aortic aneurysm associated with right-sided aortic arch is extremely rare. In operative case, pertinent selection of operative methods considering anatomical diversity is required.