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This paper proposes a method for detecting rust inside pipes using deep learning. In recent years, the number of pipes that have passed their useful life has been increasing, and earthworm-type robots have been developed to perform regularly inspections of sewage pipes. The images of the sewage pipe taken by the robot are trained on a Variational Auto Encoder, which is an unsupervised learning model, to detect abnormalities by taking the difference between the input image and the output image. In addition, the trained Residual Network is used to estimate the location of anomalies.

Cationic liposomes are versatile lipid nanocarriers to improve the pharmacological properties of drug payloads. Recent advantages include the application of their intrinsic immunostimulatory effects to enhance immune activation. Herein, we report for the first time the structural effect of cationic lipids in promoting T cell activation and differentiation in vitro. Two types of cationic liposomes R3C14 and R5C14 were prepared from single type of lipids Arg-C3-Clu2C14 or Arg-C5-Clu2C14, which bear arginine head group and ditetradecyl tails but vary in the carbon number of the spacer in between. Murine CD8 or CD4 T cells were pretreated with 50 μM of each type of liposomes for 2 h, followed by stimulation with anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies for 24 h. In comparison to liposome-untreated T cells, R5C14-pretreatment induced a robust T cell activation (IL-2, CD25

In this study, we describe the signal readout capabilities of indium–tin–zinc-oxide (ITZO) thin-film transistor (TFT)-based active pixel sensor (APS) pixel circuits combined with organic photoconductive films (OPFs). A pixel circuit was fabricated with a size of 50 μm containing three ITZO TFTs having a channel length of 2 μm and a blue-sensitive OPF possessing excellent properties with an external quantum efficiency of ∼59% and a dark current density of −2. Signal readout operation of the pixel circuits in accordance with irradiated light intensity was demonstrated, and sufficient response speeds within the line selection period, assuming a pixel number of 320 × 240 (QVGA) at 60 frames per second (∼69.4 μs), was also confirmed by fabricating pixel line arrays comprising 320 and 240 pixels. Our findings show that the miniaturized ITZO TFTs have potential for use in high-pixel-density TFT-based APS image sensors with improved imaging quality.

Changes of volatile flavor compounds of watermelon juice by heat treatment were investigated by gas chromatography-olfactometry-mass spectrometry. Although the major volatile compounds in watermelon juice, three aldehydes, three alcohols, and one ketone, did not increase significantly by heat treatment, dimethylsulfide and methional increased in heated juice. These two sulfides were suggested to contribute to the off-flavors in heated watermelon juice.

In this study, we describe an active pixel sensor (APS) readout circuit using indium–tin–zinc-oxide (ITZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). The APS readout circuit with a pixel size of 90 μm was fabricated using ITZO TFTs with a channel length of 2 μm, and its performance was experimentally evaluated. The ITZO TFTs were found to have good low-frequency noise performance with an extracted Hooge’s parameter (α H) of 3.5 × 10−3, and the APS exhibits a high DC voltage gain of ∼0.81 with satisfactory linearity in a wide output voltage range of ∼6.4 V as well as manageable response times of less than 15 μs. The obtained results show the potential of our APS circuits to be applied to TFT-based image sensors with enhanced image quality.

For longer lifetime and better motion image quality of OLED displays, we previously proposed an adaptive temporal aperture control method. However, image quality degradation results due to the difference in temporal aperture in a frame. Hence, we propose three methods of inserting a transition area to gradually change the temporal aperture by each horizontal line and evaluated the effect of suppressing image quality degradation by using simulated images when the proposed methods are applied.

A computationally efficient simulation model for the drain current characteristics of long-channel amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) is developed. This model uses numerical solutions of the one-dimensional Poisson equation to significantly reduce the calculation time compared to a widely used two-dimensional approach. Moreover, for accurate simulation, the model takes into account the influence of trap states in the band gap, which makes it possible to reproduce the gradual increase of the drain current in the subthreshold region. The model also includes both drift and diffusion components of the drain current and so can describe the drain current in all regions of device operation, i.e., the subthreshold, linear, and saturation regions, by using a unified current equation without introducing the threshold voltage as an input parameter. Calculations using the model provide results that are in good agreement with the measured drain current characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs over a wide range of gate and drain voltages. The presented model is expected to enable faster and accurate characteristic analysis and structure design for a-IGZO TFTs.

Excimer lasing, which can reduce InGaZnO4 (IGZO) resistance, makes it possible to form source and drain regions in IGZO thin-film transistors (TFTs). Self-aligned bottom-gate IGZO-TFTs can be fabricated by back-side excimer laser irradiation, using a gate electrode as a mask. We have investigated the dependence on laser energy density of the TFT characteristics and IGZO performance. These results indicate that this method offers a wide process margin and is compatible with large-area processing.

An 8-inch VGA flexible AMOLED display driven by oxide TFTs was successfully fabricated at a process temperature of 130°C. InGaZnO4 (IGZO) was used as the semiconductor layer. Solution-processed organic materials were employed as the gate insulator of the TFTs and the passivation layer on the backplane. Phosphorescent polymers as OLEDs were formed by an ink-jet printing technique. Some properties of the IGZO-TFTs were evaluated. The fabricated flexible display exhibited clear color moving images.

The X-ray powder diffraction pattern of NbSi 1.9 prepared by heating Nb and Si powders with Na at 900 K for 48 h in Ar was analyzed by the Rietveld method. The broadening peaks of X-ray reflections suggested stacking faults of the C40 structure. The XRD pattern was simulated with a stacking fault model using DIFFaX.

A Niobium disilicide (NbSi2) layer was formed at the surface of Nb plates by heating those plates with Si powder and a piece of Na at 1000­1200K for 1­48 h. The thickness of the NbSi2 layer increased to 129μm with increasing temperature and in proportion to the square root of the heating time. The activation energy of the NbSi2 layer formation evaluated from the Arrhenius plot of parabolic growth constants was 160 kJmol11. NbSi2-coated Nb plates retained their shapes after heating at 1100­1700K for 10 h in air. Oxidation of the inner Nb of the plates was prevented. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MAW201213]

We have developed InGaZnO4 TFTs with polymer gate insulators that can be formed by spin-coating on plastic substrates at temperatures below 130 °C. A 5-inch QVGA flexible OLED display has been fabricated by means of ink-jet printing on a TFT backplane, and it has successfully displayed clear color video images while in a bent state.

It is well known that speckle reduction can be achieved by using multiple wavelength lasers and angular diversity in laser projectors. However, few studies have been reported about the dependency between the speckle reduction by angular diversity and speckle reduction using multiple wavelength lasers. Here, the speckle reduction using 1–5 lasers with different wavelengths was measured on matte and silver screens. The image size was chosen from two sizes to change the angular diversity. The results were compared with the theoretical calculation. It was shown that speckle reduction using multiple wavelength lasers depends on the image size and screens. On a silver screen, the amount of speckle reduction by wavelength diversity depends on the image size; wavelength interval of two lasers needed to reduce speckle was smaller when the image was larger. On the other hand, on matte screen, speckle reduction by wavelength diversity does not depend on the image size. This is because effective surface roughness of matte screen is larger than that of the silver screen due to multiple or volume scattering. In addition to wavelength diversity, the difference of speckle reduction between matte and silver screens is caused by polarization diversity. The speckle contrast decreases by polarization diversity by a factor of 2 on matte screen, whereas it does not decrease on silver screen because silver screen preserves polarization. Speckle contrast was calculated by using illumination light property, screen property, and speckle measurement camera settings. The experimental results were in a good agreement with the theoretical calculation.

Speckle noise is a serious problem for laser projectors because it deteriorates the image quality. The brightness of the image is one of the important parameters to determining the speckle perception. In this paper, the effect of brightness on speckle contrast is investigated using matte and silver screens for cinema. The brightness was changed by using ND filters or changing the on-and-off duty cycle of a DMD device in a digital cinema projector. It is shown that the brightness does not affect the speckle contrast measured by a CCD camera. Then, the effect of the brightness on human speckle perception is investigated. It is shown that the brightness of the image significantly affects human speckle perception. Speckle patterns created by the image with higher brightness are more noticeable than those with lower brightness when the speckle contrast measured by a camera is the same.