Continuing engineering education for employees at Hitachi Instituteof Technology

The concepts underlying education at the Hitachi Institute of Technology (HIT), the course structures, and the methods of curriculum development and evaluation are described. An example of a state-of-the-art Japanese corporation continuing engineering education is provided. HIT dedicates itself to the overall advancement of the company's engineering prowess by using the highest level of engineering education. It offers the integrated engineering development program (IED), and the specialized engineering development program (SED). The software engineering education project of the whole company is also described     

Cyclic Peptides for Efficient Detection of Collagen

We report here a new class of collagen‐binding peptides, cyclic collagen‐mimetic peptides (cCMPs), that efficiently hybridize with the triple‐helix‐forming portions of collagen. cCMPs are composed of two parallel collagen‐like (Xaa‐Yaa‐Gly)_n strands with both termini tethered by covalent linkages. Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays and western blotting analysis showed that cCMPs exhibit more potent affinity toward collagen than reported collagen‐binding peptides and can specifically detect different collagen polypeptides in a mixture of proteins. Collagen secreted from cultured cells was detected by confocal microscopy with fluorescein‐labeled cCMP. The cCMP is also shown to detect sensitively folding intermediates in the endoplasmic reticulum, something that was difficult to visualize with conventional collagen detectors. Molecular‐dynamics simulations suggested that a cCMP forms a more stably hybridized product than its single‐chain counterpart; this could explain why cCMP has higher affinity toward denatured collagen. These results indicate the usefulness of cCMPs as tools for detecting denatured collagen.     

Quantitative method for specific nucleic acid sequences using competitive polymerase chain reaction with an alternately binding probe

We have developed a simple, cost-effective, and accurate method for the quantification of specific nucleic acid sequences by the combined use of competitive PCR and a sequence-specific fluorescent probe that binds to either the gene of interest (target) or internal standard (competitor), referred to as alternately binding probe (ABProbe). In this method, the target and competitor were coamplified with the ABProbe, and then the fluorescence intensity was measured. The ratio of the target to the competitor can be calculated from the fluorescence intensity of the ABProbe using fluorescence quenching and fluorescence resonance energy transfer, that is, the starting quantity of the target is successfully calculated by end-point fluorescence measurement. Therefore, this method eliminates the complex post-PCR steps and expensive devices for real-time fluorescence measurement. We called this method alternately binding probe competitive PCR (ABC-PCR). We quantified amoA as a model target by ABC-PCR and real-time PCR. By comparison, the sensitivity, accuracy, and precision of ABC-PCR were similar to those of real-time PCR. Moreover, ABC-PCR was able to correctly quantify DNA even when PCR was inhibited by humic acid; therefore, this method will enable accurate DNA quantification for biological samples that contain PCR inhibitors.     

Synthesis, characterization, and biological applications of multifluorescent silica nanoparticles

Multifluorescent silica nanoparticles were synthesized by the St?ber method using conjugates of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane and fluorescent dye-N-hydroxysuccinimide esters. The nanoparticles containing the fluorescent dyes were well dispersed and showed high, stable, and tunable fluorescence intensities. In addition, we prepared multifluorescent silica nanoparticles containing two kinds of fluorescent dyes and used the nanoparticles in biological applications. Flow cytometry analysis showed high and tuned fluorescence and multiple fluorescences from single nanoparticles with diameters of approximately 400 nm. Fluorescence microscopy analysis also showed high and tuned fluorescence, as well as multiple fluorescences from single nanoparticles and from cells labeled with multifluorescent silica nanoparticles. The intracellular distribution of nanoparticles was evaluated by confocal microscopy and electron microscopy. We discuss the advantages and demonstrate the usefulness of our nanoparticles in relation to commercially available fluorescent nanoparticles including quantum dots.     

Comparison between silicon thin films with and without incorporating crystalline silicon nanoparticles into the film

We have deposited Si thin films using a multi-hollow discharge plasma CVD method to compare properties of the films with and without incorporating crystalline Si nanoparticles into the films. After the deposition of the films, we have evaluated crystallization of the films by irradiating laser. We have found that a laser power at which crystalline Si nanoparticles embedded a-Si:H films start to be crystallized is lower than that for a-Si:H films without the nanoparticles. The incorporation of the nanoparticles has no effect on the defect density of the films. These results suggest incorporation of crystalline Si nanoparticles into the films play a role of crystallization of Si films during the deposition.     

Infoshare : Design and Implementation of Scalable Multimedia Signage Architecture for Wireless Ubiquitous Environments

Digital signage systems have found many interesting applications in the realms of advertising, entertainment and education. One of the most prevalent challenging issues faced by current Local Area Network (LAN) based Digital signage network architectures is that their difficulty in porting to wireless ubiquitous environments. While popularity of wireless LANs promotes such architectural improvement, Traditional thin/thick client based architectures suffer inefficiency and scalability issues introduced by use of proprietary signage content formats. Use of such content formats to store signage contents is less optimal since it could lead to content redundancy, difficulty in creating, managing signage contents and scalability issues. As a solution for this issue we propose a Smart Client based digital signage architecture that uses XAML (an XML based declarative GUI language) contents for expressing its signage displays. While Smart Clients can better tolerate communication disruptions which are quite frequent in wireless environments, use of XAML based open content format promotes use of simple tools and variety of devices for signage content creation and management over the Internet in a ubiquitous environment. We successfully applied this generic architecture to a prototype digital signage system called Infoshare and report its robustness in withstanding network disruptions. We evaluate the easiness of editing XAML based signage contents by comparing Infoshare with a popular LAN based digital signage system which uses proprietary content formats. We demonstrate scalability of Infoshare signage service in terms of hardware resources by deploying it in different hardware platforms.     

Effect of enzymatic treatment on sedimentation and flocculation abilities of solid particles in rice washing drainage and its relationship with protein profiles

An efficient and rapid adventitious shoot regeneration system from young cotyledons of Jatropha curcas L. was developed. After testing several combinations of plant growth regulators, the highest regeneration frequency was obtained for the medium supplemented with 3 mg/l BA and 0.1 mg/l IBA. This system will be useful for promoting genetic improvement efforts in J. curcas.     

Precise slit-width control of niobium apertures for superconducting LEDs

We introduce a novel three-step procedure for precise niobium (Nb)-etching on the nanometer-scale, including the design of high contrast resist patterning and sacrifice layer formation under high radio frequency (RF) power. We present the results of precise slit fabrication using this technique and discuss its application for the production of superconducting devices, such as superconductor-semiconductor-superconductor (S-Sm-S) Josephson junctions. For the reactive ion etching (RIE) of Nb, we selected CF(4) as etchant gas and a positive tone resist to form the etching mask. We found that the combination of resist usage and RIE process allows for etching of thicker Nb layers when utilizing the opposite dependence of the etching rate (ER) on the CF(4) pressure in the case of Nb as compared to the resist. Precise slit-width control of 80 and 200 nm thick Nb apertures was performed with three kinds of ER control, for the resist, the Nb, and the underlying layer. S-Sm-S Josephson junctions were fabricated with lengths as small as 80 nm, which can be considered clean and short and thus exhibit critical currents as high as 50 μA. Moreover, possible further applications, such as for apertures of superconducting light emitting diodes (SC LEDs), are addressed.