Cyclic GMP inhibits and shifts the activation curve of the delayed-rectifier (I[K1]) of type I mammalian vestibular hair cells

NITRIC oxide (NO) plays a role in the modulation of the predominant potassium current of type I vestibular hair cells, a low-voltage activated current called I(K1). Since many effects of NO are mediated via cGMP, patch-clamp recordings were made to evaluate the effects of cGMP on I(K1). In whole-cell recordings 1 mM cGMP shifted Vhalf of I(K1) by 15.0 +/- 2.4 mV (n = 6) to more positive. In cell-attached 'multichannel' recordings 1 mM 8-bromo-cGMP caused a reversible shift of Vhalf by 13.8 +/- 2.6 mV (n = 12) and in single channel recordings in the cell-attached configuration the open probability was reduced at -60 mV from 0.39 +/- 0.14 to 0.08 +/- 0.01. cGMP had no effect on excised inside-out patches, indicating that an intact cytosolic milieu with functioning phosphorylation cascades is necessary. cGMP seems to be an important second messenger which reduces the potassium conductance of vestibular hair cells.     

Suppression of photo-induced dilation in cyanide treated hydrogenated amorphous silicon films

Effects of cyanide (CN) treatment with hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films have been investigated. The decrease of ΔV/V was observed in cyanide treated a-Si:H films and the successive thermal annealing at 200°C after CN treatment induced the further reduction of the ΔV/V. XPS spectra show the indirect evidence that the cyanide species is present within 10 nm from the hydrogenated amorphous silicon surface. The results of CN treatment with a-Si:H solar cells are demonstrated.     

The polymerization and copolymerization of nitroalkyl acrylates and nitroalkyl methacrylates

Nitroalkyl acrylates and methacrylates involving some new compounds were prepared. The homopolymerization of these monomers in toluene and their copolymerization with styrene in acetone were carried out with azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator. The rate of polymerization of the nitroalkyl acrylates showed a correlation with the number of nitro groups situated on the ester side chain. The apparent activation energies of the polymerization were found to be 22.0–27.5 kcal./mole for the nitroalkyl acrylates and about 11.5–13.0 kcal./mole for the nitroalkyl methacrylates. From the reactivity ratios and Q-e values of the copolymerization the following information was obtained. The copolymerization behavior of nitroalkyl acrylates and methacrylates showed an alternating tendency, and these monomers belong to the conjugative monomer groups. On the reactivities of these monomers, the polarity of vinyl group was affected a little by nitro group of ester bond side, and the resonance affected little. These monomers were crosslinked with 2-methyl-2-nitro-1,3-propylene diacrylate. Some of the polymers showed marked improvement in the physical properties of elastomers.     

Experimental study of neutron counting in a zero-power reactor driven by a neutron source inherent in highly enriched uranium fuels

Even a zero-power reactor core containing highly enriched uranium has a weak neutron source inherent in uranium 235, and consequently, a neutron counter placed closely to the core without external neutron source registers a certain counting rate. The study of the counting is very important for zero-power reactor physics experiments with a high precision. In this experimental study, first, at a shutdown state of the UTR-Kinki reactor without start-up neutron source, a pulse height distribution of output signals from a neutron proportional counter was measured to confirm that these signals resulted from neutron detections. At several subcritical states of the UTR, then, the Feynman-α analysis was carried out to confirm that the neutrons detected by the counter must be fission neutrons multiplied by fission chain reactions. The correlation amplitude measured in the Feynman-α analysis was much higher than that measured in a previous drive by start-up source. Further, it was also confirmed that the subcriticality dependence of neutron counting rate followed the source multiplication formula. This feature indicated that the one-point model was very successful in the subcritical range including the shutdown state.     

Direct Formation of Crystalline Gadolinium-Doped Ceria Powder via Polymerized Precursor Solution

Synthesis of Ce_0.9Gd_0.1O_1.95 (CGO) powder from a polymeric precursor solution containing a mixture of nitrates, nitric acid, and ethylene glycol was investigated with emphasis on the effect of polymerization of the precursor solution on the crystallization and morphology of the derived solid intermediate and the final oxide powder. It is shown for the first time in this work that the solid intermediate derived from the polymerized solution is present in the form of well-crystallized cerium-gadolinium formate solid solution, Ce_{1− x} Gd _x (HCOO)₃, exhibiting anisotropic growth. Further polymerization of the precursor solution resulted in the direct formation of loosely agglomerated nanoscaled CGO oxide powder from the polymerized solution at temperatures as low as 130°C.     

Two channel digital watermarking for music based on exponential time-spread echo kernel

To robustly and imperceptibly embed copyright information as a watermark into music clips, a two channel digital watermarking system based on the least significant bit (LSB) method and echo hiding (EH) with a new exponential time-spread echo kernel (ETEK) is proposed. By spreading the echo so that it seems like natural room reverberation, as well as the use of two channels to separately watermark by the LSB method and the EH method which have complementary characteristics, the system provides satisfactory sound quality and exhibits both efficient retrieval capacity and robustness against attacks. Experiments show that the proposed system retrieves watermarks with 100% accuracy for all clips and is almost imperceptible. With a set of 42 attacks supplied by the StirMark Benchmark for Audio (SMBA), the proposed system has an average robustness of 0.98 where the ideal value is 1.00, and higher than any conventional methods. With these results, the proposed system is shown to be possible for the application to music distribution over the Internet.     

Analytical Model for Redistribution Profile of Ion-Implanted Impurities During Solid-Phase Epitaxy

We evaluated the redistribution profiles of ion-implanted impurities during solid-phase epitaxy using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). RBS data revealed that the As concentration changes only near the moving amorphous/crystal interface. We derived an analytical model for the redistribution profiles using a segregation coefficient m between amorphous and crystalline Si, introduced a parameter of reaction length l that is the distance where impurities were exchanged, and obtained good agreement with experimental data with an m value of 3 and an l value of 1 nm for As. Furthermore, we applied our model to P and B redistribution profiles and obtained good agreement with corresponding m value of 4 and l value of 1 nm for P and m value of 0.3 and l value of 1 nm for B     

Analysis and Design of a Dynamic Predistorter for WCDMA Handset Power Amplifiers

This paper presents a dynamic predistorter (PD), which linearizes the dynamic AM-AM and AM-PM of a wideband code division multiple access handset power amplifier (PA). The dynamic PD allows an adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACPR) improvement of 15.7 dB, which is superior to conventional PDs that linearize static AM-AM and AM-PM. The dynamic PD was designed using an HBT generating nonlinearity, a short circuit at the baseband (les4 MHz), and a load circuit for the HBT at the RF fundamental band (ap1.95 GHz). Volterra-series analysis was performed to understand the mechanism of the dynamic PD. The analysis revealed that the short circuit at the baseband enabled the dynamic PD generating third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) with opposite phase to the fundamental tone (i.e., antiphase IMD3). The antiphase IMD3 allows dynamic gain compression, which linearizes the dynamic gain expansion of a PA with low quiescent current. The analysis also revealed that the IMD3 amplitude of the dynamic PD can be adjusted by load impedance at the RF fundamental band, which enables the gradient of dynamic AM-AM and AM-PM to be optimized to linearize the PA. The fabricated two-stage InGaP/GaAs HBT PA module with the dynamic PD exhibited an ACPR of -40 dBc and a power-added efficiency of 50% at an average output power of 26.8 dBm with a quiescent current of 20 mA     

Detection of genetically modified organisms in foreign-made processed foods containing corn and potato

Investigations of the validity of labeling regarding genetically modified (GM) products were conducted using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for foreign-made processed foods made from corn and potato purchased in the Tokyo area and in the USA. Several kinds of GM crops were detected in 12 of 32 samples of processed corn samples. More than two GM events for which safety reviews have been completed in Japan were simultaneously detected in 10 samples. GM events MON810 and Bt11 were most frequently detected in the samples by qualitative PCR methods. MON810 was detected in 11 of the 12 samples, and Bt11 was detected in 6 of the 12 samples. In addition, Roundup Ready soy was detected in one of the 12 samples. On the other hand, CBH351, for which the safety assessment was withdrawn in Japan, was not detected in any of the 12 samples. A trial quantitative analysis was performed on six of the GM maize qualitatively positive samples. The estimated amounts of GM maize in these samples ranged from 0.2 to 2.8%, except for one sample, which contained 24.1%. For this sample, the total amount found by event-specific quantitative analysis was 23.8%. Additionally, Roundup Ready soy was detected in one sample of 21 potato-processed foods, although GM potatoes were not detected in any sample.