Geometric origin of pair production by electric field in de sitter space

Particle production in de Sitter space provides an interesting model for understanding the curvature effect on Schwinger pair production by a constant electric field or the Schwinger mechanism on de Sitter radiation. For that purpose, we employ the recently introduced complex analysis method in which the quantum evolution in complex time explains pair production via the geometric transition amplitude and gives the pair-production rate as a contour integral. We compare the result from the contour integral with that of the phase-integral method.     

Solid extraction of caffeine and theophylline from green tea by molecular imprinted polymers

This paper involves a feasibility study on using molecular imprinted polymers as the sorbent materials in solid phase extraction for caffeine and theophylline from green tea. Two kinds of MIPs, with caffeine-theophylline mixture and pentoxifylline-theophylline mixture as the templates respectively, MAA as the monomer, EDMA as the crosslinker and ATBN as the initiator, were applied to this purpose. Mixture solution of caffeine and theophylline (1 Μg/ ml in acetonitrile) was applied to the solid extraction cartridges following a load, wash and elute procedure with acetonitrile, methanol, methanol-acetic acid (90/10, v/v) as the solvents, respectively. This solid phase extraction protocol was applied for extraction of caffeine and theophylline from green tea. Comparison between the results obtained with the MIPs cartridges and a traditional C₁₈ reversed-phase cartridge was made. It showed that the MIP-based sorbent on the solid phase extraction was comparable with that of C₁₈ material. HPLC analysis using a C₁₈ column (5 Μm, 250× 4.6 mm from Rstech corporation), methanol: water (60 :40, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.6 ml/min was applied for the quantitative determination.     

Comparative evaluation of performance measures for human driving skills

In this paper, we evaluate the adequacy of several performance measures for the evaluation of driving skills between different drivers. This work was motivated by the need for a training system that captures the driving skills of an expert driver and transfers the skills to novice drivers using a haptic-enabled driving simulator. The performance measures examined include traditional task performance measures, e.g., the mean position error, and a stochastic distance between a pair of hidden Markov models (HMMs), each of which is trained for an individual driver. The emphasis of the latter is on the differences between the stochastic somatosensory processes of human driving skills. For the evaluation, we developed a driving simulator and carried out an experiment that collected the driving data of an expert driver whose data were used as a reference for comparison and of many other subjects. The performance measures were computed from the experimental data, and they were compared to each other. We also collected the subjective judgement scores of the driver’s skills made by a highly-experienced external evaluator, and these subjective scores were compared with the objective performance measures. Analysis results showed that the HMM-based distance metric had a moderately high correlation between the subjective scores and it was also consistent with the other task performance measures, indicating the adequacy of the HMM-based metric as an objective performance measure for driving skill learning. The findings of this work can contribute to developing a driving simulator for training with an objective assessment function of driving skills.     

Discrimination of visual and haptic rendering delays in networked environments

Many networked human-machine interface systems have a distributed structure for certain purposes such as more computational power, tele-presence, collaboration, and portability. However, network delays are inevitable in the distributed structure, and often make sensory information delivered behind time to the user. In the literature, the effect of network delays on the quality of information presentation has been considered with respect to task performances in most cases. In this paper, we pay attention to a more stringent criterion, namely whether perceptual artifacts caused by network delays are perceptible by the user. We examined minimum perceptible visual and/or haptic rendering delays by measuring their discrimination thresholds between normal and delayed virtual environments with and without a task, and report the results in this paper. We also provide a simple guideline for determining whether active delay compensation algorithms are required in a networked human-machine interface system by comparing representative network delays to the measured discrimination thresholds. Recommended by Guest Editor Phill Kyu Rhee. This work was supported in parts by a grant R01-2006-000-10808-0 and a NRL grant R0A-2008-000-20087-0 both from KOSEF and by a ITRC support program C1090-0804-0002 from IITA, all funded by the Korea government. In Lee is a Ph.D student in Computer Science and Engineering at POSTECH, of Korea. He received the B.S. degree in Information and Communication Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 2006. His research interests include haptics, virtual reality, and human-computer interaction. Seungmoon Choi is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and engineering at POSTECH, Korea. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Control and Instrumentation Engineering from Seoul National University in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2003. His research areas include haptics, virtual reality, data perceptualization, and applied perception.     

A Study on the Pd/a-Si/Ni Seed Layer for Metal-Induced Lateral Crystallization and Poly-Si TFTs

The effect of Pd on the growth rate of metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC) from Ni seed and the electrical properties of thin-film transistors (TFTs) fabricated on the films crystallized by MILC were investigated. When the Pd metal is placed on the amorphous-silicon/Ni-seed layer, the MILC growth rate is two to three times faster than that of conventional Ni-MILC, without any degradation of TFTs. These results were explained by a stress that is generated by the formation of Pd₂Si     

Leak behavior of SCC degraded steam generator tubings of nuclear power plant

A forced outage due to a steam generator tube leak in a Korean nuclear power plant has been reported [Kim, J.S., Hwang, S.S., et al., 1999. KAERI Internal Report (Korean). Destructive analysis on pulled tubes from Ulchin unit 1. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute]. Primary water stress corrosion cracking has occurred in many tubes in the plant, and they were repaired using sleeves or plugs. In order to develop proper repair criteria, it is necessary to understand the leak behavior of the tubes containing stress corrosion cracks. Cracked specimens were prepared using a room temperature cracking technique, and the leak rates and burst pressures of the degraded tubes were determined both at room temperature and at a high temperature. Some tubes with 100% through wall cracks did not show a leakage at 10.8 MPa, which is the typical pressure difference of the pressurized water reactors (PWRs) during a normal operation. In some tests, the leak rates of the tubes increased with time at a constant pressure. In a high temperature pressure test at 282 °C one specimen showed a very small leakage at 18.6 MPa, which stopped after a small increase in the test pressure. Because stress corrosion cracks can develop at relatively low stresses, even 100% through wall cracks can be so tight that they will not leak at a normal operating pressure.     

The Protective Effect of Zebularine,an Inhibitor of DNA Methyltransferase,on Renal Tubulointerstitial Inflammation and Fibrosis

Renal fibrosis, the final pathway of chronic kidney disease, is caused by genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Although DNA methylation has drawn attention as a developing mechanism of renal fibrosis, its contribution to renal fibrosis has not been clarified. To address this issue, the effect of zebularine, a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, on renal inflammation and fibrosis in the murine unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) model was analyzed. Zebularine significantly attenuated renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis and inflammation. Zebularine decreased trichrome, α-smooth muscle actin, collagen IV, and transforming growth factor-β1 staining by 56.2%. 21.3%, 30.3%, and 29.9%, respectively, at 3 days, and by 54.6%, 41.9%, 45.9%, and 61.7%, respectively, at 7 days after UUO. Zebularine downregulated mRNA expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, fibronectin, and Snail1 by 48.6%. 71.4%, 31.8%, and 42.4%, respectively, at 7 days after UUO. Zebularine also suppressed the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6, by 69.8%, 74.9%, and 69.6%, respectively, in obstructed kidneys. Furthermore, inhibiting DNA methyltransferase buttressed the nuclear expression of nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like factor 2, which upregulated downstream effectors such as catalase (1.838-fold increase at 7 days, p < 0.01), superoxide dismutase 1 (1.494-fold increase at 7 days, p < 0.05), and NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreduate-1 (1.376-fold increase at 7 days, p < 0.05) in obstructed kidneys. Collectively, these findings suggest that inhibiting DNA methylation restores the disrupted balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory pathways to alleviate renal inflammation and fibrosis. Therefore, these results highlight the possibility of DNA methyltransferases as therapeutic targets for treating renal inflammation and fibrosis.     

Microstructural analysis of multilayered titanium aluminide sheets fabricated by hot rolling and heat treatment

This study is concerned with the microstructural analysis of multilayered or bulk Ti aluminide sheets fabricated by the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) reaction using hot rolling and heat treatment. Multilayered Ti/Al sheets were prepared by stacking thin Ti and Al sheets alternately, and a good Ti/Al interfacial bonding was achieved after rolling at 500 °C. When these sheets were held at 1000 °C, spheroidal TiAl₃ phases were formed by the SHS reaction at Ti/Al interfaces and inside Al layers. Microstructural analysis on the hot-rolled, multilayered Ti/TiAl₃ sheets revealed that intermetallic phases such as TiAl₂, TiAl, and Ti₃Al were formed at Ti/TiAl₃ interfaces due to interaction between Ti and TiAl₃ and that pores formed in the TiAl₃ layer were significantly reduced during hot rolling. When multilayered Ti/Ti aluminide sheets were heat treated at 1000 °C, Ti₃Al, TiAl, and TiAl₂ were grown as Ti and TiAl₃ were consumed. As the heat treatment proceeded, TiAl grew further, eventually leading to the fabrication of multilayered sheets composed of Ti₃Al and TiAl. Bulk Ti aluminide sheets, having a lamellar structure of Ti₃Al and TiAl, instead of multilayered sheets, were also fabricated successfully by heat treatment at 1400 °C. This fabrication method of the bulk sheets had several advantages over the method by hot forging or rolling of conventional cast Ti aluminides. From these findings, an idea to fabricate multilayered or bulk Ti aluminide sheets by hot rolling and heat treatment is suggested as an economical and continuous fabrication method, and the formation and growth mechanisms of interfacial phases are elucidated in this study.     

Advanced compensation technologies for large‐sized UHD OLED TVs

In this paper, we present novel organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) display panel compensation technologies for large‐sized ultra‐high‐definition OLED TVs considering variations of threshold voltage, mobility, channel size, OLED efficiency, and OLED uniformity. Using these technologies, we have successfully launched 55‐, 65‐ and 77‐in. ultra‐high‐definition OLED TVs.     

Preparation of adsorbent for palladium ions by amination of acrylonitrile grafted polypropylene nonwoven fabrics

A new chelating fabrics are synthesized by radiation induced grafting of acrylonitrile (AN) onto polypropylene nonwoven fabrics (PP fabrics) and subsequent conversion of cyano to an imine by reaction with ethylene diimine (EDA). Influence of various parameters such as initial concentration, pH and adsorption time on the adsorption amount for palladium ions was investigated. It was found that adsorbent achieved excellent adsorption performance in palladium ion removal in the pH range of 1.88–5.70. The adsorption amount of ions increased with shaking time and initial concentration of palladium ions. The grafted and aminated fabrics were characterized by FT‐IR, TGA and SEM. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010