scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question

Showing papers by "Mitsubishi published in 2008"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An indoline dye (D205), the synthesis method of which is disclosed in this report, gave high-efficiency organic dye-sensitized solar cells (9.52%) using an anti-aggregation reagent (chenodeoxycholic acid).

741 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
17 May 2008-ACS Nano
TL;DR: A flexible DSC using TiO(2) nanotube arrays on a Ti foil as a working electrode and polyethylene naphthalate as counterelectrode in combination with solvent-free ionic liquid electrolyte achieved 3.6% photovoltaic conversion efficiency under simulated AM 1.5 sunlight.
Abstract: TiO2 nanotube arrays prepared by electrochemical anodization of Ti foils show impressive light to electricity conversion efficiency in the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The length of the TiO2 nanotube arrays (5−14 µm) was controlled by varying the anodization time from 2 to 20 h. The influence of nanotube lengths on the photovoltaic performance of DSCs was investigated by impedance. A flexible DSC using TiO2 nanotube arrays on a Ti foil as a working electrode and polyethylene naphthalate (ITO/PEN) as counterelectrode in combination with solvent-free ionic liquid electrolyte achieved 3.6% photovoltaic conversion efficiency under simulated AM 1.5 sunlight.

630 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Ca2+ is likely to be functionally important in the control of mitochondrial dynamics through regulation of Drp1 phosphorylation in neurons and other cell types, suggesting that CaMKIα is a widely expressed protein kinase.
Abstract: Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that frequently move, divide, and fuse with one another to maintain their architecture and functions. However, the signaling mechanisms involved in these processes are still not well characterized. In this study, we analyze mitochondrial dynamics and morphology in neurons. Using time-lapse imaging, we find that Ca2+ influx through voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels (VDCCs) causes a rapid halt in mitochondrial movement and induces mitochondrial fission. VDCC-associated Ca2+ signaling stimulates phosphorylation of dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) at serine 600 via activation of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase Iα (CaMKIα). In neurons and HeLa cells, phosphorylation of Drp1 at serine 600 is associated with an increase in Drp1 translocation to mitochondria, whereas in vitro, phosphorylation of Drp1 results in an increase in its affinity for Fis1. CaMKIα is a widely expressed protein kinase, suggesting that Ca2+ is likely to be functionally important in the control of mitochondrial dynamics through regulation of Drp1 phosphorylation in neurons and other cell types.

400 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: PRMT1 knockdown led to a decrease in oxidative-stress-induced apoptosis depending on the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and predicted a role for arginine methylation as an inhibitory modification against Akt-mediated phosphorylation.

390 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
Fatih Porikli1
23 Jun 2008
TL;DR: Three novel methods that enable bilateral filtering in constant time O(1) without sampling are presented and it is shown that Gaussian range and arbitrary spatial bilateral filters can be expressed by Taylor series as linear filter decompositions without any noticeable degradation of filter response.
Abstract: This paper presents three novel methods that enable bilateral filtering in constant time O(1) without sampling. Constant time means that the computation time of the filtering remains same even if the filter size becomes very large. Our first method takes advantage of the integral histograms to avoid the redundant operations for bilateral filters with box spatial and arbitrary range kernels. For bilateral filters constructed by polynomial range and arbitrary spatial filters, our second method provides a direct formulation by using linear filters of image powers without any approximation. Lastly, we show that Gaussian range and arbitrary spatial bilateral filters can be expressed by Taylor series as linear filter decompositions without any noticeable degradation of filter response. All these methods drastically decrease the computation time by cutting it down constant times (e.g. to 0.06 seconds per 1MB image) while achieving very high PSNRpsilas over 45 dB. In addition to the computational advantages, our methods are straightforward to implement.

355 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
12 May 2008
TL;DR: A technique for denoising speech using nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) in combination with statistical speech and noise models is presented and improvements in speech quality across a range of interfering noise types are shown.
Abstract: We present a technique for denoising speech using nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) in combination with statistical speech and noise models. We compare our new technique to standard NMF and to a state-of-the-art Wiener filter implementation and show improvements in speech quality across a range of interfering noise types.

292 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that retrotransposon-derived Rtl1 (retrotranspos on-like 1), also known as Peg11 (paternally expressed 11), is essential for maintenance of the fetal capillaries, and that both its loss and its overproduction cause late-fetal and/or neonatal lethality in mice.
Abstract: Eutherian placenta, an organ that emerged in the course of mammalian evolution, provides essential architecture, the so-called feto-maternal interface, for fetal development by exchanging nutrition, gas and waste between fetal and maternal blood. Functional defects of the placenta cause several developmental disorders, such as intrauterine growth retardation in humans and mice. A series of new inventions and/or adaptations must have been necessary to form and maintain eutherian chorioallantoic placenta, which consists of capillary endothelial cells and a surrounding trophoblast cell layer(s). Although many placental genes have been identified, it remains unknown how the feto-maternal interface is formed and maintained during development, and how this novel design evolved. Here we demonstrate that retrotransposon-derived Rtl1 (retrotransposon-like 1), also known as Peg11 (paternally expressed 11), is essential for maintenance of the fetal capillaries, and that both its loss and its overproduction cause late-fetal and/or neonatal lethality in mice.

289 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results imply that the IG-DMR has an important cis-acting regulatory function on the maternally inherited chromosome and that excessive RTL1 expression and decreased DLK1 and RTL 1 expression are relevant to upd( 14)pat-like and upd(14)mat-like phenotypes, respectively.
Abstract: Deletions and epimutations affecting the human 14q32.2 imprinted region in individuals with paternal and maternal upd(14)-like phenotypes

273 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A foundation for simple and efficient production of human proteins using the versatile Gateway vector system is prepared and several cytokines containing disulfide bonds were produced in an active form in a nonreducing wheat germ cell-free expression system.
Abstract: Appropriate resources and expression technology necessary for human proteomics on a whole-proteome scale are being developed. We prepared a foundation for simple and efficient production of human proteins using the versatile Gateway vector system. We generated 33,275 human Gateway entry clones for protein synthesis, developed mRNA expression protocols for them and improved the wheat germ cell-free protein synthesis system. We applied this protein expression system to the in vitro expression of 13,364 human proteins and assessed their biological activity in two functional categories. Of the 75 tested phosphatases, 58 (77%) showed biological activity. Several cytokines containing disulfide bonds were produced in an active form in a nonreducing wheat germ cell-free expression system. We also manufactured protein microarrays by direct printing of unpurified in vitro-synthesized proteins and demonstrated their utility. Our 'human protein factory' infrastructure includes the resources and expression technology for in vitro proteome research.

238 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Assessing TnI72h after primary PCI is a simple, effective method to estimate infarct size, LVEF, and potentially useful for risk stratification.
Abstract: Objectives We sought to determine the best cardiac biomarker to predict infarct size, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and clinical outcome in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Background The cardiac biomarkers, creatine kinase (CK), CK-MB, and troponins T and I are routinely measured after myocardial infarction. However, their correlation with functional and clinical outcomes after PCI for STEMI is not well established. Methods In the EVOLVE (EValuation Of MCC-135 for Left VEntricular Salvage in Acute Myocardial Infarction) trial, patients were randomized to receive intracellular calcium modulator as adjunct to primary PCI for first large STEMI. Cardiac biomarker levels were determined in 378 patients before PCI and serially up to 72 h. Single-photon emission computed tomography was performed after 5 and 30 days, and patients were monitored up to 180 days. Results All single time-point, peak, and area under time-concentration curve of CK, CK-MB, and troponins T and I after PCI significantly correlated with infarct size and LVEF. In particular, 72-h troponin I (TnI72h) correlated strongly with 5-day and 30-day infarct size (r g 0.70; p l 0.001). A TnI72h threshold g55 ng/ml was 90% sensitive for large infarct size (≥10%) and low LVEF (≤40%) with specificities of 70% and 52%, respectively (c = 0.88, 0.81; p l 0.001). The highest TnI72h tertile was associated with increased 180-day composite clinical events (23% vs. 23% vs. 42%; p = 0.001) and independently predicted adverse events (hazard ratio = 2.3; p = 0.01). Conclusions Assessing TnI72h after primary PCI is a simple, effective method to estimate infarct size, LVEF, and potentially useful for risk stratification.

214 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
08 Dec 2008
TL;DR: The solution to the uplink ICIC problem stands out for its two essential features that consist of physical resource block reuse avoidance/minimization and cell-edge bandwidth breathing which can be implemented at the cost of a negligible information exchange over the X2 interface (backbone).
Abstract: This paper proposes a decentralized adaptive soft frequency reuse scheme for the uplink of 4G long-term evolution (LTE) systems. While universal frequency reuse (UFR) is being targeted for next generation multi-cellular wireless networks, ongoing efforts supporting the LTE standard have proved that actual implementations of UFR in LTE lead to unacceptable interference levels experienced by user equipments near the cell edge area in a multi-cellular configuration. The herein proposed adaptive soft frequency reuse scheme is a step forward towards effective inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) in next-generation wireless networks. Our solution to the uplink ICIC problem stands out for its two essential features that consist of physical resource block (PRB) reuse avoidance/minimization and cell-edge bandwidth breathing which can be implemented at the cost of a negligible information exchange over the X2 interface (backbone). The PRB reuse avoidance feature significantly decreases inter-cell interference levels while improving the achievable average throughput per user, especially for those identified as cell-edge ones. The cell-edge bandwidth breathing strategy allows to track and adapt to semi-static changes in traffic loading and user distributions within each cell which drastically reduces the blocking probability of incoming calls under cell-edge bandwidth constrained traffic.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a large size m-plane GaN substrates are grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) and the high crystalline quality of the substrates was observed by X-ray diffraction analysis.
Abstract: Relatively large size (about 10 mm × 10 mm) m -plane GaN substrates are grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). The high crystalline quality of the substrates was observed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Typical full widths at half maximum values of X-ray rocking curves measured for the (100) and (102) reflections were 25–35 arcsec and 30–40 arcsec, respectively. The defect density distribution was analyzed from the [100] direction by the cathodeluminescence method. The dark spot density decreased in the growth direction and could be as low as 2.5 × 105 cm–2. No stacking faults could be seen. The surface roughness after the lapping, polishing and cleaning was measured by atomic force microscopy and the RMS roughness was 0.072 nm. All of the phonon modes that the selection rules allow have been observed in polarized Raman measurements. High-quality large-size m -plane GaN substrates will enable the realization of commercial production of nonpolar devices. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper established an imaging system based on a matrix-assisted laser/desorption ionization quadrupole ion trap time-of-flight type instrument (AXIMA-QIT, Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan), which was compatible with both imaging and highly sensitive MSn, and introduced the data converter that is available free of charge.
Abstract: Imaging mass spectrometry is becoming a popular visualization technique in the medical and biological sciences. For its continued development, the ability to both visualize and identify molecules directly on the tissue surface using tandem mass spectrometry (MSn) is essential. We established an imaging system based on a matrix-assisted laser/desorption ionization quadrupole ion trap time-of-flight type instrument (AXIMA-QIT, Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan), which was compatible with both imaging and highly sensitive MSn. In this paper, we present the operating conditions of the AXIMA-QIT as an imaging instrument and introduce the data converter we developed that is available free of charge. The converted data can be applied to Biomap, the commonly used visualization software. For the feasibility experiments, we demonstrated the visualization of phospholipids, glycolipid, and tryptic-digested proteins in the mouse cerebellum. The visualized lipids were successfully identified by MSn directly on the tissue surface, with a strong ability to isolate precursor ions. In the analysis of tryptic-digested proteins, we compared the product ion spectra between AXIMA-QIT and a tandem TOF-type instrument. The results confirmed that AXIMA-QIT can provide a high quality of product ion spectra even on the tissue surface.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A nanoparticle-assisted laser desorption/ionization (nano-PALDI)-based MSI is developed and used to visualize lipids and peptides at a resolution of 15 microm in mammalian tissues.
Abstract: Today, two-dimensional mass spectrometry analysis of biological tissues by means of a technique called mass imaging, mass spectrometry imaging (MSI), or imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) has found application in investigating the distribution of moleculesMSI with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and secondary ion MS (SIMS). However, the size of the matrix crystal and the migration of analytes can decrease the spatial resolution in MALDI, and SIMS can only ionize compounds with relatively low molecular weights. To overcome these problems, we developed a nanoparticle-assisted laser desorption/ionization (nano-PALDI)-based MSI. We used nano-PALDI MSI to visualize lipids and peptides at a resolution of 15 microm in mammalian tissues.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A protocol to construct complete recombinant genomes from their small contiguous DNA pieces is established and the genomes of mouse mitochondrion and rice chloroplast are obtained using a B. subtilis genome vector.
Abstract: We established a protocol to construct complete recombinant genomes from their small contiguous DNA pieces and obtained the genomes of mouse mitochondrion and rice chloroplast using a B. subtilis genome (BGM) vector. This method allows the design of any recombinant genomes, valuable not only for fundamental research in systems biology and synthetic biology but also for various applications in the life sciences.

Journal ArticleDOI
18 Sep 2008-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: The distinct and characteristic distributions of ganglioside molecular species, as revealed by imaging mass spectrometry (IMS), are reported and it is possible to consider that this brain-region specific regulation of LCB chain length is particularly important for the distinct function in cells of CNS.
Abstract: Gangliosides are particularly abundant in the central nervous system (CNS) and thought to play important roles in memory formation, neuritogenesis, synaptic transmission, and other neural functions. Although several molecular species of gangliosides have been characterized and their individual functions elucidated, their differential distribution in the CNS are not well understood. In particular, whether the different molecular species show different distribution patterns in the brain remains unclear. We report the distinct and characteristic distributions of ganglioside molecular species, as revealed by imaging mass spectrometry (IMS). This technique can discriminate the molecular species, raised from both oligosaccharide and ceramide structure by determining the difference of the mass-to-charge ratio, and structural analysis by tandem mass spectrometry. Gangliosides in the CNS are characterized by the structure of the long-chain base (LCB) in the ceramide moiety. The LCB of the main ganglioside species has either 18 or 20 carbons (i.e., C18- or C20-sphingosine); we found that these 2 types of gangliosides are differentially distributed in the mouse brain. While the C18-species was widely distributed throughout the frontal brain, the C20-species selectively localized along the entorhinal-hippocampus projections, especially in the molecular layer (ML) of the dentate gyrus (DG). We revealed development- and aging-related accumulation of the C-20 species in the ML-DG. Thus it is possible to consider that this brain-region specific regulation of LCB chain length is particularly important for the distinct function in cells of CNS.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that GPR49 is expressed downstream of HH signaling and promotes cell proliferation and tumor formation in cases of BCC.
Abstract: The significance of Hedgehog (HH) signaling in the development of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) has been established. Although several target genes of HH signaling have been described previously, their precise role in tumorigenesis and cell proliferation is not yet known. To identify genes responsible for tumor formation in BCC, we screened a DNA microarray database of human BCC cases; the orphan G-protein-coupled receptor GPR49 was found to be up-regulated in all cases. GPR49 is a novel gene reported to be a marker of follicular and other tissue stem cells. Using real-time quantitative RT-PCR analysis, significant expression of GPR49 mRNA was observed in 19 of 20 BCC cases (95%) compared with controls. Up-regulation of GPR49 was confirmed by in situ hybridization. Moreover, knockdown of mouse Gpr49 showed suppression of cell proliferation in a mouse BCC cell line, and overexpression of GPR49 in human immortalized keratinocyte HaCaT cells induced proliferation. Furthermore, HaCaT cells overexpressing GPR49 showed tumor formation when transplanted into immunodeficient mice. In addition, inhibition of the HH signaling pathway in a mouse BCC cell line down-regulated endogenous Gpr49, whereas activation of HH signaling in mouse NIH3T3 cells up-regulated endogenous GPR49. These results suggest that GPR49 is expressed downstream of HH signaling and promotes cell proliferation and tumor formation in cases of BCC.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work presents a thorough model of the backscatter radio link, the system architecture and a set of data extraction techniques for each sensor's information, and provides a new communication perspective in the fertile area of scalable sensor networks, especially when low bit-rate, ultra-low cost sensors are required.
Abstract: Backscatter radio is proposed for sensor networks. In that way, the transmitter for each sensor is simplified to a transistor connected to an antenna and therefore, the cost for each sensor's communicator becomes negligible, while energy used for wireless communication per sensor is minimized. A software-defined transceiver is built to transmit a carrier, receive the reflections from various sensors and extract their transmitted messages. This work presents a thorough model of the backscatter radio link, the system architecture and a set of data extraction techniques for each sensor's information, testing in practice a sensor communicating through backscatter at a range of approximately 15 meters indoors, with 5 milliwatt transmission power at 10 bits per second. This work highlights the idiosyncrasies of the backscatter channel and provides a new communication perspective in the fertile area of scalable sensor networks, especially when low bit-rate, ultra-low cost sensors are required.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A series of proton-type aluminosilicate H/CHA zeolites with different Si/Al ratios have been synthesized, characterized and used as catalysts for the methanol-to-olefin (MTO) reaction as discussed by the authors.

Journal ArticleDOI
Hiromu Watanabe1, Hiroshi Wada1, Keiichi Seki1, Masumi Itou1, Naoto Kijima1 
TL;DR: In this paper, a single-phase Eu 2+ -doped red phosphor was obtained by nitridation of Ca 1-x-y Sr x Eu y (Al 0.5,Si 0.8) 2 alloy powder under the high pressure of 190 MPa in a hot isostatic pressing apparatus at 2173 K.
Abstract: Single-phase Eu 2+ -doped Sr x Ca 1-x AlSiN 3 (0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.8) red phosphor was obtained by nitridation of Ca 1-x-y Sr x Eu y (Al 0.5 ,Si 0.5 ) 2 alloy powder under the high pressure of 190 MPa in a hot isostatic pressing apparatus at 2173 K. The unit cell volumes of the single phase expanded linearly with the increase in value of x from 0.2 to 0.8. A blueshift of the red emission peak of Eu 2+ from 650 to 620 nm was observed by weakening the crystal field strength around the Eu 2+ ion. Sr x Ca 1-x AlSiN 3 :0.8 mol % Eu 2+ , with the optimum Eu concentration, showed high photoluminescence intensity over the whole range of x value from 0.2 to 0.8. Unlike nitrides of alkaline-earth or rare-earth metals, the intermetallic alloy powder was stable under ambient conditions and was thus suitable as starting material for red phosphors for industrial production. In x = 0.8 samples synthesized at 190 MPa, the same structure as CaAlSiN 3 , space group 36 (Cmc2 1 ), was retained at unit cell volumes up to 289.92 A 3 , exhibiting the maximum solubility of Sr 2+ in the solid solution, Sr x Ca 1-x AlSiN 3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.8).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An important role of NRF2 in the induction of Mrp family members in livers is demonstrated and a therapeutic mechanism of UDCA action is suggested, via Nrf2 activation, a stimulation of detoxification and antioxidative stress systems, along with Mrp-mediated efflux transport.
Abstract: The protective action of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in cholestatic liver diseases may be mediated by choleresis, detoxification, and cytoprotection against oxidative stress. Nrf2, one transcriptio...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In vivo in vivo MALDI-QIT-TOF IMS analyses demonstrated a three-zone distribution of PC species on the retinal sections, which may be useful for analyzing lipid changes and their contribution to phototransduction in the retina.
Abstract: We recently developed a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization quadrupole ion trap time-of-flight (MALDI-QIT-TOF)-based imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) system. This system enables us to perform structural analyses using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), as well as to visualize phospholipids and peptides in frozen sections. In the retina, phototransduction is regulated by the light-sensitive interaction between visual pigment-coupled receptor proteins, such as rhodopsin, and G proteins, such as transducin. There are some reports that the conformation of rhodopsin is influenced by the composition of phospholipids in the lipid bilayer membrane. However, these results were based on in vitro experiments and have not been analyzed in vivo. In this study, we visualized and identified phospholipids in mouse retinal sections with the MALDI-QIT-TOF-based IMS system. From a spectrum obtained by raster-scanned analysis of the sections, ions with high signal intensities were selected and analyzed by MS/MS. As a result, sixteen ions were identified as being from four diacyl-phosphatidylcholine (PC) species, i.e., PC (16:0/16:0), PC (16:0/18:1), PC (16:0/22:6), and PC (18:0/22:6), with different ion forms. The ion images revealed different distributions on the retinal sections: PC (16:0/18:1) was distributed in the inner nuclear layer and outer plexiform layer, PC (16:0/16:0) in the outer nuclear layer and inner segment, and both PC (16:0/22:6) and PC (18:0/22:6) in the outer segment and pigment epithelium. In conclusion, our in vivo IMS analyses demonstrated a three-zone distribution of PC species on the retinal sections. This approach may be useful for analyzing lipid changes and their contribution to phototransduction in the retina.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Dithienylhexafluorocyclopentene with (R)- or (S)-N-phenylethylamide substituents formed rod-like and 0.2-1.0 microm-thick platelike crystals by sublimation; upon UV irradiation, the crystals bent concavely to the incident light and finally rolled crystals were obtained.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is believed that this virus is a novel serotype of HAdV that causes EKC, which is found in eye clinics in different parts of Japan.
Abstract: In 2000, we encountered cases of nosocomial infections with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) at a university hospital in Kobe, in the western part of Japan. Two human adenovirus (HAdV) strains, Kobe-H and Kobe-S, were isolated from patients with nosocomial EKC infection. They were untypeable by existing neutralizing antisera; however, the isolate was neutralized with homologous antisera. We then encountered several cases of EKC due to nosocomial infections in eye clinics in different parts of Japan. A total of 80 HAdVs were isolated from patients with EKC at eight different hospitals. The partial hexon gene sequences of the isolates were determined and compared to those of the prototype strains of 51 serotypes. All isolates had identical partial hexon nucleotide sequences. Phylogenetic analysis classified these isolates into species of HAdV-D. The isolates showed 93.9 to 96.7% nucleotide identity with HAdV-D prototype strains, while all 32 HAdV-D prototype strains ranged from 93.2 to 99.2% identity. The sequences of the loop 2 and fiber knob regions from the representative strain, Kobe-H, were dissimilar in all prototype strains of 51 serotypes. We believe that this virus is a novel serotype of HAdV that causes EKC.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the synthesis of poly(lactide) oligomers from dimer to 64mer via an exponential growth strategy is described, using a t-butyldimethylsilyl (TBDMS) ether as the protective group of the hydroxyl group and benzyl (Bn) ester as the carboxylic acid group.
Abstract: The synthesis of (L)-lactide oligomers from dimer to 64mer via an exponential growth strategy is described. By careful selection of orthogonal protective groups, the synthesis were conducted using a t-butyldimethylsilyl (TBDMS) ether as the protective group of the hydroxyl group and benzyl (Bn) ester as the protective group of the carboxylic acid group. The yields of both the deprotection steps and coupling reactions using 1,3-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide or 1-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]-3-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride were high (70-100%) and the absence of a requirement for conducting the majority of reactions under an inert atmosphere permitted a robust and efficient synthetic strategy to be developed. This allowed monodisperse dimer, tetramer, octamer, 16mer, 32mer, and 64mer materials to be prepared in gram quantities and fully characterized using mass spectrometry and size exclusion chromatography. Evaluation of the thermal and physical properties using thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and small angle X-ray scattering demonstrated a close correlation between the molecular structure of the well-defined Poly(lactide) oligomers and their physical properties.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Fast and accurate measurements can be realized by the proposed method because the electric fields of multiple elements can be obtained simultaneously and no phase measurements are required, and it can be easily applied to the on-board diagnostics and re-calibration in the operating phased array antenna systems.
Abstract: A novel measurement method is proposed in order to measure the active electric fields of the individual antenna elements in a phased array antenna. Fast and accurate measurements can be realized by the proposed method because the electric fields of multiple elements can be obtained simultaneously and no phase measurements are required. Hence, it can be easily applied to the on-board diagnostics and re-calibration in the operating phased array antenna systems. In the first step with this method, the phases of multiple antenna elements are successively shifted with the specified phase intervals while the array power variations are measured. Next, the measured power variation is expanded into a Fourier series and the terms are rearranged to put them into the form of the rotating element electric field vector (REV) method. Finally, the REV solution is used to identify the electric fields of the individual elements. Additionally, a theoretical study is carried out on the accuracy of the proposed measurement method. Simple, closed-form equations have been successfully derived for the measurement errors and the calibration accuracy is theoretically estimated. The proposed measurement method is validated with experimental results and the measurement accuracy is compared with the theoretical prediction.

Patent
11 Jul 2008
TL;DR: A prepreg for printed wiring boards, comprising a flame resistant resin composition containing a specific cyanate ester resin, a non-halogen epoxy resin, boehmite which is hardly soluble in acids or alkalis and a silicone powder which is a flame retardant assistant, and a base material, which prepreg retains high-degree flame resistance without a halogen compound and has excellent resistance to chemical, high glass transition temperature, excellent soldering heat resistance and excellent heat resistance after moisture absorption, is presented in this paper.
Abstract: A prepreg, for printed wiring boards, comprising a flame resistant resin composition containing a specific cyanate ester resin, a nonhalogen epoxy resin, boehmite which is hardly soluble in acids or alkalis and a silicone powder which is a flame retardant assistant, and a base material, which prepreg retains high-degree flame resistance without a halogen compound and has excellent resistance to chemical, high glass transition temperature, excellent soldering heat resistance and excellent heat resistance after moisture absorption, and a laminate or metal-foil-clad laminate obtained by curing the above prepreg.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The integrated map contains approximately 10% of predicted silkworm genes and has an estimated 76% genome coverage by BACs, and will serve as a platform for comparative genomics and gene discovery in Lepidoptera and other insects.
Abstract: Background: In 2004, draft sequences of the model lepidopteran Bombyx mori were reported using whole-genome shotgun sequencing. Because of relatively shallow genome coverage, the silkworm genome remains fragmented, hampering annotation and comparative genome studies. For a more complete genome analysis, we developed extended scaffolds combining physical maps with improved genetic maps.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, face-centered cubic (fcc) NPs with a mean diameter of 9nm were synthesized via pyrolysis of iron(III) ethoxide and platinum(II) acetylacetonate, and the surface ligands of these NPs were then exchanged from oleic acid to tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH) to measure the longitudinal and transverse proton relaxation times of aqueous dispersion of FePt NPs.

Patent
11 Dec 2008
TL;DR: In this article, a beam member is fixed to a side member of a vehicle body, and the side member is provided with a nut member and a reinforcing member, and a bolt is inserted into the nut member from under the vehicle body.
Abstract: A beam member is fixed to a side member of a vehicle body. The side member is provided with a nut member and a reinforcing member. A bolt is inserted into the nut member from under the side member. The reinforcing member includes first and second plate portions. The first plate portion includes a pair of flanges that are bent individually at bent portions. The respective positions of the bent portions are adjusted depending on a distance between sidewalls of the side member. The flanges are welded to the sidewalls. The second plate portion includes a base portion welded to the lower end of the nut member and an upright portion extending along the nut member.