A novel tunable optical oscillator for broadband signals

A tunable optical oscillator that generates signals at the micro- to millimeter-wave band for wireless communication applications is suggested. It uses directly modulated semiconductor lasers, in which sideband modes and four-wave mixing (FWM) conjugate modes are injection locked by the simple control of the applied modulation power. The signals at 15 GHz with phase noise of below ?95 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 100 kHz were experimentally obtained. The frequency of the generated signal is tunable, and the maximum achievable signal frequency is limited mainly by the bandwidth of the receiver.     

A Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Vision Chip for Edge and Motion Detection with a Function for Output Offset Cancellation

We have designed and fabricated a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) vision chip by modeling cells of the human retina as hardware that are involved in edge and motion detection. There are several fluctuation factors which affect the characteristics of metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) through the CMOS fabrication process and this effect appears as the output offset of the vision chip, which is composed of pixel arrays and readout circuits. The vision chip which detects edge and motion information from an input image is used for the input stage of other systems. Therefore, the output offset of the vision chip determines the efficiency of the entire system. In order to eliminate the offset at the output stage, we designed a vision chip utilizing the correlated double sampling (CDS) technique. The chip has been fabricated using a 0.6 m standard CMOS process. With reliable output characteristics, this chip can be used at the input stage for various applications. © 2005 The Optical Society of Japan     

A Relation Between Closure Operators on a Small Category and Its Category of Presheaves

In this paper we show that each factorization structure on a small category , satisfying certain conditions, yields a presheaf on and a morphism of presheaves . We then give connections, and set up one to one correspondences, between subclasses of the following classes: (a) closure operators on (b) subobjects of (c) morphisms from to (d) weak Lawvere–Tierney topologies (e) weak Grothendieck topologies (f) closure operators on .     

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy of InAs quantum dots on InP with various InAlGaAs barrier thicknesses

The Optical characteristics of InAs quantum dots (QDs) embeded in InAlGaAs on InP have been investigated by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and time-resolved PL. Four different QD samples are grown by using molecular beam epitaxy, and all the QD samples have five-stacked InAs quantum dot layers with a different InAlGaAs barrier thickness. The PL yield from InAs QDs was increased with an increase in the thickness of the InAlGaAs barrier, and the emission peak positions of all InAs QD samples were measured around 1.5 μm at room temperature. The decay time of the carrier in InAs QDs is decreased abruptly in the QD sample with the 5 nm InAlGaAs barrier. This feature is explained by the tunneling and coupling effect in the vertical direction and probably defect generation.     

Murine Sca1+Lin? bone marrow contains an endodermal precursor population that differentiates into hepatocytes

The direct differentiation of hepatocytes from bone marrow cells remains controversial. Several mechanisms, including transdifferentiation and cell fusion, have been proposed for this phenomenon, although direct visualization of the process and the underlying mechanisms have not been reported. In this study, we established an efficient in vitro culture method for differentiation of functioning hepatocytes from murine lineage-negative bone marrow cells. These cells reduced liver damage and incorporated into hepatic parenchyma in two independent hepatic injury models. Our simple and efficient in vitro protocol for endodermal precursor cell survival and expansion enabled us to identify these cells as existing in Sca1⁺ subpopulations of lineage-negative bone marrow cells. The endodermal precursor cells followed a sequential developmental pathway that included endodermal cells and hepatocyte precursor cells, which indicates that lineage-negative bone marrow cells contain more diverse multipotent stem cells than considered previously. The presence of equivalent endodermal precursor populations in human bone marrow would facilitate the development of these cells into an effective treatment modality for chronic liver diseases.     

Suppression of secondary PL emission by indirect photoexcitation

A blend of a newly synthesized polyfluorene(PDHBF) and polyvinylcarbazole(PVK) exhibits a photoluminescence(PL) emission spectrum of PDHBF without an increase in the PL intensity on photoexcitation at 340 nm, the UV-visible absorption maximum of PVK, despite of a substantial spectrum overlap. However, the indirect photoexcitation of the blend suppresses the secondary emission of the PL with the maximum at 520 nm. The chromophores generating the secondary emission are formed when the chromophores are photoexcited above the critical energy level of an excited state. The chromophores formed by the energy transfer have energy lower than the critical energy and fail to form the excimers. A low temperature PL study of the blend in a cryogenic chamber proves that the energy transfer in the system takes place mainly between the excimers of PVK generated by the partially eclipsed dimeric states of two carbazole units and the fluorophores of PDHBF.     

Generalized Killing Ricci tensor for real hypersurfaces in the complex quadric

First we introduce a new notion of generalized Killing Ricci tensor which is equivalent to the notion of cyclic parallel Ricci tensor for real hypersurfaces in the complex quadric $Q^m=S{O}_{m+2}/S{O}_{m}S{O}_2$. Next, in terms of $\mathfrak{A}$-principal or $\mathfrak{A}$-isotropic unit normal vector fields we give a complete classification of real hypersurfaces in $Q^m=S{O}_{m+2}/S{O}_{m}S{O}_2$ with cyclic parallel Ricci tensor.     

A Useful Poly(ethylene oxide)‐poly(propylene oxide)‐poly(ethylene oxide) Triblock Crosslinker in a Diffusion‐Controlled Polymerization Method

Monodisperse micron‐sized polystyrene particles crosslinked with a novel poly(ethylene oxide)‐poly(propylene oxide)‐poly(ethylene oxide) triblock diol diacrylate (t‐BDDA) were produced via simple dispersion polymerization. It was established that the monomer‐diffusible surface characteristics of primary particles played a decisive role in producing the monodisperse crosslinked polymer particles. We named this concept a diffusion‐controlled polymerization method, DPM. Here in this study, particularly, t‐BDDA is proposed as a very useful crosslinker capable of self‐assembling and crosslinking in the process of particle formation and particle growth.     

Impact of microcellular plastics on industrial practice and academic research

Microcellular plastics (MCP) refer to any plastic with tiny bubbles of less than about 50 microns. It is made by subjecting polymers with a large amount of dissolved gas to a thermodynamic instability so as to nucleate a large number of cells instantaneously. MCP has been extruded and injection molded to make various industrial products. The fundamental theory for design of MCP and the processing methods are reviewed. It also discusses the design of equipment, including the die or mold, for MCP processing. The performance of MCP and the advantages of using MCP are presented. Some of industrial applications are also highlighted.     

Cyclic semiparallel Ricci tensor for harmonic curvature in the complex quadric

We introduce the notion of harmonic curvature for real hypersurfaces in the complex quadric $Q^m=S{O}_{m+2}/S{O}_{m}S{O}_2$. First, we prove that the unit normal vector field N on real hypersurfaces in $Q^m$ with harmonic curvature is singular, that is, $\mathfrak{A}$-principal or $\mathfrak{A}$-isotropic. Next by using a new notion of cyclic semiparallel Ricci tensor, we give a new result on real hypersurfaces with harmonic curvature and constant mean curvature in $Q^m=S{O}_{m+2}/S{O}_{m}S{O}_2$.