FTIR-ATR evaluation of organic contaminant cleaning methods for SiO2 surfaces.

The effectiveness of cleaning organic contaminants from silicon dioxide (SiO2) surfaces was studied by conducting highly sensitive measurements using Fourier Transform Infrared Attenuated Total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) with a Si prism as the waveguide. To serve as an example, the surface of the prism was oxidized to an order of a few nanometers. The oxidized Si surface film was allowed to stand in the atmosphere and then wet-cleaned in a repeated manner; subsequently its thickness was measured by ellipsometry. Although, various wet-cleaning methods were tested, they only showed values of 0.1-0.2 nm larger than, but not equal to, the original thickness immediately after oxidation. FTIR-ATR measurements of the spectral change after exposure to air revealed that organic species, such as C-CH3 and -(CH2)n-, increased with time. Wet-cleaning the sample failed to remove the C-CH3 species, which indicates that they corresponded to the film thickness increment from the original.     

Capacitary Upper Estimates for Symmetric Dirichlet Forms

Upper estimates for capacities are studied for symmetric Dirichlet forms which do not necessarily admit intrinsic metric. Firstly, a general method of obtaining a sharp estimate from upper estimates for cut-off functions are provided in the local and non-local cases. Secondly, a capacitary upper estimate is established for the skew product of two symmetric Dirichlet forms for which suitable capacitary estimates are given. Several examples of capacitary upper inequalities in the local and non-local cases are also given. Especially, an upper estimate for the capacity is proved for the symmetric Dirichlet form associated to the Markov process subordinated (in the Bochner sense) to the skew product of two one-dimensional Brownian motions with respect to the local time of the first Brownian motion at the origin. This estimate is used in the recent work by the present author to establish the sharp criteria for recurrence and transience of the above-mentioned process.     

Diffusion current at microdisk electrodes—application to accurate measurement of diffusion coefficients

Stationary electrodes (platinum and glassy carbon) were used for accurate measurement of diffusion coefficients. The theoretical diffusion current-time profile was calculated by digital simulation, by means of which the diffusion coefficient and the product of the charge number of electrode reaction n and the reactant concentration c^o were determined simultaneously from a single chronoamperogram. The feasibility of the method was demonstrated by measuring the diffusion coefficients of Tl(I) ions. When the nc^o value agreed with the corresponding known value, the diffusion coefficients were in good agreement with the standard values determined by the thin-walled hanging mercury drop electrode method. The diffusion coefficient of hexacyanoferrate(III) ions in 1 mol dm^?3 KCl at, 25°C was also determined.     

Fourier transform absorption spectra of H2O and H2O in the 3ν + δ and 4ν polyad region

Fourier transform absorption spectra of H₂¹⁸O-enriched and H₂¹⁷O-enriched water vapor in the 3ν + δ and 4ν polyad region have been analyzed. With the aid of theoretically calculated linelists, we have assigned 1014 lines attributed to H₂¹⁸O and 836 lines of 855 attributed to H₂¹⁷O. Seven new band origins are found for H₂¹⁷O and one for H₂¹⁸O.     

Pooling through lateral transshipments in service parts systems

We study the inventory management problem of a service center operating in a decentralized service parts network. The service centers collaborate through inventory and service pooling, and through sharing information on the inventory status. Upon demand arrival, a service center may request a part from the other center, in which case a payment is made. Under this competitive and collaborative environment, we first characterize the optimal operating policy of an individual service center. Through computational analysis we identify the conditions under which pooling is most beneficial to the service center, and make an assessment of different pooling strategies which are commonly adopted in practice and in the literature. Finally, we analyze the effect of interaction between the centers on the benefit of pooling.     

On some classes of unbounded operators

Hyponormality, normality and subnormality for unbounded operators on Hilbert space are investigated and quasi- similarity of such operators is discussed.     

Large deflection of a circular cantilever beam with uniformly distributed load

Summary In this paper, the bending of thin circular cantilever beam, convex downward, under a uniformly distributed load is discussedby the use of the Bernoulli-Euler equation. The solutions are obtained in the form of power series. Numerical results are also presented.The author wishes to thank Dr. S. Higuchi, Professor Emeritus of the Thoku University, for his suggestion and encouragement in the work. The author also wishes to thank Professor F. Numachi and Professor O. Tamate for their kind advice.