There is little information about seed dormancy release and germination behaviour in Vitis amurensis, which is one of the most important wild Vitis species. This work aimed to investigate the dormancy release and germination characteristics and their variation in V. amurensis seed. Seed dormancy was released by: (1) stratification at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 15/5°C, respectively; (2) stratification at 25°C followed by stratification at 5°C; (3) 5°C stratification before or after seed drying; and (4) stratification at a series of relative humidities (RHs) at 5 and 25°C. The freshly harvested and dormancy-released seeds were germinated at three fluctuating and four constant temperatures. In V. amurensis: (1) dormancy release could occur at temperature ≤ 25°C, but was maximal at 5°C for all varieties; (2) dormancy release and induction occurred simultaneously during stratification; (3) the rates of dormancy release and induction were dependent on temperature; (4) seed moisture content affected dormancy release with a temperature-dependent pattern; (5) seeds germinated better at fluctuating temperature than at constant temperature. However, the optimum condition for stratification and germination, the rates of dormancy release and induction, and the response of seeds to warm stratification, to drying and to germination temperature varied significantly among the V. amurensis varieties. Our data imply that seed dormancy and germination in V. amurensis not only have intra-species similarity, but also vary within species, which may be due to differences in environmental conditions at the original growth and cultivated sites.

Many species of insects associated with cultivated rice do not over-winter in Korea and Japan, but migrate into these areas each year. To understand better the origins of these immigrations as well as the geographic structure of rice pests in Asian rice growing regions, intraspecific variation in two species of delphacid planthoppers, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) and Sogatella furcifera Horvath, was examined. An 850 base pair region of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase-I (CO-I) was sequenced from a total of 71 individuals collected from 11 localities in seven countries: Korea, Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. In N. lugens, three haplotypes were found and all populations sampled shared a dominant haplotype. Localities in Korea contained two haplotypes and localities in China and the Philippines contained three. However, in samples from the Indochina peninsula no variation was detected either within or between populations, consistent with a hypothesis of regular migration and gene flow. These populations did not contain some haplotypes found in Korea, suggesting they were not the source of yearly immigration into Korea and, by extension, Japan. Populations from China did share haplotypes with Korea, which was consistent with the hypothesis that China was the source for yearly immigration into Korea. There was insufficient resolution to distinguish among populations in China. For N. lugens, the data suggested that populations south of the Red River Valley in Vietnam experienced regular mixing and were distinct from populations to the north which contributed to yearly immigrations. In S. furcifera, there was less differentiation among populations. Two haplotypes were found in all populations except Malaysia. The results for both species were consistent with seasonal weather data and indicated that more detailed analysis of DNA sequence data will be fruitful.

This paper reports on the preliminary results of atomization using micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)-based 3-Fourier horn 0.5 MHz silicon ultrasonic nozzles. The droplets produced are monodisperse with 7.1 μm drop diameter in good agreement with that predicted by pure capillary wave atomization mechanism. This drop diameter is much smaller than that obtainable using conventional ultrasonic nebulizers operating at three times higher frequency.

A combinatorial material synthesis with temperature gradient heating system was employed to optimizing growth parameters for oxide growth on Si substrate. From the obtained results, it was found the dielectric property depends on the growth temperature as well as the composition. The interface structures were investigated by high resolution electron microscopy with a series of specimens fabricated by micro sampling method. The results showed that amorphous oxide region and SiO2 layer were formed at the interface. It was speculated that the amorphous oxide region contributed to the reduction of the dielectric property. To avoid the amorphous and SiO2 formation at the oxide/Si interface, a few kinds of intermediate layers were inserted and tested to find the possibility of abrupt interface formation.

Spark plasma sintering method was applied to Al-Cu-Fe and Al-Si-Cu-Fe gas-atomized powders to prepare almost pore-free cylindrical specimens with icosahedral and 1/1 cubic approximant phases, respectively. This investigation has revealed that a high density could be obtained despite the short period and low temperature imposed during spark plasma sintering. In comparison to hot press technique, these conditions are favorable since they limit the formation of secondary phases and avoid exaggerated grain growth. The Vickers microhardness and fracture toughness of these two alloy systems were found to be larger than those obtained from cast and hot pressed samples, which could be attributed to a strong bonding between powder particles and the small-grained microstructure of the bulk SPS quasicrystalline specimens.

ZnO thin films were epitaxially grown on A12O3 (0001) single crystalline substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. The films were grown at the substrate temperature of 550°C and 600°C for 1 h and at a power of 60–120 W. The crystalline structure of the ZnO films was analyzed by 4-circle X-ray diffraction and backscattering (BS)/channeling. The FWHM of XRD ø -rocking curve increase from 9.45 to 18 arc-min. as the RF power increased from 80 to 120 W at 550°C. In-plane ZnO growth on sapphire.(0001) substrate at 550°C and at 80 W was found to be ZnO [1010] |: A12O3[1120], indicating a 30° rotation of ZnO unit cell about the sapphire (0001) substrate. For a specimen that was grown at an RF power of 120 W, 550°C, 1 h, the FWHM of XRD ø -rocking curve was 7.79 arc-min. In BS/channeling studies, the films deposited at 120 W, 600°C showed good crystallinity with the channeling yield minimum (Xmin) of only 5%, but for films deposited at 550°C the yield was as high as 50-60%, was of lower crystalline qualilty. From the results of the AFM measurement, the grain size gradually increased as the growing temperature and power increased. In case of the film deposited at 120 W and 600°C. the hexagonal shape of the grains were clearly observed. In PL measurement, only the sharp near band edge (NBE) emission were observed at room temperature for the film deposited at 80-120 W and 550°C, but the emission from deep level were also detected in the films deposited at 60 W, 550°C and 120 W, 600°C. The FWFM was decreased from 133 meV to 89 meV as RF power increased from 80 to 120 W at 550°C, and that of film deposited at 120 W and 600°C showed 98 meV respectively. The results were somewhat opposite to those of XRD. In the present study, the relationship between optical properties and crystal structure is discussed in terms of the quality of grains and the defects.

Metastable pseudomorphic GexSi1−x (x=8%,16%) films were deposited on p-Si(100) substrates by chemical-vapor-deposition and then implanted at room temperature with 90 keV arsenic ions to a dose of 1.5×1015/cm2. The implantation amorphizes approximately the top 125 nm of the 145 nm-thick GeSi layers. The Si-GeSi interfaces remain sharp after implantation. Implanted and non-implanted GeSi samples, together with implanted Si control samples, were subsequently annealed simultaneously by rapid thermal annealing in a nitrogen ambient at 600,700,800 × for 10,20,40s at each temperature. The implanted samples undergo layer-by-layer solid-phase epitaxial regrowth during annealing at or above 600 ×C. The amorphized and regrown GeSi layers are always fully relaxed with a very high density of dislocations (1010-1011/cm2). At a fixed annealing temperature, strain relaxation of an implanted GeSi film is substantially more extensive than that of a non-implanted one. About 50-90% of the implanted arsenic ions become electrically active after the completion of solid-phase epitaxy. The percentages of arsenic ions that are activated in the Si control samples are generally higher than those in GeSi. The room-temperature sheet electron mobility in GeSi is roughly 30% lower than that in Si for a given sheet electron concentration. We conclude that metastable GeSi on Si(100) amorphized by arsenic ions and recrystallized by solid-phase epitaxy cannot recover both its crystallinity and its pseudomorphic strain under rapid thermal annealing.

The flocculation of an unstabilized suspension of fine ceramic particles is advanced as the explanation for the formation of cracks in a “liquid” suspension. The development of cracks was observed several minutes after reheating wax-based ceramic moldings above the melting point of the wax and was accompanied by phase separation of the wax from the molding. Calculations of the acceleration of particles under London dispersion forces in a viscous fluid show the “time to impact” as a function of initial separation distance, fluid viscosity, and particle size. This is compared with the intercollision time calculated from classical flocculation theory, and it is shown that for crowded suspensions initial interparticle distances are such that the London force field cannot be neglected. Methods of preventing the flocculation are described.

The damage and strain produced in a nearly pseudomorphic Ge0.10Si0.90 film on Si(100) by implantation of 320 keV 28Si+ ions at 40 to 150 °C and doses from 1 to 30 x 10l4/cm2 have been measured by MeV 4He channeling spectrometry and high resolution x-ray diffractometry. Both the implantation-induced damage and strain are sensitive to the implantation temperatures. The damage as characterized by channeling decreases with the temperature of implantation for all doses and becomes minimal at 150 °C. The implantation-induced perpendicular strain does likewise, but an excess of about 6 % of its intrinsic strain remains at the strain maximum even at 150 °C.

A dynamic Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS) program, containing not only collisional mixing but also sputtering effects, has been used to elucidate the dynamic mixing processes and the atomic transport of constituents in Al-Pd bilayer systems. MCS results reveal that the preferential inward displacement of the top layer element dominates, and that there is an enhancement of the inward displacement when the heavier element is in the top layer. The inward displacement is controlled by both of an anisotropic and isotropic atomic transport. The anisotropic term is caused by the primary recoil of atoms, which has a characteristic of φ(ion dose) dependence, and the isotropic term is associated with the random cascade motion, which has a dependence. However the outward displacement is governed by only the isotropic motion, thus the inward displacement always dominates over the outward motion, which leads to a preferential displacement of top layer element to the bottom layer.

Ion beam mixing of a Pd/Cu bilayer is studied using irradiation with 80 keV Ar+ ions at room temperature. RBS analysis shows that intermixing has occurred across the Pd/Cu interface, and that the mixing amount increases with increasing ion dose, which agrees well with a model for radiation enhanced diffusion. It is found that the Cu3Pd phase grows in a layer-by-layer manner.