Surface radiocarbon (Δ14C) in the North Pacific has been monitored using a commercial volunteer observation ship since the early 2000s. Here we report the temporal and spatial variations in Δ14C in the summer surface water when the surface ocean is vertically stratified over a 13-yr period, 2004–2016. The long-term Δ14C decreasing trend after the late 1970s in the subtropical region has continued to the present and the rate of decrease of the Kuroshio and Kuroshio Extension, North Pacific and California current areas is calculated to be –3.3, –5.2 and –3.3 ‰/yr, respectively. After 2012 the Δ14C of the Kuroshio and Kuroshio Extension area, however, has remained at an approximately constant value of around 50‰. The result may indicate that subtropical surface Δ14C in the western North Pacific has reached an equilibrium with atmospheric Δ14CO2. The Δ14C in the subarctic region is markedly lower than values in the subtropical region and it seems that the decreasing tendency of surface Δ14C has changed to an increasing tendency after 2010. The results may indicate that bomb-produced 14C, which has accumulated below the mixed layer in the past few decades, has been entrained into the surface layer by deep convection.

We discuss efforts to explain the dust distribution, as it was derived from the F-coronal brightness, mainly how to explain a constant number density near the Sun. It is shown that silicate particles have temperatures below the blackbody temperature if the impurity from absorbing material amounts to less than 0.1% in volume. This effect is especially significant for porous particles and may explain why particles can approach to less than 3 R⊙ from the Sun. Another effect may arise from particles on high eccentricity orbits and from the influence of collisional fragments. Whereas on the one hand heat resistant silicate particles may cause a stable dust cloud in the solar vicinity, on the other hand dynamical effects may cause a variation of the number density in the corona in short time scales.

We have estimated the flux of lunar ejecta near the Earth, e.g., the cumulative flux of ejecta larger than 10-13g is 10-10particles cm-2s-1. In addition, our numerical simulations for the orbital evolution of lunar ejecta lead to the orbital characterization of these ejecta. Since our calculations suggest that the incident direction of lunar ejecta onto the Earth is nearly isotropic, it is expected that the dynamical properties of lunar ejecta make it possible to distinguish them from other IDPs.

The different components of the light of the night sky have their origin in different formations of matter in the universe - encompassing a huge scale of distances ranging from a few kilometers in the earth’s atmosphere to the most distant known galaxies and beyond. Correspondingly, the borderlines to other Commissions are not very well defined and thus material relevant to Commission 21 can also be found in the reports of other Commissions on the following topics: zodiacal light and zodiacal IR emission (Comm. 22, 44), integrated starlight (33, 25), diffuse galactic light (34), extragalactic background light (47), airglow and atmospheric scattered light (50), and space-borne observations of the LONS (44). From the Commission 21 point of view the connecting link between these various fields is the special techniques utilized in the surface photometric measurements and reductions of background radiations which extend over the entire sky. One crucial problem is the separation of the LONS into its several components. The approach for solving this task is to utilize the different spatial distributions and different broad and narrow band spectral properties of each of the LONS component. Thus the successful measurement and separation of one of the LONS components requires a knowledge of the properties of all the other components. This situation has become apparent in recent years as the infrared background radiation database, provided by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), has been analyzed: both the zodiacal and galactic dust emissions have to be analyzed hand in hand, and both these components must be very accurately mastered before any conclusions are possible on the extragalactic component. It is also obvious that very similar problems are encountered in the ultraviolet and infrared wavelength regions as in the more traditional optical domain. Thus the techniques developed in one of these wavelength domains are directly applicable in the others.

It has been known that non spherical silicate particles of a size comparable to the wavelength of light, and aggregates of such particles, produce negative polarization in the backscattering region (e.g. Xing & Hanner 1997, Yanamandra-Fisher & Hanner, 1999). It has now been shown that large aggregates of small absorbing particles of fractal dimension about 2 produce a slightly negative polarization at small phase angles (Levasseur-Regourd et al., 1997). The phase-curves strongly differ from those of Mie spheroidal particles. They are likely to be due to scattering by irregular dust particles and/or fluffy aggregates of numerous submicronic absorbing particles (Levasseur-Regourd et al., 1997; Lumme et al., 1997).

We present infrared (IR) photometry and optical spectroscopy of the eclipsing old nova WY Sge. According to hibernation theorists the disc in a system a few centuries after outburst should be significantly fainter than in other, more recent, old novae but similar to the discs of dwarf novae in quiescence. Despite the apparent faintness of the late type star we have sufficient information to infer that the face closest to the white dwarf (WD) is irradiated.

The influence of surface roughness on scattering properties of light is examined in terms of our previous mathematical method (Mukai et al. 1982). We found that albedo for single reflected light increases with an increase of surface roughness. In addition, a higher order of reflection light becomes effective for stronger rough particles.

Based on a mechanism to form the solar dust ring, it is proved that the observed peak in infrared F-corona cannot be explained by silicate type grain alone. Preliminary analysis on the recent infrared data of F-corona by Maihara et al.(1984) has suggested that the ring particle has different physical properties compared with the dust grains, which produce the background F-corona.

We report on a 1-day ASCA observation of the eclipsing dwarf nova HT Cas. We confirm the presence of an X-ray eclipse, which is narrow and deep. The data are consistent with the X-rays originating entirely from the immediate neighborhood of the white dwarf. We draw some preliminary conclusions on the boundary layer and other relevant issues.

InGaN quantum-well-structure blue LEDs were grown on epitaxially laterally overgrown GaN (ELOG) and sapphire substrates. The output power of both LEDs was as high as 6 mW at a current of 20 mA. The LED on sapphire had a considerable amount of leakage current in comparison with that on ELOG. These results indicate that In composition fluctuation is not caused by threading dislocations (TDs), free carriers are captured by radiative recombination centers before they are captured by nonradiative recombination centers in InGaN, and that the dislocations form the leakage current pathway in InGaN. Red LED with an emission peak wavelength of 650 nm was fabricated by increasing the In composition and thickness of InGaN well layer. When the laser diodes (LD) was formed on the GaN layer above the SiO2 mask region, the threshold current density was as low as 3 kAcm−2. When the LD was formed on the window region, the threshold current density was as high as 6 to 9 kAcm−2. There is a possibility that a leakage current due to a large number of TDs caused the high threshold current density on the window region. InGaN multi-quantum-well (MQW) structure LDs grown on the ELOG substrate showed an output power as high as 420 mW under RT-CW operation. The longest lifetime of 9,800 hours at a constant output power of 2 mW was achieved. The InGaN MQW LDs were fabricated on a GaN substrate. The fundamental transverse mode was observed up to an output power of 80 mW.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

Highly alkaline environments induced by cement-based materials are likely to cause the physical and/or chemical properties of the bentonite buffer materials in radioactive waste repositories to deteriorate. Assessing long-term alteration of concrete/clay systems requires physicochemical models and a number of input parameters. In order to provide reliability in the assessment of the long-term performance of bentonite buffers under disposal conditions, it is necessary to develop and verify reactive transport codes for concrete/clay systems. In this study, a PHREEQC-based, reactive transport analysis code (MC-CEMENT ver. 2) was developed and was verified by comparing results of the calculations with in situ observations of the mineralogical evolution at the concrete/argillite interface. The calculation reproduced the observations such as the mineralogical changes in the argillite limited to within 1 cm in thickness from the interface, formation of CaCO3 and CSH, dissolution of quartz, decrease of porosity in the argillite and an increase in the concrete. These agreements indicate a possibility that models based on lab-scale (∼1 year) experiments can be applied to longer time scales although confidence in the models is necessary for much longer timescales. The fact that the calculations did not reproduce the dissolution of clays and the formation of gypsum indicates that there is still room for improvement in our model.

We investigated the effects of a postnatal fructose diet on the programmed hypertension and vascular and renal dysfunction in offspring from dams exposed to protein restriction. Pregnant Wistar rats were fed control and low-protein diets during the gestation and suckling periods. From the end of lactation, male offspring received standard chow or a 60% fructose diet: a control diet in the gestation and suckling periods and a control diet from the end of lactation, control-on-control (CC), 60% fructose diet-on-control (CF), control-on-low-protein diet (LPC) and 60% fructose diet-on-low-protein diet (LPF). The systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured during treatment. At postnatal days 94–101, urinary 24 h nitrate/nitrite (NO x ) content, protein levels of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and mRNA levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1), and NAD(P)H oxidase subunits in the aorta and kidney were examined. The SBP at postnatal days 97–101 increased in CF (137 ± 2 mmHg, P < 0.05), LPC (135 ± 1 mmHg, P < 0.05) and LPF (141 ± 2 mmHg, P < 0.05), compared with CC (124 ± 1 mmHg). The urinary NO x contents and eNOS phosphorylation in the aorta and kidney of CF, LPC and LPF decreased when compared with CC. In the aorta, the mRNA levels of NAD(P)H oxidase subunits p47phox in LPC and ET-1 in LPC and LPF increased. These results indicate that maternal protein restriction elevated the blood pressure, the downregulated nitric oxide production and eNOS phosphorylation, whereas the postnatal fructose diet made no significant difference to these alterations.

As a high mobility, wide bandgap semiconductor, 3C-SiC has great promise. In this paper, we examined to obtain 3C-SiC epilayer on Si substrates using hot-wall CVD furnace and report the use of hexamethyledisilane (HMDS) and propane as reaction gases to grow uniform thickness on 2 inch (100), (111), (110) and (211) orientation of Si substrates. A horizontal atmospheric pressure CVD reactor was used. A reaction zone was specially designed. To obtain uniform thickness of the epilayer, inside of the suscceptor hole was intentionally tapered along flow direction as follows; inlet of the square hole is 13 mm × 60 mm and outlet of the hole is 7 mm × 60 mm, and laminar channel for changing the gas flow profile was managed. The susceptor was surrounded by graphite foam. Temperature of the suscepotor was measured at inside wall of the susceptor by optical pyrometer. H2 flow rate for etching was 3 slm. An initial carbonization procedure was performed using 0.9 sccm propane at 1250 oC for 2-3 minutes. During the growth of SiC at 1300 °C, the flow rate of HMDS was 0.75-1.2 sccm and the flow rate of propane was 0.1 – 0.5 sccm. The hydrogen carrier gas flow rate was 3-10 slm. Typical growth rate was 4.5 micron /h. Uniform thick 3C-SiC was obtained. The samples were examined using ultra violet light spectrometer and RHEED.

A novel polyimide-based heterocyclic polymer, polyimide benzobisthiazole (PIBT), was prepared from diaminophenylene benzobisthiazole (DAPBT) and pyromellitic acid dianhydride (PMDA). Fibers with tensile modulus of 220 GPa were obtained from PIBT; this modulus value is consistent with the 430 GPa modulus determined by wide-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD) analysis. Unoriented isotropic films exhibited significantly lower modulus values in the range of 10 GPa. Block copolymers of PIBT with thermoplastic segments were synthesized in an effort to prepare molecular composites. These materials showed a dramatic decrease in melt viscosity and had modulus values lower than observed in isotropic PIBT films.

The fundamental problems of applying high-Tc superconductors to power transmission lines were studied, and prototypes of multilayer-wound conductors were fabricated and evaluated.

Multifilamentary silver sheathed wires have good anti-strain. properties. A 61-filament bismuth(2223) wire proved to maintain 90% of initial transport current property after 150 cycles of bending (bent-straightened-bent reversely-straightened) with 0.18% strain. A 61-filament wire of 114m unit-length was produced and proved to have a Jc of 9,700 A/cm2 with an Ic of 9.34A for the whole length at 77.3K.

Using these multifilamentary wires, prototypes of multilayer-wound conductors were produced by the react-and-wind technique. A 1.4m long three layer-wound conductor could carry 590A (Jc=7.020A/cm2) in liquid nitrogen.

These results indicate that the basic problems of high-Tc superconductor application to power transmission lines will be overcome using this technology.

A new laser recrystallizing technique has been developedfor high density SOI-LSI's. This technique produces single crystalline silicon islands on an amorphous insulating layerwithout seed. Square windows are opened at arbitrary places in an antireflection cap over a polycrystalline film on an amorphous insulatinq layer. Grain boundaries of the polycrystalline Si in the window are removed completely at the subsequent laser-recrystallization step. Single crystalline silicon islands are formed by self-aligned etching of silicon film which was covered by the antireflection cap. This technique is an effective method for fabricating high density SOI-LSI's, since the singlecrystalline islands can be fabricated at arbitrarily selected places. Yield of the grain-boundary-free islands was 95% the size of the island is 1O x 20μm, and the irradiation oyerlap of laser-beam traces is 70%.

Seeded lateral epitaxial laser-recrystallization of silicon film on SiO2 is applied to fabricate 3-dimensional (3-D) integrations: 3-D CMOS 7-stage ring oscillators. Top p-channel Si-gate SOI MOSFET's are fabricated in the seeded recrystallized silicon directly above bottom n-channel Si-gate bulk MOSFET's with insulator in between. The recrystallized silicon at the seed region can be utilized for buried contact to interconnect bottom and top MOSFET's. At the arsenic implantation step to fabricate source and drain of the bottom MOSFET's, ions are not implanted into the seed region to prevent heavy doping and crystal disorder there; otherwise the dopant diffuses laterally and residual crystal disorder disturbs the epitaxial recrystallization. After the laser-recrystallization, the seed region is implanted with phosphorus to interconnect the top and bottom MOSFET's.

The Ar+ laser irradiation is performed with a 10 W power, a 50 μm spot size, a 13 cm/s scanning speed and a 13 μm step at 400 °C in air. Propagation delay of 460 psec is obtained for the seven stage 3-D CMOS ring oscillator at a power supply voltage of 17 V for a channel length of 3 μm and a channel width of 18 μm. In the seeded SOI films, grain boundary generation and crystal orientation can be controlled.