In an effort to realize high-speed organic logic components, p- and n-type single-crystal organic field-effect transistors (SC-OFETs) were fabricated using air-gap structures with channel lengths as short as several μm. High carrier mobility of about 10 cm2/Vs is demonstrated in rubrene SC-OFETs even with the short channel length of 6 μm, using Si-based microstructures. The contact resistance is estimated to be 450 Ohm cm, which is only 5% of the total channel resistance between source and drain electrodes. Performances of n-type air-gap devices based on PDIF-CN2 are also demonstrated exhibiting electron transport with the carrier mobility of about 2 cm2/Vs. Furthermore, micron-scale air-gap structures are fabricated using insulating materials on glass substrates to reduce parasitic gate capacitance. The cut-off frequency of this rubrene air-gap device is measured to be as high as 8 MHz with applied drain voltage VD of 15 V. These techniques are promising to be applicable to next-generation organic high-speed logic circuits.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

Three-dimensional organic field-effect transistors with multiple sub-micrometer channels are developed to exhibit high current density and high switching speed. The sub-micrometer channels are arranged perpendicularly to substrates and are defined by the height of a multi-columnar structure fabricated without using electron-beam-lithography technique. For devices with dinaphtho[2,3-b:2',3'-f]thieno[3,2-b]thiophene, extremely high current density exceeding 10 A/cm2 and fast switching within 200 ns are realized with an on-off ratio of 105. The unprecedented performance is beyond general requirements to control organic light-emitting diodes, so that even more extensive applications to higher-speed active-matrices and display-driving circuits can be realized with organic semiconductors.

Attractiveness of organic field-effect transistors are in their low-cost and easy fabrication processes as well as their mechanical flexibility, while a significant drawback has been their poorer transistor performances than those of silicon and oxide semiconductors because of lower carrier mobility in organic semiconductors. We have developed an easy MEMS-based process to fabricate three-dimensional organic transistors with metal-insulator-semiconductor structures of multiple vertical channels on plastic platforms. The design maximizes the space availability and the output current per area. The flexible three-dimensional organic transistors indeed present outstanding current of ∼ 0.5 A/cm2, which is more than sufficient for driving pixels of typical organic light-emitting diodes. High on-off ratio up to 107 is also demonstrated.

Three-dimensional organic field-effect transistors are developed with multiple vertical channels of organic semiconductors to gain high output current and high on-off ratio. High-mobility and air-stable dinaphtho[2,3-b:2′,3′-f]thieno[3,2-b]thiophene thin films deposited on horizontally elongated vertical sidewalls have realized unprecedented high output current per area of 2.6 A/cm2 with the application of drain voltage -10 V and gate voltage -20 V. The on-off ratio is as high as 2.7×106. Carrier mobility of the organic semiconductor deposited on the vertical sidewalls is typically 0.30 cm2/Vs. The structure is built also on plastic substrates, where still considerable current modulation is preserved with high output current per area of 70 mA/cm2 and with high on-off ratio of 8.7×106. The performance exceeds practical requirements for applications in driving organic light-emitting diodes in active-matrix displays. The technique of gating with electric double layers of ionic liquid is also introduced to the three-dimensional transistor structure.

Thermal conductivity of rubrene single crystals is measured for both bulk and film-like crystals down to 0.5 K in order to estimate quantitatively density of crystalline defects through their phonon mean free paths. The temperature profile of the bulk rubrene crystals exhibit pronounced peak at ∼ 10 K in the thermal conductivity as the result of very long mean-free paths of their phonons which indicates extremely low-level defect density in the region of 1015-1016 cm−3 depending on different growth methods. The crystals grown from gas phase tend to have less defects than those grown from solution. It turned out that the film-like crystals have a few times more defect density as the result of the measurement by using newly developed devices for minute crystals.

Secondary-gate electrodes are introduced in organic thin-film transistors to reduce carrier-injection barriers into air-stable organic semiconductors. The additional gate electrodes buried in the gate insulators under the source and drain electrodes form “carrier-rich regions” in the vicinity of source and drain electrodes with the application of sufficiently high local electric fields. Fabricating the structure with dinaphtho[2,3-b:2′,3′-f]thieno[3,2-b]thiophene, known for its excellent air-stability, it turned out that the contact resistance is drastically reduced especially when operated at low gate voltage in the main channel. The result demonstrates carrier injection with a minimized potential barrier realizing that from the same semiconductor material in the absence of peculiar interfacial trap levels at metal-to-semiconductor junctions.

The number of pertussis cases in Japan has decreased dramatically following the nationwide use of an acellular pertussis vaccine combined with diphtheria-tetanus toxoids (DTaP vaccines) which began in 1981. However, the effectiveness of the DTaP vaccine has not been systematically evaluated using appropriate epidemiological methods during a non-epidemic period in Japan. We evaluated the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of the Kaketsuken DTaP vaccine which contains two-component pertussis antigens in Japanese children from 1999 to 2001 using a matched case-control design and data from the Basic Resident Registration and Maternal and Child Health Handbooks. The DTaP vaccination history of 15 children with pertussis and 59 controls was obtained. The VE of 3 or 4 pertussis vaccinations compared with non-vaccination (baseline) was 96·9% for coughing attacks that lasted ⩾7 days, 96·4% for those lasting ⩾14 days, and 95·9% for those lasting ⩾21 days. These findings suggest that DTaP vaccination effectively prevented pertussis during a non-epidemic period in Japan.

We report a series of our experiments using organic single crystals to reach the maximum performance intrinsic to the materials. A consequence of the experiments is that a prescription for realizing high-mobility devices is to induce carriers in inner crystals to avoid scattering at the surfaces. Intrinsic-semiconductor character of the high-purity organic crystals favors thermal diffusion of the carriers into the crystals in the presence of weak gate-electric fields. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the high-mobility transport of the in-crystal carriers are highlighted in double-gate single-crystal transistors with the two gate electric field balanced with each other.

We report a method to fabricate thin films of large-domain organic semiconductor single crystals dispersed over the whole surface of centimeter-scale substrates for field-effect transistors. Growing less than 500-nm thick film-like organic crystals of sub-millimeter sizes densely in a furnace independently of substrates by physical vapor transport, the collection of the single crystals is mechanically attached to the surface of gate dielectric layers. The organic transistors made of large-domain benzo-annulated pentathienoacene crystals exhibited pronounced transistor performances with mobility values of ∼ 0.2-2 cm2/Vs, which is as high as devices of one-piece crystals. The result demonstrates that the above technique provides a method to apply high performance of organic single crystal transistors to real circuitry devices on large-area substrates.

One-point statistics of velocity gradients and Eulerian and Lagrangian accelerations are studied by analysing the data from high-resolution direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulence in a periodic box, with up to 40963 grid points. The DNS consist of two series of runs; one is with kmaxη ~ 1 (Series 1) and the other is with kmaxη ~ 2 (Series 2), where kmax is the maximum wavenumber and η the Kolmogorov length scale. The maximum Taylor-microscale Reynolds number Rλ in Series 1 is about 1130, and it is about 675 in Series 2. Particular attention is paid to the possible Reynolds number (Re) dependence of the statistics. The visualization of the intense vorticity regions shows that the turbulence field at high Re consists of clusters of small intense vorticity regions, and their structure is to be distinguished from those of small eddies. The possible dependence on Re of the probability distribution functions of velocity gradients is analysed through the dependence on Rλ of the skewness and flatness factors (S and F). The DNS data suggest that the Rλ dependence of S and F of the longitudinal velocity gradients fit well with a simple power law: S ~ −0.32Rλ0.11 and F ~ 1.14Rλ0.34, in fairly good agreement with previous experimental data. They also suggest that all the fourth-order moments of velocity gradients scale with Rλ similarly to each other at Rλ > 100, in contrast to Rλ < 100. Regarding the statistics of time derivatives, the second-order time derivatives of turbulent velocities are more intermittent than the first-order ones for both the Eulerian and Lagrangian velocities, and the Lagrangian time derivatives of turbulent velocities are more intermittent than the Eulerian time derivatives, as would be expected. The flatness factor of the Lagrangian acceleration is as large as 90 at Rλ ≈ 430. The flatness factors of the Eulerian and Lagrangian accelerations increase with Rλ approximately proportional to RλαE and RλαL, respectively, where αE ≈ 0.5 and αL ≈ 1.0, while those of the second-order time derivatives of the Eulerian and Lagrangian velocities increases approximately proportional to RλβE and RλβL, respectively, where βE ≈ 1.5 and βL ≈ 3.0.

We have investigated current-voltage characteristics of individual CdSe colloidal nanodots by conductive-tip atomic force microscopy (AFM). The colloidal nanodots were spun-coat and scattered on a self-assembled monolayer of thiophene molecules formed on Au (111) surfaces for single dot measurements. A thin SiO2 layer was deposited on the sample surface in order to prevent the dots being moved by the tip during measurement. We imaged the topography of isolated single dots by AFM operated in contact mode, and measured current-voltage characteristics with the conductive tip positioned on single dots; large conductivity changes which suggest resonant tunneling through a quantized energy level in the dot was observed even at room temperature.

Since the discovery of fading X-rays from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) with BeppoSAX (Piro et al. 1997, Costa et al. 1997), world-wide follow-up observations in optical band have achieved the fruitful results. The case of GRB 970228, there was an optical transient, coincides with the BeppoSAX position and faded (Paradijs et al. 1997, Sahu et al. 1997). These optical observations also confirmed the extended component, which was associated with the optical transient. The new transient are fading with a power-law function in time and the later observation of HST confirmed the extended emission is stable (Fruchter et al. 1997). This extended object seems to be a distant galaxy and strongly suggests to be the host.

Ultrasonographic examinations were performed on 519 pregnant women in the first trimester at three hospitals in Tokyo from August 1985 to March 1987. Among 519 women, two fetal heart movements (FHMs) were comfirmed in six cases. In two of these six cases, one of two FHMs disappeared two weeks later, and these were considered the “vanishing twin”. In eight cases among those with ultrasonographic image of echo-free-space (EFS) in the uterus, the observed EFS was considered to be a probable empty gestational sac (GS-like-EFS-image). Seven of eight GS-like-EFS-images were observed in October-December (p < 0.01) and two “vanishing twin” cases were also observed in the same season. Spontaneous abortion occurred in 11 cases and these were also more frequently observed in October-November (p < 0.05). Some abortive factor is supposed to have prevailed in October-December. All six women having twin fetuses (including the “vanishing twin” cases) were born in January-May (p < 0.05) and those having GS-like-EFS-images or terminating their pregnancy in spontaneous abortion were also born more frequently in the same season. Twin-prone and abortion-prone characteristics of the women born in this season are considered.

People have three ways of responding to neighborhood problems: leaving (exit), political action (voice), and doing nothing (passivity). The model assumes: 1. Voice is more likely to ameliorate neighborhood problems than exit or passivity; exit, in fact, can make things worse, 2. Rational behavior on the part of residents, coupled with constraints that limit options: status, race, the responsiveness of government and the nature of the problems. Survey data on one city are combined with census data differentiating neighborhood types. Voice is characteristic of suburban areas among high and low status whites; exit is characteristic of white urban areas. Among ghetto blacks—whose exit options are severely constrained—voice is most characteristic. Problems faced by blacks and whites living in the city are similar, while their adaptations are different.