The purpose of this study was to examine whether people with ultra-high risk for psychosis showed biases as well as deficits in facial emotional recognition which were well-established findings in people with schizophrenia. Forty-five people with ultra- high risk (UHR) for psychosis, 30 people with first-episode (FE) schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls were asked to recognize the emotional category of facial emotional photographs. The stimuli were selected from the standard emotional photographs of Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion (JACFEE) which depicting the basic emotions of happiness, disgust, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and contempt. To examine the accurate and biased attribution of facial emotion recognition, unbiased hit rates and misattrbution rates of each emotion were calculated. The common abnormalities observed in the UHR for psychosis and FE schizophrenia group were lower unbiased hit rate for fear faces (UHR< controls: p = 0.027, FE< controls: p = 0.029) and higher contempt misattribution rate to faces (UHR>controls: p = 0.022, FE< controls: p = 0.088) compared with healthy controls. Unbiased hit rates for fear in UHR for psychosis and FE schizophrenia group were correlated with negative symptoms, and these correlations were found in other negative emotions in FE schizophrenia. These findings suggest that the bias as well as deficits of facial emotional recognition may be already present in the (putative) prodromal stages of schizophrenia and could be a possible trait markers for the social cognition.

A new approach is proposed to analyze Bremsstrahlung X-rays that are emitted from laser-produced plasmas (LPP) and are measured by a stack type spectrometer. This new method is based on a spectral tomographic reconstruction concept with the variational principle for optimization, without referring to the electron energy distribution of a plasma. This approach is applied to the analysis of some experimental data obtained at a few major laser facilities to demonstrate the applicability of the method. Slope temperatures of X-rays from LPP are determined with a two-temperature model, showing different spectral characteristics of X-rays depending on laser properties used in the experiments.

An overview on current trends in stimulated Brillouin scattering and optical phase conjugation is given. This report is based on the results of the “Second International Workshop on stimulated Brillouin scattering and phase conjugation” held in Potsdam/Germany in September 2007. The properties of stimulated Brillouin scattering are presented for the compensation of phase distortions in combination with novel laser technology like ceramics materials but also for e.g., phase stabilization, beam combination, and slow light. Photorefractive nonlinear mirrors and resonant refractive index gratings are addressed as phase conjugating mirrors in addition.

A new concept of laser fusion driver is proposed, which uses a beam combination technique with stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugate mirror (SBS-PCM). It is constructed systematically with a cross-type amplifier as a basic unit. In the first part of this paper, we introduce the cross-type laser amplifier using SBS-PCM, with several advantages by experimental results. These advantages are the ideal properties for practical laser fusion driver, such as the perfect isolation of leak beam, the compensation of thermally induced birefringence through the amplifiers, the easy maintenance and alignment insensitiveness, and the freely-scale-up energy. Next, some successful results for the phase control of SBS-PCM are presented, which is one of the main problems in the current beam combination laser using SBS-PCM. Particularly, a new technique for controlling the phase of SBS-PCM, “self-density modulation,” is introduced, which is the simplest ever among those reported. With the advantages of the cross-type amplifier using SBS-PCM and the novel method for controlling the phase of SBS-PCM, the proposed beam combination laser system is presented as the most promising one, which can contribute to the realization of high energy laser that can operate with high repetition rate over 10 Hz, even in the case of huge output energy over MJ.

PbTiO3 (PTO) and PbZr1-xTixO3 (PZT) films on a (100) Nb-doped SrTiO3 (NSTO) substrate were fabricated at 160 and 210 °C, respectively, by hydrothermal epitaxy below the Curie temperature, TC. The PTO capacitor had a square hysteresis curve compared to the rounded hysteresis curve of the PZT capacitor. These differing behaviors in the polarization-electric hysteresis curves can be explained by the existence of an interfacial layer formed between the PZT film and the NSTO substrate. The PZT capacitor showed almost no polarization fatigue after 1011 switching cycles. However, the PTO capacitor revealed a slightly different fatigue behavior due to the microvoids that formed as a result of the agglomeration of the island growth mode. However, the fatigue behavior of both capacitors revealed that defects, such as the lead or oxygen vacancies, were suppressed by the hydrothermal epitaxy using a very low fabrication temperature below TC.

The Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS) aims to determine the number of small icy bodies in the outer reach of the Solar System by means of stellar occultation. An array of 4 robotic small (D=0.5 m), wide-field (f/1.9) telescopes have been installed at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan to simultaneously monitor some thousand of stars for such rare occultation events. Because a typical occultation event by a TNO a few km across will last for only a fraction of a second, fast photometry is necessary. A special CCD readout scheme has been devised to allow for stellar photometry taken a few times per second. Effective analysis pipelines have been developed to process stellar light curves and to correlate any possible flux changes among all telescopes. A few billion photometric measurements have been collected since the routine survey began in early 2005. Our preliminary result of a very low detection rate suggests a deficit of small TNOs down to a few km size, consistent with the extrapolation of some recent studies of larger (30–100 km) TNOs.

A beam combination laser with stimulated Brillouin scattering-phase conjugate mirrors (SBS-PCMs), which is expected to produce a high output energy and power with a repetition rate over 10 Hz, is a candidate for a practically useful laser fusion driver in the future. In order to develop the beam combination laser with SBS-PCMs, it is necessary to control the phase of each SBS wave whose phases are known as inherently random. We have proposed a new phase control technique and demonstrated experimentally that the relative phase difference between two SBS waves can be controlled to a certain value and locked to it with an accuracy less than λ/4. Additionally we have proposed and demonstrated a new technique to preserve the pulse shape of the SBS wave. Based on these experimental results, we have proposed two schemes of the new schemes for the high repetition and high energy/power beam combination laser system (laser fusion driver) using the SBS-PCMs of amplitude division and wave-front division techniques, which can operate with repetition rate over 10 Hz, in this paper.

Intermetallic compound (IMC) spalling from electroless Ni-P film was investigated with lead-free solders in terms of solder-deposition methods (electroplating, solder paste, and thin foil), P content in the Ni-P film (4.6, 9, and 13 wt% P), and solder thickness (120 versus .200 μm). The reaction of Ni-P with Sn3.5Ag paste easily led to IMC spalling after 2-min reflow at 250 °C while IMCs adhered to the Ni-P layer after 10-min reflow with electroplated Sn or Sn3.5Ag. It has been shown that not only the solder composition but also the deposition method is important for IMC spalling from the Ni-P layer. The spalling increased with P content as well as with solder volume. Ni3Sn4 intermetallics formed as a needle-shaped morphology at an early stage and changed into a chunk-shape. Needle-shaped compounds exhibited a higher propensity for spalling than chunk-shaped compounds because many channels among the needle-shaped IMCs facilitated Sn penetration. A reaction between the penetrated Sn and the Ni3P layer formed a Ni3SnP layer and Ni3Sn4 IMCs spalled off the Ni3SnP surface. Dewetting of solder from the Ni3SnP layer, however, did not occur even after spalling of most IMCs.

The piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) surface possessing low surface energy was modified by the ion-assisted-reaction (IAR) method for the application of thin film speaker. The IAR-treated hydrophilic PVDF surface was investigated using atomic force microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The adhesion strength between various types of electrodes and the film was dramatically improved due to the hydrophilic functional groups, such as –C–O–, –(C=O)–, –(C=O)–O–, and so forth. A durable loudspeaker film was fabricated by enhancing the adhesion between the screen-printed poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT/PSS) and the modified PVDF films. The PVDF speaker film with the PEDOT/PSS electrode showed higher durability, flatter sound pressure level characteristics, and easier processability compared to metals or indium tin oxide electrodes.

A grain boundary engineering approach was employed to improve the microstructure of a commercial Pb-base alloy for better performance in automobile battery application. Through a combination of cold working, recrystallization and subsequent thermomechanical-processing, it was possible to increase the fraction of the low ∑ coincidence site lattice boundaries up to 91% in addition to the substantial grain refinement. A preliminary electrochemical evaluation indicated a better corrosion resistance in the experimental material laden with the special boundaries. The high frequency of the coincidence site lattice boundaries in the specimens was interpreted in terms of the '∑3 regeneration' model proposed in previous works.

ZnO with hexagonal wurzite structure is a wide band gap n-type semiconductor. ZnO films can be prepared to obtain high transparency in the visible range, low resistivity, chemical stability and stability in hydrogen plasma including many foreign materials such as Al, In. In this work, we prepared ZnO:Al thin film by Facing Targets Sputtering system with Zn metal target and ZnO:Al(Al2O3 2wt%, 4wt%) ceramic target at total working gas pressure 1mTorr, substrate temperature R.T.. We evaluated the crystallographic, electrical and optical characteristics of the ZnO:Al films.

We have studied the optimum conditions of the deposition of NiCr-bottom electrode for preparing the ferroelectric PZT(50/50) thin film capacitor. The NiCr(80/20) layer of about 300nm in thickness was deposited on bare Si(111) wafer by rf magnetron sputtering. The surface morphology and crystallinity were investigated by using Atomic force microscope (AFM) and X-ray diffractormeter (XRD). It is found that the size and crystallinity of grains of NiCr or Ni-silicide depend mainly on the rf power. The PZT(50/50) thin films were prepared on NiCr/Si substates by spin-casting of PZT coating sol and then annealing at 520°C in air for crystallization. The undesirable Pb-silicate is found to be grown during post-annealing in case that substrates having NiCr layer deposited by high power above 80 W are used. We suggest that the formation of Pb-silicate is due to the thermal diffusion of Pb or PbO through crystalline NiCr-grain boundaries. The ferroelectric PZT thin films having the perovskite structure can be obtained by using the NiCr-bottom electrodes whose morphologies are in the amorphous-crystalline boundaries, in which the surface roughness and grain size of NiCr layer is minimum. The values of the dielectric constant, εn, were measured in the range 300˜500, the remanent polarization, Pr, in the range 10˜13 C/cm2 and the coercive field, Ec, around 160 kV/cm, depending on the deposition conditions of NiCr layers.

We have investigated anisotropic lattice relaxation and its mechanism of ZnSe epitaxial layer grown on (001) GaAs substrate by MBE. Double-crystal X-ray rocking curves for (004), {115} and {404} reflections were measured as a function of the azimuthal rotation angle of the sample. We observed the sinusoidal oscillation of the FWHM of the epilayer peak for (004) reflections due to the asymmetric dislocation density along two orthogonal <110> directions, and the direction of the maximum FWHM corresponding to high dislocation density is along [110]. In addition, the strain along [110] is smaller than that along [1-10], indicating that the layer suffered anisotropic lattice relaxation. The direction of larger relaxation([l-10]) is not consistent with that of high dislocation density([110]). The results suggest that the asymmetry in dislocation density is not responsible for the anisotropic relaxation of the ZnSe epilayer.