Detailed temperature cross section of the cold-water belt along the northern edge of the Kuroshio

On the basis of BT observations made at intervals of about one mile, a detailed temperature cross section of the cold-water belt along the northern edge of the Kuroshio is presented. Cold waters and sharp temperature inversions have been observed on the southern and northern margins of the cold-water belt. Within the cold-water belt, except in a narrow noninversion area, many temperature inversion layers have been observed, and the colder and warmer waters are arranged in a complicated pattern...

A Chinese Herbal Medicine, Tokishakuyakusan, Reduces the Worsening of Impairments and Independence after Stroke: A 1-Year Randomized, Controlled Trial

In post-stroke patients, the recurrence of stroke and progression of impairments lead to a bedridden state and dementia. As for their treatments, only anti-hypertension and anti-coagulation therapies to prevent the recurrence of stroke are available. In Asia, post-stroke patients with impairments are often treated with herbal medicine. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of tokishakuyakusan (TS) in improving the impairment and independence in post-stroke patients. Thirty-one post-stroke patients (mean age = 81.4 years) were recruited and enrolled. Participants were randomly assigned to the TS group (n = 16) or non-treatment (control) group (n = 15) and treated for 12 months. Impairments were assessed using the Stroke Impairment Assessment Set (SIAS). Independence was evaluated using the functional independence measure (FIM). For each outcome measure, mean change was calculated every 3 months. The results were that impairments according to SIAS did not significantly change in the TS group. In contrast, SIAS significantly worsened in the control group. There was a significant difference between the two groups. In each term of SIAS, affected lower extremity scores, abdominal muscle strength, function of visuospatial perception, and so forth. in the TS group were better than those in the control group. Independence according to FIM did not change significantly in the TS group. In contrast, FIM significantly worsened in the control group. There was also a significant difference between the two groups. In conclusion, TS was considered to suppress the impairments of lower limbs and to exert a favorable effect on cerebral function for post-stroke patients

Detection of radiation torque exerted on an alkali-metal vapor cell

We have developed a torsion balance to detect the rotation of a cell containing spin-polarized gaseous atoms to study angular momentum transfer from gaseous atoms to solid. A cesium vapor cell was hung from a thin wire in a vacuum chamber, and irradiated from the bottom with circularly polarized light tuned to the $D_2$ transition to polarize cesium atoms in the cell. By varying the light helicity at the resonance frequency of the torsion balance, we induced forced rotational oscillation of the cell and detected radiation torque exerted on the cesium vapor cell through the cesium atoms inside. The torque was particularly large when both hyperfine levels of cesium atoms were optically pumped with application of a longitudinal magnetic field. Further detailed study will provide new insights into spin-transfer processes at the gas-solid interface.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Arbitrary cross-section SEM-cathodoluminescence imaging of growth sectors and local carrier concentrations within micro-sampled semiconductor nanorods

Future one-dimensional electronics require single-crystalline semiconductor free-standing nanorods grown with uniform electrical properties. However, this is currently unrealistic as each crystallographic plane of a nanorod grows at unique incorporation rates of environmental dopants, which forms axial and lateral growth sectors with different carrier concentrations. Here we propose a series of techniques that micro-sample a free-standing nanorod of interest, fabricate its arbitrary cross-sections by controlling focused ion beam incidence orientation, and visualize its internal carrier concentration map. ZnO nanorods are grown by selective area homoepitaxy in precursor aqueous solution, each of which has a (0001):+c top-plane and six {1–100}:m side-planes. Near-band-edge cathodoluminescence nanospectroscopy evaluates carrier concentration map within a nanorod at high spatial resolution (60 nm) and high sensitivity. It also visualizes +c and m growth sectors at arbitrary nanorod cross-section and history of local transient growth events within each growth sector. Our technique paves the way for well-defined bottom-up nanoelectronics

Single-Channel Speech Enhancement Based on Frequency Domain ALE

In the present paper, a new single-channel speech enhancement system is proposed. The proposed system is based on frequency domain adaptive line enhancer; therefore, it is advantageous to non-stationary environments. Also, frequency domain decorrelation parameters are introduced and then adjusted independently. The performance of the proposed system is examined through computer simulations. The effectiveness of the proposed system is confirmed through computer simulations