Epitaxially stabilized iridium spinel oxide without cations in the tetrahedral site

Single-crystalline thin film of an iridium dioxide polymorph Ir2O4 has been fabricated by the pulsed laser deposition of LixIr2O4 precursor and the subsequent Li-deintercalation using soft chemistry. Ir2O4 crystallizes in a spinel (AB2O4) without A cations in the tetrahedral site, which is isostructural to lambda-MnO2. Ir ions form a pyrochlore sublattice, which is known to give rise to a strong geometrical frustration. This Ir spinel was found to be a narrow gap insulator, in remarkable contrast to the metallic ground state of rutile-type IrO2. We argue that an interplay of strong spin-orbit coupling and a Coulomb repulsion gives rise to an insulating ground state as in a layered perovskite Sr2IrO4.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

A Novel Scheme to Reduce Power Supply Noise for High-Quality At-Speed Scan Testing

High-quality at-speed scan testing, characterized by high small-delay-defect detecting capability, is indispensable to achieve high delay test quality for DSM circuits. However, such testing is susceptible to yield loss due to excessive power supply noise caused by high launch-induced switching activity. This paper addresses this serious problem with a novel and practical post-ATPG X-filling scheme, featuring (1) a test relaxation method, called path keeping X-identification, that finds don\u27t-care bits from a fully-specified transition delay test set while preserving its delay test quality by keeping the longest paths originally sensitized for fault detection, and (2) an X-filling method, called justification-probability-based fill (JP-fill), that is both effective and scalable for reducing launch-induced switching activity. This scheme can be easily implemented into any ATPG flow to effectively reduce power supply noise, without any impact on delay test quality, test data volume, area overhead, and circuit timing.2007 IEEE International Test Conference, 21-26 October 2007, Santa Clara, CA, US

Whale sighting efficiency of the crew on board ocean research vessels in BIOMASS/FIBEX

Two whalers who have long experience in whaling operation were on board two ocean research vessels from Japan which participated in the BIOMASS/FIBEX project. They were engaged in the whale sightings in the navigation bridge with the crew and apprentice students to examine the whale sighting efficiency of the crew. It was found that species identification of whales was very difficult for the crew without the help of experienced whalers. Synthesizing the results on the number of whale schools sighted per unit of the research distance and per unit of the number of crew, as well as on the range of visual field of sighting and the finding rate in the course of navigation, the whale sighting efficiency of the crew of the ocean research vessels was 3.2% of the whalers of the whale scouting boats, and the efficiency of the whalers on board ocean research vessels was 50% of the whalers of the whale scouting boats