We proposed and demonstrated a new approach to pressed self-perfection by liquefaction (P-SPEL), where a layer of SiO2 is used as a stopper on one sidewall of gratings, to self-limit the final trench width in P-SPEL to a preset stopper layer thickness, allowing a precise control of the final trench width without the need to control any pressing parameters such as pressure, temperature and the g...

Shallow trench isolation (STI) has become the most promising isolation scheme for ULSI applications. However, the trench isolation suffers from dislocations and oxidation induced stacking faults. Such faults are typically located near trench edges. These STI faults increase the junction leakage current and may turn-on the parasitic STI MOSFET resulting in significant leakage current through the...

During the 2011 magnitude 9 Tohoku-oki earthquake, very large slip occurred on the shallowest part of the subduction megathrust. Quantitative information on the shallow slip is of critical importance to distinguishing between different rupture mechanics and understanding the generation of the ensuing devastating tsunami. However, the magnitude and distribution of the shallow slip are essentiall...

Trench leachate samples collected anoxically from shallow-land, low-level radioactive waste disposal sites were analyzed for total aerobic and anaerobic populations, sulfate reducers, denitrifiers, and methanogens. Among the several aerobic and anaerobic bacteria isolated, only Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Citrobacter sp., and Clostridium sp. were identified. Mixed bacterial cultures isolated...

Air trench structure for reduced-size bends in low ( n=0.01-0.1) and medium ( n=0.1-0.3) index contrast waveguides is proposed. Local high index contrast at bends is achieved by introducing air trenches. An air trench bend consists of cladding tapers to avoid junction loss, providing adiabatic mode shaping between low and high index contrast regions. Drastic reduction in effective bend radius i...

On December 7, 2012, a pair of large Mw 7.2 intraplate earthquakes occurred near the Japan Trench axis off Miyagi, northeast Japan. This doublet consisted of a deep reverse-faulting event followed by a shallow normal-faulting event. Aftershock observations using conventional and newly developed ultra-deep ocean bottom seismographs in the trench axis area showed that the shallow normal-faulting ...

Many volcanic arcs display fast seismic shear-wave velocities parallel to the strike of the trench. This pattern of anisotropy is inconsistent with simple models of corner flow in the mantle wedge. Although several models, including slab rollback, oblique subduction, and deformation of water-rich olivine, have been proposed to explain trench-parallel anisotropy, none of these mechanisms are con...

We report detection of Bartonella quintana Brenner, the pathogenic agent of trench fever, from body lice, Pediculus humanus L., infesting homeless people in Tokyo by polymerase chain reaction. Two of 12 (16.7%) homeless were infested with Bartonella-positive body lice. From the current status of the recent increase of homeless people in many large cities of the developed countries, a medical ex...

In this paper, we present low-power reconfigurable adaptive equalizers derived via dynamic algorithm transforms (DAT’s). The principle behind DAT is that conventional signal processing systems are designed for the worst case and are not energy-optimum on average. Therefore, significant energy savings can be achieved by optimally reconfiguring the hardware in these situations. Practical reconfig...

Dendritic and axonal processes of nerve cells, along with the soma itself, have membranes with spatially distributed densities of ionic channels of various kinds. These ionic channels play a major role in characterizing the types of excitable responses expected of the cell type. These densities are usually represented as constant parameters in neural models because of the difficulty in experime...