Abstract: The present invention provides nanoparticles having a core/shell structure consisting of a core comprising a Group III element and a Group V element at a molar ratio of the Group III element to the Group V element in the range of 1.25 to 3.0, and a shell comprising a Group II element and a Group VI element and having a thickness of 0.2 nm to 4 nm, the nanoparticles having a photoluminescence efficiency of 10% or more and a diameter of 2.5 to 10 nm; a method of producing the water-dispersible nanoparticles comprising bringing a dispersion of III-V semiconductor nanoparticles in an organic solvent into contact with an aqueous solution of a Group II element-containing compound and a Group VI element-containing compound to thereby transfer the III-V semiconductor nanoparticles of the organic solvent dispersion to the aqueous solution, and then irradiating the aqueous solution with light; and a method of producing a glass matrix having the nanoparticles dispersed therein.

Abstract: Provided are a piezoelectric material without using lead or an alkali metal, the piezoelectric material having a stable crystal structure in a wide temperature range, high insulation property, and high piezoelectric property, and a piezoelectric element using the piezoelectric material, in which the piezoelectric material is made of a metal oxide having a tetragonal crystal structure and expressed by Ba(SixGeyTiz)O3 (here, 0?x?1, 0?y?1, and 0?z?0.5), the piezoelectric element includes the piezoelectric material and a pair of electrodes sandwiching the piezoelectric material, and at least one of the pair of electrodes is made of SrRuO3 or Ni.

Abstract: Provided is a silicon carbide epitaxial wafer which is formed on a substrate that is less than 1° off from the {0001} surface of silicon carbide having an ?-type crystal structure, wherein the crystal defects in the SiC epitaxial wafer are reduced while the flatness of the surface thereof is improved.

Abstract: The invention provides a process for producing a single-crystal substrate with an off-angle, which comprises using, as a substrate, a material capable of epitaxial growth by a vapor-phase synthesis method, whose surface has an off-angle with respect to a crystal plane capable of epitaxial growth; implanting ions into the substrate having a surface with an off-angle to form a layer with a deteriorated crystal structure near the surface of the substrate; growing a crystal on the surface with an off-angle of the substrate by a vapor-phase synthesis method; and separating a grown crystal layer from the substrate. In accordance with the process of the invention, when producing off-substrates usable in vapor-phase synthesis of single crystals, the manufacturing costs can be reduced, and substrates with an identical off-angle can be produced easily and in large quantities.

Abstract: To provide a tunnel junction device having a high MR ratio even at room temperature, a tunneling film as a nonmagnetic layer of three-layer structure of LaMnO3/SrTiO3/LaMnO3 is arranged between a ferromagnetic metal material La0.6Sr0.4MnO3 (12) and a ferromagnetic metal film material La0.6Sr0.4MnO3 (14). The tunneling film comprises two unit layers of LaMnO3 (13A) arranged on the ferromagnetic metal material La0.6Sr0.4MnO3 (12); five unit layers of SrTiO3 (13B); and two unit layers of LaMnO3 (13C) arranged at the interface between the SrTiO3 (13B) and the ferromagnetic metal film material La0.6Sr0.4MnO3 (14).

Abstract: A novel plant virus vector and a method of gene expression into plants are provided, and the present invention relates to a plant virus vector characterized in that a part of the sequence of the 2b region of the RNA2 molecule of the Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is deleted; the aforementioned plant virus vector characterized in that the region from the StuI site to the stop codon of the 2b ORF of pCY2, which is an infectious clone of CMV-Y RNA2, is deleted; and a method of gene expression in plants characterized in that a foreign gene is introduced so as to be stably expressed in a plant using the genetic recombinant. This vector is useful as a plant RNA vector for causing stable expression of foreign genes.

Abstract: An apparatus for manufacturing a composite structure body is provided which forms structure body having the constitution in which the crystals of more than one type of brittle material are dispersed and having novel properties without involving a heating/sintering process. The apparatus includes an aerosol generator configured to generate an aerosol. The aerosol is generated through dispersing fine particles of more than one type of brittle material, or dispersing composite fine particles, in a gas. The apparatus also includes a nozzle configured to spray the aerosol, a classifier configured to classify the brittle material fine particles in the aerosol, and a disintegrating machine for disintegrating agglomerations of the brittle material fine particles in the aerosol. The composite structure body is manufactured in reduced pressure conditions by bombarding a substrate with the aerosol at a high velocity, whereby at least one of crystals and microstructures of said brittle materials are dispersed.

Abstract: There is provided a singing synthesis parameter data estimation system that automatically estimates singing synthesis parameter data for automatically synthesizing a human-like singing voice from an audio signal of input singing voice. A pitch parameter estimating section 9 estimates a pitch parameter, by which the pitch feature of an audio signal of synthesized singing voice is got closer to the pitch feature of the audio signal of input singing voice based on at least both of the pitch feature and lyric data with specified syllable bondaries of the audio signal of input singing voice.

Abstract: The present invention solves the issue of bacterial infection by medical devices such as intracorporeal indwelling catheters. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic medical apparatus including a medical device (titanium oxide coated medical device 10) covered with a titanium oxide material (titanium oxide alone or a titanium oxide composite material) and ultrasonic irradiation means 20. Ultrasonic irradiation of the titanium oxide material, which exists on a surface of the medical device, causes the surface of the medical device to exert beneficial effects such as antibiotic action, the stimulation of angiogenesis, and the degradation of a blood clot and a biofilm.

Abstract: At each lattice point 2 of pantographs 1, a capillary 3 is held perpendicular to the pantograph lattice. The pantograph 1 includes: rings 4 and 5 to serve as lattice points; and shafts 6 linking the rings with one another. Each of the capillaries 3 is supported by the two rings 4 and 5. The shafts are free to rotate about an intersection 7. The ring 5 is fixed to the capillary 3, but the ring 4 is a movable ring being moveable freely up and down in the axial direction of the capillary 3 in conjunction with the pantograph 1. The lattice distance can be determined accomplished by moving up or down the movable ring at an arbitrarily-chosen lattice point in a pantograph 1. Accordingly, all the capillaries move in parallel to one another, and the ends of all the capillaries always stay within a single plane.

Abstract: Interlayer insulating films 5,7 (insulating films) provided in a memory capacitor cell 8 are formed between a gate electrode 3 and a counter electrode 8C formed on a silicon wafer 1. The interlayer insulating films 5,7 comprise a borazine-based resin, having a specific dielectric constant of no greater than 2.6, a Young's modulus of 5 GPa or greater and a leak current of no greater than 1×10?8 A/cm2.

Abstract: A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which performs a rapid heat treatment in which metallic thin films 11 and 12 to be metallic electrodes are formed on a top surface and a bottom surface of a silicon carbide semiconductor substrate 10, and thereafter, the silicon carbide semiconductor substrate 10 is heated. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is configured such that the silicon carbide semiconductor substrate 10 is held by a holding structure 20 by means of a contact with an exterior of a region formed with the metallic thin films 11 and 12 on the silicon carbide semiconductor substrate 10, and the held silicon carbide semiconductor substrate 10 is placed in an interior of a heating chamber of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

Abstract: The amplitude control of a cantilever based on the van der Pol model is performed through a feedback using the measurement data on a deflection of the cantilever. A self-oscillating circuit integrates a deflection angle signal of a cantilever detected by a deflection angle measuring mechanism using an integrator, multiplies a resulting integral value by linear feedback gain Klin generated by a gain generator, and an output corresponding to the linear feedback signal is generated. Also, the self-oscillating circuit cubes the deflection angle signal using analog multipliers, integrates the resulting values using integrators, multiplies the resulting integral values by a nonlinear feedback gain Knon generated by a gain generator, and an output corresponding to the nonlinear feedback signal is generated. Furthermore, the self-oscillating circuit 40 adds the outputs together using an adder, and a voltage signal VC for a piezo element is generated.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for extending the sugar chain modification of a lipid or a protein by introducing two or more glycosyltransferase genes in a biological organism (including animal-, plant- or microbial cells). Also disclosed is a recombinant plant with a potency to generate ceramide trihexoside and a method for generating ceramide trihexoside using the plant. Methods for synthetically preparing ceramide trihexoside utilizing a transgenic tobacco prepared by constructing an expression vector with the ORF of human- or animal-derived ?1,4-galactosyltransferase gene (?1,4 GT) for plants and subsequently introducing the vector into tobacco using a genetic approach for plants and methods for the mass-scale production of ceramide trihexoside are also disclosed herein.

Abstract: The present invention is relating to an ion generator and an ionizer, in which the ion generator can obtain stable ion generation even if the electrode and the power supply slightly change, satisfies voltage and frequency conditions for realizing an ozone concentration less than 50 ppb as an allowable concentration.

Abstract: A single-chain probe of the present invention for detecting a ligand, comprises: a ligand binding protein for binding the ligand; a recognition protein for recognizing that the ligand is bound by the ligand binding protein; and C— and N-terminal fragments, generated by dissecting an enzyme, between the ligand binding protein and the recognition protein, wherein a carboxy terminal end of the C-terminal fragment is located upstream of an amino terminal end of the N-terminal fragment, and the C— and N-terminal fragments vary the enzyme activity via complementation in case where the recognition protein recognizes that the ligand is bound by the ligand binding protein. This makes it possible to achieve detection of a target protein-specific ligand using the single chain with a high efficiency.

Abstract: A method of forming film on a substrate, in which in a preliminary step information on film thickness deposited on a test substrate prepared for use in collecting information over a fixed irradiation time is obtained in advance while shining a laser beam on a target, there being a fixed positional relationship between spatial positions of the test substrate and an incidence point of the laser beam on the target, or while shining the laser beam on the target while rotating the test substrate. In a main step, a deposition time at each relative positional relationship is adjusted based on film-thickness distribution information obtained in the preliminary step while spatially moving or rotating the substrate or substrate holder about a specific central axis of rotation relative to the incidence point of the laser beam to the target, or while performing both the relative rotation and relative movement.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a mutant luciferase having luciferase activity with an altered emission spectrum. A specific amino acid residue(s) is substituted in a luciferase derived from Cypridina noctiluca and then the resulting mutant luciferase having luciferase activity with an emission spectrum differing from that of the wild-type luciferase is screened for.

Abstract: It is intended to provide koji mold-origin phospholipase A2 and a DNA encoding it. Namely, phospholipase A2 comprising the following protein (a) or (b): (a) a protein having an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1 or 2; and (b) a protein having an amino acid sequence derived from an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1 or 2 by a partial modification and serving as phospholipase A2.

Abstract: By focusing on the non-diffusible hydrogen that causes hydrogen embrittlement of austenitic stainless steel, the present invention provides an austenitic stainless steel in which the non-diffusible hydrogen is removed by maintaining the austenitic stainless steel in a vacuum of 0.2 Pa or less and heating at a heating temperature of 200° C. to 500° C. for 460 hours or less to remove the hydrogen (H) contained therein to a level of 0.00007 mass % (0.7 mass ppm) or less.