For multimedia applications, the System LSI design trend is to integrate an increasing number of applications running on a single chip. Traditional architectures have reached their limit in terms of performance. New architectures must be explored to fulfill the system application needs. Complex bus structures have been introduced. These bus architectures open a much larger exploration space than traditional hardware-software partitioning trade-offs. We have been researching methods to leverage these new architectural elements. We also introduce a design environment to apply practical and efficient methods in today's design flow. Two key technologies are supporting our method and environment: Automatic bus architecture synthesis for easy configuration of bus architecture and transaction level of abstraction for communication for improvement of simulation performance. In this paper, we show the design method, an overview of the design environment and its usefulness through experimental results.

The bubble column is commonly employed as a reactor in industrial processes such as chemical and fermentation processing as well as in the field of waste water treatment. It is often operated under conditions of liquid continuous flow. Correlations in predicting gas holdup in the bubble column with no liquid flow have been proposed by many workers1~5>7). However, the effect of liquid flow rate on gas holdup has not yet been elucidated quantitatively, and the findings obtained have been quite different amonginvestigators owing to the complicated flow situation of the two phases1~3)8).The objective of the present study is to ascertain the flow regimes of gas and liquid, and to obtain correlations useful in predicting gas holdup in both cocurrent and countercurrent flow systems. A criterion of flow regime distinction will be proposed and the effect of liquid flow rate on gas holdup will be examined.

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Mucosal damage is commonly observed in food-sensitive enteropathy in infants, and the generation of leukotrienes is involved in the pathogenesis of this enteropathy. Because supplementing n-3 fatty acids is known to modify the production of leukotrienes, we investigated whether a change of dietary fatty acid composition affects leukotriene synthesis and food hypersensitivity reactions in the intestine by using a mouse model of food-sensitive enteropathy. The model was prepared by feeding ovalbumin to BALB/c mice after intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide. Diets were prepared from soybean oil (control), perilla oil, lard, corn oil, and 0.125 volume of corn oil (low fat diet) and given to mice for 4 wk. Villous heights, crypt depths, leukotriene B4 and C4 production in the intestine were measured. Crypt hyperplasia and villous atrophy were severer in the corn oil-fed group than those of control group, whereas mucosal damage in the perilla oil and low fat diet groups was minimal. In the corn oil-fed group, red blood cell membrane levels of n-3 fatty acids were lower than the control, and the synthesis of leukotrienes was highest among all groups. In the perilla oil and low fat diet groups, n-6 fatty acids were lower than those of control group and leukotriene production was significantly suppressed. These results indicate that reducing cell membrane levels of n-6 fatty acids by feeding less n-6 fatty acids or supplementing n-3 fatty acids, is important to suppress leukotriene biosynthesis for prevention from mucosal damage in food-sensitive enteropathy.

Innovation diffusion, FEM, Diffusion equation, Bass model,

No abstract

A low temperature, uniform, high-density plasma is produced by an ultra-high-frequency (UHF) discharge using a new spokewise antenna. The plasma is uniform within ±5% over a diameter of 30 cm. The plasma density, 1×1011 cm-3, for low electron temperatures of 1.5-2.0 eV, is almost proportional to the UHF power even at a low UHF power. No magnetic field is needed to maintain a high-density plasma. Consequently, the plasma source is fairly simple and lightweight. The plasma source can accomplish a notch-free poly-Si etching profile with a high etching rate at a narrow space pattern of less than 0.3 µ m.

A low-temperature, uniform, high-density plasma is produced by an ultra-high-frequency (UHF) discharge with a new spokewise antenna. The plasma is uniform within ±5% over a diameter of 20 cm. The plasma density, 5×1010 cm−3 for low-electron temperatures of 1.5–2.0 eV, is almost proportional to the UHF power even at a low-UHF power of 100 W. No magnetic field is needed to maintain a high-density plasma. Consequently, the plasma source is fairly simple and lightweight. The plasma source should ease serious problems in etching processes that use conventional high-density plasmas.