An MVA-LCD (multi-domain vertical alignment LCD) that provides super-high image quality has been developed by newly introduced rubbing-less technology.A newly introduced "protrusion" designed on the TFT substrates and on the color filter substrates automatically controls the directors of the LC molecules. By this technology we have successively developed four-domain 15" MVA-TFT units that provide extremely wide viewing angle of more than 160 degrees, a high contrast ratio of 300:1 or more and a fast response of less than 25ms.

The study of IGZO was started by Kimizuka et al. in 1985. IGZO is developed as a material for displays. We found crystalline IGZO having c-axis alignment and have studied its application to displays, memories, processors, etc. Crystalline IGZO is expected to be used in a variety of applications.

We report the first numerical analysis of the radiation force exerted on a subwavelength particle by an evanescent field localized near a subwavelength aperture. The radiation force is calculated by using the Maxwell stress tensor through the electric field distribution obtained with the finite-difference time-domain method. The result indicates that a particle moves towards the aperture. We found that if two particles exist the first particle is trapped and the second one is also attracted to the first one. The radiation force is found to be larger than the forces due to thermal fluctuations and to gravity. 42.25.Gy, 42.62.Be In 1970, Ashkin et al. demonstrated that two counterpropagating beams of laser light can trap a dielectric sphere of a few micrometer diameter [1], and in 1986 they showed that even a single laser beam which is focused into the sphere can pull up and trap this sphere at the position of the focus point [2]. This technology has been, in particular, well applied in biophysical sciences to trap living cells [3], measure force associated with the transcription of RNA [4], move single DNA molecules in viscous flows [5], and so on.The force exerted on a particle is given by the total change in the momentum of the incident photons due to scattering, absorption, and spontaneous emission by the sphere. If the particle is small enough, e.g., like an atom [6,7], compared with the wavelength of the incident light, the analysis is not very difficult because the distribution of the field due to the particle is negligible.For a sphere with the size near the wavelength of the incident light, the electromagnetic field can be determined by the Mie scattering theory [8]. Recently we found that the force exerted on a dielectric layer near a prism, by illumination under the total internal reflection conditions, is a complicated function of the incident angle and the polarization of the incident light [9]. We also found experimentally that a sphere can be moved on a channel waveguide by an evanescent field [10,11].In this Letter, we describe the photon force exerted on a subwavelength dielectric sphere near a small aperture by the interaction between the aperture and the sphere via evanescent photons. This configuration corresponds to a near field scanning optical microscope with an aperture [12] or a scattering probe [13,14]. Figure 1 shows the model which we used to perform our numerical analysis. The surface of a glass substrate (´ 2.28) is coated with a metallic layer which is assumed to be a perfect conductor in calculation, and which is in contact with water (´1 1.77). A circular aperture is made into this metallic layer, the diameter of which is l͞4. l is the wavelength of the incident light in vacuum. A glass sphere (´2 2.28), the diameter of which is l͞2, is located in water near the aperture. The thickness of the metallic layer is l͞5. The incident light is a plane wave x linearly polarized and propagating along the z axis towards the metallic layer through the glass substrate. The x, y, and z axes ...

A new MVA-LCD using Polymer Sustained Alignment technology (PSA-LCD) has been developed. This technology can realize a stable alignment with protrusion free structure by polymer sustainment. PSA-LCD has established high brightness, high contrast ratio and fast response speed. IntroductionMVA-LCD (1) has excellent performance such as high contrast ratio, wide viewing angle, rubbing free process and so on. And subsequently developed alignment technology using minutely patterned ITO improved response time drastically (2) . However this technology still needed protrusions because the alignment became unstable without protrusions. We investigated many alignment technologies and focused attention on polymer technology well known as polymer-stabilizing technology. It has been applied to several mode LCDs (3)(4) except vertically aligned mode. We have tried to apply polymer technology to the vertically aligned mode for sustaining the alignment without protrusions.The structure of the minutely patterned ITO we already had developed, can control the tilt directions of vertically aligned liquid crystal molecules. We have developed protrusion free MVA-LCD by the combination of minutely patterned ITO we have developed and the polymer technology, and named it PSA-LCD. We report in this paper the advantages of PSA-LCD and results of 17-inch wide panel fabrication. 2.PSA technology Figure 1 shows the panel structure of conventional MVA-LCD. In this structure, the liquid crystal alignment is controlled by partially located protrusions and ITO slits. Therefore, the alignment in the intermediate region between the protrusions and the ITO slits are not controlled directly and the alignment is not strong enough.On the other hand in PSA technology, we can control the liquid crystal alignment over whole pixel area with the help of polymer layer formed on the surface of the substrate. Figure 2 shows the fabrication process to form the polymer layer. Appropriate concentration of UV curable monomer is added to negative liquid crystal and injected to empty cell. After that, some voltage is applied to the cell. Under this condition, the cell is irradiated by UV light. This process can form the polymer layers on the inside surface of the substrate. The polymer layer formed in this way has the ability to control liquid crystal alignment.In other words, the formed polymer sustains this predetermined alignment. So we can obtain stable predetermined alignment. To realize the uniform predetermined alignment, we applied the structure of the minutely patterned ITO. Figure 3 shows the Common electrode Protrusion ITO Slit Pixel electrode Figure 1. Pixel structure of Conventional MVA-LCD LC Molecule UV Light Figure 2. Fabrication process of polymer layer Monomer PI ITO Polymer layer V

The Escherichia coli lactose repressor protein (LacI) provides a classic model for understanding protein-induced DNA looping. LacI has a C-terminal four-helix bundle tetramerization domain that may act as a flexible hinge. In previous work, several DNA constructs, each containing two lac operators bracketing a sequence-induced bend, were designed to stabilize different possible looping geometries. The resulting hyperstable LacI-DNA loops exist as both a compact "closed" form with a V-shaped repressor and also a more "open" form with an extended hinge. The "9C14" construct was of particular interest because footprinting, electrophoretic mobility shift, and ring closure experiments suggested that it forms both geometries. Previous fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurements gave an efficiency of energy transfer (ET) of 70%, confirming the existence of a closed form. These measurements could not determine whether open form or intermediate geometries are populated or the timescale of interconversion. We have now applied single-molecule FRET to Cy3, Cy5 double-labeled LacI-DNA loops diffusing freely in solution. By using multiple excitation wavelengths and by carefully examining the behavior of the zero-ET peak during titration with LacI, we show that the LacI-9C14 loop exists exclusively in a single closed form exhibiting essentially 100% ET.

To develop a testing strategy incorporating the human cell line activation test (h-CLAT), direct peptide reactivity assay (DPRA) and DEREK, we created an expanded data set of 139 chemicals (102 sensitizers and 37 non-sensitizers) by combining the existing data set of 101 chemicals through the collaborative projects of Japan Cosmetic Industry Association. Of the additional 38 chemicals, 15 chemicals with relatively low water solubility (log Kow > 3.5) were selected to clarify the limitation of testing strategies regarding the lipophilic chemicals. Predictivities of the h-CLAT, DPRA and DEREK, and the combinations thereof were evaluated by comparison to results of the local lymph node assay. When evaluating 139 chemicals using combinations of three methods based on integrated testing strategy (ITS) concept (ITS-based test battery) and a sequential testing strategy (STS) weighing the predictive performance of the h-CLAT and DPRA, overall similar predictivities were found as before on the 101 chemical data set. An analysis of false negative chemicals suggested a major limitation of our strategies was the testing of low water-soluble chemicals. When excluded the negative results for chemicals with log Kow > 3.5, the sensitivity and accuracy of ITS improved to 97% (91 of 94 chemicals) and 89% (114 of 128). Likewise, the sensitivity and accuracy of STS to 98% (92 of 94) and 85% (111 of 129). Moreover, the ITS and STS also showed good correlation with local lymph node assay on three potency classifications, yielding accuracies of 74% (ITS) and 73% (STS). Thus, the inclusion of log Kow in analysis could give both strategies a higher predictive performance.

Fluorescence microscopy techniques are used to investigate diffusion and wetting at the interior surface of template-synthesized silica nanotubes. Imaging of individual nanotubes reveals that complete modification of the nanotube interiors with hydrophobic ligands is attained during nanotube synthesis. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments show that (1) spontaneous dewetting of the nanotube interior occurs when the immersing solvent is displaced with pure water and (2) anomalously slow diffusion is observed at the nanotube interior surface.

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