A correlated double sampling technique, applicable to continuous time active-RC filters, is proposed. It provides suppression of DC offset and 1/f noise, and performs gain boosting and level shifting for the opamps used. A biquad lowpass filter is described to demonstrate the application of the technique.

Moderate-intensity exercise at the lactate threshold (LT) is considered to be a safe and effective training regimen for improving metabolic syndrome. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of moderate exercise performed at the LT on skeletal muscle gene expression. 6 healthy men participated in cycle ergometer training at LT, 60 min/d, 5 d/wk for 12 wks. Muscle samples were collected after 5 d of training, and then 2 d after training at wks 6 and 12. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that the expression of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor co-activated 1 alpha was significantly increased at 1 h after the training session on day 5. Moreover, using serial analysis gene expression, we found that moderate training for 6 and 12 wks simultaneously induced the expression of a number of metabolic genes involved in the TCA cycle, beta-oxidation, and electron transport. Furthermore, several genes encoding antioxidant enzymes and contractile apparatus were induced. The expression levels of 233 novel transcripts were also altered in response to moderate exercise. Thus, moderate training at the LT is a sufficient stimulus to induce the expression of numerous genes implicated in the development of metabolic syndrome, transcripts involved in the contractile apparatus, and novel transcripts.

We report reliability test results for a fluoride fiber module. We developed a sealed fluoride fiber module for practical optical fiber amplifier use. Trouble-free damp heat storage and low-temperature storage for 5000 h and trouble-free temperature cycling and temperature-humidity cycling tests revealed that our fluoride fiber module has long-term stability under practical environmental conditions

The effect of the recovery speed of lubricant on the durability of particulate magnetic media is presented in this paper. The use of newly synthesized perfluoropolyethers (PEPEs) in particulate media allows us to evaluate the amount of surface lubricant and the migration by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The migration rate of the lubricant is evaluated as the change of the XPS peak area after argon etching to remove the surface lubricant. A recovery speed depends on the kind of lubricant and way of coating. Furthermore, lubricant of higher recovery speed has better stability of friction coefficient

Partial response channels, which recently have been applied to high-density recording, have a design based on linear channels. Since the high linear density signals of perpendicular magnetic recording are well represented as superpositioned isolated pulses, PR methods are suitable for use in perpendicular magnetic recording. Although we have found that superposition is not strictly valid at densities above 100 kFRPI, a newly developed ldquobilayered main-polerdquo type head is effective for remedying this problem. As a result, we have achieved data reading/writing at 200 kFRPI with an error rate of 10 -7

A new passive-alignment technique using Becke lines is proposed for assembling optical devices. Optical devices with a waveguide structure, such as planar lightwave circuits and laser diodes, have a core or active layer whose refractive index is slightly higher than that of the surrounding area. The Becke lines are diffractive stripes appearing at the boundary between materials having different refractive indices such as cores and the surroundings. For low-loss optical connection between the devices, their cores must be precisely aligned with each other. In our technique, the optical devices are aligned by observing the Becke lines located on both edges of the core, which make it possible to determine the exact core position. With this technique, optical devices can be precisely aligned without using the thin metal-film markers used for conventional passive alignment. The position of an optical waveguide was experimentally aligned by illuminating it with infrared (IR) light, observing the Becke lines with a video system and moving it with motor-driven stages. The positioning uncertainty was less than 0.2 mum, which is the same as the resolution of the video system used. This technique is thus practical for precisely assembling optical devices