We conducted a preintervention–postintervention study to assess the effectiveness of a multimodal approach to reduce unnecessary urethral catheters in 5 Japanese intensive care units. After the intervention urethral catheter point prevalence decreased by 18%, from 79% preintervention to 61% postintervention, and catheter appropriateness increased by 28%, from 57% preintervention to 85% postintervention.

Ice originating near the inland ice divide of the ice sheet can reappear as marginal ice at the surface near the ice terminal in the ablation area. We have analyzed δ18O values and ion concentrations of the Skallen, Skarvsnes and Hamna terminal ice sections, located along the estuary line in the Sôya drainage basin, East Antarctica. The data suggest that the upper part of the Skallen terminal ice section could have originated from inland precipitation on the Shirase drainage basin during marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e, while the upper part of Skarvsnes and Hamna terminal ice sections could have originated from inland precipitation on the Sôya drainage basin. We calculate past elevation maps for the Antarctic ice sheet using the three-dimensional model, SICOPOLIS. This model suggests that the upstream portion of the Sôya drainage basin during the glacial period (MIS 2, 3 or 4) was located to the northeast of its present location. A flow history is proposed wherein ice from the inland Shirase drainage area flowed over the present ice-divide line from the Shirase to the Sôya drainage basin during the glacial period. The ice in the Sôya drainage basin then flowed to the marginal part of the sheet after the ice divide had assumed its present position.

We have detected [C I] 3P1–3P0 emissions in the gaseous debris disks of 49 Ceti and β Pictoris with the 10 m telescope of the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment, which is the first detection of such emissions. The line profiles of [C I] are found to resemble those of CO(J=3–2) observed with the same telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. This result suggests that atomic carbon (C) coexists with CO in the debris disks, and is likely formed by the photodissociation of CO. Assuming an optically thin [C I] emission with the excitation temperature ranging from 30 to 100 K, the column density of C is evaluated to be (2.2 ± 0.2) × 1017 and (2.5 ± 0.7) × 1016 cm−2 for 49 Ceti and β Pictoris, respectively. The C/CO column density ratio is thus derived to be 54 ± 19 and 69 ± 42 for 49 Ceti and β Pictoris, respectively. These ratios are higher than those of molecular clouds and diffuse clouds by an order of magnitude. The unusually high ratios of C to CO are likely attributed to a lack of H2 molecules needed to reproduce CO molecules efficiently from C. This result implies a small number of H2 molecules in the gas disk; i.e., there is an appreciable contribution of secondary gas from dust grains.

The magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of the bulk hcp Co under mechanical deformation is calculated by ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations based on the projector augmented wave method. We present a thorough investigation with respect to the choice of exchange-correlation functionals. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) succeeds in predicting the easy axis of magnetization but underestimates the MAE in comparison to the experimental value, whereas the local density approximation gives a wrong magnetic easy axis. The DFT+U method offers an alternative to increase the MAE value. Unfortunately, as the MAE reaches the experimental value, strong distortions of the lattice parameters are observed. Our results with GGA suggest that a simultaneous reduction of the c/a ratio and increase of the lateral lattice parameter a will strongly enhance the MAE of the material, as observed experimentally. We also found that the MAE in hcp Co is reduced by shear strain.

We have examined how the morphology of the trench sidewall evolves in the early phase of hydrogen annealing under the two conditions of hydrogen pressures. A distinguished result was obtained concerning the sidewall surface morphology after 30 s annealing at 1000 °C under 760 Torr hydrogen ambient. The evanescence of chemical Si dioxide formed by RCA cleaning process was clearly observed to initiate in various places on the surface. And in the area without chemical oxide, the appearance of atomic steps was also observed. In contrast under 40 Torr hydrogen ambient, the chemical oxide was completely removed even after 30 s annealing. Our observation shows that not only the rate of trench shape transformation but also the rate of removal of oxide films decreases with increasing hydrogen pressure.

A nongraphitizable carbon prepared from the cross-linked petroleum pitch and carbonized at 1473 K was found to have a unique structure and a charge capacity of more than 600 Ah/kg. A main peak of the 7Li Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectra of the charged carbon shifted downfield with an increase of charge capacity. A Knight shift of lithium in the carbon charged to 600 Ah/kg reached 110 ppm when LiCl was used as the reference of 0 ppm. This shift was clearly distinguished from that of the lithium state in the first stage of the graphite intercalation compound, because the latter was observed at 45 ppm. A modified extended Hükel molecular orbital calculation showed that the average net electron density on lithium atoms drastically increased with increasing concentration of lithium atoms if the aromatic molecular planes are more than 0.5 nm apart. Both the experimental and theoretical results suggest that lithium atoms form clusters in this nongraphitizable carbon.

Static and dynamic scaling behavior in copper electrochemical deposition in the stable growth condition (non-bulk fractal growth) was studied by atomic force microscopy and numerical simulation. We found two distinct scaling regimes with roughness exponent α of 0.6 and 0.87α0.05 corresponding to the concentrations of the “brightener” organic additive higher and lower than 1 mℓ/ℓ, respectively. The rms surface width of the whole measured area of the surfaces in the former regime was smaller than that in the latter regime. For the latter rougher surface, we observed dynamic scaling behavior for longer length scales as well as the stationary scaling behavior for shorter length scales: surface width did not further increase with linear size of the area for longer length scales than a characteristic correlation length and increased as a power of deposition time with the dynamic exponent β of 0.45. The sum of α + (α/β) was larger than the value expected for KPZ local growth, 2. This was understood that in electrochemical deposition there is enhancement of growth at protrusions owing to non-local Laplacian field effect. The smoother (α =0.6) and the rougher (0.87) surfaces were reproduced by numerical solutions of KPZ + (the growth term proportional to height) for the shorter and the longer growth times, respectively. Bifurcation of the surface morphology is understood as a result of decrease of weight of the additional term owing to increase of the additive.

The morphology of SiO2/Si interfaces in a semiconductor LOCOS active area grown by several oxidation conditions has been studied, to compare the roughness of the interfaces observed by STM and HRTEM in particular. Samples consisted of typical MOS structures with a polysilicon gate/SiO2/Si(100). Hydrogen terminated Si surfaces were prepared by means of HF dipping for STM observations. The interface roughness of a “dry” oxide observed by HRTEM was slightly larger than that of a “wet” oxide. Good agreement could be found between STM and HRTEM for the wet oxide interfaces. As for the dry oxide interface, it was more difficult to obtain a reproducible STM image than for the wet oxide interface, but the reverse was true for HRTEM. During the HRTEM, high energy electrons damage the sample and reduce the oxide thickness, especially in the wet oxide samples.

In this article, the formation of superconducting compounds through structure transition of metallic glasses at high pressure high temperature are emphasized, and investigations on structure transition of metallic glasses made of niobiun alloys and lanthanun alloys are summarized.

Let Ω be the set of symbols 1,2,..., n. Let be a doubly transitive group on Ω of order 6n(n — 1) not containing a regular normal subgroup and let be the stabilizer of the set of symbols 1 and 2.