Blue-green emitted barium silicate phosphors, Ba4Si6O16:Eu2+ and Ba5Si8O21:Eu2+, were prepared by a conventional solid-state reaction. In these hosts, the corner-sharing [SiO4] tetrahedral formed a chain framework structure. These silicate phosphors can be efficiently excited by n-UV light, yielding an intense blue-green emission. Under excitation by near UV light, the emission bands are broader than that of the Ba2SiO4:Eu2+ phosphor.

A new drying-induced forming (DIF) of ceramics has been developed using high solid-loaded alumina slurries with addition of glycerol, in which the slurry was simply dried in an open mold at the ambient condition. The drying-induced forming approach is facilitated by the high stability of concentrated slurries during drying where glycerol was added to maximize the critical solid loading and play simultaneously as a drying control agent. The drying and rheological behaviors of slurries were examined with respect to the glycerol addition. A slurry of 60 vol% solid loading with 20 wt% glycerol addition was chosen for the drying induced forming test. The green samples exhibited no bending or cracks, and a small degree of shrinkage anisotropy during sintering. The sintered samples showed a high relative density of 99.2% and an average strength of 420 MPa. We demonstrate here a possibility of producing near-net-shaped and bulk ceramic components in a simple scheme by using the drying-induced approach.

Findings on CT and demographical or clinical data in 80 patients with DSM–III schizophrenia and 45 medical controls were evaluated. Multiple-discriminant analysis showed that the enlargement of the third ventricle and frontal and parietal atrophy could significantly predict the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Widening of Sylvian fissures and parietal atrophy differentiated familial schizophrenics of both horizontal transmission (who had affected siblings) and vertical transmission (who had affected parents or/and offspring) from non-familial patients. Parietal atrophy and a history of birth complications differentiated horizontal from vertical transmission. The CT findings together with some clinical characteristics could differentiate the three subgroups classified by the hereditary form; thus each of these subgroup may belong to a different disease entity, of a different pathophysiology.

The low-temperature magnetoresistance of PtSi thin wires of varying width, prepared with different mask elements (Cu and Ni) in the reactive ion beam etching, has been studied, to determine the width dependence of the physical parameters in the weak localization. A drastic decrease of the magnetic impurity scattering time τs and that of the superconducting transition temperature Tc have been found for the wires prepared by Ni mask with narrowing width, which suggests that the phase coherence of diffusing electrons responsible for the weak localization and the superconductivity are strongly affected by the presence of a small amount of Ni impurities recoil implanted into the surface region of the sidewalls of wires.