Congenital lobar emphysema is often associated with CHD in early infancy; however, the surgical strategy for this condition is still controversial. We report three successful cases of emphysematous lung lobectomy before the surgical repair of associated CHD. Aggressive lobectomy preceding cardiac interventions is advised when the management of congenital lobar emphysema is difficult.

We present a 31 gestational weeks’ premature baby whose fetal echocardiogram showed ectopia cordis, single ventricle and severe pulmonary stenosis. At 31 gestational weeks, an emergency caesarean section was performed, and his birth weight was 1756 g, SpO2 was 80% on 100% O2. Epicardial echocardiogram showed double inlet right ventricle, severe valvular pulmonary stenosis and no ductus arteriosus. The risk of surgery was very high, so we decided to perform balloon valvuloplasty by direct puncture of the heart. We punctured the apex of the ventricle using a 16-gauge needle under echo guidance, advanced the guidewire to the pulmonary artery and performed balloon valvuloplasty. Soon after the procedure, the cyanosis improved dramatically. This is the first report of a transcatheter procedure performed by direct puncture of the heart for ectopia cordis with complex congenital heart disease.

In recent years, the discovery of massive quasars at $z\sim7$ has provided a striking challenge to our understanding of the origin and growth of supermassive black holes in the early Universe. Mounting observational and theoretical evidence indicates the viability of massive seeds, formed by the collapse of supermassive stars, as a progenitor model for such early, massive accreting black holes. Although considerable progress has been made in our theoretical understanding, many questions remain regarding how (and how often) such objects may form, how they live and die, and how next generation observatories may yield new insight into the origin of these primordial titans. This review focusses on our present understanding of this remarkable formation scenario, based on the discussions held at the Monash Prato Centre from November 20 to 24, 2017, during the workshop ‘Titans of the Early Universe: The Origin of the First Supermassive Black Holes’.

The accident of the TEPCO Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant occurred by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake on 11 Mar. 2011. It is estimated that totally 1.2-1.5x1016 Bq for 137Cs and 1.5-1.6x1017 Bq for 131I were released until the beginning of Apr. and those radionuclides (RN) were deposited on soil surface and forest etc. widely around Fukushima Pref. This work was carried out as one of the investigations for making the distribution maps of radiation dose rate and soil contaminated by RNs which the MEXT promotes. The Geoslicer investigation on the depth distribution of RNs in soil was performed after 3 months from the accident. The investigation was conducted at 11 locations in Nihonmatsu City, Kawamata Town and Namie Town, and soil samples of depth 50 cm to 1 m were taken. Both of 134Cs and 137Cs were detected in all investigated locations, and 129mTe and 110mAg were detected only in locations where radiation dose rates are high. At many locations investigated, radiocaesium more than 99 % distributed within a depth of 10 cm in soil in the surface layer. On the other hand, RNs tended to distribute to deeper part in soil at locations that are supposed to have been used as farmland than in soil in the surface layer, and radiocaesium more than 99 % in soil at locations that are supposed to have been used as farmland also distributed within a depth of around 14 cm. The apparent diffusion coefficients (Da) of RNs derived from penetration profiles near the surface layer showed a tendency to be higher in soil at locations that are supposed to have been used as farmland (Da=0.1-1.5x10-10 m2/s) than in soil in the surface layer (Da=0.65-4.4x10-11 m2/s), and most Da-values were nearly 10-11 m2/s. The distribution coefficients (Kd) by a batch method were in the range of Kd=2,000-61,000 ml/g for Cs and Kd=0.5-140 ml/g for I. Although the Kd-values are different between cation (Cs+) and anion (I-), the Da-values (134Cs, 137Cs, 129mTe and 110mAg) were similar levels. This is considered to be due to that the Da-values were controlled by dispersion by flow of rain water.

First-principles calculations have been applied to investigate the interactions between Ptn (n=1˜13) clusters and a graphene sheet to model the Pt/C fuel-cell catalytic electrode. For the small clustesr (n<7), planar configurations vertically adsorbed on graphene (V-2D) are more stable than the three-dimensional (3D) configurations. For the large clusters (n>7), the 3D clusters are more stable than the V-2D clusters. In order to investigate the effects of defects and dopants in a graphene sheet, the interactions between the Pt13 cluster and the graphene sheet with an atomic vacancy and an dopant atom, such as boron and nitrogen atoms have been examined. For the atomic vacancy, the Pt atom is directly adsorbed on the C atom vacant site. For the Pt13 cluster adsorbed on the graphene sheet doped with the B or N atoms, the Pt atom is not directly adsorbed on the impurity atoms. The adsorption of the Pt13 cluster above the vacancy of the graphene sheet is more stable that that on the doped graphene sheet in the present calculations.

The structure of Au-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles prepared by sonochemical technique was investigated by an analytical transmission electron microscopy. The core (Au)-shell (Pd) structure was clearly confirmed by the intensity profile of annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF-STEM). The line-scan analysis of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) in STEM mode also revealed the Au core-Pd shell structure. The selected area electron diffraction pattern from the Au-Pd nanoparticles indicated the possibility that the crystal lattice of Pd shell is expanded and coincident with the crystal lattice of Au core.

We examined atomic and electronic structures of Pt supported on graphene, using the first-principles calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT). First, we examined the interaction between graphene and a Pt(111) monolayer. The stable distance between graphene and the Pt-monolayer is 3.48Å and the adhesive energy is 0.09 eV/atom. The density of states (DOS) for the Pt(111)/graphene system is the same with the sum of respective DOS's of the graphene sheet and the Pt monolayer. These results indicate that the interaction between graphene and a Pt(111) monolayer is very weak. Second, we examined the interaction between graphene and a Pt atom. The Pt-C bond length is 2.31Å and the adsorption energy is 2.82 eV/adatom, which means the stronger interaction. Finally, we examined the interaction between graphene and a Pt cluster consisting of ten atoms. The distance between graphene and the bottom layer of the cluster is about 2.7Å, which is shorter than that between graphene and the Pt(111) monolayer. This shows that the interaction between the Pt10 cluster and graphene is stronger than the Pt-monolayer/graphene interaction. The center atom in the hexagonal bottom layer of the Pt cluster has the nearest distance with graphene of about 2.5Å. If there is a defect on graphene, the center atom of the hexagonal bottom layer strongly interacts with that.

InxGa1−xAs quantum dots in GaP(100) crystals prepared by the OMVPE technique are observed along the [011] direction with a newly developed 200-kV spherical aberration(Cs)-corrected HRTEM, a 200-kV annular dark-field (ADF)-STEM, and a 200-kV conventional HRTEM equipped with a thermal field-emission gun. The dots are 6–10 nm in size and strongly strained due to the misfit of about 9% with the GaP substrate and GaP cap layer. All of the cross-sectional high-resolution electron micrographs show dumbbell images of Ga and P atomic columns separated by 0.136 nm in well-oriented and perfect GaP areas, but the interpretable images are limited to those taken with the Cs-corrected HRTEM and ADF-STEM with Fourier filtering of the images. The Cs-corrected HRTEM and ADF-STEM are comparable from the viewpoint of interpretable resolution. A detailed comparison between the Cs-corrected HRTEM images and the simulated ones with electron incidence tilted by 1° to 5° from the [011] zone axis gives information on local lattice bending in the dots from the images around 0.1 nm resolution. This becomes one of the useful techniques newly available from electron microscopy with sub-Ångstrom resolution.

Mechanical properties of alumina-copper nano-coating interfaces have been studied by the first-principles calculations. We have applied the rigid-type first-principles tensile tests for O-rich (O-terminated) and stoichiometric (Al-terminated) interfaces and for back Cu1st-Cu2nd interlayers. The O-terminated interface is twice as strong as the Cu1st-Cu2nd interlayer whereas the Al-terminated interface is twice as weak as the Cu1st-Cu2nd interlayer. We have performed the fitting of interlayer potentials by universal binding-energy relation (UBER). The interlayer potential of the Cu-Al interface is well reproduced by UBER in whole region, although those of Cu-O interface and Cu1st-Cu2nd interlayer are partially reproduced.

The atomic and electronic structures of Au/TiO2(110) systems have been theoretically investigated based on the density functional theory. We have examined Au adsorption on the stoichiometric TiO2(110) surface and on the Ti-rich surface formed by the removal of bridging-oxygen atoms (VOB surface) and the O-rich surface formed by the removal of 6-fold titanium and bridging-oxygen atoms (VTi6OB surface). For the stoichiometric surface, the stable site for the Au adatom is the hollow site of one bridging-oxygen and two in-plane oxygen atoms or the on-top site above 5-fold titanium atom. For the Ti-rich VOB surface, the bridging site of 6-fold titanium atoms along [001] direction is the most stable. In addition, the vacant site of 6-fold titanium atom is the most stable for the O-rich VTi6OB surface. The adhesive energies between the Au adlayer and the TiO2 surface are larger for the non-stoichiometric surfaces than that for the stoichiometric surface. The charge transfer between the Au adatom and the substrate is small for stoichiometric surface. For the Ti-rich VOB surface, the electron transfer occurs from the 6-fold Ti to the Au, while from the Au to the in-plane oxygen for the O-rich VTi6OB surface. It can be said that the TiO2 surface conditions such as defects or non-stoichiometry strongly affect the adsorption energy and electron structure of the Au adsorbed system. This point should be closely related the catalytic property of the Au/TiO2 system.

This paper reviews recent progress in large-area a-Si/a-SiGe tandem solar cells in Sanyo. Much effort has been devoted to increasing both the stabilized efficiency and the process throughput. A key issue in increasing the stabilized efficiency is thinner i-layer structure with an improved optical confinement effect. High-rate deposition of the i-layers has been investigated using rf (13.56MHz) plasma-CVD method while keeping the substrate temperature below 200 °C. A high photosensitivity of 106 of a-Si:H films maintain up to the deposition rate (Rd) of 15 Å/s by optimizing hydrogen dilution and other deposition conditions. It is of great importance to utilize the effect of hydrogen dilution which can reduce the incorporation of excess hydrogen in the films. The world's highest conversion efficiency of 11.2% has been achieved for a large-area (8252cm2) a-Si/a-SiGe tandem by combining the optimized hydrogen dilution and other solar cell related technologies.

We have investigated the atomic and electronic structure of symmetric tilt boundaries in ZnO by a first-principles plane-wave pseudopotential method. Equilibrium boundary geometries with distorted- and dangling-bonds are obtained. Localized electronic states form mainly at the lower valence band and the bottom of the upper valence band owing to the bond disorder. However, the electronic states near the band gap are not significantly affected; deep states are not generated in the band gap. The small effects of the bond disorder on the electronic structure can be attributed to the band structure characteristic of ZnO.

Ab initio calculations of the polar interfaces between thin films of titanium and cubic silicon-carbide (SiC) have been performed by using the first-principles molecular dynamics method. Stable configurations, adhesive energies and Schottky-barrier height (SBH) for the Si-terminated and the C-terminated interfaces are obtained. The C-terminated interface has covalent C-Ti bonds, while the Si-terminated interface has shown metallic nature. Adhesive energy/SBH of the C-terminated interface is larger/smaller than that of the Si-terminated one, respectively. In order to examine a conventional SBH model, work functions of SiC slab with Si and with C surface and Ti slab have been calculated and SBHs have been estimated from the difference of work functions. In estimated SBHs between the interfaces, the relationship depend on the crystal orientation as (111) and (001).