Template‐Free Fabrication of Mesoporous Alumina Nanospheres Using Post‐Synthesis Water‐Ethanol Treatment of Monodispersed Aluminium Glycerate Nanospheres for Molybdenum Adsorption

This work reports the template‐free fabrication of mesoporous Al₂O₃ nanospheres with greatly enhanced textural characteristics through a newly developed post‐synthesis “water‐ethanol” treatment of aluminium glycerate nanospheres followed by high temperature calcination. The proposed “water‐ethanol” treatment is highly advantageous as the resulting mesoporous Al₂O₃ nanospheres exhibit 2–4 times higher surface area (up to 251 m² g^?1), narrower pore size distribution, and significantly lower crystallization temperature than those obtained without any post‐synthesis treatment. To demonstrate the generality of the proposed strategy, a nearly identical post‐synthesis “water treatment” method is successfully used to prepare mesoporous monometallic (e.g., manganese oxide (MnO₂)) and bimetallic oxide (e.g., CuCo₂O₄ and MnCo₂O₄) nanospheres assembled of nanosheets or nanoplates with highly enhanced textural characteristics from the corresponding monometallic and bimetallic glycerate nanospheres, respectively. When evaluated as molybdenum (Mo) adsorbents for potential use in molybdenum‐99/technetium‐99m (⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc) generators, the treated mesoporous Al₂O₃ nanospheres display higher molybdenum adsorption performance than non‐treated Al₂O₃ nanospheres and commercial Al₂O₃, thereby suggesting the effectiveness of the proposed strategy for improving the functional performance of oxide materials. It is expected that the proposed method can be utilized to prepare other mesoporous metal oxides with enhanced textural characteristics and functional performance.     

Towards the appropriate human-centred information systems: A case study of the Japanese retail industry

The industries of Japan have developed by learning from Western industries, especially the USA, and by implementing many of their concepts and technologies. However, Japanese industries have often implemented these concepts and technologies in a very different way from the USA. For example, while the USA uses information systems in retail industries as a tool by which data are collected and analysed to control the market, in Japan this same technology is considered rather as a learning device to interpret the market. While in the USA the market is seen as a natural phenomenon capable of being controlled, the Japanese see it as an ambiguous phenomenon that is ever changing and is not capable of being controlled. Rather it is important to feel the change in the market itself.This paper introduces human centredness to the information system, and argues against modern rationalism, i.e. human versus technology, taking the case of use of POS data from the POS system (point of sale: a system that collects data on both the customer and goods sold by scanning bar codes that are attached to the surface of the goods) by the eminent Japanese retailer, Ito-Yokado. It emphasises an interactive concept of interaction between human and technology of the postmodern paradigm.     

A control method with pheromone information for a transport system

Since the control methods of a transport system between processing machines are specialized for each layout of the system, it is difficult to design prompt schedules and control logic for new complicated systems, especially in cases of machine faults or restructuring the system to modify the layout. In this article, we describe a multiagent transport control system which utilizes pheromone information. Each element of the system acts as an agent and estimates the appropriate path and time to drive out the products using information obtained by communication with other elements as well as pheromone information deposited on the tracks of the products.     

Fabrication of high hardness Ni mold with electroless nickel–boron thin layer

The nickel electroforming method using a high-concentration nickel sulfamate bath is commonly used to fabricate micro metal molds in the LIGA process; however, this method does not produce micro metal molds of sufficient hardness. One means of improving the hardness of micro metal molds made using the nickel electroforming method is to include additives in the nickel plating solution. Another method is nickel alloy plating or a similar technique. In this research, we used a nickel–boron (Ni–B) electroless alloy plating method to obtain a hard nickel plated film having hardness of 832 Hv. It was also ascertained that Ni–B electroless alloy plated film retains its high hardness even during heat treatment in conditions of 250°C for 1 h. To deal with the high stresses developed in high-hardness plated films, we proposed double-layer nickel electroforming. This method is covered and used on conventional nickel electroforming layer by high hardness micro mold. High hardness micro metal mold using double-layer was fabricated by nickel electroforming and Ni–B electroless alloy plating method.     

Multi agent architecture for dynamic incremental process planning in the flexible manufacturing system

Due to rapid changes of markets and pressures of competitions, industries are adopting their production ways to support diversity of customer’s needs and increase of new product developments. This paper deals with development of an agent-based architecture of dynamic systems for process planning in the manufacturing systems. In consideration of alternative manufacturing processes and machine tools, the process plans and the schedules of the manufacturing resources are generated incrementally and dynamically. A previously proposed negotiation protocol is customized and improved to generate suitable process plans for the target products real-timely and dynamically, based on the alternative manufacturing processes. The alternative manufacturing processes are presented by the process plan networks and the suitable process plans are searched and generated to cope with both the dynamic status and disturbances of the manufacturing systems. We initiatively combine the heuristic search algorithms of the process plan networks with the negotiation protocols, in order to generate suitable process plans.     

Implementation of a decision support system using an interactive large-scale high-resolution display

In this research, we propose and evaluate a decision support system using an interactive large-scale high-resolution display. This decision support system supports the summarization and decision-making of a large amount of disaster information during the occurrence of a large-scale natural disaster. Municipal employees at the disaster control headquarters can display disaster information on the large-scale display with a touch or flick on a laptop or tablet. To evaluate the operability, readability, functionality, and necessity of the decision support system, we surveyed 23 municipal employees in the disaster prevention division using a questionnaire. The system received a great evaluation in all the evaluation items.     

Slow eye movement as a possible predictor of reaction delays to auditory warning alarms in a drowsy state

In recently developed intelligent vehicles, warning alarms are often used to prompt avoidance behaviours from drivers facing imminent hazardous situations. However, when critical reaction delays to auditory stimulation are anticipated, the alarm should be activated earlier to compensate for such delays. It was found that reaction times to an auditory stimulus significantly increased in the presence of slow eye movement (SEM), which is known to occur frequently during the wake-sleep transition. The reaction delay could not be attributed to temporal effects such as fatigue and was invariant regardless of response effectors (finger or foot). Moreover, it was found that applied pedal force decreased immediately after an auditory stimulus interrupted SEM. Consequently, it was concluded that SEM can be a good predictor of reaction delays to auditory warning alarms when drivers are in a drowsy state. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: The present study demonstrated that simple auditory reaction time significantly increased when SEM emerged. In the design of vehicle safety systems using warning alarms to prompt avoidance behaviours from drivers, such reaction delays during SEM must be taken into account.     

A procedure to analyze surface profiles of the protein molecules visualized by quick-freeze deep-etch replica electron microscopy

Quick-freeze deep-etch replica electron microscopy gives high contrast snapshots of individual protein molecules under physiological conditions in vitro or in situ. The images show delicate internal pattern, possibly reflecting the rotary-shadowed surface profile of the molecule. As a step to build the new system for the "Structural analysis of single molecules", we propose a procedure to quantitatively characterize the structural property of individual molecules; e.g. conformational type and precise view-angle of the molecules, if the crystallographic structure of the target molecule is available. This paper presents a framework to determine the observed face of the protein molecule by analyzing the surface profile of individual molecules visualized in freeze-replica specimens. A comprehensive set of rotary-shadowed views of the protein molecule was artificially generated from the available atomic coordinates using light-rendering software. Exploiting new mathematical morphology-based image filter, characteristic features were extracted from each image and stored as template. Similar features were extracted from the true replica image and the most likely projection angle and the conformation of the observed particle were determined by quantitative comparison with a set of archived images. The performance and the robustness of the procedure were examined with myosin head structure in defined configuration for actual application.