Model of combustion and dispersion of carbon deposited on porous bed material during bubbling fluidized bed combustion

Porous bed materials capture volatile matter as carbon deposits during fluidized bed combustion of high-volatile fuels such as biomass and wastes. Carbon deposits burn in a dense bed mixed with bed materials; thereby enhancing horizontal dispersion of carbonaceous materials. Commercial scaling-up requires a model that simultaneously assesses carbon deposit combustion and horizontal solid dispersion. This study measured the carbon deposit combustion rate using a fluidized bed. A one-dimensional model of carbon deposit combustion in a fluidized bed is based on the carbon deposit burning rate. A two-dimensional model incorporates reactions and solid dispersion to predict the horizontal concentration profile. Experiments using a bubbling fluidized bed validated that model.     

Laser direct joining between stainless steel and polyethylene terephthalate plastic and reliability evaluation of joints

Metals and plastics have been widely used in industrial applications, and joining of a metal to a plastic is necessary and important from a manufacturing viewpoint. Therefore, we have developed laser-assisted metal and plastic (LAMP) joining as an innovative rapid laser direct joining without adhesives or glues. In this research, the joining between a Type 304 stainless steel plate of 3 mm thickness and a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic sheet of 2 mm thickness was exploited at several travelling speeds with a diode laser beam of line profile at 170 W power. The joints of 30 mm in width possessed extremely strong tensile shear loads of approximately 3000 N at the maximum. Transmission electron microscope photographs of the joints demonstrated that Type 304 and PET were bonded together on the atomic or molecular level through a Cr oxide film of stainless steel. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis indicated the possibility of chemical bonding between hydrocarbon and metal through oxygen. Concerning reliability evaluation for the LAMP joints, some joints could have high shear tensile loads of approximately 3000 N even after heat cycle test and show superior air-tightness in helium leak test. Consequently, it was confirmed that the LAMP joining of SUS304 and PET plates could produce a sound joint of high strength, nanostructural binding through the oxide film and fundamental reliability for practical use.     

The Application of Phase-only Filters to Optical Interconnects and Pattern Recognition

Abstract

We have recently developed a new type of liquid-crystal spatial light-modulator which acts as a phase-only spatial light-modulator for coherent light. The use of this device as a flexible filter in the Fourier plane of an optical correlation system is described, and it is shown how it may also be used as a flexible interconnect capable of simultaneously providing continuous amplitude and binary phase modulation.     

A comparative study and phage typing of silage-making Lactobacillus bacteriophages

To investigate basic characteristics of 10 virulent phages active on silage-making lactobacilli, morphological properties, host ranges, protein composition and genome characterization were separated into five groups based on host ranges and basic properties. The seven phages of groups I, II and V were active on Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus pentosus. Phage phiPY4 (group III) infected both L. casei and Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Phage phiPY5 (group IV) specifically infected Lactobacillus casei. Morphologically, three phages of groups I belonged to the Myoviridae family, while seven other phages of groups II, III and V belonged to the Siphoviridae family. SDS-PAGE profiles, restriction analysis, G + C contents of DNA and Dot blot hybridization revealed a high degree of homology in each group. Clustering derived from host range analysis was closely related to results of DNA and protein analyses. These phages may be applicable to phage typing for silage-making lactobacilli.     

Flow cytometric evaluation of nanoparticles using side-scattered light and reactive oxygen species-mediated fluorescence-correlation with genotoxicity

We recently clarified that the side-scatter(ed) light (SSC) of flow cytometry (FCM) could be used as a guide to measure the uptake potential of nanoparticles [ Suzuki et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007 , 41 , 3018 - 3024 ]. In this paper, the method was improved so as to be able to determine simultaneously the uptake potential of nanoparticles and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and correlations with genotoxicity were evaluated. In the FCM analysis, SSC and fluorescence of 6-carboxy-2,7'-diclorodihydrofluorescein diacetate, di(acetoxy ester) based on ROS production were concurrently detected after treatments with ZnO, CuO, Fe(3)O(4), TiO(2), and Ag nanoparticles. The ZnO and CuO nanoparticles caused high ROS production, which was more significant in the cells with higher SSC intensity. The increase of SSC intensity was more significant for TiO(2) than ZnO and CuO, whereas ROS production was higher for ZnO and CuO than TiO(2), suggesting that the extent of ROS production based on the uptake of nanoparticles differed with each kind of nanoparticle. ROS production was correlated with generation of the phosphorylated histone H2AX (γ-H2AX), a marker of DNA damage, and an antioxidant, n-acetylcysteine, could partially suppress the γ-H2AX. This method makes it possible to predict not only uptake potential but also genotoxicity.     

Four‐segment oscillator circuit for piezoelectric sensing devices

Novel circuit design is proposed for a low‐frequency quartz crystal oscillator circuit that consists of four segments. The characteristics of the negative resistance in a low‐frequency Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)‐inverter quartz oscillator were reviewed for the two modes of SC (stress‐compensated) cut mode and the overtone of low‐frequency mode; separation of two modes and suppression of overtone oscillation were demonstrated successfully. Experimental results and an estimate of the absolute value of the negative resistance are presented for the four‐segment oscillator circuit and the conventional Colpitts circuit and two new types of oscillator circuits. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Effect of addition of Tween 80 and potassium dihydrogenphosphate to basal medium on the isolation of marine eukaryotes, thraustochytrids

Tween 80, KH(2)PO(4) and tomato juice were added to basal medium for the isolation of thraustochytrids. By the addition of Tween 80 and KH(2)PO(4), the number of thraustochytrids isolated from seawater increased. KH(2)PO(4) and Tween 80 were considered to be useful for isolating thraustochytrids.     

Using Decision Trees to Construct a Practical Parser

This paper describes a novel and practical Japanese parser that uses decision trees. First, we construct a single decision tree to estimate modification probabilities; how one phrase tends to modify another. Next, we introduce a boosting algorithm in which several decision trees are constructed and then combined for probability estimation. The constructed parsers are evaluated using the EDR Japanese annotated corpus. The single-tree method significantly outperforms the conventional Japanese stochastic methods. Moreover, the boosted version of the parser is shown to have great advantages; (1) a better parsing accuracy than its single-tree counterpart for any amount of training data and (2) no over-fitting to data for various iterations. The presented parser, the first non-English stochastic parser with practical performance, should tighten the coupling between natural language processing and machine learning.     

A self-learning digital neural network using wafer-scale LSI

A large-scale, dual-network architecture using wafer-scale integration (WSI) technology is proposed. By using 0.8 μm CMOS technology, up to 144 self-learning digital neurons were integrated on each of eight 5 in silicon wafers. Neural functions and the back-propagation (BP) algorithm were mapped to digital circuits. The complete hardware system packaged more than 1000 neurons within a 30 cm cube. The dual-network architecture allowed high-speed learning at more than 2 gigaconnections updated per second (GCUPS). The high fault tolerance of the neural network and proposed defect-handling techniques overcame the yield problem of WSI. This hardware can be connected to a host workstation and used to simulating a wide range of artificial neural networks. Signature verification and stock price prediction have already been demonstrated with this hardware