Temperature and processing effects on lithium ion conductivity of solution-deposited lithium zirconium phosphate (LiZr2P3O12) thin films

Lithium zirconium phosphate (LiZr₂P₃O₁₂) thin films have been prepared on platinized silicon substrates via a chemical solution deposition approach with processing temperatures between 700°C and 775°C. Films that were subject to a single high-temperature anneal were found to crystallize at temperatures above 725°C. Crystallization was observed in films annealed after each deposited layer at 700°C and above. In both cases, grain size was found to increase with annealing temperature. Ion conductivity was found to increase with annealing temperature in singly annealed films. In per-layer annealed films ion conductivity was found to initially increase then decrease with increasing annealing temperature. A maximum ion conductivity of 1.6 × 10⁻⁶ S/cm was observed for the singly annealed 775°C condition, while a maximum ion conductivity of 5.8 × 10⁻⁷ S/cm was observed for the 725°C per-layer annealed condition. These results are consistent with an increasing influence of cross-plane, internal interface resistance and vapor phase carrier loss in the per-layer annealed samples. This work demonstrates that post-deposition processing methods can strongly affect the ion conducting properties of LiZr₂P₃O₁₂ thin films.     

Quenching stress in plasma sprayed coatings and its correlation with the deposit microstructure

Quenching stress arises within a thermally sprayed splat as its thermal contraction after solidification is constrained by the underlying solid. Dependence of the quenching stress in plasma-sprayed deposits of Ni-20Cr alloy and alumina on the substrate temperature during spraying was discussed in conjunction with the change in the nature of the interlamellar contact between splats. It was found by mercury intrusion porosimetry and observation of cross sections of impregnated deposits that the interlamellar contact is improved significantly by raising the substrate temperature during deposition from 200 to 600 °C. The positive dependence of the quenching stress on the substrate temperature in this temperature range was attributed to a stronger constraint against thermal contraction of sprayed splats after solidification due to the improved contact.     

A Modeling of Singing Voice Robust to Accompaniment Sounds and Its Application to Singer Identification and Vocal-Timbre-Similarity-Based Music Information Retrieval

This paper describes a method of modeling the characteristics of a singing voice from polyphonic musical audio signals including sounds of various musical instruments. Because singing voices play an important role in musical pieces with vocals, such representation is useful for music information retrieval systems. The main problem in modeling the characteristics of a singing voice is the negative influences caused by accompaniment sounds. To solve this problem, we developed two methods, accompaniment sound reduction and reliable frame selection. The former makes it possible to calculate feature vectors that represent a spectral envelope of a singing voice after reducing accompaniment sounds. It first extracts the harmonic components of the predominant melody from sound mixtures and then resynthesizes the melody by using a sinusoidal model driven by these components. The latter method then estimates the reliability of frame of the obtained melody (i.e., the influence of accompaniment sound) by using two Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) for vocal and nonvocal frames to select the reliable vocal portions of musical pieces. Finally, each song is represented by its GMM consisting of the reliable frames. This new representation of the singing voice is demonstrated to improve the performance of an automatic singer identification system and to achieve an MIR system based on vocal timbre similarity.      

Fabrication of particle-free thin films by laser ablation combined with an electron beam

Particle-free silicon and nickel thin films were successfully fabricated by laser-ablating a melted section of their target surface, which gives a high evaporation pressure at the melting point. The influence of direct evaporation from a melted target was reduced negligibly by melting the target only locally with a focused electron beam (e-beam) and increasing the laser frequency. The silicon films fabricated by the present method, pulse laser deposition of a partially molten target, were able to firmly adhere to the substrates and withstood steel needle scratching, unlike e-beam-evaporated films.     

A 63-mW H.264/MPEG-4 audio/visual codec LSI with module-wise dynamic Voltage/frequency scaling

A single-chip H.264 and MPEG-4 audio-visual LSI for mobile applications including terrestrial digital broadcasting system (ISDB-T / DVB-H) with a module-wise, dynamic voltage/frequency scaling architecture is presented for the first time. This LSI can keep operating even during the voltage/frequency transition, so there is no performance overhead. It is realized through a dynamic deskewing system and an on-chip voltage regulator with slew rate control. By the combination with traditional low power techniques such as embedded DRAM and clock gating, it consumes only 63 mW in decoding QVGA H.264 video at 15 frames/sec and MPEG-4 AAC LC audio simultaneously.     

Application of full-factorial design for optimization of the moisture determination in wheat flour using infrared scales

We studied the parameters that may affect the analysis of the moisture content in wheat flour using infrared scales. The parameters were studied by one-factor at a time methodology and then, by full-factorial design (2³). The best condition using infrared scales occurred at 120 °C, with a sample weight of 1.5 g and an exposure time to infrared radiation of 6 min. We observed the interaction effect between the three factors studied. The analysis time was 60 times lower than classical method. The optimized method for determination of the moisture content in wheat flour using infrared scales was validated to range between 9 and 17 %.     

Study of drive system for linear induction motor using magnetic energy recovery switch

This paper proposes a power supply suitable for driving linear induction motors. The power supply consists of a voltage source inverter (VSI) and a magnetic energy recovery switch (MERS). Circuit configuration and operation principles of the power supply are described. Power factor correction by MERS can increase the output power. Technical advantages of using MERS compared with increasing the rated voltage of VSI are discussed. Some experiments with a linear induction motor were conducted. The results confirm that MERS can reduce the capacity of the VSI or increase the output with the same VSI capacity. The number of devices and magnitude of losses are evaluated on a large‐scale drive system. A half‐bridge type of MERS is provided and discussed. The half‐bridge MERS mitigates disadvantages of using MERS. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 169(4): 65–74, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience. wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20832     

Determination of age-related changes in the morphological structure (sagging) of the human cheek using a photonumeric scale and three-dimensional surface parameters

The usefulness of the photo standard for evaluating skin sagging in the face, especially in the cheeks, was evaluated. A six-stage photo standard was prepared using photos of women aged 17-83-years-old at three magnification rates (136-188 women in each group). Based on this photo standard, scoring was performed using a six-grade scoring system by two specialists to obtain the consensus score. Scoring was also performed in parallel by five general observers. The degree of agreement between the two scores was evaluated by calculating the Kappa value. In each group, the Kappa value was 0.452-0.563, indicating moderate agreement. Thus, the photo standard may be useful for evaluating sagging. Based on the photo standard, a score of 2, at which sagging becomes detectable appeared at the age of 40 years. In parallel, 3D analysis of replicas around the cheek was performed to morphologically analyse age-related changes in sagging. When the depth parameter was compared between the nasolabial groove and the mouth corners, a higher value was observed in the nasolabial groove until the age of 40 years, but higher values were seen in the mouth corners thereafter. This may have been because sagging in the cheeks descends to the area around the mouth, resulting in reversion in the sWv value. These findings indicated that sagging in the cheeks becomes morphologically distinct in women in their forties.     

Seasonal changes of arsenic speciation in lake waters in relation to eutrophication

In this study, the influence of eutrophication on arsenic speciation in lake waters was investigated. Surface water samples (n = 1-10) were collected from 18 lakes in Japan during July 2007 and February 2008. The lakes were classified into mesotrophic (7 lakes) and eutrophic (11 lakes) based on the total phosphate (T-P) and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations in water column. Inorganic, methylated and ultraviolet-labile fractions of arsenic species were determined by combining hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry with ultraviolet irradiation. Organoarsenicals (mainly methylated and ultraviolet-labile fractions) comprised 30-60% of the total arsenic in most lakes during summer. On the other hand, inorganic arsenic species (As(III + V)) dominates (about 60-85%) during winter. The occurrence of ultraviolet-labile fractions of arsenic was higher in eutrophic lakes than those in mesotrophic lakes in both seasons. The concentration of dimethyl arsenic (DMAA) was high in eutrophic lakes during winter; and in mesotrophic lakes during summer. The results suggest that the conversion of As(III + V) to more complicated organoarsenicals occurred frequently in eutrophic lakes compared to that in mesotrophic lakes, which is thought to be the influence of biological activity in the water column. The distribution of arsenic species were well correlated with phosphate concentrations than those of Chl-a. This might be due to the competitive uptake of As(V) and phosphate by phytoplankton. The organoarsenicals (OrgAs)/As(V) ratio was higher at low phosphate concentration indicating that conversion of As(V) to OrgAs species was more active in phosphate-exhausted lakes with high phytoplankton density.