Effects of Size and Distribution of Spheroidized Cementite on Void Initiation in the Punched Surface of Medium-Carbon Steel

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - In this study, we investigated the effects of the size and distribution of spheroidized cementite on the characteristics of a punched surface as well as...     

Laterally vibrating MEMS resonant vacuum sensor based on cavity-SOI process for evaluation of wide range of sealed cavity pressure

Microsystem Technologies - This paper reports a laterally vibrating MEMS resonant vacuum sensor which senses ambient pressure based on the squeeze-film damping effect. The single-anchored...     

Describing Upper-Body Motions Based on Labanotation for Learning-from-Observation Robots

We have been developing a paradigm that we call learning-from-observation for a robot to automatically acquire a robot program to conduct a series of operations, or for a robot to understand what to do, through observing humans performing the same operations. Since a simple mimicking method to repeat exact joint angles or exact end-effector trajectories does not work well because of the kinematic and dynamic differences between a human and a robot, the proposed method employs intermediate symbolic representations, tasks, for conceptually representing what-to-do through observation. These tasks are subsequently mapped to appropriate robot operations depending on the robot hardware. In the present work, task models for upper-body operations of humanoid robots are presented, which are designed on the basis of Labanotation. Given a series of human operations, we first analyze the upper-body motions and extract certain fixed poses from key frames. These key poses are translated into tasks represented by Labanotation symbols. Then, a robot performs the operations corresponding to those task models. Because tasks based on Labanotation are independent of robot hardware, different robots can share the same observation module, and only different task-mapping modules specific to robot hardware are required. The system was implemented and demonstrated that three different robots can automatically mimic human upper-body operations with a satisfactory level of resemblance.     

Compressed double-array tries for string dictionaries supporting fast lookup

A string dictionary is a basic tool for storing a set of strings in many kinds of applications. Recently, many applications need space-efficient dictionaries to handle very large datasets. In this paper, we propose new compressed string dictionaries using improved double-array tries. The double-array trie is a data structure that can implement a string dictionary supporting extremely fast lookup of strings, but its space efficiency is low. We introduce approaches for improving the disadvantage. From experimental evaluations, our dictionaries can provide the fastest lookup compared to state-of-the-art compressed string dictionaries. Moreover, the space efficiency is competitive in many cases.     

Identification of the Biosynthetic Gene Cluster for Himeic Acid A: A Ubiquitin‐Activating Enzyme (E1) Inhibitor in Aspergillus japonicus MF275

Himeic acid A, which is produced by the marine fungus Aspergillus japonicus MF275, is a specific inhibitor of the ubiquitin‐activating enzyme E1 in the ubiquitin–proteasome system. To elucidate the mechanism of himeic acid biosynthesis, feeding experiments with labeled precursors have been performed. The long fatty acyl side chain attached to the pyrone ring is of polyketide origin, whereas the amide substituent is derived from leucine. These results suggest that a polyketide synthase–nonribosomal peptide synthase (PKS‐NRPS) is involved in himeic acid biosynthesis. A candidate gene cluster was selected from the results of genome sequencing analysis. Disruption of the PKS‐NRPS gene by Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation confirms that HimA PKS‐NRPS is involved in himeic acid biosynthesis. Thus, the him biosynthetic gene cluster for himeic acid in A. japonicus MF275 has been identified.     

Analyzing the Boundary Thermal Resistance of Epitaxially Grown Fe<Subscript>2</Subscript>VAl/W Layers by Picosecond Time-Domain Thermoreflectance

To gain deep insight into the mechanism of phonon scattering at grain boundaries, we investigated the boundary thermal resistance by using picosecond pulsed-laser time-domain thermoreflectance for epitaxially grown W/Fe₂VAl/W films. By using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering, we prepared a series of the three-layer films whose Fe₂VAl thickness ranged from 1 nm to 37 nm. The fine oscillation of reflectivity associated with the top W layer clearly appeared in synchrotron x-ray reflectivity measurements, indicating a less obvious mixture of elements at the boundary. The areal heat diffusion time, obtained from the time-domain thermoreflectance signal in the rear-heating front-detection configuration, reduced rapidly in samples whose Fe₂VAl layer was thinner than 15 nm. The ～ 10% mismatch in lattice constant between Fe₂VAl and W naturally produced the randomly distributed lattice stress near the boundary, causing an effective increase of boundary thermal resistance in the thick samples, but the stress became homogeneous in the thinner layers, which reduced the scattering probability of phonons.     

Why would apparent κ linearly change with O/C? Assessing the role of volatility,solubility, and surface activity of organic aerosols

Correlations between O/C and cloud condensation nucleus activity, represented by κ, are a computationally efficient approach to estimate the impact of aerosol aging on cloud formation and climate; however, previously reported correlations between these two variables are empirical and vary widely in their slopes and extrapolations to high O/C values. This study proposes a theoretical framework that bridges elemental ratios, volatility, solubility, and κ. The framework estimates intrinsic κ based on molecular formulas of organics composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen that partition to condensed phase, and then it estimates apparent κ considering solubility distribution parameterized by O/C. This article applied the new framework to the two-dimensional volatility basis set (2D-VBS) and found that distribution of O/C and molecular size play key roles in determining apparent κ. For highly soluble organics, κ is dictated by gas-particle partitioning and it is unlikely for κ of organics to go beyond 0.3 in typical ambient organic material loadings. Sensitivity analysis showed that surface-active compounds are not likely to profoundly alter the overall trend within a reasonable range of surface activity. This framework provides a simple yet plausible explanation of why κ would and would not correlate with O/C; distributions of OA in the 2D-VBS as well as the presence of inorganic salts determine the trend. The framework opens up new opportunities to evaluate two-dimensional representations of organic aerosol aging using κ, a significant advancement from the current empirical linear fits to κ and O/C.

Copyright © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Pollution control of actual flue gas using pulsed power at a thermal power plant

There are several important environmental problems in the world. One of them is acid rain caused by combustion flue gases from thermal power plants, factories, and automobiles. Different kinds of gas discharges, such as surface discharge, dc and ac corona discharge, silent discharge, and electron beam controlled discharge, have been studied for the removal of NO_x and SO₂ from flue gases. The recent development of repetitive pulsed power generators gives the pulsed steamer corona discharges a chance of success in the removal of NO_x and SO₂. In this paper, the experimental results of NO_x and SO₂ removal by a repetitive pulse power generator are described. The actual flue gas at a thermal power plant was used. It is shown that about 90% of the NO was removed at a flow rate of 0.8 liters/min and a repetition rate of 7 pps. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 134(4): 28–35, 2001     

Improvement of inductive power collection in null-flux maglev system

In the superconducting maglev system it is important to develop a non-contact on-board power source without environmental pollution such as noise and exhaust gases; therefore, inductive power collection (IPC), which utilizes a harmonic magnetic field generated by ground coils in EDS, is being studied. However, alteration to a null-flux EDS that has a high drag ratio reduces the power collecting capacity in the IPC system. In addition, power collecting coils are located on the cryostat of the superconducting coil (SC), so eddy currents at the cryostat also reduce the power collecting capacity. Therefore, an exclusive SC type that locates the exclusive SCs and IPC and power collecting coils so as to face the upper and lower coils of ground coils, respectively, is examined; but we aim to improve the conventional type. After analyzing the influence of eddy currents at the cryostat in detail and improving the composition of the power collecting coil and cryostat, we found that the conventional type has the same capacity as the exclusive SC type. In order to prove the above-mentioned result, we measured the induced voltage of the new-type coils in a test run at Miyazaki test track and confirmed the output of this IPC system in a full-scale synthetic bench test with a PWM converter and magnetic field simulator. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Electr Eng Jpn, 122(2): 48–60, 1998     

Effect of a thin insulation film on thermal bubble‐triggered breakdown phenomena in liquid nitrogen

The effect of a thin insulation film on breakdown phenomena in liquid nitrogen in the presence of thermally induced bubbles is investigated with a cylinder‐to‐plane electrode. Bubbles were produced by a heater mounted in the cylinder, which is partially covered with an insulation film. The results show that the film's effect on the breakdown voltage is insignificant until a pore is formed on the film by a previous breakdown, but it becomes substantial after pore formation. The reduction rate in breakdown voltage after the pore formation depends on the gap length and heater power. The minimum breakdown voltage drops to the magnitude of the breakdown voltage in the gaseous phase at normal boiling temperature. The breakdown mechanism is discussed on the basis of bubble observation and numerical calculation of suspended‐bubble motion. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electgr Eng Jpn, 127(4): 18–28, 1999