Effect of Vacancy Distribution on the Thermal Conductivity of Ga<Subscript>2</Subscript>Te<Subscript>3</Subscript> and Ga<Subscript>2</Subscript>Se<Subscript>3</Subscript>

Our group has focused attention on Ga₂Te₃ as a natural nanostructured thermoelectric material. Ga₂Te₃ has basically a zincblende structure, but one-third of the Ga sites are structural vacancies due to the valence mismatch between Ga and Te. It has been confirmed that (1) vacancies in Ga₂Te₃ exist as two-dimensional (2D) vacancy planes, and (2) Ga₂Te₃ exhibits an unexpectedly low thermal conductivity (κ), most likely due to highly effective phonon scattering by the 2D vacancy planes. However, the effect of the size and periodicity of the 2D vacancy planes on κ has been unclear. In addition, it has also been unclear whether only the 2D vacancy planes reduce κ or if point-type vacancies can also reduce κ. In the present study, we tried to prepare Ga₂Te₃ and Ga₂Se₃ with various vacancy distributions by controlling annealing conditions. The atomic structures of the samples were characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy, and κ was evaluated from the thermal diffusivity measured by the laser flash method. The effects of vacancy distributions on κ of Ga₂Te₃ and Ga₂Se₃ are discussed.     

基于虚拟曝光图像的立体高动态范围图像合成算法

本文提出基于多视点多曝光图像的立体高动态范围图像合成算法。首 先,考虑多视点多曝光 图像以及相机响应函数曲线的特性,提出一种虚拟曝光图像绘制算法,将不同曝光的图像绘 制到同一视点;然后, 为了使绘制曝光图像保留更多细节和结构,需要对绘制虚拟曝光图像进行空洞填补及边缘修 复,故引入了边缘差值 掩膜图,对图像边缘信息进行校正平滑处理;最后利用绘制的虚拟曝光图像合成立体高动态 范围图像。实验结果表 明,获得的绘制曝光图像与参考曝光视点图像之间的结构相似性高达0.99以上,且合成的 高动态范围图像质量高。     

基于整体退火遗传算法的低功耗极性转换

针对n变量逻辑函数在不同极性下所对应REED-MULLER(RM)电路功耗和面积不问的特点,对信号几率传递算法、多输入XOR/AND(异或/与)门的低功耗分解算法和多成份极性转换算法进行了深入研究,成功地将整体退火遗传算法(whole annealing genetic algorithm,WAGA)应用于RM电路最佳极件的搜索.通过对8个MCNC Benchmark测试表明,算法搜索到的最佳极性,其所对应RM电路的SYNOPSYS综合结果,与极性0时相比,功耗、面积和最大延时的平均节省分别达到了77.2%,62.4%和9.2%.     

Balancing the corrosion resistance and through-plane electrical conductivity of Cr coating via oxygen plasma treatment

Developing an electrically conductive and corrosion-resistant coating is essential for metal bipolar plates of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs). Although enhanced corrosion resistance was seen for Cr coated stainless steel(Cr/SS) bipolar plates, they experience a quick decrease of through-plane electrical conductivity due to the formation of a porous and low-conductive corrosion product layer at the plate surface, thus leading to an increase in interfacial contact resistance(ICR). To tackle this issue, the multilayer Cr coatings were deposited using the magnetron sputtering with a remote inductively coupled oxygen plasma(O-ICP) in the present study. After the O-ICP treatment, a Cr oxide layer(Cr O*) is formed on the specimen surface. The Cr O*/Cr/SS has a remarkably lower stable corrosion rate(iss) than that of the native Cr oxides(Cr On/Cr/SS). Compared with Cr On/Cr/SS, the excellent performance of Cr O*/Cr/SS is attributed to a denser and thicker surface layer of Cr O* with Cr being oxidized to its highest valence state,Cr(VI). More importantly, the through-plane electrical conductivity of the specimens treated by the optimized O-ICP decreases much slowly than Cr On/Cr/SS and thus, the increament of ICR of Cr O*/Cr/SS after the potentiostatic polarization test is considerably smaller than that of Cr On/Cr/SS, which is benefited from the reduced issthat mitigates the deposition of corrosion products and hinders further oxidation of Cr coating. Therefore, Cr O*/Cr/SS proves to be a well balanced trade-off between corrosion resistance and through-plane electrical conductivity. The results of this study demonstrate that O-ICP treatment on a conductive metal coating is an effective strategy to improve the corrosion resistance and suppress the increase of ICR over the long-term polarization. The technique reported herein exhibits its promising potential application in preparing corrosion resistant and electrically conductive coatings on metal bipolar plates to be used in PEMFCs.     

Robustness of linearly solvable Markov games employing inaccurate dynamics model

As a model-based reinforcement learning technique, linearly solvable Markov decision process (LMDP) gives an efficient way to find an optimal policy by making the Bellman equation linear under some assumptions. Since LMDP is regarded as model-based reinforcement learning, the performance of LMDP is sensitive to the accuracy of the environmental model. To overcome the problem of the sensitivity, linearly solvable Markov game (LMG) has been proposed, which is an extension of LMDP based on the game theory. This paper investigates the robustness of LMDP- and LMG-based controllers against modeling errors in both discrete and continuous state-action problems. When there is a discrepancy between the model used for building the control policy and dynamics of the tested environment, the LMG-based control policy maintained good performance while that of the LMDP-based control policy deteriorated drastically. Experimental results support the usefulness of LMG framework when acquiring an accurate model of the environment is difficult.     

DECODING A VCR CONTROLLER CODE

The VCR Plus+ is a remote control for programming video cassette recorders. It uses an encrypted 1 to 8 digit number that encodes the channel, start time, length, and day of the month of the television show to be recorded. This paper describes a procedure for decoding the 1 to 6 digit codes.     

Gourdron theory: revealing synthetically the masses for biological molecular particles of DNA and proteins and abiological particles of quarks and leptons

In the present report, we examine whether or not there are similar and different characteristics between biological molecular particles and non-living ones such as quark and leptons. While the Newton, Schrodinger, and Boltzmann equations and elementary particle theories describe only a narrow range of scales, the present statistic-fluid dynamic theory having only one arbitrary constant synthetically reveals masses as well as frequencies of various particles of quarks, leptons, W–Z bosons, Higgs boson, plank mass, hadrons, atoms, biological molecules, liquid droplets, living cells, biological organs, and stars. This is possible because each flexible particle is commonly generated by a mode in which a larger particle breaks up into two smaller ones through a gourd shape (gourdron) with two lumps rather than strings. These masses and frequencies dominated by the super-magic numbers, including the asymmetrically golden and symmetrically yamato ratios, can be derived by a quasi-stability principle weaker than neutral stability. The primordial mechanism underlying various types of symmetry breaking and the natural four forces including gravity is also revealed by this theory.     

Specific Polyphenols and Tannins are Associated with Defense Against Insect Herbivores in the Tropical Oak Quercus oleoides

The role of plant polyphenols as defenses against insect herbivores is controversial. We combined correlative field studies across three geographic regions (Northern Mexico, Southern Mexico, and Costa Rica) with induction experiments under controlled conditions to search for candidate compounds that might play a defensive role in the foliage of the tropical oak, Quercus oleoides. We quantified leaf damage caused by four herbivore guilds (chewers, skeletonizers, leaf miners, and gall forming insects) and analyzed the content of 18 polyphenols (including hydrolyzable tannins, flavan-3-ols, and flavonol glycosides) in the same set of leaves using high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Foliar damage ranged from two to eight percent per region, and nearly 90% of all the damage was caused by chewing herbivores. Damage due to chewing herbivores was positively correlated with acutissimin B, catechin, and catechin dimer, and damage by mining herbivores was positively correlated with mongolinin A. By contrast, gall presence was negatively correlated with vescalagin and acutissimin B. By using redundancy analysis, we searched for the combinations of polyphenols that were associated to natural herbivory: the combination of mongolinin A and acutissimin B had the highest association to herbivory. In a common garden experiment with oak saplings, artificial damage increased the content of acutissimin B, mongolinin A, and vescalagin, whereas the content of catechin decreased. Specific polyphenols, either individually or in combination, rather than total polyphenols, were associated with standing leaf damage in this tropical oak. Future studies aimed at understanding the ecological role of polyphenols can use similar correlative studies to identify candidate compounds that could be used individually and in biologically meaningful combinations in tests with herbivores and pathogens.