New type of pressurized cultivation method providing oxygen for piezotolerant yeast

For efficient oxygen supply to pressurized culture, we developed a method using a highly pressurized membrane reactor with an air-saturated medium circulation system. The new method increased the cell growth of aerobic yeast approximately 20 folds larger than that in the case of using a conventional method.     

注氘低活化马氏体钢在电子辐照下的缺陷行为

低活化铁素体/马氏体(RAFM)钢被视为国际热核聚变反应堆以及聚变反应堆的第1壁候选结构材料之一,很多国家均在研究不同的RAFM钢,中国低活化马氏体(CLAM)钢的研究亦正在进行。核聚变会产生氢、氦、氘及氚,这些气体元素与辐照缺陷结合在一起,对材料的辐照性能会产生较大影响。本文对注氘后不同温度下的辐照后微观结构进行研究。试验利用日本北海道大学的JEOL-1300高压电子显微镜研究注氘CLAM钢从室温到873K在1250keV电子辐照下的微观结构变化。研究结果表明,在电子辐照下,注氘产生的缺陷团会出现消失和长大两种现象,意味着间隙型与空位型位错环在注氘过程中同时产生。并研究了注氘产生的空洞。     

Repeatedly foldable AMOLED display

In this study, a 5.9‐inch foldable active‐matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display was developed. A folding test was performed repeatedly. The display survived the folding test (100,000 folds) with a curvature radius of 2 mm. To protect an organic light emitting diode (OLED) against moisture, inorganic passivation layers are provided on the upper and lower sides of the flexible display. Using our transfer technology, high density passivation layers can be obtained. The measured water vapor transmission rate of the layer is 7 × 10^?6 g/m²?day or less, which improves OLED reliability. With these techniques, we have developed a book‐type display, which is repeatedly foldable like a book, and a tri‐fold display including a display area, which is foldable in three.     

Colored Fluorescent Silk Made by Transgenic Silkworms

Silk is a protein fiber used to weave fabrics and as a biomaterial in medical applications. Recently, genetically modified silks have been produced from transgenic silkworms. In the present study, transgenic silkworms for the mass production of three colors of fluorescent silks, (green, red, and orange) are generated using a vector originating from the fibroin H chain gene and a classical breeding method. The suitability of the recombinant silks for making fabrics is investigated by harvesting large amounts of the cocoons, obtained from rearing over 20 thousand silkworms. The application of low temperature and a weakly alkaline solution for cooking and reeling enables the production of silk fiber without loss of color. The maximum strain tolerated and Young's modulus of the fluorescent silks are similar to those of ordinary silk, although the maximum stress value of the recombinant silk is slightly lower than that of the control. Fabrics with fluorescent color are demonstrated using the recombinant silk, with the color persisting for over two years. The results indicate that large amounts of genetically modified silk can be made by transgenic silkworms, and the silk is applicable as functional silk fiber for making fabrics and for use in medical applications.     

Characteristics of fluoride adsorption onto aluminium(III) and iron(III) hydroxide flocs

The fluoride adsorption onto the hydroxide flocs of Al(III), Fe(III), or a mixture of the two was studied. The optimum pH was influenced by the flocs’ solubility and surface charge. Although the Al(III) hydroxide flocs had a maximum adsorption capacity at the equilibrium concentration of 8 mg-F/L, the two-stage adsorption process revealed that the mixture of the Al(III) and Fe(III) hydroxide flocs required the smallest adsorbent dose as the concentration changed from 40 to 8 mg-F/L. Thus, the simultaneous dosing of Al(III) and Fe(III) combined with a two-stage adsorption process appears to be an effective option for fluoride removal.     

Matrix influence on the piezoelectric properties of piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite exhibiting particle alignment

This study was addressed to the influence of an electric field strength applied at fabrication process and matrix properties, such as the dielectric constant and the Young's modulus, on “pseudo‐1‐3 piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite” in order to further enhance the piezoelectricity of that. The pseudo‐1‐3 piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite consists of linearly ordered piezoelectric ceramic particles in polymer material. Silicone gel, silicone rubber, urethane rubber, and poly‐methyl‐methacrylate, which exhibit different dielectric constants and Young's modulus, were used as matrices to evaluate the matrix influence. The piezoelectricity of the pseudo‐1‐3 piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite was evaluated using the piezoelectric strain constant d₃₃. The d₃₃ is one of the indices of the piezoelectric properties for piezoelectric materials. As a result, it was confirmed that d₃₃ of the pseudo‐1‐3 piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite increased with the increase of the electric filed strength applied at fabrication process, though, it reached a constant value at a certain strength value. Further it was confirmed that dielectric constant of the matrix had a small influence on d₃₃ of the pseudo‐1‐3 piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite, however, in case of matrix of lower Young's modulus, d₃₃ was increase. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41817.     

Psychological potential field and human eye fixation on binary line-drawing images: A comparative experimental study

Computational Visual Media - Quantitatively evaluating the psychological and perceptual effects of objects is an important issue, but is difficult. In cognitive studies, the psychological potential...     

A control law for vehicle merging inspired by dragonfly behavior

Autonomous control of vehicles has recently attracted considerable attention. In this sense, vehicle merging has become an important topic in this field of research. However, in conventional studies, the controlled vehicle must calculate the movement of other surrounding vehicles to complete the merge, requiring high computational costs. In this paper, we focus on dragonfly behavior to solve this issue. Indeed, insects can behave adaptively in the complex real world in spite of the limited size of their brains. They reduce the computational requirements of their brain by relying on different properties of their surroundings, basing their intelligent behaviors on simple strategies. The behavior of a dragonfly when chasing a prey is an example of these strategies. In this study, we address the vehicle merging maneuver by applying dragonfly’s strategies to control the movement of the merging vehicle. We propose a simple control method inspired by the aforementioned strategies and, finally, we present simulation results that were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this method.     

Minor role of fractographic features in basic fatigue crack propagation properties

The fatigue crack propagation rate and the fatigue threshold were investigated for transverse-butt-welded joints of the austenitic stainless steel SUS304. Specimens were of the center-cracked type. In three sets of tests the fatigue crack passed through the weld metal, and in the other two sets, through the base metal. The fatigue crack propagation properties coincided with each other at different stress ratios for the weld metal, and at the higher stress ratios for the base metal. The propagation properties improved at the stress ratio of zero for the base metal. The absence of a stress ratio effect means that the coincided properties are basic ones in which fatigue crack closure does not occur. However, fractographic appearance and surface roughness were quite different between weld metal and base metal. The coincidence of fatigue crack propagation properties in spite of the difference in fractographic features reveals that the fractographic appearance and surface roughness only have a minor effect on basic fatigue crack propagation behaviour.     

Dynamic load balancing among multiple fabrication lines through estimation of minimum inter-operation time

We propose a load balancing method which balances all processing operations of products among multiple semiconductor wafer fabrication lines (fabs) by using predictive scheduling results. Through a simulation experiment we confirmed that the proposed method enabled improved load balancing (compared to conventional methods) among multiple fabrication lines each of which can independently fabricate wafers and has different wafer processing capacity. The load balancing feature effectively reduces the waiting time at each process step and the lead time of all products in multiple fabs. Another promising application of the proposed method is performance evaluation of automated material handling systems (AMHS) in terms of inter-operation time, and we have used the method to evaluate the transportation efficiency of actual fabs.