Acquisition of optimal attribute subset through genetic algorithm using GNP‐based class association rule mining

Attribute selection is a technique to prune less relevant information and discover high‐quality knowledge. It is especially useful for the classification of a large database, because the preprocessing of data increases the possibility that predictor attributes given to the mining algorithm become more relevant to the class attribute. In this paper, a method to acquire the optimal attribute subset for the genetic network programming (GNP) based class association rule mining has been proposed, and this attribute selection process using genetic algorithm (GA) leads to a higher accuracy for classification. Class association rule mining through GNP is conducted with a small subset of data rather than the original large number of attributes; thus simple but important rules are obtained for classification while the local optimal problem is avoided. Simulation results with educational data show that the classification accuracy is largely improved from 52.73 to 74.54%, when classification is made using the optimal attribute subset. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Diamines prevent thermal aggregation and inactivation of lysozyme

Protein aggregation is a major obstacle in both biological applications and biomedical fields involving proteins. In this study, we investigated the essential structure of small additives that function as chemical chaperones. Aggregation-suppressing competent additives were 1,3-diaminopropane, 1,4-diaminobutane, and 1,5-diaminopentane, which suppressed aggregation in the given order; whereas no diols or monoamines prevented the thermal aggregation and the inactivation of lysozyme. The heat-inactivation rate of lysozyme with 1,3-diaminopropane was almost identical to that of lysozyme with spermine and arginine ethylester, which are the most prominent additives reported yet.     

Correlation of optical emission and turbulent length scale in a coaxial jet diffusion flame

This article investigates the correlation between optical emission and turbulent length scale in a coaxial jet diffusion flame. To simulate the H₂O emission from an H₂/O₂ diffusion flame, radiative transfer is calculated on flame data obtained by numerical simulation. H₂O emission characteristics are examined for a one-dimensional opposed-flow diffusion flame. The results indicate that H₂O emission intensity is linearly dependent on flame thickness. The simulation of H₂O emission is then extended to an H₂/O₂ turbulent coaxial jet diffusion flame. Time series data for a turbulent diffusion flame are obtained by Large Eddy Simulation, and radiative transfer calculations are conducted on the LES results to simulate H₂O emission optical images. The length scales of visible structures in the simulated emission images are determined by the procedure proposed by Ivancic and Mayer (2002) [8]. The length scales of emission intensity are compared with the integral length scales of velocity and temperature evaluated from LES flowfield data. The results clearly indicate that the length scale of emission intensity agrees well with the integral length scale of temperature, and is also close to that of the radial velocity component. Finally, the explanation as to why the integral length scale of temperature can be extracted from emission intensity distributions is stated.     

Control of carbon incorporation in AlAs grown by atomic layer epitaxy using variously orientated substrates

We demonstrate a method for successfully controlling carbon incorporation in AlAs layers grown by atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) using various GaAs substrates with different orientations. The number of alkyl radicals attached to an Al atom at the surface, which is a main factor in carbon incorporation, can be intentionally controlled by changing substrate orientation. We found that the carbon incorporation in ALE-AlAs using the (3 1 1)B surface is 2 x 10¹⁷,cm^-3, which is the lowest value ever reported for ALE-AlAs that satisfies one-monolayer self-limiting growth conditions.     

Proposal and development of radial air‐gap coreless generator suitable for small wind turbine used in urban area

Independent distributed power generation using small wind turbines is becoming more widespread as wind power generation increases. Installation of small wind turbines in densely populated urban areas is not only useful from the viewpoint of extracting wind power sources in weak‐wind areas but also for making renewable energy easier to access when power supplies are closer to consumers. It is from this point of view that the authors proposed “urban wind power generation” using a collective system with a number of small vertical wind turbines, and have developed a suitable generator for low‐speed vertical wind turbines such as a Savonius windmill. Based on a standard coreless generator, the proposed generator is designed to make the direction of the magnetic flux radial in order to install the magnets and coils on the outer end of the generator. The change of magnet composition and flux direction maximizes the speed of the flux change and output voltage within a limited space. With the above configuration, the power of the proposed generator is independent of the diameter. In this report, the authors describe and evaluate the fundamental performance of a prototype of the proposed generator. Based on the experiments, a maximum output power of 283 W was obtained. The obtained starting torque is small enough to begin rotation under weak wind conditions of no more than 1 m/s. Therefore, it is clear that the proposed “radial” coreless generator is suitable for self‐starting and producing high power at low wind speed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 167(1): 26– 34, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20695     

A three-dimensional microfluidic tumor cell migration assay to screen the effect of anti-migratory drugs and interstitial flow

Most anti-cancer drug screening assays are currently performed in two dimensions, on flat, rigid surfaces. However, there are increasing indications that three-dimensional (3D) platforms provide a more realistic setting to investigate accurate morphology, growth, and sensitivity of tumor cells to chemical factors. Moreover, interstitial flow plays a pivotal role in tumor growth. Here, we present a microfluidic 3D platform to investigate behaviors of tumor cells in flow conditions with anti-migratory compounds. Our results show that interstitial flow and its direction have significant impact on migration and growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines such as HepG2 and HLE. In particular, HepG2/HLE cells tend to migrate against interstitial flow, and their growth increases in interstitial flow conditions regardless of the flow direction. Furthermore, this migratory activity of HepG2 cells is enhanced when they are co-cultured with human umbilical vein endothelial cells. We also found that migration activity of HepG2 cells attenuates under hypoxic conditions. In addition, the effect of Artemisinin, an anti-migratory compound, on HepG2 cells was quantitatively analyzed. The microfluidic 3D platform described here is useful to investigate more accurately the effect of anti-migratory drugs on tumor cells and the critical influence of interstitial flow than 2D culture models.     

Adaptive Playout Buffer Algorithm for Enhancing Perceived Quality of Streaming Applications

An end-to-end packet delay in the Internet is an important performance parameter, because it heavily affects the quality of real-time applications. In the current Internet, however, because the packet transmission qualities (e.g., transmission delays, jitters, packet losses) may vary dynamically, it is not easy to handle a real-time traffic. In UDP-based real-time applications, a smoothing buffer (playout buffer) is typically used at a client host to compensate for variable delays. The issue of playout control has been studied by some previous works, and several algorithms controlling the playout buffer have been proposed. These studies have controlled the network parameters (e.g., packet loss ratio and playout delay), not considered the quality perceived by users. In this paper, we first clarify the relationship between Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of played audio and network parameters (e.g., packet loss, packet transmission delay, transmission rate). Next, utilizing the MOS function, we propose a new playout buffer algorithm considering user's perceived quality of real-time applications. Our simulation and implementation tests show that it can enhance the perceived quality, compared with existing algorithms.     

BLM (the causative gene of Bloom syndrome) protein translocation into the nucleus by a nuclear localization signal

Bloom syndrome (BS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by small body size, sun sensitivity, immunodeficiency and a high predisposition to various types of cancer. BLM was identified as the causative gene for BS, and BLM protein is homologous to DNA helicase. There are two putative nuclear localization signals (NLSs) within amino acid residues 1334-1349 in the C-terminus of the BLM protein, which has the distinctive structure of two basic residue arms separated by a spacer. The entire coding or deleted BLM sequences of various sizes were ligated into an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) vector and transfected into HeLa cells. The EGFP vector harboring the entire BLM coding sequence was transported to the nucleus. The BLM protein truncated at 1341 amino acid, containing an intact helicase domain and only one proximal arm, was not transported to the nucleus. The BLM protein truncated at 1357 amino acid, containing an intact helicase domain and two arms, was transported to the nucleus. The EGFP vector harboring DNA fragments encoding a protein having only the distal arms of basic amino acids in the C-terminus was also transported to the nucleus. The truncated BLM proteins corresponding to previously reported mutated BLM proteins were retained in the cytoplasm or both the cytoplasm and the nucleus as was the EGFP vector with no insert. These results show that the BLM protein translocates into the nucleus and that the distal arm of the bipartite basic residues in the C-terminus of the BLM protein is essential for targeting the nucleus.     

Latent risk and trend models for the evolution of annual fatality numbers in 30 European countries

In this paper a unified methodology is presented for the modelling of the evolution of road safety in 30 European countries. For each country, annual data of the best available exposure indicator and of the number of fatalities were simultaneously analysed with the bivariate latent risk time series model. This model is based on the assumption that the amount of exposure and the number of fatalities are intrinsically related. It captures the dynamic evolution in the fatalities as the product of the dynamic evolution in two latent trends: the trend in the fatality risk and the trend in the exposure to that risk. Before applying the latent risk model to the different countries it was first investigated and tested whether the exposure indicator at hand and the fatalities in each country were in fact related at all. If they were, the latent risk model was applied to that country; if not, a univariate local linear trend model was applied to the fatalities series only, unless the latent risk time series model was found to yield better forecasts than the univariate local linear trend model. In either case, the temporal structure of the unobserved components of the optimal model was established, and structural breaks in the trends related to external events were identified and captured by adding intervention variables to the appropriate components of the model. As a final step, for each country the optimally modelled developments were projected into the future, thus yielding forecasts for the number of fatalities up to and including 2020.     

Advanced fabrication technologies of integrated-type structure for a-Si solar cells

This paper proposes a new advanced fabrication technology for a low-cost integrated-type a-Si solar cell. Integrated-type cells provide many advantages and have been industrialized with a laser patterning method. However, a higher throughput and more efficient patterning method was required for applying a-Si solar cells to a power generating system. Plasma CVM (Chemical Vaporization Machining) was first applied to advanced patterning because of its advantages of high speed and selectivity. In this method, a plasma generated under high pressure localizes near the wire electrode and concentrates reactive radicals. As a result, we achieved an etching rate of more than 1 μm/s and selective patterning of a 200 μm-wide a-Si layer in 1 s multiline patterning was also developed for large-area modules.