Rule pool updating through Sarsa‐learning to improve adaptability in changing environments

Genetic network programming (GNP) is a new evolutionary algorithm using the directed graph as its chromosome. A GNP‐based rule accumulation (GNP‐RA) method was proposed previously for multiagent control. However, in changing environments where new situations appear frequently, the old rules in the rule pool become incompetent for guiding the agent's actions, and therefore updating them becomes necessary. This paper proposes a more robust rule‐based model which can adapt to the environment changes. In order to realize this, Sarsa‐learning is used as a tool to update the rules to cope with the unexperienced situations in new environments. Furthermore, Sarsa‐learning helps to generate better rules by selecting really important judgments and actions during training. In addition, the ε‐greedy policy of Sarsa enables GNP‐RA to explore the solutions space sufficiently, generating more rules. Simulations on the tile world problem show that the proposed method outperforms the previous ones, namely GP and reinforcement learning. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Magnetic characteristics analysis of permanent magnet motor by using complex approximation taking account of two‐dimensional magnetic properties

This paper presents a complex E&S modeling approach, which is developed with a complex approximation for conventional E&S modeling. Complex E&S modeling is used to analyze a permanent magnet motor and the validity of complex E&S modeling is demonstrated. The computation time of complex E&S modeling can be considerably reduced in comparison with conventional E&S modeling. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 180(2): 9–16, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.21268     

EvoCMAR: A New Evolutionary Method to Directly Mine Association Rules for Classification

In this paper, we propose an evolutionary method with a three‐layer structure to directly mine association rules for classification. The association rules have been demonstrated to be useful for classification, such as classification based on association rule (CBA) and classification method based on multiple association rule (CMAR), and they are found to be more accurate than some traditional methods, such as C4.5. Generally speaking, there are two phases in an associative classification method: (i) association rules mining; (ii) classification by association rules. However, the two phases are almost separated, viz, during the first phase, the mining of association rules does not focus on classification. Moreover, when building the classifier in the second phase, most of the association rues will be pruned. As a result, if we are able to directly mine the classification association rules, we can save time. Meanwhile, we can expect even better accuracy because the mining procedure itself considers the classification. In this paper, we build a novel evolutionary method, named evolutionary classification method based on multiple association rule (EvoCMAR), to tackle these problems, and the simulation results show that it performs well in both accuracy and speed. © 2010 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Molecular dynamics study on nano‐particles reinforced oxide glass

Energy release rate and fracture toughness of amorphous aluminum nanoparticles reinforced soda‐lime silica glass (SLSG) were measured by performing fracture simulations of a single‐notched specimen via molecular dynamics simulations. The simulation procedure was first applied to conventional oxide glasses and the accuracy was verified with comparing to experimental data. According to the fracture simulations on three models of SLSG/‐Al₂O₃ composite, it was found that the crack propagation in the composites is prevented through following remarkable phenomena; one is that a‐Al₂O₃ nanoparticles increase fracture surface area by disturbing crack propagation. The other is that the deformation of a‐Al₂O₃ nanoparticle dissipates energy through cracking. Moreover, one of the models shows us that the crack cannot propagate if the initial notch is generated inside a‐Al₂O₃ nanoparticle. Such strengthening is partly due to the fact that the strength of the interface between nanoparticle and SLSG matrix is comparable to that of SLSG matrix, implying that their interface does not reduce crack resistance of the oxide glass.     

Robust speed control method for dc servomotors using adaptive gain law

The speed control ability of dc servomotors is affected by parameter variations and disturbance torque. In this paper, a robust speed control method for dc servomotors with a disturbance torque observer and a feedback controller is proposed. The disturbance torque observer is used for the compensation of parameter variations and disturbance. The feedback gain is adjusted in the aspect of stability by an adaptive gain law based on Lyapunov's direct method and is used to restrain the influence of estimation error for the disturbance observer. A robust current control scheme for a voltage source PWM inverter with disturbance observer is also presented, since current control ability affects the control performance of dc servomotors. The validity of this control scheme is verified by numerical simulations and experiments. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 126(3): 30–40, 1999     

Synthesis and chemical properties of electrochromic π‐conjugated polyphenylenes with pendant viologen‐TCNQ salts

Polyphenylene (PP) with NH₂ side groups, namely, PFluNH ₂ , was synthesized by the Pd‐catalyzed reaction of 2,5‐dibromoaniline with 9,9‐dihexylfluorene‐2,7‐diboronic acid bis(1,3‐propanediol) ester. The reaction of PFluNH ₂ with 1‐hexyl‐1′‐(2,4‐dinitrophenyl)‐4,4′‐bipyridinium diiodide ( SaltBPy(I^?) ) eliminated 2,4‐dinitroaniline to yield PPs with viologen (1,1′‐disubstituted 4,4′‐bipyridinium dications), PFluBPy(I^?) . The reaction of PFluBPy(I^?) with Li⁺TCNQ ^? resulted in anion exchange between Cl ^? and TCNQ ^? , and yielded PFluBPy(TCNQ^?) . The reaction of PFluBPy(TCNQ^?) with the neutral TCNQ⁰ resulted in an interaction between TCNQ ^? and TCNQ⁰, and yielded PFluBPy(TCNQ^?‐TCNQ⁰) . Cyclic voltammetry measurements suggested that an electrochemical reduction of the viologen moiety and oxidation of the polymer backbone within PFluBPy(TCNQ^?) and PFluBPy(TCNQ^?‐TCNQ⁰) . Furthermore, this reaction was accompanied by electrochromism. The electric conductivities (σ) of the pellets molded from PFluBPy(TCNQ^?) to PFluBPy(TCNQ^?‐TCNQ⁰) were 2.7 × 10 ^{? 4} and 4.2 × 10 ^{? 4} Scm ^{? 1}, respectively; these σ values were higher than that observed for PFluNH ₂ (σ < 10 ^{? 8} Scm ^{? 1}) due to the self‐doping in the polymers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Evaluation of O3/UV and O3/H2O2 as Practical Advanced Oxidation Processes for Degradation of 1,4-Dioxane

The degradation of 1,4-dioxane was investigated on a laboratory scale. The extents of degradation and/or removal of 1,4-dioxane by ozonation at pH 6–8, UV irradiation, aeration, and addition of H₂O₂ were very limited. On the other hand, the degradation of 1,4-dioxane by O₃/UV and O₃/H₂O₂ was accelerated compared with the above respective methods. The amounts of 1,4-dioxane degraded per amount of ozone consumed in O₃/UV and O₃/H₂O₂ were also higher than in ozonation. The amount of 1,4-dioxane degraded in O₃/UV was affected by the intensity of UV irradiation, and that in O₃/H₂O₂ was affected by the amount of H₂O₂ added only in the case of a high initial concentration of 1,4-dioxane.     

Effects of droplet size on the oxidative stability of oil-in-water emulsions

The effects of droplet size and emulsifiers on oxidative stability of polyunsaturated TAG in oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions with droplet sizes of 0.806±0.0690, 3.28±0.0660, or 10.7±0.106 μm (mean ± SD) were investigated. Hydroperoxide contents in the emulsion with a mean droplet size of 0.831 μm were significantly lower than those in the emulsion with a mean droplet size of 12.8 μm for up to 120 h of oxidation time. Residual oxygen contents in the headspace air of the vials containing an o/w emulsion with a mean droplet size of 0.831 μm were lower compared with those of the emulsion with a mean droplet size of 12.8 μm. Hexanal developed from soybean oil TAG o/w emulsions with smaller droplet size showed significantly lower residual oxygen contents than those of the larger droplet size emulsions. Consequently, oxidative stability of TAG in o/w emulsions could be controlled by the size of oil droplet even though the origins of TAG were different. Spin-spin relaxation time of protons of acyl residues on TAG in o/w emulsions measured by ¹H NMR suggested that motional frequency of some acyl residues was shorter in o/w emulsions with a smaller droplet size. The effect of the wedge associated with hydrophobic acyl residues of emulsifiers was proposed as a possible mechanism to explain differences in oxidative stability between o/w emulsions with different droplet sizes.     

α-Glucosidase Inhibition Activity by Cyclic Diarylheptanoids from Alnus sieboldiana

Abstract

A diarylheptanoid, named 3,17-dihydroxy-tricyclo[12.3.1.1^2,6]nonadeca- 1(18),2,4,6(19),14,16-hexaen-9,11-dione, was newly isolated from the branch wood of Alnus sieboldiana, together with two known diarylheptanoids. The chemical structure of this compound was assigned on the basis of the NMR and MS data, information obtained though 1D- and 2D-NMR analyses. These three diarylheptanoids were found to significantly inhibit the activity of α-glucosidase.     

Characterization of 2-Fluoro-2’-deoxyadenosine in Duplex,G-Quadruplex and i-Motif

Among various kinds of fluorine-substituted biomolecules, 2-fluoroadenine (2FA) and its derivatives have been actively investigated as therapeutic reagents, radio-sensitizers, and ¹⁹F NMR probes. In spite of their excellent properties, DNA containing 2FA has not been studied well. For fundamental understanding and future applications to the development of functional nucleic acids, we characterized 2FA-containing oligonucleotides for canonical right-handed DNA duplex, G-quadruplex, and i-motif structures. Properties of 2FA were similar to native adenine due to the small size of the fluorine atom, but it showed unique features caused by high electronegativity. This work provides useful information for future application of 2FA-modified DNA.