Image analysis system for evaluating sliding behavior of a liquid droplet on a hydrophobic surface

An analysis system was developed to evaluate the sliding behavior of a liquid droplet on a hydrophobic surface. This system enables continuous and simultaneous measurement of both the sliding acceleration and shape deformation during the sliding of a liquid droplet. Moreover, the velocity vector of the internal fluidity of a sliding droplet was obtained by employing particle image velocimetry in the analysis system. This evaluation method pioneers the measurement of the dynamic wettability of a hydrophobic solid surface.     

Influence of Thermo-mechanical Control Process for Duplex Stainless Steel on Low-Temperature Toughness

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - The microstructure dependence of the low-temperature toughness of a 2205 duplex stainless steel produced by a thermo-mechanical control process was...     

Spintronics based random access memory: a review

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Emission mechanism in phosphorescent and fluorescent OLED utilizing energy transfer from exciplex to emitter

This paper discusses the effectiveness of energy transfer from an exciplex to an emitter in both phosphorescent and fluorescent organic light‐emitting diodes. This energy transfer enhances the efficiency, lowers the drive voltage, and extends the lifetime. The increase in the quantum efficiency of a fluorescent organic light‐emitting diode using this mechanism is also analyzed.     

Wideband phase-locked loop circuit with real-time phase correction for frequency modulation atomic force microscopy

We have developed a wideband phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit with real-time phase correction for high-speed and accurate force measurements by frequency modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) in liquid. A high-speed operation of FM-AFM requires the use of a high frequency cantilever which, however, increases frequency-dependent phase delay caused by the signal delay within the cantilever excitation loop. Such phase delay leads to an error in the force measurements by FM-AFM especially with a low Q factor. Here, we present a method to compensate this phase delay in real time. Combined with a wideband PLL using a subtraction-based phase comparator, the method allows to perform an accurate and high-speed force measurement by FM-AFM. We demonstrate the improved performance by applying the developed PLL to three-dimensional force measurements at a mica/water interface.     

Corrosion by bacteria of concrete in sewerage systems and inhibitory effects of formates on their growth

Not only sulfur-oxidizing bacteria but also an acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacterium (or bacteria) were found in the corroded concrete from several sewerage systems in Japan. The surface pH of concrete test piece exposed to an atmosphere containing hydrogen sulfide of the concentrations more than 600 ppm in the systems was usually below 2 after a month. This was attributable to ability of the sulfur-oxidizing bacteria to grow in the thin water layer which contained hydrogen sulfide and covered the piece even when the surface pH of concrete was 12-13. When the sulfuroxidizing bacteria grew in the surface of concrete and produced sulfuric acid, the pH of the inner parts of concrete was lowered where the bacteria were hardly found. Probably, sulfuric acid formed by the bacteria in the surface parts penetrated into the inner parts. The different species of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria were found in different sewerage systems. The growth of the sulfur-oxidizing and acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria was completely inhibited by formates, especially by calcium formate of concentrations more than 50 mM. Calcium formate can protect concrete in sewerage systems from bacterial corrosion.     

Touch fault calculation method on transmission lines stringing on the same tower based on symmetrical coordinate method

In this paper, a touch fault calculation method is proposed based on the symmetric coordinate method. The touch fault in this paper means that a line‐to‐line short circuit fault occurred on parallel transmission lines stringing on a same tower. It is known that the touch fault occurs very rarely such as the galloping phenomena, and it causes an abnormal voltage rise especially on a low‐voltage transmission line. However, a quantitative analysis method of the abnormal voltage has not been proposed. Therefore, a general analysis method of the voltage profile solution for the touch fault is proposed based on the symmetrical coordinate method. The proposed method is able to calculate the precise voltage and current profile solution efficiently by introducing the similar formation for the touch fault solution same as the general fault solution. Demonstrative result to the application in the touch fault calculation is presented in order to verify the practicability of the proposed method.     

Knotting task execution based a hand-rope relation

In this paper, we focus on relationship between the rope and fingers to implement a knot and estimate error occurred during execution of knotting task. In the previous work, the authors have proposed a method for making various knots from synthesis of basic operations called skills that are derived from analyzing the knotting processes. Each individual skill has an operation to handle the rope and conditions for executing and completing the task skill. By combining these skills, we can make the whole knotting process robust. In this paper, the ‘relations’, which describe the positions of the rope relative to the fingers, found from the successful cases, using the teaching data, were defined as the conditions of the task skills. Relation of rope and fingers at a specific state is presented by using propositional variables and logical connectives. Knotting skills were constructed to be executed robustly using the detected conditions. Occurrence of an error is estimated by finding out an abnormal relation. In this case, a corrective action can be inserted to modify the position of contact points, which are relative to the unsatisfied conditions to satisfy the detected conditions; therefore, skill execution is more reliable. We confirm the effectiveness of the methods through experiments.     

Effect of Oxygen Pressure on Thermoelectric Properties of p-Type CuAlO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Films Fabricated by Pulsed Laser Deposition

We focus on the growth of p-type CuAlO₂ thin films and its thermoelectric properties. Thin films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition technique on single-crystal sapphire substrates varying the oxygen partial pressure. Thin film deposited at oxygen partial pressure of 200 mTorr presents bigger grains (about 10 μm in size) and shows Seebeck coefficient as high as 270 µV/K with a conductivity of about 0.8 S/cm so that its power factor is about 5.7 µW/mK² at 800 K, twice than observed in the film deposited at 60 mTorr of oxygen.