Convergence Analysis for Symmetric Arbitration Games FOA and DOA

Up to now, results on the existence of Nash equilibrium have required either continuity of payoff functions or compactness of strategy sets. However, in the arbitration games FOA and DOA, neither condition is satisfied. This paper first gives a new existence result for a general game. The result is then applied to the symmetric arbitration games FOA and DOA. The conclusions of this paper generalize the main result of Zeng, Nakamura and Ibaraki (1996), that DOA leads to a convergence of offers but FOA does not.     

A novel tumor-related protein, C7orf24, identified by proteome differential display of bladder urothelial carcinoma

Proteome analysis of bladder cancer with narrow-range pH 2-DE has identified a novel protein on chromosome 7 encoded by ORF 24 (C7orf24) as one of the highly expressed proteins in cancer cells. C7orf24 is currently registered in the protein database as a hypothetical protein with unknown function. The homologs of C7orf24 in other animals have also been registered as putative protein genes. Western blot analysis using a mAb against C7orf24 confirmed its higher expression in bladder cancer compared with normal tissue. Several other cancer cell lines were also found to express C7orf24. However, the introduction of C7orf24 into Rat-1 or NIH3T3 cells did not cause malignant transformation. A stable transfectant of NIH3T3 cells with recombinant retrovirus vector was produced for a growth rate assay, and a higher growth rate was observed in C7orf24-expressing cells compared with the controls. Six kinds of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) were then produced, and C7orf24-siRNA#5 showed a strong knockdown effect on protein expression and significant antiproliferative effects on cancer cell lines were demonstrated by the MTT assay. Therefore, C7orf24 may have an important role in cancer cell proliferation, and may be an appropriate therapeutic target molecule against cancer.     

Random field model for integration of local information and global information

This paper presents a proposal of a general framework that explicitly models local information and global information in a conditional random field. The proposed method extracts global image features as well as local ones and uses them to predict the scene of the input image. Scene-based top-down information is generated based on the predicted scene. It represents a global spatial configuration of labels and category compatibility over an image. Incorporation of the global information helps to resolve local ambiguities and achieves locally and globally consistent image recognition. In spite of the model's simplicity, the proposed method demonstrates good performance in image labeling of two datasets.     

Ni electroplating on a resist micro-machined by proton beam writing

In this paper we report fabrication of high-aspect-ratio micro-structure of Ni by electroplating, using a micro-machining technique of resists using proton beam writing (PBW) at Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). A micro-structure of 5 μm thick PMMA was fabricated by exposure using PBW at 1.7 MeV and by development. A Ni structure was then formed by electroplating on the micro-structure of PMMA. Vertical and smooth side walls observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) indicate that PBW can be a versatile tool for fabrication of resists and metal microstructure in combination with electroplating. The electroplated Ni structure can be used as a resolution standard, which enabled us to focus the proton beam down to 130 nm.     

Effects of Glass Additions on (Zr,Sn)TiO4 for Microwave Applications

The effects of glass additions on the properties of (Zr,Sn)TiO₄ as a microwave dielectric material were investigated. The (Zr,Sn)TiO₄ ceramics with no glass addition sintered at 1360°C gave Q = 4900 and K = 37 at 7.9 GH_z. Several glasses, including SiO₂, B₂O₃, 5ZnO–2B₂O₃, and nine commercial glasses, were tested during this study. Among these glasses, (Zr,Sn)TiO₄ sintered with ZnO-B₂O₃–SiO₂ (Corning 7574) showed more than 20% higher density than that of pure (Zr,Sn)TiO₄ sintered at the same temperature. A 5-wt% addition of SiO₂, to (Zr,Sn)TiO₄, when sintered at 1200°C, gave the best Q : Q = 2700 at 9 GHz. Results of XRD analysis and scanning electron microscopy and the effect of glass content are also presented.     

Learning gaze biases with head motion for head pose-free gaze estimation

When estimating human gaze directions from captured eye appearances, most existing methods assume a fixed head pose because head motion changes eye appearance greatly and makes the estimation inaccurate. To handle this difficult problem, in this paper, we propose a novel method that performs accurate gaze estimation without restricting the user's head motion. The key idea is to decompose the original free-head motion problem into subproblems, including an initial fixed head pose problem and subsequent compensations to correct the initial estimation biases. For the initial estimation, automatic image rectification and joint alignment with gaze estimation are introduced. Then compensations are done by either learning-based regression or geometric-based calculation. The merit of using such a compensation strategy is that the training requirement to allow head motion is not significantly increased; only capturing a 5-s video clip is required. Experiments are conducted, and the results show that our method achieves an average accuracy of around 3° by using only a single camera.     

Solid Polymer Electrolytes Based on Poly(1,3-diacetyl-4-imidazolin-2-one)

Summary Solid polymer electrolytes composed of a homopolymer (poly(AcIM)) of 1,3-diacetyl-1,4-imidazolin-2-one (AcIM) and lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonimide) (LiTFSI) or of copolymers (poly(AcIM/VC)) of AcIM with vinylene carbonate (VC) and LiTFSI were prepared and their ionic conductivities and thermal properties were investigated. For the polymer electrolyte of the poly(AcIM) with LiTFSI, the highest ionic conductivity was found at the [Li]/[O] ratio of 1/3 with the values of 8.5×10^-5 S/cm at 80 °C and 1.7×10^-6 S/cm at 30 °C, respectively. In the polymer electrolyte of poly(AcIM/VC) with LiTFSI at the [Li]/[O] ratio of 1/3, the ionic conductivity increased with increasing VC unit content in the copolymers, and the highest ionic conductivity was found at the AcIM/VC ratio of 39/61 (mol%) with the values of 7.0×10^-4 S/cm at 80 °C and 6.7×10^-5 S/cm at 30 °C, respectively. This copolymer electrolyte showed a linear relationship between the ionic conductivity and the reciprocal of the temperature, indicative of the system decoupled from the segmental motion of the polymer.     

Structures and catalytic properties of magnesium molybdate in the oxidative dehydrogenation of alkanes

Magnesium molybdates have been prepared from an aqueous solution of magnesium nitrate and ammonium paramolybdate under various pH conditions and used for the selective oxidation of propane and isobutane with gaseous oxygen under atmospheric pressure in the temperature range of 360–520°C. The structure analyses by XRD and FT-IR showed the formation of three phases, -MgMoO₄, -MgMoO₄ and Mg₂Mo₃O₁₁, in the catalysts calcined below 550°C. The catalyst prepared at pH=5.7 showed the highest activity for the oxidative dehydrogenation of the alkanes as well as the strongest acidity. By XPS measurements, an excess amount of Mo compared to Mg was observed over the active catalysts. It is likely that the excess molybdenum species is present as molybdate and creates acidic sites over the catalyst surface.     

Carbon foams prepared from polyimide using urethane foam template

Polyimide and carbon foams were successfully prepared using polyurethane foams as a template. Impregnation of polyimide precursor, poly(amide acid), followed by imidization at 200 °C gave polyurethane/polyimide (PU/PI) composite foams, which resulted in PI foams by heating above 400 °C and then carbon foams above 800 °C. Foams carbonized at 1000 °C were graphitized by the heat treatment at 3000 °C, keeping foam characteristics. Two applications of these carbon foams, i.e., an adsorbent of ambient water vapor and a substrate of photocatalyst anatase TiO₂, were experimentally confirmed. For the former application, the present foam could be characterized by prompt adsorption of ambient water vapor. Some of carbon foams prepared were floating on water, even after loading photocatalyst anatase, which might be advantageous for photodecomposition of pollutants in water in respect to the UV rays efficiency.     

Compositional Dependence of Absorption and Fluorescence of b3+ in Oxide Glasses

The integrated absorption cross section, the spontaneous emission probability, and the stimulated emission cross section of Yb³⁺ were determined in silicate, phosphate, borate, germanate, aluminate, gallate, and ZBLAN host glasses. The compositional dependence of the stimulated emission cross section of the ²F_5/2→²F_7/2 transition is determined mainly by the integrated absorption cross section in the glasses. A peak stimulated emission cross section above 1 pm², which is the highest value in glasses, was obtained in a gallate glass with a composition of 40K₂O·20Ta₂O₅. 40Ga₂O₃. The factors affecting the integrated absorption cross section are discussed using the Judd-Ofelt parameters of Er³⁺ calculated in previous studies.