The Impact of uncertainty on forecasts of learning and technological progress

Given the traditional model of industrial learning and considering that the cost-of-the-first-unit parameter alone, the rate-of-learning parameter alone, or both, are known with uncertainty, the resulting uncertainties in forecasts of unit costs and cumulative costs are derived and compared using the unit cost and cumulative average cost versions of the learning model. It is shown that both the source of uncertainty and the version of the learning model used have substantial impact on the degree of uncertainty in the forecasts of interest. Using the information derived here analysts may make probability statements about forecasts based on the traditional learning models.     

JAERI Takasaki in-air micro-PIXE system for various applications

In JAERI Takasaki, an in-air micro-PIXE system has been developed. This system enables multi-elemental mapping of samples in atmospheric environment with spatial resolution of 1 μm. Various research programs, such as biomedical research, dental study, environmental science and geology, have been started in recent years. Several related techniques for these applications were developed. A FTP server has been operated for the remote collaborators to share experimental data over the internet. We have developed image processing methods for elemental concentration analysis and a new beam monitoring technique in thick target irradiation.     

Self-organizable panel for assembling DIY ubiquitous computing

This paper proposes the concept of DIY (do-it-yourself) ubiquitous computing, an architecture allowing non-experts to establish ubiquitous computing environments in the real world. This concept has been implemented in the “u-Texture”, which is a self-organizable panel that works as a building block. While the traditional scheme attaches devices such as computers, sensors, and network equipments externally to make everyday objects smart, the u-Texture has these devices built in beforehand to assemble smart objects. The u-Texture can change its own behavior autonomously through recognition of its location, its angle of inclination, and surrounding environment by assembling these factors physically. This paper describes the design, the implementation, and various applications of u-Textures to confirm that the concept can contribute to establishment of ubiquitous computing environments in the real world without expert users.     

High-yielding and controlled dissociation of glycosides producing B- and C-ion species under collision-induced dissociation MS/MS conditions and use in structural determination

Collision-induced dissociation (CID) in mass spectrometry is a powerful technique with which to understand gas-phase chemical reactions. A mass spectrometer is used to carry out the reaction, isolation, and analysis. On the other hand, structural analysis of glycan structures is of extreme importance in the analysis of biomolecules, such as glycoproteins and glycolipids. In the analysis of glycan structures based on CID, certain ion species, including B-/Y-, C-/Z-, and A-/X-ions, are produced. Among these ions, we are interested in C-ion species that carry a glycosyl oxygen atom at the anomeric center and that possibly provide information regarding anomeric configuration. A method for generating C-ion species when necessary is thus considered to be important; however, none is currently available. In this study, synthetic glycosides carrying a series of aglycons were analyzed with the aim of identifying suitable glycosides with which to produce C-ions to be used in the structural determination of oligosaccharides. The results showed a 4-aminobutyl group was an excellent candidate. Furthermore, the use of C-ion species obtained in this manner in the structural characterization of a ganglioside, GM3, is described. The type of glycoside is believed to be valuable not only in structural analysis but also in biological investigation, because of the existing amino functionality that has been proven to be useful by enabling the generation of conjugates with other molecules and materials.     

Applications of a microlens array and a photomask to the laser microfabrication of a periodic photopolymer rod array

We report the simultaneous multipoint fabrication of polymer rods by the femtosecond laser processing of a negative photoresist using a microlens array (MLA). The rods were periodically arranged in the form of an array corresponding to the MLA and free-standing on a glass substrate. The use of a photomask enabled us to define the contour of the rod array. Furthermore, sample translation techniques were demonstrated for the effective fabrication of large-area structures.     

Corrosion of ultra-fine grained copper fabricated by equal-channel angular pressing

Corrosion of ultra-fine grain (UFG) copper fabricated by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) has been investigated in comparison with that in recrystallized coarse grain (CG) copper. Corrosion current was estimated by a Tafel extrapolation method to examine the kinetics of corrosion in a modified Livingstone etchant, which is sensitive to dislocations and grain boundaries. UFG copper exhibited a lower corrosion current in comparison with that in its recrystallized coarse grain (CG) counterpart despite the fact that the dislocation density and total fraction of grain boundaries are much greater in UFG copper than in CG copper. Corrosion damage on the surface of UFG copper is macroscopically rather uniform whereas obvious attack at grain boundaries and selective corrosion of some grain interiors were observed in CG copper.     

Drying Characteristics of Carrots Immersed in a Fluidized Bed of Fluidizing Particles Under Reduced Pressure

The drying characteristics and properties (color and shrinkage) of carrots (as a representative agricultural product) were experimentally examined in a fluidized bed under reduced pressure. Dry hot air and superheated steam were used as the drying gases. Rice and carrot powders (0.125–0.355 mm in diameter) were used as the fluidizing particles, in addition to glass beads (0.12 mm in diameter).

It was confirmed that the drying rate using a fluidized bed was much higher than without a fluidized bed (hot-air drying), regardless of the type of fluidizing particles used. Under reduced pressure, both with and without a fluidized bed, the drying rate was higher than that at atmospheric pressure using hot air. The drying rate was sufficiently high for fluidized-bed drying with superheated steam, though the drying rate was higher with hot air than with superheated steam. As the drying temperature increased, the volume ratio (befor/after drying) of the sample increased. At high drying temperatures (373 and 423 K in the present study), the color of the sample changed; in other words, a heat-induced change in the properties of the carrot was observed. At a low drying temperature (333 K in the present study), the drying method did not affect the color of the carrot; i.e., the color of the dried material was maintained even in a fluidized bed under reduced pressure when the drying rate was higher.     

Outlier detection using binary decision diagrams

We propose a novel method for outlier detection using binary decision diagrams. Leave-one-out density is proposed as a new measure for detecting outliers, which is defined as a ratio of the number of data elements inside a region to the volume of the region after a focused datum is removed. We show that leave-one-out density can be evaluated very efficiently on a set of regions around each datum in a given dataset by using binary decision diagrams. The time complexity of the proposed method is nearly linear with respect to the size of the dataset, while the outlier detection accuracy is still comparable to that of other methods. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Monitoring Photosynthetic Activity in Microalgal Cells by Raman Spectroscopy with Deuterium Oxide as a Tracking Probe

Microalgae offer great potential for the production of biofuel, but high photosynthetic activity is demanded for the practical realisation of microalgal biofuels. To this end, it is essential to evaluate the photosynthetic activity of single microalgal cells in a heterogeneous population. In this study, we present a method to monitor the photosynthetic activity of microalgae (in particular Euglena gracilis, a microalgal species of unicellular, photosynthetic, flagellate protists as our model organism) at single-cell resolution by Raman spectroscopy with deuterium from deuterium oxide (D₂O) as a tracking probe. Specifically, we replaced H₂O in culture media with D₂O up to a concentration of 20 % without disturbing the growth rate of E. gracilis cells and evaluated C−D bond formation as a consequence of photosynthetic reactions by Raman spectroscopy. We used the probe to monitor the kinetics of the C−D bond formation in E. gracilis cells by incubating them in D₂O media under light irradiation. Furthermore, we demonstrated Raman microscopy imaging of each single E. gracilis cell to discriminate deuterated cells from normal cells. Our results hold great promise for Raman-based screening of E. gracilis and potentially other microalgae with high photosynthetic activity by using D₂O as a tracking probe.