Measurement of self-diffusion coefficients in Li ionic conductors by using the short-lived radiotracer of 8Li

For the effective use of short-lived radioactive beams, soon to be available at the Tokai Radioactive Ion Accelerator Complex, the authors have developed a radiotracer method for diffusion studies in solids. The experimental test was performed by the measurement of the diffusion coefficients of Li in a sample of the compound βLiAl using an α-emitting radiotracer of ⁸Li (T_1/2=0.84 s). It was found that the time-dependent yields of the α particles from the diffusing ⁸Li that was initially implanted in the sample could be used as a measure of the diffusivity of the tracer in a nondestructive way. The method was applied to measure the self-diffusion coefficients of Li in βLiGa, and for investigating how the Li diffusion in the Li ionic conductors is affected by the concentration of atomic defects (i.e., the existence of the atomic vacancies of Li and the defects in Ga sites that are replaced by Li).     

Construction of living cellular automata using the Physarum plasmodium

The plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a unicellular and multinuclear giant amoeba that has an amorphous cell body. To clearly observe how the plasmodium makes decisions in its motile and exploratory behaviours, we developed a new experimental system to pseudo-discretize the motility of the organism. In our experimental space that has agar surfaces arranged in a two-dimensional lattice, the continuous and omnidirectional movement of the plasmodium was limited to the stepwise one, and the direction of the locomotion was also limited to four neighbours. In such an experimental system, a cellular automata-like system was constructed using the living cell. We further analysed the exploratory behaviours of the plasmodium by duplicating the experimental results in the simulation models of cellular automata. As a result, it was revealed that the behaviours of the plasmodium are not reproduced by only local state transition rules; and for the reproduction, a kind of historical rule setting is needed.     

Cost-Efficient Traffic Aggregation Employing Cross-Layer Shared Protection

Shared protection/restoration is a promising solution for reducing protection resources and is supported at each layer of the current multi-layer networks. Software-defined networking is expected to reduce equipment cost as well as operational cost by orchestrating these shared protection functionalities. However, although protection resource sharing improves link utilization, it sometimes increases the required equipment. Meanwhile, traffic re-aggregation at each layer is an important technique for low volume traffic to utilize the underlying link capacity more efficiently, but re-aggregation also makes it difficult to share protection resources with traffic at lower layers. In this paper, we present multi-layer network design strategy and method that reduce equipment cost by means of both traffic re-aggregation at each layer and protection resource sharing among multiple service traffic at different layers. The strategy first prioritizes traffic re-aggregation at each layer, and then maximally delegates shared protection to lower layers as long as it does not increase the required capacity at the lower layer. Evaluation results from the example three-layer networks confirm that the proposed method can effectively reduce equipment cost compared to the conventional design method. Cost reduction is achieved by leveraging shared protection functions at multiple layers.     

A content search system considering the activity and context of a mobile user

People routinely carry mobile devices in their daily lives and obtain a variety of information from the Internet in many different situations. In searching for information (content) with a mobile device, a user’s activity (e.g., moving or stationary) and context (e.g., commuting in the morning or going downtown in the evening) often change, and such changes can affect the user’s degree of concentration on his or her mobile device’s display and information needs. Therefore, a search system should provide the user with an amount of information suitable for the current activity and a type of information suitable for the current context. In this study, we present the design and implementation of a content search system that considers a mobile user’s activity and context, with the goal of reducing the user’s operation load for content search. The proposed system switches between two kinds of content search systems according to the user’s activity: the location-based content search system is activated when the user is stationary (e.g., standing and sitting), while a menu-based content search system is activated when the user is moving (e.g., walking). Both systems present information according to user context. The location-based system presents detailed information via menus and a map according to location-based categories. The menu-based system presents only a few options to enable users to get content easily. Through user experiments, we confirmed that participants could get desired information more easily with this system than with a commercial search system.     

Proposal of variable sequential sampling plan having desired operating characteristics indexed by quality loss

The proportion of non-conforming items has been traditionally utilised as an evaluation criterion for quality of items. However, the proportion of non-conforming items is not necessarily useful as a proper evaluation criterion for controlling high-quality manufacturing in recent years. Accordingly, in order to achieve further quality improvement and innovation, more careful quality evaluation has been required newly. Then, a concept of quality loss in the Taguchi methods has been devised as a severe criterion of quality evaluation. Hereby, a variable single sampling plan having desired operating characteristics (OCs) indexed by quality loss has been proposed in the area of statistical quality control. By the way, the most economical sampling inspection in the average sample number (ASN) is the sequential sampling plan based on the Wald’s sequential probability ratio test. Then, from the viewpoint of cost reduction, we discuss a variable sequential sampling plan having desired OC indexed by quality loss with the aim of expansion of the utility of variable sampling plan for quality loss. As the result, the design procedure of the sequential sampling plan for satisfying some required design conditions indexed by quality loss is provided. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed sequential sampling plan is verified through some numerical examples.     

Effects of core machining configuration on the debonding toughness of foam core sandwich panels

Core machining is often applied to improve the formativeness of foam core and the manufacturing effectiveness of sandwich panels. This paper investigates the effects of core machining configuration on the interfacial debonding toughness of foam core sandwich panels fabricated by vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process. Several machining configurations are conducted to foam core, and skin–core debonding toughness of fabricated sandwich panels is evaluated using double-cantilever-beam tests. The sandwich panels with core cuts exhibited higher apparent fracture toughness than the panels without core cut, specifically in the case of perforated core. The relationship between core machining configuration and measured fracture toughness is discussed based on the experimental observations and the numerical analyses of energy release rates.     

Estimating potential disaster waste generation for pre-disaster waste management

The paper discusses development of a method for estimating disaster waste that can be potentially generated by a natural disaster in the future for pre-disaster waste management. In particular, this research focuses on micro-disaster waste originating from household consumer durables. We documented the number of household consumer durables and built a mass per unit database of major consumer durables using web-based and statistical surveys. We also estimated present and future figures of disaster waste that can be generated in the study area. The estimated total amount of disaster waste that could be generated in 2015 was 24.1 kt (18.1–29.8 kt) and 108 kt (81.8–133 kt) for Kobe City and Ise-Shima region, respectively. The total quantities of TV sets, air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines generated in Kobe and Ise-Shima will range between 10.9 and 22.8 kt (247,000–545,000 units) in 2015, and 10.7 kt to 22.8 kt (249,000–550,000 units) in 2035. The quantity estimated for 2015 is equal to 61 % of the annual processing capacity of Plant A, Japan’s leading home appliances recycling plant. Finally, we discussed the contribution of the estimation results and geographic information systems in future recycling planning.     

Cathodic Stripping Voltammetry of Selenium(IV) at a Silver Disk Electrode

A new, simple, and reproducible method is described for the determination of selenium(IV) based on differential pulse cathodic stripping voltammetry. The optimized experimental conditions are as follows: selenium(IV) ions in an acidic medium (0.06 M HCl-0.07 M HNO(3)) are electrodeposited on a rotating silver disk electrode as silver selenide at -0.4 V vs SCE for 30 min; the deposit is then cathodically stripped in another solution (2 M NaOH) at a scan rate of 50 mV s(-1) to -1.2 V vs SCE. The cathodic stripping results in only a single well-defined peak at about -0.95 V vs SCE. The calibration (peak height vs selenium concentration) graph is linear up to at least 40 ng mL(-1) of selenium(IV) and passes through the origin, with a relative standard deviation of 2.7% for 20 ng mL(-1) (n = 5). The detection limit (3σ) is 0.20 ng mL(-1). The possible interferences have been evaluated. Dissolved oxygen does not affect the peak height of selenium. The electrode can be used repeatedly at least 20 times with excellent reproducibility without further polishing. The proposed method is an improvement over the existing cathodic stripping techniques.     

A biped static balance control and torque pattern learning under unknown periodic external forces

This paper addresses a biped balancing task in which an unknown external force is exerted, using the so-called ‘ankle strategy’ model. When an external force is periodic, a human adaptively maintains the balance, next learns how much force should be produced at the ankle joint from its repeatability, and finally memorized it as a motion pattern. To acquire motion patterns with balancing, we propose a control and learning method: as the control method, we adopt ground reaction force feedback to cope with an uncertain external force, while, as the learning method, we introduce a motion pattern generator that memorizes the torque pattern of the ankle joint by use of Fourier series expansion. In this learning process, the period estimation of the external force is crucial; this estimation is achieved based on local autocorrelation of joint trajectories. Computer simulations and robot experiments show effective control and learning results with respect to unknown periodic external forces.