Electron spin resonance studies of γ-irradiated cellulose. II. Free radicals in accessible regions to water in cellulose I and cellulose II

The types of free radicals produced in the water-accessible regions of cellulose I and cellulose II fibers by γ-irradiation in nitrogen atmosphere at room temperature were studied by ESR spectroscopy. The ESR spectra of the irradiated cellulose I and II change by contacting the fibers with water, and after immersion in water the spectral shape depends on the orientation of the fiber axes to the magnetic field. These spectra are probably related to the free radicals generated in the highly ordered regions inaccessible to water in irradiated cellulosic fibers. The ESR spectrum of free radicals generated in decrystallized cellulose after irradiation consists of a singlet and a doublet. When the ESR spectra of free radicals formed in the highly ordered regions of cellulose I and II and the singlet and the doublet are combined in adequate ratio, the constructed spectra are similar to those of the radicals scavenged by water in the irradiated cellulose I and II fibers. From these facts, the spectra due to the free radicals in the water-accessible regions in irradiated cellulose I and II are considered to consist of the singlet and the doublet formed by free radicals in the typical amorphous regions and the spectra of other types of radicals generated in the semicrystalline regions.     

Mechanical Properties of Hot Isostatically Pressed Zirconia-Toughened Alumina Ceramics Prepared from Coprecipitated Powders

Amorphous Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ composite powders with 5–30 mol% ZrO₂ have been prepared by adding aqueous ammonia to the mixed solution of aqueous aluminum sulfate and zirconium alkoxide containing 2-propanol. Simultaneous crystallization of γ-Al₂O₃ and t -ZrO₂ occurs at 870°–980°C. The γ-Al₂O₃ transforms to α-Al₂O₃ at 1160°–1220°C. Hot isostatic pressing has been performed for 1 h at 1400°C under 196 MPa using α-Al₂O₃– t -ZrO₂ composite powders. Dense ZrO₂-toughened Al₂O₃ (ZTA) ceramics with homogeneous-dispersed ZrO₂ particles show excellent mechanical properties. The toughening mechanism is discussed. The microstructures and t / m ratios of ZTA are examined, with emphasis on the relation between strength and fracture toughness.     

Densification of Cr2O3-ZrO2 Ceramics by Sintering

Cr₂O₃ and ZrO₂ were mixed in various ratios and pressed to form compacts, which were then sintered in carbon powder. Compacts with >30 wt% Cr₂O₃ were sintered to densities >98% of true density at 1500°C. This method of sintering in carbon powder can be used to prepare very dense Cr₂O₃-ZrO₂ ceramics at a relatively low temperature, (∼1500°C) without additives.     

Solid‐state polymerization of melt‐spun poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers and their tensile properties

The production of high modulus and high strength poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers was examined by using commercially available melt‐spun fibers with normal molecular weight (intrinsic viscosity = 0.6 dL/g). First, molecular weight of as‐spun fibers was increased up to 2.20 dL/g by a solid‐state polymerization, keeping the original shape of as‐spun fibers. Second, the polymerized as‐spun fibers were drawn by a conventional tensile drawing. The achieved tensile modulus and strength of as‐drawn fibers (without heat setting) were 20.0 and 1.1 GPa, respectively. A heat setting was carried out for the as‐drawn fibers. Tensile properties of the treated fibers were greatly affected by the condition of the heat setting. This was related to the increase of sample crystallinity and molecular degradation during the treatments. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 1791–1797, 2007     

Electrochemical etching using surface carboxylated graphite electrodes in ultrapure water

Electrochemical etching enables processing with an atomic-level accuracy, without deteriorating the physical properties of the workpiece; however, contamination of its surface with electrolytes is unavoidable. If it is possible to carry out electrochemical etching without using electrolytes, such a process will be applicable to electronic device manufacturing and precision nanoscale processing of semiconductor materials. In addition, this process does not require the use of chemicals, cleaning after processing or disposal of waste fluid, which results in a low-cost and environmentally friendly process. To develop an electrochemical etching process that does not require the use of electrolytes, we proposed a method in which a functional-group-modified electrode is used as the cathode. A carboxylated graphite electrode was prepared by treating a graphite electrode with sulfuric acid. Electrolysis of ultrapure water was carried out using the obtained electrode as a cathode. The results indicate that the electrolysis current obtained using the modified electrode is approximately six-fold that obtained using an unmodified electrode. Furthermore, we can etch a Cu surface conically in ultrapure water. The current efficiency increases by 70% at maximum, and the minimum current required for electrochemical etching decreases compared with that in the case of using an unmodified electrode.     

Acrylic/polyester hybrid powder coating system having excellent weather durability

There have been many attempts to improve weather durability in polyester powder coatings. However, no effective suggestion improves weather durability without sacrificing other properties, such as mechanical properties. A novel polyester powder coating system is described in this article, with especially excellent weather durability. This system was based on an acrylic/polyester hybrid curing system composed of polyester resin showing excellent weather durability and the new GMA-acrylic hardener which has a ‘soft segment' in its structure. The advanced acrylic/polyester hybrid curing system shows both excellent weather durability and good mechanical properties.     

Masking effect of photoactive compounds with various ballast molecules in novolak-naphthoquinonediazide positive photoresists

We investigated the masking effect, that is, the dissolution inhibition effect, of photoactive compounds (PAC) with various ballast moelcules in novolak-naphthoquinonediazide positive photoresists. Two types of ballast molecules were examined: hydroxybenzophenones (HBP) and several m-cresol novolak resins (MCN) of different molecular lengths. The number of naphthoquinonediazide sulfonic (NQDS) moieties in the resist film and the average esterification value of the PACs were the same for each type of ballast molecule. The smaller the size of the HBP ballast molecule, the larger the masking effect becomes. As the size of the ballast molecule becomes smaller, the number of PACs increases and the degree of dispersion of the NQDS moieties in the resist film increases. At the same time, the longer the MCN ballast molecule, the larger the masking effect becomes. The distance between the NQDS moieties in the MCN ballast molecule is greater than that in the HBP ballast molecule. The masking effect per NQDS moiety in the MCN ballast molecule is larger than that in the HBP ballast molecule. As a result, the distance between the NQDS moieties in the ballast molecule and the degree of dispersion of the NQDS moieties in the resist film control the masking effect, which depends on the probability of existence of NQDS moieties around the alkali-soluble hydroxyl groups of the novolak resin. The molecular length of the ballast molecule influences the degree of entanglement with the novolak resins and promotes the masking effect.     

Monitoring freeze/thaw cycles using ENVISAT ASAR Global Mode

Due to the high temporal sampling rate of ASAR Global Monitoring (GM) mode, it has a high application potential for analyzing the land surface freeze/thaw process in high latitudes. This study aims to develop effective methods of extracting freeze/thaw transition dates of permafrost areas from ASAR GM data sets. In order to use ASAR GM time-series for analyzing freeze/thaw states, a least square fitting of piecewise step function is introduced. The thawing date can be determined by minimizing the sum of squared residuals between measured backscattering time-series and a pre-defined step function. An experimental result for a Siberian permafrost region illustrates that it can be a promising approach in monitoring permafrost ecosystems.     

Periodically time-varying memory state-feedback controller synthesis for discrete-time linear systems

In this paper, we deal with discrete-time linear periodic/time-invariant systems with polytopic-type uncertainties and propose a new linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based method for robust state-feedback controller synthesis. In stark contrast with existing approaches that are confined to memoryless static controller synthesis, we explore dynamical controller synthesis and reveal a particular periodically time-varying memory state-feedback controller (PTVMSFC) structure that allows LMI-based synthesis. In the context of robust controller synthesis, we prove rigorously that the proposed design method encompasses the well-known extended-LMI-based static controller synthesis methods as particular cases. Through numerical experiments, we demonstrate that the suggested design method is indeed effective in achieving less conservative results, under both periodic and time-invariant settings. We finally derive a viable test to verify that the designed robust PTVMSFC is “exact” in the sense that it attains the best achievable robust performance. This exactness verification test works fine in practice, and we will show via a numerical example that exact robust control is indeed attained by designing PTVMSFCs, even for such a problem where the standard memoryless static state-feedback fails.     

DCOB: Action space for reinforcement learning of high DoF robots

Reinforcement learning (RL) for robot control is an important technology for future robots since it enables us to design a robot’s behavior using the reward function. However, RL for high degree-of-freedom robot control is still an open issue. This paper proposes a discrete action space DCOB which is generated from the basis functions (BFs) given to approximate a value function. The remarkable feature is that, by reducing the number of BFs to enable the robot to learn quickly the value function, the size of DCOB is also reduced, which improves the learning speed. In addition, a method WF-DCOB is proposed to enhance the performance, where wire-fitting is utilized to search for continuous actions around each discrete action of DCOB. We apply the proposed methods to motion learning tasks of a simulated humanoid robot and a real spider robot. The experimental results demonstrate outstanding performance.