Automatic background music generation based on actors' mood and motions

Since adding background music and sound effects even to short animations is not simple, an automatic music generation system would help improve the total quality of computer generated animations. This paper describes a prototype system which automatically generates background music and sound effects for existing animations. The inputs to the system are music parameters (mood types and musical motifs) and motion parameters for individual scenes of an animation. Music is generated for each scene. The key for a scene is determined by considering the mood type and its degree, and the key of the previous scene. The melody for a scene is generated from the given motifs and the chord progression for the scene which is determined according to appropriate rules. The harmony accompaniment for a scene is selected based on the mood type. The rhythm accompaniment for a scene is selected based on the mood type and tempo. The sound effects for motions are determined according to the characteristics and intensity of the motions. Both the background music and sound effects are generated so that the transitions between scenes are smooth.     

Analysis of two-regional flow in liquid composite molding

This study investigates the two-regional flow in Liquid Composite Molding (LCM) with emphasis on the race tracking phenomenon. An equivalent permeability is introduced to describe the flow capacity in the fiber free region. A lumped permeability is also used to further simplify the flow modeling by averaging the flow across the flow direction. Both the equivalent permeability approach and the lumped permeability approach were verified with experiments. It is found that they are capable of modeling the race tracking effects in LCM.     

Anode/Cathode Dual-Purpose Aluminum Current Collectors for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

Rechargeable aqueous zinc (Zn)-ion batteries (RAZIBs), which use non-flammable aqueous electrolytes and low-cost electrode materials, show great potential to boost the development of safe, cost-effective, and highly efficient energy storage systems. The adoption of lightweight and inexpensive aluminum (Al) as current collectors seems to be a good vision, but Al exhibits an easily-corroded nature and a high impedance in aqueous electrolytes, making it a challenge to realize the utilization of Al current collector in RAZIBs. In this study, through the direct current magnetron sputtering, niobium (Nb) coated Al (Al-Nb) foils are prepared, which shows superior corrosion-resistance in an aqueous solution, while maintaining a satisfying electronic conductivity. Moreover, the Al-Nb foils can be adopted to both anode and cathode current collectors while exhibiting high coulombic efficiency and good cycling stability even when they are tested under a condition that can meet the real-world application demands, e.g., the Zn||Al-Nb half-cell shows an average coulombic efficiency of 99.17% in 320 cycles under a current density of 25 mA cm⁻² and a galvanizing capacity of 6.25 mAh cm⁻². The superior performance of the modified Al current collectors may mark a significant step toward the development of high-energy-density aqueous batteries.     

The role of silanol groups on the reaction of SiO2 and anhydrous hydrogen fluoride gas

It is essential to etch SiO₂ for producing silica glass components, semiconductor devices, and so on. Although wet-etching with hydrogen fluoride (HF) solutions is usually employed for this purpose, it faces a drawback that microstructures stick during the drying of the solution. To overcome this problem, we have developed a dry-etching technique with gaseous HF at high temperatures. In the present study, an interesting phenomenon was found that silicon thermal oxides were much less etched than vitreous silica by gaseous HF. Such difference had not been found in wet- or humid HF gas etching. Because their bulk chemical formulae are the same (SiO₂), it was suggested that the surface species affected the reaction rate. In fact, preprocessing with water vapor plasma remarkably increased the etching rate on the thermal oxides layer, and vacuum heating almost completely suppressed the reaction on the vitreous silica and the plasma-treated thermal oxides. These results indicate that the surface silanol groups enhance the reaction between SiO₂ and gaseous HF. Based on the results, a model of chain reaction for SiO₂ and gaseous HF was proposed, where the surface silanol groups act as the reaction center.