Evaluation of Solubility and the Gas-Liquid Equilibrium Coefficient of High Concentration Gaseous Ozone to Water

Solubility and the gas-liquid equilibrium coefficient of gaseous ozone to water were examined under higher concentrations of supplied gaseous ozone up to 100 mg/L. The experimental and modeling approach was employed to evaluate the gas-liquid equilibrium coefficients and mass transfer of ozone. The gas-liquid equilibrium coefficients were evaluated as 0.35, 0.31 and 0.25 (mg/L-liquid)/(mg/L-gas) at 15, 20 and 30 °C, respectively. These gas-liquid equilibrium coefficients are applicable for the wide concentration range of supplied ozone gas up to 100 mg/L. The calculation result by a model which has terms of the mass transfer of ozone, the gas-liquid equilibrium coefficient and the rate of ozone self-decomposition, was examined and had a good agreement with the experimental data over the wide range of temperatures, pHs, inorganic carbon concentrations and supplied ozone gas concentrations. The rate of ozone self-decomposition evaluated separately from this study was employed for the calculation. We can conclude that absorption of gaseous ozone to water is expressed by the three terms mentioned above when the rate of ozone self-decomposition is evaluated properly. In sensitive analysis, we elucidated that the rate of ozone self-decomposition affected strongly on the concentration of dissolved ozone at steady-state under higher concentration of supplied gaseous ozone.     

Urinary phthalate monoesters and endometriosis in infertile Japanese women

Phthalates may act as an estrogen and are a potential risk factor for estrogen-related diseases such as endometriosis. We assessed the association between phthalate exposure and endometriosis in 166 consecutive women who presented at a university hospital for consultation regarding infertility. The subjects were interviewed and provided a urine specimen prior to a laparoscopic diagnosis of endometriosis. They were then categorized by the severity of endometriosis as controls (stages 0-I) and cases (stages II-IV). Urinary concentrations of the phthalate metabolites monoethyl phthalate, mono-n-butyl phthalate, monobenzyl phthalate, mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP), mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate, and mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate were measured in 57 cases and 80 controls using high-performance liquid chromatography isotope-dilution tandem mass spectrometry. Adjusted odds ratios for endometriosis in relation to dichotomized individual phthalate metabolites (standardized for creatinine) were calculated. No significant association between endometriosis and any urinary creatinine-adjusted phthalate monoester was seen. Adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for higher dichotomized MEHP by endometriosis was 1.57 (0.74-3.30). No monotonic trend was seen in urinary creatinine-adjusted concentration of phthalate metabolites by endometriosis stage (p = 0.23-0.90). Our results do not support the hypothesis that higher urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolites are associated with the risk of endometriosis in infertile Japanese women.     

Minimizing the Number of States in a Sequential Machine with Don't Care Conditions

Paull and Unger [1] considered the problem of minimizing the number of states in a sequential machine in which some next-states and/or outputs are unspecified and its initial state is unspecified. This note treats the problem where the initial state of the sequential machine is specified. In this case, the condition for covering the machine is weaker and the problem is more complicated. It is shown, however, that one can treat the problem similarly.     

Artificial life based on the programmed self-decomposition model, SIVA

To examine the effect and significance of the phenomenon of death, we have developed an artificial life simulator, SIVA-III (simulator for individuals of virtual automata III), based on a “programmed self-decomposition model”. The architecture of this simulator consists of a “finite heterogeneous habitation environment” and “artificial life with programmed individual death and concurrent self-decomposition”. We conducted experiments under various settings to comparare and contrast mortal life and immortal life. The results clearly demonstrated the validity of a self-decomposing, programmed individual death, and the limitations inherent in immortal life, suggesting a striking superiority of mortal life over immortal life. This work was presented in part at the Fifth International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 26–28, 2000     

Efficient parallel processing of competitive learning algorithms

Vector quantization (VQ) is an attractive technique for lossy data compression, which has been a key technology for data storage and/or transfer. So far, various competitive learning (CL) algorithms have been proposed to design optimal codebooks presenting quantization with minimized errors. Although algorithmic improvements of these CL algorithms have achieved faster codebook design than conventional ones, limitations of speedup still exist when large data sets are processed on a single processor. Considering a variety of CL algorithms, parallel processing on flexible computing environment, like general-purpose parallel computers is in demand for a large-scale codebook design. This paper presents a formulation for efficiently parallelizing CL algorithms, suitable for distributed-memory parallel computers with a message-passing mechanism. Based on this formulation, we parallelize three CL algorithms: the Kohonen learning algorithm, the MMPDCL algorithm and the LOJ algorithm. Experimental results indicate a high scalability of the parallel algorithms on three different types of commercially available parallel computers: IBM SP2, NEC AzusA and PC cluster.     

A development of three-dimensional surface measurement on cylinder

We developed a new measuring equipment of three-dimensional surface on cylinder. This system can measure all of surface forms from cylindrical form error to local surface asperity profile continuously. The system consists of static air bearings mainly and gets discrete data in cylindrical coordinates. Any areal data are regressed by some references and expressed by contour maps. This system is useful for estimation of roller bearing, etc.     

Formation of a thiamine disulfide complex with fatty acid: Mechanism of formation of the complex

The formation of complexes between thiamine disulfide (TDS) orO-acetyl thiamine disulfide (O-acetyl TDS) and fatty acid or fatty acid methyl ester in methanol has been studied by fluorescence quenching and¹³C NMR relaxation (T₁) measurements. The association constants (K-values) of TDS andO-acetyl TDS with fatty acids (from 11∶0 to 18∶0, and 18∶1, 18∶2, 18∶3 and 20∶4) and fatty acid methyl esters have been determined. These values do not depend on either the number of carbon atoms or the degree of unsaturation of the fatty acid. The K-values of TDS andO-acetyl TDS with fatty acid were 7.8 M⁻¹ and 5.1 M⁻¹, respectively. The K-values of TDS andO-acetyl TDS with fatty acid methyl ester were very small. These results show that the-OH moiety in TDS and the-COOH moiety in the fatty acid are necessary for formation of the complex     

Digital input filters for measurement,control and protection in electric power systems

Power system control and protection equipment is subject to especially stringent sensitivity and operational reliability requirements. Projected digital signal processing systems suitable for electric power systems fulfill these requirements by means of fast sampling and digital filtering by a 32-bit floating point DSP (Digital Signal Processor). The sampling rate of 3 kHz is carefully selected in order to separate the power spectra of the A-D conversion output errors from the signal bandwidth. The new 12-bit A-D conversion unit equipped with a recursive-type digital filter achieved a high resolution equivalent to 14-bit conversion. This paper describes the design concept and the operating characteristics and illustrates applications to current differential relays, distance relays and power system controllers.