New Compound in the System La2O3-Al2O3

A new compound, 5La₂O₃-2Al₂O₃, is formed from an amorphous material prepared by the simultaneous hydrolysis of lanthanum and aluminurn alkoxides. It has an orthorhombic unit cell with a=0.9704 nm, b=0.5967 nm, and c=1.5473 nm. The structure contains tetrahedral AlO₄ groups and octahedral AlO₆ groups.     

Properties of syndiotactic-rich poly(vinyl alcohol) thin films in water. VI. Elastic behavior of undrawn/annealed thin films by repeated elongation/contraction in water

The elastic behavior of undrawn/annealed swollen thin films of syndiotactic-rich poly(vinyl alcohol), derived from vinyl trifluoroacetate, was studied by repeated elongation/contraction in water. For the films annealed at temperatures below 175°C, the characteristic of deformation was divided into low-drawn and high-drawn regions. The elastic deformation was dominant over the plastic deformation in the low-drawn region and vice versa in the high-drawn region. The effect of heat treatment on the elastic behavior of the swollen films in water almost independent of annealing temperatures below 125°C. The elastic deformation in water at 70°C was especially remarkable in the low-drawn region for the films annealed at temperatures below 125°C and at 80°C for the films annealed at 150°C. For the films annealed at 200°C, considerable plastic deformation occurred in addition to elastic deformation from the initial drawing; the films were broken in the low-drawn region.     

A 13.5‐in. Quad‐FHD flexible CAAC‐OS AMOLED display with long‐life OLED device structure

In this study, the device structure of a white tandem organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) was changed to control the emission area and thereby achieve less luminance decay. A long‐life 13.5‐inch 4 K flexible c‐axis‐aligned crystal oxide semiconductor (CAAC‐OS) active‐matrix OLED with less color shift and high resolution was fabricated using this long‐life white OLED, transfer technology, and a CAAC‐OS field‐effect transistor.     

Kinetic studies on Victorian brown coal hydroliquefaction

Reaction kinetics of the liquefaction of Victorian brown coal in a process development unit (PDU) having three reactors in series have been studied at temperatures of 430–470°C, and pressures of 15–25 MPa. It is shown that the rate of hydrogen consumption can be expressed as a function of the concentrations of coal and catalyst, hydrogen partial pressure, reaction temperature and residence time, and is controlled by the rates of hydrogenation of polynuclear aromatic components, and the rates of formation and stabilization of radicals. The relative contribution of these reactions, at any temperature, determine the influence of the hydrogen partial pressure on the rate of the hydrogen consumption. The kinetics of the decomposition reactions of brown coal to preasphaltene, asphaltene and to oil also have been studied. The apparent activation energies determined are 25 kJ mol^?1 for the brown coal to preasphaltene, 50 kJ mol^?1 for preasphaltene to asphaltene, 76 kJ mol^?1 for asphaltene to oil, and 184 kJ mole^?1 for oil to gases.     

A topology optimization method based on the level set method incorporating a fictitious interface energy

This paper proposes a new topology optimization method, which can adjust the geometrical complexity of optimal configurations, using the level set method and incorporating a fictitious interface energy derived from the phase field method. First, a topology optimization problem is formulated based on the level set method, and the method of regularizing the optimization problem by introducing fictitious interface energy is explained. Next, the reaction–diffusion equation that updates the level set function is derived and an optimization algorithm is then constructed, which uses the finite element method to solve the equilibrium equations and the reaction–diffusion equation when updating the level set function. Finally, several optimum design examples are shown to confirm the validity and utility of the proposed topology optimization method.     

Learning concepts and their unions from positive data with refinement operators

This paper is concerned with a sufficient condition under which a concept class is learnable in Gold’s classical model of identification in the limit from positive data. The standard principle of learning algorithms working under this model is called the MINL strategy, which is to conjecture a hypothesis representing a minimal concept among the ones consistent with the given positive data. The minimality of a concept is defined with respect to the set-inclusion relation – the strategy is semantics-based. On the other hand, refinement operators have been developed in the field of learning logic programs, where a learner constructs logic programs as hypotheses consistent with given logical formulae. Refinement operators have syntax-based definitions – they are defined based on inference rules in first-order logic. This paper investigates the relation between the MINL strategy and refinement operators in inductive inference. We first show that if a hypothesis space admits a refinement operator with certain properties, the concept class will be learnable by an algorithm based on the MINL strategy. We then present an additional condition that ensures the learnability of the class of unbounded finite unions of concepts. Furthermore, we show that under certain assumptions a learning algorithm runs in polynomial time.     

Potential of a modern vector supercomputer for practical applications: performance evaluation of SX-ACE

Achieving a high sustained simulation performance is the most important concern in the HPC community. To this end, many kinds of HPC system architectures have been proposed, and the diversity of the HPC systems grows rapidly. Under this circumstance, a vector-parallel supercomputer SX-ACE has been designed to achieve a high sustained performance of memory-intensive applications by providing a high memory bandwidth commensurate with its high computational capability. This paper examines the potential of the modern vector-parallel supercomputer through the performance evaluation of SX-ACE using practical engineering and scientific applications. To improve the sustained simulation performances of practical applications, SX-ACE adopts an advanced memory subsystem with several new architectural features. This paper discusses how these features, such as MSHR, a large on-chip memory, and novel vector processing mechanisms, are beneficial to achieve a high sustained performance for large-scale engineering and scientific simulations. Evaluation results clearly indicate that the high sustained memory performance per core enables the modern vector supercomputer to achieve outstanding performances that are unreachable by simply increasing the number of fine-grain scalar processor cores. This paper also discusses the performance of the HPCG benchmark to evaluate the potentials of supercomputers with balanced memory and computational performance against heterogeneous and cutting-edge scalar parallel systems.     

Theoretical conformational analysis of poly(val-pro-gly-gly) with cis peptide bond at val-pro portion

Summary Theoretical conformational analysis was carried out for Ac-(Val-Pro-Gly-Gly) ₆-NHMe with cis peptide bond at Val-Pro portion. A right-handed ^11.6-helix was found as the lowest-energy helical conformation for this polypeptide with cis peptide bond. The energy difference between ^11.6-helix and -helix, which is the lowest-energy helical conformation with trans peptide bond, is 3.08 kcal/mol per repeating unit(Val-Pro-Gly-Gly sequence). This value almost corresponds to the energy difference between the most stable cis and trans conformations of Ac-Val-Pro-Gly-Gly-NHMe (2.75 kcal/mol). Obtained results indicate that -helix is the most stable helical conformation of poly(Val-Pro-Gly-Gly) which is a model polypeptide of elastin, and also that relative stabilities of trans and cis conformations of polypeptide are essentially estimated by short-range interactions.     

Comparative study on tensile fracture behavior of monofilament and bundle C/C composites

Strength controlling factors in C/C composites were experimentally examined using monofilament fiber reinforced C/C composites and those reinforced by one carbon fiber bundle. Tensile strength of the monofilament C/C composites was almost the same level with that of the carbon fiber. This result indicated that carbon fibers in the C/C composites were intact even after the processing. On the other hand, remarkable reduction was observed in the bundle C/C composites. It was indicated that the fracture of the C/C composite is dominated by the brittle fracture of the sub-bundles, in which the fiber/matrix interface is bonded well.     

Effect of liquid film on decomposition of CFC-12 using dielectric barrier discharge

Dichloro-difluoro-methane (CFC-12) was decomposed with non-thermal plasma generated by dielectric barrier discharge where one electrode was covered with liquid film which could provide oxidants such as OH and also absorb acid gases produced by the decomposition. The experimental results indicated that the conversion of CFC-12 and the selectivity of CO₂ were improved by the installation of the water film at low discharge voltage, however, the installation reduced the power efficiency for the decomposition. Sodium hydroxide solution enhanced the absorption of Cl and F produced by the decomposition, while the conversion of CFC-12 was not affected. The study concluded that the simultaneous decomposition of CFC-12 and recovery of the halogenous product could be achieved using dielectric barrier discharge with liquid film electrode.