Characterization and Sintering Behavior of Alkoxide-Derived Aluminosilicate Powders

Submicrometer SiO₂-Al₂O₃ powders with compositions of 46.5 to 76.6 wt% Al₂O₃ were prepared by hydrolysis of mixed alkoxides. Phase change, mullite composition, and particle size of powders with heating were analyzed by DTA, XRD, IR, BET, and TEM. As-produced amorphous powders partially transformed to mullite and Al-Si spinel at around 980°C. The compositions of mullite produced at 1400° and 1550°C were richer in Al₂O₃ than the compositions of stable mullite solid solutions predicted from the phase diagram of the SiO₂-Al₂O₃ system. Particle size decreased with increasing Al₂O₃ content. The sintered densities depended upon the amount of SiO₂-rich glassy phase formed during sintering and the green density expressed as a function of particle size.     

Metabolic behavior in rats of a nonprotein microemulsion resembling low-density lipoprotein

A protein-free microemulsion (LDE) with a lipid composition resembling that of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was used in metabolic studies in rats to compare LDE with the native lipoprotein. LDE labeled with radioactive lipids was injected into the bloodstream of male Wistar rats, and plasma kinetics of the labeled lipids were followed on plasma samples collected at regular intervals for 12 h after injection. The 24-h LDE uptake by different tissues was also measured in tissue samples excised after the animals had been sacrificed. We found that LDE plasma kinetics were similar to those described for native LDL [fractional clearance rate (FCR) of cholesteryl ester, 0.42±0.11 h⁻¹]. The major site for LDE uptake was the liver, and the tissue distribution of the LDE injected radioactivity was as one would expect for LDL. To test whether LDE was taken up by the specific LDL receptors, the LDE emulsion was injected into rats treated with 17α-ethinylestradiol, which is known to increase the activity of these receptors; as expected, removal of LDE from the bloodstream increased (FCR=0.90±0.35 h⁻¹). On the other hand, saturation of the receptors that remove remnants by prior infusion of massive amounts of lymph chylomicrons did not change LDE plasma kinetics. These results indicate that LDE is cleared from plasma by B,E receptors and not by the E receptors that remove remnants. Incorporation of free cholesterol into LDE increased LDE plasma clearance. Incubation studies also showed that LDE incorporates a variety of apolipoproteins, including apo E, a ligand for recognition of lipoproteins by specific receptors. Our data suggest that LDE can be a useful tool to test LDL metabolism and B,E receptor function.     

Adsorption and desorption properties of cationic polyethylene film gels to organic anions and their regeneration

An investigation was undertaken on the adsorption and desorption properties of 2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate grafted polyethylene (PE‐g‐PDMAEMA) films to anionic dye anions with one to three sulfonic groups in response to pH and temperature changes. The amounts of dye anions adsorbed on the PE‐g‐PDMAEMA films passed through the maximum values at about pH 3 because of an increase in the protonation of dimethylamino groups caused by a decrease in the pH value. The amounts of adsorbed dye anions decreased below pH 3 because the ionic strength increased with the addition of HCl to adjust the initial pH values of the aqueous dye solutions. The amounts of adsorbed dye anions decreased with an increase in the number of sulfonic groups in the dye molecules at the same pH value because electrostatic repulsion was generated between free sulfonic groups of the dye anions adsorbed onto the PE‐g‐PDMAEMA films and free dye anions in the medium. A large number of dye anions adsorbed were desorbed from the PE‐g‐PDMAEMA film with initial pH values above 11.0. The cyclic processes of adsorption at pH 3.0 and desorption at pH 11.0 were repeated without considerable fatigue. The PE‐g‐PDMAEMA films showed practically regenerative adsorption and desorption behavior in response to the pH changes. In addition, when the dye‐anion‐adsorbed PE‐g‐PDMAEMA films were alternately immersed in water at two different temperatures, dye anions were desorbed in water at higher temperatures without any chemical agents because of the deprotonation of dimethylamino groups and thermosensitive contraction of grafted PDMAEMA chains. These results indicate that PE‐g‐PDMAEMA films can be applied as regenerative ion‐exchange membranes for adsorption and desorption processes of anionic compounds in response to the pH and temperature. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 381–391, 2006     

Mapping evapotranspiration using MODIS and MM5 Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation

Evapotranspiration (ET), the sum of evaporation from soil and transpiration from vegetation, is of vital importance in the hydrologic cycle and must be taken into consideration in assessments of the water resources of any region. The MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor offers a promising opportunity for estimating daily ET with a 1 km spatial resolution, but is hampered by frequent cloud contamination or data gaps from other factors. In this study, 1) a stand-alone ET model was applied and tested during clear or partial cloudy sky conditions using MODIS-based inputs of land surface and atmospheric data and 2) meteorological simulations by using Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation (FDDA) system between MODIS and the 5th Generation Meso-scale Meteorological Model (MM5) was used in cloudy conditions to facilitate continuous daily ET estimates. The MODIS ET algorithm modified from Mu et al. (2007) is based on the Penman-Monteith equation and was applied to predict ET at flux measurement sites. This algorithm considers both the effects of surface energy partitioning processes and environmental constraints on ET. We devised gap-filling approaches for MODIS aerosol and albedo data that were identified as bottlenecks to determine retrieval rates of insolation and ET. MODIS-derived input variables (i.e., meteorological variables and radiation components) for estimating ET showed a good agreement with flux tower observations at each site. The retrieval rate of MODIS ET doubled at four flux measurement sites after gap-filling with negligible compensation was undertaken for accuracy. In spite of the high accuracy of MODIS-derived input variables, MODIS ET showed meaningful errors at the four flux measurement sites. These errors were mainly associated with errors in the estimated canopy conductance. During clear sky conditions, MODIS was used to calculate ET, while the MODIS-MM5 FDDA system provided input variables for the calculation of ET under cloudy sky conditions. The performance of the MODIS-MM5 FDDA system was evaluated by comparing ET based on MODIS, which showed a good agreement with the MODIS ET for various land cover types. Our results indicate that MODIS can be applied to monitor the land surface energy budget and ET with reasonable accuracy and that MODIS-MM5 FDDA has the potential to provide reasonable input data of ET estimation under cloudy conditions.     

Greedy versus social: resource-competing oscillator network as a model of amoeba-based neurocomputer

A single-celled amoeboid organism, the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum, exhibits rich spatiotemporal oscillatory behavior and sophisticated computational capabilities. The authors previously created a biocomputer that incorporates the organism as a computing substrate to search for solutions to combinatorial optimization problems. With the assistance of optical feedback to implement a recurrent neural network model, the organism changes its shape by alternately growing and withdrawing its photosensitive branches so that its body area can be maximized and the risk of being illuminated can be minimized. In this way, the organism succeeded in finding the optimal solution to the four-city traveling salesman problem with a high probability. However, it remains unclear how the organism collects, stores, and compares information on light stimuli using the oscillatory dynamics. To study these points, we formulate an ordinary differential equation model of the amoeba-based neurocomputer, considering the organism as a network of oscillators that compete for a fixed amount of intracellular resource. The model, called the “Resource-Competing Oscillator Network (RCON) model,” reproduces well the organism’s experimentally observed behavior, as it generates a number of spatiotemporal oscillation modes by keeping the total sum of the resource constant. Designing the feedback rule properly, the RCON model comes to face a problem of optimizing the allocation of the resource to its nodes. In the problem-solving process, “greedy” nodes having the highest competitiveness are supposed to take more resource out of other nodes. However, the resource allocation pattern attained by the greedy nodes cannot always achieve a “socially optimal” state in terms of the public cost. We prepare four test problems including a tricky one in which the greedy pattern becomes “socially unfavorable” and investigate how the RCON model copes with these problems. Comparing problem-solving performances of the oscillation modes, we show that there exist some modes often attain socially favorable patterns without being trapped in the greedy one.     

Amoeba-based Chaotic Neurocomputing: Combinatorial Optimization by Coupled Biological Oscillators

We demonstrate a neurocomputing system incorporating an amoeboid unicellular organism, the true slime mold Physarum, known to exhibit rich spatiotemporal oscillatory behavior and sophisticated computational capabilities. Introducing optical feedback applied according to a recurrent neural network model, we induce that the amoeba’s photosensitive branches grow or degenerate in a network-patterned chamber in search of an optimal solution to the traveling salesman problem (TSP), where the solution corresponds to the amoeba’s stably relaxed configuration (shape), in which its body area is maximized while the risk of being illuminated is minimized.Our system is capable of reaching the optimal solution of the four-city TSP with a high probability. Moreover, our system can find more than one solution, because the amoeba can coordinate its branches’ oscillatory movements to perform transitional behavior among multiple stable configurations by spontaneously switching between the stabilizing and destabilizing modes. We show that the optimization capability is attributable to the amoeba’s fluctuating oscillatory movements. Applying several surrogate data analyses, we present results suggesting that the amoeba can be characterized as a set of coupled chaotic oscillators.

An intercomparison of bio-optical techniques for detecting dominant phytoplankton size class from satellite remote sensing

Satellite remote sensing of ocean colour is the only method currently available for synoptically measuring wide-area properties of ocean ecosystems, such as phytoplankton chlorophyll biomass. Recently, a variety of bio-optical and ecological methods have been established that use satellite data to identify and differentiate between either phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) or phytoplankton size classes (PSCs). In this study, several of these techniques were evaluated against in situ observations to determine their ability to detect dominant phytoplankton size classes (micro-, nano- and picoplankton). The techniques are applied to a 10-year ocean-colour data series from the SeaWiFS satellite sensor and compared with in situ data (6504 samples) from a variety of locations in the global ocean. Results show that spectral-response, ecological and abundance-based approaches can all perform with similar accuracy. Detection of microplankton and picoplankton were generally better than detection of nanoplankton. Abundance-based approaches were shown to provide better spatial retrieval of PSCs. Individual model performance varied according to PSC, input satellite data sources and in situ validation data types. Uncertainty in the comparison procedure and data sources was considered. Improved availability of in situ observations would aid ongoing research in this field.     

A systolic algorithm for Euclidean distance transform

The Euclidean distance transform is one of the fundamental operations in image processing. It has been widely used in computer vision, pattern recognition, morphological filtering, and robotics. This paper proposes a systolic algorithm that computes the Euclidean distance map of an N /spl times/ N binary image in 3N clocks on 2N/sup 2/ processing cells. The algorithm is designed so that the hardware resources are reduced; especially no multipliers are used and, thus, it facilitates VLSI implementation.     

Characteristics of the Arc Voltage of a High‐Current Air Arc in a Sealed Chamber

The effect of the arc voltage on various factors of design and control was investigated for high currents in order to develop design guidelines for circuit breakers. In this study, the dependence on such factors, namely, the current, arc length, electrode surface area, and internal pressure of the arc voltage, was evaluated quantitatively. As a result of the evaluations, it was estimated that the arc voltage near the electrode surface rises linearly with the arc current and the power ?0.8 of the surface area, and that the voltage in the arc column rises as the 0.3 power of the pressure increase. We confirmed the validity of the estimated voltage characteristics by comparison with the generated voltage in an actual arc‐extinction chamber. The characteristics of the estimated voltage can provide effective guidelines for the design of arc extinguishing chambers. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 186(1): 34–42, 2014; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.22487     

Enantioselective addition Of diketene to aldehydes promoted by chiral schiff base—titanium alkoxide complex. Application to asymmetric synthesis of potential inhibitors of HMG coenzyme reductase

Highly enantioselective addition of diketene to aldehydes was achieved by using novel Schiff base—titanium alkoxide complexes. Up to 92% ee of 5-hydroxy-3-oxoesters was obtained. This procedure provides an efficient method for the asymmetric synthesis of potential inhibitors of HMG coenzyme reductase.