Micrinite and exudatinite in some Australian coals,and their relation to the generation of petroleum

The occurrence and microscopic features of micrinite and exudatinite in some Australian coals are reported. The origin of these macerals and also the significance of their occurrence are discussed in connection with hydrocarbon genesis. In Australia, micrinite occurs in bituminous and sub-bituminous coals which are very rich in inertinite, and also in brown coal rich in inertinite. One of the possible progenitors of micrinite is oxidized porigelinite. There is little reason to conclude that micrinite was formed from resinite and other macerals at an early stage of coalification and that liquid hydrocarbons were formed during this process. Exudatinite occurs in sub-bituminous and high-volatile bituminous coals in the Gippsland Basin. There is no positive evidence of a genetic relation between liquid hydrocarbons, exudatinite, micrinite and liptinite macerals. The formation of liquid hydrocarbons from solid liptinite etc. may take place just before and during Teichmüller's so-called ‘2nd coalification jump’.     

High‐pixel‐rate grating‐light‐valve laser projector

Abstract— A high‐pixel‐rate, high‐contrast (30,000:1) wide‐color‐gamut grating‐light‐valve laser projector is reported. A new optical engine enabling high‐frame‐rate (240 Hz) scan projection is employed. Panoramic wide‐angle‐scan projection with a 64:9 aspect ratio was also developed. Speckle noise is eliminated using a simple but highly efficient technique. The optical throughput efficiency of the grating‐light‐valve laser projector is reviewed.     

Robust control method for the inverted pendulum system with structured uncertainty caused by measurement error

In this article, we propose a design method for an inverted pendulum system with a structured uncertainty. We consider that such an uncertainty is caused by a measurement error in the rotation angle of the pendulum and effects on the system structure that cannot be included in the nominal elements. For the uncertain system obtained, we apply an integral tracking control and the guaranteed cost control to design a robust, stable, tracking control system. Finally, we show the effectiveness of our method through a numerical example.     

Magnetic order and evolution of the electronic state aroundx=0.12 in La2?xBaxCuO4 and La2?xSrxCuO4

Muon spin rotation ( ⁺SR) measurement provides clear evidence of the antiferromagnetic order of Cu moments below 35 K for La_2–x Ba _x CuO₄ and below 15 K for La_2–x Sr _x CuO₄ in the narrow range ofx where the high-T _c superconductivity (SC) is suppressed remarkably. The results suggest that the change of the electronic state coupled with the lattice instability is relevant to the local suppression of SC and freezing of spin fluctuations of the Cu moment.     

Characteristics of sol-gel derived PZT thin films with lead oxide cover layers and lead titanate interlayers

The sol-gel derived PbZr_0.53Ti_0.47O₃ (PZT) films were fabricated on the bare Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrates or the same substrates coated by the PbTiO₃ (PT) interlayers. The post-deposition annealing temperature and time were optimized when the PbO cover layers and PbO vapour-containing atmosphere were compared with each other and adopted as the method to diminish the lead-loss problem during the high-temperature post-deposition annealing. The X-ray diffraction patterns, microstructures, and electrical properties such as relative permittivity, _r, remanent polarization, P _r, and coercive electrical field, E _c, were investigated in relation to the annealing conditions. The PZT films deposited on the bare Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrates under the PbO vapour-containing atmosphere showed better electrical properties. This indicates that the PbO vapour-containing atmosphere may be the better method of lead-loss-prevention to process the lead-containing films rather than the PbO cover layer method. The electrical characteristics of the PZT films, _r=1150, a dissipation factor of 0.039, P _r=26 C cm^–2, and E _c=40.5 kV cm^–1 were measured at 1 kHz. When PZT films were deposited on substrates coated by the PT layers, PZT-PT films with single perovskite phase were derived by post-deposition annealing at 500 °C for 1 h. However, the relative electrical properties are very poor, i.e. E _r=160, P _r=2.0 C cm^–2 and E _c=75 kVcm^–1. The optimum combination for preparing PZT-PT films is a 40 nm PbTiO₃ interlayer and annealing conditions of 6 h at 550 °C in a PbO vapour-containing atmosphere; the derived films exhibit electrical properties of E _r=885, P _r=21.5 C cm^–2 and E _c=64 kV cm^–1. The combination of inserting a PT interlayer and annealing in a PbO vapour-containing atmosphere can prevent the formation of electrical short paths. In this case, nearly pin-hole-free PZT films can be grown on the PT (interlayer) /Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrates. It is believed that it is possible to prepare the PZT films with nano-scale uniformity, reproducible quality, which may be worth considering for commercial applications.     

Bottom-up pyramid cellular acceptors with three-dimensional layers

In 1997, C.R. Dyer and A. Rosenfeld introduced an acceptor on a two-dimensional pattern (or tape), called the pyramid cellular acceptor, and demonstrated that many useful recognition tasks are executed by pyramid cellular acceptors in time proportional to the logarithm of the diameter of the input. They also introduced a bottom-up pyramid cellular acceptor which is a restricted version of the pyramid cellular acceptor, and proposed some interesting open problems of the bottom-up pyramid cellular acceptors. On the other hand, we think that the study of threedimensional automata has been meaningful as the computational model of three-dimensional information processing such as computer vision, robotics, and so forth. In this paper, we investigate about bottom-up pyramid cellular acceptors with three-dimensional layers, and show their some accepting powers. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

Information gathering and searching approaches on the Web

The information accessible through the Internet is increasing explosively as the Web is getting more and more widespread. In this situation, the Web is indispensable information resource for both of information gathering and information searching. Though traditional information retrieval techniques have been applied to information gathering and searching in the Web, they are insufficient for this new form of information source. Fortunately some Al techniques can be straightforwardly applicable to such tasks in the Web, and many researchers are trying this approach. In this paper, we attempt to describe the current state of information gathering and searching technologies in the Web, and the application of AI techniques in the fields. Then we point out limitations of these traditional and AI approaches and introduce two aapproaches: navigation planning and a Mondou search engine for overcoming them. The navigation planning system tries to collect systematic knowledge, rather than Web pages, which are only pieces of knowledge. The Mondou search engine copes with the problems of the query expansion/modification based on the techniques of text/web mining and information visualization. Seiji Yamada, Dr. Eng.: He received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.S. degrees in control engineering and artificial intelligence from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 1984, 1986 and 1989, respectively. From 1989 to 1991, he served as a Research Associate in the Department of Control Engineering at Osaka University. From 1991 to 1996, he served as a Lecturer in the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University. In 1996, he joined the Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan, as an Associate Professor. His research interests include artificial intelligence, planning, machine learning for a robotics, intelligent information retrieval in the WWW, human computer interaction, He is a member of AAAI, IEEE, JSAI, RSJ and IEICE. Hiroyuki Kawano, Dr.Eng.: He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Systems Science, Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan. He obtained his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in Applied Mathematics and Physics, and his Dr.Eng. degree in Applied Systems Science from Kyoto University. His research interests are in advanced database technologies, such as data mining, data warehousing, knowledge discovery and web search engine (Mondou). He has served on the program committees of several conferences in the areas of Data Base Systems, and technical committes of advanced information systems.     

Modeling of debris cooling with annular gap in the lower RPV and verification based on ALPHA experiments

For severe accident assessment in a light water reactor, heat transfer models in a narrow annular gap between the overheated core debris and the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) are important for evaluating RPV integrity and emergency procedures. Using existing data, the authors developed heat transfer models on the average critical heat flux (CHF) restricted by countercurrent flow limitation (CCFL) and local boiling heat fluxes, and showed that the average CHF depended on the steam–water flow pattern in the narrow gap and that the local heat fluxes were similar to the pool boiling curve. We evaluated the validity of heat transfer models by simple calculations for ALPHA experiments performed at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Calculated results showed that heat fluxes on the crust surface were restricted mainly by thermal resistance of the crust after the crust formation, and emissivity on the crust surface did not have much effect on the heat fluxes. The calculated vessel temperature during the heat-up process and peak vessel temperature agreed well with the measurements, which confirmed the validity of the average CHF correlation. However, the vessel cooling rate was underestimated mainly due to underestimation of the gap size.     

Stabilization of linear time-invariant systems with periodic communication constraints by output sample hold control

This article considers feedback control systems wherein the control loops are closed through a real-time network, and expresses the linear time-invariant system with the constraint in an input or output as a periodic discrete time system. It is shown that this system is stabilized by using output sample hold contol. This method has the merit that the capacity of a sensor-controller communication bus is small. This work was presented, in part, at the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 24–26, 2003