Discussions of worker ants’ rule-based CHC dealing with changing environments

Contrary to popular belief, biologists discovered that worker ants are really not all hardworking. It has been found that in three separate 30-strong colonies of black Japanese ants (Myrmecina nipponica), about 20% of worker ants are diligent, 60% are ordinary, and 20% are lazy. That is called 20:60:20 rule. Though they are lazy, biologists suggested that lazy worker ants could be contributing something to the colony that is yet to be determined. In our last research, we used CHC (cross generational elitist selection, heterogeneous recombination, and cataclysmic mutation) with the worker ants’ rule (WACHC) aiming at solving optimization problems in changing environments. CHC is a nontraditional genetic algorithm (GA) which combines a conservative selection strategy that always preserves the best individuals found so far with a radical (highly disruptive) recombination operator. In our last research, we verified that WACHC performs better than CHC in only one case of fully changing environment. In this paper, we further discuss our proposed WACHC dealing with changing environment problems with varying degree of difficulty, compare our proposal with hypermutation GA which is also proposed for dealing with changing environment problems, and discuss the difference between our proposal and ant colony optimization algorithms.     

Molecular valve consisting of poly(acrylic acid) gel

A molecular valve, consisting of poly(acrylic acid) gel-coated Au mesh, was developed based on volume change of the gel in response to cation concentration. The valve closed when concentration of cations such as H⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Cu²⁺, or Al³⁺ was low, whereas opened upon increase in its concentration. The valve re-closed when water was flowed. The concentration where the valve opens was found to increase in the order of Al³⁺, Ca²⁺, and Na⁺ (2 × 10⁻⁴, 5 × 10⁻⁴, and 6 × 10⁻³ M, respectively). The response to Cu²⁺ ion showed similar behaviour, but the opening concentration was ca. 2 × 10⁻⁴ M, which is lower than that of Ca²⁺ ion. The valve appeared to close over the pH range from 3 to 12, whereas to open below and above it. The fastest response time to open the valve (less than 1 min) was obtained for a solution of pH 1–2. The valve showed repeatability at least 25 cycles upon successive loading of a solution of pH 2 and water. Effects of anions and pressure were also studied.     

Morphological characteristics of flood refugia of cobble-bed vegetation

Periodic flooding alters riverine vegetation community composition; moderate flood disturbance maintains communities at an early seral stage, whereas severe floods may remove entire communities. After disturbance, plants may recolonize riverbeds from refugia.Here, we investigated the morphological characteristics of refugia where riverine plants survived large floods. At three sites, plant communities growing on cobble-bars were surveyed, and the hydraulic characteristics of each site were analyzed. The populations of an indicator plant, Anaphalis margaritacea sub-species yedoensis (Franch. et Savat.) were assessed after major floods in 2004 and 2009. At each survey, the particle size and bed composition were measured, and the critical shear-stress required to move particles at each site was calculated. A one-dimensional flow and the average and local shear-stress at ten different discharges, including that of the largest flood were calculated. The results demonstrate that the A. margaritacea community is maintained at locations where the local shear-stress at peak discharge in large-floods does not exceed a critical value. These conditions were achieved in locations with particular morphological characteristics, where the river is not constrained by levees and is restricted by a downstream narrow-pass; in this reach river width increases with discharge thus limiting the increase in water depth with increasing discharge and allowing the establishment of refugia where plant species may survive large floods.Flooding and reestablishment from refugia maintain a characteristic riverbed community in equilibrium.     

The quantum relative entropy as a rate function and information criteria

We prove that the quantum relative entropy is a rate function in large deviation principle. Next, we define information criteria for quantum states and estimate the accuracy of the use of them. Most of the results in this paper are essentially based on Hiai-Ohya-Tsukada theorem.

     

Augmented reality-based block piling game with superimposed collapse prediction

Understanding what cannot be seen is difficult. Physical behavior can be explained on the basis of physical theories even if the behavior cannot be observed. Explanation of what is physically happening in the real world would become easy, however, if annotations were superimposed on the real objects. Herein, the authors demonstrate how an understanding of a physical event can be facilitated by overlapping a real-world situation with a simulation that predicts a future state. This idea is demonstrated in a game application in which a player stacks blocks into a pile until it collapses. In general, it is easy to estimate whether a block on the edge of a table will fall or not. However, it is more difficult to predict whether a stack of many blocks will collapse, and in what manner the stack will collapse. Even though previous research has demonstrated that the problem of how two-dimensionally stacked blocks collapse can be reduced to solving a sequence of convex quadratic programs, algorithms for convex quadratic programs require massive computational resources. Hence, the authors developed a fast and new algorithm based on a linear program. The proposed algorithm realizes real-time simulation based on physics that superimposes predicted collapse. The block that is predicted to fall is superimposed on the real block with a lit background projection. The system was evaluated in an experiment, and superimposed augmented reality annotation was observed to be efficient. The system was also demonstrated in game contests and received positive feedback and comments.     

Intestinal absorption and biological effects of orally administered amorphous silica particles

Although amorphous silica nanoparticles are widely used in the production of food products (e.g., as anticaking agents), there is little information available about their absorption and biological effects after oral exposure. Here, we examined the in vitro intestinal absorption and in vivo biological effects in mice of orally administered amorphous silica particles with diameters of 70, 300, and 1,000 nm (nSP70, mSP300, and mSP1000, respectively) and of nSP70 that had been surface-modified with carboxyl or amine groups (nSP70-C and nSP70-N, respectively). Analysis of intestinal absorption by means of the everted gut sac method combined with an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer showed that the intestinal absorption of nSP70-C was significantly greater than that of nSP70. The absorption of nSP70-N tended to be greater than that of nSP70; however, the results were not statistically significant. Our results indicate that silica nanoparticles can be absorbed through the intestine and that particle diameter and surface properties are major determinants of the degree of absorption. We also examined the biological effects of the silica particles after 28-day oral exposure in mice. Hematological, histopathological, and biochemical analyses showed no significant differences between control mice and mice treated with the silica particles, suggesting that the silica nanoparticles evaluated in this study are safe for use in food production.     

Multifunctional Composites of Chiral Valine Derivative Schiff Base Cu(II) Complexes and TiO2

We have prepared four new Cu(II) complexes containing valine moieties with imidazole ligands at the fourth coordination sites and examined their photo-induced reactions with TiO₂ in order of understanding the reaction mechanisms. Under a nitrogen atmosphere, the intermolecular electron transfer reactions (essentially supramolecular interactions) of these systems, which resulted in the reduction of Cu(II) species to Cu(I) ones, occurred after UV light irradiation. In this study, we have investigated the conditions of the redox reactions in view of substituent effects of aldehyde moieties. The results of cyclic voltammetry (CV) on an rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) suggested that the substitution effects and redox potentials were correlated. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations were also performed to simulate the UV–Vis and circular dichroism (CD) spectra; the results revealed a reasonably good correlation between the substituent effects and the highest occupied molecular orbitals and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (HOMO-LUMO) gaps associated with the most intense transition bands. In addition, we summarized the substitution effects of Cu(II) complexes for their corresponding UV light-induced reactions.     

Performance Comparison of Circuits for Pole‐Mounted STATCOM Using SiC Devices

The recent years have seen an increasing trend in the cumulative installed capacity of distributed generators. As a result, voltage management may become difficult in existing power distribution systems in the future. A STATCOM (STAtic synchronous COMpensator) is a promising option for solving this problem because it can control reactive power rapidly and continuously. For a distribution system, STATCOM needs to be pole‐mounted to realize its low cost. However, a transformer for a STATCOM is large and heavy, and hence it is difficult to install a STATCOM on a distribution pole. We adopt a transformerless STATCOM to reduce STATCOM size and use SiC devices with low‐loss performance to obtain a more compact and efficient STATCOM. There are a large number of circuits available for a STATCOM, and there has been considerable research on performance comparisons among these circuits. However, these comparisons were drawn under different conditions, including switching frequency and level number for the circuits. In addition, these comparisons do not include the use of SiC devices. We made an equitable comparison for a 100 kVa pole‐mounted STATCOM using SiC devices. We discuss the performance and characteristics of each circuit in terms of efficiency and volume.