Fast calculation using parallel processing and pipeline processing in power system analysis

This paper presents an application of parallel processing and pipeline processing to power system analysis. The system matrix is transformed to a bordered block diagonal form (BBDF) matrix for effective utilization of the processors. After LU factorization, subnetworks organize sparse matrices and the boundary network organizes a full matrix. First, a parallel processing technique is used to calculate subnetworks. Then, as pipeline processing is applied, inverse matrix of the boundary network is multiplied. The proposed method is made operational on a parallel computing system including a pipeline processor. A consideration on the transient stability analysis using the proposed method also is presented at the end of this paper.     

A static voltage fluctuation compensator for AC electric railway using self-commutated inverters

In this paper, the authors describe the basic configuration of an RPC (Railway Static Power Conditioner), its compensation principles and successful test results (using a small model of RPC). An ac electric railway is placed under a rapidly changing single-phase load. To avoid a voltage fluctuation under single-phase loads, electric power is received from a large source. At a feeding substation, three-phase electric power is transformed into two kinds of directional single-phase feeding electric power. The authors have already proposed a static voltage compensator for the ac electric railway, called “RPC.” The RPC links a pair of feeding circuits, using two self-commutated inverters. At the substation, the RPC accommodates an active power in the directional pair of feeding circuits to balance three-phase power, and possess a reactive power to regulate a three-phase voltage fluctuation. At a sectioning post, it can compensate for voltage drop using reactive power. It can also act as an active filter to compensate for harmonics. The authors have made a small model (220 V, 20 kVA) of the RPC, and report on the test results obtained using this small model under various conditions. The results indicate that the RPC can accommodate single phase loads, such as transformers and thyristors, can handle an exciter rush current from a transformer, can compensate for harmonics, and so on.     

Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing a novel type of acetylated low density lipoprotein receptor. Isolation and characterization

Macrophage scavenger receptors mediate the recognition of a wide range of negatively charged macromolecules including acetylated low density lipoproteins (AcLDL). Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were cultured in the presence of increasing concentrations of simvastatin, a cholesterol biosynthesis inhibitor, and AcLDL as the sole source of exogenous lipoproteins. The cells surviving under these conditions specifically bound 125I-labeled AcLDL with high affinity and degraded them via an endocytic pathway. Unexpectedly, the association and degradation of 125I-labeled AcLDL by these CHO cells were not inhibited by dextran sulfate, fucoidan, and polyinosinic acid, competitors of macrophage scavenger receptors, but were completely inhibited by maleylated bovine serum albumin. Furthermore, these cells effectively took up negatively charged liposomes containing acidic phospholipids such as phosphatidylserine and phosphatidic acid, whereas CHO cells expressing macrophage scavenger receptors did not. AcLDL and negatively charged liposomes were cross-competed with each other. Northern blot analysis using the cDNA for the macrophage scavenger receptor revealed that these CHO cells did not express this receptor. From these observations, we conclude that the isolated CHO cells express a novel type of AcLDL receptor, which is distinct from macrophage scavenger receptors with respect to ligand specificity and competitor sensitivity.     

Molecular structure of a wheat chromosome end healed after gametocidal gene-induced breakage

In the progeny of the monosomic addition line of common wheat, Triticum aestivum, carrying the gametocidal chromosome of Aegilops cylindrica, deletion chromosomes carrying the break point within the nucleolar organizing region of chromosome 1B appeared. Attempts were made to amplify the break points by PCR using primers of telomere and rDNA (rRNA gene). In one deletion line, specific amplification of DNA fragments including the 18S rRNA gene, telomere repeats, and their junction occurred. At the junction of telomere and rRNA gene there was a 31-bp inverted duplication of the rRNA gene. Telomere sequences were initiated from the sequence TAG in the duplication. Between the duplications a small sequence was also inserted. This novel DNA sequence at the break point indicates that the breakage-fusion-bridge cycle(s) took place after the first chromatin breakage by the gametocidal gene.     

Major components of a complete text reading system

The document image processes used in a recently developed text reading system are described. The system consists of three major components: document analysis, document understanding, and character segmentation/recognition. The document analysis component extracts lines of text from a page for recognition. The document understanding component extracts logical relationships between the document constituents. The character segmentation/recognition component extracts characters from a text line and recognizes them. Experiments on more than a hundred documents have proved that the proposed approaches to document analysis and document understanding are robust even for multicolumned and multiarticle documents containing graphics and photographs, and that the proposed character segmentation/recognition method is robust enough to cope with omnifont characters which frequently touch each other     

Structure and function of the long terminal repeats of feline leukemia viruses derived from naturally occurring acute myeloid leukemias in cats

Long terminal repeats of feline leukemia viruses cloned from feline acute myeloid leukemias frequently contained direct repeats of 40 to 74 bp in the upstream region of the enhancer (URE). The repetitive URE conferred an enhancer function upon gene expression in myeloid cells, suggesting its association with tumorigenic potential in myeloid cells.     

Silicon dioxide and hafnium dioxide evaporation characteristics from a high-frequency sweep e-beam system

Reactive oxygen evaporation characteristics were determined as a function of the front-panel control parameters provided by a programmable, high-frequency sweep e-beam system. An experimental design strategy used deposition rate, beam speed, pattern, azimuthal rotation speed, and dwell time as the variables. The optimal settings for obtaining a broad thickness distribution, efficient silicon dioxide boule consumption, and minimal hafnium dioxide defect density were generated. The experimental design analysis showed the compromises involved with evaporating these oxides.     

On compositional reasoning about anonymity and privacy in epistemic logic

In this paper, we exploit epistemic logic (or the modal logic of knowledge) for multiagent systems to discuss the compositionality of several privacy-related information-hiding/disclosure properties. The properties considered here are anonymity, privacy, onymity, and identity. Our initial observation reveals that anonymity/privacy properties are not necessarily sequentially compositional. This means that even though a system comprising several sequential phases satisfies a certain unlinkability property in each phase, the entire system does not always enjoy a desired unlinkability property. We show that the compositionality can be guaranteed provided that the phases of the system satisfy what we call independence assumptions. More specifically, we develop a series of theoretical case studies of what assumptions are sufficient to guarantee the sequential compositionality of various degrees of anonymity, privacy, onymity, and/or identity properties. Similar results for parallel composition are also discussed. Further, we use the probabilistic extension of epistemic logic to consider the compositionality of probabilistic anonymity/privacy. We show that the compositionality can also be guaranteed in the probabilistic setting, provided that the phases of the system satisfy a probabilistic independence assumption.