Measurement of self-diffusion coefficients in Li ionic conductors by using the short-lived radiotracer of 8Li

For the effective use of short-lived radioactive beams, soon to be available at the Tokai Radioactive Ion Accelerator Complex, the authors have developed a radiotracer method for diffusion studies in solids. The experimental test was performed by the measurement of the diffusion coefficients of Li in a sample of the compound βLiAl using an α-emitting radiotracer of ⁸Li (T_1/2=0.84 s). It was found that the time-dependent yields of the α particles from the diffusing ⁸Li that was initially implanted in the sample could be used as a measure of the diffusivity of the tracer in a nondestructive way. The method was applied to measure the self-diffusion coefficients of Li in βLiGa, and for investigating how the Li diffusion in the Li ionic conductors is affected by the concentration of atomic defects (i.e., the existence of the atomic vacancies of Li and the defects in Ga sites that are replaced by Li).     

Chain-reaction solution update in MOEA/D and its effects on multi- and many-objective optimization

MOEA/D is one of the promising evolutionary algorithms for multi- and many-objective optimization. To improve the search performance of MOEA/D, this work focuses on the solution update method in the conventional MOEA/D and proposes its alternative, the chain-reaction solution update. The proposed method is designed to maintain and improve the variable (genetic) diversity in the population by avoiding duplication of solutions in the population. In addition, the proposed method determines the order of existing solutions to be updated depending on the location of each offspring in the objective space. Furthermore, when an existing solution in the population is replaced by a new offspring, the proposed method tries to reutilize the existing solution for other search directions by recursively performing the proposed chain-reaction update procedure. This work uses discrete knapsack and continuous WFG4 problems with 2–8 objectives. Experimental results using knapsack problems show the proposed chain-reaction update contributes to improving the search performance of MOEA/D by enhancing the diversity of solutions in the objective space. In addition, experimental results using WFG4 problems show that the search performance of MOEA/D can be further improved using the proposed method.     

Variable space diversity, crossover and mutation in MOEA solving many-objective knapsack problems

In this work, we analyze variable space diversity of Pareto optimal solutions (POS) and study the effectiveness of crossover and mutation operators in evolutionary many-objective optimization. First we examine the diversity of variables in the true POS on many-objective 0/1 knapsack problems with up to 20 items (bits), showing that variables in POS become noticeably diverse as we increase the number of objectives. We also verify the effectiveness of conventional two-point and uniform crossovers, Local Recombination that selects mating parents based on proximity in objective space, and two-point and uniform crossover operators which Controls the maximum number of Crossed Genes (CCG). We use NSGA-II, SPEA2, IBEA _??+? and MSOPS, which adopt different selection methods, and many-objective 0/1 knapsack problems with $n=\{100,250,500,750,\mbox{1,000}\}$ items (bits) and m?=?{2,4,6,8,10} objectives to verify the search performance of each crossover operator. Simulation results reveal that Local Recombination and CCG operators significantly improve search performance especially for NSGA-II and MSOPS, which have high diversity of genes in the population. Also, results show that CCG operators achieve higher search performance than Local Recombination for m?≥?4 objectives and that their effectiveness becomes larger as the number of objectives m increases. In addition, the contribution of CCG and mutation operators for the solutions search is analyzed and discussed.     

Carbonization and graphitization of poly-p-phenylene sulphide (PPS) film

Oriented poly-p-phenylene sulphide (PPS) films (thickness 12 and 75 m) and PPS powder were carbonized/graphitized after stabilizing by oxidation, in order to examine the effect of sulphur on graphitizability of the resulting carbons. The films and the powder resulted in carbons with a high and a low graphitizability respectively. An in-plane oriented structure of the PPS film was the most predominant factor to lead to a high graphitizability, and sulphur in the precursor did not lower the graphitizability when it was subjected to solid-phase carbonization. These phenomena are discussed on the basis of analytical data.     

Market prediction using machine learning based on social media specific features

Artificial Life and Robotics - In recent years, unspecified messages posted on social media have significantly affected the price fluctuations of online-traded products, such as stocks and virtual...     

Chemical modification of group IV graphene analogs

Mono-elemental two-dimensional (2D) crystals (graphene, silicene, germanene, stanene, and so on), termed 2D-Xenes, have been brought to the forefront of scientific research. The stability and electronic properties of 2D-Xenes are main challenges in developing practical devices. Therefore, in this review, we focus on 2D free-standing group-IV graphene analogs (graphene quantum dots, silicane, and germanane) and the functionalization of these sheets with organic moieties, which could be handled under ambient conditions. We highlight the present results and future opportunities, functions and applications, and novel device concepts.     

Crossover from 3D to 2D metallic conduction in Sr2RuO4

We have investigated the normal-state conduction of superconducting Sr₂RuO₄ (T_c 1K), which is isostructural to La_2–xSr_xCuO₄. The resistivity of single crystals shows a crossover at T_M130K from 3D metallic conduction at lower temperatures to 2D one at higher temperatures. Concerning the temperature dependence of the out-of-plane resistivity, we present a systematic interpretation based on competition between the life time of the quasiparticles and the time for the quasiparticles to travel between the adjacent RuO₂ planes.     

A Hilbert warping method for handwriting gesture recognition

We propose a novel sequence alignment algorithm for recognizing handwriting gestures by a camera. In the proposed method, an input image sequence is aligned to the reference sequences by phase-synchronization of analytic signals which are transformed from original feature values. A cumulative distance is calculated simultaneously with the alignment process, and then used for the classification. A major benefit of this method is that over-fitting to sequences of incorrect categories is restricted. The proposed method exhibited higher recognition accuracy in handwriting gesture recognition, compared with the conventional dynamic time warping method which explores optimal alignment results for all categories.     

CuO/SnO2-In2O3 sensor for monitoring CO concentration in a reducing atmosphere

The CO sensing property of CuO-loaded SnO₂-In₂O₃ sensor was investigated in a reducing atmosphere. The sensor response to CO for CuO/SnO₂-In₂O₃ (8/2) was much higher than that for CuO/SnO₂ in the range of 200-1000 ppm of CO concentration. Such a high sensor response of CuO/SnO₂-In₂O₃ may originate from the high dispersion of CuO playing a role as sensing site.