Translational lemmas for DLOGTIME-uniform circuits,alternating TMs,and PRAMs

We present translational lemmas for the three standard models of parallel computation, and apply them to obtain tight hierarchy results. It is shown that, for arbitrarily small rational constant , (i) there is a language which can be accepted by a -uniform circuit family of depth and size but not by any -uniform circuit family of depth and size , (ii) there is a language which can be accepted by a -time -space ATM with l worktapes but not by any -time -space ATM with the same l worktapes if the number of tape symbols is fixed, and (iii) there is a language which can be accepted by a -time PRAM with processors but not by any -time PRAM with processors. Here, c > 0, d ≥ 1, r ₁ > 1, and r ₂ ≥ 1 are arbitrary rational constants, and l ≥ 2 is an arbitrary integer. Preliminary versions of different parts of this paper appeared in Proc. MCU 2004 (LNCS 3354) and Proc. FCT 2005 (LNCS 3623).     

Alkali-silica reaction and pore solution composition in mortars in sea water

The promotion of expansion of mortars containing a reactive aggregate in 1N NaCl solution at 38 °C was attributed to a rise of OH⁻ ion concentration in the pore solution in the mortars. However, it is ambiguous whether the promotion of expansion of mortars in sea water at a room temperature can be explained in the same way as in NaCl solution at an elevated temperature. This study aims at pursuing the expansion behavior of mortars containing a reactive aggregate relating it to their pore solution composition and the extent of alkalisilica reaction occurring within reactive grains. The alkali-silica reaction in mortars in sea water and 0.51N NaCl solution at 20 °C appears to progress differently from that in mortars in 1N NaCl solution at an elevated temperature of 38 °C. The promotion of expansion of mortars in sea water at 20 °C was found to be responsible for an effect of Cl⁻ ions on the alkali-silica reaction at early stages of immersion. Only when OH⁻ ion concentration in the pore solution was relatively high, NaCl and sea water could accelerate the alkali-silica reaction in mortars at 20 °C.     

Development of an Eddy Current Inspection Technique with Surface Magnetization to Evaluate the Carburization Thickness of Ethylene Pyrolysis Furnace Tubes

An eddy current inspection system that incorporates a C-core probe and a direct current magnetizer for HP-grade ethylene pyrolysis tubes was developed to estimate the degree of carburization of the tubes. Through the development process, the characteristics of the B?CH curves and the electric conductivities of service-aged tubes were clarified, and a method of counteracting the external magnetism of the tube, which disturbs the accurate detection of the degree of tube carburization, by installing a direct current magnetizer was validated. The influence of tube external magnetism in the oxide/nitride layer was properly canceled by installing a magnetizer with a magnetizing current of 0.5?A on the external surface of the tube. In addition, a calibration curve correlating the carburization depth from the external surface of the tube with the normalized inductance was obtained by finite element analysis simulation. The calibration curve revealed that the degree of carburization could be quantitatively evaluated from the detected normalized inductance of service-aged tubes using the developed inspection system.     

A modified extended Kalman filter for linear discrete-time systems with unknown parameters

This technical communique presents a modified extended Kalman filter for estimating the states and unknown parameters in discrete-time, multi-input multi-output linear systems. The hyperstability of the filter is guaranteed by introducing a compensator into the estimation mechanism. It is proved that the estimates for the states and unknown parameters converge to the exact values if some conditions are assumed to the estimation mechanism. A numerical example shows that the proposed filter is much more effective than the extended Kalman filter in the estimation of unknown parameters.     

Lipase made active in hydrophobic media

Enzymes are distinguished from other catalysts by their high substrate specificity. This is a great asset when one wants to apply them for syntheses of various compounds. Their usage, however, generally is limited to hydrophilic reaction media, because they usually are not soluble and active in hydrophobic media. Recently, we have been able to make various enzymes soluble and active in highly hydrophobic organic solvents. The key to this success is the chemical modification of enzymes with an amphipathic synthetic polymer, polyethylene glycol. The activated polymers can be attached to enzymes in aqueous buffer solutions, and once enzymes are modified they become soluble and active in various organic solvents such as benzene, toluene and cholorinated hydrocarbons and exhibit high enzymic activities in these organic solvents. Modified hydrolytic enzymes catalyzed the reverse reaction of hydrolysis in organic solvents. The modified lipase catalyzed various ester synthesis reactions. Because the reactions were conducted in the pure solvent system, it also was possible to study the kinetics and the substrate specificity for ester synthesis reaction. It also catalyzed the polymerization of a hydroxy group containing carboxylic acid due to the bifunctional nature. The modified lipase catalyzed ester exchange between an ester and an alcohol, between an ester and a carboxylic acid and between two esters in organic solvents. When the two substrates for ester exchange were liquid, the reaction could take place without organic solvents. The modified lipase catalyzed an ester exchange reaction between trilaurin and triolein when dissolved in these substrates. Dilauroyl-monooleoylglycerol and monolauroyl-dioleoyl-glycerol were formed from these two substrates in the presence of the modified lipase. The modified enzyme was extremely thermostable in its substrates. In the ester synthesis and ester exchange reactions, a trace amount of water was necessary for expression of the enzymic activity. It is suggested that the amphipathic polymer molecules retained water in close proximity to the enzyme. Presented at the symposium “The Biology, Biochemistry and Technology of Lipase” at the 78th annual meeting of the American Oil Chemists’ Society held May 17–21, 1987, in New Orleans, Louisiana.     

Fluctuation-driven computing on number-conserving cellular automata

A number-conserving cellular automaton (NCCA) is a cellular automaton in which the states of cells are denoted by integers, and the sum of all of the numbers in a configuration is conserved throughout its evolution. NCCAs have been widely used to model physical systems that are ruled by conservation laws of mass or energy. Imai et al. [13] showed that the local transition function of NCCA can be effectively translated into the sum of a binary flow function over pairs of neighboring cells. In this paper, we explore the computability of NCCAs in which the pairwise number flows are performed at fully asynchronous timings. Despite the randomness that is associated with asynchronous transitions, useful computation still can be accomplished efficiently in the cellular automata through the active exploitation of fluctuations [18]. Specifically, certain numbers may flow randomly fluctuating between forward and backward directions in the cellular space, as if they were subject to Brownian motion. Because random fluctuations promise a powerful resource for searching through a computational state space, the Brownian-like flow of the numbers allows for efficient embedding of logic circuits into our novel asynchronous NCCA.     

Constructible functions in cellular automata and their applications to hierarchy results

We investigate time-constructible functions in one-dimensional cellular automata (CA). It is shown that (i) if a function t(n) is computable by an O(t(n)−n)-time Turing machine, then t(n) is time constructible by CA and (ii) if two functions are time constructible by CA, then the sum, product, and exponential functions of them are time constructible by CA. As an application, it is shown that if t₁(n) and t₂(n) are time constructible functions such that lim_n→∞ t₁(n)/t₂(n) = 0 and t₁(n)n, then there is a language which can be recognized by a CA in t₂(n) time but not by any CA in t₁(n) time.     

Effect of addition of cellulose powder on the viscometric behavior of liquid crystalline solutions of ethyl cellulose in m-cresol

Steady-state shear viscosity for the liquid crystalline ethyl cellulose solution filled with cellulose powders was determined using a cone-plate-type viscometer and the effects of cellulose powder content, powder aspect ratio and temperature on the viscometric behavior and phase transformation were discussed. The addition of powder increased the viscosity and decreased the activation energy (E_a) for flow, but did not affect the phase transformation. The viscosity and E_a depended on the aspect ratio; with greater aspect ratio, the viscosity enhancement was accelerated and E_a as well as the decrease in E_a with powder content increased. The phase transformation did not depend on the aspect ratio, the dependences of viscosity and of E_a on powder content depended on the solution phase; the dependences for the anisotropic phase were smaller than those for the isotropic one. The findings appeared to originate from the alignments of powders and rod-like molecules.     

On non-Newtonian flow past a sphere

The approximate solutions for flow of and Ostwald-de Waele fluid past a sphere at R_e·0 = 60 and 1 ? n ? 0·8 are obtained by the use of an extended method of moments. As n decreases, (1) friction drag decreases, (2) pressure drag increases for flow past a blunt body, (3) total drag increases for flow past a sphere, (4) wake length increases for flow past a sphere, (5) separation point moves forward for flow past a sphere.