Binary Adsorption Isotherms of Water and Ethyl Acetate Vapor for Materials Contained in a Box of a Tobacco Product

An experimental study has been carried out on the characteristics of binary adsorption isotherms of water and volatile flavor for typical materials used in a box of a tobacco product or cigarettes. Ethyl acetate chosen as a model for water-soluble volatile flavor. Binary adsorption isotherms for the tobacco, papers, filters, and activated carbons were measured with a flow-type multi-component adsorption system under the canstant conditions of temperature a t 303 K and vapor pressure of water a t 2.5 kPain the vapor pressure range of ethyl acetate from 0 to 4.2 kPa. A linear equation was applied to express the binary adsorption isotherms for the tobacco, papers and filters, while a Dubinin-Astakhov equation was applied for the activated carbons. The binary adsorption was characterized into three groups, depending on the selectivity as well as the mechanism of adsorption; i.e.(l) for tobacco and papers, water was adsorbed much greater rather than ethyl acetate, (2) for filters, ethyl acetate was adsorbed on the surface as great as water, (3) for activated carbons, ethyl acetate was adsorbed much greater onto their micropores rather than water. The results showed that ethyl     

A master-slave control system for a semi-autonomous underwater vehicle-manipulator system

Underwater vehicle-manipulator systems (UVMS) are expected to play an important role in ocean exploration. It is considered that UVMS will be operated by both automatic and manual control. We have proposed an automatic control method. In this article, we propose a master-slave system for a UVMS. The effectiveness of the proposed master-slave control system is demonstrated by using a floating underwater robot with a 2-link manipulator.     

Cooperative manipulation of a floating object by some space robots with joint velocity controllers: application of a tracking control method using the transpose of the generalized Jacobian matrix

We have studied the cooperative manipulation of floating object by several space robots. For these cooperative motions, we have reported that a tracking control method using the transpose of the generalized Jacobian matrix (GJM) can be utilized for robots with joint torque controllers. For cooperative motions by some robots with joint velocity controllers, we proposed a tracking control method using the transpose of the GJM. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method.     

Digital RAC with a disturbance observer for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems

Most control methods of underwater vehiclemanipulator systems (UVMS) are based on the computed torque method that is used for underwater robotic vehicles. We have proposed a resolved acceleration control (RAC) method for UVMS. In this article, we propose a disturbance compensation control method for both vehicle and manipulator based on the RAC method. Experimental results using an underwater robot with a vertical planar 2-link manipulator show that the proposed control method has good control performance.     

ProcDef: Local‐to‐global Deformation for Skeleton‐free Character Animation

Animations of characters with flexible bodies such as jellyfish, snails, and, hearts are difficult to design using traditional skeleton‐based approaches. A standard approach is keyframing, but adjusting the shape of the flexible body for each key frame is tedious. In addition, the character cannot dynamically adjust its motion to respond to the environment or user input. This paper introduces a new procedural deformation framework (ProcDef) for designing and driving animations of such flexible objects. Our approach is to synthesize global motions procedurally by integrating local deformations. ProcDef provides an efficient design scheme for local deformation patterns; the user can control the orientation and magnitude of local deformations as well as the propagation of deformation signals by specifying line charts and volumetric fields. We also present a fast and robust deformation algorithm based on shape‐matching dynamics and show some example animations to illustrate the feasibility of our framework.     

An adaptive observer for a spacecraft–manipulator system using a camera mounted on its spacecraft

This paper deals with a motion control system for a space robot with a manipulator. Many motion controllers require the positions of the robot body and the manipulator hand with respect to an inertial coordinate system. In order to measure them, a visual sensor using a camera is frequently used. However, there are two difficulties in measuring them by means of a camera. The first one is that a camera is mounted on the robot body, and hence it is difficult to directly measure the position of the robot body by means of it. The second one is that the sampling period of a vision system with a general-purpose camera is much longer than that of a general servo system. In this paper, we develop an adaptive state observer that overcomes the two difficulties. In order to investigate its performance, we design a motion control system that is constructed by combining the observer with a PD control input, and then conduct numerical simulations for the control system. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed observer.     

蒙药阿嘎日-35中多元素的测定——微波消解/等离子体发射光谱法

采用微波消解-ICP-AES法测定了蒙古药-阿嘎日-35中的Fe,Cu,Cd,Ca,Mg,Mn,Zn,Sr,Co,Ni,Cr等金属元素的含量。实验结果表明,微波消解法快速、高效、节约试剂,并在高压密封系统中进行消解,避免了样品的污染,过程易于控制,消解效率高。微波消解/等离子体发射光谱法测定的结果,回收率为98.5%~105.1%,RSD为0.4%~2.3%。蒙古药-阿嘎日-35中含多种金属元素,尤其Ca,Mg,Sr,Fe,Zn的含量较高。     

A Water‐Soluble Mechanochromic Luminescent Pyrene Derivative Exhibiting Recovery of the Initial Photoluminescence Color in a High‐Humidity Environment

Switching of the luminescence properties of molecular materials in response to mechanical stimulation is of fundamental interest and also has a range of potential applications. Herein, a water‐soluble mechanochromic luminescent pyrene derivative having two hydrophilic dendrons is reported. This pyrene derivative is the first example of a mechanochromic luminescent organic compound that responds to relative humidity. Mechanical stimulation (grinding) of this pyrene derivative in the solid state results in a change of the photoluminescence from yellow to green. Subsequent exposure to water vapor induces recovery of the initial yellow photoluminescence. The color change is reversible through at least ten cycles. It is also demonstrated that this compound can be applied as a mechano‐sensing material in frictional wear testing for grease, owing to its immiscibility in non‐polar solvents and its non‐crystalline behavior. Transmission electron microscope and atomic force microscope observations of samples prepared from dilute aqueous solutions of the pyrene derivative on suitable substrates, together with dynamic light scattering measurements for the compound in aqueous solution, indicate that this amphiphilic dumbbell‐shaped molecule forms micelles in water.     

Improvement in thermal endurance of D-mannitol as phase-change material by impregnation into nanosized pores

This paper describes the control of the melting point and improvement of the thermal endurance of D-mannitol (melting point T_m = 440 K) as a phase-change material (PCM) by vacuum impregnation of the PCM into nanosized pores of porous SiO₂ grains. First, we examined the effects of the average pore size (D_P) of porous SiO₂ on T_m and latent heat (L) of PCM/SiO₂ composites. Second, we investigated the thermal endurance of the composites using constant temperature kinetics based on L of the PCM and composites. Third, we performed cyclic tests of melting and freezing on the composite to evaluate leakage of the PCM. Thermophysical properties of the samples were measured by differential scanning calorimetry, and the following results were obtained: (1) The impregnation ratio of the composites was 0.91–0.99; therefore, almost all pores were completely filled with the PCM. (2) T_m shifted to lower temperature with smaller D_P, reaching 413 K in case of the PCM/SiO₂ composite with a D_P of 11.6 nm (3) T_m was derived as a function of D_P from the Gibbs–Thomson equation taking into account the existence of a nonfreezing layer on the surface of the pore wall. (4) The duration of thermal degradation of the PCM/SiO₂ composite with D_P = 11.6 nm was three times longer than that of the pure PCM at a temperature that is 10 K more than each melting point. (5) The PCM/SiO₂ composite with D_P = 11.6 nm can use as a shape-stable PCM composite without leakage of PCM.     

Organic–inorganic nanomatrix structure and properties of related naturally occurring rubbery macromolecules

The outstanding mechanical properties of soft materials i.e. natural rubber are partly due to the organic–inorganic nanomatrix structure because numerous organic microparticles are dispersed in a small amount of an inorganic nanomatrix composed of inorganic nanoparticles and organic macromolecules. Here we form an organic–inorganic nanomatrix using graft-copolymerization of a vinyl monomer with an inorganic oxide precursor onto natural rubber particles with an average diameter of 1 μm dispersed in water. The inorganic oxide precursor is converted into inorganic oxide nanoparticles through hydrolysis and condensation, forming chemical linkages between natural rubber microparticles and inorganic oxide nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy indicates that the organic–inorganic nanomatrix is densely filled with inorganic oxide nanoparticles and the natural rubber microparticles are dispersed in the nanomatrix. This nanomatrix composite realizes both energetic elasticity and entropic elasticity of a soft material, opening a novel field of building block chemistry with respect to a pair of organic microparticles and inorganic nanoparticles.