Structural,electrical and electrochemical properties of polyacrylonitrile-ammonium hexaflurophosphate polymer electrolyte system

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based polymer electrolyte membranes complexed with Ammonium hexafluorophosphate (NH₄PF₆) with different molar concentration are prepared by solution casting method. Increase in the amorphous nature by the addition of Ammonium salt and the formation of polymer-salt complex are confirmed by X ray diffraction studies and infrared spectroscopy respectively. The glass transition temperature is measured for all membranes and it showed a lowest value for the PAN complexed with 20 mol% of NH₄PF₆. Electrical properties are studied by AC impedance spectroscopy. An ionic conductivity of the order of 10^?3 Scm^?1 is obtained for the 80 PAN / 20 NH₄PF₆ polymer electrolyte. Conductivity, dielectric and modulus spectra from the impedance data are analysed to understand the ionic transport mechanism. Transference number measurement is done to study the ionic contribution to the charge transport. A proton battery with the configuration, Zn+ ZnSO₄. 7H₂O /80 PAN / 20 NH₄PF₆ / PbO₂ +V₂O₅ has been constructed and its discharge characteristics are studied.     

Applicability of the Magnification Equation of Lens for Slope Survey

Photography is often used in geological survey, mining engineering or civil engineering to measure the length or width of an object by placing another object such as a scale, a hammer or a cigarette box next to the object. But, it is difficult to place a scale nearby the object when the object is too far and high or too dangerous to get to. In this study, practical applicability of the magnification equation of lens for indirect calculation of the length of a photographed object was examined. From this study, it was found that the applicable distance for the use of the magnification equation of lens was 84 m, even when the focal length was 36mm, and that the applicable distance was more than 300 m with the lens focal length being longer than 100 mm. Moreover, falling behavior, impact load and energy of a rock fall could be calculated readily using obtained information from a photograph.     

Moderately high speed impact of two identical spheres

This paper deals with impacts between two identical spheres in moderately high speed range. Impact of spheres is one of basic problems in mechanical dynamics. Severity of impact is generally characterized by the coefficient of restitution. However, influence of material property on the coefficient of restitution has not been clarified yet. The authors previously investigated direct central impacts of two identical spheres in low speed range and revealed that strain rate sensitivity of material properties could not be ignored even in the low speed impacts. Therefore, this paper investigates the direct central impact of two identical spheres in higher speed range. The impact experiments were performed in range of impact speed 10 m/s–20 m/s by using air-gun setup. It was confirmed that the expressions for the coefficient of restitution and the contact time derived from the low speed impact remained effective in the moderately high speed range. Then numerical simulations by using Finite Element Method (F.E.M) have been carried out, in which the material properties and the strain rate effect were taken into account. The coefficient of restitution, contact time, sphere’s compression and contact circle diameter obtained by experiments and F.E.M. were compared and they matched well. Contact pressure distributions at maximum contact force were investigated. The contact pressure at sphere center varied little with impact speed but the contact pressure increased with impact speed near contact edge. Theoretical expression for prediction of the coefficient of restitution proposed by C. Thornton was examined to the experimental results of this study. To provide an accurate prediction, it is necessary to estimate the contact pressure depending on material properties. Finally, the Meyer analysis was applied to the case of this study and it was found that the Meyer’s law holds in the moderately high speed impact between two identical spheres.     

Azimuthal wave number control of oscillatory thermocapillary convection in a liquid bridge

Thermocapillary convection in a half‐zone liquid bridge of high Prandtl number fluid is widely known to exhibit a three‐dimensional oscillatory flow after the onset of oscillation. The oscillatory flow presents ‘standing’ and ‘traveling’ flows depending upon the temperature difference between the top and bottom rods. In the oscillatory state, the flow shows a modal structure with an azimuthal wave number that depends on the aspect ratio of the liquid bridge and the intensity of the thermocapillarity expressed by the Marangoni number. The present study attempted to control the azimuthal wave number by heating the free surface locally with a prescribed frequency and intensity. The flow in the liquid bridge exhibited different modal structures depending on the heating conditions and a relationship between the frequency and the modal structure was obtained. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 34(7): 460–469, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20086     

Detection method of the Kuroshio front using the satellite-derived chlorophyll-a images

Satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) has been providing high-resolution information of the oceanic front. However, in summer, increasing surface heating effects make SSTs uniform and the SST front disappears. The purpose of the present study is to examine applicability of satellite-derived surface chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) for detection of the Kuroshio front in the ocean south of Japan during the summer season.The Kuroshio surface front is formed between the Kuroshio water (KW) and the coastal water (CW) in the study area. Investigating accumulated in situ observations of SST and Chl-a, it is shown that the difference of Chl-a between KW and CW is increased in summer though that of SST becomes small. Using 76 pairs of cloud-free satellite-derived SST and Chl-a images with 0.01° spatial resolution, their seasonal variations are investigated through two-dimensional (2-D) histograms of Chl-a and SST. In summer, SST ranges from 25 to 30 °C and Chl-a ranges 0.03 to 0.4 mg/m³. Two peaks in the summer 2-D histogram correspond to wider KW and CW areas with rather uniform Chl-a and SST distributions. The peak values are extracted from the 2-D histograms and used to determine a threshold value dividing the KW and CW surface Chl-a during summer. It is found that the Chl-a concentration of 0.17 mg/m³ divides the extracted peaks into two groups, i.e., CW and KW except for a few peaks.The proposed Kuroshio-front detection method using the Chl-a images and the threshold value is examined using the satellite images and in situ data. The threshold contour superimposed in the summer Chl-a image distinctly separates the two representative waters in the ocean south of Japan. The front positions determined by the satellite-derived Chl-a, in situ SST, and in situ surface salinity transects along observation lines crossing the Kuroshio front agree with each other. Applying a traditional Kuroshio front index of temperature at 200 m depth, the capability of new Chl-a threshold in dividing two waters around the near-front area is quantitatively examined. Producing 74 match-ups of the satellite-derived Chl-a and 200-m temperature in the frontal zone, the dividing capability is evaluated quantitatively using the traditional Kuroshio-axis index. The detection capability of the proposed method is 82%, which can be considered high enough for practical applications.     

Market micro-structure analysis by multiagent simulation in X-Economy -- comparison among technical indices

We are developing an agent and server library referred to as X-Economy, by which we can execute multiagent simulations and network games for financial and economic systems. To this end, we analyzed the characteristics of network games in a financial context and compared them with traditional ones. X-Economy has also provided a new research direction in market micro-structure analysis. We executed several kinds of multiagent simulations for technical traders (indices) and obtained non-trivial suggestions regarding the relationship between the market randomness and the effectiveness of technical indices. For instance, the performance of complex technical indices seemed to deeply depend on the characteristics and nature of a market when a market became complex, i.e. it moved far from the Wiener process.     

PID landing orbit motion controller for an indoor blimp robot

Blimp robots are attractive as indoor flying robots because they can float in the air, land safely with low energy, and stay in motion for a long time compared with other flying robots. However, controlling blimp robots is difficult because they have nonlinear characteristics, are influenced by air streams, and can easily be influenced by inertia. Therefore, a robust and adaptive control system is needed for blimp robots. The applied research that has studied the features of indoor flying robots in recent years has prospered. Operating an indoor blimp robot for a long time is difficult because the payload is small, multiple batteries cannot be stacked, and the design of a thruster that gives freedom to the entire blimp robot is difficult. Therefore, an autonomous charge that allows operation for a long time is needed. We have developed a method of landing with orbital control of the charge point that gives autonomy to a blimp robot. The possibility of landing with orbital control is shown. This work was presented in part at the 10th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, February 4–6, 2005 An erratum to this article is available at .     

Identification of an insertion sequence, IS1203 variant, in a Shiga toxin 2 gene of Escherichia coli O157:H7

An insertion sequence composed of 1310 bp was found in Shiga toxin 2 genes of some isolates of Escherichia coli O157:H7. This insertion sequence showed extremely high homology with IS1203 of E. coli O111:H(-). This IS1203 variant was inserted in the region encoding the amino-terminus of the B subunit with a duplication of 3 bp at the target site, resulting in inactivation of the Shiga toxin 2 gene.     

Reliable indirect competitive ELISA used for a survey of ochratoxin A in green coffee from the North of Paraná State, Brazil.

The performance of an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ic-ELISA) based on a monoclonal antibody (mAb) for ochratoxin A (OTA) detection was evaluated in a comparative study with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis using 68 freshly harvested coffee samples from the North of Paraná State, Brazil. The anti-OTA mAb showed high specificity and low cross-reactivity with OTA analogues (OTB and OTalpha), but cross-reacted with OTC. This ic-ELISA showed a detection limit of 3.75 ngg-1 sample, when compared to 0.80 ngg-1 by HPLC, with an ic-ELISA/HPLC correlation coefficient of 0.90. As regards OTA analysis of these coffee samples, natural contamination was detected in 10 samples (14.7%) by both methods, where the ic-ELISA values (range 3.9-7.3 ngg-1) were 1.1 to 1.6-fold higher than HPLC data (2.7-4.7 ngg-1). Five samples (7.4%) were OTA positive (range 0.84-1.30 ngg-1) only by HPLC assay, probably due to the higher detection limit reached by ic-ELISA. OTA was undetectable in 53 samples (77.9%) by both methods, while all positive samples (range 0.84-7.30 ngg-1) showed OTA levels lower than 8 ngg-1 (maximum limit recommended by the European Union). The matrix interference of green coffee was minimized by dilution of sample extracts before carrying out the ELISA assay. This mAb-based ic-ELISA can be effectively applied for OTA screening in coffee, because it is simple, sensitive and sample preparation is easy.