Intracellular recovery of gold by microbial reduction of AuCl4 ions using the anaerobic bacterium Shewanella algae

Microbial reduction and intracellular precipitation of gold was achieved at 25 °C and pH 7 by using the mesophilic anaerobic bacterium Shewanella algae with H₂ as the electron donor. The reductive precipitation of gold by S. algae was a fast process: 0.1–1 mol/m³ AuCl₄⁻ ions were completely reduced to insoluble gold within 30 min. The biogenic precipitates were crystalline gold nanoparticles of 10–20 nm present in the periplasmic space. The reducing power of S. algae at 3.2 × 10¹⁵ cells/m³ and 25 °C was comparable to that of aqueous citric acid solution (chemical reductant) at 20 mol/m³ and 50 °C. The intracellular recovery of gold is potentially attractive as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional methods.     

A distributed motion coordination strategy for multiple nonholonomic mobile robots in cooperative hunting operations

This paper presents a distributed smooth time-varying feedback control law for coordinating motions of multiple nonholonomic mobile robots of the Hilare-type to capture/enclose a target by making troop formations. This motion coordination is a cooperative behavior for security against invaders in surveillance areas. Each robot in this control law has its own coordinate system and it senses a target/invader, other robots and obstacles, to achieve this cooperative behavior without making any collision. Each robot especially has a two-dimensional control input referred to as a “formation vector” and the formation is controllable by the vectors. The validity of this control law is supported by computer simulations.     

The generic viewpoint assumption and planar bias

We show that generic viewpoint and lighting assumptions resolve standard visual ambiguities by biasing toward planar surfaces. Our model uses orthographic projection with a two-dimensional affine warp and Lambertian reflectance functions, including cast and attached shadows. We use uniform priors on nuisance variables such as viewpoint direction and the light source. Limitations of using uniform priors on nuisance variables are discussed.     

Development of an Autonomous Quadruped Robot for Robot Entertainment

In this paper, we present Robot Entertainment as a new field of the entertainment industry using autonomous robots. For feasibility studies of Robot Entertainment, we have developed an autonomous quadruped robot, named MUTANT, as a pet-type robot. It has four legs, each of which has three degree-of-freedom, and a head which also has three degree-of-freedom. Micro camera, stereo microphone, touch sensors, and other sensor systems are coupled with newly developed behavior generation system, which has emotion module as its major components, and generates high complex and interactive behaviors. Agent architecture, real-world recognition technologies, software component technology, and some dedicated devices such as Micro Camera Unit, were developed and tested for this purpose. From the lessons learned from the development of MUTANT, we refined the design concept of MUTANT to derive requirements for a general architecture and a set of interfaces of robot systems for entertainment applications. Through these feasibility studies, we consider entertainment applications a significant target at this moment from both scientific and engineering points of view.     

Role of number of consecutive voltage zero-crossings in propagation of water trees in polyethylene

Effects of superposition of a low-frequency (0.1 to 50 Hz) voltage and a high-frequency 2 kHz voltage on the growth of water trees in polyethylene are examined. It has become clear that both the number of total voltage zero-crossings during the whole voltage application period and the number of consecutive voltage zero-crossings in the instant of the polarity reversal of the low-frequency voltage play important roles in the length and shape of water trees. Namely, the water tree length becomes longer as the number of total zero-crossings increases. Furthermore, among the voltages with the same number of total zero-crossings, the length becomes even longer with a prolonged shape in the direction of electric field as the number of consecutive zero-crossings increases. Effects of superposition of a high-frequency voltage onto a dc voltage are also examined. In this case, the dc voltage seems not to have any influence to the tree growth. By assuming the presence of space charge around the water-tree tip, the effective zero-crossings become only sensitive to the high-frequency component. Therefore, this result also indicates that the number of voltage reversals at the tree tip plays a crucial role in the growth of water trees.     

Numerical computation of cross‐coupled algebraic Riccati equations related to H2/H∞ control problem for singularly perturbed systems

In this paper, we present a numerical algorithm to the cross‐coupled algebraic Riccati equations(CARE) related to H₂/H_∞ control problems for singularly perturbed systems (SPS) by means of Newton's method. The resulting algorithm can be widely used to solve Nash game problems and robust control problems because the CARE is solvable even if the quadratic term has an indefinite sign. We prove that the resulting iterative algorithm has the property of the quadratic convergence. Using the solution of the CARE, we construct the high‐order approximate H₂/H_∞ controller. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Friction Powder Compaction for Fabrication of Open-Cell Aluminum Foam by the Sintering and Dissolution Process Route

A new friction powder compaction (FPC) process by the sintering and dissolution process (SDP) route for fabricating open-cell aluminum (Al) foam, which requires no external heat sources, was developed. Foams with porosities of 74 and 83 pct were successfully fabricated and their compressive responses were investigated. The sintered mixture during the removal process was observed nondestructively by X-ray computed tomography (CT) to reveal the progress of the removal of soluble particles and to confirm that they were completely dissolved.