Development of a calculation system for the estimation of decontamination effects

A calculation system for the estimation of decontamination effects (CDE) is developed in the present work to aid in the effective planning of decontamination procedures. This system calculates dose rate distribution before and after decontamination according to the distribution of radioactivity and the decontamination factor. A dose rate reduction factor is also used to estimate decontamination effects. Results obtained from CDE were compared with measurements and particle and heavy-ion transport code system (PHITS) simulations. The CDE successfully reproduced the measured and calculated dose rate distributions, requiring less than several seconds of calculation time.     

Orientation of poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofiber and crystallites in non-woven electrospun nanofiber mats under uniaxial stretching

The development of macroscopic nanofiber orientation and microscopic crystallite and molecular chain orientation have been investigated during uniaxial stretching of electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) non-woven nanofiber mats. Scanning electron microscopy and stress-strain/small-angle X-ray scattering show that the macroscopic nanofiber orientation significantly increases during the initial stage of deformation, and approaches a plateau on the way of stretching. Detailed analyses of the stress-strain/wide-angle X-ray diffraction measurement and polarized Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicate that the microscopic crystallite and molecular chain orientation rapidly increase at the initial stage of stretching due to macroscopic nanofiber orientation. At higher deformation, the microscopic modes of orientation continuously develop as a result of the nanofiber stretching. The complicated deformation process of non-woven nanofiber mats is discussed in terms of macroscopic nanofiber orientation and the microscopic crystallite and molecular chain orientation.     

Numerical Analysis of Effective Thermal Conductivity of Microwire Array Element

We have used the finite-element method to calculate numerically the equations of electrical and thermal transport. The thermal conductivity of a wire array is analyzed. The influence of the wire array on the effective thermal conductivity of the element is discussed. The effective thermal conductivity decreases as the wire diameter is reduced. Decreasing the packing density significantly reduces the effective thermal conductivity. In the classical regime, the ratio of the effective electrical conductivity to the effective thermal conductivity of the wire array can be expressed as a function of packing density; this ratio decreases as the packing density decreases. The ratio for a wire array with realistic parameters is similar to that of bulk bismuth. Therefore, to improve the thermoelectric figure of merit, it is critical to enhance the intrinsic power factor in a wire by exploiting thermomagnetic or quantum effects.     

Electrical Nanocontact Between Bismuth Nanowire Edges and Electrodes

Three methods for attaching electrodes to a bismuth nanowire sample were investigated. In the first and second methods, thin layers of titanium and copper were deposited by ion plating under vacuum onto the edge surface of individual bismuth nanowire samples that were encapsulated in a quartz template. Good electrical contact between the electrodes and the nanowire was achieved using silver epoxy and conventional solder on the thin-film layers in the first and second methods, respectively. In the third method, a low-melting-point solder was utilized and was also successful in achieving good electrical contact in air atmosphere. The connection methods showed no difference in terms of resistivity temperature dependence or Seebeck coefficient. The third method has an advantage in that nanocontact is easily achieved; however, diffusion of the solder into the nanowire allows contamination near the melting point of the solder. In the first and second methods, the thin-film layer enabled electrical contact to be more safely achieved than the direct contact used in the third method, because the thin-film layer prevented diffusion of binder components.     

Radio-photoluminescence observed in Eu-doped BABF glass-ceramics

Radio-photoluminescence (RPL), which is an infrequent phenomenon observed in phosphor materials where new luminescent centre is generated by interacting with ionizing radiation, was observed in Eu-doped BaAlBO₃F₂ (BABF) glass-ceramics. The as-prepared material shows photoluminescence (PL) only due to the 4f‐4f transitions of Eu³⁺ whereas an additional broad emission band appears around 510?nm, which is due to the 5d‐4f transitions of Eu²⁺. The appearance of the Eu²⁺ as a new emission centre is an evidence of RPL. The RPL in this system is based on intra-valence reduction of Eu ion (Eu³⁺→Eu²⁺), which was confirmed as a decrease of PL intensity by Eu³⁺ and increase of PL intensity by Eu²⁺ as a function of irradiation dose. Moreover, additional RPL centre is observed after heat-treatment of irradiated material, which is seen as a broad PL peak centering around 480?nm. Based on the luminescence features, the latter RPL is characterized to defect-related luminescence.     

Multi-bit Sigma-Delta TDC Architecture with Improved Linearity

This paper describes the architecture and principles of operation of sigma-delta ( ΣΔ) time-to-digital converters (TDC) for high-speed I/O interface circuit test applications. In particular, we describe multi-bit ΣΔ TDC architectures; they offer good accuracy with short testing time. However, mismatches among delay cells in delay lines degrade their linearity. Here we propose two methods to improve the overall TDC linearity: a data-weighted-average (DWA) algorithm, and a self-calibration method that measures delay values using a ring oscillator circuit. Our Matlab simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of these approaches.     

Modeling response granularity with mixture models: A case of severity ratings in child maltreatment

Behaviormetrika - Heaping, where responses are concentrated in round numbers, such as 5 or 10, is one of the response behaviors observed in surveys. The heaping phenomenon in subjective quantities...     

Bilateral Control of a Velocity Control System Using Electric and Hydraulic Actuators

Working in extreme environments (e.g., at disaster sites) is dangerous for humans. Hence, it is important to use teleoperated robots in such extreme environments. Because heavy lifting work is involved, hydraulic actuators with high output are more commonly used than electric actuators. Therefore, it is necessary to operate remotely controlled robots driven by hydraulic actuators. Bilateral control is remote control with a sense of force. Because most bilateral control systems have been studied mainly using electric actuators, bilateral control using hydraulic actuators is still a challenge. In this study, we propose placing a bilateral controller between an electric actuator on the master side and a hydraulic actuator on the slave side using position and velocity. The controller exhibits the dynamics of bilateral control systems using position and velocity. In addition, the control performance of conventional methods and that of the proposed method are compared and experimentally verified.     

A foldable OLED display with an in‐cell touch sensor having embedded metal‐mesh electrodes

A foldable organic light‐emitting diode display integrating a touch sensor is fabricated. The touch sensor has an in‐cell structure where metal‐mesh sensor electrodes are formed in a counter substrate. It is demonstrated that touch on the entire panel surface, including a bent portion, is detected and that the touch panel operates correctly after 100,000 folding operations with a radius of curvature of 5 mm.     

Hole transport in conducting ultrathin films of PEDOT/PSS prepared by layer-by-layer deposition technique

Multilayered ultrathin films of a conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT/PSS) were prepared by layer-by-layer deposition technique. These films were characterized by absorption spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, cyclic voltammetry and potential step chronoamperometry. The PEDOT/PSS films were layered up with a bilayer thickness of 5 nm and the surface roughness of the films was improved after the ultrasonicated pretreatment of a PEDOT/PSS aqueous dispersion prior to the deposition. The ultrathin films thus obtained kept excellent diffusion constant of hole carriers, 5×10⁻¹⁰ cm² s⁻¹, as high as that of spin-cast films of PEDOT/PSS, indicating that the conducting polymer films are fabricated with nanometer-scale precision and act as a junction layer between the electrode and electrochemically active organic materials.