Luminance-Type Additive Mechanism Produces Shading

It has been reported that the luminance mechanism mediates shadow perception of binary images. We evaluated the luminance additivity law to determine whether shading, which is produced by gradual intensity changes, is mediated by luminance or brightness using pictures with tones: two still lives and a painting. They were depicted by two colors-a reference color and a test color. The reference color was white with a constant luminance profile, and the test color was a mixture of red and green in various proportions. The observer’s task was to adjust the luminance of the test color in order that the impression of depth due to shading just disappeared (shading disappearance setting), where the intensity that produced the shading supposed to be equated between the test and the reference colors. The results show that the luminance additivity law holds for shading disappearance settings. This suggests that shading perception is based on luminance or a luminance-type additive mechanism as well as shadow.     

Microstructural stability and age-hardening behavior of Re-added dual two-phase Ni3Al and Ni3V intermetallic alloys

The effect of Re addition on the microstructure and hardening behaviour of the dual two-phase Ni₃Al (L1₂) and Ni₃V (D0₂₂) intermetallic alloy was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Vickers hardness test. The two-phase eutectoid microstructure accompanying the Re-rich precipitates were observed in the channel region of the alloys in which Re substituted for Ni but not in those in which Re substituted for Al and V. The concomitant addition of Nb (or Ta) with Re more stabilized the two-phase eutectoid microstructure and consequently more induced the fine precipitates in the channel region. The annealing at temperatures below the eutectoid temperature was necessary to induce the fine precipitates in the channel region and thereby result in the precipitation hardening. The fine precipitation in the channel region and related hardening was attributed to the alloying feature so that Re is soluble in the A1 (fcc) phase at high temperatures and becomes less soluble in the two intermetallic phases decomposed from the A1 phase at low temperatures.     

Equivalences among plateaued APN functions

Some general results are obtained about pairs of CCZ-equivalent plateaued APN functions, exploiting character theory of finite groups. It is proven that if a plateaued power APN function f over \({\mathbb {F}}_{2^{2m}}\) is CCZ-equivalent to a plateaued function g, then f and g are EA-equivalent.     

Discovery of radioactive silver (110mAg) in spiders and other fauna in the terrestrial environment after the meltdown of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant

Six months after the explosion of TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, radioactive silver (^110mAg), was detected in concentrations of 3754 Bq/kg in Nephila clavata (the orb-web spider; Joro-gumo in Japanese) collected at Nimaibashi, Iitate village in Fukushima Prefecture, whereas ^110mAg in the soil was 43.1 Bq/kg. A survey of 35 faunal species in the terrestrial environment during the 3.5 years after the accident showed that most of Anthropoda had two orders higher ^110mAg in their tissues than soils, although silver is not an essential element for their life. However, tracing of the activity of ^110mAg detected in spider Atypus karschi collected regularly at a fixed location showed that it declined much faster than the physical half-life. These results suggest that ^110mAg was at once biologically concentrated by faunal species, especially Arthropoda, through food chain. The factors affecting the subsequent rapid decline of ^110mAg concentration in faunal species are discussed.     

Metal nanoslit lenses with polarization-selective design

We present comprehensive studies on thin diffraction lenses made of arrays of subwavelength, parallel nanoslits in a gold film. Such a nanoslit lens can operate either as a conventional convex or concave lens. The lenses can be designed to focus linearly polarized light with polarization either perpendicular (TM-lens) or parallel to the slits (TE-lens), while the orthogonal polarization diverges when passing through the lens. The designs of each lens are initially built on the dispersion relations for wave propagation through a parallel-plate waveguide. Both TM- and TE-lenses were realized experimentally, and full-wave numerical simulations fully support the experimental results.     

Construction of Perfect Crystals Conjecturally Corresponding to Kirillov-Reshetikhin Modules over Twisted Quantum Affine Algebras

Assuming the existence of the perfect crystal bases of Kirillov-Reshetikhin modules over simply-laced quantum affine algebras, we construct certain perfect crystals for twisted quantum affine algebras, and also provide compelling evidence that the constructed crystals are isomorphic to the conjectural crystal bases of Kirillov-Reshetikhin modules over twisted quantum affine algebras.     

Sonochemically synthesized core-shell structured Au–Pd nanoparticles supported on γ-Fe2O3 particles

A sample of Au–Pd bimetallic nanoparticles supported on γ-Fe₂O₃ was synthesized in a sonochemically one-pot process. The structural analyses of the synthesized sample were performed by the techniques of X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and UV–vis spectrometry. Results indicated that the synthesized sample formed a core-shell structure in which a gold core was surrounded by a thin palladium shell. The reaction rate constant for the hydrogenation of cyclohexene of the present sample showed higher value than that of Pd nanoparticles supported on γ-Fe₂O₃ and core-shell structured Au–Pd nanoparticles supported on SiO₂. The present sample is a promising catalyst material which has a high catalytic activity.     

Single-shot spectrometry for x-ray free-electron lasers

An experimental scheme to realize single-shot spectrometry for the diagnostics of x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) is presented. The combination of an ultraprecisely figured mirror and a perfect crystal form a simple, high-precision spectrometer that can cover an energy range from a few eV to a hundred eV with high resolution. The application of the spectrometer to determine XFEL pulse widths was investigated theoretically and experimentally. It has been shown that the present system can determine pulse widths from sub-fs to ps in a single shot even for spontaneous radiation. The system can be easily extended to even shorter pulses.     

Properties of hadron and quark matter studied with molecular dynamics

We study the hadron-quark phase transition in a molecular dynamics (MD) of quark degrees of freedom. The hadron state at low density and temperature, and the deconfined quark state at high density and temperature are observed in our model. We investigate the equations of state and draw the phase diagram at wide baryon density and temperature range. We also discuss the transport property, e.g. viscosity, of $q\bar q$ matter. It is found that the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density is less than one for quark matter.     

Some structural features induced by the space-time metrical fluctuation in the theory of gravitational fields

Under the assumption that the so-called space-time fluctuationy(x) in a classical sense, attached to each point of the gravitational field at some microscopic stage, is summarized as the metrical fluctuation in the formg _λκ (x)=g_λκ (x)·exp2σ(y(x)), some new physical aspects induced by the conformal scalarσ(x) (≡σ(y(x))) are found: By introducing the torsionT _κ ^λμ (x) from a general standpoint, the resulting micro-gravitational field is made to have a conformally non-Riemannian structure, where a special form ofT _κ ^λμ (i.e.,T _κ ^λμ =δ _κ ^λ σ_μ?δ _κ ^μ σ_λ(σ_μ=?σ/?x ^μ)) shows some peculiar features. An averaging process with respect toy is taken into account, by which the spatial structure of the corresponding macro-field is shown, in general, to have a somewhat “non”-Riemannian structure due to the contributions of the torsionT _κ ^λμ .