Complex genetic evolution of artificial self‐replicators in cellular automata

It is widely believed that evolutionary dynamics of artificial self‐replicators realized in cellular automata (CA) are limited in diversity and adaptation. Contrary to this view, we show that complex genetic evolution may occur within simple CA. The evolving self‐replicating loops (“evoloops”) we investigate exhibit significant diversity in macro‐scale morphologies and mutational biases, undergoing nontrivial genetic adaptation by maximizing colony density and enhancing sustainability against other species. Nonmutable subsequences enable genetic operations that alter fitness differentials and promote long‐term evolutionary exploration. These results demonstrate a unique example of genetic evolution hierarchically emerging from local interactions between elements much smaller than individual replicators. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 10: 33–39, 2004     

Determination of fluorine in standard rocks by photon activation analysis

A highly sensitive determination of fluorine in standard rocks by photon activation using the¹⁹F(,n)¹⁸F reaction combined with pyrohydrolysis for the separation of¹⁸F has been reported. The irradiation energy was operated at 20 MeV to avoid the interference from Na, because Na is one of the major element in rocks and¹⁸F is also produced from Na via²³Na(,n)¹⁸F reaction above its threshold energy, 20.9 MeV. After irradiation, fluorine was extracted by pyrohydrolysis and separated as LaF₃ precipitate. It was ascertained that the average recovery of fluorine in standard rocks was about 90% and the precipitate was of high radiochemical purity. This method was applied to the analysis of ten GSJ rock reference samples and two USGS standard rocks issued by the Geological Survey of Japan and the United States Geological Survey, respectively. The detection limit of this method was 0.02 g/g, and the results obtained by this method were in good agreement with the recommended values. This method was easily applied to the determination of a few ppm level of fluorine in rock samples, such as ultrabasic rock and feldspar.     

Efficient eosin y dye-sensitized solar cell containing Br-/Br3- electrolyte

We found that Br-/Br3- is more suitable than an I-/I3- couple in dye-sensitized solar cells in terms of higher open-circuit photovoltage (Voc) production and higher overall energy conversion efficiency (eta) if the dye sensitizer has a more positive potential than that of Br-/Br3-. Under simulated AM1.5 one sun, an eosin Y dye-sensitized solar cell containing 0.4 M LiBr + 0.04 M Br2 electrolyte in acetonitrile yielded a short-circuit photocurrent (Jsc) of 4.63 mA cm(-2), Voc of 0.813 V, and fill factor (FF) of 0.693, corresponding to 2.61% of eta. Under the same conditions except for the electrolyte 0.4 M LiI + 0.04 M I2 in acetonitrile instead, the device produced 1.67% of eta (Jsc = 5.15 mA cm(-2), Voc = 0.451 V, FF = 0.721). Replacement of I-/I3- with Br-/Br3- in eosin Y dye-sensitized solar cells yielded a significant increase in Voc offset by slight decreases in Jsc and FF, leading to an increase in eta by 56%. The significant gain in Voc was attributed to the enlarged energy level difference between the redox potential of the electrolyte and the Fermi level of TiO2 and the suppressed charge recombination as well. The rate for charge recombination between bromine and the injected electrons was determined to be first order in bromine.     

Oxidative Conversion of 3‐Alkoxyfurans to 2‐Hydroxy‐3(2H)‐furanones and 2‐Hydroxy‐2‐butene‐1,4‐diones with 2,3‐Dichloro‐5,6‐dicyano‐1,4‐benzoquinone (DDQ) or Phenyltrimethylammonium Tribromide (PTAB) in t‐BuOH

2‐Alkoxy‐1,3,4‐triphenylfurans were oxidized to 3‐alkoxy‐2,4,5‐triphenyl‐ 2‐butene‐1,4‐diones with 2,3‐dichloro‐5,6‐dicyano‐1,4‐benzoquinone (DDQ) in t‐BuOH. In contrast, various 3‐alkoxy‐2,4,5‐triphenylfurans were directly converted to 2‐hydroxy‐3(2H)‐furanone with phenyltrimethylammonium tribromide (PTAB) in t‐BuOH. The oxidative ring opening of 3‐alkoxy‐2,5‐diphenylfurans to cis‐2‐hydroxy‐2‐butene‐1,4‐dione was also accomplished with PTAB in t‐BuOH under the same reaction conditions.     

Photoelectrochemical decomposition of water on nanocrystalline BiVO4 film electrodes under visible light

The nanocrystalline BiVO4 film electrode on conducting glass showed an excellent efficiency (IPCE = 29% at 420 nm) for the decomposition of water under visible light.     

Magnetic circular dichroism of [Co/Pd] and [CoB/Pd] multilayered films

Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) and X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) at the Co L_2,3-edge of [Co/Pd]₂₀ and [CoB/Pd]₂₀ multilayered films, which were fabricated at 260 °C with different magnetic layer thicknesses (δ), have been measured. The lineshapes of XAS–MCD show that the electronic state of Co 3d of the films hardly changes even when sputtered at higher temperatures. The expectation values of orbital and spin angular momentum (〈L_z〉 and 〈S_z〉) are estimated using the sum rule, and it is found that 〈L_z〉/〈S_z〉 in δ<0.5 nm is larger than that in δ>0.5 nm.     

Suppression of Sea-Ice Clutter Observed by a Millimeter Wave Radar Using a New Log-Weibull/CFAR System

Sea-ice clutter was measured using a millimeter wave radar with frequency of 34.860GHz, beamwidth of 0.25° and pulse length of 30ns. To determine the sea-ice clutter amplitude statistics, we investigated the log-normal, Weibull, log-Weibull and K-distributions using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), which is more rigorous fit of the distribution to the data than the least-squares method. It is shown that the amplitude of sea-ice clutter obeys the log-Weibull distribution with shape parameters of 2.36 to 2.93 for both entire data and data within the beam width of an antenna. We propose a new log-Weibull/CFAR system uses a modified cell-averaging LOG/CFAR system. It is found that this log-Weibull/CFAR procedure is effective for suppression of sea-ice clutter and detection of target.