Theory of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling and Dissipation in High-Tc Josephson Junctions

We have investigated macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) in in-plane high-Tc superconductor Josephson junctions and the influence of the nodal-quasiparticle and the zero energy bound states (ZES) on MQT. We have shown that the presence of the ZES at the interface between the insulator and the superconductor leads to strong Ohmic quasiparticle dissipation. Therefore, the MQT rate is noticeably suppressed in comparison with the c-axis junctions in which ZES are completely absent.Comment: 4 pages. 1 figur

Cross Shareholding and Initiative Effects

Cross shareholding that makes takeovers difficult is not necessarily harmful to shareholders due to initiative effects. As long as manager's private benefits are to some extent in line with shareholders' benefits, cross shareholding may benefit shareholders. Cross shareholding is more likely to occur as the congruence of interests between managers and shareholders rises, the manager's private benefits becomes greater, the manager's reservation utility gets lower, and shareholders' pie in the case of a takeover becomes smaller. Due to a lack of monitoring, the corporate value of a firm tends to be smaller in cross shareholding. However, if we include managers' private benefits in social welfare function, it is possible that the social welfare is higher in cross shareholding.

Effect of crowning radius on rolling contact fatigue strength for traction drive elements

A simulation of the rolling contact fatigue strength of a traction drive element was developed. This simulation accounts for both the distribution of sizes of inclusions in the element material and the influence of traction forces at the element surface. The shear strength of the matrix structure surrounding an inclusion was estimated with an equation. The hardness distribution and the Weibull distribution of inclusion dimensions, which are necessary parameters to calculate the rolling contact fatigue strength, were determined by observation of an actual test specimen. The purpose of this report is simulations to evaluate the effect of the crowning radius on the rolling contact fatigue strength and the torque capacity. The simulations were carried out by varying the crowning radius of the virtual roller. To consider the effect of the crowning radius, a simulated two-dimensional virtual roller, which has actual material properties, was modified to a roller multilayered toward the axial direction. The simulation assuming the actual roller led to a difference of 1.0% from the experimental rolling contact fatigue strength. This difference was 2.4 points smaller than the result for the two-dimensional virtual roller. The rolling contact fatigue strength decreased with increasing crowning radius for two reasons. One was the increase in the number of inclusions under the high stress due to the increasing crowning radius. The other was the expansion of the portion of the roller subject to high stresses down to a depth having small hardness. However, the torque capacity calculated from the contact force resulting in failure increased with the increasing crowning radius

A case study on persistent appearance of the ensemble of precipitation bands in the warm sector of the Baiu front in the western Japan around 19 June 2001

A case study on persistent appearance of the ensemble of precipitation bands in the warm sector of the Baiu front in Kyushu District, the western part of Japan around 19 June 2001 was performed based on the operational observational data. Around 00UTC (09JST) 19 June when the Baiu front on the surface weather map was still located about a few 100kms to the north of Kyushu, the number and the total area of the meso-β or γ-scale line-shaped precipitation bands increased around Kyushu rapidly. These precipitation bands had been sustained there and gradually gathered each other to change into the Baiu frontal precipitation zone extending from the northern Kyushu to Seto-Naikai (Seto Inland Sea) around 09UTC (18JST) 19 June (the intense rainfall zone was still located in the warm sector of the Baiu front). Until ~09UTC (18JST) 19 June, the moist air flow with the latently unstable stratification had been sustained around Kyushu corresponding to the low-level southerly wind toward the surface Baiu front to the north of Kyushu. This large-scale situation would contribute greatly to the maintenance of the ensemble of the line-shaped precipitation bands in the warm sector of the Baiu front

Positionality-Weighted Aggregation Methods for Cumulative Voting

Respecting minority opinions is vital in solving social problems. However, minority opinions are often ignored in general majority rules. To build consensus on pluralistic values and make social choices that consider minority opinions, we propose aggregation methods that give weighting to the minority's positionality on cardinal cumulative voting. Based on quadratic and linear voting, we formulated three weighted aggregation methods that differ in the ratio of votes to cumulative points and the weighting of the minority to all members, and assuming that the distributions of votes follow normal distributions, we calculated the frequency distributions of the aggregation results. We found that minority opinions are more likely to be reflected proportionately to the average of the distribution in two of the above three methods. This implies that Sen and Gotoh's idea of considering the social position of unfortunate people on ordinal ranking in the welfare economics, was illustrated by weighting the minority's positionality on cardinal voting. In addition, it is possible to visualize the number and positionality of the minority from the analysis of the aggregation results. These results will be useful to promote mutual understanding between the majority and minority by interactively visualizing the contents of the proposed aggregation methods in the consensus-building process. With the further development of information technology, the consensus building based on big data will be necessary. We recommend the use of our proposed aggregation methods to make social choices for pluralistic values such as social, environmental, and economic.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Published online at http://www.redfame.com/journal/index.php/ijsss/article/view/517