Numerical analysis of oxygen transport in liquid lead bismuth eutectic systems

Active oxygen control technique is a recently developed effective method for mitigating structural corrosions in liquid lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) systems. By carefully increasing the concentration of oxygen in liquid LBE, an iron and chrome based oxide film can be formed on the surfaces of the structural steels and thus successfully prevent the direct dissolution of the steel elements into the liquid alloy; The proper formation of oxide layers critically depends on the control of the oxygen concentration, so it is necessary to monitor the on-line concentration in LBE systems. The Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) oxygen sensor has been designed by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for measuring the oxygen level in LBE. The measurement range of this type sensor is a few hundreds of ppm to a few tens of ppb using molten bismuth saturated with oxygen as the reference. However, the characteristics of this sensor have not been well examined at present. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Controlling sap-sucking insect pests with recombinant endophytes expressing plant lectin

We developed a novel pest management strategy, which uses endophytes to express anti-pest plant lectins. Fungal endophyte of Chaetomium globosum YY-11 with anti-fungi activities was isolated from rape seedlings, and bacterial endophytes of SJ-10 (Enterobacter sp.) and WB (Bacillus subtilis) were isolated from rice seedlings. Pinellia ternate agglutinin gene was cloned into SJ-10 and WB for expression by a shuttle vector, and YY-11 was mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Positive transformants were evaluated using PCR and Western blot assay. Recombinant endophytes colonized most of crops, and resistance of rice seedlings, which were inoculated with the recombinant endophytic bacteria, to white backed planthoppers was dramatically enhanced by decreasing the survival and fecundity of white backed planthoppers. Rape inoculated with recombinant endophytic fungi significantly inhibited the growth and reproduction of aphids. Recombinant endophytes expressing PTA may endow hosts with resistance against sap-sucking pests

Cellular automata as a tool for image processing

An overview is given on the use of cellular automata for image processing. We first consider the number of patterns that can exist in a neighbourhood, allowing for invariance to certain transformation. These patterns correspond to possible rules, and several schemes are described for automatically learning an appropriate rule set from training data. Two alternative schemes are given for coping with gray level (rather than binary) images without incurring a huge explosion in the number of possible rules. Finally, examples are provided of training various types of cellular automata with various rule identification schemes to perform several image processing tasks