Chiba Institute of Technology

About: Chiba Institute of Technology is a education organization based out in Narashino, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: RNA & Magnet. The organization has 2663 authors who have published 4999 publications receiving 56870 citations. The organization is also known as: Chiba kōgyō daigaku & Kōa Institute of Technology.

High-performance hybrid materials prepared by the thermo-reversible Diels–Alder polymerization of furfuryl ester-terminated butylene succinate oligomers and maleimide compounds

Abstract: A furfuryl ester-terminated butylene succinate oligomer (FBSO) with Mn 1800 and Mw 2800 was synthesized by the condensation of furfuryl alcohol with a carboxyl-terminated butylene succinate oligomer. The reaction of FBSO and 1,1′-(methylenedi-4,1-phenylene)bismaleimide (BMI) in chloroform at 60 °C for 48 h yielded an exo-rich Diels–Alder (DA) adduct ((P(FBSO-BMI)) with Mn 9000 and Mw 15 500. The gel permeation chromatography analysis of the products of heating a reaction mixture of P(FBSO-BMI) in dimethylformamide (DMF) at 120 °C for 1 h revealed that FBSO and BMI are quantitatively recovered by the retro DA reaction. Maleimide/phenyl-substituted oligomeric silsesquioxane (MPOSS) was synthesized by the reaction of maleimidemethyl 3-(triethoxysilyl)propylcarbamate and triethoxyphenylsilane in the presence of hydrochloric acid. The DA reaction of FBSO and MPOSS in DMF at 60 °C for 48 h gave a partially crosslinked hybrid composite insoluble in general organic solvents. When the hybrid composite was heated in DMF at 140 °C, the retro DA reaction proceeded smoothly. The hybrid film prepared by casting a DMF solution of FBSO and MPOSS and subsequently heating at 60 °C for 48 h had a much higher flexural strength than FBSO did. The Diels–Alder (DA) reaction of furfuryl ester-terminated butylene succinate oligomer (FBSO) with 1,1′-(methylenedi-4,1-phenylene)bismaleimide (BMI) at 60 °C afforded a polyesterimide ((P(FBSO-BMI)). The gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis of the reaction mixture of P(FBSO-BMI) at 120 °C revealed that FBSO and BMI are quantitatively recovered by the retro DA reaction. When maleimide/phenyl-substituted oligomeric silsesquioxane (MPOSS) was used instead of BMI, a partially crosslinked thermo-reversible hybrid composite (P(FBSO-MPOSS)) was obtained. The hybrid film prepared by solvent casting method of FBSO and MPOSS had much higher flexural strength than FBSO did.

Design and analysis of Group Escape Behavior for distributed autonomous mobile robots

Abstract: In designing distributed control architecture of multiple autonomous robot system, behaviors and cooperative control strategies using by insects, birds, fishes, animals and human being are usually considered as good models because they are with many very nice features such as simplicity, flexibility, robustness and fault tolerance, etc. Within them, schooling behavior of fish and flocking behavior of birds were well studied for controlling group motion of robots with local sensing ability and local interaction only. Several research groups have proposed and successfully demonstrated full distributed control architectures for various size robot swarm system via simulations or experiments. To many types of fish schools, we can observe another very interesting behavior, Group Escape Behavior which shows that all fish change their moving directions rapidly and cooperatively without global broadcasting communications while some fish sense a predator. In this study, we proposed a distributed algorithm to perform Group Escape Behavior without inter-robot communication by mimicking behaviors of fish schools. It provides an alternate method for robot teams to achieve some emergency tasks while inter-robot communication is restricted. In this paper, the proposed control mechanism for achieving group escape behavior is introduced, and the characteristics of escape motion mode transition in the swarm are discussed. Some simulation results and experimental results are provided for illustrating the validity of the proposed algorithm, and for analyzing performance of the group escape behavior implemented.

The functional evaluation of waste yuzu (Citrus junos) seeds

Abstract: We have succeeded in extracting a large amount of expensive limonoids and the high total antioxidant capability yuzu seed oil from waste yuzu seed by simple methods. Yuzu seeds contain higher amounts of fat-soluble limonoid aglycone (330.6 mg g−1 of dry seed), water-soluble limonoid glycoside (452.0 mg g−1 of dry seed), and oil (40 mg g−1 of green seed) than other citrus fruits. The antioxidant activities of yuzu seed aglycone, glycoside, and seed oil were evaluated in vitro. The potential antioxidant activity in oil solution, diphenylpicrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging activity, and hydrogen peroxide-scavenging activity effects of the seed extracts were also investigated. The antioxidant activity of yuzu seed oil was two times that of grapefruit seed oil, which has high activity. Yuzu glycoside produced the same high antioxidant activity as Luo Han Guo glycoside.

Production of bulk materials of an Nd/sub 4/Fe/sub 77.5/B/sub 18.5/ alloy and their magnetic properties

Abstract: Amorphous melt-spun ribbons of an Nd/sub 4/Fe/sub 77.5/B/sub 18.5/ alloy were consolidated into bulk materials by shock compaction. The resultant bulk materials showed a low coercivity as expected for amorphous Nd-Fe-B materials. Heat treatment of the bulk materials above the crystallization temperature resulted in the formation of metastable Fe/sub 3/B phase together with Nd/sub 2/Fe/sub 14/B phase. The resultant bulk magnets showed a coercivity as high as 2.7 kOe as was the case for the annealed melt-spun ribbons.