Use of the Reflection of Near‐Infrared Light for the Nondestructive Examination of Blood Flow and Other Applications

Abstract

Reflection of near‐infrared light is measured by commercial equipment. We found that samples in motion and at rest show differences in the intensity of reflection of a laser beam. This may suggest the possibility of its use to detect organ necrosis in vivo. In addition, we find the possibility of the use of this reflection of the near‐infrared light for the non‐destructive inspection of internal changes in perishables, e.g., their degree of ripeness.     

Heat conduction analyses on rewetting front propagation during transients beyond anticipated operational occurrences for BWRs

Our previous study investigated the rewetting behavior of dryout fuel surface during transients beyond anticipated operational occurrences for BWRs, which indicated the rewetting velocity was significantly affected by the precursory cooling defined as cooling immediately before rewetting. This study further investigated the previous experiments by conducting additional experimental and numerical heat conduction analyses to characterize the precursory cooling. For the characterization, the precursory cooling was first defined quantitatively based on evaluated heat transfer rates; the rewetting velocity was investigated as a function of the cladding temperature immediately before the onset of the precursory cooling. The results indicated that the propagation velocity appeared to be limited by the maximum heat transfer rate near the rewetting front. This limitation was consistent with results of the heat conduction analysis using heat transfer models for the precursory cooling expressed as a function of distance from the rewetting front, the maximum wetting temperature, and the heat transfer coefficients in the wetted region. This paper also discusses uncertainties in the evaluation of transient heat flux from the measured surface temperature, and technical issues requiring further investigation.     

Development of a Submillimeter Double-Ridged Waveguide Ortho-Mode Transducer (OMT) for the 385–500 GHz Band

We present design and evaluations of a submillimeter double-ridged waveguide ortho-mode transducer (OMT) for ALMA Band 8 (385–500 GHz) cartridge receiver. The measured transmission loss of the OMT at 4 K was 0.4–0.5 dB according to noise measurements with an SIS mixer. The polarization isolation was measured to be larger than 29 dB from quasioptical measurements. The OMT consists of a Bϕifot junction and a double-ridged guide. A robust design with allowable mechanical errors of 20 μm has been demonstrated.     

Auto-oxidation products of astaxanthin

The auto-oxidation products of astaxanthin were investigated. Astaxanthin was allowed to react with atmospheric oxygen at 55°C in the dark for 35 days. A series of oxidative cleavage products, 7-apoastaxanthinal (1), 9-apoastaxanthinone (2), 11-apoastaxanthinal (3), 13-apoastaxanthinone (4), 15-apoastaxanthinal (5), 14'-apoastaxanthinal (6), 12'-apoastaxanthinal (7), 10'-apoastaxanthinal (8), and 8'-apoastaxanthinal (9), were identified. Among them, 3 and 6 were isolated and characterized for the first time. Cleavage of the double bond in astaxanthin was discussed on the basis of the calculation of the stable molecular energy.     

Phenomena in GTA and GHTA welding in Mars-like atmosphere

NASA is advancing the project of manned Mars exploration. In the future, Martian outposts and structures will be constructed. To realize this, welding technology is expected to be applied. The main atmospheric component of Mars is carbon dioxide, and the atmospheric pressure is approximately 700 Pa. In this study, welding experiments were carried out in a simulated Mars atmosphere of 99.5% carbon dioxide and a pressure of 700 Pa. Conventional gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding and gas hollow tungsten arc (GHTA) welding, in which arc operating gas is allowed only to flow out from the electrode tip of a hollow tungsten electrode, were investigated. The arc discharge behaviour and the melting characteristics in the simulated Mars atmosphere were studied. As a result, it was shown that GTA welding and GHTA welding might be applicable even in the Mars atmosphere.     

Inhibitory effect of progesterone on androgen-induced lordosis in ovariectomized rats

The role of family history as a risk factor of coronary heart disease was explored in the first-degree relatives of 121 female and 586 male survivors of a recent acute myocardial infarction and in those of 130 control women. It was significantly more common for female patients than male patients to have first-degree relatives with coronary artery disease before the age of 65 (76% vs 62%, P = 0.0026). For the sisters of the female patients the cumulative risk of coronary heart disease by the age of 65 years was almost twice that of the sisters of the male patients (25.9% vs 15.8%, P = 0.0123). The risk for the brothers of the females did not significantly differ from that of the brothers of the male patients, but it was 3.5 times that of the brothers of the controls. Thus, while a history of coronary heart disease in first-degree relatives is a risk factor for the disease, the risk is greater in women than in men.     

Dieless incremental micro-forming of miniature shell objects of aluminum foils

Single-point incremental forming of thin aluminum foils, which did not require any die and any backing plate, was developed for fabricating customized parts of thin shell miniature objects. Thin aluminum foils were deformed incrementally using a round-tip single point tool on a desktop type of milling machine controlled with a personal computer. It was found that an aluminum foil 12 μm thick was much smaller in forming limit than an aluminum foil 50 μm thick when a single point tool with a tip radius of 0.5 mm was not rotated, but its forming limit was improved greatly by rotating the tool up to 20,000 rpm. Measured forming forces revealed that the tool rotation decreases the in-plane forces by approximately 50%. Hydrodynamic lubrication at the interface between a rotating tool and aluminum foil must have had a direct and favorable influence on the forming process, while increasing the forming limit of the thinner foil. It was also found that the optimum stepwise axial feed was found to be around the value of foil thickness. Then, incremental forming of arrays of dots 0.1 mm in diameter, miniature pyramids, a miniature car and miniature letters was performed successfully under the optimized conditions at arbitrary positions of 12-μm-thick foils.     

Damped Oscillation of Liquid Column in Vertical U-Tube for Newtonian and non-Newtonian Liquids

Damped oscillation of Newtonian liquid in a vertical U-tube is one of the well known phenomena and the solutionof this liquid motion for the laminar flow regime in the circular pipe was solved,however,generally speaking,even if the period of the oscillational motion by this solution is nearly coincided with that of the experimental re-sult,the estimation of the damped oscillational process with lapse of time by the solved equation is not in agree-ment with that of the experimental result.Therefore basing upon the experimental results of the velocity distribu-tions of the oscillational motion in the circular U-tube for the Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids,the velocitydistribution of the Bingham plastic flow is assumed.The solutions of the damped oscillation and also of the ver-tical falling and rising velocities of the free surface in the vertical U-tube of the diameters D=10mm,20mm and40mm are compared with water and water-glycerine solution for the Newtonian liquids and the acrylicco-polymer solutions for the non-Newtonian liquid.The comparisons of these solved equations by the new flowmodel are shown in good agreement with the experimental results.The above stated results are described indetail.     

Observation of Amplified Stimulated Terahertz Emission from Optically Pumped Heteroepitaxial Graphene-on-Silicon Materials

We experimentally observed the fast relaxation and relatively slow recombination dynamics of photogenerated electrons/holes in a heteroepitaxial graphene-on-Si material under pumping with a 1550-nm, 80-fs pulsed fiber laser and probing with the corresponding terahertz beam generated by and synchronized with the pumping laser. The time-resolved electric-nearfield intensity originating from the coherent terahertz photon emission is electrooptically sampled in total-reflection geometry. The Fourier spectrum fairly agrees the product of the negative dynamic conductivity and the expected THz photon spectrum reflecting the pumping photon spectrum. This phenomenon is interpreted as an amplified stimulated terahertz emission.