An automatic torque ripple compensation system for direct drive motors

A serious problem in motion control is the occurrence of torque ripple. Since a direct drive (DD) motor with a magnet rotor uses a rare-earth magnet, the torque ripple is more serious than that of conventional servomotors. This paper presents an auto-compensation of torque ripple using a software-implemented torque observer. The frequency and amplitude of torque ripple can be obtained in the controller by using the estimated torque from an observer, and the autonomous generation of a compensating current component for a torque ripple is possible. The proposed algorithm has been verified by experiments.     

Stabilization of bioethanol recovery with silicone rubber‐coated ethanol‐permselective silicalite membranes by controlling the pH of acidic feed solution

In order to produce highly concentrated bioethanol by pervaporation using an ethanol‐permselective silicalite membrane, techniques to suppress adsorption of succinic acid, which is a chief by‐product of ethanol fermentation and causes the deterioration in pervaporation performance, onto the silicalite crystals was investigated. The amount adsorbed increased as the pH of the aqueous succinic acid solution decreased. The pervaporation performance also decreased with decreasing pH when the ternary mixtures of ethanol/water/succinic acid were separated. Using silicalite membranes individually coated with two types of silicone rubber, pervaporation performance was significantly improved in the pH range of 5 to 7, when compared with that of non‐coated silicalite membranes in ternary mixtures of ethanol/water/succinic acid. Moreover, when using a silicalite membrane double‐coated with the two types of silicone rubber, pervaporation performance was stabilized at lower pH values. In the separation of bioethanol by pervaporation using the double‐coated silicalite membrane, removal of accumulated substances having an ultraviolet absorption maximum at approximately 260 nm from the fermentation broth proved to be vital for efficient pervaporation. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Performance prediction of a hybrid‐excitation synchronous machine with axially arranged excitation poles and permanent‐magnet poles

This paper presents a method of predicting the steady‐state performance of a new hybrid‐excitation synchronous machine (HESM) theoretically. The field pole of this HESM is axially divided into two parts; one is an excitation part and the other a permanent‐magnet (PM) part. A nonlinear equivalent circuit, which can include the saliency of the rotor and the magnetic saturation due to the iron core, is derived. Based on this equivalent circuit, the steady‐state performance of the HESM is calculated, and the results are confirmed through experiments. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 150(2): 43–49, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20033     

Effect of Mixing Time on the Lubricating Properties of Magnesium Stearate and the Final Characteristics of the Compressed Tablets

The effect of mixing time on hardness, disintegration time and ejection force in tablettlng of magnesium stearate and lactose granules was studied. The hardness of the tablets decreased with an increase in mixing time of the blends, as previously reported. A semilogarithmic plot of the hardness versus mixing time gave a straight line having a turning point. At the early phase of mixing the hardness was decreasing with a large first-order rate and then continued to decrease with another small first-order rate. The change in disintegration time or ejection force versus mixing time was basically the same as that in the hardness. This type of plot was applicable to the mixing magnesium stearate with not only granular but also powdered materials.     

Numerical investigation of zoomable holographic projection without a zoom lens

Holographic projection is for laser displays and has the merits of being aberration free, producing high‐contrast images, having the ability of color reconstruction with one spatial light modulator, and so on. In this paper, we propose a zoomable holographic projection without using a zoom lens and verify the proposed method by using numerical simulation. Although such a system can be readily realized to use the features of holography, which is capable of recording a large image exceeding the hologram size, the required calculation is very time consuming. For acceleration, we used shifted Fresnel diffraction for setting different sampling rates on a hologram and projected image. The proposed method can project any zoom‐in and zoom‐out image between zeroth‐order and first‐order lights, and the processing time and required memory for the zoom are constant.     

MiR-10a in Pancreatic Juice as a Biomarker for Invasive Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm by miRNA Sequencing

New biomarkers are needed to further stratify the risk of malignancy in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN). Although microRNAs (miRNAs) are expected to be stable biomarkers, they can vary owing to a lack of definite internal controls. To identify universal biomarkers for invasive IPMN, we performed miRNA sequencing using tumor-normal paired samples. A total of 19 resected tissues and 13 pancreatic juice samples from 32 IPMN patients were analyzed for miRNA expression by next-generation sequencing with a two-step normalization of miRNA sequence data. The miRNAs involved in IPMN associated with invasive carcinoma were identified from this tissue analysis and further verified with the pancreatic juice samples. From the tumor-normal paired tissue analysis of the expression levels of 2792 miRNAs, 20 upregulated and 17 downregulated miRNAs were identified. In IPMN associated with invasive carcinoma (INV), miR-10a-5p and miR-221-3p were upregulated and miR-148a-3p was downregulated when compared with noninvasive IPMN. When these findings were further validated with pancreatic juice samples, miR-10a-5p was found to be elevated in INV (p = 0.002). Therefore, three differentially expressed miRNAs were identified in tissues with INV, and the expression of miR-10a-5p was also elevated in pancreatic juice samples with INV. MiR-10a-5p is a promising additional biomarker for invasive IPMN.     

Supramolecular Nanofibers from Collagen-Mimetic Peptides Bearing Various Aromatic Groups at N-Termini via Hierarchical Self-Assembly

Self-assembly of artificial peptides has been widely studied for constructing nanostructured materials, with numerous potential applications in the nanobiotechnology field. Herein, we report the synthesis and hierarchical self-assembly of collagen-mimetic peptides (CMPs) bearing various aromatic groups at the N-termini, including 2-naphthyl, 1-naphtyl, anthracenyl, and pyrenyl groups, into nanofibers. The CMPs (R-(GPO)_n: n > 4) formed a triple helix structure in water at 4 °C, as confirmed via CD analyses, and their conformations were more stable with increasing hydrophobicity of the terminal aromatic group and peptide chain length. The resulting pre-organized triple helical CMPs showed diverse self-assembly into highly ordered nanofibers, reflecting their slight differences in hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance and configuration of aromatic templates. TEM analysis demonstrated that 2Np-CMP_n (n = 6 and 7) and Py-CMP₆ provided well-developed natural collagen-like nanofibers and An-CMP_n (n = 5–7) self-assembled into rod-like micelle fibers. On the other hand, 2Np-CMP₅ and 1Np-CMP₆ were unable to form nanofibers under the same conditions. Furthermore, the Py-CMP₆ nanofiber was found to encapsulate a guest hydrophobic molecule, Nile red, and exhibited unique emission behavior based on the specific nanostructure. In addition to the ability of CMPs to bind small molecules, their controlled self-assembly enables their versatile utilization in drug delivery and wavelength-conversion nanomaterials.     

Phase structure in the blend of atactic poly(vinyl alcohol) with atactic poly(vinyl alcohol‐block‐vinyl acetate)

An almost fully saponified atactic poly(vinyl alcohol) and an atactic poly(vinyl alcohol‐block‐vinyl acetate) of which degree of saponification is 89 mol % were blended by a solution casting method. The phase structure of the blend film was analyzed by optical microscopy, ¹³C‐NMR, and differential scanning calorimetry. The most remarkable structure of the blend was composed of cylindrical domains penetrating the film. The swelling behavior of the blend films was also investigated in the dimethylsulfoxide and water mixed solvents to find differences in solubility and diffusion behavior between the matrix and the domain. The cylindrical domains could be selectively dissolved away in water and the film became porous. We tried to change the size of the cylindrical domain with various film preparation conditions. This aimed to turn the film into the useful filter membrane. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 1807–1815, 2002     

Color and Vanadium Valency in V-Doped ZrO2

The distribution and chemical states of vanadium in V-doped ZrO₂ were studied to clarify the origin of the color of vanadium-zirconium yellow pigment in comparison with vanadium-tin yellow pigment. ESCA data and measurements of lattice constants of V-doped ZrO₂ revealed that vanadium was dissolved mainly as V⁴⁺ substituting for Zr in ZrO₂ lattice, and its solubility limit was 0.5 wt% as V₂O₅. It was found that the yellow color of vanadium-zirconium yellow was produced predominantly by the dissolved vanadium and that the contribution of vanadium oxide on ZrO₂ grains to the yellow color was about 1/30 of that of the dissolved vanadium when compared on the basis of equimolar quantity of vanadium. Most of the undissolved vanadium oxide was in an amorphous or a poorly crystallized state.     

CO2 hydrogenation over micro‐ and mesoporous oxides supported Ru catalysts

We prepared relatively uniform supported Ru catalysts by ion‐exchange and CVD methods, using an NaY zeolite and a mesoporous FSM‐16 as substrates, and carried out CO₂ hydrogenation. They showed high activity for CO₂ hydrogenation. A Ru‐ion‐exchanged catalyst showed high activity for methanol production. Co addition promoted methanol formation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.