Growth of Potassium Titanate Fibers in Flowing N2 Gas

The length of potassium titanate fibers produced by several conventional methods averages 50 μm, with a maximum of 100 μm. Extremely long fibers (most >1000 μm long) were obtained by calcination in N₂ gas flowing at 5.2×10^-4 m/s.     

Application of SiC-Si functionally gradient material to thermoelectric energy conversion device

Because of its high–temperature chemical stability, SiC ceramic is a promising material for high-temperature device applications such as thermoelectric energy converters. However, the electrical conductivity of SiC ceramic is too low for it to be used as a thermoelectric energy converter at the cold junction. Therefore, we propose a SiC-Si functionally gradient material (FGM) in order to improve the electrical conductivity of the SiC ceramic at the cold junction. An SiC rod was fired in a temperature gradient furnace. One end of the SiC rod was maintained at 2473 K and the other end was maintained at 1973 K for 30 min. After firing, the porous SiC edge fired at 1973 K was dipped into molten Si in order to infiltrate molten Si into the porous SiC. The microstructure of the FGM is classified into three regions: the SiC-Si composite material; the porous SiC ceramic; and the densified SiC ceramic. The electrical conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient and the thermal conductivity for each region of SiC-Si FGM was measured at 300 K; a figure of merit was calculated. The figure of merit of the SiC-Si FGM at the cold junction, at room temperature, was 10⁸ times higher than that of a nongradient SiC ceramic.     

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.     

Interfacial Reactions between Sapphire and Silver—Copper—Titanium Thin Film Filler Metal

Wetting and brazing studies of sputtering-deposited, submicrometer thin film filler metal in an Ag—Cu—Ti/Al₂O₃ system were performed. The interfacial reaction layer between the filler metal and Al₂O₃ was investigated. It is possible to make a brazing joint even with a reaction layer of less than 100 nm thickness. Different types of interfacial reaction layers were observed when the Ti content in the filler metal was varied. The Cu—Ti—O system compounds were observed in the samples with high wetting capabilities, but not in the sample with low wetting characteristics. It was found that these compounds are substances that promote effective brazing.     

Reaction products of α-tocopherol with methyl linoleate-peroxyl radicals

α-Tocopherol was reacted with methyl linoleateperoxyl radicals at 37°C. The peroxyl radicals were generated by the reaction of methyl linoleate with a free radical initiator, 2,2′-azobis(2,4-dimethylvaleronitrile). The primary products of α-tocopherol with methyl linoleate-peroxyl radicals were isolated by reversephase and normal-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and their structures were characterized by ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR),¹H and¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS). There were four stereoisomers of methyl 13-(8a-peroxy-α-tocopherone)-9(Z),11(E)-octadecadienoate and four stereoisomers of methyl9-(8a-peroxy-α-tocopherone)-10(E),12(Z)-octadecadienoate.     

Delignification kinetics of empty fruit bunch (EFB): a sustainable and green pretreatment approach using malic acid-based solvents

Recently, the development of efficient and environmentally benign solvents has received great attention to replace current harsh organic solvents. In this context, low-transition-temperature mixtures (LTTMs) have emerged as favorable green solvents for biomass delignification. Palm oil biomass, empty fruit bunch (EFB) was pretreated with commercial l-malic acid and microwave hydrothermally extracted cactus malic acid-derived LTTMs at 60, 80, and 100 °C. The LTTMs applied in this study were derived from malic acid–choline chloride–water and malic acid–monosodium glutamate–water with a molar ratio of 2:4:2 and 3:1:5, respectively. Three first-order reactions were used to express the delignification kinetic model of EFB. The first term was based on the initial stage and assigned as infinite due to the fast rate of delignification which could not be detected. The second and third terms were proportional to bulk and residual delignification stages. A good agreement was obtained between the kinetic model and the experimental data obtained in this study with R²?≥?0.91. The activation energies for the delignification reactions using l-malic acid and cactus malic acid-based LTTMs in the bulk and residual stages were approximated as 36–56 and 19–26 kJ/mol and 34–90 and 47–87 kJ/mol, respectively.     

Parsing human skeletons in an operating room

Multiple human pose estimation is an important yet challenging problem. In an operating room (OR) environment, the 3D body poses of surgeons and medical staff can provide important clues for surgical workflow analysis. For that purpose, we propose an algorithm for localizing and recovering body poses of multiple human in an OR environment under a multi-camera setup. Our model builds on 3D Pictorial Structures and 2D body part localization across all camera views, using convolutional neural networks (ConvNets). To evaluate our algorithm, we introduce a dataset captured in a real OR environment. Our dataset is unique, challenging and publicly available with annotated ground truths. Our proposed algorithm yields to promising pose estimation results on this dataset.     

Simulation of postoperative 3D facial morphology using a physics-based head model

We propose a prototype of a facial surgery simulation system for surgical planning and the prediction of facial deformation. We use a physics-based human head model. Our head model has a 3D hierarchical structure that consists of soft tissue and the skull, constructed from the exact 3D CT patient data. Anatomic points measured on X-ray images from both frontal and side views are used to fire the model to the patient's head. The purposes of this research is to analyze the relationship between changes of mandibular position and facial morphology after orthognathic surgery, and to simulate the exact postoperative 3D facial shape. In the experiment, we used our model to predict the facial shape after surgery for patients with mandibular prognathism. Comparing the simulation results and the actual facial images after the surgery shows that the proposed method is practical.