Real-time cardiac output estimation of the circulatory system underleft ventricular assistance

A method for indirect and real-time estimation of the cardiac output of the circulatory system supported by the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is proposed. This method has low invasiveness and is useful for clinical applications of the LVAD since it needs only two measurements: the rate of blood outflow from the LVAD and the aortic pressure. The method is based on a system identification technique for the time-series model of the cardiovascular system and requires less computational time than other methods with similar estimation accuracy. Hence, the method could be implemented in a personal computer system and realize online, real-time estimation of the instantaneous outflow rate of the natural heart. Results obtained in vitro using a mock circulatory system and in vivo using an adult goat show that the method can yield a fairly high correlation coefficient between the true stroke volume of the natural heart and its estimate of more than 0.99 (in vitro) or 0.95 (in vivo). The estimation method thus appears suitable for clinical use     

Tachyon Condensation and Brane Annihilation in Bose-Einstein Condensates: Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Restricted Lower-Dimensional Subspace

In brane cosmology, the Big Bang is hypothesized to occur by the annihilation of the brane–anti-brane pair in a collision, where the branes are three-dimensional objects in a higher-dimensional Universe. Spontaneous symmetry breaking accompanied by the formation of lower-dimensional topological defects, e.g. cosmic strings, is triggered by the so-called ‘tachyon condensation’, where the existence of tachyons is attributable to the instability of the brane–anti-brane system. Here, we discuss the closest analogue of the tachyon condensation in atomic Bose–Einstein condensates. We consider annihilation of domain walls, namely branes, in strongly segregated two-component condensates, where one component is sandwiched by two domains of the other component. In this system, the process of the brane annihilation can be projected effectively as ferromagnetic ordering dynamics onto a two-dimensional space. Based on this correspondence, three-dimensional formation of vortices from a domain-wall annihilation is considered to be a kink formation due to spontaneous symmetry breaking in the two-dimensional space. We also discuss a mechanism to create a ‘vorton’ when the sandwiched component has a vortex string bridged between the branes. We hope that this study motivates experimental researches to realize this exotic phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking in superfluid systems.     

Parallel processing for multiplication modulo by means of phase modulation

We apply optical parallel processing to operations for multiplication modulo, which is one of the key components of a factorization algorithm. With this method, optical phase modulation provides the results of modulo operations. We construct a prototype system based on a Michelson interferometer with a photodetector array. Mirrors are set at both object and reference arms to generate interference fringes. A mirror in the object arm is tilted slightly, whereas the reference arm is set perpendicular to the optical axis. The tilt angle is determined by parameters for the target modulo operations. The presented system can achieve massive data processing in parallel with only simple implementation. We present our experimental results to verify the usefulness of our method.     

Fuel ethanol production from sweet sorghum using repeated-batch fermentation

Ethanol was efficiently produced from three varieties of sweet sorghum using repeated-batch fermentation without pasteurization or acidification. Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells could be recycled in 16 cycles of the fermentation process with good ethanol yields. This technique would make it possible to use a broader range of sweet sorghum varieties for ethanol production.     

Image reconstruction for thin observation module by bound optics by using the iterative backprojection method

A method for reconstructing high-spatial-resolution images in an imaging system known as thin observation module by bound optics (TOMBO) is reported. We investigate a novel procedure combining a pixel-rearrangement method and iterative backprojection (IBP). Pixel rearrangement has been used until now in TOMBO, and IBP is a digital superresolution technique. We verify the effectiveness of the combined procedure with simulated and experimental results.     

Increase of inductance ratio of flat type fault current limiter with high‐Tc superconducting disk

Fault current limiters (FCLs) are expected to reduce fault current and improve stability of power systems. A flat type fault current limiter consisting of the pancake primary winding and a high‐T_c superconducting (HTS) disk was proposed as a modified version of a conventional magnetic shield type of the FCL with the superconducting cylinder. The flat type FCL has the advantage of being manufactured smaller than the cylinder type FCL. It is pointed out, from a magnetic field analysis, that the volume of the flat type FCL is smaller than that of the cylinder type FCL with same magnitude of the limiting inductance. Further, the magnetic field analysis suggests that a high inductance ratio can be realized by radially enlarging both the primary winding and the HTS disk, stacking the FCL modules in layers and sandwiching the primary winding with superconducting disks. © 2006 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.