S19159, a modulator of neurite outgrowth produced by the ascomycete Preussia aemulans. II. Structure elucidation

A trend can be observed for multinational research-based drug companies shifting their resources away from Germany (and partly also from Europe) and expanding their preclinical and clinical drug research and development programmes and organizations in the USA. The main reasons, which are presently under discussion in Germany, are the image and public acceptance of clinical drug research, professionalism of clinical studies (i.e. availability of an adequate infrastructure), the process of ethics committees votes, the citation impact of publications, the legal obstacles, the implementation of Good Clinical Practice (GCP), the regulatory and institutional situation and the political environment. These problems have been recognised and appraised recently by the pharmaceutical industry, universities, scientific associations, and governmental institutions. Prerequisites to improve the basic conditions of clinical research in Germany to make it internationally competitive are proposed in this paper.     

Burning Characteristic of LNG‐Oxygen Mixed Gas used for Vacuum Degassing Process

This study was conducted using LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) as fuel which has methane gas as its main component, and theoretical and experimental evaluation was made of the burning conditions of LNG‐oxygen mixed gas under atmospheric and subatmospheric pressure in a vacuum chamber used for the RH process. Conclusions reached in this study of the conditions involved in injecting LNG‐oxygen mixed gas in a vacuum chamber of the RH device and burning it near the nozzle outlet to raise the surface temperature of brick were as follows: (1) Laminar burning velocity of mixed gas of LNG and oxygen was fastest when the mixture ratio was 1:2.3, and when the velocity was proportionally related to the square of temperature and 0.5 root of pressure. (2) Turbulent burning velocity u_t was calculated from the research results of Andrews. (3) It is possible to calculate the turbulent burning velocity and to evaluate u_t/u_m which is the index of stability of the burner flame by experimentally obtaining laminar burning velocity.     

Use of LNG‐Oxygen Gas Mixture in RH Degassing Unit

Mixed gas of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and oxygen was injected into the vacuum vessel during non‐decarburization period using a multifunctional lance. Tthis study reports the experimental results when applying this process in a 100‐ton piece of equipment and reports the changes in temperature of the refractory surface and molten steel. Using a multifunctional lance allowed heat supplementation by injecting LNG‐oxygen mixed gas into the vacuum vessel of a RH device and then burning the gas near the outlet of the injection nozzle. The following was found: The minimum surface temperature required so that the skull would not adhere to the RH vessel was calculated as about 1643K (1370°C). When the interior of the RH vacuum vessel was preheated with a multifunctional lance so that the temperature would be higher than this, skull adhesion to the vessel did not occur. Calculation of heat balance for burning under atmospheric pressure showed that about 70% of the heat quantity of burning was supplied to the refractory. When mixed gas was burned during the RH process, it was shown from the temperature change of molten steel that about 52% of the burning heat was transferred to the steel. Heat quantity removed through lance cooling water was proportional to the charge length of the lance, and emissivity ε was equivalent to heat transfer quantity of 0.38.     

Life cycle inventory study on magnesium alloy substitution in vehicles

Magnesium (Mg) alloys are suitable materials for weight reduction in vehicles because of their low density of 1.7 g/cm³ and high specific strength. The effect of Mg substitution for conventional steel parts in a vehicle on total energy consumption and CO₂ emissions was evaluated through life cycle inventory calculation. The Mg substitution reduces the total energy consumption by weight reduction, although the production energy of a Mg-substituted vehicle is higher than those of conventional and Al-substituted vehicles. The Mg substitution can save more life cycle energy consumption than the Al substitution. Recycling of Mg parts is indispensable for efficient CO₂ reduction, because the CO₂ emissions during new ingot production of Mg are much higher than those of conventional steel and Al. Strengthening of the Mg parts also can reduce the total energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. If the main body and hood are made of Mg alloy and the ratio of recycled ingot is sufficiently high, the life cycle energy consumption and CO₂ emissions will be markedly reduced.     

Proposal of a shape adaptive gripper for robotic assembly tasks

This paper proposes a novel robotic gripper used for assembly tasks that can adaptively grasp objects with different shapes. The proposed hand has a combined structure between two kinds of shape adaptive mechanisms where one is the granular jamming and the other is a multi-finger mechanism driven by a single wire. Due to the effect of the two shape adaptive mechanisms, the pose of a grasped object does not change during an assembly operation. The proposed hand has four fingers where two are the active ones and the other two are the passive ones. The pose of the grasped object can be uniquely determined since the passive fingers are used to orient an object placed on a table before the active fingers are closed to grasp it. Assembly experiments of some kinds of parts are shown to validate the effectiveness of our proposed gripper.     

Molecular and electronic structures of polythiomethylene (PTM)

CNDO/2 calculations, using the tight-binding approximation for polymers, were applied to polythiomethylene (PTM) with spd and sp basis sets. The experimental conformational stability was well represented by the spd basis set but the sp basis set proved unsuccessful. The conformational stability of the PTM is discussed in comparison to that of polyoxymethylene (POM).     

Identification of wheeling paths by an extended sensitivity analysis

This paper proposes a practical method for identifying wheeling paths in deregulated electricity markets based on an extended sensitivity analysis. Using this method, it becomes possible to decide the proper and fair wheeling rate according to the degree of burden on transmission lines by each power flow transaction. Moreover, a wheeling rate based on the real power flow burden is also an important signal to new power suppliers in the markets. In order to show the validity of the proposed method, a series of simulations on the IEEE 30-bus test system were conducted.     

Real‐time compensation for positioning performance using on‐line parameter identification and initial value compensation

Variations and/or uncertainties in environments of mechatronic systems, such as electrical/mechanical parameter changes and nonlinear components, generally deteriorate the motion control performance. In our research, the fast and precise position settling performance for parameter variations in positioning devices can be improved by techniques of an on‐line parameter identification and an initial value compensation. The proposed technique allows the positioning systems to be adaptive and robust for unknown parameter variations. The effectiveness of the approach has been verified by numerical simulations and experiments using a prototype. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 171(2): 40–49, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20926     

Performance Characteristics of Worn Journal Bearings in Both Laminar and Turbulent Regimes. Part II: Dynamic Characteristics

The effects of geometric change due to wear on the dynamic characteristics of journal bearings are determined theoretically in both laminar and turbulent regimes. The dynamic characteristics such as spring and damping coefficients and whirl onset speed of a rigid rotor supported by two identical symmetrically aligned bearings are analyzed by a semianalytical finite element method, and the numerical results for various wear depth parameters are indicated in graphical form.

The geometric change due to wear has significant effects on the principal spring coefficients and on the cross-coupled damping coefficients. The whirl onset speed for a worn journal bearing whose wear depth parameter is larger than 0.3 becomes higher than the speed for a nonworn bearing.