Rate of emulsion polymerization of styrene

In emulsion polymerization, the Smith and Ewart theory gives about two or three times the number of polymer particles obtained by experiment. In this paper, a reaction model is proposed which, from the standpoint of reactor design, can give an adequate explanation of the whole course of an emulsion polymerization of monomer highly insoluble in water. Among other things, the generating process of polymer particles is examined in detail. It is demonstrated experimentally that a new parameter proposed here, which represents the degree of difficulty of monomer initiation in micelles, is indispensable in explaining that process. Also confirmed is that monomer initiation takes place more easily in polymer particles than in micelles. According to the new model, the progress of polymerization, i.e., monomer conversion, the number of the polymer particles, and properties of polymer thus produced can be estimated with satisfactory accuracy. Furthermore, approximate equations are derived for easier estimation.     

Effects of hydrophilicity of crosslinker on membrane properties of poly(N-hydroxyethyl-L-glutamine) hydrogels

Summary Poly(N-hydroxyethyl-L-glutamine) (PHEG) hydrogels were prepared by aminolysis of poly( -benzyl L-glutamate) with 2-aminoethanol and hydrophobic or hydrophilic crosslinkers, and the effect of the hydrophobicity of the crosslinkers was evaluated. The swelling properties, tensile properties and enzymatic degradation behavior were studied in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The swelling ratio and degradation rate of these hydrogels were highly dependent on the hydrophobicity of the crosslinkers, while tensile properties were dependent on the swelling ratio, but not on the hydrophobicity of the crosskinkers.     

Measurement of air turbulence for on-machine interferometry

There is increasing demand for in situ shape measurements performed on ultraprecision processing machines. One major source of error during interferometric measurements performed on machines is fringe displacement due to external disturbances. We have developed an interferometer equipped with an electro-optic phase modulator that measures the phase of interference fringes before they are displaced by air turbulence. The frequency characteristics of air turbulence induced by a heat source are derived from successive measurements of a test surface. Experimental results show that the phase of the interference fringes can be accurately measured in the presence of air turbulence when the intensity of the fringes is sampled at a speed of several hundred hertz.     

Synthesis and properties of ellipsoidal hematite/silicone core-shell particles

Monodispersed ellipsoidal hematite particles were synthesized and coated with silicone using a silane-coupling agent, phenyltriethoxysilane. The thickness of the silicone shell was controlled by the concentration of phenyltriethoxysilane and the presence of n-hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride, which was thought to modify the surface properties of the hematite particles to be organophilic. The hematite/silicone core-shell particles were strongly hydrophobic and had a good dispersibility and stability in toluene. Hollow ellipsoidal silicone particles were obtained by the dissolution of hematite with hydrochloric acid from the core-shell particles.     

Dissipation of Gross-Pitaevskii Turbulence Coupled with Thermal Excitations

Microscopic dissipation mechanism of quantized vortices in quantum fluid is studied numerically by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation coupled with the Bogoliubov-de-Gennes equation for thermal excitations. At low temperatures, dissipation works at smaller scales than the vortex core size, which supports the self-similar cascade process of quantized vortices at large scales and the Kolmogorov energy spectrum of quantum turbulence. On the other hand, this dissipation spreads to larger scales at high temperatures, and directly affects the vortex dynamics. This effect of dissipation at high temperatures is qualitatively similar to the mutual friction in superfluid ⁴He.     

Performance Improvement of Current Source Inverter-Fed Induction Motor Drives

A high performance variable speed drive system using current source inverter fed induction motor is described. The principle of the drive control is based on the field-orientation method, where the stator current is used as the vector quantity. To improve the system response and to operate smoothly at low speed, a current pulsewidth modulation (PWM) control is provided by means of a feedback loop. This system operates stably and shows a high dynamic performance in a wide range, from zero to rated speed. Dual current source inverter is applied to this drive system which results in a remarkably low copper loss of the motor, even in PWM operation.     

Modeling,Sensing, and Interpretation of Viscoelastic Contact Interface

Soft robotics is important in the next generation of robots because of the rapidly increasing need for robotics in biomedical applications and the advantages of providing a soft interface for interaction with the physical environment in service robots and other applications. It is indispensable to understand the fundamental behavior of such contact interface, typically viscoelastic, in order to accurately predict the actual elastic and temporal responses of the contact and to successfully control it. Viscoelasticity is a phenomenon of time-dependent strain and/or stress in soft materials. It is therefore important to model such behavior and to study the effects of such time-dependent strain and stress on stability and behavior at the contact interface. The contribution of this paper is the introduction of a novel latency model, which is a nonlinear model with differential equations that govern viscoelastic materials. Latency model describes various features of viscoelastic materials, such as stress relaxation and strain creep. The theoretical modeling was supported by experimental results in which we found two types of relaxation. Type I relaxation is well documented in existing literature but Type II relaxation has not been elaborated previously with the physical insights provided in this paper. The proposed theory can unify both types of time-dependent relaxation responses for modeling, sensing, and interpretation of viscoelastic contact interface.     

Analytic Flow Design Method for an Automated Distribution Center with Multiple Shipping Areas

An analytic flow design algorithm for an automated distribution center with multiple shipping areas is presented. The main elements of the analytic flow design are the number of devices and the volumes of product flow between the devices. In the design of an automated distribution center, it is necessary to satisfy the demand throughput while minimizing construction costs. In the conventional design process, system engineers utilize experimental and intuitional approaches. However, conventional approaches are time-consuming and the design outcome is dependent on the skill of the designer. Therefore, a theoretical design algorithm is needed. We propose an analytic flow design algorithm using a dynamic network flow model and considering time-variable flow volumes according to shipment and storage schedules. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method, we perform analytic flow design using real data and confirm that the proposed method can yield a feasible analytic flow design in several minutes.     

PEG-PLA nanoparticles prepared by emulsion solvent diffusion using oil-soluble and water-soluble PEG-PLA

Poly(ethylene glycol)-block-polylactide (PEG-PLA) nanoparticles were prepared through the oil-in-water (O/W, ethyl acetate/water) emulsion technique using oil-soluble PEG-PLA in the presence of water-soluble PEG-PLA as a surfactant. The particle diameter decreased with increasing water-soluble PEG-PLA concentration, the smallest averaged diameter was 75 nm. From these results, it was found that water-soluble PEG-PLA acted as a surfactant which prevents further coalescence of droplets. In addition, the particles diameter decreased with increasing hydrophile-lipophile balance of oil-soluble PEG-PLA in the absence of water-soluble PEG-PLA. In contrast, the particle diameter was constant in the presence of water-soluble PEG-PLA. Therefore, the capability of water-soluble PEG-PLA as a surfactant was more excellent than that of oil-soluble PEG-PLA.     

Regression analysis of amino acid substitutions and factor IX activity in hemophilia B

Hemophilia B is caused by a deficit or decreased activity of factor IX. Mutation in factor IX is made up of a majority of amino acid substitutions. We examined the relation between the activation level of factor IX and the category of amino acid substitution with regression analysis. As parameters, we used four physical-chemical parameters of amino acids and Dayhoff’s PAM matrix. In addition, the average of the activation level with the same amino acid substitution was used for the analysis. We analyzed the relationship between variations containing cysteine or factor IX’s seven regions and activity levels. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008