Development of In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation Systems for Vitamin D Derivatives and Their Application to Drug Discovery

We have developed an in vitro system to easily examine the affinity for vitamin D receptor (VDR) and CYP24A1-mediated metabolism as two methods of assessing vitamin D derivatives. Vitamin D derivatives with high VDR affinity and resistance to CYP24A1-mediated metabolism could be good therapeutic agents. This system can effectively select vitamin D derivatives with these useful properties. We have also developed an in vivo system including a Cyp27b1-gene-deficient rat (a type I rickets model), a Vdr-gene-deficient rat (a type II rickets model), and a rat with a mutant Vdr (R270L) (another type II rickets model) using a genome editing method. For Cyp27b1-gene-deficient and Vdr mutant (R270L) rats, amelioration of rickets symptoms can be used as an index of the efficacy of vitamin D derivatives. Vdr-gene-deficient rats can be used to assess the activities of vitamin D derivatives specialized for actions not mediated by VDR. One of our original vitamin D derivatives, which displays high affinity VDR binding and resistance to CYP24A1-dependent metabolism, has shown good therapeutic effects in Vdr (R270L) rats, although further analysis is needed.     

Frequency stabilization of a semiconductor laser under direct FSK modulation: The modulation method and evaluation of stability

The frequency stability of a semiconductor laser deteriorated under direct frequency shift keying (FSK) when stabilization depended entirely upon an external frequency reference. Therefore, the PEAK method was devised for the purpose of improving frequency stability. This method requires two distinct frequency components and, therefore, will not work effectively in a communications system that produces a succession of identical frequencies, as does the FSK method on occasion. This paper, then, explains the results of our comparative analysis of the two modulation methods. The evaluation of frequency stability requires us to use a beat note between two stabilized laser beams, referred to here, as “signal” and “reference,” lasers. The reference laser is stabilized by a method that takes advantage of the magneto-optical effect. This laser restrains the tendency of the beat note frequency to broaden in other stabilization methods, and even makes it possible to predetermine the beat frequency to be employed. The improvement in frequency stability obtained is about one order of magnitude. © 1998 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 125(2): 44–51, 1998     

Numerical simulation of oscillatory flow in melt during InSb single crystal growth by RF heating Czochralski method

Oscillatory flow present in the melt during InSb single crystal growth using an RF-heating Czochralski method has been numerically investigated by means of the finite difference method using the HSMAC algorithm. The thermal boundary conditions required for the numerical simulation model were obtained experimentally by measuring the temperature profile along the crucible of a Czochralski system by means of thermocouples mounted in the crucible. Results of numerical simulations showed that the use of a third-order upwind discretization scheme was necessary to catch the oscillatory behaviour of the fluid flow in the melt. It was shown that this oscillatory behaviour strongly depends on the crystal rotation rate. Indeed, the oscillation period increases when the crystal rotation rate is above a critical rotation rate. In order to avoid such oscillations, crystal rotation rates lower than this critical value of crystal rotation rate must be selected for the growth of high quality crystals free of striations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of aspect ratio in a transonic shock tube airfoil flow

In the present study, the flow visualizations were performed around the NACA 0012 models which differ in aspect ratios. We discussed the effects of the aspect ratio in the test models. Additionally the unsteady, two-dimensional, compressible Euler equations were solved for the NACA 0012 airfoil. Experiments were performed utilizing the conventional gas driven shock tube as the intermittent transonic wind tunnel. The aspect ratios of the models are about 0.86 and 1.5, respectively. The Mach numbers M 2 are about 0.84. The Reynolds numbers of the present experimental conditions were constant that Re based on chord length is about 4.0×10 5 . The results are as follows: in different aspect ratios, the difference of the shock wave location is confirmed though the Mach number and Reynolds number are same. It indicates the different correction Mach number by the effects of the side wall boundary layer though the nominal Mach number measured the same value. Also, on the difference of shock wave location for the effects of the aspect ratio, the tend of CFD shows the qualitative agreement with the result of an experiment.     

Measuring cosmic-ray exposure in aircraft using real-time personal dosemeters

Aircrew exposure to radiation was measured on several long-haul flights using two small commercial electronic personal dosemeters: one was a photon dosemeter, the NRF20; the other was a neutron dosemeter, the NRY21-both manufactured by Fuji Electric Systems Co. Ltd. for radiation protection at nuclear facilities. Non-neutron doses were measured using the photon dosemeter, and neutron doses were measured using the neutron dosemeter. The measured non-neutron doses at commercial aviation altitudes agree with the EPCARD (European Program Package for the Calculation of Aviation Route Doses) dose calculation within a difference of 8 %. However, the recorded neutron doses were 5-15 times larger than the EPCARD calculation. These over-measurements are dependent on cut-off rigidities.     

Bending loss of elliptical-hole core circular-hole holey fibers bent in arbitrary bending directions

A holey fiber having a core with an elliptical-hole lattice structure, which is referred to as an elliptical-hole core circular-hole holey fiber (EC-CHF), can be easily designed as a single-polarization fiber by using the fundamental space-filling modes of the core and cladding lattices. However, because the guided mode in an EC-CHF has a polarization that arises from the large geometric anisotropy of the core lattice, the influence of the bending direction on the bending loss is a crucial issue for the practical implementation of EC-CHFs. Here, the bending losses of an EC-CHF bent in arbitrary angular orientations with respect to the core cross section are calculated numerically using the equivalent anisotropic step-index circular fiber model for a real EC-CHF, and the influence of the bending direction of the fiber on the bending loss is discussed.     

Reaction between magnesium ammine complex compound and lithium hydride

The possibility of using ammonia as a hydrogen carrier is examined for the reaction between magnesium ammine complex MgCl₂(NH₃)₆ and lithium hydride LiH. Sample was milled at low temperature of −40 °C to avoid decomposition of MgCl₂(NH₃)₆ during the milling. The effects of milling time, milling speed (revolutions per minute), and catalysts on hydrogen storage properties were investigated by thermogravimetry, thermal desorption mass spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction experiments. Experimental results indicated that a milled composite of Mg(NH₃)₆Cl₂ and catalyzed-LiH desorbed the ∼100% H₂ gas even at 125 °C in a closed system. The reverse reaction also proceeded by separately cooling MgCl₂ at lower temperature than 100 °C and heating LiNH₂ at 300 °C in the closed system.     

Development of rapid mixing fuel nozzle for premixed combustion

Combustion in high-preheat and low oxygen concentration atmosphere is one of the attractive measures to reduce nitric oxide emission as well as greenhouse gases from combustion devices, and it is expected to be a key technology for the industrial applications in heating devices and furnaces. Before proceeding to the practical applications, we need to elucidate combustion characteristics of non-premixed and premixed flames in high-preheat and low oxygen concentration conditions from scientific point of view. For the purpose, we have developed a special mixing nozzle to create a homogeneous mixture of fuel and air by rapid mixing, and applied this rapidmixing nozzle to a Bunsen-type burner to observe combustion characteristics of the rapid-mixture. As a result, the combustion of rapid-mixture exhibited the same flame structure and combustion characteristics as the perfectly prepared premixed flame, even though the mixing time of the rapid-mixing nozzle was extremely short as a few milliseconds. Therefore, the rapid-mixing nozzle in this paper can be used to create preheated premixed flames as far as the mixing time is shorter than the ignition delay time of the fuel. This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Ohchae Kwon Masashi Katsuki received his B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Osaka University, Japan, in 1965. He received his Dr. Eng. from O. U. in 1985. Dr. Katsuki is currently a Visiting Professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering at Hoseo University in Chungnam, Korea. He was a Vice President of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. Dr. Katsuki’s research interests include combustion, computational thermo-fluid dynamics, and molecular dynamics. Jin-Do Chung received his B. S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Chungnam University, Korea in 1983, 1985 and 1990. He then received another Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Kanazawa University, Japan in 1996. After that he worked as Post-doc researcher for 1,6 year at KIMM and Senior researcher for 6years at KEPCO Research Center. Dr. Chung is currently a Professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering at Hoseo University in Asan, Korea. Dr. Chung’s research interests include thermal-fluid and environmental engineering. Jang-Woo Kim received his B. S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Chungnam University, Korea, in 1990. He then received his M. S. and Ph. D. degrees from Kyushu University, Japan in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Dr. Kim is currently a Professor at the School of Display Engineering at Hoseo University in Asan, Korea. Dr. Kim’s research interests include CFD, aerodynamics, and display equipment technology. Seung-Min Hwang received the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Osaka University in 2005. After that he worked as visiting researcher for 3 years at CRIEPI (central research institute of electric power industry) and Osaka University in Japan. He is currently a Professor at the Graduate School of Venture at Hoseo University in Korea. His major research is thermal-fluid, energy issue and environment. Seung-Mo Kim received his Ph. D. degrees in Mechanical engineering from Osaka University, Japan, in 2004. Dr. Kim is currently a research Professor at Pusan Clean Coal Center at Pusan National University in Pusan, South Korea. Dr. Kim’s research interests include coal combustion, oxy-fuel combustion, coal gasification, coal de-watering, power generation plant system and energy issues. Chul-Ju Ahn received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Hanyang University, Korea, in 1998. He then received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Osaka University, Japan, in 2001 and 2006, respectively. Dr. Ahn is currently a Senior Research Engineer at Samsung Techwin CO. LTD. in Changwon, Korea. Dr. Ahn’s research interests include gas turbine engine, biomass gasification, and power system.     

Dynamical approach to complementarity of interferometers

The complementarity for wave-like and particle-like properties of a quantum mechanical particle in the Mach–Zehnder interferometer is investigated by means of the dynamical approach. Measurement devices are placed on the paths of the interferometer to obtain the information of a propagating particle. The which-path information of the particle and the fringe visibility of the interferometer are derived by considering the dynamics of the particle and devices. When each device consists of a single qubit, the maximum amount of the which-path information is obtained and the complementary relation is examined.     

Noisy parametric amplifiers in non-equilibrium thermo field dynamics

Single-mode and two-mode parametric amplifiers under the influence of Markovian environments are studied by means of non-equilibrium thermo field dynamics. In the presence of both parametric coupling and system–environment interaction, the dissipative Heisenberg equations of motion are solved for the optical modes of interest. By making use of the solutions, it is examined whether the noisy parametric amplifiers can exhibit the non-classical properties. Furthermore, it is shown that the two-mode parametric amplifier is equivalent to the two single-mode parametric amplifiers with subsequent beam splitting, even if they are influenced by the environments.