The leveling of thermosetting waterborne coatings. Part II: Drying of coated wet films

Evaporation behavior of water/solvent blends was estimated using the universal functional activity coefficient, UNIFAC, method. The evaporation rate from a free surface of a waterborne coating, WBC, containing a co-solvent was experimentally determined. These results were used to estimate the evaporation rate from wet films of a WBC containing a variety of co-solvents with a range of initial thickness. Knowing the composition of the WBC during the drying process, the change in the viscosity and the surface tension was determined. The results strongly support the development of a surface tension gradient in the film. It is also suggested that a surface tension gradient would accelerate the leveling of the ribs if a proper co-solvent were employed.     

Analysis of interaction between liposome membranes induced by stress condition: Utilization of liposomes immobilized on indium tin oxide electrode

NBD-cholesterol (NBD-Ch)-modified liposome was immobilized on indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode via the covalent binding method. The transfer of NBD-Ch between the immobilized liposomes and the target liposomes was observed by using a fluorescent microscope. The addition of liposome suspension co-incubated with α-chymotrypsin or stimuli-responsive polymer to the surface of the above ITO electrode, enhanced the liposome–liposome interaction, resulting in the promotion of NBD-Ch transfer. The apparent transfer rate constant of NBD-Ch was found to be correlated with the index for the liposome–liposome interaction evaluated by an immobilized liposome chromatography. This suggests that the present method using the liposome-immobilized ITO electrode was effective to evaluate the liposome–liposome interaction induced by the protein or the stimuli-responsive polymer under stress conditions.     

Ion irradiation effects in EuBa2Cu3Oy thin film

The effect of He ion irradiation on the pinning potential in EuBa₂Cu₃O _y , thin film was investigated by measuring the temperature dependence of resistivity in magnetic fields. The pinning potential decreased as the ion fluence increased. A slower decrease of pinning potential was observed in higher magnetic field in the fluence region <3.5×10¹⁵ cm^–2.     

Large aperture superconducting magnet (benkei)

Benkei, which was a large window frame conventional magnet at KEK has been converted to a superconducting magnet. In the conversion, the pole gap has been doubled from 0.5 m to 1.0 m retaining an analysing power at 2 T m. Several new techniques were applied to coil windings and cryostat fabrication. The superconducting Benkei has shown satisfactory performances for long term operation.     

Responsiveness of isolated dog veins to bradykinin and other bioactive peptides: distribution of sensitivity to bradykinin and possible correlation with genesis of the venous system

Contractile responses of isolated dog veins to bradykinin were studied. Responses to norepinephrine were taken as standards. According to their sensitivity to bradykinin, the veins obtained from 14 sites of the venous system were divided into two groups, while all the veins were almost uniform in their sensitivity to norepinephrine. One group has high sensitivity to bradykinin and the other has low sensitivity. The former includes the pulmonary, hepatic, splenic, and portal veins, the anterior vena cava, and the upper and the middle divisions of the posterior vena cava. The latter includes the external jugular, cephalic, azygos, femoral, and saphenous veins, and the lower division of the posterior vena cava. The responses of the renal vein were intermediate. A striking correlation was noted between the distribution of bradykinin sensitivity and the genesis of the venous system. Five bioactive peptides other than bradykinin were also studied. Only angiotensin induced contraction in some preparation, but, as a whole, caerulein, eledoisin-related peptide, oxytocin and vasopressin rarely showed contractile activity.     

A fundamental study on recovery of copper with a cation exchange membrane: Part 2 — Transfer rate of copper and hydrogen ion through a cation exchange membrane

Transfer rates of copper and hydrogen ion through a cation exchange membrane were measured experimentally for the systems of Cu/H-SO₄ and Cu/H-NO₃. Transfer rates of anions in the membrane were also measured, and they were negligible compared to those of the cations. Cupric ion and hydrogen ion transfer in a ratio of 1:2 and in opposite directions. The self-diffusion coefficient of cupric ion in the membrane is obtained from the transfer rate of copper in high concentrations of sulfuric or nitric acid solutions using the equilibria data obtained in our previous work. The coefficient of the hydrogen ion is similarly obtained.     

Full scale investigation of GCL damage mechanisms in small earth dam retrofit applications under earthquake loading

This paper reports results of full scale testing to further explore potential GCL damage mechanisms in earth dam retrofit applications in seismically active areas; in particular, to a) investigate whether shear displacements could reduce the magnitude of GCL panel overlap during earthquake shaking; b) explore the influence of gravel particles on GCL thickness at localised point of contact; and c) observe the consequences of an accidental exposure of an uncovered GCL to short duration rainfall in terms of moisture content and effects during subsequent compaction. The results of these experiments indicate that even under severe shaking no movements were detected at the GCL panel overlap. Whereas gravel particles were observed to locally reduce the thickness of the GCL to 2.2 mm, no plowing of the particle into the GCL occurred due to a lack of shear displacement at the interface, resulting in no localised internal erosion through the barrier. Furthermore, hydration of GCL panels during construction due to surface wetting was observed to result in a state of hydration less than its post-construction state. These results indicate that although each of the three GCL damage mechanisms cannot be ruled out to ever be relevant in practice, the performance of the GCL retrofitted earth dam tested was satisfactory under even severe Level 2 earthquake shaking, and suggests that the retrofitting of small earth dams with GCLs is a promising strategy to improve their static and seismic resistance.