Polyphonic Aspects of Software Process Looking for Philosophical Foundation of Software Engineering

This retrospective essay summarizes 50 years experience of a first-generation programmer in Japan focusing on his thoughts on software process issues. It started from strong concern of the structure of program execution processes inside computer hardware, then went out of digital box to think about software development and maintenance processes, namely how to deal with issues between people and software. Finally his main concern turned to the social issues of software evolution processes in the Internet society. The concept of "immaterial labor" seems to be important to think about today''s process issues outside of digital boxes.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of catalytic PM combustion in a fluidized bed type PM removal device for low-temperature continuous regeneration

A fluidized bed filter can perform highly efficient PM collection and low-temperature continuous regeneration. However, to further reduce continuous regeneration temperature, a rough surface bed particle was selected herein. It is expected that the rough surface increases and stabilizes doped catalyst on bed particle even in fluidized bed. This bed particle can stably support 9.48 g-catalyst/kg-bed particle of doped catalyst versus 1.58 g-catalyst/kg-bed particle in previous research. This increase in catalyst amount increases the probability of good PM-catalyst contact, and collection efficiency can easily maintain its initial value due to catalytic PM combustion. PM combustion also depends on fluidization. Thus, combustion kinetics in a fluidized bed was investigated via a newly developed thermogravimetric analyzer that considered PM-gas relative velocity, and a constructed kinetic model was applied to numerical simulation. PM combustion obeyed an Arrhenius relationship, and the effect of PM-gas relative velocity was included in the kinetic model as a mass transfer term. A continuous regeneration experiment was conducted under optimal conditions, and the continuous regeneration temperature is 330 °C. As water vapor occurs in combustor exhaust, we added 10 vol% water vapor and found that the continuous regeneration is further reduced to 300 °C.     

STATCOM using the new concept of an inverter system with controlled gradational voltage

This paper presents the STATCOM using the new concept of an inverter system which consists of three inverter units connected in series, and each inverter unit generates a different input voltage such as V_C, 2V_C, 4V_C. This inverter system can output a high‐quality voltage by a low‐frequency switching operation. Thus, it can combine low loss and high quality. In this paper, we show the technique to apply STATCOM which uses the inverter system, and examination results. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 168(4): 58–65, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ).DOI 10.1002/eej.20823     

Inhibition by phenyl N-tert-butyl nitrone of early phase carcinogenesis in the livers of rats fed a choline-deficient, L-amino acid-defined diet

Male Wistar rats were fed a choline-deficient, L-amino acid-defined (CDAA) diet alone or in combination with a nitrone-based free radical trapping agent, phenyl N-tert-butyl nitrone (PBN) in the drinking water at the concentrations of 0.013, 0.065, and 0.130% for 12 weeks. PBN inhibited the changes that are normally induced in the livers of rats by the CDAA diet feeding, i.e., development of putative preneoplastic lesions, proliferation of connective tissue, reduction of glutathione S-transferase activity, formation of 8-hydroxyguanine in DNA, and an increase in inducible cyclo-oxygenase (COX2) activity. PBN, however, did not prevent the increases in the COX2 mRNA or protein levels brought on by the CDAA diet These results indicate that the loss of glutathione S-transferase activity and COX2 induction may play significant roles in rat liver carcinogenesis by the CDAA diet and that PBN prevents neoplasia not only by its radical scavenging activity but also by inhibiting COX2 activity at the catalytic level.     

Manual reduction with the index finger for infantile intussusception. A modification of Hutchinson's maneuver

Manual reduction with the index finger (modified Hutchinson's maneuver) enabling simple and safe manual reduction of infantile intussusception is described. The procedure was used in four patients, two boys and two girls, ranging in age from 2 to 15 months, as greater than normal compression was necessary and/or serosal splitting occurred during conventional reduction. The technique is as follows: in addition to the proximal bowel compression with Hutchinson's maneuver, the surgeon inserts his index finger into the intussusceptum via its neck. The finger enables the surgeon to sound a wider space between the intussusceptum and intussuscipiens, which is most likely to be responsive to bowel compression. Although the intussusceptions in the four patients were categorized as ileo-ileo-colic (three cases) and ileo-ileal (one case) types, this manual reduction technique was successful in all cases, no bowel rupture occurred, and hospitalization was no longer than with the conventional procedure. We conclude that this modified Hutchinson's maneuver may contribute to successful surgical reduction of infantile intussusception.     

Inhibition of Baculoviral Disease by Plant-Mediated Peroxidase Activity and Free Radical Generation

The susceptibility of noctuid larvae to baculoviral infection is markedly affected by phytochemicals ingested during the acquisition of viral inoculum on foliage. We hypothesized that a major process causing phytochemical inhibition of viral disease is phenolic oxidation by phenolases, particularly peroxidase (POD), which subsequently generates free radicals. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated the chemical interactions in foliage of cotton, tomato, and lettuce by application of antioxidants, prooxidants, enriched extracts of phenolases, and/or phenolic substrates. Larvae of Heliothis virescens or Helicoverpa zea that received viral inoculum on treated foliage were less likely to die from viral infection the higher the POD activity of this foliage. Furthermore, the higher the POD activity, the more free radicals were generated in crushed foliage, and the more free radicals generated, the lower the incidence of viral disease. We present a series of reactions hypothesized to lead to inhibition of viral disease by free radicals, the generation of which is mediated, at least in part, by POD. Phenolic redox cycling catalyzed by POD involving clastogenesis (generation of H₂O₂) appeared to be a critical driver of phytochemical reactions leading to free radical generation and inhibition of baculoviral disease in their noctuid hosts. We also report application of an assay for the detection of free radicals by using methemoglobin as a new modification of this method for detecting radicals in plant foliage in the immediate aftermath of an oxidative burst.     

Estimation of fracture flow considering the inhomogeneous structure of single rock fractures

Considering the safe, long-term isolation of energy byproducts, such as radioactive waste, one of the important parameters is the velocity of the groundwater flow through the void of rock masses and/or fractures. Although it is generally known that a natural rock fracture indicates a complex aperture distribution, the fracture is often ideally represented by a parallel plate model. The cubic law is applied to evaluate the hydraulic properties of fractured rock. From several previous research works, it is understood that the cubic law can be applied when the Reynolds number is less than 1.0 and that the inertia term can basically be ignored in such slow fracture flows. In this research work, two-dimensional seepage flow analyses, using the authors' proposed 2D model, in which the inertia term, the pressure term and the diffusion term are incorporated, are carried out for single fracture permeability tests under conditions which allow for the application of the cubic law. In comparing the results of the experiments with the results of the numerical simulation, the results of the simulation employing the 2D model show a good agreement with the experimental results; the 2D model can simulate the water flow in an inhomogeneous fracture more accurately than the simulation based on the local cubic law. From these simulation results, the fracture flow in an inhomogeneous structure is discussed, along with the local Reynolds number, and the resistance through the fracture geometry is considered. Consequently, under the condition of a mean Reynolds number of less than 1.0, the inertia terms do not affect the fracture flow, but the hydraulic resistance does affect the fracture flow.     

A new hemoglobin variant found during Hb A1c measurement: Hb Hokusetsu [beta52(D3)Asp-->Gly]

A new beta chain variant was accidentally found through the assay of Hb A1c in a diabetic patient. The variant was detected by polyacrylamide gel isoelectrofocusing and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. For sequence determination, globin was cleaved with combination of trypsin and lysyl endopeptidase and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography connected to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. An abnormal betaT-5 peptide was found by reconstructed selected ion monitoring. The collision-induced dissociation spectrum of an ion derived from the abnormal betaT-5 peptide revealed a new substitution, [beta52(D3)Asp-->Gly], named Hb Hokusetsu. The sequence was confirmed with an automatic sequencer using peptides isolated by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography. Amplification of the beta-globin exon 2 and nucleotide sequencing revealed a GAT-->GGT mutation in codon 52 corresponding to an Asp-->Gly replacement. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry analysis of the hemolysate showed a reasonable value of 10.4% for glycated globin. The variant migrated as Hb S on isoelectrofocusing. Hematological analysis revealed normal parameters. The patient's hemolysate showed normal stability in the isopropanol test. Oxygen equilibrium studies on the patient's red blood cells and hemolysate showed no significant change in oxygen affinity or cooperativity.     

Automatic control strategy for biological nitrogen removal of low C/N wastewater in a sequencing batch reactor.

To establish an automatic control system of external carbon addition in biological nitrogen removal, a bench-scale sequencing batch reactor with real-time control strategy was designed in this study. An oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) profile was used for automatic control of external carbon addition. The mean removal efficiency of total organic carbon was over 98%. Complete denitrification in an anoxic phase and complete denitrification and nitrification in anoxic and oxic phases were accomplished, respectively, because the oxic and anoxic periods were also appropriately controlled with ORP and pH profiles, respectively. Mean removal efficiency of total nitrogen was over 95%. When concentration of influent wastewater was changed, volume of additional carbon was automatically changed with the influent fluctuation, and flexible hydraulic retention time was achieved in this system.