Social responsibility and contribution: R & D for the construction industry in the twenty-first century

An authoritative account of current thinking in Japan by a distinguished contributor presented at the second Rinker International conference. Toshihiko Ota discusses the social responsibilities and contributions of the construction industry, drawing on the example of the effective performance of Japan's R & D and highlighting a number of responsibilities for the twenty-first century.     

Cocaine-induced liver injury in mice is mediated by nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to explore among individuals with binge eating disorder (BED) perceptions of others' evaluation of their weight-related behavior and affect aroused by such. METHOD: Prior to treatment for binge eating and weight loss, 47 subjects diagnosed with BED completed a questionnaire designed to assess the perceived evaluation of an understanding and a critical individual in both positive and negative weight-related situations and subjects' affective responses to being evaluated. RESULTS: Subjects exhibited characteristic patterns of affective response to perceived evaluation of their weight-related behavior, with negative situations and critical evaluators evoking greater degrees of negative affect. Negative affect in response to perceived evaluation was associated with poor outcome with weight loss but not binge eating. However, this finding was due to the correlation between negative affect in response to perceived evaluation and global severity of psychopathology (SCL-90-R). DISCUSSION: The results suggest that psychopathology in this population predicts poor outcome with weight loss, and further that independent of its relationship with depression, psychopathology is strongly associated with a tendency to experience negative affect in response to perceived evaluation by others of weight-related behavior.     

Clinical trial of new polyurethane vascular grafts for hemodialysis: compared with expanded polytetrafluoroethylene grafts

We developed a new polyurethane vascular access graft coated with gelatin and reinforced with knitted polyester fibers (PE-PEUG). Advantages over expanded-polytetrafluoroethylene graft (E-PTFEG) were previously reported in experimental studies. Between May 1990 and August 1992, 39 PE-PEUGs including 34 loop and 5 straight and 18 E-PTFEGs including 18 loop were implanted to create arteriovenous (AV) fistulas in a total of 52 adult patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD). They were followed up until October 1994. Hemostasis on the suture line was achieved within 3 min in all patients implanted with PE-PEUGs. Bleeding from the needle holes of PE-PEUG stopped within 10 min with gentle finger pressure. Minimal local edema developed in only a few patients implanted with PE-PEUG while most patients implanted with E-PTFEG developed moderate local edema. One seroma formation was found in an E-PTFE case. Aneurysmal dilatations were observed twice in a PE-PEUG patient 9 and 17 months after the implantation and once in a E-PTFEG patient 2 years after the implantation. The cumulative patency rate at 1 year in the PE-PEUG and E-PTFEG groups were 53.2 and 70.8%, respectively. Our clinical study showed that the PE-PEUG had several advantages over E-PTFEG: prompt hemostasis, no persistent edema and no formation of seroma, no change in elasticity, and sufficient mechanical strength. However, the cumulative patency rate was inferior to that with E-PTFEG implanted in our series. Further modifications are therefore necessary to improve the patency rate.     

Japanese Sardine Oil as a Source of 16:3(n-4) and 16:4(n-l) Fatty Acids

Open tubular gas liquid Chromatographic (GLC) analysis of fatty acids in Japanese sardine oil showed the contents of 1.57% hexadecatrienoic acid (16:3) and 2.55% hexadecatetraenoic acid (16:4). Concentrations of 16:3 and 16:4 were carried out through the urea adduct method, argentation thin layer chromatography (TLC) and reversed phase TLC, with the purities of 16:3 and 16:4 samples obtained being both higher than 92%. They were recognized as 16:3(n-4) and 16:4(n-1) by nuclear magnetic resonance analyses of the methyl esters and GLC analyses of the partially hydrazine hydrogenated products and their oxidative ozonolysis products. The structures were supported by the results of gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analyses of the pyrrolidides. Other isomers of 16:3 and 16:4 have not been detected in the GLC analysis of the methyl esters. These results indicate that sardine oil is useful as a source of these fatty acids.     

Synthesis of polystyrene@silica particles through soap-free emulsion polymerization and sol-gel reaction on polymer surfaces

Polystyrene@silica particles were produced through soap-free emulsion polymerization (SFEP) of styrene and N-vinylacetamide (NVA) via the sol-gel reactions of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) on polymer particle surfaces. Different amounts of NVA were used to prepare polystyrene particles using the SFEP process. The particles covered with poly-NVA then underwent the Stöber process to form an outer silica shell. NVA was found to stabilize the polymer colloids and improve their stability by steric effects, even after the positive charge on the polymer surface was partially neutralized by the electrostatically adsorbed TEOS, which tends to induce particle aggregation. Further, the –NH functional groups on NVA catalyzed the hydrolysis of TEOS in the sol-gel reaction to form silica. Consequently, small, monodisperse, and stable core-shell particles were formed despite having a low zeta potential.     

Discharge characteristics under non-uniform electric field in He,Ar and air at low pressures

We measured dc discharge inception voltage V_i for various electrode configurations in He, Ar and air in vacuum range from 10⁵ to 10^-1 Pa to determine discharge characteristics under a space vacuum environment. By quantitative consideration of the E_i/p distribution in the gap space at the discharge inception, the discharge inception mechanism under non-uniform electric field was investigated in vacuum. At the same time, we observed the discharge profile variation with residual gas pressure and quantitatively analyzed its characteristics, using an image processing technique. Based on the analysis, we found that the dependency of the discharge inception voltage and the length of the discharge path on the residual gas pressure under non-uniform field conditions agreed well with that previously obtained for uniform field conditions     

Mechanical properties of alkoxy-derived cordierite ceramics

Mechanical properties of cordierite ceramics prepared by the controlled hydrolysis and following polycondensation of aluminium, magnesium and silicon alkoxides were investigated in great detail. Flexural strengths of- and-cordierite ceramics are about 60 and 100 MPa, respectively. The flexural strengths of these ceramics are mainly influenced by cracks arising from thermal mismatch between - and -cordierite precipitated during sintering. High fracture toughness of-cordierite ceramics prepared by this method is ascribed to the fine microstructure of the ceramics. The high-temperature flexural strength of-cordierite ceramics is little reduced below 1000° C because of high purity of the ceramics.[/p]     

High‐mobility self‐aligned top‐gate oxide TFT for high‐resolution AM‐OLED

High‐mobility and highly reliable self‐aligned top‐gate oxide thin‐film transistor (TFTs) were developed using the aluminum reaction method. Al diffusion to the oxide semiconductor and homogenization of the oxygen concentration in the depth direction after annealing were confirmed by laser‐assisted atom probe tomography. The high mobility of the top‐gate TFT with amorphous indium tin zinc oxide channel was demonstrated to be 32 cm²/V s. A 9.9‐in. diagonal qHD active‐matrix organic light‐emitting diode (AM‐OLED) display was fabricated using a five‐mask backplane process to demonstrate an applicable solution for large‐sized and high‐resolution AM‐OLEDs.     

Design and Control of 6-DOF Mechanism for Twin-Frame Mobile Robot

A new lightweight six-legged robot that uses a simple mechanism and can move and work with high efficiency has been developed. This robot consists of two leg-bases with three legs each, and walks by moving each leg-base alternately. These leg-bases are connected to each other with a 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) mechanism. While designing this robot, the output force, velocity, and workspace of various connection mechanisms were compared, and the results showed that good performance could be achieved with a serial/parallel hybrid mechanism. The serial/parallel hybrid mechanism consists of three 6-DOF serially linked arms positioned with radial symmetry about the center of each leg-base; each leg-base is composed of two active and four passive joints. Walking experiments with this robot confirmed that this mechanism has satisfactory performance not only as a walking robot, but also as an active walking platform. Furthermore, in this robot, the entire leg-drive mechanism acts as a 6-axis force sensor, and individual sensors at the feet are not necessary. The forces and moments can be calculated from the changes in the joint angles. Experiments conducted verified that smooth contact with the ground by the swing-leg and successful switching from swing to support leg can be achieved using this force control and force measurement method.     

Electrochemical and ATR-FTIR study of dimethyl ether and methanol electro-oxidation on sputtered Pt electrode

DME has been considered to be a new alternative fuel for direct fuel cells. However, there is little knowledge about the electro-oxidation mechanism of the DME oxidation reaction (DOR). It is very important to know the intermediate adsorption species of the DOR on the Pt catalysts for verifying the DOR mechanism and developing more active catalysts in order to improve the performance of the direct DME fuel cell (DDMEFC). The electro-oxidation activity, coverage of the adsorption species, types of the intermediate adsorption species, and the fractional coverage of the linear-CO_ad (CO_L) of the DOR as the function of potential and scan rate were studied and compared with that of the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR).It was found that the coverage of the adsorption species (θ_ads) was ca. 90% for the DOR at 0.1 < E < 0.45 V on the Pt. The fractional coverage of CO_L formed in the DOR decreased with the decrease in the potential from 0.4 to 0.1 V. It was larger than 50% at 0.3 < E < 0.5 V. The CO_L would be the dominant adsorption species for the DOR. Except the CO_L, the intermediate adsorption species of the DOR were the bridge-CO_ad (CO_B), -COOH, -CHO, -HCOO- and -OCH₃.