Experimental and analytical study on the spray characteristics of dimethyl ether (DME) and diesel fuels within a common-rail injection system in a diesel engine

This paper investigates the effect of injection parameters on the characteristics of dimethyl ether (DME) as an alternative fuel in a diesel engine with experimental and analytical models based on empirical equations. In order to study macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of DME fuel, this work focuses on the atomization characteristics of DME and compares experimental and predicted results for spray development obtained by empirical models for diesel and DME fuel. Detailed comparisons of spray tip penetration from three different empirical correlations and from visualization experiments of diesel and DME fuels were conducted under various fuel injection conditions. In comparison with the results of different empirical equations for measured spray tip penetration, the experimental results of this study provide good agreement with the calculation results based on empirical equations, except during the earliest stage of the injected spray sequence. The results of atomization characteristics indicate that DME showed better spray characteristics than conventional diesel fuel. Also, the fuel injection delay and maximum injection rate of DME fuel are shorter and lower than those of diesel fuel at the same injection conditions, respectively.     

The effectiveness of modified ingram therapy compared with severity of psoriasis

PURPOSE: This study investigated the pathogenesis of tractional retinal detachment associated with proliferative vitreoretinopathy in an experimental model, using immunohistochemical staining. METHODS: To produce tractional retinal detachment in rabbit eyes, homologous cultured fibroblasts obtained from the gluteal muscle fascia were injected intravitreously. Right eyes of 20 rabbits in the study group, and 7 rabbits in the control group were followed for 26 days at weekly intervals with indirect ophthalmoscopy and fundus photographs. RESULTS: During the follow-up period grade III tractional retinal detachment developed in 11 eyes, grade II in six, and grade 1 in three eyes. The spindle-shaped cells contributed predominantly to the development of epiretinal membrane, and a smaller number of round small and large cells. In 10/17 grade II and III eyes, spindle-shaped cells had vimentin, 7/10 had actin, 5/17 had GFAP, 4/17 had S-100 protein immunoreactivity. Round small and large cells expressed S-100 protein, GFAP and actin in 5/17 eyes. Epiretinal membrane appeared to be formed by spindle-shaped fibroblast-like cells and small and large round glia-like cells. Actin positivity of spindle-shaped and round cells was taken as a marker of contractile elements of the cells and their locomotional features. CONCLUSIONS: These features are believed to be involved in contraction of the membrane and retinal detachment.     

Central GABAA and GABAB receptor modulation of basal and stress-induced plasma interleukin-6 levels in mice

The development of control strategies for loiasis is of crucial importance in endemic areas and depends heavily on the accurate identification of occult-infected individuals. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nested polymerase chain reaction (nested PCR) were developed and based on sequences of the repeat 3 region (15r3) of the gene encoding a Loa loa 15-kD protein. The assays was performed on 20 blood samples from occult-infected subjects and 30 from field-collected amicrofilaremic individuals. The size of the initial PCR product was 396 basepairs (bp). When this initial amplification using primers 15r3(1) and 15r3(2) was carried out for 30 cycles, the PCR products from three of the 20 occult-infected and five of the 30 amicrofilaremic individuals were visualized after electrophoresis by staining the gel with ethidium bromide. Subsequent Southern blotting and hybridization with the specific probe revealed hybridization in 19 of 20 occult-infected and 23 of 30 amicrofilaremic samples but only after two days of exposure of the blot to the x-ray film. When the nested PCR was carried out (product size = 366 bp, primers 15r3(3) and 15r3(4)), 19 of 20 occult-infected and 23 of 30 amicrofilaremic samples that were positive by Southern hybridization of the initial PCR products were strongly positive by staining with ethidium bromide. Qualitative Southern blotting of the nested PCR products using the same probe previously described confirmed the ethidium bromide staining results after a very short exposure time of 4 hr. These results demonstrate that the nested PCR amplification product is specific and that its sensitivity in detecting occult loiasis is 95%. This approach has significant promise for the screening of large human populations for active loiasis without the requirement for blotting and hybridization of the PCR products.     

Vertical bridgman techniques to homogenize zinc composition of CdZnTe substrates

In order to improve the Zn homogeneity along the axial direction of CdZnTe boule, we have employed a modified Bridgman technique using a (Cd, Zn) alloy source in communication with the melt, whose temperature has been gradually changed from 800 to 840°C during growth. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) measurements of Zn composition in the boule shows an excellent homogeneity of Zn along the axis of the CdZnTe boule compared with results in a boule grown by using a fixed source temperature. We have performed a numerical simulation to obtain the approximate temperatures of additional heating and cooling needed to improve the radial Zn homogeneity. CdZnTe boule has been grown by seeded vertical Bridgman furnace with two zones of heater and cooler. Ultraviolet/visible spectroscopic measurements of Zn composition over the length of the boule indicate that the radial distribution of Zn composition is very homogeneous in the body region of the boule, where the radial variation of Zn composition is ±0.0005.     

A hybrid online-product recommendation system: Combining implicit rating-based collaborative filtering and sequential pattern analysis

Many online shopping malls in which explicit rating information is not available still have difficulty in providing recommendation services using collaborative filtering (CF) techniques for their users. Applying temporal purchase patterns derived from sequential pattern analysis (SPA) for recommendation services also often makes users unhappy with the inaccurate and biased results obtained by not considering individual preferences. The objective of this research is twofold. One is to derive implicit ratings so that CF can be applied to online transaction data even when no explicit rating information is available, and the other is to integrate CF and SPA for improving recommendation quality. Based on the results of several experiments that we conducted to compare the performance between ours and others, we contend that implicit rating can successfully replace explicit rating in CF and that the hybrid approach of CF and SPA is better than the individual ones.     

A vertical and floor line-based monocular SLAM system for corridor environments

In this paper, we propose a vertical and floor line-based monocular simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system which utilizes vertical lines, floor lines, and vanishing points as sensory input to perform robust SLAM in corridor environments. By combining three map feature types, our design can help a robot to perform accurate pose estimation, repeatable loop closure, and to construct a more expressive environmental map. As a primitive element of a geometric structure, a line segment has one additional dimension compared to a point feature, thereby allowing the use of line segments to easily represent a geometric structure using a smaller number of features. This system presents map features on a 2D ground space: the vertical line as a projection point, the floor line as the original line, and the vanishing point as a directional vector. Although the vertical line, floor line, and vanishing point use different parameterization and initialization methods, their measurement models are integrated into a unified extended Kalman filter (EKF) framework. Experimental results show that our system can be deployed in a structured indoor environment as a suitable SLAM solution.     

Gamma‐ray irradiation effect of polyethylene on dimaleimides as a class of new multifunctional monomers

Multifunctional monomers, m‐xylylenedimaleimide, p‐phenylenedimaleimide, m‐phenylenedimaleimide, and p‐phenylenedinadimide, all of which have maleimide groups, were synthesized to increase thermal and radiation stabilities. The synthesized multifunctional monomers showed good compatibility with low‐density polyethylene (LDPE). Mixtures of LDPE and these multifunctional monomers were irradiated with γ‐rays from a Co‐60 source at room temperature in a nitrogen atmosphere. The absorbed dose ranged from 0 to 160 KGy. Among these multifunctional monomers, m‐xylylenedimaleimide was the best in gel fraction enhancement. Crosslinked LDPE with m‐xylylenedimaleimide displayed a higher modulus than that of crosslinked LDPE with triallyl cyanurate. For the elongation property, LDPE with m‐xylylenedimaleimide as a multifunctional monomer showed better results than that with commercial multifunctional monomers such as triallyl cyanurate (TAC) and trimethylol propane triacrylate (TMPTA). © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 2339–2345, 2003     

Editing and Synthesizing Two‐Character Motions using a Coupled Inverted Pendulum Model

This study aims to develop a controller for use in the online simulation of two interacting characters. This controller is capable of generalizing two sets of interaction motions of the two characters based on the relationships between the characters. The controller can exhibit similar motions to a captured human motion while reacting in a natural way to the opponent character in real time. To achieve this, we propose a new type of physical model called a coupled inverted pendulum on carts that comprises two inverted pendulum on a cart models, one for each individual, which are coupled by a relationship model. The proposed framework is divided into two steps: motion analysis and motion synthesis. Motion analysis is an offline preprocessing step, which optimizes the control parameters to move the proposed model along a motion capture trajectory of two interacting humans. The optimization procedure generates a coupled pendulum trajectory which represents the relationship between two characters for each frame, and is used as a reference in the synthesis step. In the motion synthesis step, a new coupled pendulum trajectory is planned reflecting the effects of the physical interaction, and the captured reference motions are edited based on the planned trajectory produced by the coupled pendulum trajectory generator. To validate the proposed framework, we used a motion capture data set showing two people performing kickboxing. The proposed controller is able to generalize the behaviors of two humans to different situations such as different speeds and turning speeds in a realistic way in real time.     

Monodisperse polymer/metal composite particles by electroless chemical deposition: Effect of surface functionality of polymer particles

Micron‐sized polymer particles were coated with layers of nickel compounds by plating electrolessly in the presence of aqueous solutions of nickel chloride, sodium hypophosphite, sodium citrate, and ammonium chloride at elevated temperature. The uniform functional polymer particle could be obtained by seeded polymerization. To investigate the effect of surface functionality on the conditions for nickel deposition, the polymer particle was functionalized with the thiol group. From morphological observation, it was found that the mode of nickel deposition was greatly dependent on the surface functionality of the polymer particle. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 420–424, 2003