Porphyria cutanea tarda with constrictive pericarditis in a family

Two cases of familial porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) with constrictive pericarditis are described. A 50-year-old woman and her 48-year-old younger brother were admitted because of right ventricular heart failure. Constrictive pericarditis was diagnosed by RV pressure waveform and echocardiogram. The patients were diagnosed as PCT based on clinical symptoms, histologic findings and elevated urinary excretion levels of uroporphyrin. Even to this day, over 40% of the etiology of constrictive pericarditis remains unknown. There is a possibility of overlooking porphyria cutanea tarda in constrictive pericarditis patients. This report describes the first documented cases of familial PCT with constrictive pericarditis.     

Application of chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) for dismantling of nuclear facilities

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI) has developed the first product of COIL (the maximum output power : 1.5kW in the standard operation mode) for industry in the world, and the maximum output power successfully reached to 10kW in the demonstration commercial equipment constructed in KHI in October, 1996.

Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) is of great advantage to application to the dismantling of the components, considering low transmission loss in optical fibers due to the wave length of 1.315 μ m, high quality beam due to the low pressure gas laser medium, high power emission possibility based on its chemical reaction, and large energy absorption on material due to the short wave length.

This paper describes the feature of COIL and cutting performance of stainless steel by COIL, and application of COIL for dismantling of nuclear facilities.     

Isoflurane and sevoflurane augment norepinephrine responses to surgical noxious stimulation in humans

BACKGROUND: Suppression of hypertensive response to noxious stimulation by volatile anesthetics may be a result of suppression of the stimulation-induced norepinephrine response or that of the cardiovascular response to catecholamines, or both. The suppression of the cardiovascular response is established, but that of norepinephrine response has not been confirmed. The authors hypothesized that the suppression of cardiovascular response but not that of norepinephrine response plays a major role in suppressing the noxious stimulation-induced hypertensive response by volatile anesthetics. METHODS: Forty healthy donors for living-related liver transplantation were allocated to four groups: receiving 1.2% (end-tidal) isoflurane in oxygen and nitrogen, 2.0% isoflurane, 1.7% sevoflurane, or 2.8% sevoflurane. The intraoperative plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine concentrations, arterial blood pressure and pulse rate were measured for the first 15 min of surgery and were compared with the preoperative values. RESULTS: Norepinephrine and epinephrine concentrations both increased intraoperatively in all four groups. The values of maximum increase and area under the concentration-versus-time curve of norepinephrine were greater in the high dose groups of both anesthetics. The intraoperative blood pressure did not differ by different doses of anesthetics, and the degree of increase of blood pressure was not proportional to the plasma catecholamine concentrations. CONCLUSION: The effects of isoflurane and sevoflurane on the surgical noxious stimulation-induced norepinephrine response were inversely proportional to the dose. The suppression of noxious stimulation-induced blood pressure response by anesthetics that were studied may be the result of suppression of the responses of vascular smooth muscle and myocardium to catecholamines.     

Crystal structure of deoxy-human hemoglobin beta6 Glu --> Trp. Implications for the structure and formation of the sickle cell fiber

An atomic-level understanding of the interactions between hemoglobin molecules that contribute to the formation of pathological fibers in sickle cell disease remains elusive. By exploring crystal structures of mutant hemoglobins with altered polymerization properties, insight can be gained into sickle cell hemoglobin (HbS) polymerization. We present here the 2.0-A resolution deoxy crystal structure of human hemoglobin mutated to tryptophan at the beta6 position, the site of the glutamate --> valine mutation in HbS. Unlike leucine and isoleucine, which promote polymerization relative to HbS, tryptophan inhibits polymerization. Our results provide explanations for the altered polymerization properties and reveal a fundamentally different double strand that may provide a model for interactions within a fiber and/or interactions leading to heterogeneous nucleation.     

Ns-Soot: A Material-Based Term for Strongly Light-Absorbing Carbonaceous Particles

The climate-change and environmental literature, including that on aerosols, is replete with mention of black carbon (BC) and soot. The terms are used interchangeably in much of the literature, although BC and soot commonly have operational and source-based definitions, respectively, and reliable reference samples and aerosol standards do not exist for either one. The uncertainty about their exact chemical nature and properties can be decreased by materials-based measurement techniques and terminology. Here, we discuss ambiguities in common uses of BC and soot and propose the term ns-soot, where “ns” refers to carbon nanospheres, for a characteristic constituent of BC and soot. Based on its composition, morphology, and structure, we define ns-soot as particles that consist of nanospheres, typically with diameters <100 nm, that possess distinct structures of concentrically wrapped, graphene-like layers of carbon and with grape-like (aciniform) morphologies. We additionally propose that, because of their importance for climate modeling and health issues, distinctions are made among bare, coated, and embedded ns-soot particles.

Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research     

High‐resolution compressive channel estimation for broadband wireless communication systems

Broadband channel is often characterized by a sparse multipath channel where dominant multipath taps are widely separated in time, thereby resulting in a large delay spread. Accurate channel estimation can be done by sampling received signal with analog‐to‐digital converter (ADC) at Nyquist rate and then estimating all channel taps with high resolution. However, these Nyquist sampling‐based methods have two main disadvantages: (i) demand of the high‐speed ADC, which already exceeds the capability of current ADC, and (ii) low spectral efficiency. To solve these challenges, compressive channel estimation methods have been proposed. Unfortunately, those channel estimators are vulnerable to low resolution in low‐speed ADC sampling systems. In this paper, we propose a high‐resolution compressive channel estimation method, which is based on sampling by using multiple low‐speed ADCs. Unlike the traditional methods on compressive channel estimation, our proposed method can approximately achieve the performance of lower bound. At the same time, the proposed method can reduce communication cost and improve spectral efficiency. Numerical simulations confirm our proposed method by using low‐speed ADC sampling. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non-stoichiometric curing effect on fracture toughness of nanosilica particulate-reinforced epoxy composites

Non-stoichiometric curing effects on the fracture toughness behaviors of nanosilica particulate-reinforced epoxy composites were experimentally investigated in this study by comparing them with bending strengths to take into consideration the effect of interaction between nanoparticles and network structures in matrix resins. The matrixes were prepared by curing them with an excess mixture of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A-type epoxy resin as the curing agent for the stoichiometric condition. The volume fractions of the silica particles with a median diameter of 240 nm were constantly 0.2 for all composites. The neat epoxy resins and the composites were cured non-stoichiometrically to change the crosslinking densities of the neat epoxy resins and the matrix resins of the composites within 2740–490 mol/m³. The fracture toughnesses and bending strengths of the composites and the neat epoxy resins strongly depended on the crosslinking densities in the resins. Although the fracture toughness decreased monotonously from that of the stoichiometrically cured resins as the crosslinking density decreased, the fracture toughnesses of composites were largest at a slightly lower crosslinking density of approximately 2490 mol/m³ from the stoichiometric condition of 2740 mol/m³. The fracture toughness and the bending strength were improved for crosslinking densities higher than 2000 mol/m³ by adding particles. At crosslinking density lower than 2000 mol/m³, the particles worked against the mechanical properties as defects in matrix resins.     

Effects of substrate bias voltage and target sputtering power on the structural and tribological properties of carbon nitride coatings

Effects of substrate bias voltage and target sputtering power on the structural and tribological properties of carbon nitride (CN_x) coatings are investigated. CN_x coatings are fabricated by a hybrid coating process with the combination of radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF PECVD) and DC magnetron sputtering at various substrate bias voltage and target sputtering power in the order of −400 V 200 W, −400 V 100 W, −800 V 200 W, and −800 V 100 W. The deposition rate, N/C atomic ratio, and hardness of CN_x coatings as well as friction coefficient of CN_x coating sliding against AISI 52100 pin in N₂ gas stream decrease, while the residual stress of CN_x coatings increases with the increase of substrate bias voltage and the decrease of target sputtering power. The highest hardness measured under single stiffness mode of 15.0 GPa and lowest residual stress of 3.7 GPa of CN_x coatings are obtained at −400 V 200 W, whereas the lowest friction coefficient of 0.12 of CN_x coatings is achieved at −800 V 100 W. Raman and XPS analysis suggest that sp³ carbon bonding decreases and sp² carbon bonding increases with the variations in substrate bias voltage and target sputtering power. Optical images and Raman characterization of worn surfaces confirm that the friction behavior of CN_x coatings is controlled by the directly sliding between CN_x coating and steel pin. Therefore, the reduction of friction coefficient is attributed to the decrease of sp³ carbon bonding in the CN_x coating. It is concluded that substrate bias voltage and target sputtering power are effective parameters for tailoring the structural and tribological properties of CN_x coatings.     

Fundamental characteristics of a MEMS‐diaphragm actuator using a thermal expansion drive composed of a conductive polymer

Performance of a MEMS actuator using a thermal expansion drive of a conductive polymer (CP) is investigated by applying electricity to it. The actuator consists of a thin polymer diaphragm (5 mm diameter) and a thin CP (ion‐doped polythiophene) layer coated on the diaphragm surface. Polyimide (10 μm thickness) and PET (110 μm thickness) sheets were chosen as the diaphragm materials. The diaphragm is deflected by the thermal expansion of the CP by applying electricity to it. Merits of using the CP instead of metal are realizing flexible actuators and the applicability to a low‐heat‐resistant material diaphragm. The relationship between thickness of the CP layer (10–50 μm thickness) and electrical resistance (30–600 Ω) and the relationship between the input voltage (1–8 V) and the generated diaphragm displacement (several tens of micrometers) were investigated experimentally. These relationships were compared with those in the case of using the thermal expansion of a vapor‐deposited aluminum layer (0.1 μm thickness). The results of the investigation indicate that the diaphragm based on CP can produce the required displacement. In the case the CP‐layer‐based thermal expansion, however, larger input voltage than in the case of the aluminum‐layer‐based thermal expansion is needed to obtain the same displacement amplitudes. Therefore, the main problem concerning use of the CP‐based diaphragm is considered to be enhancing the electrical conductance of the CP layer. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Fictitious reference iterative tuning considering input saturation

This letter presents a simple control method that can alleviate the influence of input saturation by the so‐called fictitious reference iterative tuning and anti‐windup proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control architecture. The effectiveness of the presented method is demonstrated through experiments with a DC motor control system. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.