Development of a measuring method for several types of programmed tool paths for NC machine tools using a laser displacement interferometer and a rotary encoder

Many circular motion measuring methods for NC machine tools have been proposed, however, the drawback common to many of these methods is the restriction on the radius size due to the short measuring range of the displacement transducers used. Moreover, most of these measurement tools are specialized, and can only perform circular test path measurements. A circularity test method using a laser displacement interferometer and a rotary encoder has been developed. The measuring method features a much longer range of motion than ordinal circular test methods such as the double ball bar (DBB) method and, therefore, the radius restriction on these measurements is greatly reduced. Moreover, this measuring system can also be used for the evaluation of positioning accuracy and other more complex test paths.

The proposed device consists primarily of a laser displacement interferometer and a rotary encoder. The holders for the interferometer head and the retroreflector are connected with a stainless steel rod. The retroreflector holder has a synthetic resin linear bearing allowing it to move relative to the interferometer head so that both optical components are always facing each other. The laser interferometer measures the change in distance between the interferometer head and the retroreflector, and the rotary encoder measures the rotation angle of the stainless steel rod.

In this paper, the background, measuring principle and apparatus structure are briefly described. The experimental setup is also presented. The apparatus was employed in several measuring experiments, including circularity tests for a vertical machining center. The results from these experiments support the validity of this measurement apparatus.     

Electrochemical reaction engineering of polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Although fuel cells can be considered as a type of reactor, methods of kinetic analysis and reactor modeling from the viewpoint of chemical reaction engineering have not yet been established. The rate of an electrochemical reaction is a function of concentration, temperature, and interfacial potential difference (or electromotive force). This study examined the cathode reaction in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, in which oxygen and protons react over platinum in the catalyst layer (CL). The effects of the oxygen partial pressure and the cathode electromotive force on the reaction rate were assessed. Resistance to proton transport increases the electromotive force and reducing the reaction rate. It was established that the effectiveness factor of the cathode CL is determined by competition between the reaction and mass transport of oxygen and protons. Two dimensionless moduli that govern the cathode behavior are proposed as a means of depicting the processes in the cell. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 249–256, 2017     

Initial configuration dependence in a self-organizing robot

In this paper, we describe the dependence of an initial state in a self-organizing robot on an optimal structure configuration, where a “fractum” is used as a basic unit. Each robot operates on a genetic algorithm (GA) by itself, and all of them will produce a desired configuration. However, problems such as a deadlock state can happen depending on the initial configuration. A deadlock state means a state in which no robots can move because each robot moves autonomously. It is proved from simulations that a difference in the initial configuration can affect both the deadlock rate and the number of movements of fracta needed to obtain an optimal structure configuration. This work was presented, in part, at the Third International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 19–21, 1998     

Investigation of the voltage life of mica-alumina composite insulation at high temperatures

Experiments and investigations were carried out on the voltage life of a bar-coil model with a nickel-plated copper conductor covered with mica-alumina composite insulation at a temperature range of 550–850 °C. Diffusion of copper into the insulation layer was observed on the specimens aged for a long period. Insulation with mica paper gave faster diffusion speed and shorter voltage life than insulation with mica flake. The diffusion speed became higher with an increase in temperature. The ac current gradually increased with aging time and increased rapidly just before breakdown. There was the relationship I = aEⁿ (a, n: constants) between ac current I and applied stress E, and n was approximately equal to 1 in the region where thermal unbalance did not occur. Arrhenius's law held in the relationship between ac current and aging time. Therefore, the breakdown mechanism might be that the effective insulation thickness decreased due to copper diffusion into the insulation layer and the ac current increased gradually until thermal breakdown in the last stage. If copper diffuses into the insulation layer, even with no voltage application, the aging time required to decrease the breakdown voltage to a certain level (the voltage life) obeys Arrhenius's law. If the voltage life is dominated by diffusion into the insulation layer, the activation energy for voltage life in the aging test becomes twice that for diffusion, both with and without voltage application. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 129(4): 24–31, 1999     

Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Contributes to Differentiation of Monocyte-Derived Tumor-Associated Macrophages via PAI-1 and IL-8 Production

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) promote cancer cell proliferation and metastasis, as well as anti-tumor immune suppression. Recent studies have shown that tumors enhance the recruitment and differentiation of TAMs, but the detailed mechanisms have not been clarified. We thus examined the influence of cancer cells on the differentiation of monocytes to TAM subsets, including CD163⁺, CD204⁺, and CD206⁺ cells, in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) using immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and a cytokine array. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of OSCC cells (HSC-2, SQUU-A, and SQUU-B cells) on the differentiation of purified CD14⁺ cells to TAM subsets. The localization patterns of CD163⁺, CD204⁺, and CD206⁺ in OSCC sections were quite different. The expression of CD206 on CD14⁺ cells was significantly increased after the co-culture with OSCC cell lines, while the expressions of CD163 and CD204 on CD14⁺ cells showed no change. High concentrations of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) were detected in the conditioned medium of OSCC cell lines. PAI-1 and IL-8 stimulated CD14⁺ cells to express CD206. Moreover, there were positive correlations among the numbers of CD206⁺, PAI-1⁺, and IL-8⁺ cells in OSCC sections. These results suggest that PAI-1 and IL-8 produced by OSCC contribute to the differentiation of monocytes to CD206⁺ TAMs.     

In situ Raman study on single- and double-walled carbon nanotubes as a function of lithium insertion

We investigated the electrochemical lithium ion (Li(+)) insertion/desertion behavior on highly pure and bundled single- and double-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs and DWNTs) using an in situ Raman technique. In general, two storage sites could host Li(+) in SWNT and DWNT bundles when varying an external potential: a) the outer surface sites, and b) the interstitial spaces within the bundles. The most sensitive changes in the tangential mode (TM) of the Raman spectra upon doping with Li(+) can be divided into two regions. The first region was found from 2.8 to 1.0 V (the coverage of Li(+) on the outer surface of a bundled nanotube) and was characterized by the loss of resonant conditions via partial charge transfer, where the G(+) line of the SWNT and the TM of the outer tube of DWNTs experienced a highly depressed intensity, but remained almost constant in frequency. The appearance of a Breit-Wigner-Fano (BWF) profile provided strong evidence of metallic inner tubes within DWNTs. The second region was observed when the applied potentials ranged from 0.9 to 0 V and was characterized by Li(+) diffusion into the interstitial sites of the bundled nanotube material. This phenomenon invoked a large downshift of the G(-) band in SWNTs, and a small downshift of the TM of the inner tube of DWNTs caused by expansion of the C--C bonds due to the charge transferred to the nanotubes, and the disappearance of the BWF profile through the screening effect of the interstitial Li(+) layers.     

All-solid-state Z-scheme in CdS-Au-TiO2 three-component nanojunction system

Natural photosynthesis, which achieves efficient solar energy conversion through the combined actions of many types of molecules ingeniously arranged in a nanospace, highlights the importance of a technique for site-selective coupling of different materials to realize artificial high-efficiency devices. In view of increasingly serious energy and environmental problems, semiconductor-based artificial photosynthetic systems consisting of isolated photochemical system 1 (PS1), PS2 and the electron-transfer system have recently been developed. However, the direct coupling of the components is crucial for retarding back reactions to increase the reaction efficiency. Here, we report a simple technique for forming an anisotropic CdS-Au-TiO2 nanojunction, in which PS1(CdS), PS2(TiO2) and the electron-transfer system (Au) are spatially fixed. This three-component system exhibits a high photocatalytic activity, far exceeding those of the single- and two-component systems, as a result of vectorial electron transfer driven by the two-step excitation of TiO2 and CdS.     

Structure and compositional evolution in epitaxial Co/Pt core-shell nanoparticles on annealing

We report on the alloying of epitaxial Co/Pt core-shell nanoparticles using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron diffraction. In as-deposited nanoparticles followed by in situ annealing at 823 K for 10.8 ks, high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) imaging by scanning TEM (STEM) clearly revealed formation of Co-shell/Pt-core structures due to the large atomic number (Z) difference between Co (Z = 27) and Pt (Z = 78). We identified a formation of locally ordered areas of the L1₀ ordered phase at the core of the nanoparticles. After ex situ annealing at 873 K for 0.6 ks, some of the ordered areas showed complicated contrasts in the HAADF-STEM images. Based on image simulations, we found that these atypical contrasts arise from the stacking of two orthogonal variants of the L1₀ phase in the electron beam direction. Furthermore, the simulation showed that image contrast strongly reflects the structure of the variant located closer to the beam entrance rather than to the bottom side. Solid solution phase was formed by further annealing at 873 K for 3.6 ks, while high-density {111} stacking faults were observed inside the Co-Pt alloy nanoparticles. Magnetic coercivity remained at values as low as ~ 15.9 kA/m at 300 K, irrespective of the formation of local L1₀ ordered areas and/or a high-density stacking faults.     

Amorphous nanosilicas induce consumptive coagulopathy after systemic exposure

We previously reported that well-dispersed amorphous nanosilicas with particle size 70 nm (nSP70) penetrate skin and produce systemic exposure after topical application. These findings underscore the need to examine biological effects after systemic exposure to nanosilicas. The present study was designed to examine the biological effects. BALB/c mice were intravenously injected with amorphous nanosilicas of sizes 70, 100, 300, 1000 nm and then assessed for survival, blood biochemistry, and coagulation. As a result, injection of nSP70 caused fatal toxicity, liver damage, and platelet depletion, suggesting that nSP70 caused consumptive coagulopathy. Additionally, nSP70 exerts procoagulant activity in vitro associated with an increase in specific surface area, which increases as diameter reduces. In contrast, nSP70-mediated procoagulant activity was absent in factor XII-deficient plasma. Collectively, we revealed that interaction between nSP70 and intrinsic coagulation factors such as factor XII, were deeply related to nSP70-induced harmful effects. In other words, it is suggested that if interaction between nSP70 and coagulation factors can be suppressed, nSP70-induced harmful effects may be avoided. These results would provide useful information for ensuring the safety of nanomaterials (NMs) and open new frontiers in biological fields by the use of NMs.