Study of wind-toughness of metal arc welding with reference to multi-pass weld metal quality

The maximum cause to make mechanical toughness of a weld metal reduce in process management is known to be a mixture of nitrogen including in the atmosphere by breaking the shield condition. Mixture of the atmosphere is prevented by blowing the shielding gas such as carbon dioxide, argon, and this mixture to the arc and the molten pool in gas metal arc welding, but it is easily affected by wind. Therefore, it has been recommended conventionally that wind velocity should be controlled to less than 2.0 m/s. But it is thought that this recommendation value is unsuitable to produce multi-pass weld metal with high mechanical and porosity toughness properties because this was provided from examination results by only consideration of porosity toughness of single-pass weld metal but non-consideration mechanical toughness. In this paper, the shielding condition is evaluated not only chemical analysis and mechanical properties of multi-pass weld metal in some velocity wind environment but also visualizing varied shielding gas behaviour by the Schlieren method. As a result, it is necessary to control the wind velocity to less than 0.5 m/s to produce multi-pass weld metal with good properties. And the calculated velocity of shielding gas should be controlled to more than twice the wind velocity.     

GPI-80 Augments NF-κB Activation in Tumor Cells

Recent studies have discovered a relationship between glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein 80 (GPI-80)/VNN2 (80 kDa GPI-anchored protein) and malignant tumors. GPI-80 is known to regulate neutrophil adhesion; however, the action of GPI-80 on tumors is still obscure. In this study, although the expression of GPI-80 mRNA was detectable in several tumor cell lines, the levels of GPI-80 protein were significantly lower than that in neutrophils. To clarify the function of GPI-80 in tumor cells, GPI-80-expressing cells and GPI-80/VNN2 gene-deleted cells were established using PC3 prostate cancer cells. In GPI-80-expressing cells, GPI-80 was mainly detected in vesicles. Furthermore, soluble GPI-80 in the conditioned medium was associated with the exosome marker CD63 and was also detected in the plasma obtained from prostate cancer patients. Unexpectedly, cell adhesion and migration of GPI-80-expressing PC3 cells were not modulated by anti-GPI-80 antibody treatment. However, similar to the GPI-80 family molecule, VNN1, the pantetheinase activity and oxidative state were augmented in GPI-80-expressing cells. GPI-80-expressing cells facilitated non-adhesive proliferation, slow cell proliferation, NF-κB activation and IL-1β production. These phenomena are known to be induced by physiological elevation of the oxidative state. Thus, these observations indicated that GPI-80 affects various tumor responses related to oxidation.     

Enhancement of NO-elimination activity of Co-silicate catalyst by high-temperature calcination in steam-containing air

H–Co-silicate having an MFI structure (CoMFI), calcined in steam-containing air at 800°C (CoMFI-800S), was characterized by XRD and diffuse reflectance electron absorption (EA). The calcination educed some of the Co ions from the CoMFI framework to make small clusters nearby. The CoMFI-800S performance in NO elimination in the presence of excess O₂ was compared with that of Co supported on siliceous MFI zeolite ([Co]SiMFI), Co supported on H–Co-silicate ([Co]CoMFI), and a physical mixture of CoMFI and [Co]SiMFI (Co+[Co]). The educed Co ions enhanced NO elimination due to the uniform and isolated dispersion of oxidized Co clusters. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

High‐resolution Imaging of Starch Granule Structure using Atomic Force Microscopy

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was carried out for the precise structural analysis of starch granules. AFM is a useful technique to obtain — under atmospheric conditions — high‐resolution images which are as good as those obtained by conventional scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The samples for observation by AFM do not require complicated preparations such as the drying and metal coating as in the case of electron microscopy. The AFM technique is suitable for the precise structural observation of bio‐materials in which damage caused by drying and heating must be avoided and the effect of the thickness of the metal coating must be considered. Several preparation methods for exposing the bare inner surface of starch granules were studied in the beginning. AFM structural analyses on the nanometer scale were carried out on starch granules from five different botanical sources which were prepared by a physical method. It was directly demonstrated that fine particles of approximately 30 nm in diameter existed inside each granule and occasionally formed a straight chain structure. These fine particles may correspond to the individual blocklet or single cluster which has been proposed in the starch structural model previously discussed.     

Diffusion coefficient of the protein in various crystallization solutions: The key to growing high-quality crystals in space

The diffusion coefficients of lysozyme and alpha-amylase were measured in the various polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions. Obtained diffusion coefficients were studied with the viscosity coefficient of the solution. It was found that the diffusion process of the protein was suppressed with a factor of v^γ, where ν is a relative viscosity coefficient of the PEG solution. The value of γ is ?0.64 at PEG1500 for both proteins. The value increased to ?0.48 at PEG8000 for lysozyme, while decreased to ?0.72 for alpha-amylase. The equation of an approximate diffusion coefficient at certain PEG molecular weight and concentration was roughly obtained.     

Highly Stretchable Metallic Nanowire Networks Reinforced by the Underlying Randomly Distributed Elastic Polymer Nanofibers via Interfacial Adhesion Improvement

On‐skin electronics require conductive, porous, and stretchable materials for a stable operation with minimal invasiveness to the human body. However, porous elastic conductors that simultaneously achieve high conductivity, good stretchability, and durability are rare owing to the lack of proper design for good adhesion between porous elastic polymer and conductive metallic networks. Here, a simple fabrication approach for porous nanomesh‐type elastic conductors is shown by designing a layer‐by‐layer structure of nanofibers/nanowires (NFs/NWs) via interfacial hydrogen bonding. The as‐prepared conductors, consisting of Ag NWs and polyurethane (PU) NFs, simultaneously achieve high conductivity (9190 S cm^?1), high stretchability (310%), and good durability (82% resistance increase after 1000 cycles of deformation at 70% tensile strain). The direct contact between the Ag NWs enables the high conductivity. The synergistic effect of the layer‐by‐layer structure and good adhesion between the Ag NWs and the PU NFs enables good mechanical properties. Furthermore, without any adhesive gel/tape, the conductors can be utilized as breathable strain sensors for precise joint motion monitoring, and as breathable sensing electrodes for continuous electrophysiological signal recording.     

Crystal growth and scintillation properties of Ce and Eu doped LiSrAlF6

Ce and Eu doped LiSrAlF₆ (LiSAF) single crystals for the neutron detection with different dopant concentrations were grown by the micro-pulling-down method (μ-PD). In Ce:LiSAF, intense emission peaks due to Ce³⁺ 5d-4f transitions were observed at approximately 315 and 335 nm in photo- and α-ray induced radio-luminescence spectra. In case of Eu:LiSAFs, an intense emission peak at 375 nm due to Eu²⁺ 5d-4f transition was observed in the radio-luminescence spectra. The pulse height spectra and decay time profiles were measured under ²⁵²Cf neutron irradiation to examine the neutron response. The Ce 3% and Eu 2% doped LiSAF showed the highest light yield of 2860 ph/n with 19 ns main decay time component and 24,000 ph/n with 1610 ns.     

Endophytes as producers of xylanase

One hundred and sixty-nine endophytic fungi and 81 endophytic bacteria were isolated from 14 plants in total. Among them, 155 fungi (91.7%) and 52 bacteria (64%) were found to produce xylanase. The inside part of plants is a novel and good source for isolating xylanase producers in comparison with soil.     

Determination of levamisole in livestock products using high performance liquid chromatography

A method is described for the determination of the anthelmintic levamisole in muscle, liver, kidney and fat of cattle, swine and poultry using high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection. Levamisole was extracted from an alkaline sample with ethyl acetate and back-extracted with 0.1 mol/L hydrochloric acid. The extract was applied to an SCX solid-phase extraction column. The column was washed with water and methanol. Levamisole was eluted with a solution of ammonia in methanol. The eluate was evaporated to dryness and the residue was dissolved in the mobile phase and injected into the HPLC system. Mean recoveries from 0.01-0.10 microgram/g fortified muscle, liver, kidney and fat samples ranged from 78.3 to 99.8%. The detection limit for the assay was 0.005 microgram/g.     

Thermal conductivity of single and multi-stacked DI-BSCCO tapes

We have measured the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity, κ(T), for DI-BSCCO^® tapes fabricated by Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., which are (Bi,Pb)₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃O_8+x tapes sheathed with Ag or Ag-Au alloy. The κ(T) of the tape sheathed with Ag (residual resistance ratio (RRR) = 15) decreases with decreasing temperature and starts to increase rapidly below 60 K, with a maximum at around 15 K. On the other hand, the κ(T) of the tape sheathed with Ag-5.4 wt%Au alloy has a very low value that decreases monotonically with decreasing temperature. At around 77 K, the absolute values of κ(T) for both tapes were about and , respectively. The κ(T) of a stacked sample, in which six DI-BSCCO tapes sheathed with Ag are soldered, was also measured. The measured κ(T) was fairly well reproduced by the estimated κ(T), which was calculated using the measured κ(T) of the single tape and solder.