Effects of heated seats in vehicles on thermal comfort during the initial warm-up period

Eight subjects participated in a subjective experiment of eight conditions to investigate the effects of heated seats in vehicles on skin temperature, thermal sensation and thermal comfort during the initial warm-up period. The experimental conditions were designed as a combination of air temperature in the test room (5, 10, 15, or 20 °C) and heated seat (on/off). The heated seat was effective for improving thermal comfort during the initial warm-up period when air temperature was lower than 15 °C. Use of heated seats prevented decreases in or increased toe skin temperature. Heated seats also increased foot thermal sensation at 15 and 20 °C. Optimal thermal sensation in contact with the seat was higher when air temperature was lower. Optimal skin temperature in contact with the seat back was higher than that with the seat cushion. Moreover, these optimal skin temperatures were higher when air temperature was lower.     

Development of a simple method for fabrication of transparent conductive films with high mechanical strength

We have developed a simple method of fabricating transparent conductive films with a high mechanical strength on glass and indium tin oxide substrates. It does not require a large excess of organic solvents and polymerization catalysts and can yield smooth films by spin-coating of a mixture of a commercially available aqueous dispersion of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(4-styrene sulfonate) and a neat liquid of tetraethyl orthosilicate. Preparation conditions such as feed ratio, kinds of additives, and annealing temperature and time were optimized to give highly conductive, transparent and mechanically strong films.     

Character animation creation using hand-drawn sketches

To create a character animation, a 3D character model is often needed. However, since humanlike characters are not rigid bodies, to deform the character model to fit each animation frame is tedious work. Therefore, we propose an easy-to-use method for creating a set of consistent 3D character models from some hand-drawn sketches while keeping the projected silhouettes and features of the created models consistent with the input sketches. Since the character models possess vertexwise correspondences, they can be used for frame-consistent texture mapping or for making character animations. In our system, the user only needs to annotate the correspondence of the features among the input-vector-based sketches; the remaining processes are all performed automatically.     

Functional and Structural Insights into Human PPARα/δ/γ Subtype Selectivity of Bezafibrate,Fenofibric Acid,and Pemafibrate

Among the agonists against three peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) subtypes, those against PPARα (fibrates) and PPARγ (glitazones) are currently used to treat dyslipidemia and type 2 diabetes, respectively, whereas PPARδ agonists are expected to be the next-generation metabolic disease drug. In addition, some dual/pan PPAR agonists are currently being investigated via clinical trials as one of the first curative drugs against nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Because PPARα/δ/γ share considerable amino acid identity and three-dimensional structures, especially in ligand-binding domains (LBDs), clinically approved fibrates, such as bezafibrate, fenofibric acid, and pemafibrate, could also act on PPARδ/γ when used as anti-NAFLD drugs. Therefore, this study examined their PPARα/δ/γ selectivity using three independent assays—a dual luciferase-based GAL4 transactivation assay for COS-7 cells, time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based coactivator recruitment assay, and circular dichroism spectroscopy-based thermostability assay. Although the efficacy and efficiency highly varied between agonists, assay types, and PPAR subtypes, the three fibrates, except fenofibric acid that did not affect PPARδ-mediated transactivation and coactivator recruitment, activated all PPAR subtypes in those assays. Furthermore, we aimed to obtain cocrystal structures of PPARδ/γ-LBD and the three fibrates via X-ray diffraction and versatile crystallization methods, which we recently used to obtain 34 structures of PPARα-LBD cocrystallized with 17 ligands, including the fibrates. We herein reveal five novel high-resolution structures of PPARδ/γ–bezafibrate, PPARγ–fenofibric acid, and PPARδ/γ–pemafibrate, thereby providing the molecular basis for their application beyond dyslipidemia treatment.     

Supramolecular morphology of two-step melt-spun poly(dioxanone) fibers

Structure of poly(dioxanone) (PPDX) fibers produced through a two-step melt-spinning process with an additional short-period annealing above the melting temperature of PPDX was investigated and the effect of annealing on the degradation behavior was discussed. The morphological study carried out by etching the fibers using a phosphate or permanganate solution suggested that the fibers take a skin–core structure, and both the skin layer and the core region consist of a bundle of microfibrils. The micro-beam X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the short-period annealing in the production process only slightly promotes the crystallization in the skin layer but contributes to increasing the packing of amorphous chains near the skin, which seems to be the controlling factor of the hydrolytic degradation behavior of the fibers.     

Analysis of spatial smoothing effect of short‐term fluctuation of global solar radiation based on data including quantization error

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are attracting attention as one of the promising countermeasures against global warming and the environmental issues. However, the generation output from PV systems is generally unstable and unpredictable. Therefore, large penetration of PV systems may cause some serious impacts on power system operation, such as load frequency control, voltage regulation, etc. Estimation of the influences of PV system installation is becoming important, but it requires simultaneous multipoint solar radiation measurements. The Japan Meteorological Business Support Center has provided 1‐minute meteorological data observed in Japan, but its solar radiation data includes quantization errors. This paper proposes a regeneration method for solar radiation data including quantization errors. It also analyzes the spatial smoothing effect of global solar radiation fluctuations. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 180(3): 55–63, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21274     

Selective preparation of oligomeric naphthylene ether and its applications to epoxy resin for silicon carbide power semiconductor device materials

In this study, a novel method for selective synthesis of naphthylene ether trimers by self‐condensation of 2,7‐dihydroxynaphthalene in the presence of catalytic amount of potassium hydroxide was reported. An epoxy resin from the trimers was prepared and properties of the cured epoxy resin were examined. The cured resin showed not only good physical thermal stability, such as high glass transition temperature and low thermal expansion coefficient, but also good chemical thermal stability like high thermal decomposition temperature. Additionally, low moisture absorption of the cured resin was confirmed. From these results, the newly prepared epoxy resin with naphthylene ether skeletons was considered to be suitable for advanced applications such as silicon carbide power semiconductor device. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43339.     

Structure and mechanical properties of multi‐hollowed fibers produced by CO2 laser irradiated neck drawing

Multi‐hollowed fibers with a hollowness ratio of over 20% were successfully produced using a neck‐drawing technique accompanied by CO₂ laser irradiation on unoriented and amorphous polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) fibers with diameters of approximately 104 µm. The structure and mechanical properties of the multi‐hollowed fibers were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, wide angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD), birefringence measurements, and tensile tests. Crystal orientation factors in the direction normal to the (010) and (002) planes, which were obtained from WAXD patterns, were lower in comparison to values obtained in previous studies on fibers that did not feature these hollows [9] because of the development of these internal hollows. The PTT fibers in this study also displayed high toughness, about 465 MPa (3.5 cN/dtex) strength and about 40% elongation, and had excellent elastic recovery (>95%) after 10 stretch cycles. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 56:609–616, 2016. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers