A procedure for estimating the mean activity coefficient of dye in fibre

A procedure for estimating values that are proportional to the mean activity coefficients of sodium 4′-dialkylaminoazobenzene-4-sulphonates in cellophane is presented. These values are derived from the mean activity coefficients of the dye in solution, and the dye concentrations in solution and in cellophane.     

Carbonization behaviour of pitch in the presence of inert material

The influence of silica gel (< 45 μm) as an inert additive on the carbonization reactions of A240 pitch was investigated by optical microscopy, measurements of transferable hydrogen, high-temperature e.s.r. and high-temperature ¹H n.m.r. Additions of silica gel have the effect of reducing the size of the optical texture of mesophase which appears in the early stages of carbonization. The higher the concentration of silica gel, the smaller is the amount of transferable hydrogen. The spin concentration of pitch increases with increasing silica gel content. Measured values of $\text{ΔH}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$, using high-temperature ¹H n.m.r., suggest that the molecular motions in the pitch become restricted on addition of silica gel. The effect of silica gel on the physical properties and chemical reactivity of carbonizing pitch is discussed.     

Graphitization behavior of hydrogenated ethylene tar pitch

The graphitization behavior of cokes prepared from ethylene tar pitch (ETP) hydrogenated at temperatures from 473 to 673 K has been studied by magnetoresistance measurements at liquid nitrogen temperature and by scanning electron microscopy. Graphitization heat treatment of the cokes was carried out at 3273 K. Hydrogenation temperatures of 473 and 523 K resulted in graphitized cokes with random layer plane textures and low degrees of graphitization. Hydrogenation at higher temperatures was effective in promoting development of flow-type textures during graphitization. The coke from ETP hydrogenated at 673 K showed the highest graphitizability, preferred orientation and flow-type texture developed by heat treatment.     

Effect of cholestyramine on bile acid metabolism in conventional rats

Effects of cholestyramine on biliary secretion of cholesterol, phospholipids and bile acids and fecal excretion of sterols and bile acids were examined in Wistar male rats. Six rats were fed a basal diet, and the other six were fed a basal diet supplemented with 5% cholestyramine for eight days. Bile flow and biliary secretion of bile acids and phospholipids (per hour per rat) decreased with cholestyramine treatment, while biliary cholesterol secretion (per hour per rat) remained unchanged. In the biliary bile acid composition, a marked increase of chenodeoxycholic acid with a concomitant decrease of β-muricholic acid was observed in cholestyramine-treated rats. Fecal excretion of total sterols and bile acids increased about three-and four-fold, respectively, after cholestyramine treatment. The increase of fecal bile acids derived from cholic acid was more predominant than that derived from chenodeoxylcholic acid, resulting in an increase of the cholic acid group/chenodeoxycholic acid group ratio.     

Fractional Invariance Principle

Abstract. The paper presents a central limit theorem and an allied invariance theorem related to what Marinucci and Robinson [Journal of Statistics, Planning and Inference (1999) Vol. 21, pp. 111–122] termed type II fractional Brownian motion. To widen the applicability, their independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) assumption for the innovation process is relaxed, allowing it to be mildly conditionally heteroscedastic and requiring the Martingale‐difference property only asymptotically. Additionally, the paper presents, for contrast, the weak convergence of the conventional partial sum process in a related set‐up.     

Electrochemical etching using surface carboxylated graphite electrodes in ultrapure water

Electrochemical etching enables processing with an atomic-level accuracy, without deteriorating the physical properties of the workpiece; however, contamination of its surface with electrolytes is unavoidable. If it is possible to carry out electrochemical etching without using electrolytes, such a process will be applicable to electronic device manufacturing and precision nanoscale processing of semiconductor materials. In addition, this process does not require the use of chemicals, cleaning after processing or disposal of waste fluid, which results in a low-cost and environmentally friendly process. To develop an electrochemical etching process that does not require the use of electrolytes, we proposed a method in which a functional-group-modified electrode is used as the cathode. A carboxylated graphite electrode was prepared by treating a graphite electrode with sulfuric acid. Electrolysis of ultrapure water was carried out using the obtained electrode as a cathode. The results indicate that the electrolysis current obtained using the modified electrode is approximately six-fold that obtained using an unmodified electrode. Furthermore, we can etch a Cu surface conically in ultrapure water. The current efficiency increases by 70% at maximum, and the minimum current required for electrochemical etching decreases compared with that in the case of using an unmodified electrode.     

A numerical method for factorizing the rational spectral density matrix

Improving Rozanov (1967, Stationary Random Processes. San Francisco: Holden‐day.)’s algebraic‐analytic solution to the canonical factorization problem of the rational spectral density matrix, this article presents a feasible computational procedure for the spectral factorization. We provide numerical comparisons of our procedure with the Bhansali's (1974, Journal of the Statistical Society, B36 , 61.) and Wilson's (1972 SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 23 , 420) methods and illustrate its application in estimation of invertible MA representation. The proposed procedure is usefully applied to linear predictor construction, causality analysis and other problems where a canonical transfer function specification of a stationary process in question is required.     

Towards a Treatment for Neuroinflammation in Epilepsy: Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist,Anakinra, as a Potential Treatment in Intractable Epilepsy

Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome (FIRES) is a unique catastrophic epilepsy syndrome, and the development of drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is inevitable. Recently, anakinra, an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA), has been increasingly used to treat DRE due to its potent anticonvulsant activity. We here summarized its effects in 38 patients (32 patients with FIRES and six with DRE). Of the 22 patients with FIRES, 16 (73%) had at least short-term seizure control 1 week after starting anakinra, while the remaining six suspected anakinra-refractory cases were male and had poor prognoses. Due to the small sample size, an explanation for anakinra refractoriness was not evident. In all DRE patients, seizures disappeared or improved, and cognitive function improved in five of the six patients following treatment. Patients showed no serious side effects, although drug reactions with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms, cytopenia, and infections were observed. Thus, anakinra has led to a marked improvement in some cases, and functional deficiency of IL-1RA was indicated, supporting a direct mechanism for its therapeutic effect. This review first discusses the effectiveness of anakinra for intractable epileptic syndromes. Anakinra could become a new tool for intractable epilepsy treatment. However, it does not currently have a solid evidence base.     

Control of Ideal Heat Integrated Distillation Columns

The operation of an ideal heat integrated dlstillation columan (HIDiC) is addressed .Five Kinds of control configurations, i.e. single-loop control, multi-loop control, multivariable internal model control (IMC), modified multlvariable internal model control (MIMC) and nonlinear process model-based control (NPMC), are designed and applied to the process. Simulation results demonstrate that all of the above control confaguratloam ere valid for product quality control. NPMC control configuration is found to be the best one among all the alternatives. It can readily realize setpoint transitions and conduct effectively against external disturbance. MIMC control configuration ranks second in the row for its regulatory responses to feed composition disturbances with relatively extended setting time, Next comes from the multi-loop control configuration, which is moee or lees handicapped by its greater deviations and overshootings. IMC control configuration can not compete with the multi-loop control configuration because it is extremely sensitive to operating condition changes. Single-ioop control configuration is the worst one among all the mentioned control configurations. Its responses for the uncoutrolled end products are extremely sluggish.     

Removal properties of low-thermal-expansion materials with rotating-sphere elastic emission machining

Optical mirrors used in extreme ultraviolet lithography systems require a figure accuracy and a roughness of about 0.1 nm rms. In addition, mirror substrates must be low-thermal-expansion materials. Thus, in this study, we processed two low-thermal-expansion materials, ULE [K. Hrdina, B. Hanson, P. Fenn, R. Sabia, Proc. SPIE 4688 (2002) 454.] (Corning Inc.) and Zerodur [I. Mitra, M.J. Davis, J. Alkemper, Rolf Müller, H. Kohlmann, L. Aschke, E. Mörsen, S. Ritter, H. Hack, W. Pannhorst, Proc. SPIE 4688 (2002) 462.] (SCHOTT AG), with elastic emission machining (EEM) in order to evaluate the removal properties. Consequently, we successfully calculated the respective removal rates, because removal volumes were found to be proportional to process times in EEM. Moreover, we demonstrated that the surface roughness of Zerodur is reduced to 0.1 nm rms in the spatial wavelength range from 100 μm to 1 mm.