MiR-10a in Pancreatic Juice as a Biomarker for Invasive Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm by miRNA Sequencing

New biomarkers are needed to further stratify the risk of malignancy in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN). Although microRNAs (miRNAs) are expected to be stable biomarkers, they can vary owing to a lack of definite internal controls. To identify universal biomarkers for invasive IPMN, we performed miRNA sequencing using tumor-normal paired samples. A total of 19 resected tissues and 13 pancreatic juice samples from 32 IPMN patients were analyzed for miRNA expression by next-generation sequencing with a two-step normalization of miRNA sequence data. The miRNAs involved in IPMN associated with invasive carcinoma were identified from this tissue analysis and further verified with the pancreatic juice samples. From the tumor-normal paired tissue analysis of the expression levels of 2792 miRNAs, 20 upregulated and 17 downregulated miRNAs were identified. In IPMN associated with invasive carcinoma (INV), miR-10a-5p and miR-221-3p were upregulated and miR-148a-3p was downregulated when compared with noninvasive IPMN. When these findings were further validated with pancreatic juice samples, miR-10a-5p was found to be elevated in INV (p = 0.002). Therefore, three differentially expressed miRNAs were identified in tissues with INV, and the expression of miR-10a-5p was also elevated in pancreatic juice samples with INV. MiR-10a-5p is a promising additional biomarker for invasive IPMN.     

Stability of protective oxide films in waste incineration environment—solubility measurement of oxides in molten chlorides

Solubility measurements of several oxides in molten NaCl-KCl and NaCl-KCl-Na₂SO₄-K₂SO₄ were conducted in three different levels of basicity. The dissolution behavior of the oxides showed almost the same tendency as that shown by the dissolution behavior of the oxides in molten Na₂SO₄ in literature. In a waste incineration environment, a protective Cr₂O₃ film easily dissolves in molten chlorides as CrO₄²⁻ because pO²⁻ of the molten chlorides tends to have a small value due to the effect of water vapor contained in the combustion gas. From the result of the solubility measurement, the addition of molybdenum and/or silicon was expected to improve the corrosion resistance of alloys. Laboratory corrosion tests confirmed this expectation. However, the scale analysis suggested that the effect of molybdenum could not be explained completely by only the mechanism derived from the result of the solubility measurement.     

Laser brazing of a dissimilar joint of austenitic stainless steel and pure copper

In many industries, there are applications that require the joining of stainless steel and copper components; therefore, the welding of dissimilar stainless steel/copper joints is a common process. For this investigation, the optimal brazing conditions and suitable filler metals for laser brazing of stainless steel/copper lap joints were studied. Tensile shear force increases with increases in the laser spot diameter or in the laser irradiation angle, which is associated with increased bonding width; however, as bonding width approaches 2 mm, tensile shear force reaches a saturated value due to fracturing at the HAZ of the Cu base plate. In order to obtain joints with high tensile shear strength, laser brazing was optimized by using Cu–Si-based filler metal under the following conditions: laser power, 4 kW; spot diameter, 3 mm; laser irradiation angle, 80°; irradiation position shift, 0.6 mm; brazing speed, 0.30 m/min; and filler metal feed speed, 0.30 min. Concerning filler metals, it was found that the Ni–Cu type showed relatively large tensile shear force even at high welding speeds in comparison with those of the Cu–Si, Cu, Cu–Ni, Ni–Cu and Ni types, respectively.     

Study on new GMA welding process with duplex current feeding

Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) under pure argon shielding gas atmosphere (pure argon-GMAW) is suitable to obtain a high-strength and high toughness welded joint. However, it is difficult that pure argon-GMA welding is applied practically welding structure because of arc instability. In order to perform stable pure argon-GMA welding, duplex current feeding GMAW (DCF-GMAW) has been developed. The DCF-GMAW consists of primary GMA welding current and secondary welding current by constant-current power resource. DFC-GMAW can feed larger current near wire tip. This effect makes that weld penetration depth is deeper, weld bead shape is improved using DCF-GMAW.     

Fabrication of BSCF-based mixed oxide ionic-electronic conducting multi-layered membrane by sequential electrophoretic deposition process

The Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3-δ (BSCF)-based multi-layered oxygen separation membrane was fabricated by the sequential electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process. A thin porous/dense bi-layer of BSCF was formed on a thick porous support of BSCF. The porous support prepared by a sacrificial template method using BSCF powder mixed with wheat starch (30 wt%) as a pore-forming agent, followed by uniaxial pressing and low-temperature sintering, was directly used as an EPD electrode. A thin BSCF layer was first formed on the porous support, and then a thin BSCF + PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) layer was sequentially formed on the thin BSCF layer using a bimodal suspension of BSCF and PMMA. A 30-μm thin porous/dense bi-layer of BSCF of which the total thickness was obtained by optimizing the processes of EPD and subsequent co-sintering. The oxygen separation performance of 3.7 ml (STP) min^?1 cm^?2 at 860 °C was achieved for the BSCF-based multi-layered oxygen separation membrane.     

Effect of sintering additive on crystallographic orientation in AlN prepared by slip casting in a strong magnetic field

The preparation of oriented AlN bulk ceramics with and without additives was achieved by slip casting in a high magnetic field. The a and b axes of the AlN were aligned parallel to the direction of the magnetic field. The degree of crystallographic orientation was controlled by the viscosity of the slurry and the grain growth during sintering attributed to the sintering additives. The mechanical properties of the textured AlN depended on the direction of the crystallographic orientation.     

Novel circular-beam equalizing techniques that use graded-index fiber optics for a high-power laser diode

We demonstrate a novel method of equalizing a laser diode (LD) beam into a circular beam. This method uses the twist effect of graded index (GI) fiber optics. An asymmetric LD beam with beam qualities of M2 = 500 in the slow axis and M2 = 4 in the fast axis is converted successfully into a symmetric circular beam with a beam quality of M2 = 175. The circular-output beam with 92% coupling efficiency from the fiber input to the fiber output is obtained with a 5-m-long GI1200 (1200 means a core diameter of 1200 microm) fiber for a 2-W LD array. We extend the experiments to a higher-power source with higher asymmetric beam qualities of M2 = 3000 and M2 = 4. By slightly bending the GI10000 (10000 means a core diameter of 10,000 microm) fiber, we have succeeded in generating a symmetric beam with a improved beam quality of M2 = 2000. The average beam quality is preserved when the asymmetric ratio is not high, and the beam quality degradation ratio is investigated up to asymmetric ratios of 750.     

Simultaneous three-dimensional step-height measurement and high-resolution tomographic imaging with a spectral interferometric microscope

A noncontact, nonmechanical scanning, wide-field spectral interference microscope is developed for simultaneous measurement of three-dimensional step-height of discontinuous objects and tomographic imaging. A superluminescent diode (SLD) is used as a broadband light source and a liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot interferometer (LC-FPI) as a frequency-scanning device. By means of changing the injection current to the SLD, the spectral profile of the SLD is equalized, and a constant light input to the interferometer is achieved over the entire frequency-scan range. The Fourier-transform technique is used to determine both the amplitude and the phase of spectral fringe signals. Three-dimensional height distribution of a discontinuous object is obtained from the phase information, whereas optically sectioned images of the object are obtained either from the amplitude information alone or from the combination of both the amplitude and phase information. Experimental results with submicrometer resolution are presented for both step-height measurement and tomographic sectioning.     

Application of a NDI method using magneto-optical film for micro-cracks

Leakage magnetic flux is occurred in the cracked area of magnetized specimens, and also it changes the magnetic domain area of the magneto-optical film positioned on the specimen. It causes the change of the optical permeability of the magnetic domain on the crack area. So crack images can be obtained easily using this principle. On the other hand, utilizing a laser in this method makes possible to perform a remote sensing by detecting the light intensity contrast between cracked area and normal area. This paper shows the application of non-destructive inspection system taking advantage of magneto-optical method for micro-cracks and presents examples applied to the several types of specimens having fatigue cracks and fabricated cracks using this method. Also the authors prove the possibility of this method as a remote sensing system under the oscillation load considering application to real fields.