Contact and friction between catheter and blood vessel

Therapeutic vascular catheterization techniques are sometimes hampered by the frictional forces between the blood vessel and the catheter, when contact points of the vessel are changing and deforming during the movement of the catheter. The goal of the present study was to characterize frictional interactions between the blood vessel wall and the catheter using experimental and numerical analysis. First, the frictional force was measured with an experimental apparatus that uses a ball and flattened porcine aorta to simulate frictional forces between the catheter and the vessel. Second, catheter motion was characterized by two-dimensional numerical calculations based on the experimental results. Experimental analysis demonstrated that slip occurred and that friction coefficient between the vessel and the catheter and the deformation of the specimen were small when the contact between the ball and the aorta occurred at a small angle. The compliance of the specimen in the normal direction obtained by the experiment was by far larger than that calculated according to the Hertzian contact theory. Numerical analysis shows that this difference of the parameter of the vessel, which must be determined accurately in surgical simulator, could affect the trajectory of the catheter.     

Temperature and pressure conditions for the appropriate performance of charge and mass resolutions in balloon-borne CR-39 track detector for the heavy cosmic rays

We experimentally determined the suitable conditions of temperature and air pressure for measuring charge and mass compositions of heavy cosmic rays using CR-39 track detectors during long-duration, high-altitude balloon flights. The experiments were carried out utilizing Fe ion beams from Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator (HIMAC). Changes in the track registration sensitivity with temperature were studied at temperatures between 213 and 293 K. The charge and mass shifts around Fe ions are possibly 0.11 cu (charge unit) and 0.47 amu (atomic mass unit) at the temperature deviation between 227 and 243 K at balloon altitude. Decrease in track registration sensitivity as air pressure decreases has been observed between 13 Pa and 27 kPa. The charge and mass shifts around Fe ions are inferred to be 0.02 cu and 0.09 amu, respectively, when pressure varies between 20 and 27 kPa. During balloon flight, air pressure drops below this; therefore, care must be taken to keep the temperature and air pressure of CR-39 detectors within acceptable limits.     

Monte Carlo uncertainty quantification of the effective delayed neutron fraction

The applicability of Monte Carlo techniques, namely the Monte Carlo sensitivity method and the random-sampling method, for uncertainty quantification of the effective delayed neutron fraction β_eff is investigated using the continuous-energy Monte Carlo transport code, MCNP, from the perspective of statistical convergence issues. This study focuses on the nuclear data as one of the major sources of β_eff uncertainty. For validation of the calculated β_eff, a critical configuration of the VENUS-F zero-power reactor was used. It is demonstrated that Chiba's modified k-ratio method is superior to Bretscher's prompt k-ratio method in terms of reducing the statistical uncertainty in calculating not only β_eff but also its sensitivities and the uncertainty due to nuclear data. From this result and a comparison of uncertainties obtained by the Monte Carlo sensitivity method and the random-sampling method, it is shown that the Monte Carlo sensitivity method using Chiba's modified k-ratio method is the most practical for uncertainty quantification of β_eff. Finally, total β_eff uncertainty due to nuclear data for the VENUS-F critical configuration is determined to be approximately 2.7% with JENDL-4.0u, which is dominated by the delayed neutron yield of ²³⁵U.     

Quantitative Visualization of the Interaction between Complement Component C1 and Immunoglobulin G: The Effect of CH1 Domain Deletion

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) adopts a modular multidomain structure that mediates antigen recognition and effector functions, such as complement-dependent cytotoxicity. IgG molecules are self-assembled into a hexameric ring on antigen-containing membranes, recruiting the complement component C1q. In order to provide deeper insights into the initial step of the complement pathway, we report a high-speed atomic force microscopy study for the quantitative visualization of the interaction between mouse IgG and the C1 complex composed of C1q, C1r, and C1s. The results showed that the C1q in the C1 complex is restricted regarding internal motion, and that it has a stronger binding affinity for on-membrane IgG2b assemblages than C1q alone, presumably because of the lower conformational entropy loss upon binding. Furthermore, we visualized a 1:1 stoichiometric interaction between C1/C1q and an IgG2a variant that lacks the entire C_H1 domain in the absence of an antigen. In addition to the canonical C1q-binding site on Fc, their interactions are mediated through a secondary site on the C_L domain that is cryptic in the presence of the C_H1 domain. Our findings offer clues for novel-modality therapeutic antibodies.     

Electric transfer function model of switched reluctance motors and model‐based current control design

This paper presents a current control design for switched reluctance motors (SRMs). The electric transfer characteristic of the motors is studied first. Their transfer function is shown to be expressible by a pure resistive component, which is not constant but varies depending on the motor current and speed. The current control design for SRMs follows the classical design technique used for DC machines, where the zeros of the PI controller cancel the poles of Ls+R. Because the transfer function of SRMs does not have any poles, an I controller is suitable for them. The integral gain should be adjusted in order to compensate the nonlinearity, that is, the variation in the equivalent resistor of the SRMs' transfer function. The values of the integral gain are tuned and tabulated for the motor speed and current. Simulation and experiment demonstrate that the current and speed of the SRMs present good responses without dependence on the motor speed and current. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 173(1): 51–59, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20987     

Criteria for versatile GaN MOVPE tool:high growth rate GaN by atmospheric pressure growth

Growth rate has a direct impact on the productivity of nitride LED production.Atmospheric pressure growth of GaN with a growth rate as high as 10μm/h and also Al_0.1Ga_0.9N growth of 1μm/h by using 4 inch by 11 production scale MOVPE are described.XRD of（002） and（102） direction was 200 arcsec and 250 arcsec, respectively.Impact of the growth rate on productivity is discussed.     

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON A NOVEL CHEMICAL HEAT PUMP DRYER USING A GAS-SOLID REACTION

The authors have been studying Chemical Heat Pumps (CHP) from the viewpoints of energy saving and environmental impact. The CHP can store thermal energy in the form of chemical energy by an endothermic reaction, and release it at various temperature levels during heat demand periods by exo/endothermic reactions. The authors have proposed in an earlier study a novel chemical heat pump (CHP) system for environmentally-friendly effective utilization of thermal energy in drying as a chemical heat pump dryer (CHPD). In this exploratory study, we test the effectiveness of operating the proposed CHPDs experimentally. Basic experiments on the CHPDs such as hot dry air production for convective drying are performed on lab-scale CHPD apparatuses using gas-solid reactions in calcium oxide/calcium hydroxide reactant beds. The proposed CHPDs are found to produce hot air by CHP operation for drying. The temperature levels of the produced hot air and the reaction rates/conversions are as good as in the case of hot water supply system using basically same CHP operation. The cold heat for air dehumidification is also found to be generated/recovered by the same CHPD system. The generated heat amounts can be increased by changing the operating conditions although the heat recovery must be enhanced for practical application of CHPDs.     

Hairpin-based state machine and conformational addressing: Design and experiment

In this paper, we propose a new architecture for a multi-state DNA machine whose conformation of repeated hairpin structures changes sequentially in response to input oligomers. As an application of the machine, we also propose molecular memory in which the machine is used as a memory unit. Addressing in the memory is realized through state transitions of the machine. We then describe a method for designing DNA sequences of the machine, which exhaustively checks conformational changes of the machine by dividing its secondary structure into hairpin units. The method is based on the minimum free energy of the structure, the structure transition paths, and the total frequency of optimal and suboptimal structures. DNA sequences designed by the method were tested in a chemical experiment in which a machine consisting of two hairpins was actually constructed. As a result, we verified that the multi-state DNA machine realized the expected changes in its secondary structure.