Thermal stress measurement in steel plate strengthened by CFRP and aluminum alloy plates

In steel members strengthened by carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates, the thermal stresses are introduced in the steel members, the CFRP plates and the adhesive layers when temperature changes because the linear thermal expansion coefficients of steel and CFRP are mismatched. As so far, the authors proposed a technique to reduce the thermal stress in steel members strengthened by CFRP plates, which involves bonding aluminum alloy plates with CFRP plates. In the proposed method, the thermal stress in steel member can be reduced so that there are negligible levels of stress in steel member when the cross sectional areas of CFRP and aluminum plates are designed to correspond to the coefficient of thermal expansion of steel, even though the thermal stresses are introduced in the CFRP and aluminum plates. In this study, to confirm the maintaining the thermal stress reduction in steel member by proposed method, thermal stress measurement in steel plate strengthened by CFRP and aluminum plates was carried out about 21 months. In this research, the thermal stress introduced in the steel plate strengthened by CFRP plates was also measured. Furthermore, to assume the thermal shear and normal (peel) stresses in adhesive layers, FE analysis with plane stress element was employed. As the result, it was shown the thermal stresses in steel plate with CFRP plate were able to calculate by using composite theory and measured temperature. Furthermore, in steel plate strengthened by CFRP and aluminum plates, the thermal stress introduced in steel plate was negligible-small through the all-season. It was found the thermal stresses in steel plate with CFRP plates as well as CFRP and aluminum plates were also estimated by using composite theory and measured temperature. In the steel plate strengthened by CFRP and aluminum plates, the thermal shear and normal stresses in adhesive layer glued to steel plate become smaller than that in the conventional CFRP bonded specimen. However, the shear stress in adhesive layers between CFRP and aluminum plates in proposed method was higher than the thermal stress in adhesive layers between CFRP plates in conventional method.     

In vivo monitoring of intravenously injected gold nanorods using near-infrared light

Gold nanorods showing surface plasmon (SP) bands in the near-IR region are used as bioimaging probes that respond to near-IR light in mice. The SP bands of intravenously injected polyethylene glycol-modified gold nanorods are directly monitored from the mouse abdomen by using a spectrophotometer equipped with an integrating sphere. The absorbance at 900 nm from the gold nanorods immediately increases after injection and reaches a plateau. The injection of phosphatidylcholine-modified gold nanorods also increases the absorbance at 900 nm, but the absorbance decreases single exponentially with a 1.3-min half-life. In vivo spectral changes of gold nanorods depend on the surface characteristics, and can be observed in real time using simple spectroscopic measurements.     

A 10-Gb/s (1.25 Gb/s×8)4×2 0.25-μm CMOS/SIMOX ATMswitch based on scalable distributed arbitration

This paper presents the design and implementation of a scalable asynchronous transfer mode switch. We fabricated a 10-Gb/s 4×2 switch large-scale integration (LSI) that uses a new distributed contention control technique that allows the switch LSI to be expanded. The developed contention control is executed in a distributed manner at each switch LSI, and the contention control time does not depend on the number of connected switch LSI's. To increase the LSI throughput and reduce the power consumption, we used 0.25-μm CMOS/SIMOX (separation by implanted oxygen) technology, which enables us to make 221 pseudo-emitter-coupled-logic I/O pins with 1.25-Gb/s throughput. In addition, power consumption of 7 W is achieved by operating the CMOS/SIMOX gates at -2.0 V. This consumption is 36% less than that of bulk CMOS gates (11 W) at the same speed at -2.5 V. Using these switch LSI's, an 8×8 switching multichip module with 80-Gb/s throughput was fabricated with a compact size     

Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Contributes to Differentiation of Monocyte-Derived Tumor-Associated Macrophages via PAI-1 and IL-8 Production

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) promote cancer cell proliferation and metastasis, as well as anti-tumor immune suppression. Recent studies have shown that tumors enhance the recruitment and differentiation of TAMs, but the detailed mechanisms have not been clarified. We thus examined the influence of cancer cells on the differentiation of monocytes to TAM subsets, including CD163⁺, CD204⁺, and CD206⁺ cells, in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) using immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and a cytokine array. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of OSCC cells (HSC-2, SQUU-A, and SQUU-B cells) on the differentiation of purified CD14⁺ cells to TAM subsets. The localization patterns of CD163⁺, CD204⁺, and CD206⁺ in OSCC sections were quite different. The expression of CD206 on CD14⁺ cells was significantly increased after the co-culture with OSCC cell lines, while the expressions of CD163 and CD204 on CD14⁺ cells showed no change. High concentrations of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) were detected in the conditioned medium of OSCC cell lines. PAI-1 and IL-8 stimulated CD14⁺ cells to express CD206. Moreover, there were positive correlations among the numbers of CD206⁺, PAI-1⁺, and IL-8⁺ cells in OSCC sections. These results suggest that PAI-1 and IL-8 produced by OSCC contribute to the differentiation of monocytes to CD206⁺ TAMs.     

Tailoring fiber grating sensors for assessment of highly refractive fuels

Three approaches that allow the tailoring of long period gratings based refractometric sensors for concentration measurement in fuel blends are employed to assess the fuel quality in biodiesel and biodiesel-petrodiesel blend. To allow the analysis of fuel samples with refractive index higher than fiber cladding one, the samples refractive indices were changed by thermo-optic effect and by dilution in a standard substance with low refractive index. The obtained results show the sensor can detect oil concentration in biodiesel samples with resolution as better as 0.07% and biodiesel concentration in biodiesel-petrodiesel samples with average resolution of 0.09%.     

Evaluation of the ATCA fast controller standard for ITER diagnostics

ITER project's long time span and the nature of the instrumentation and control (I&C) procurement procedures for the Plant Systems require that the ITER Organization defines and follows well recognized standards which are used both by the industry and in physics experiments. The ITER I&C standards are defined in the Plant Control Design Handbook (PCDH) [1]. The ITER Organization has selected PCI Express and Ethernet for IO intercommunication to be used for plant system instrumentation for fast controllers. The decision on the usage of serialized I/O bus protocols is based on the impressive performance and the commercial availability. The form factors that will be supported by CODAC include PXIe, MicroTCA, and AdvancedTCA platforms. While the PXIe form factor is already well established for instrumentation purposes through the PXI Systems Alliance (www.pxisa.org), the AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA platforms which were originally targeted for the telecommunications market (www.picmg.org) are currently optimized and specified for instrumentation use through the xTCA extensions for physics [2]. The objective of this study is the evaluation of an integrated ATCA controller design using only commercial components.     

Oligodeoxynucleotides containing 3-bromo-3-deazaadenine and 7-bromo-7-deazaadenine 2'-deoxynucleosides as chemical probes to investigate DNA-protein interactions

We describe the design and proof of concept of a pair of chemical probes for investigating DNA-protein interactions-specifically, the incorporation of 7-bromo-7-deazaadenine and 3-bromo-3-deazaadenine 2'-deoxynucleosides (Br(7)C(7)dA and Br(3)C(3)dA) into oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs)-and their utility. Whereas the bromo substituent of the Br(7)C(7)dA unit in an ODN duplex acts sterically to inhibit binding with NF-kappaB, which interacts with the duplex in its major groove, the bromo substituent of the Br(3)C(3)dA unit acts sterically to inhibit binding with RNase H, which interacts with the duplex in its minor groove. In addition, the utilization of ODNs containing 7-deazaadenine and 3-deazaadenine 2'-deoxynucleosides (C(7)dA and C(3)dA), together with the pair of chemical probes, afforded valuable information on the requirement for nitrogen atoms located in either the major or minor grooves. Accordingly, we were able to show the utility of ODNs containing Br(7)C(7)dA, Br(3)C(3)dA, C(7)dA, and C(3)dA for the investigation of DNA-protein interactions.     

SOLVENT EXTRACTION OF ZINC FROM CHLORIDE MEDIA WITH SECONDARY LONG-CHAIN ALKYLAMINE

In the solvent extraction of zinc from chloride media with a secondary long-chain alkylamine, Amberlite LA-2, aggregations of ammonium chloride salt of alkylamine and zinc-complex with alkylamine and distribution equilibrium of zinc were investigated at 30 "C using n-hexane as a diluent. The ammonium chloride salt of alkylamine exists as monomeric, dimeric, trimeric and tetrameric species (BHCl, (BHCl)₂, (BHCl)₃ and (BHCl)₄, respectively). The zinc-complex exists as monomeric and dimeric species ((BH)₂ZnCl₄ and ((BH)₂ZnCl₄)₂, respectively). Zinc is extracted according to the extraction reaction in the lower loading region of zinc to alkylamine and according to the extraction reaction in the higher loading region.     

Localized amyloidosis in squamous cell carcinoma of uterine cervix: electron microscopic features of nodular and star-like amyloid deposits

An ultrastructural study of amyloid deposits in four cases of squamous cell carcinoma of uterine cervix was performed. The amyloid deposits reacted with anti-keratin antiserum on frozen sections. Amyloid deposits showed nodular (4 cases) and star-like forms (3 cases). Nodular amyloid deposits were composed of slightly whorled fibrils, measuring 7-10 nm in width. Some of them contained cellular debris and thicker, more electron-dense filaments than amyloid fibrils. In three cases, filamentous tumour cells and filamentous masses were observed together with amyloid. Star-like amyloid deposits were composed of bundles of straight amyloid fibrils. Some of the tumour cells in contact with star-like amyloid deposits had deep cytoplasmic invaginations, where closely packed amyloid fibrils were arrayed in parallel fashion. In addition, a few tumour cells had membrane-bound amyloid fibrils in the cytoplasm. It is suggested that nodular amyloid deposits are derived from the tumour cells through filamentous degeneration. Amyloid fibrils in star-like amyloid deposits are thought to be formed within the cytoplasm or in the vicinity of invaginated cytoplasmic membranes of the tumour cells.