Noninvasive online measurement of particle size and concentration in liquid–particle mixture by estimating equivalent circuit of electrical double layer

ABSTRACT

Three electrical elements (i.e., resistance, capacitance, and relaxation frequency) of electrical double layer (EDL) formed around particles have been extracted by a measuring–fitting combination for a novel noninvasive online measurement technique of particle size and concentration in a liquid–particle mixture. The measuring–fitting combination means measuring the impedances with electrical-impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method, and fitting the equivalent circuit with Levenberg–Marquardt method. The liquid–particle mixture in the impedance measurement is made of sodium chloride solution and stainless particles; the equivalent circuit is established corresponding to the contents in the liquid–particle mixture. As a result, the influence of the particle size and concentration on the electrical elements in the EDL which are the resistance, capacitance, and relaxation frequency in the EDL are clarified and discussed. This method is useful for determination of the particle size and concentration in liquid–particle mixture.     

Expression of tropomyosin alpha 4 chain is increased in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma as evidenced by proteomic profiling by two-dimensional electrophoresis and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry

To identify proteins associated with esophageal carcinogenesis, we performed protein profiling of 16 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs) and paired noncancerous tissues by 2-DE and MS/MS. In cancerous tissues, three spots showed significant up-regulation in the amount of protein, while eight spots were significantly down-regulated. The identities of the spots were determined by PMF with LC-MS/MS and were confirmed by immunoblotting. The up-regulated proteins were tropomyosin alpha 4 chain, transgelin, and pyruvate kinase. The down-regulated proteins were serum albumin precursor, isoforms of annexin A1, tropomyosin beta chain, 14-3-3 protein sigma, and isoforms of serotransferrin precursor. In all 16 cases, up-regulation of the tropomyosin alpha 4 chain was confirmed by immunoblotting. Localization of the tropomyosin alpha 4 chain in ESCC cells and adjacent fibroblasts was confirmed by immunohistochemistry.     

Body fitted grid generation with moving boundary and its application for dielectric waveguides

The stress birefringence and mode coupling effects in polarization-preserving fibres are most important problems which need to be improved. For a realization of some optical devices, the dielectric waveguide with sinusoidally varying circular cross-section has been investigated. It becomes very important to analyse the electromagnetic field distribution in a dielectric waveguide with a time-dependent moving boundary. This paper shows that numerical methods can simulate the effect of the external disturbance on the dielectric waveguide from time to time. The author has discussed body fitted grid generation with moving boundary for the Poisson and Laplace equations.^1,2 We have extended this technique for Maxwell's equation. The technique employs a kind of an expanded numerical grid generation. As the author adds the time component to grid generation, the time dependent co-ordinate system which coincides with a contour of moving boundary can be transformed into a fixed rectangular co-ordinate system. We could show the electric distribution in the waveguide time by time to verify the possibility of an application for an optical fibre. This technique makes it possible not only to analyse the effect of the external disturbance in a coherent optical communication system but also to fabricate optical devices.     

Effects of miscibility on probe tack of natural-rubber-based pressure-sensitive adhesives

Natural rubber (NR) was blended in various ratios with 29 kinds of tackifier resins, which were prepared from rosin, terpenes, and petroleum. Miscibilities of all the blend systems were illustrated as phase diagrams in our previous articles. From these blend systems, we selected 7 systems having typical phase diagrams [completely miscible, completely immiscible, and lower critical solution temperature (LCST) types] and carried out measurements of probe tack. Probe tack values were measured at various rates of separation and temperatures to obtain master curves. In the case of miscible pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) at the condition of measurement, the peak position in the master curve of probe tack shifted to the lower velocity (higher temperature) as the tackifier content increased. On the contrary, immiscible PSAs had much smaller probe tack values than miscible ones and did not give manifest shift of peaks. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 70: 771–776, 1998     

Balanced Secure Scan: Partial Scan Approach for Secret Information Protection

Scan-based Design-for-Testability technique is widely used to enhance the testability. However, it increases the vulnerability to attacks through scan chains for secure chips such as cryptographic circuits with embedded secret keys. This paper proposes a secure scan design method which protects the circuits containing secret information such as cryptographic circuits from scan-based side channel attacks. The proposed method prevents the leakage of secret information by partial scan design based on a balanced structure. We also guarantee the testability of both the design under test and DFT circuitry, and therefore, realize both security and testability. Experiments for RSA circuit shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Structural and Textural Quality of Kinu-Tofu Frozen-then-Thawed at High-Pressure

To determine effects of high-pressure thawing on quality of high-pressure frozen tofu, kinu-tofu (soybean curd) was frozen 90 min at ca ?20°C at 100 MPa (ice I), 200 MPa (liquid phase), 340 MPa (ice III), 400, 500 or 600 MPa (ice V), then thawed at the same pressure. Texture and structure of this tofu (D) were compared with high-pressure-frozen tofu thawed at atmospheric pressure (A: 90 min frozen; B: 90 min frozen then 2 days at ?30°C; C: 160 min frozen). When tofu was frozen at 200- 500 MPa, ice crystals were largest to smallest in B > A and C > D; pore size of D was the same as untreated tofu. Results indicated ice crystals never grew when frozen at 200–500 MPa. Growth occurred during reduction of pressure at ca ?20°C, frozen storage or while thawing at atmospheric pressure due to phase transition.     

Effects of annealing ambient on ferroelectric properties and surface chemistry of sol–gel derived Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12 thin films

In this work, Bi_3.25La_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ (BLT) thin films were prepared by sol–gel coatings followed by rapid thermal annealing in Ar or O₂ ambient. The correlation among annealing ambient, ferroelectric characteristics and surface chemistry of the BLT thin films were investigated. The BLT thin film annealed in Ar showed weaker crystallization, less dense surface and smaller polarization value than that annealed in O₂. After 10⁹ cycles, the remnant polarization of the BLT film annealed in Ar decreased to 83.5 % of the initial value while it remained 89.5 % for the sample annealed in O₂. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicated the inferior fatigue characteristics of the sample annealed in Ar was the comprehensive result of oxygen vacancies vicinity to Bi and Ti ion in the thin film.     

Polymerization of ethylene using zirconocenes supported on swellable cation-exchanged fluorotetrasilicic mica

Supported catalysts consisting of Cp₂ZrCl₂ and cation-exchanged fluorotetrasilicic mica (Mⁿ⁺-mica, Mⁿ⁺ = Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Fe³⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺) were prepared and employed in the ethylene polymerization or ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization in the presence of R₃Al. The catalysts consisting of swellable Mg²⁺-mica and Zn²⁺-mica (both calcined at 200 °C) and Cp₂ZrCl₂ displayed high activity for the polymerization reaction. By contrast, when Mg²⁺-mica and Zn²⁺-mica were calcined above 250 °C, the swellability was lost, and the activities of Cp₂ZrCl₂ supported on these non-swellable micas were significantly reduced. The relationship between the activity and swellability of mica was clearly observed both in ethylene polymerizations employing (n-BuCp)₂ZrCl₂ in place of Cp₂ZrCl₂ and in ethylene/1-hexene copolymerizations using Cp₂ZrCl₂. The role of Mⁿ⁺-mica for the activation of the metallocene complex was investigated by surface observation using a scanning electron microscope and by XRD measurements of the catalysts after polymerization of ethylene for a short time. The results of the surface observations indicated that polyethylene was produced on the edges of Mⁿ⁺-mica lamellas at the initial stage of the polymerization. The XRD measurements show that the regularity of the stacked lamellas was immediately lost at this stage. The catalyst prepared by removing free Cp₂ZrCl₂ (i.e., unsupported Cp₂ZrCl₂, Cp₂ZrCl₂ dissolved into the catalyst slurry) showed extremely low activity, suggesting that the most of the active sites were formed through the reactions of Mⁿ⁺-mica and free Cp₂ZrCl₂. These results indicate that the lamellas of Mⁿ⁺-mica are peeled off at the initial stage of the polymerization and that exposed metal cations react with free-Cp₂ZrCl₂ to form additional active species. The swellability of Mⁿ⁺-mica strongly affects the formation of additional active sites, and therefore the supported catalysts based on non-swellable Mⁿ⁺-mica displayed only low activities.     

Sequential Circuits with Combinational Test Generation Complexity under Single-Fault Assumption

We show that the test generation problem for all single stuck-at faults in sequential circuits with internally balanced structures can be reduced into the test generation problem for single stuck-at faults in combinational circuits. In our previous work, we introduced internally balanced structures as a class of sequential circuits with the combinational test generation complexity. However, single stuck-at faults on some primary inputs, called separable primary inputs, corresponded to multiple stuck-at faults in a transformed combinational circuit. In this paper, we resolve this problem. We show how to generate a test sequence and identify undetectability for single stuck-at faults on separable primary inputs.     

Phenotyping transgenic embryonic murine hearts using optical coherence tomography

We used optical coherence tomography (OCT) to characterize the morphological phenotype of embryonic murine hearts discerning hexamethylene-bis-acetamide-inducible protein 1 (HEXIM1) mutants from their wild-type littermates. At E12.5 and E13.5 murine embryos were excised from the mother, the hearts were removed, and 3D OCT data sets were obtained from each heart in the litter. Next, we segmented the morphological borders to obtain cavity volumes and wall thicknesses. The mutant hearts exhibited increased ventricular chamber volume and decreased compact myocardium wall thickness when compared with their wild-type littermates. Also, the E13.5 HEXIM1 -/- embryo was distinguished by morphological asymmetry (underdeveloped left side).