Rathke's cleft cyst

Two cases of Rathke's cleft cyst which produced symptoms of compression of the optic chiasm are described. The first case has been followed for five years since the operation. No evidence of recurrence has been noticed. The prognosis after a partial removal of the cyst wall seems to be good with this lesion. In the second case, there was clinical and laboratory evidence of hypopituitarism and the CT scan revealed suggestive findings to differentiate the cyst from a pituitary adenoma.     

An artificial neural network based micro-hydropower generation scheduling: considering demand profile and environmental impact

The Philippine government has a continuing effort to reduce the utilization of fossil fuels which emit substantial amount of greenhouse gases. A suitable means of tapping energy which is clean and environmental friendly is sought. One such energy source is the micro-hydropower. In this paper, an artificial neural network (ANN) is used for predicting the generation of a micro-hydropower plant (MHPP) for a period of 1 month. A monthly forecasting of hydropower discharge was first conducted, which was then followed by the computation of the power output of MHPP. Results from simulation study show that a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) employing back propagation (BP) is successful in forecasting the discharge as exemplified by a less than 5% error for the test data. Results of statistical analysis confirm the validity of the forecasted discharge. MHPP supply (Estoperez and Nagasaka in Proceedings of HNICEM, Philippines, 2005) supplemented with the demand profile enables to determine the monthly reduced carbon emission of 46.8 tons.     

Measurement of the thermal conductivity of KNO3-NaNO3 mixtures using a transient hot-wire method with a liquid metal in a capillary probe

The thermal conductivity of KNO₃-NaNO₃ mixtures was measured by a modified transient hot-wire method using liquid metal in a capillary as a heat source. The method was developed for measurements on electrically conducting liquids at high temperatures. Measurements were performed on pure NaNO₃ and its three mixtures with KNO₃ in the temperature range from 498 to 593 K.     

Identification of a model of grinding wheel life by the group method of data handling

A mathematical model for grinding wheel redress life is identified by the polynomial theory of complex systems. Wheel speed, feed, grain size and grade are chosen as the independent variables from among the factors considered to have an effect on wheel wear through the identification of the model. The model obtained enables the redress life to be predicted for all combinations of grinding wheel, work material and grinding conditions, and serves as an aid in the optimization of the grinding process.     

Densities of liquid Fe-Ni and Fe-Cr alloys

Formerly Graduate Student, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University.     

Two-phase flow natural circulation characteristics inside BWR vessels

Fundamental two-phase flow behavior under natural circulation conditions is studied both experimentally and analytically. Natural circulation characteristics for both drum-type and chimney-type reactors are experimentally investigated focusing on the flow patterns, flow rate and two-phase behavior inside the vessel. Analytical studies are performed to further understand the natural circulation characteristics of an actual plant and the mechanisms of geysering-like instabilities. Experimental and analytical results confirm that sufficient and stable flow is achievable in a natural circulation BWR.     

Development and irradiation test of lost alpha detection system for ITER

We developed a lost alpha detection system to use in burning plasma experiments. The scintillators of Ag:ZnS and polycrystalline Ce:YAG were designed for a high-temperature environment, and the optical transmission line was designed to transmit from the scintillator to the port plug. The required optical components of lenses and mirrors were irradiated using the fission reactor with the initial result that there was no clear change after the irradiation with a neutron flux of 9.6×10(17)?nm(-2) s(-1) for 48 h. We propose a diagnostic of alpha particle loss, so-called alpha particle induced gamma ray spectroscopy. The initial laboratory test has been carried out by the use of the Ce doped Lu(2)SiO(5) scintillator detector and an Am-Be source to detect the 4.44 MeV high energy gamma ray due to the (9)Be(α,nγ)(12)C reaction.