The effect of rebamipide ophthalmic suspension on ocular surface mucins in soft contact lens wearers

Purpose

To evaluate the changes in ocular surface mucins with 2%rebamipide ophthalmic suspension treatment in soft contact lens (SCL) wearers. Rebamipide suspension is a mucin secretagogue approved for the treatment of dry eye syndrome in Japan. In this study, the fluorescence intensity of wheat germ agglutinin conjugate of fluorescein (F-WGA) was used as a marker of membrane-associated mucins, and sialic acid concentration in tear fluids as a marker of secreted mucins.

Oscillatory waveform caused by piezoelectric vibration of pockels crystal and its effective suppression

In measurements of impulse voltages by Pockels sensors, oscillatory components have been observed in the tail parts of the optical signals. In this paper, oscillatory components of Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ (BGO) Pockels crystals of various shapes are investigated. The tested BGO crystals are rectangular solids, a cylindrical solid, and a tapered quadratic solid. The oscillatory components are derived from the light outputs and the frequency analysis is performed. The oscillation frequency of the rectangular crystals is lower than the theoretical value and that of a cylinder is the same as that of circumscribed rectangular solid. In the case of the tapered BGO crystal, it is possible to reduce the oscillatory components by distributing piezoelectric vibration over a broad frequency bandwidth. © 2010 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Molecular imprinting under molecular crowding conditions: an aid to the synthesis of a high-capacity polymeric sorbent for triazine herbicides

Molecular crowding, an important feature of the molecular environments in biological cells, was applied to the synthesis of antibody-mimic polymers selective for a group of biologically active compounds, the triazine herbicides. Synthesis of these polymers was conducted using molecular imprinting under molecular crowding conditions, whereby atrazine (a template molecule) was complexed with methacrylic acid (a functional monomer) in the presence of a macromolecular crowding agent (either poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or polystyrene (PS)) followed by cross-linking with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. After removal of atrazine from the polymer matrix, the retention properties and selectivity of the resultant polymers were assessed by chromatographic tests. The addition of a crowding-inducing agent resulted in polymers with superior retention properties and excellent selectivity for triazine herbicides, as compared to polymers prepared without addition of a crowding-inducing agent. An imprinted polymer prepared in the presence of PS as a crowding agent exhibited a retention factor for atrazine an order of magnitude larger than that of an imprinted polymer prepared in the absence of a crowding agent. NMR results suggest that the crowding agent is capable of promoting hydrogen bond formation between atrazine and methacrylic acid, which could account for the effect of crowding on molecular imprinting.     

Experimental and Numerical Investigations of an Ice-slurry Generator

A new test facility equipped with refrigerant and brine circulation systems, and a rotating-scraper ice-slurry generator was constructed to analyze the ice-slurry flow and heat transfer accompanied by phase change in an industrial generator. The axial and transverse brine temperature and ice fraction concentration profiles in the ice generator were measured. The heat transfer efficiency lower than the average was identified in the upper half of the ice generator and its cause was determined by conducting three-dimensional numerical simulation using a commercial CFD code, FLUENT. Approaches of improving the brine-side heat transfer rates were investigated by incorporating extra mixing blades from numerical simulation.     

Surface Oscillation of a Liquid Bridge Induced by Single and Multiple Vibrations

A three dimensional numerical model has been developed based on a level set algorithm to predict the surface oscillation behavior of a liquid bridge induced by single and multiple vibrations under space environment. By subjecting the liquid bridge to single lateral vibration, the surface resonance characteristics have been predicted numerically. Moreover, the controlling mechanism of the surface oscillation under multiple vibrations is also determined, and the results show the external vibrations at resonance frequency in lateral direction completely control the surface oscillation in horizontal direction.     

Microscale Contacting of Two Immiscible Liquid Droplets to Measure Interfacial Tension

In various microfluidic devices, surface tension and interfacial tension values are necessary to analyze the fluid behavior in microchannels, and evaluating the values of interfacial tension is especially important for gas–liquid and liquid–liquid flows. A pendant drop method is commonly used to measure the interfacial tension value; however, the pendant drop method requires strict accuracy in measuring the droplet size when the droplet has a nonspherical shape, as well as an accurate value of the density difference between the two liquids. In this work, a new measurement method called the “liquid bridge-inducing microscale contact method” has been developed in which the interfacial tension can be obtained from the bridging of two liquid droplets extruded from opposing ends of glass capillary tubes or formed on the ends of round metal rods. By measuring the radii of curvature of each liquid surface and interface, we calculate the Laplace pressure on the surface and interface, and derive the interfacial tension value using the Laplace equation. The results show that the values of interfacial tension obtained from the two methods are approximately the same and that the liquid bridge-inducing microscale contact method is capable of accurate interfacial tension measurements.     

DEVELOPMENTS ON WETTING EFFECTS IN MICROFLUIDIC SLUG FLOW

Wetting effects form a dimension of fluid dynamics that becomes predominant, precisely controllable, and possibly useful at the micro-scale. Microfluidic multiphase flow patterns, including size, shape, and velocity of fluidic particles, and mass and heat transfer rates are affected by wetting properties of microchannel walls and surface tension forces between fluid phases. The novelty of this field, coupled to difficulties in experimental design and measurements, means that literature results are scarce and scientific understanding is incomplete. Numerical methods developed recently have enabled a shortcut in obtaining results that can be perceived as realistic and that offer insight otherwise not possible. In this work the effect of the contact angle on gas-liquid two-phase flow slug formation in a microchannel T-junction was studied by numerical simulation. The contact angle, varied from 0 to 140 degrees, influenced the interaction of the gas and liquid phases with the channel wall, affecting the shape, size, and velocity of the slugs. The visualisation of the cross-sectional area of gas slugs allowed insight into the existence of liquid flow along rectangular microchannel corners, which was affected by the contact angle and determined the occurrence of velocity slip. The velocity profile within the gas slugs was also found to change as a function of contact angle, with hydrophilic channels inducing greater internal circulation, compared to greater channel wall contact in the case of hydrophobic channels. These effects play a role in heat and mass transfer from channel walls and highlight the value of numeral simulation in microfluidic design. Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Journal of Chemical Engineering Communications to view the supplemental file.     

Low‐resistive and transparent AZO films prepared by PLD in magnetic field

Al₂O₃‐doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have been deposited onto glass substrates using a split target consisting of AZO (1 wt%) and AZO (2 wt%) by pulsed laser deposition with an ArF excimer laser (λ = 193 nm, 15 mJ, 10 Hz, 0.75 J/cm²). By applying a magnetic field perpendicular to the plume, the lowest resistivity of 8.54 × 10^?5Ω·cm and an average transmittance exceeding 91% over the visible range were obtained at a target‐to‐substrate distance of 25 mm for approximately 279‐nm‐thick AZO film (1.8 wt%) grown at a substrate temperature of 230 °C in vacuum. From cross‐sectional TEM observations and the XRD spectrum, a reason why the low resistivity (54 × 10^?5Ω·cm) was reproducibly obtained was considered to be due to the fact that a disorder of crystal growth originating in the vicinity of the interface between the substrate and the film was suppressed by application of the magnetic field and the c‐axis orientation took preference, giving rise to the increase of mobility. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 151(2): 40–45, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20026     

Experimental study of two-phase pump performance using a full size nuclear reactor pump

The performance of a full-size nuclear reactor primary heat transport pump was investigated experimentally under high pressure, steam–water two-phase flow conditions. A new set of two-phase pump performance test data was obtained with local void fraction and mass flux measurements at the pump suction. The effects of suction temperature and initial flow conditions on the two-phase pump performance characteristics were described.