Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Basic Study (basic + study)
Selected AbstractsBasic Study of a Ship Navigator's Stress Using Salivary Amylase ActivityIEEJ TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING, Issue 5 2009Koji Murai Member Abstract Evaluation of ship handling mental workload/training has usually depended on professionals (captain, pilot) who have a lot of experience on board. We are attempting to evaluate a ship navigator's mental workload (stress) based on a physiological index. The physiological indices, heart rate variability (R-R interval) and nasal temperature, are good indices of the stress found in ship handling. It is best if we get response and evaluation results quickly on the spot. A recent study shows salivary amylase activity is induced by the sympathetic nervous system; however, a research on ship navigator has not yet accepted worldwide. This article proposes that salivary amylase activity shows a ship navigator's stress during ship handling. Copyright © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Basic study of pole change generator for micro windmill generation systemELECTRICAL ENGINEERING IN JAPAN, Issue 1 2010Kazuto Yukita Abstract This paper proposes a pole change generator for a windmill. Since micro windmill systems generate power from natural energy, power generation characteristics across a wide band are necessary. However, the conventional generator, in which the open voltage is simply proportional to the rotational velocity, encounters difficulty in generating power across a wide range of rotational velocities from low to high, because of the power generation characteristics. To develop a generator with a wide power band suitable for a micro windmill, this paper proposes a technique for switching the status of the generator coil connection. To demonstrate the effectiveness of pole changing, we use a pole-changing generator with 16 coils as an example. The coils can be connected using four patterns: 16-pole series, 8-pole 2-parallel, 4-pole 4-parallel, and 2-pole 8-parallel. Theoretical and experimental studies from this point of view demonstrate that this technique is effective. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 171(1): 28,36, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20873 [source] Effect of phosphonate additive on crystallization of gypsum in phosphoric and sulfuric acid mediumCRYSTAL RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 12 2002H. El-Shall Abstract Understanding the mechanisms of growth and inhibition during crystallization of calcium sulfate is of primary importance for many industrial applications. For instance, inhibition of the crystallization process may be required to prevent scale formation in pipes, boilers, heat exchangers, reactors, reverse osmosis membrane surfaces, cooling water systems, secondary oil recovery utilizing water flooding techniques and desalination evaporators, etc. On the other hand, control growth and morphology of gypsum crystals is desired in achieving higher filtration rate and higher productivity of phosphoric acid from phosphate rocks. In this regard, this basic study is carried out to understand effect of Aminotris (methylenephosphonic acid (ATMP) on calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum) crystallization. The time elapsed between the achievement of supersaturation and the appearance of a solid phase (termed as induction time) is measured under different supersaturation ratios ranging from 1.018 to 1.979. The data are used to calculate the surface energy, critical nucleus size, and crystal growth rates of gypsum under different conditions. The results show that, the induction time decreases exponentially with increasing the supersaturation ratio. In addition, the surface energy decreases with ATMP compared to the baseline (without ATMP). Interestingly, with addition of the ATMP, the crystals mean and median diameters are found to decrease. The inhibition efficiency ranges from 16% to 59% depending on supersaturation ratio. [source] Sugarcane proteomics: Establishment of a protein extraction method for 2-DE in stalk tissues and initiation of sugarcane proteome reference mapELECTROPHORESIS, Issue 12 2010Ramesh Sundar Amalraj Abstract Sugarcane is an important commercial crop cultivated for its stalks and sugar is a prized commodity essential in human nutrition. Proteomics of sugarcane is in its infancy, especially when dealing with the stalk tissues, where there is no study to date. A systematic proteome analysis of stalk tissue yet remains to be investigated in sugarcane, wherein the stalk tissue is well known for its rigidity, fibrous nature, and the presence of oxidative enzymes, phenolic compounds and extreme levels of carbohydrates, thus making the protein extraction complicated. Here, we evaluated five different protein extraction methods in sugarcane stalk tissues. These methods are as follows: direct extraction using lysis buffer (LB), TCA/acetone precipitation followed by solubilization in LB, LB containing thiourea (LBT), and LBT containing tris, and phenol extraction. Both quantitative and qualitative protein analyses were performed for each method. 2-DE analysis of extracted total proteins revealed distinct differences in protein patterns among the methods, which might be due to their physicochemical limitations. Based on the 2-D gel protein profiles, TCA/acetone precipitation-LBT and phenol extraction methods showed good results. The phenol method showed a shift in pI values of proteins on 2-D gel, which was mostly overcome by the use of 2-D cleanup kit after protein extraction. Among all the methods tested, 2-D cleanup-phenol method was found to be the most suitable for producing high number of good-quality spots and reproducibility. In total, 30 and 12 protein spots commonly present in LB, LBT and phenol methods, and LBT method were selected and subjected to eLD -IT-TOF-MS/MS and nESI-LC-MS/MS analyses, respectively, and a reference map has been established for sugarcane stalk tissue proteome. A total of 36 nonredundant proteins were identified. This is a very first basic study on sugarcane stalk proteome analysis and will promote the unexplored areas of sugarcane proteome research. [source] Targeted inhibition of IL-10-secreting CD25, Treg via p38 MAPK suppression in cancer immunotherapyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Kozo Ohkusu-Tsukada Abstract Cancer-induced immunotolerance mediated by inducible Treg (iTreg) is a major obstacle to cancer immunotherapy. In a basic study of immunotolerance, injection of an endogenous superantigen, i.e. the minor lymphocyte stimulatory (Mls)-1a, into specific TCR V,8.1-Tg mice enabled generation of anergic CD25, iTreg, the immunosuppressive function of which was maintained by IL-10 production via p38-MAPK activation. Interestingly, although p38-chemical inhibitor (p38-inhibitor) is capable of breaking CD25, iTreg-induced immunotolerance, the p38-inhibitor had hardly any immunotolerance breaking effect when CD25+ Treg were present, suggesting that depletion of CD25+ Treg is necessary for p38-inhibitor to be effective. Peptide OVA323,339iv.- injection into its specific TCR-Tg (OT-II) mice also induced adaptive tolerance by iTreg. Peptide immunotherapy with p38-inhibitor after CD25+ Treg-depletion was performed in an OVA-expressing lymphoma E.G7-bearing tolerant model established by adoptive transfer of OT-II CD25, iTreg, which resulted in suppression of tumor growth. Similarly, the antitumor immunity induced by peptide immunotherapy in colon carcinoma CT26-bearing mice, in which the number of IL-10-secreting iTreg is increased, was augmented by treatment with p38-inhibitor after CD25+ Treg-depletion and resulted in inhibition of tumor progression. These results suggest that simultaneous inhibition of two distinct Treg-functions may be important to the success of cancer immunotherapy. [source] Self-reported functional ability predicts three-year mobility and mortality in community-dwelling older personsGERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2002Ryuichi Kawamoto Background:, A comprehensive evaluation of the functions of community-dwelling older persons was conducted in 1988. Three years after the 1988 study commenced, the relationship between these background factors and changes during the subsequent 3 years were examined. Methods: ,The study was a comprehensive evaluation of the daily functions of community-dwelling elderly people, and encompassed age, gender, mode of living, marital status, financial status, family relationships, basic activities of daily living, visual and hearing impairment, a history of disease, self-related feeling, social role, social support, habits and physical exercise and the relationship between independence and survival for 3 years after the basic study. The subjects were 2274 community-dwelling elderly people who participated in the first survey in July 1998 and who were aged 65 years and over at that time. Unassisted questionnaire sheets were used for the first survey and changes since the first survey. Results:, Thirty men and 60 women died during the 3 year period. Data were also gathered about the daily activity levels of 1709 persons (75.2%) with 1499 (87.7%) ranking J for independence and 210 persons (12.3%) ranking A to C for dependence. Age, gender, basic activities of daily living (BADL), history of falls, self-related happiness, participation in community events and physical-exercise habits were found to be explanatory variables for independence after three years; as were age, gender, and BADL for survival. Conclusion: , The explanatory variables relating to independence and prognosis of life of the elderly obtained in this study will be important in future considerations of the issue of care-taking and measures to enable it. [source] A basic study on humidity recovery by using micro-porous media (Effects of thermal condition of fluids and geometrical condition of apparatus on transport performance)HEAT TRANSFER - ASIAN RESEARCH (FORMERLY HEAT TRANSFER-JAPANESE RESEARCH), Issue 8 2006Shixue Wang Abstract Using an experimental apparatus to examine the performance of heat and mass transfer between constant-temperature water and dry air through a porous plate having extremely small pores, the effects of the thermal conditions in the fluids and the geometric condition of the apparatus on moisture transport were measured. The effects of water temperature, thickness of the porous plate, and channel height of the flowing air on moisture transport are noticeable. However, the effect of air temperature in the channel inlet on moisture transport is slight. In addition, in order to evaluate the degree of air humidity absorption, a parameter called the moisture absorption rate was introduced. The moisture absorption rate was shown to decrease with increasing air velocity and varies only slightly for a plate thickness of 1 mm and decreases for a plate thickness of 3.5 mm with increasing water temperature. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(8): 568,581, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/htj.20133 [source] Numerical simulation of gaseous fuel injection: A new methodology for multi-dimensional modellingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN FLUIDS, Issue 6 2010Luca Andreassi Abstract The use of natural gas (instead of liquid or solid fuels) is nowadays drawing an increasing interest in many applications (gas turbines, boilers, internal combustion engines), because of the greater attention to environmental issues. To facilitate the development of these applications, computer models are being developed to simulate gaseous injection, air entrainment and the ensuing combustion. This paper introduces a new method for modelling the injection process of gaseous fuels that aims to hold down grid requirements in order to allow the simulation also of other phenomena, like combustion or valve and piston motion, in reciprocating internal combustion engines. After a short overview of existing models, the transient jet model and the evaluation of inflow conditions are described in detail. Then a basic study of the grid effects on the jet evolution is presented. The model is updated and validated by comparing numerical results with available experimental data for two different operating conditions: a subsonic and a supersonic under-expanded case. The model demonstrates to be fast enough to be used in a multi-dimensional code and accurate enough to follow the real gas jet evolution. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Crystal structure and orientation behavior of transversely compressed poly(ethylene- co -1-octene) filamentsPOLYMER ENGINEERING & SCIENCE, Issue 12 2008Haifeng Shan A basic study on crystal structure and orientation behavior of transversely compressed ethylene-1-octene copolymer with different 1-octene contents was described. All polymers were first melt spun under different spinline stress and subsequently transversely compressed. For the melt-spun filaments, an orthorhombic crystal structure was found for all polymers, but a pseudo-hexagonal mesophase was also found for polymers with the highest 1-octene level (13.3 mol%). For the transversely compressed filaments, several reflection peaks from a monoclinic unit cell were found for polyethylene without octene. For those with higher octene levels, the reflection peaks from monoclinic became fainter and disappeared for the one with the highest 1-octene level. After being transversely compressed, the (110) and (200) peaks of orthorhombic crystal structures became oriented along the meridian direction, which is the fiber axis direction. The reason for this appears to be that the compression deformation of the filament induces elongation along its width direction and shrinkage along its length and thickness direction, and in this change the polymer chain orients. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers [source] Solvation effects in calculated electrostatic association free energies for the C3d-CR2 complex and comparison with experimental dataBIOPOLYMERS, Issue 6 2010Alexander S. Cheung Abstract The complement system is an integral part of the innate immune system that participates in the clearance of pathogens from the body. The association between complement protein fragment C3d and B or T cell-receptor complement receptor (CR) 2 represents a crucial link between innate and adaptive immunities. The goal of this study is to predict association abilities of C3d and CR2 mutants by theoretically calculating electrostatic free energies of association and to assess the importance of solvation effects in the calculations. We demonstrate that calculated solvation free energy differences and Coulombic free energies of association are more sensitive than electrostatic free energies of association in solution and, thus, more accurate in predicting previously published experimental data for the association abilities (relative to the parent proteins) of specific C3d and CR2 mutants. We show that a proportional relationship exists between the predicted solvation free energy differences and the experimental data, while an inversely proportional relationship exists between the predicted Coulombic free energies of association and the experimental data. Our results yield new insights into the physicochemical properties underlying C3d-CR2 association. We discuss the predictive validity of Coulombic, solvation, and solution electrostatic free energies of association and the generalization of our method for theoretical mutagenesis studies of other systems. This is a basic study, aimed toward improving our understanding of the theoretical basis of immune system regulation at the molecular level. Such insight can serve as the groundwork for the design of regulators with tailored properties, vaccines, and other biotechnology products. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 93:509,519, 2010. This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The "Published Online" date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com [source] | |||||||||||||