A modeling concept of a mechanical system having a piecewise linear spring property for its diagnosis

Machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of rotating machinery are very important because of the wide use of rotating machinery in industry. Couplings and gears are used in many mechanical systems to connect elements and transmit power. The system is usually modeled as a single-degree-of-freedom system with a piecewise linear spring property, where the mass of main machine is only considered. In the present study, the dynamic behavior of a system with an unsymmetrical nonlinearity and a significant mass of the connecting part was investigated both experimentally and by numerical simulation. In the experiment, a 1/3 sub-harmonic oscillation was observed, but this oscillation was not found in the simulation using a single-degree-of-freedom system, in which the mass of the connecting part was ignored. However, when a two-degrees-of-freedom system was used that considered both the mass of the connecting part and the impact property, the 1/3 sub-harmonic oscillation was observed. Thus it is recognized that an adequate mathematical model for diagnosis in the early stage of abnormality must be selected on the basis of the mass ratio between the connecting part and the main body.     

Position-dependent chemotactic response of slowly migrating cells in sigmoidal concentration profiles

Characterizing the chemotactic motility of slowly migrating cells as a function of time is still challenging. In this paper, we use a microfluidic device for investigating the chemotactic activity of HFF-1 fibroblasts in a sigmoidal concentration profile of epidermal growth factor (EGF). Sigmoidal concentration profiles are very common in biological systems but, in contrast to linear gradients, are much less studied in microfluidic systems. We monitored cell migration for up to 10 hours and found that chemotaxis is strongest where the absolute EGF concentration is below 25 pM (K _D of EGF is 1 nM). Calculating the fraction of receptor occupancy (FRO) at the front and rear of the cells showed that the chemotactic activity of HFF-1 cells scaled with the difference in FRO between both ends of the cell normalized by the average FRO _av of the cell. Interestingly, the mean chemotactic index of the cells was found to be a function of the gradient at the starting position and did not change when cells were entering into other regions of the highly non-linear concentration profile. Our studies demonstrate the usefulness of stable sigmoidal concentration profiles produced in microfluidic channels for a detailed analysis of the chemotactic response of slowly migrating cells.     

Determination of glibenclamide in human serum by HPLC

The antidiabetic drug glibenclamide can be reliably quantitated in human serum with high performance liquid chromatography. The serum is buffered and extracted with toluene. The organic solvent is evaporated, the residue dissolved in the mobile phase and an aliquot sampled automatically and chromatographed. UV-detection at 229 m allows a lower limit of quantitation of 5 ng/ml. Precise handling of exact volumes facilitates external calibration. Statistical data for imprecision and inaccuracy are given and illustrate reliable quantification. Application of the method to experimental and clinical pharmacokinetic studies with specific problems is illustrated.     

Novel Thermostable Flavin‐binding Fluorescent Proteins from Thermophilic Organisms

Flavin‐binding fluorescent proteins (FbFPs) are small, oxygen‐independent in vivo reporters, derived from Light Oxygen Voltage (LOV) domains of photoreceptors. Here, we investigated the thermostability of existing, as well as novel FbFPs, whose genes were identified in genome sequences of various thermophilic bacteria as well as metagenomic libraries from hot springs in the Yellowstone National Park. Detailed in vitro analyses revealed that two of those fluorescent reporter proteins were highly thermostable, exhibiting melting temperatures above 75°C.     

Predicting high harmonic ion cyclotron heating efficiency in Tokamak plasmas

Observations of improved radio frequency (rf) heating efficiency in ITER relevant high-confinement (H-)mode plasmas on the National Spherical Tokamak Experiment are investigated by whole-device linear simulation. The steady-state rf electric field is calculated for various antenna spectra and the results examined for characteristics that correlate with observations of improved or reduced rf heating efficiency. We find that launching toroidal wave numbers that give fast-wave propagation in the scrape-off plasma excites large amplitude (～kV?m(-1)) coaxial standing modes between the confined plasma density pedestal and conducting vessel wall. Qualitative comparison with measurements of the stored plasma energy suggests that these modes are a probable cause of degraded heating efficiency.     

Facile synthesis of core‐surface crosslinked nanoparticles by interblock RAFT polymerization

A new, efficient method for synthesizing stable nanoparticles with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) functionalities on the core surface, in which the micellization and crosslinking reactions occur in one pot, has been developed. First, amphiphilic PEO‐b‐PS copolymers were synthesized by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) radical polymerization of styrene using (PEO)‐based trithiocarbonate as a macro‐RAFT agent. The low molecular weight PEO‐b‐PS copolymer was dissolved in isopropyl alcohol where the block copolymer self‐assembled as core‐shell micelles, and then the core‐shell interface crosslink was performed using divinylbenzene as a crosslinking agent and 2,2′‐azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator. The design of the amphiphilic RAFT agent is critical for the successful preparation of core‐shell interface crosslinked micellar nanoparticles, because of RAFT functional groups interconnect PEO and polystyrene blocks. The PEO functionality of the nanoparticles surface was confirmed by ¹H NMR and FTIR. The size and morphology of the nanoparticles was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and dynamic laser light scattering analysis. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2010     

Effect of artificial mucus properties on the characteristics of airborne bioaerosol droplets generated during simulated coughing

The effect of viscoelastic properties and surface tension of artificial mucus simulant samples on the size distribution and volume concentration of bioaerosol droplets generated during simulated coughing was investigated through in vitro experiments. The mucus simulant samples had viscoelastic properties in a similar range as those of real human airway mucus. The mucus simulant gels were prepared by mixing various proportions of 0.5–1.7% locust bean gum solution and 0.1 M sodium tetraborate (XLB) solution. Surface tension of one set of samples was varied by adding different amounts of SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) surfactant while the measurement of surface tension was performed using ADSA (axisymmetric drop shape analysis) method. The viscoelastic properties of the samples were measured using a Bohlin Gemini 200 HR (Malvern, UK) nano-rheometer with peltier plate assembly. An artificial cough machine was used to simulate human cough, generating aerosol droplets in a model trachea attached to the front of the cough machine. The size distribution and volume concentration of the droplets generated through simulated cough were measured using a laser diffraction particle sizer (SprayTec, Malvern, USA). The surface tension was found to have negligible effect on the characteristic of generated droplets within the range of this investigation. The experimental results showed a decrease in particle size as the samples changed from a viscous fluid type to a viscoelastic to an elastic solid type sample. The volume concentration also changed significantly as the viscoelasticity of the samples was varied.