A mass separation of chondrocytes from cartilage tissue utilizing an automatic crushing device

Porcine articular cartilage tissue was crushed using Multi-Beads-Shocker^™ and digested with trypsin and collagenase type II. Chondrocyte cell yield was maximized by automatic crushing for 10 s, which was 4 times that by manual dicing with a surgical blade and might be useful for the automation of the cell processing.     

Bi-Cu film deposition in aqueous solutions

The relatively uniform bismuth-copper film was electrodeposited between −15 and −20 mV in the sulfate electrolyte containing 4 mmol/L bismuth ion and 2 mmol/L copper ion. Only copper was electrodeposited at −5 mV. The dendritic bismuth-copper film was electrodeposited under −20 mV. The cathodic current became constant between −20 and −400 mV. Therefore, bismuth-copper electrodeposition changes from charge transfer controlling to diffusion controlling at −20 mV. On the other hand, the uniform bismuth-copper film was electrodeposited between −5 and −35 mV in the methanesulfonate electrolyte containing 4 mmol/L bismuth ion and 2 mmol/L copper ion. The dendritic bismuth-copper film was electrodeposited under −35 mV. The potential region for good electrodepositon in methanesulfonate electrolyte is wider than that in sulfate electrolyte. Therefore, it is easy to control electrodeposition conditions by using methanesulfonate electrolyte.     

Deposition of DLC film with adhesive W-DLC layer on stainless steel and its tribological properties

Tribological properties of a diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating with an adhesive tungsten-containing DLC (W-DLC) layer were investigated. The coatings were deposited onto AISI316L steel substrates and Si wafers using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and tungsten co-sputtering of the metal target. Methane and argon gases were used as the precursor of the coatings. In this study, three types of coatings were evaluated: DLC/W-DLC on AISI316L (DLC-1), DLC/W-DLC on Si wafer (DLC-2), and DLC on Si wafer (DLC-3). The structural characterizations were performed by transmission electron microscopy and tapping mode atomic force microscopy. At the boundary between the W-DLC layer and the AISI316L substrate, microscopic decohesion or delamination was not observed. The surface roughness of the DLC-1 coating was greater than that of the DLC-2 coating. This feature was derived from the surface roughness of the initial surface of the AISI316L substrate. Friction tests were performed using a rotation-type ball-on-flat configuration tribometer. The observed friction of the DLC-1 coating was unstable compared with the DLC-2 or DLC-3 coatings. This was due to wear debris which had risen to the friction surface resulting in unstable friction on the DLC-1 coating. During the friction studies, the top DLC layer was removed from the adhesive W-DLC layer because the adhesive strength at this part was not enough. In order to achieve the low and stable friction of the DLC coating with the W-DLC layer on AISI316L, it is necessary to improve the smoothness of the surface and the adhesion between the DLC coating and the W-DLC layer.     

Effect of Oxide Film on the Friction of 52100 Steel in Vacuum

To solve the anomalous behaviors of friction coefficient in reciprocated slidings of 52100 steel in ultrahigh vacuum, studies were made if the wear track, friction level, and number of traverses for a 52100 steel test ball sliding on a 52100 steel flat over a pressure range of 760 to 3 × 10^?9 torr. Plots of the friction coefficient versus number of traverses show a maximum (f = 1.0–1.2) followed by a drop (f = 0.5–0.6). Both the friction force-time curves and microscopic friction area change from smooth to rough at the point of the drop in friction coefficient. The shape of the friction plot is ascribed to a build-up and rupture of the oxide film that forms on the surface of the 52100 steel specimen in atmosphere and is affected by applied load, direction of finishing marks and pressure level of the environment. Further, above a critical pressure of 10^?6 torr the drop was not experienced. It was also found that higher friction does not always mean that the sliding surfaces are clear or more oxide-free.     

Decay of material properties of degraded MEA caused by repeated cold starts under subzero conditions in polymer electrolyte fuel cells

This study investigated the characteristics of cell performance degradation, decline of component performance, and changes in the properties of membrane electrode assembly materials caused by repeated cold starts under a subzero condition of ?30 °C. It was made clear that functional decay appeared mainly at the cathode due to increased proton conductive impedance and reduction of reactivity of the electrode catalyst. Among the cathode components, an increase in proton conductive impedance in the cathode electrolyte was dominant. Furthermore, the application of ion chromatography and a newly developed proton‐induced gamma‐ray emission method to measure fluorine in the off‐gas drain revealed that decomposition of the electrolyte was dominant in the cathode catalyst layer. A decrease in fluorine in the cathode electrolyte measured by fluorine‐19 nuclear magnetic resonance confirmed this decomposition. A hypothesis is also presented concerning the cause of the performance degradation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20394     

Sensory‐motor control mechanism for reaching movements of a redundant musculo‐skeletal arm

This paper studies the human arm's sensory‐motor control mechanism in reaching movements. First, we formulate both the kinematics and dynamics of a two‐link planar arm model with six redundant muscles. The nonlinear muscle dynamics is modeled based on several biological understandings. We then show the stability of the overall system and perform some numerical simulations. By considering the internal forces induced by the redundant muscles, we show that the damping factors in each joint can be regulated, and as the result, it can realize humanlike quasistraight line reaching movements. In addition, we also propose the gravity compensation method at the muscle input level and present the result of numerical simulation to verify the usefulness of this method. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Interaction among a row of ellipsoidal inclusions

In this paper the interaction among a row of N ellipsoidal inclusions of revolution is considered. Inclusions in a body under both (A) asymmetric uniaxial tension in the x-direction and (B) axisymmetric uniaxial tension in the z-direction are treated in terms of singular integral equations resulting from the body force method. These problems are formulated as a system of singular integral equations with Cauchy-type or logarithmic-type singularities, where unknowns are densities of body forces distributed in the r,,z directions. In order to satisfy the boundary conditions along the ellipsoidal boundaries, the unknown functions are approximated by a linear combination of fundamental density functions and polynomials. The present method is found to yield rapidly converging numerical results for interface stresses. When the elastic ratio E ₁E _I/E _M>1, the primary feature of the interaction is a large compressive or tensile stress _n on the interface =0. When E ₁E _I/E _M<1, a large tensile stress or _t on the interface =1/2 is of interest. If the spacing b/d and the elastic ratio E _I/E _M are fixed, the interaction effects are dominant when the shape ratio a/b is large. For any fixed shape and spacing of inclusions, the maximum stress is shown to be linear with the reciprocal of the squared number of inclusions.     

Selective retension of active cells employing low centrifugal force at the medium change during suspension culture of Chinese hamster ovary cells producing tPA

The effect of centrifugal force applied for cell separation at the medium change on the growth, metabolism and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) productivity of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells suspension culture was investigated. The viability of the precipitated cells increased exponentially as the centrifugal force decreased. However, the cell recovery was lower than 91% when centrifugal forces applied for 5 min was less than 67 x g. In cultures incubated for 474 h with 7 medium changes employing centrifugal forces ranging from 67 to 364 x g, a centrifugal force lower than 119 x g resulted in higher specific rates of growth, glucose consumption, and lactate and tPA production during the whole culture period. On the other hand, daily centrifugation at 67 to 537 x g without discarding the supernatant had no effect on the specific rates. The cultures inoculated with cells precipitated at a centrifugal force of 67 x g showed apparently higher specific rates of metabolism compared to those inoculated with cells in the supernatant. The cells in the supernatant and the precipitate obtained following centrifugation at 67 x g have average diameters of 15.5 and 17.4 microm, respectively. The intracellular contents of amino acids, especially nonessential amino acids, of the precipitated cells were markedly higher than those of the cells in the supernatant. These results indicate that large cells with high amino acid content and metabolic activity were selectively retained in the culture by means of centrifugation at low forces such as 67 x g. Consequently, application of a low centrifugal force is recommended for medium change in order to maintain higher specific productivity of suspended mammalian cells in perfusion culture.     

SIR Weighting Combining Diversity Using Matched Filter for Personal Communication Systems

We propose a novel SIR weighting postdetection combining diversity scheme with a new accurate SIR estimation method. The SIR is estimated and used as the weighting factor to compensate severe cochannel interference, one of the most important issues for PCS in terms of frequency utilization. Theimprovement offered by the proposal depends on SIR estimation accuracy.The SIR is, in this paper, estimated by a matched filter where theauto-correlation between received signal and unique word is calculated. Computer simulationsconfirm that the SIR of each diversity branch can be estimated easily andaccuratelyby the proposed SIR estimation method. The proposed diversity scheme achievesaperformance very close to that of ideal SINR weighting diversity underRayleighfading with severe cochannel interference. When average SIR = 10 dB and thenumber of branches(L)=4, the proposed diversity scheme lowers the requiredE_b/N₀ by 5 dB at BER = 1×10^-3compared to conventional maximal ratio combining diversity. This paper alsopresentsthe unique word length required to realize adequate performance, i.e.,robustnessagainst high-pitch Rayleigh fading.