Naoki Yamaguchi

<h2>Abstract</h2> Immunocompromised patients with hematologic malignancies, particularly those treated with anti-CD20 antibodies such as rituximab and obinutuzumab, are known to be at risk of prolonged infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Prolonged administration or combination therapy with antiviral medications reportedly yields favorable outcomes in these patients. However, knowledge regarding the adverse events associated with such therapeutic approaches is limited. Herein, we report a case of acute acalculous cholecystitis (AAC) following extended administration of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (NMV/r) in a 68-year-old Japanese man with persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection. The patient had received obinutuzumab and bendamustine for follicular lymphoma and was diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) approximately one year after treatment initiation with these drugs. Subsequently, he was admitted to a different hospital, where he received antiviral drugs, monoclonal antibodies, and steroids. Despite these interventions, the patient relapsed and was subsequently transferred to our hospital due to persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Remdesivir administration was ineffective, leading to the initiation of extended NMV/r therapy. One week later, he exhibited elevated gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) levels, and one month later, he developed AAC. Cholecystitis was successfully resolved via percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage and administration of antibiotics. We speculate that extended NMV/r administration, in addition to COVID-19, may have contributed to the elevated GGT and AAC. During treatment of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection with extended NMV/r therapy, patients should be carefully monitored for the appearance of findings suggestive of biliary stasis and the development of AAC.

Abstract This paper focuses on the generation of twin vortex rope in the draft-tube elbow of a Francis turbine at deep part-load operation through analyzing the results of model tests along with numerical simulations. Model tests, including pressure fluctuations measurements, are conducted over ten speed factors. By considering the frequency of the pressure fluctuations with respect to the swirl intensity at the runner outlet, the part-load operating range is divided into three regimes, with two clear transitions between each occurring at swirl numbers 0.4 and 1.7. For operating conditions with a swirl number S &amp;gt; 0.4, a linear correlation between the frequency of the precessing vortex core and the swirl number is established. During the deep part-load regime (S &amp;gt; 1.7), low-frequency pressure fluctuations appear. Their frequency features another linear correlation with the swirl number. Unsteady computational fluid dynamics simulation of the full domain is performed to elucidate the generation mechanisms of the low-frequency fluctuations. By tracking the center of the vortical structures along the draft-tube, generation of three vortices in the elbow responsible for the pressure fluctuations at the lowest frequency is highlighted: the main precessing vortex core (PVC) hits the draft-tube wall in the elbow resulting in its break down into three vortices rotating with half the rotational speed of the PVC. Two of the vortices rotate with opposite angular position, constituting a structure of twin vortices. The periodic rotation of these three vortices in the elbow induces low-frequency pressure fluctuations.

We achieved the first demonstration of a wavelength-tunable mode-locked fiber laser in the L-band using all-Polarization-Maintaining (all-PM) Nonlinear Polarization Rotation (NPR). The all-PM configured laser features excellent repeatability and reliability. By increasing the pump power from 82.5 mW to 135 mW, a center wavelength-tuning from 1576.2 nm to 1592.2 nm is obtained. This non-mechanical tuning mechanism opens new possibilities for L-band wavelength-tunable lasers and their applications.

A new full-field motion compensation technique based on digital image correlation was developed for infrared thermoelastic stress measurements. Speckle patterns with variable infrared emissivity were applied to a test sample for motion analysis. Infrared images of the speckle pattern were acquired under the same loading conditions as for thermoelastic stress measurement. Displacements and deformations on the test sample were analysed using digital image correlation based on information on movement of the speckle patterns. Full-field motion compensation was performed in subsequent thermoelastic stress measurements based on the results of displacement measurements. The feasibility of the proposed motion compensation technique is demonstrated experimentally for thermoelastic stress measurement and identification of local plasticity at the stress-concentrated area in a plate specimen with a circular hole.

In pattern recognition fields, it is worthwhile to develop a pattern recognition system that hears one and knows ten. Recently, classification of printed characters that are the same fonts is almost possible, but classification of handwritten characters is still difficult. On the other hand, there are a large number of writing systems in the world, and there is a need for efficient character classification even with a small sample. Deep learning is one of the most effective approaches for image recognition. Despite this, deep learning causes overtrains easily, particularly when the number of training samples is small. For this reason, deep learning requires a large number of training samples. However, in a practical pattern recognition problem, the number of training samples is usually limited. One method for overcoming this situation is the use of transfer learning, which is pretrained by many samples. In this study, we evaluate the generalization performance of transfer learning for handwritten character classification using a small training sample size. We explore transfer learning using a fine-tuning to fit a small training sample. The experimental results show that transfer learning was more effective for handwritten character classification than convolution neural networks. Transfer learning is expected to be one method that can be used to design a pattern recognition system that works effectively even with a small sample.

A new technique was developed for motion compensation in thermoelastic stress measurement. Brindled pattern with different infrared emissivities was installed on the test sample for the motion analysis. Infrared images of the brindled pattern were taken under the same loading condition as the thermoelastic stress measurement. Displacements and deformations on the test sample were analyzed by the digital image correlation method based on the information of the movement of the brindled pattern. Automatic motion compensation was conducted in the subsequent thermoelastic stress measurement based on the results of displacement measurement. Another motion compensation technique without the brindled pattern was proposed, in which visible images were taken by the digital camera as well as the infrared camera. The field of view and the framing sequence of the visible and infrared camera were completely synchronized. The full field displacement measurement was conducted by the digital image correlation method using visible images, then the motion compensation of the infrared images were carried out based on this displacement data. The feasibility of the proposed motion compensation techniques was experimentally demonstrated.

In the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, empagliflozin, reduced incident or worsening nephropathy. In the LEADER trial, a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, liraglutide, resulted in lower rates of the development and progression of diabetic kidney disease than placebo. Therefore, the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes recommend the decision to treat high-risk individuals with a GLP-1 receptor agonist or SGLT2 inhibitor to reduce chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression should be considered. A 72-year-old male obese diabetic patient developed CKD stage G4 despite of use of both SGLT2 inhibitor and GLP-1 receptor agonist. We started using sodium bicarbonate because he showed metabolic acidosis due to uremia. We also started to use spherical carbonaceous adsorbent which adsorbs indole, the precursor of indoxyl sulfate, uremic toxin. We started the treatment with finerenone, a nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, which has been recently shown to lower risks of CKD progression. Considering unfavorable effects of hyperuricemia on CKD, to treat his hyperuricemia, we started to use dotinurad, a novel selective urate reabsorption inhibitor, which reduces serum urate levels by selective inhibition of urate transporter 1. The improvement of CKD stage G4 in a diabetic patient was obtained by such multi-disciplinary treatments in addition to SGLT2 inhibitor and GLP-1 receptor agonist.

Polymeric dental aligners manufactured by thermoforming are recently used in clinical treatment of misaligned teeth. In this study, a polyester sheet with 0.75 mm thickness was used and the deformability of thermoformed aligner is discussed experimentally with the help of digital image correlation method. The experimental apparatus to apply prescribed displacement to aligners mounted on a teeth model was developed focusing on the situation of treatment for misaligned left canine. The deformation mode was discussed through measured displacement field and maximum principal strain distribution. It was found that mechanical behavior of aligner was influenced more significantly by the shape of teeth, movement vector of left canine and crooked shape of aligner especially at inter-teeth borders than the thickness distribution of thermoformed aligner. The role of deformable edge part of the aligner was also revealed.

To improve energy consumption and to meet quality requirements for the slab heating process of reheat furnaces in hot strip mills, a new optimal slab heat pattern calculation simulator has been developed. The simulator consists of the following functions; (1) two-dimensional (slab thickness direction and slab length direction) slab temperature calculation function, which is capable of calculating skidmarks along the length of a slab, (2) furnace heat balance calculation function, (3) optimizing calculation function of slab heat pattern using a linear programming method. The simulator developed has been installed into a furnace computer control system for an actual plant. This paper describes the functions of the simulator and simulation results using the simulator. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 120(3): 42–53, 1997

Orthodontic aligners undergo deformation during installation, producing an unexpected component of elastic restoring force that causes unintended changes in the dentition. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between strain and elastic recovery of the aligner. We distinguished the contributions to aligner deformation due to molding and installation by measuring the thickness distribution of an aligner after molding using micro-CT and tracking changes in grid patterns drawn on the sheet used to fabricate the aligner. The aligner was installed on a device that simulated canine movement. Although canine strain was quite strong around the cusp, and in premolar, it was observed mainly in their centers. Furthermore, after molding, thickness distribution of the aligner was found. But, it is no clear relationship between the thickness distribution and the strain distribution. Our method of analysis can help improve aligner design and establish molding method to deliver optimal orthodontic treatment.

Introduction: The JDR Rescue Team has successfully completed the INSARAG External Re-Classification (IER) process, which evaluates the operational capability and capacity of Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams and has achieved the highest “Heavy” reclassification in November 2022. Two nurses participated in the IER process as part of the medical unit of JDR Rescue Team. In addition, ten registered nurses cooperated as Exercise Control (EXCON). Method: Summarize the JDR Rescue Team and medical unit and make observations on what nurses did in the IER. Results: The JDR Rescue Team is dispatched by the Government of Japan in response to large-scale disasters overseas. The task force team has 75 members from various specialties, including the rescuer, and medical unit. The medical unit consists of one medical manager, 2 doctors, and two nurses. There are currently about 50 registered medical unit members in our team, and of these, a total of 23 nurses are registered. The role of nurses during the IER process, includes a 36-hour non-stop scenario-based exercise. The team nurses are involved in various roles, such as Confined Space Medicine (infusion for patients, assisting on-site amputation), caring or treating injured rescuers and search dogs, providing health and welfare monitoring and operating a decontamination system. The EXCON nurses were involved in managing the simulation. One of their key roles was to play as a victim realistically so as to provide a sense of tension for the simulation. Conclusion: The JDR Rescue Team has more medical unit members than those in other countries. In particular, teams with so many nurses are rare. nurses played a vital role in this IER. The contribution of nurses is identified in order to make the international USAR team more strong and more flexible.

We propose optical fiber attachment with displacement to bend transducers towards mechanical sensing applications exploiting bend loss. Our prototype in 18 x 8 x 5 mm is successfully reported to convert 1.0 mm displacement into 31 dB bending loss.

We achieve distributed sensing by classifying the speckle patterns from a multimode fiber into the load positions along the fiber. Our method, named Learning-based Analysis of Speckle Patterns (L-ASP), exhibits the results for 8 distributed locations in 5 m fibers with 75% accuracy.

Mode-locked fiber lasers with wavelength tunability and dual-wavelength mode-locking capability have wide applications in nonlinear imaging, precision metrology and photonic sensing. Here, for the first time, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an environmentally-stable all-polarization-maintaining fiber mode-locked laser without any intracavity filter and attenuator, whose mode-locking wavelength is switchable with the injected pump power. By increasing the pump power, the mode-locking wavelength switches from 1560-nm band to 1560/1530-nm dual-wavelength mode-locking, and finally to the 1530-nm band. The mechanism behind the phenomenon is well explained by the reverse saturable absorption induced intracavity loss variation. The proposed laser has a very concise configuration with only one integrated wavelength-division-multiplexer and a carbon nanotubes/polydimethylsiloxane (CNT/PDMS) saturable absorber. The compact size, simple wavelength switching scheme as well as environmental stability makes it promising for practical applications.

This report details the case of a 41-year-old woman who was diagnosed with insulinoma. As the patient developed severe life-threatening hypoglycemia, we introduced Dexcom G4 Platinum (DG4P), a modern continuous glucose-monitoring system (CGM). The algorithm of the sensor glucose (SG) values of CGM is based on patients with diabThis report details the case of a 41-year-old woman who was diagnosed with insulinoma. As the patient developed severe life-threatening hypoglycemia, we introduced Dexcom G4 Platinum (DG4P), a modern continuous glucose-monitoring system (CGM). The algorithm of the sensor glucose (SG) values of CGM is based on patients with diabetes; therefore, we evaluated the accuracy of DG4P in this patient. The mean absolute relative differences and absolute differences between SG of DG4P and self-monitoring of blood sugar values were 10.8%±8.3% and 6.8±5.7 mg/dL, respectively, in the hypoglycemic region, which verifies DG4P's accuracy. DG4P was found to be useful for monitoring hypoglycemia not only in patients with diabetes but also in those with insulinoma.etes; therefore, we evaluated the accuracy of DG4P in this patient. The mean absolute relative differences and absolute differences between SG of DG4P and self-monitoring of blood sugar values were 10.8%±8.3% and 6.8±5.7 mg/dL, respectively, in the hypoglycemic region, which verifies DG4P's accuracy. DG4P was found to be useful for monitoring hypoglycemia not only in patients with diabetes but also in those with insulinoma.

Two elderly female patients with Kellgren-Lawrence grade 4 knee osteoarthritis (KOA) having varus knee deformity and retained hardware for internal fixation in either femur or tibia underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) using 3D templating and patient-specific instrumentation (PSI). TKA was performed to treat KOA by minimally removing or without removing the retained hardware for the internal fixation of distal femoral or tibial diaphyseal fractures. Throughout a 2-year follow-up period, no superficial or deep infection was observed. In additions, no radiological symptoms of suspected component loosening were observed. Furthermore, both patients can currently walk without using crutches. 3D templating and PSI in primary TKA for patients with retained hardware for internal fixation of femoral or tibial fractures are considered suitable treatment options for reducing surgical invasion.

In Francis hydro turbines, a small clearance between the guide vane blade and the facing plate is crucial in pivoting the guide vane blade and controlling the flow rate of the turbine. This clearance-to-blade height ratio is inversely proportional to the scale of the hydro turbine. Smaller hydro turbines have higher clearance-to-blade height ratio than larger ones. Most of the time, this clearance is not included in the simulation model for it can cause inconsistencies between the computation and model turbine. This paper is focused on the various guide vane clearance and its influences on the flow. Firstly, steady numerical calculation of the turbine model (casing, stay vanes, guide vanes and draft) with and without guide vane reference clearance was carried out using the commercial code ANSYS CFX. Experiments were conducted on model turbine of specific speed 180 [m-kW] with guide vane reference clearance. The inter-blade pressure near the leading edge (LE), mid-chord and the trailing edge (TE) of the guide vane were obtained using the pressure sensor located along the circumference of the turbine casing. The result shows a good agreement between numerical computation and experiment. Furthermore, guide vane models with different clearance heights were simulated and the impact on runner inlet energy loss was investigated. In conclusion, it can be clarified that the roll-up flow from the guide vane clearance interacted with the main flow upstream of the runner which then caused loss to the turbine performance.

Abstract Pressure fluctuations in the draft-tubes of hydraulic turbines are the most dominant issues that may cause damages to a hydraulic power plant. When the frequency of the fluctuations coincides with one natural frequencies of the plant, resonance with high amplitude vibrations and pressure pulsations occurs, dramatically impacting the integrity of the plant. This research focuses on the part-load behaviour of a medium specific-speed Francis turbine (with specific speed 184 m.kW), designed by the authors in the framework of an industrial project. This paper combines the results of model tests with CFD simulation to investigate the part-load behaviour of the turbine. To do so, performance of the turbine is numerically simulated at one operating condition by solving the RANS equations via the commercial code ANSYS CFX 19.0. The k-ω SST turbulence model is used to predict the turbine performance. In addition, model tests are conducted in the range of 20% to 110% guide vane opening. To capture pressure fluctuations in the draft-tube, 12 static pressure sensors are installed in 4 different sections of the draft-tube. The no-swirl and other iso-swirl lines of the draft tube flow are first determined by using CFD results. Furthermore, pressure signals from model tests are analysed by performing cross spectral density analysis. Two transitions in the behaviour of the precessing vortex under part-load conditions occurring at given values of swirl number are observed. Finally, it is observed that linear correlations between the Strouhal number of the vortex rope frequency and the swirl number can be established within the 2 nd and 3 rd part-load regimes, independently of the values of the speed coefficient.

チモシー乾草，オーチャードグラスサイレージ，アルファルファサイレージ，トウモロコシサイレージ，オーチャードグラスとアルファルファの混合サイレージ，オーチャードグラスとトウモロコシの混合サイレージ，アルファルファとトウモロコシの混合サイレージ計16点を乾乳牛各2頭に給与し，エネルギー出納を調べた．維持の代謝エネルギー要求量は，代謝体重当たりの代謝エネルギー摂取量とエネルギー蓄積量の回帰式を用いてエネルギー平衡時の値から求めた．各種粗飼料のエネルギー価は，トウモロコシサイレージがもっとも高く，ついでイネ科牧草，アルファルファの順であった．粗飼料の代謝エネルギー含量とADL含量あるいはADF含量間には，高い負の相関関係が認められた．乳牛の維持に要する代謝エネルギー要求量は，アルファルファ給与牛では567KJ/kg0.75，また全粗飼料をまとめると596KJ/kg0.75と推定された．

This paper tries to decompose the vector space of muscle contraction forces of robot arms driven by biarticular antagonist muscles into the direct sum of its subspaces. To this end, we define two linear maps: one maps muscle contraction forces to joint torques while the another maps muscle contraction forces to joint stiffness. Then we can prove that the kernel and the image of these maps decompose the muscle contraction force space into the following three subspaces: subspace of contraction forces that contribute motion of the robot arm, subspace that determine joint stiffness, and subspace that have no effect on neither motion nor stiffness.

Measurement of surface temperature by an infrared thermometer was discussed for an issue involved in measuring thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of biological or soft materials. The effect of degraded spatial resolution in temperature measurement resulted from the cross-talk between photodetectors was examined quantitatively. The temperature that would be measured by using the infrared thermometer was estimated by convolution integral based on the profile of spread output observed at neighboring pixels which was calibrated with a specially designed experiment. The temperature significantly depended on how the cross-talk was taken into account implying the importance of the method of approximation.

This paper discusses the simulation for the estimation of multiple effects to prevent traffic accidents by a diffusion of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and Automated Vehicles. In order to reproduce realistic mutual interaction, it is important to model the relationship between the driver agent behavior and characteristics of agents such as sexuality, age and personality. The relationship between driver's characteristics and behavior of the drivers was analysed based on data acquired by the experiment. As a result, the rank of the tendency to obey the traffic law apt to affect the travel velocity regardless of experiment conditions. On the other hand, the rank of the driving skill was apt to affect the travel velocity only rush driving condition.

Optically reconfigurable gate arrays (ORGAs), by exploiting the large storage capacity of holographic memory, offer the possibility of providing a virtual gate count that is much larger than those of currently available VLSI circuits. Because circuits implemented on a gate array must often be changed using virtual circuits stored in a holographic memory, rapid reconfiguration is necessary to reduce the reconfiguration overhead. A simple means to realize a short reconfiguration time in ORGAs is to implement a high-power laser array. However, such an array presents the disadvantages of high power consumption, large implementation space, high cost, and so on. Therefore, this paper presents an acceleration method to increase ORGAs' reconfiguration frequency without the necessity for any increase of laser power. This technique also includes optimization between the number of reconfiguration contexts and the reconfiguration frequency. The description in this paper clarifies the advantages using simulation and experimental results.

Plastic zone identification was conducted by 2f lock-in technique, in which temperature change due to plastic heat generation was separately identified from thermoelastic temperature change under variable loading. Accuracy improvement was performed using motion compensation based on modified digital image correlation, inverse thermal conduction analysis and noise reduction based on mollification method.

This paper presents the first implementation of a novel MEMS-based optical phased array scanner in Coherent Doppler LiDAR. Through live experiments, simultaneous velocimetry and random-access scanning are demonstrated to an accuracy of 0.65 m/s with 63.4° FOV.

A new technique was developed for motion compensation in thermoelastic stress measurement. Brindled pattern with different infrared emissivities was applied on the test sample for the motion analysis. Infrared images of the brindled pattern were taken under the same loading condition as the thermoelastic stress measurement. Displacements and deformations on the test sample were analyzed by the digital image correlation method based on the information of the movement of the brindled pattern. Automatic motion compensation was conducted in the subsequent thermoelastic stress measurement based on the results of displacement measurement. Another motion compensation technique without the brindled pattern was proposed, in which visible images were taken by the digital camera as well as the infrared camera. The field of view and the framing sequence of the visible and infrared camera were completely synchronized. The full field displacement measurement was conducted by the digital image correlation method using visible images, then the motion compensation of the infrared images were carried out based on this displacement data. The feasibility of the proposed motion compensation techniques was experimentally demonstrated.

In the previous paper, we proposed full field motion compensation techniques based on the digital image correlation method. One of these techniques used only sequential infrared images, and motion compensation was conducted based on the movement of artificially introduced speckle pattern on the sample surface. The motion compensation requires infrared data acquisition twice in the same loading condition, one for the motion analysis and the other for thermoelastic stress analysis. Therefore, this technique had a limitation for random loading or impact loading application. To eliminate the limitation a new motion analysis method is proposed based on the movement of natural speckle emmisivity pattern generated due to the nonuniformity of the thickness of flat black paint. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated.

Polymeric dental aligners are recently used in clinical treatment of misaligned teeth. In this study, a polyester sheet with 0.75 mm thickness was used and the mechanics of aligner in orthodontic treatment is discussed experimentally with the help of digital image correlation method. The experimental apparatus to apply prescribed displacement to aligners mounted on a teeth model was specially designed to simulate the treatment of misaligned left canine. It was found that the elastic recovery of deformed aligner when mounted on misaligned canine is the driving force in dental orthodontic treatment, and therefore the understanding the dental mechanics is important including the deformation mode of mounted aligner in orthodontic treatment. The experimental results implied that the shape of teeth, direction of movement of misaligned tooth during treatment and crooked shape of aligner at inter-teeth borders should be taken into account in the mechanics of aligner.

In the conventional lock-in infrared thermography for thermoelastic stress measurement, thermoelastic temperature change is correlated with external reference loading signal. The present authors developed a self-reference lock-in thermography which enabled us to conduct thermoelastic temperature measurement without external reference signal. In the self-reference lock-in thermography, reference signal is constructed from a part of the same sequential thermal image data. Temperature change in a region of interest was correlated with that in a remote area for reference signal construction. Proposed self-reference lock-in thermography was applied for crack identification based on the detection of significant thermoelastic temperature change due to the stress singularity in.the vicinity of crack tips. In this study, the feasibility of the proposed technique was demonstrated for the fatigue crack detection and measurement in actual steel bridges.

In order to establish the design methodology of ultra micro centrifugal compressor, which is the most important component of ultra micro gas turbine unit, a 10 times of the final target model size was designed, prototyped and tested. The problems to be solved for downsizing were examined and 2-dimensional impeller was chosen as the first model due to its productivity. The conventional 1-dimensional prediction method was used for the impeller design. The prototyped compressor was driven by using a turbocharger and the performance characteristics were measured and compared with the prediction. The stress and the vibration analysis in the operating condition were also performed.

Abstract Due to increasing usage of Feed-in Tariff (FIT), which is a subsidy system to encourage expansion of renewable energy and to reduce costs associated with introduction of renewable energy, demand for hydraulic turbine designers has increased solely for the purpose of improving turbine performance. With these requirements, CFD simulation is a powerful tool for designers to improve the internal flow and pressure distribution in turbines. Traditionally, most designers use a trial-and-error process based on previous experience to design new turbines. Usually, achieving the goal is a lengthy and painstaking process. This paper proposes a novel method which combines both CFD and optimization methods to automatically optimize a Francis turbine. This procedure includes four components: a design program, a CFD solver, a scheduler, and an optimization algorithm. This paper describes an attempt to automatically optimize a Francis turbine runner by using ANSYS Vista TF as the 2D CFD solver based on through-flow theory, and ANSYS CFX 19.1 as the 3D CFD solver based on Finite Volume Method (FVM). The runner geometry is parameterized by Bezier curves in the design program. CFD analysis is performed to assess the efficiency of the runner, and also the output power is calculated by runner torque. These two parameters are used as the objective function of the optimization algorithm. This method is used to optimize the runner geometry, which consists of two parts: the meridional plane and profile camber lines. We confirmed that the new turbine, which was optimized by the above-mentioned method, has better efficiency than the existing one.

Removable orthodontic aligners made of polymeric materials have advantages over metal wires, which are currently the mainstream in clinical treatment of teeth array alignment, because of better aesthetics and cleanliness. However, unintentional movement of teeth occurs during the treatment using aligners. Hence, deeper understanding of the load applied to teeth from the aligner is required. In the authors’ previous study, the strain distribution in polyester aligner when mounted on misaligned teeth was measured with the help of DIC (digital image correlation) technique, and it was found out that the strain recovery plays an important role in the treatment, which leads to the driving force to move the teeth. In this study, the strain was measured including the thermoforming process, and the strain recovery was investigated by comparing the strains in two situations with teeth misalignment and without misalignment after treatment. Since DIC is not applicable to the strain measurement during compression molding, large deformation of a 2 mm square grid printed on the polyester sheet was tracked for the calculation of deformation gradient tensor and stretch tensor. The strain was increased when the aligner was mounted on a misaligned tooth, but was recovered when it moved to a correct position.

乳牛86頭の分娩前3週間の飼養管理としてTMRを群単位で(対照群)あるいは個体別に(試験群)給与し,分娩前の適切な飼養管理による周産期疾病の予防効果について同時期の体重推移の観点から検討した.過肥の栄養状態で乾乳開始時期を迎えたウシにおける妊娠の進展にともなう増体重を除く分娩前1ヵ月間の体重減少率および周産期疾病の発生率は,対照群の5.0±2.9%(平均値±標準偏差)および8例中6例(75%)から試験群の1.4±2.5%および13例中3例(23%)へと,後者の減少率が有意に軽減し(P<0.01),発生率も低下傾向(P<0.1)を示した.適正な栄養状態で同時期を迎えたウシのそれらは,対照群において2.9±3.6%および8例中5例(63%),試験群において1.0±2.7%および27例中3例(11%)であり,後者の発生率が有意に低下した(P<0.0l).両群の初産牛は体重減少を示さず,疾病発生は対照群の11例中1例(9%)のみに観察された.以上の結果から,分娩前の適正な飼養管理は,体重減少率を軽減する効果および本調査では特定できなかった他の効果により疾病発生率を低下させることが示唆された.

An impeller was designed and manufactured in order to use for an ultra micro gas turbine. As the first stage of the design, the impeller with two-dimensional backward curved blades was designed and manufactured by an ordinary one-dimensional method. The major parameters such as the relative velocity ratio, velocity triangles, pressure recovery coefficient of the vaned diffuser were chosen at the same values for those of three-dimensional impellers. The preliminary test of the impeller was made at the low rotational speed by the cold condition of the driving turbine.

From an engineering point of view, it is important to know the magnetic field around a variable reluctance hybrid magnet. To occur a technology revolution, a variable reluctance hybrid magnet has been studied to obtain a new type of high torque motor. Thus, we studied the surface magnetic field of strong hybrid magnet in high torque motor.

To improve energy consumption and to meet quality requirements for the slab heating process of reheat furnaces in hot strip mills, a new optimal slab heat pattern calculation simulator has been developed. The simulator consists of the following functions; (1) two-dimensional (slab thickness direction and slab length direction) slab temperature calculation function, which is capable of calculating skidmarks along the length of a slab, (2) furnace heat balance calculation function, (3) optimizing calculation function of slab heat pattern using a linear programming method. The simulator developed has been installed into a furnace computer control system for an actual plant. This paper describes the functions of the simulator and simulation results using the simulator. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 120(3): 42–53, 1997

To improve energy consumption and to meet quality requirement for slab heating process of reheat furnaces in hot strip mills, a new optimal slab heat pattern calculation simulator has been developed.The simulator consists of the following functions;(1) two-dimensional (slab thickness direction and slab length direction) slab temperature calculation function, which is capable of calculating skidmark along the length of a slab, (2) furnace heat balance calculation function, (3) optimizing calculation function of slab heat pattern using linear programming method.The developed simulator has been installed into a furnace computer control system for actual plant.This paper describes the functions of the simulator and simulation results using the simulator.