Wet air oxidation (WAO) has emerged recently as an attractive alternative to conventional bio-technologies in respect of treating particularly toxic wastewater. WAO operation commonly requires high temperature (125-320°C) and pressure (0.5-20 MPa), which results in the increase in operating costs. In this regard, it has been experimentally verified that with the assistance of catalyst WAO can be conducted at much milder conditions. Heterogeneous types of catalyst allures the interests of more researchers as it can be conveniently separated and reused after the treatment. However, in many pragmatic cases of WAO by heterogeneous catalyst the leaching of catalyst can hardly be avoided, which brings the doubts on the accuracy of kinetics data thus obtained. In our kinetic study on phenol degradation using heterogeneous copper as the catalyst we adopted a batch stir reactor where the possible mass transfer effects can be sufficiently minimized. Given the possibility of copper leaching, we added saturated pH buffer solution into aqueous phenol and reduced phenol and catalyst initial concentrations. At length we successfully prevented copper leaching and estimated the reaction orders and activation energy in the oxygen partial pressure of 0.4-1.6 MPa and temperature range of 140-160deg;C.

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Currently, normal saline or normal saline containing heparin are routinely used after IVH or intermittent peripheral infusion in the clinical setting. Up till now, however, there has been no evidence for the optimal concentration of heparin in the solution for preventing thrombus formation in peripheral vein catheters and central venous catheters.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of normal saline against normal saline containing 10 U/mL or 100 U/mL heparin for preventing blood clotting in peripheral vein catheters. Patients (N=60) in Kanazawa University Hospital were randomized to 3 groups (saline group, 10 U/mL heparin group and 100 U/mL heparin group : N=20 for each). We evaluated the rates of thrombus formation and thrombus protein content after 24 hours of in peripheral vein catheters.
Our results indicated that when the 100 U/mL heparin solution was used, both thrombus formation rates catheters and protein contents were significantly lower than for the other 2 groups. However, at 100 U/mL, the heparin solution caused most pain at the insertion site, though the reason for this was not clearly known.
In conclusion, as compared with the normal saline solution and the 10 U/mL heparin solution, the 100 U/mL heparin solution was more effective in preventing the thrombus formation in the peripheral vein catheter.

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This study was undertaken in order to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment for anterior disk displacement without reduction (closed-). Of 61 patients who had been clinically diagnosed as having closed- of the TMJ, 28 were treated with splint alone, 14 with mandibular manipulation followed by splint and 19 with manipulation assisted by pumping. In addition, 8 patients in whom non-surgical treatments had failed to be beneficial were treated by surgery.
The conclusions are summarized as follows:
1. In 41 of 61 patients, signs and symptoms of closed- disappeared after the initial treatment. Although 13 patients suffered a relapse of closed-, 7 were improved again by splint therapy and 37 (57%) were finally improved from closed- by non-surgical treatment
.2. The results of each non-surgical treatment were almost equal. However, the patients who were treated by manipulation assisted by pumping had a tendency to improve faster from closed- but easily suffered relapse. On the other hand, the splint treated patients had a tendency to resist the treatment but did not suffer a relapse.
3. The results of non-surgical treatment were closely related to the duration of closed-. 65% of the patients who had been suffering closed for less than 6 months were improved, but only 25% of the patients suffering for more than 6 months were improved. In the patients who had recovered from closed- by mandibular manipulation or manipulation assisted by pumping, 60% of the patients who had closed- within one month were improved finally, and all patients who had closed- over one month suffered a relapse.
4. Seven out of 8patients who had undergone TMJ surgery recovered from limited mouth opening and pain of the TMJ, but 3 patients had a deflection of the mandible on maximal opening.

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A BSO spatial light modulator (BSO-SLM) was operated applying ac voltage. The basic properties of the operation correspond to those in a usual -in detector and a 2-dimensional -in detector array (2D--IN) was implemented by the optical modulator. The properties of the 2D--IN using a BSO-SLM were investigated theoretically and experimentally. As an application of the 2D--IN, oscillating amplitude were observed on simple vibrating objects.

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In this study, the flow features of vortex shedding from a circular cylinder oscillating along the direction of the flow were observed by visualizing water flow experiment at the ranges of the frequency ratio f/f_K=0-6.2, amplitude ratio 2a/d=0.0625-1.0, and Reynolds number Re=570-1700. The variations of mean vortex shedding frequency were investigated and the existence range of the -in was shown. It was obtained that although the cylinder oscillation frequency is lower than the natural Karman vortex's frequency; the -in phenomenon arises. It was found that the distribution of the -in form in the -in region was shown and that it became the tendency where the range with the frequency which becomes the -in form of f_VK/f=1/1 with the increase of amplitude ratio expands. The flow patterns were classified into five kinds by the configuration of vortex shedding and the direction of vortex shedding. The structure of the vortex flow which depends on the frequency ratio was clarified by observing flow from both to the axial direction and the direction of span. In the case of -in state f_VK/f=1/1, two kinds of vortex structure were obtained. One of which was three-dimensional characteristic on the side of low oscillation frequency, and the other was two-dimensional characteristic on the side of high oscillation frequency. In the case of -in state f_VKf=1/2, even if the -in had occurred, it was shown that the phase difference sometimes occurred to the direction of the span in vortex shedding.

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Jaw relaxation guidance, opening excursive exercises, and arthrocentesis are easy and minimally invasive procedures in patients with closed of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). We describe these three procedure and report their effectiveness in 41 patients with closed of the TMJ.
Jaw relaxation guidance was done in 17 patients with acute of the TMJ. Opening excursive exercises were performed in 12 patients who had chronic without severe joint pain. In 12 patients who had chronic with severe joint pain, arthrocentesis under sufficient hydraulic pressure and opening excursive exercises were performed. The efectiveness of the procedures was evaluated on the basis of the range of maximum mouth opening and joint pain at maximum mouth opening.
Two weeks after these three procedures, the rangeof maximum mouth opening and joint pain at maximum mouth opening improved significantly.Our results indicate that these the rapies are easy and highly effective for the treatment of closed of the TMJ.

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Timing synchronization is an important integrating component in wireless distributed systems, such as mobile ad-hoc networks, M2M networks, and wireless sensor networks, and therefore, various timing synchronization algorithms have been proposed so far. Recently, Imai and Suzuki developed a new synchronization algorithm based on a time division multiple access (TDMA) protocol. Despite of its efficiency in synchronization for vehicle-to-vehicle communications, their algorithm sometimes suffers from a certain undesired synchronous pattern, i.e., a so called mode- state or a deadlock. Although their algorithm takes certain precautions to avoid this mode- state, in around more than 10% of instances this state is observed to persist and the desired perfect synchronization is not realized. Then, first we investigate the mechanism of this persisting mode- state for their algorithm. With this insight to the mode- state, we propose a new mode- free (i.e., mode- eliminating) distributed algorithm that always leads to a perfect synchronization. From systematic, comparative simulations, we observe that the proposed algorithm always eliminates mode- states, and eventually leads to the perfect synchronization.In addition, we observe the algorithm realizes even faster synchronization, compared with the algorithm by Imai and Suzuki, although these observed properties are not mathematically proved in this study.

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In uniform flow, periodic Karman vortex shedding is observed in the wake of a stationary circular cylinder. When the cylinder oscillates transversely at a frequency close to the Karman vortex frequency, the vortex shedding is synchronized with the vibration of the cylinder. This is well known as the -in phenomenon in wind engineering. In this study, incompressible flow past a forced oscillating circular cylinder at Reynolds number 1100 is computed by finite-difference method using the moving grid technique, and the -in phenomenon is simulated by two- and three-dimensional calculation. In the results of the three-dimensional calculation, the -in region and drastic change of the phase angle between lift force and cylinder displacement show good agreement with experimental values. Furthermore, it is qualitatively shown that the correlation length of vortex shedding increases in the -in region, However, in the case of the two-dimensional calculation, -in phenomenon cannot be simulated with sufficient accuracy.

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The plate is a new surgical instrument for fractures. In this study, we compared the duration of hospitalization for high tibial osteotomy using the plate and that using the blade staple (the latter performed between November 2002 and June 2003) at our hospital. Between January 2004 and September 2004, 15 patients underwent high tibial osteotomy using the plate for medial osteoarthritis of the knee. They consisted of one man and 14 woman with a mean age of 67 years (range: 54 to 80 years). The patients were allowed passive range of motion and full weight bearing two days after osteotomy. Osteotomy using plate decreased the duration of hospitalization 84 days to 52 days. High tibial osteotomy using plate requires information on its unique systems.

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A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method that focuses on neural magnetic fields has great potential to detect neural activities more directly than the conventional method. Because this fMRI method does not depend on blood-oxygenation-level-dependent contrast, improved temporal and spatial resolutions can be expected. Among various approaches of this fMRI method, the one that uses a spin- imaging sequence has attracted wide attention because of the possibility to detect small oscillating magnetic fields. To understand the mechanism of this approach, we visualized magnetization behavior during the spin- module with externally applied oscillating magnetic fields. A fast-and-simple method with matrix operations was used to solve a time-dependent Bloch equation. In addition, we investigated the influence of the duration of the spin- pulse in the spin- module, which interacts with the external oscillating magnetic fields, on magnetic resonance signals. Furthermore, to detect minute magnetic fields in the order of sub-nT, we carried out phantom studies on the practical use of this method as an fMRI approach. A single-loop coil generating oscillating magnetic fields was placed inside a saline-filled phantom. Time-dependent performance of magnetization during the spin- module was thus visually demonstrated to aid understanding of the mechanism of the fMRI method with the spin- imaging sequence. In addition to this visualization, we found that the decrease in magnetization depends on the duration of the spin- pulse. Longer durations are appropriate for detecting minute sub-nT magnetic fields such as neural magnetic fields. Furthermore, we were able to detect magnetic fields of approximately 200 pT by choosing a spin- pulse of long duration and increasing the number of MR image acquisitions. Our results provide useful information for the understanding of the mechanism of direct detection of oscillating neural magnetic fields using MRI with a spin- imaging sequence. In addition, we propose an improved selection scheme for the duration of the spin- pulse and the feasibility of detecting oscillating magnetic fields of 200 pT considering practical application of fMRI.

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This paper presents a method which makes use of data collected in the monitoring devices fitted to electric point machines. First, a model was built to detect the position of the point machine. Then, an algorithm was devices to predict variations in the position, by employing meteorological data, air temperature and humidity. A study was then conducted to investigate how the predicted position data could be utilized. Second, we have proposed how to provide supporting information for planning the work of the position adjustment. Finally, a method was developed to enable visualization of the predicted position data.

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Most automatic transmission systems are equipped with a -up clutch to improve efficiency. However, the use of -up in the low-speed range was greatly influenced by unmodeled dynamics and disturbances. In order to suppress such uncertainties, slip control of the -up clutch is needed. This paper first explains the modeling of the -up clutch as a low-order system within the range of slip control. It then describes a slip control system designed by using a robust control method, which takes into account variations in dynamic characteristics of components. Finally, the results of driving tests are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the slip control system.

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Snap- fasteners are very simple for locking two parts. However, because their configuration is complex, snap- fasteners are usually made of polymer materials. This implies that the material is usually weak. In this study, we propose a novel snap- fastener printed using a 3D printer that prints continuous fiber composites. The novel fastener designed in this study can be easily attached to and detached from fastened parts. Based on the tensile test results, continuous glass fibers were placed at the elastic hinges to strengthen the weak elastic hinges. The reinforced snap- specimens were tested under tensile loading. Therefore, the novel snap- fastener with continuous glass fiber was able to bear 1.7 times higher load than that without continuous glass fibers.

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Applicability of the newly developed two different -in thermographic NDT techniques is discussed. One of the proposed techniques is based on the -in measurement of the singular temperature field, which appears near crack tips under the application of periodically modulated electric current. Experimental study is made on the resolution and the applicability in the detection of through-thickness cracks embedded in steel and aluminum alloy plate samples. Modulated electric current is applied to the cracked sample by an induction coil. Temperature amplitude and phase delay thermal images synchronized to the reference current modulation signal are taken by the -in thermography. Significant temperature rise related to singular temperature field is observed at the crack tips in the -in thermal images. It is found that the cracks are sensitively detected by the -in thermography technique combined with near-tip singular temperature field measurement. The other technique is based on the -in measurement of the surface temperature under the application of periodical xenon light heating. Experimental study is made on the applicability to the detection of flat bottom hole defects. Xenon light beam is periodically chopped by the electric shutter to stimulate thermal wave in the objective body. In-phase and out-of-phase temperature amplitude images are taken by the -in thermography, synchronized to the reference signal of the electric shutter operation. It is found that the location and size of the defects can be identified by the localized contrast change in the out-of-phase images. Further, the depths of the defects can be identified from the heat penetration depth, which is changed by the frequency of thermal wave stimulation.

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