Surface Hardening Characteristics of Aluminum Bronze for Marine Propeller

Surface hardening of propeller material brings many advantages such as superior erosion resistance and increase of propeller efficiency. This study investigates the surface hardening characteristics and erosion resistance of AlBC3 treated by flame, induction and laser hardenings in view of the metallographic aspect. The microstructures and distributions of alloying elements of the test specimens were examined using a microscope and EPMA. Iorniny test and ultrasonic erosion test were also conducted to evaluate the depth of surface hardening and the cavitation erosion resistance. The tests revealed that surface hardened by flame hardening is about 1.5 times harder than the as-cast and the hardness is closely related to the area ratio of the hard /β + β\u27 phase to a phase on the microstructure. Laser hardening also produces harder surface, but the hardened layer is much thinner as compared to flame hardening thus contributing to the improvement of the erosion resistance of AlBC3 and is suitable for application to actual propellers

Investigation of intracavernous injection of papaverine for erectile impotence

Forty milligrams papaverine HCl was intracavernously injected to 28 patients with erectile dysfunction for diagnosis and treatment in 14 cases in which it was injected a few times. We designed a brief manual method for measurement of penile hardness by artificial erection. Twenty of the patients corresponding to 71.4%, reacted, but only 16 (57.1%) had efficient erection for possibility of coitus. It was useful for the diagnosis of vascular dysfunction with dorsal penile arterial pulse sound examination in impotence. It was useful for the cases of small vascular impediment with preservation of nerve supply after the operation of intrapelvic malignancies, and self injection might be possible, but on the other hand, it had no effect for the patients of advanced age with vascular impediment and diabetes mellitus neuropathy, and with arteriosclerosis

Observation results by the TAMA300 detector on gravitational wave bursts from stellar-core collapses

We present data-analysis schemes and results of observations with the TAMA300 gravitational-wave detector, targeting burst signals from stellar-core collapse events. In analyses for burst gravitational waves, the detection and fake-reduction schemes are different from well-investigated ones for a chirp-wave analysis, because precise waveform templates are not available. We used an excess-power filter for the extraction of gravitational-wave candidates, and developed two methods for the reduction of fake events caused by non-stationary noises of the detector. These analysis schemes were applied to real data from the TAMA300 interferometric gravitational wave detector. As a result, fake events were reduced by a factor of about 1000 in the best cases. The resultant event candidates were interpreted from an astronomical viewpoint. We set an upper limit of 2.2x10^3 events/sec on the burst gravitational-wave event rate in our Galaxy with a confidence level of 90%. This work sets a milestone and prospects on the search for burst gravitational waves, by establishing an analysis scheme for the observation data from an interferometric gravitational wave detector

A case of pathological dilation of seminal vesicle with high level of serum CA-19-9

18歳男, 血尿, 陰嚢部の違和感を主訴に発見され, 左側腎無形成を伴っていた.術前血清CA19-9が高値を示したが, このような症例の記載はないA case of pathological dilation of seminal vesicle is presented. A 18-year-old male was admitted to our hospital with the complaints of gross hematuria and discomfort of the scrotum. IVP and abdominal CT scan revealed the left aplastic kidney, and ultrasound, vesiculography, and pelvic CT scan revealed markedly dilated bilateral seminal vesicles without filling defects. The level of serum CA19-9 was 390 u/ml, which was extremely high. After resection of dilated seminal vesicles, it returned to the normal range (37 u/ml). Sixty six cases of pathological dilation of seminal vesicle were collected from the Japanese literature. No cases showing a high level of serum CA19-9 have been reported in Japan