INFLUENCE OF VEHICLE RELATED HEATS ON ‘BLACK ICE’

Melting of the snow and ice (S/I) on a road and the subsequent refreezing often cause traffic accidents. These phase changes tend to occur after traffic jam below the freezing point and is changeable to ‘black ice’. However, the consideration about the relation between the vehicle related heats (vehicle heats) and ‘black ice’ has been inadequate. There are many road freezing forecasting (RFF) models, but most of them have not given careful consideration to the thermal influence of vehicles on the S/I conditions. We have developed an extended RFF model in consideration of three kinds of vehicle heats, i.e. tire frictional heat, vehicle radiant heat and sensible heat due to vehicle passage and it is named vehicle heat RFF (VHRFF) model. Numerical simulations using the VHRFF model were conducted to understand the influence of the vehicle heats on the S/I conditions associated with traffic stop and go at a traffic light. The numerical results could show that the vehicle heats have the potential to melt and to freeze the S/I on a road surface, and inferred that the melting and refreezing eventually induce the formation of ‘black ice’ on the road

Effect of 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine and Hydrogen Peroxide for the Duodenal Tumorigenesis in Relation to Blood Catalase Activity in Mice

Three different mouse strains, C3H/C^b_s C3H/HeN and B6C3 (C57BL x C3H) F1, having low, high and moderate catalase activities, were studied for duodenal tumorigenesis by the combined treatment with 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH)* and hydrogen peroxide (HPO). DMH alone rarely induced duodenal tumors. Administration of HPO into 3 different mouse strains induced different frequencies of duodenal tumors ; 91.7% in C3H/C^b_s 9.5% in C3H/HeN and 31.8% in B6C3F1 mice. The incidence of duodenal tumors was significantly increased to 52.6% and 93.8% both in C3H/HeN and B6C3F1 mice by the combined administration of DMH and HPO. These increases in duodenal tumor were inversely correlated with the finding that administration of DMH or HPO alone or combined treatment of DMH and HPO significantly decreased mean blood catalase activities both in C3H and B6C3F1 mice

Enhancing Inverse Problem Solutions with Accurate Surrogate Simulators and Promising Candidates

Deep-learning inverse techniques have attracted significant attention in recent years. Among them, the neural adjoint (NA) method, which employs a neural network surrogate simulator, has demonstrated impressive performance in the design tasks of artificial electromagnetic materials (AEM). However, the impact of the surrogate simulators' accuracy on the solutions in the NA method remains uncertain. Furthermore, achieving sufficient optimization becomes challenging in this method when the surrogate simulator is large, and computational resources are limited. Additionally, the behavior under constraints has not been studied, despite its importance from the engineering perspective. In this study, we investigated the impact of surrogate simulators' accuracy on the solutions and discovered that the more accurate the surrogate simulator is, the better the solutions become. We then developed an extension of the NA method, named Neural Lagrangian (NeuLag) method, capable of efficiently optimizing a sufficient number of solution candidates. We then demonstrated that the NeuLag method can find optimal solutions even when handling sufficient candidates is difficult due to the use of a large and accurate surrogate simulator. The resimulation errors of the NeuLag method were approximately 1/50 compared to previous methods for three AEM tasks. Finally, we performed optimization under constraint using NA and NeuLag, and confirmed their potential in optimization with soft or hard constraints. We believe our method holds potential in areas that require large and accurate surrogate simulators.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

The manufacturing of lactobacillus microcapsules by freezing with egg yolk: The analysis of microstructure and the preservation effect against freezing and acid treatments

Encapsulation is an effective strategy to prevent probiotics from environmental damages. The survivability of Lactobacillus is generally reduced under frozen or acid environments. In this study, an attempt was made to encapsulate Lactobacillus into the egg yolk aggregates formed upon freezing. Lactobacillus broth was mixed with liquid egg yolk and frozen at selected temperatures and time periods. After thawing, the number of surviving bacteria was determined. The results showed that freezing with the addition of egg yolk improved Lactobacillus survivability. It was confirmed that freezing increased the number of egg yolk aggregates, and those aggregates coated Lactobacillus after freezing. The encapsulated Lactobacillus was treated at pH 2.5 for 10 min, and the results showed that the encapsulation process increased the acid resistance of Lactobacillus. These results indicate that freezing-induced encapsulation with egg yolk could effectively protect Lactobacillus against freezing and acid treatment. This finding could be useful for the design and preservation of probiotics-based food products

Clinical Experience Using a Real Time Autofluorescence Endoscopy System in the Gastrointestinal Tract

Autofluorescence spectra of neoplastic tissues have been reported to be significantly different from those of normal tissues when excited by blue or violet light. From this concept, a light-induced autofluorescence endoscopic imaging system for gastrointestinal mucosa (LIFE-GI; Xillix, Canada and Olympus, Japan) has been newly developed and the clinical evaluation of the prototype system has been conducted in hospitals in Canada, Netherlands and Japan

Inactivation of foodborne pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms using ultraviolet : A light in combination with ferulic Acid

The low energy of UV-A (315–400 nm) is insufficient for disinfection. To improve UV-A disinfection technology, the effect of ferulic acid (FA) addition on inactivation by UV-A light-emitting diode (LED) light (350–385 nm) was evaluated in the eliminating of suspensions of various food spoilers and pathogens (seven bacteria and four fungi). Photoantimicrobial assays were performed at FA concentrations below the MIC. The MIC of the isomerized FA, consisting of 93% cis-form and 7% trans-form, was very similar to that of the commercially available FA (trans-form). Irradiation with UV-A (1.0 J cm-236 ) in the presence of 100 mg l-1 37 FA resulted in enhanced reducing of all of the tested bacterial strains. A combination of UV-A (10 J cm-2) and 1000 mg l-1 38 FA resulted in enhanced reducing of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and one of the tested filamentous fungi. These results demonstrated that the combination of a short-term application of UV-A and FA at a low concentration yielded synergistic enhancement of antimicrobial activity, especially against bacteria