Droplet motion on a wrinkled PDMS surface with a gradient structural length scale shorter than the droplet diameter

Droplet transportation using a wettability gradient surface has attracted much attention owing to applications such as in microfluidic devices. A surface with a spatial structural gradient was prepared through a simple and cost-effective process even though understanding of droplet behavior on the structure was still limited. Here, we report impinging droplet motion on a gradient wrinkled surface. Surfaces were prepared through hard film deposition on soft pre-strained polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with a mask installed with a slit to control the amount of deposition, which is related to the wavelength of the wrinkles. Droplets were impinged with varying position with respect to the structure, and the droplet motion was observed in the direction away from the region under the slit. We found an asymmetric contact angle and alternate motion on both sides of the three-phase contact line during the motion according to the gradient of the wrinkle wavelength. These results may help not only to understand the behavior of droplet impingement on a gradient structural surface but also to further develop applications using directional droplet transfer

Magnetostriction studies up to megagauss fields using fiber Bragg grating technique

We here report magnetostriction measurements under pulsed megagauss fields using a high-speed 100 MHz strain monitoring system devised using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technique with optical filter method. The optical filter method is a detection scheme of the strain of FBG, where the changing Bragg wavelength of the FBG reflection is converted to the intensity of reflected light to enable the 100 MHz measurement. In order to show the usefulness and reliability of the method, we report the measurements for solid oxygen, spin-controlled crystal, and volborthite, a deformed Kagom\'{e} quantum spin lattice, using static magnetic fields up to 7 T and non-destructive millisecond pulse magnets up to 50 T. Then, we show the application of the method for the magnetostriction measurements of CaV$_{4}$O$_{9}$, a two-dimensional antiferromagnet with spin-halves, and LaCoO$_{3}$, an anomalous spin-crossover oxide, in the megagauss fields.Comment: 9pages, 6 figures, Conference proceedings for MegaGauss16 at Kashiwa, Japan in Sept. 201

Photometric Properties of Kiso Ultraviolet-Excess Galaxies in the Lynx-Ursa Major Region

We have performed a systematic study of several regions in the sky where the number of galaxies exhibiting star formation (SF) activity is greater than average. We used Kiso ultraviolet-excess galaxies (KUGs) as our SF-enhanced sample. By statistically comparing the KUG and non-KUG distributions, we discovered four KUG-rich regions with a size of $\sim 10^\circ \times 10^\circ$. One of these regions corresponds spatially to a filament of length $\sim 60 h^{-1}$ Mpc in the Lynx-Ursa Major region ($\alpha \sim 9^{\rm h} - 10^{\rm h}, \delta \sim 42^\circ - 48^\circ$). We call this ``the Lynx-Ursa Major (LUM) filament''. We obtained $V(RI)_{\rm C}$ surface photometry of 11 of the KUGs in the LUM filament and used these to investigate the integrated colors, distribution of SF regions, morphologies, and local environments. We found that these KUGs consist of distorted spiral galaxies and compact galaxies with blue colors. Their star formation occurs in the entire disk, and is not confined to just the central regions. The colors of the SF regions imply that active star formation in the spiral galaxies occurred $10^{7 - 8}$ yr ago, while that of the compact objects occurred $10^{6-7}$ yr ago. Though the photometric characteristics of these KUGs are similar to those of interacting galaxies or mergers, most of these KUGs do not show direct evidence of merger processes.Comment: 39 pages LaTeX, using aasms4.sty, 20 figures, ApJS accepted. The Title of the previous one was truncated by the author's mistake, and is corrected. Main body of the paper is unchange

Effects of monthly intravenous ibandronate on bone mineral density and microstructure in patients with primary osteoporosis after teriparatide treatment: The MONUMENT study

Purpose: To investigate the effects of sequential therapy with monthly intravenous ibandronate on bone mineral density (BMD) and microstructure in patients with primary osteoporosis who received teriparatide treatment. Methods: Sixty-six patients with primary osteoporosis who had undergone teriparatide treatment for more than 12 months (mean 18.6 months) received sequential therapy with 1 mg/month intravenous ibandronate for 12 months. The patients were evaluated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), quantitative ultrasound, bone turnover markers, and high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) at baseline and 6 and 12 months after beginning administration. Results: At 12 months after beginning sequential therapy,the bone resorption marker, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-5b, decreased by 39.5%, with 82.3% of the patients exhibiting levels within the normal limit. DXA revealed that the BMD of the lumbar spine increased by 3.2%, with 79.0% of the patients exhibiting a response, and 40.3% experiencing an increase in BMD over 5%. HR-pQCT revealed that the cortical thickness of the distal tibia was increased by 2.6%. The cortical area increased by 2.5%, and the buckling ratio (an index of cortical instability) decreased by 2.5%. Most parameters of the trabecular bone showed no significant changes. These changes in the cortical bone were observed in both the distal radius and tibia and appeared beginning 6 months after treatment initiation. Conclusions: Sequential therapy with monthly intravenous ibandronate increased the BMD and improved the cortical bone microstructure of osteoporotic patients who had undergone teriparatide treatment

Randomized controlled trial of daily teriparatide, weekly high-dose teriparatide, or bisphosphonate in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis: The TERABIT study

Purpose: The effects of daily teriparatide (20 μg) (D-PTH), weekly high-dose teriparatide (56.5 μg) (W-PTH), or bisphosphonates (BPs) on areal bone mineral density (aBMD), bone turnover markers (BTMs), volumetric BMD (vBMD), microarchitecture, and estimated strength were investigated in postmenopausal osteoporosis patients.Methods: The study participants were 131 women with a history of fragility fractures. They were randomized to receive D-PTH, W-PTH, or BPs (alendronate or risedronate) for 18 months. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), BTMs, and high-resolution peripheral quantitative CT (HR-pQCT) parameters were evaluated at baseline and after 6 and 18 months of treatment. The primary endpoint was the change (%) in cortical thickness (Ct.Th) after 18 months\u27 treatment compared with baseline.Results: DXA showed that D-PTH, W-PTH, and BPs increased lumbar spine aBMD (+12.0%, +8.5%, and +6.8%) and total hip aBMD (+3.0%, +2.1%, and +3.0%), but D-PTH and W-PTH decreased 1/3 radius aBMD (− 4.1%, − 3.0%, − 1.4%) after 18 months. On HR-pQCT, D-PTH increased trabecular vBMD (Tb.vBMD) at the distal radius and tibia after 18 months (+6.4%, +3.7%) compared with the BPs group, decreased cortical volumetric tissue mineral density (Ct.vTMD) (− 1.8%, − 0.9%) compared with the other groups, increased Ct.Th (+1.3%, +3.9%), and increased failure load (FL) (+4.7%, +4.4%). W-PTH increased Tb.vBMD (+5.3%, +1.9%), maintained Ct.vTMD (− 0.7%, +0.2%) compared with D-PTH, increased Ct.Th (+0.6%, +3.6%), and increased FL (+4.9%, +4.5%). The BPs increased Tb.vBMD only in the radius (+2.0%, +0.2%), maintained Ct.vTMD (− 0.6%, +0.3%), increased Ct.Th (+0.5%, +3.4%), and increased FL (+3.9%, +2.8%).Conclusions: D-PTH and W-PTH comparably increased Ct.Th, the primary endpoint. D-PTH had a strong effect on trabecular bone. Although D-PTH decreased Ct.vTMD, it increased Ct.Th and total bone strength. W-PTH had a moderate effect on trabecular bone, maintained Ct.vTMD, and increased Ct.Th and total bone strength to the same extent as D-PTH