The development of “Ultimate Rudder” for EEDI

EEDI (Energy Efficiency Design Index) came into effect mandatory in Jan. 2013, and the ship owners definitely required a higher efficiency propulsion system than ever before. Hence, the shipyards have been conducting an optimization of ESD (Energy Saving Device) system in self-propulsion test for each project. As the results, the shipyards have installed a rudder bulb as an effective ESD. The rudder bulb is a popular ESD system from a long time ago. Mewis1) described that the rudder bulb was developed by Costa in 1952 and the efficiency improve by the rudder bulb for a container vessel was 1% on average. Fujii et al.2) developed “MIPB (Mitsui Integrated Propeller Boss)” as an advanced rudder bulb. The feature of MIPB was a streamlined profile from propeller cap to rudder. According to their paper, the efficiency improve by installing MIPB was 2-4%. Recently, NAKASHIMA PROPELLER Co., Ltd. developed ECO-Cap (economical propeller cap)3) as a new ESD with FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastics). The strength of FRP is higher than that of NAB (Nickel Aluminium Bronze), therefore ECO-Cap was able to adopt thin fins on propeller caps for low resistance. Although the material used for the energy- saving propeller cap was generally NAB, the research results on FRP showed that FRP could be used as ESD due to their properties such as lightweight and flexibility. As explained above, the authors thought that there was a possibility to evolve the rudder bulb profile using the easily moldable FRP compared with NAB. This paper described about the development of “Ultimate Rudder” of new design concept by FRP. The authors optimized the profile of “Ultimate Rudder” by CFD and confirmed the efficiency increase from 4.9 to 5.4% in self-propulsion test

Broadcastings and digit tilings on three-dimensional torus networks

AbstractA tiling in a finite abelian group H is a pair (T,L) of subsets of H such that any h∈H can be uniquely represented as t+l where t∈T and l∈L. This paper studies a finite analogue of self-affine tilings in Euclidean spaces and applies it to a problem of broadcasting on circuit switched networks. We extend the tiling argument of Peters and Syska [Joseph G. Peters, Michel Syska, Circuit switched broadcasting in torus networks, IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst., 7 (1996) 246–255] to 3-dimensional torus networks

Study on the rudder characteristics of ultimate rudder by numerical calculation

The authors invented Ultimate Rudder3) as the rudder with bulb. The authors calculated the rudder characteristics of the normal rudder and Ultimate Rudder by CFD at several steering angles and compared these values. The result showed that regardless of the presence or absence of the bulb, signs of separation appear on the control surface with a steering angle of 20 deg. to 30 deg. and regarding the steering torque coefficient, it was found that the steering torque coefficient of Ultimate Rudder is larger than the normal Rudder when the steering angle is less than 20 deg. and also the steering torque coefficient can be decreased by changing the shape of the rudder bulb

血清TARC/CCL17値は薬剤性過敏症症候群(DIHS) の早期診断および病勢の指標となりうる。

BACKGROUND:Drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome (DIHS)/drug rash with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) is a serious acute drug reaction with fever, cutaneous eruption, lymphadenopathy, and several visceral dysfunctions. Eosinophilia is a common hematological abnormality in DIHS/DRESS suggesting that the Th2-type immune response is involved. Thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC/CCL17) is a family of CC chemokines known to play an important role in Th2-mediated immune-inflammatory processes. OBJECTIVE:We investigated the pathogenic role of TARC in patients with DIHS. METHODS:Sera were obtained from 8 patients with DIHS, 7 patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome/Toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN), and 14 patients with drug-induced maculopapular exanthema (MPE). Serum TARC levels were measured by ELISA. TARC levels were then compared with clinical symptoms and various hematological parameters. In addition, a biopsy was taken from the lesional skin of patients with DIHS and stained with anti-TARC Ab and anti-CD11c Ab. RESULTS:Serum TARC levels in patients with DIHS were significantly higher than those in patients with SJS/TEN and MPE during the acute phase. Serum TARC levels in DIHS patients correlated with skin eruptions, serum sIL-2R levels, eosinophil counts, and serum IL-5 levels. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that TARC was mainly expressed on CD11c+ dermal dendritic cells in patients with DIHS. CONCLUSION:Serum TARC levels may be associated with the initial presentation of DIHS as well as disease activity during the course. Thus, they could be useful as an indicator for early diagnosis and assessment of disease activity in DIHS. CD11c+ dendritic cells may be the main source of TARC in patients with DIHS.博士（医学）・甲第597号・平成25年3月15日Copyright © 2012 Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

EGFR Mutation is a Prognostic Factor in Lung Cancer Patients with Pleural Dissemination Detected During or After Surgery

Background. Primary lung tumors are sometimes resected when either pleural dissemination (PD) or malignant pleural effusion (MPE) exists. This study clarified the prognostic factors for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with either PD and MPE, or both, detected during or after surgery. Patients and Methods. We examined patients with NSCLC from a multicenter database who had either PD, MPE, or both, detected during or after surgery between 2005 and 2015. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated using the Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for potential confounding factors. Results. Among 9463 registered patients, PD, MPE, or both, were found in 114 patients with NSCLC during or after surgery. Primary tumor resection and exploratory thoracotomy were performed in 65 and 49 patients, respectively. In univariate analysis, adenocarcinoma, clinically undetected lymph node metastasis (c-N0 or unknown), EGFR mutation, and combination of chemotherapy or tyrosine kinase inhibitors after surgery were better prognostic factors for overall survival (OS), whereas in the multivariate analysis, adenocarcinoma, clinically undetected lymph node metastasis, and EGFR mutation were favorable independent prognostic factors in OS. Additionally, limited to patients with EGFR mutation, patients with primary lung tumor resection showed a significantly better 5-year OS than those with exploratory thoracotomy (86.4 vs. 44.8%; p Conclusion. Our findings show that surgical resection of primary tumors could improve the prognosis of patients with PD, MPE, or both, detected during or after surgery when the tumors harbor an EGFR mutation