Ultrasonic stent motor

The purpose of this study is to develop a stent motor for medical blood vessel treatment. The stent motor is a movable stent. It has functions of removing plaque and expanding blood vessels. It consists of two parts; ultrasonic receivers and vibration transmitting coil (stator). In this study, the authors have focused to the vibration analysis of the receiver. In the first design stage, the authors have evaluated resonant phenomenon using finite element method. When driving it in water, the resonant frequency of the air use is shifted due to mass effect of water around the receiver. The frequency analysis of the receiver shows that extremely high precision of dimensions is required because the resonant frequency in water depends not only the size but also the amplitude of the vibration. It is very difficult to design an optimal receiver resonating in water. In order to solve this problem, the authors have tried a new receiver with wide plate receiving ultrasound effectively and requiring no resonant. The authors have succeeded in driving this type of motor in water

Waterproof ultrasonic motor

The authors have been making a multi degree of freedom piezoelectric actuator that has Translational and Rotational motions in one joint (TR motor). Because the motor has the advantages such as simple structure and excellent controllability, it has high potentials for wide use in non-industrial applications. The authors will apply it to outdoor use, especially, use in water. The authors have applied insulating process to the piezoelectric element for waterproof and designed an optimal shape of it for driving in water to show driving TR motor in water successfully

Development of deep-sea drone by spherical ultrasonic motor

The world ocean occupies 70 % on the earth and the average sea depth is about 4,000 m. More than 80 percent of it has not been investigated precisely and the bottom shape of the sea has not been mapped. When doing resource-searching in the future, the precise maps must be required. So, the authors have developed a drone movable around 4,000 m deep sea to measure the bottom of the ocean. It is based on spheres, which includes cameras, batteries, some sensors and controllers. It can rotate a spherical rotor sensing widely to obtain the information about the bottom of the sea. At the first step of the research, the authors have made basic experiments of the motor’s performance in water. The authors have obtained the excellent results in maneuverability, temperature durability, and shock resistance of the motor

Intravascular stent motor powered by ultrasonic irradiation

We have developed a stent motor that can move in the blood vessel by applying the technique of the ultrasonic motor. First, we have designed a horn to provide ultrasonic energy to the stent from outside of human body. Second, we have also designed a stent motor that consists of two parts; a stator and receivers. The receiver unit obtains the ultrasonic wave from outside. The stator is the coil shape and it can move smoothly in intravascular. Finally, we have made experiments by the horn and stent motor. We have succeeded in driving the stent motor back and forth in the water

Non-parametric inference of impurity transport coefficients in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak

We present a non-parametric inference of impurity transport coefficients by using charge exchange recombination spectroscopy measurements of Ne X, Ne VIII, O VIII, and C VI lines. Due to their close atomic numbers, neon, oxygen and carbon impurity ions are assumed to have the same diffusion coefficient D and convection velocity v. Unlike conventional techniques that modulate or perturb the impurity contents, we employ a quasi-stationary plasma with static impurity profiles. Since the ratio of v to D only describes the equilibrated profile of the sum of all impurity charge states, steady-state measurements can still decouple D and v if different charge states are simultaneously observed. We have formulated a non-parametric analysis framework based on the Bayesian probability theory and conducted transport coefficient measurements for a Type III ELMy H-mode plasma at ASDEX Upgrade. The charge exchange reactions with the background neutrals, which are known to affect the impurity charge state balance, are taken into account by introducing additional free parameters. While D at the pedestal is close to the neoclassical level ( < 1 m s-2), a large diffusion coefficient and a strong outward convection are inferred right inside the pedestal top.This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 and 2019–2020 under Grant Agreement No. 633053

Set optimization - a rather short introduction

Recent developments in set optimization are surveyed and extended including various set relations as well as fundamental constructions of a convex analysis for set- and vector-valued functions, and duality for set optimization problems. Extensive sections with bibliographical comments summarize the state of the art. Applications to vector optimization and financial risk measures are discussed along with algorithmic approaches to set optimization problems

Down-regulation of the myo-inositol oxygenase gene family has no effect on cell wall composition in Arabidopsis

The enzyme myo-inositol oxygenase (MIOX; E.C. 1.13.99.1) catalyzes the ring-opening four-electron oxidation of myo-inositol into glucuronic acid, which is subsequently activated to UDP-glucuronic acid (UDP-GlcA) and serves as a precursor for plant cell wall polysaccharides. Starting from single T-DNA insertion lines in different MIOX-genes a quadruple knockdown (miox1/2/4/5-mutant) was obtained by crossing, which exhibits greater than 90% down-regulation of all four functional MIOX genes. Miox1/2/4/5-mutant shows no visible phenotype and produces viable pollen. The alternative pathway to UDP-glucuronic acid via UDP-glucose is upregulated in the miox1/2/4/5-mutant as a compensatory mechanism. Miox1/2/4/5-mutant is impaired in the utilization of myo-inositol for seedling growth. The incorporation of myo-inositol derived sugars into cell walls is strongly (>90%) inhibited. Instead, myo-inositol and metabolites produced from myo-inositol such as galactinol accumulate in the miox1/2/4/5-mutant. The increase in galactinol and raffinose family oligosaccharides does not enhance stress tolerance. The ascorbic acid levels are the same in mutant and wild type plants

The EarthCARE satellite: the next step forward in global measurements of clouds, aerosols, precipitation, and radiation

The collective representation within global models of aerosol, cloud, precipitation, and their radiative properties remains unsatisfactory. They constitute the largest source of uncertainty in predictions of climatic change and hamper the ability of numerical weather prediction models to forecast high-impact weather events. The joint European Space Agency (ESA)–Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Earth Clouds, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite mission, scheduled for launch in 2018, will help to resolve these weaknesses by providing global profiles of cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and associated radiative properties inferred from a combination of measurements made by its collocated active and passive sensors. EarthCARE will improve our understanding of cloud and aerosol processes by extending the invaluable dataset acquired by the A-Train satellites CloudSat, Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), and Aqua. Specifically, EarthCARE’s cloud profiling radar, with 7 dB more sensitivity than CloudSat, will detect more thin clouds and its Doppler capability will provide novel information on convection, precipitating ice particle, and raindrop fall speeds. EarthCARE’s 355-nm high-spectral-resolution lidar will measure directly and accurately cloud and aerosol extinction and optical depth. Combining this with backscatter and polarization information should lead to an unprecedented ability to identify aerosol type. The multispectral imager will provide a context for, and the ability to construct, the cloud and aerosol distribution in 3D domains around the narrow 2D retrieved cross section. The consistency of the retrievals will be assessed to within a target of ±10 W m–2 on the (10 km)2 scale by comparing the multiview broadband radiometer observations to the top-of-atmosphere fluxes estimated by 3D radiative transfer models acting on retrieved 3D domains