The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentration of oleanolic acids (OA) in pomace, a winemaking byproduct, and its influence on the levels of plasma lipids in rats fed a high-fat diet and on hepatic gene expression using DNA microarray analysis in vivo. HPLC analyses of pomace ethanol extract (PEE) revealed a high amount of OA ranging from 4 to 11 g/100 g. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a normal-fat diet (NF group), a high-fat diet with 21% lard (HF group), a high-fat diet with 0.05% OA (OA group, 50 mg/kg/day), or a high-fat diet with 0.45% PEE (PEE group, 450 mg/kg/day). Plasma triacylglycerol and phospholipid concentrations were significantly lower in the OA and PEE groups than in the HF group. The microarray analysis of hepatic mRNA revealed reduced expression levels of lipogenic genes including acetyl-CoA carboxylase and glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase, probably resulting from the suppression of transcription factor Srebf1 expression. Gene expression of gluconeogensis and inflammatory cytokines was also down-regulated in the OA and PEE groups, suggesting that administration of OA or PEE could ameliorate obesity-induced insulin resistance, as well as prevent hyperlipidemia.

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The aim of this study is to find the optimal airfoil for Mars exploration aircraft, which requires high-lift-to-drag ratio. However, existing airfoils for flying in the Earth's atmosphere do not have a high enough lift-to-drag ratio in Mars flight condition. The airfoil studied here was designed using a Genetic Algorithm (GA) and evaluated using two-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) without turbulence model (laminar). The objectives in this optimization include the maximization of lift and minimization of drag coefficients at only angle of attack of 6 °. The Reynolds number is 2.3 × 10 4 under the aircraft cruising condition. B-spline curves that connect neighboring control points express the upper and lower surfaces of the airfoil. The results show that some typical types of airfoils excel in aerodynamic performance. Most optimal airfoils have a large upper surface curvature or a strong curvature at the center of the lower surface. The former feature generates a separation bubble that leads to a high negative pressure, and the latter character makes a high positive pressure. Both phenomena generate lift force, and yield higher lift coefficient and high lift-to-drag ratio. Furthermore, most airfoils on the Pareto front have a thickness less than 10 % of the chord length, which is suitable for the wing structure design of the Mars aircraft.

is developing a fully reusable sounding rocket named WIRES (WInged REusable Sounding rocket). The winged rocket incorporates many novel technologies, including a full composite structure and a navigation, guidance, and control system. It is also equipped with an innovative hybrid rocket engine named CAMUI (CAscaded MUltistage Impinging-jet). In such a complex rocket, system integration is difficult to achieve and innovation is imperative. The laboratory is therefore also developing a subscale model of the rocket named WIRES#014 to assess the new navigation, guidance, and control system. This paper describes the procedure and results of a trial and error approach, comprising three ground combustion tests, to integrating the systems of the rocket. In the first and second try of the combustion test, the tests had some troubles mainly about ground support system and avionics. Authors eliminated these errors after the cause analysis; the third combustion test was finally succeeded.

Recently, aerial Mars exploration systems have been actively researched. Because the atmospheric density of Mars is almost one-hundredth to that of Earth's, the flight Reynolds number becomes low (Re = 10 4 ~ 10 5 ). In low Reynolds numbers, the flow around a wing tends to separate and conventional airfoils cannot satisfy the given performance requirements for Mars exploration aircraft. In recent years, Sasaki et al. researched new airfoils that have high lift-to-drag ratio at low Reynolds number using evolutionary multi-objective optimization and computational fluid dynamics. In this research, two-dimensional wind tunnel test of three airfoils proposed by Sasaki et al. is conducted to investigate their actual aerodynamic characteristics at Reynolds number 2.0 × 10 4 . The Ishii airfoil with good performance at low Reynolds number is used as the benchmark. The result of the wind tunnel test showed that the lift curve of the three airfoils is linear, and their maximum lift coefficient and stall angle are larger than those of Ishii. Particularly, the three airfoils' lift-to-drag ratio is superior to the Ishii airfoil by more than 30%. NomenclatureRe : Reynolds number L : lift