The accelerated testing methodology has been proposed for the long-term durability of polymer composites based on the time–temperature superposition principle to be held for the viscoelasticity of polymer matrix. In this paper, the long-term flexural fatigue life of plain woven carbon fiber–vinylester (CFRP) laminates for advanced marine use was predicted based on the proposed methodology, compared with that of plain woven glass fiber–vinylester (GFRP) laminates for conventional marine use. The applicability of the accelerated testing methodology for these laminates and the advantages of this CFRP laminates are discussed. As results, the flexural fatigue strength of CFRP laminates as well as that of GFRP laminates clearly depends on time and temperature. The time–temperature super-position principle for the viscoelasticity of matrix vinylester resin holds for these flexural fatigue strengths, and then the master curves can be obtained. It is clear from these master curves that while the flexural fatigue strength for GFRP laminates decreases strongly with increasing number of cycles to failure Nf and that for CFRP laminates decreases scarcely with increasing Nf.

No abstract

No abstract

Attempts were made to improve the rate of isolation of herpes simplex virus (HSV) from clinical specimens by minimizing loss of virus infectivity during transportation and employing the most sensitive cells for isolation. Basical analyses using standard strains of type 1 and type 2 HSV indicated that virus titer decrease was marked even at low temperatures in environments free of proteinous stabilizer such as normal serum or tissue extract, negating the generally held concept that HSV is stable in distilled water. YLE (Earle-lactalbumin hydrolysate-yeast extract) medium containing 20% inactivated calf serum was determined to be a transport medium of choice, because degradation of suspended virus during storage and freeze-thawing was negligible and loss of virus during Millipore filtration was minimal. Special coating of the membrane could also be obviated by the use of this solution. In a cell susceptibility test using clinical specimens, secondary rabbit kidney (SRK) cells were the most sensitive, showing a quick development of cytopathic effect. Vero and RK-13 cells were the second best, whereas monkey kidney, HeLa and L cells were far less sensitive. A total of 136 specimens from suspected cases, sent by dermatologists, were tested using SRK cells, and 99 strains of type 1 and 15 strains of type 2 HSV were isolated. Excluding one case from which vaccinia virus was isolated, the isolation rate of HSV was 84.4%.

An ultrashort lifetime of photocarriers as short as 600 fs has been obtained in ion-implanted Ge thin films grown on sapphire substrates. The photocarrier mobility determined by photoconductivity measurements is found to be reasonably high (∼100 cm2/V s). We have observed terahertz (THz) radiation from a photoconductive dipole antenna geometry.

The selective synthesis of secondary alcohols from 1,2-alkanediol by C−O hydrogenolysis, which has been less investigated than the synthesis of primary alcohols, was investigated with Ru-based catalysts and 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PrD) as a model substrate. The modification of Ru/SiO 2 with ReO x achieved significant improvement of activity. The hydrogenolysis of 1,2-PrD over Ru−ReO x /SiO 2 (Re/Ru = 0.5) initially formed both 2-propanol (2-PrOH) and 1-propanol (1-PrOH) with similar selectivity along with the formation of ≤ C2 compounds, and then 1-PrOH was preferably converted to propane; as a result, only 2-PrOH remained in the liquid phase with 23% yield at longer reaction time. This catalyst was reusable at least twice. The characterization with H 2 -TPR, XRD, TEM-EDX, XANES, and EXAFS showed that the Ru species in the Ru−ReO x /SiO 2 catalysts were completely reduced in the reaction conditions, while a part of Re species were also reduced to partially reduced monomeric species (Re δ+ O x ) without Re−Re direct bond located on the surface of Ru metal particles. This ReO x -modified Ru metal surface probably works as the active sites. The excess Re species was reduced to large Re metal particles; however, these Re metal particles are not involved in the catalysis.

The present data showed that the serum ferritin level of the female donors decreased the most with increasing frequency of apheresis donation. The cumulative RBC left in the collecting chamber and for the laboratory test is discussed in relation to a possible cause of iron deficiency in frequent apheresis donors.

We examined the applicability of neural networks (NNs) and the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES) for designing highefficiency grating couplers on a Si-on-insulator (SOI) photonics platform operating at a wavelength of 1550 nm. We trained a NN to predict the wavelength dependences of coupling efficiency instead of using the finite-difference time-domain method, which enabled us to calculate analytically the gradient of coupling efficiency with respect to the design parameters. As a result, we found that a gradient-based method can be applied to find a more optimal design from an apodized grating coupler. In contrast, the CMA-ES, which is one of the most efficient evolutionary strategies, enabled us to explore a large design-parameter space efficiently without any constraint in an initial design of a grating coupler. As a result, we successfully obtained the optimal design from a uniform grating coupler. The optimized grating coupler exhibited a coupling efficiency of 74.7% when the thickness of the Si layer is 220 nm. The CMA-ES also enabled us to optimize the thickness of the Si gratings simultaneously. Through the optimization, we achieved a coupling efficiency of 92.1% when the Si thickness is 293 nm.