Recently, research works on the bio-engineering actively carried out, and the useful tool for the micromanipulation is also developed. Purpose of this research is to develop the minute size knife for the cutting of the minute object such as the cell. In this paper, we report on the microknife that cuts o the object by using ultrasonic vibration of the sharp needle. We employed the multilayer pi...

The conventional assignment-based first/best fit decreasing algorithms (FFD/BFD) are not polynomial in the cutting stock input size in its most common format. Therefore, even for small instances with large demands, it is difficult to compute FFD/BFD solutions. We present pattern-based methods that overcome the main problems of conventional heuristics in cutting stock problems by representing th...

A three dimensional (3D) fully coupled thermal-mechanical analysis is presented in order to evaluate the influence of certain cutting parameters as well as dual phase microstructure on the orthogonal micro cutting process of steels (in particular, AISI 1045 steel), for which the size of heterogeneities is of the order of magnitude of the uncut chip thickness and tool edge radius. The simulated ...

Ramsey Theorem is a cornerstone of combinatorics and logic. In its simplest formulation it says that there is a function r such that any simple graph with r(k, s) vertices contains either a clique of size k or an independent set of size s. We study the complexity of proving upper bounds for the number r(k, k). In particular we focus on the propositional proof system cutting planes; we prove tha...

This paper reports the completion of four fundamental fluidic operations considered essential to build digital microfluidic circuits, which can be used for lab-on-a-chip or micro total analysis system ( TAS): 1) creating, 2) transporting, 3) cutting, and 4) merging liquid droplets, all by electrowetting, i.e., controlling the wetting property of the surface through electric potential. The surfa...

In this study, a comprehensive investigation on nano-scale machining of polycrystalline copper structures is carried out by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Simulation cases are constructed to study the impacts of grain size, as well as various machining parameters. Six polycrystalline copper structures are produced, which have the corresponding equivalent grain sizes of 5.32, 6.70, 8.44, 13...

The corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys depends mainly on its surface integrity. Previous experimental studies have shown that machining can induces small (nano-scale) grain size, compressive residual stresses and basal plane crystallographic texture, which significantly improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy. These studies have focused on the positive effects of cryogenic coo...

A linear knife grid device was developed for first-stage size reduction of high- and low-moisture switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a tough, fibrous perennial grass being considered as a feedstock for bioenergy. The size reduction is by a shearing action accomplished by forcing a thick packed bed of biomass against a grid of sharp knives. The system is used commercially for slicing forages for...

Reasoning on OWL ontologies is known to be intractable in the worst-case, which is a serious problem because in practice, most OWL ontologies have large Aboxes, i.e., numerous assertions about individuals and their relations. We propose a technique that uses a summary of the ontology (summary Abox) to reduce reasoning to a small subset of the original Abox, and prove that our techniques are sou...

Naive CD8(+) T cells are activated on encounter with Ag presented on dendritic cells and proliferate rapidly. To investigate the regulation of naive CD8(+) T cells proliferation, we adoptively transferred TCR-transgenic CD8(+) T cells into intact mice together with Ag-pulsed dendritic cells. Regardless of the number of cells initially transferred, the expansion of activated Ag-specific CD8(+) T...