To understand the nature and behavior of rare earth metals in their liquid phases, accurate values of their physical properties are essential. However, to measure their physical properties, the samples should be maint...To understand the nature and behavior of rare earth metals in their liquid phases, accurate values of their physical properties are essential. However, to measure their physical properties, the samples should be maintained in liquid phases for prolonged time, and this raises a formidable challenge. This is mainly explained by their high melting temperatures （e.g., 1629 K for Tb）, high vapor pressure, and the risk of melt contamination with a crucible or support. An electrostatic levitation furnace alleviated these difficulties and allowed the determination of density, surface tension, and viscosity of several metals above their melting temperature. Here, first, the levitation furnace facility and the noncontact diagnostic procedures were briefly discussed, followed by the explanation of their thermophysical property measurements over wide temperature ranges. The density was obtained using an ultraviolet-based imaging technique that allowed excellent illumination, even at elevated temperatures. Over the 1615 to 1880 K temperature span, the density measurements could be expressed as p（T） =7.84 × 10^3 -0.47 （T - Tm） （kg · m^-3） with Tm = 1629 K, yielding a volume expansion coefficient a（T） = 6.0 × 10^-5 （K^-1）. In addition, the surface tension and the viscosity could be determined by inducing a drop oscillation to a molten sample. Using this technique, the surface tension data could be expressed as σ（T） = 8.93 × 10^2 - 0.10 （T - Tm）（mN· m^-1） and those for viscosity as η（T） =0.583 exp [4.1 × 10^4/（RT）] （MPa·s） over the 1690 to 1980 K temperature range展开更多
The use of hair roots as experimental samples has been a research focus for understanding the effects of spaceflight on astronauts, because it has many advantages, one of which is the fact that hair matrix cells activ...The use of hair roots as experimental samples has been a research focus for understanding the effects of spaceflight on astronauts, because it has many advantages, one of which is the fact that hair matrix cells actively divide in a hair follicle and sensitively reflect the physical conditions of the human body. In 2009, a research program focusing on the analysis of astronauts’ hairs was initiated to examine the effects of long-term spaceflight on the gene expression and mineral metabolism in the human body. Since the number of samples per astronaut is limited to 5 strands of hairs at each sampling point, due to the ethical viewpoint of astronauts or limited resources in space, it is important to develop an effective method for the molecular analysis of small amounts of hair roots. In this study, mRNA successfully extracted from 1, 5, and 10 hair follicles was amplified and subjected to the DNA microarray analysis to compare the gene expression within subjects. The results indicated that (1) it was possible to perform the genetic analysis on hair samples stored at -80℃, even without a fixation buffer and (2) the newly modified method of mRNA extraction and analysis was effective in detecting differential gene expression in samples containing only 5 hairs. In conclusion, RNA was efficiently extracted from 5 hair roots, which is the same number of hair roots used in the space experiment;therefore, this method can be applied to genetically analyze astronauts’ hair samples.展开更多
文摘To understand the nature and behavior of rare earth metals in their liquid phases, accurate values of their physical properties are essential. However, to measure their physical properties, the samples should be maintained in liquid phases for prolonged time, and this raises a formidable challenge. This is mainly explained by their high melting temperatures （e.g., 1629 K for Tb）, high vapor pressure, and the risk of melt contamination with a crucible or support. An electrostatic levitation furnace alleviated these difficulties and allowed the determination of density, surface tension, and viscosity of several metals above their melting temperature. Here, first, the levitation furnace facility and the noncontact diagnostic procedures were briefly discussed, followed by the explanation of their thermophysical property measurements over wide temperature ranges. The density was obtained using an ultraviolet-based imaging technique that allowed excellent illumination, even at elevated temperatures. Over the 1615 to 1880 K temperature span, the density measurements could be expressed as p（T） =7.84 × 10^3 -0.47 （T - Tm） （kg · m^-3） with Tm = 1629 K, yielding a volume expansion coefficient a（T） = 6.0 × 10^-5 （K^-1）. In addition, the surface tension and the viscosity could be determined by inducing a drop oscillation to a molten sample. Using this technique, the surface tension data could be expressed as σ（T） = 8.93 × 10^2 - 0.10 （T - Tm）（mN· m^-1） and those for viscosity as η（T） =0.583 exp [4.1 × 10^4/（RT）] （MPa·s） over the 1690 to 1980 K temperature range
文摘The use of hair roots as experimental samples has been a research focus for understanding the effects of spaceflight on astronauts, because it has many advantages, one of which is the fact that hair matrix cells actively divide in a hair follicle and sensitively reflect the physical conditions of the human body. In 2009, a research program focusing on the analysis of astronauts’ hairs was initiated to examine the effects of long-term spaceflight on the gene expression and mineral metabolism in the human body. Since the number of samples per astronaut is limited to 5 strands of hairs at each sampling point, due to the ethical viewpoint of astronauts or limited resources in space, it is important to develop an effective method for the molecular analysis of small amounts of hair roots. In this study, mRNA successfully extracted from 1, 5, and 10 hair follicles was amplified and subjected to the DNA microarray analysis to compare the gene expression within subjects. The results indicated that (1) it was possible to perform the genetic analysis on hair samples stored at -80℃, even without a fixation buffer and (2) the newly modified method of mRNA extraction and analysis was effective in detecting differential gene expression in samples containing only 5 hairs. In conclusion, RNA was efficiently extracted from 5 hair roots, which is the same number of hair roots used in the space experiment;therefore, this method can be applied to genetically analyze astronauts’ hair samples.
