Mass transfer in polycrystalline ytterbium monosilicate under oxygen potential gradients at high temperatures

Mass transfer in polycrystalline Yb₂SiO₅ wafers with precise composition control was evaluated and analyzed by oxygen permeation experiments at high temperatures using an oxygen tracer. Oxygen permeation proceeded due to mutual grain boundary diffusion of oxide ions and Yb ions without synergistic effects such as acceleration or suppression. The oxygen shielding properties of Yb₂SiO₅ were compared with those of the other line compounds such as Yb₂Si₂O₇ and Al₂O₃ based on the determined mass transfer parameters. It was found that the more preferentially an oxide ion diffuses in the grain boundary compared to the interior of the grain, the greater the effect of suppressing the movement of the oxide ion by applying an oxygen potential gradient becomes.     

Grain refinement and superplasticity of pipes processed by high-pressure sliding

ABSTRACT

The high-pressure sliding (HPS) process was applied for grain refinement of a pipe form of an Al-3wt%Mg-0.2wt%Sc alloy by developing two types of straining techniques (called in this study anvil sliding and mandrel sliding). To achieve a homogeneous microstructure throughout the cross-section of the pipe, the sample is rotated around the longitudinal axis every after sliding operation by introducing multi-pass technique, named multi-pass HPS (MP-HPS) as developed earlier for rods. The MP-HPS-processed sample shows ultrafine-grained structures with an average grain size of ～260 and ～300?nm after the HPS processing using anvil sliding and mandrel sliding. The samples also exhibit superplasticity with total elongations well more than 400%, respectively. A finite-element method is used to simulate the evolution of strain in the HPS processing and demonstrates that the simulation well represents the experimental results.     

The role of Mn2+-rich hydrous manganese oxide in the accumulation of arsenic in lake sediments

Arsenic is present at high concentrations in the upper layer of Lake Biwa sediments and shows a depth profile similar to that of Mn. Adsorption experiments of As onto synthetic hydrous Mn oxide (HMO) in the presence of Mn²⁺ and the speciation of Mn in the sediment cores, suggest that the accumulation of As at the sediment surface results from post-depositional migration of arsenite in the sediment pore water followed by oxidation to arsenate at the sediment surface and adsorption onto Mn²⁺-rich HMO.     

A field study on serum vitellogenin levels in male Reeves' pond turtles (Chinemys reevesii) from estrogen-contaminated sites and a reference site

To ascertain whether wild male turtles were influenced by environmental estrogens, we examined serum vitellogenin (VTG) levels of male Reeves' pond turtles (Chinemys reevesii) collected from four study sites (A-D) in Kyoto, Japan. Sites A-C, which were impacted by domestic or industrial wastewater and effluents from sewage treatment plants, were chosen as contaminated sites, and site D was intended as a reference site. This contaminated/reference site characterization was confirmed by measuring estrogenic activities of the water samples collected at each site for over a year. Serum VTG levels in the turtles were quantified by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay established previously. Estrogenic activities of the water samples were measured using a previously validated yeast two-hybrid assay and expressed as the estradiol-17beta equivalent. Estrogenic activity was observed at high levels at sites A-C, but was almost undetected at site D throughout the sampling period: the mean and range were 0.74 (<0.07-2.1), 0.52 (0.17-1.6), 1.7 (<0.07-7.3), and 0.07 (<0.07-0.62) ng/l at sites A-D, respectively. Significant differences were found only in site D versus sites A, B, and C. Therefore, site D and sites A-C were confirmed to be a reference site and contaminated ones, respectively. Overall, 320 male turtles were captured and examined. The majority of the turtles showed normal VTG values (0.10-0.74 microg/ml). Although only five turtles from sites A-C showed unusually high VTG values (1.1-5.9 microg/ml, nearly one order of magnitude higher than normal values but much lower than values in adult females), there was no significant difference in the incidence of these high values between sites A-C and site D. Moreover, among the five turtles, one turtle was captured again 2 months later, but its VTG value dropped to the normal level. The unusually high VTG values may therefore be transient elevation caused by incidental and/or individually specific agents. Excluding the unusually high values, the mean serum VTG (accompanied with the range) was 0.22 (0.10-0.74), 0.27 (0.11-0.62), 0.27 (0.17-0.68), and 0.23 (0.10-0.57) microg/ml at sites A-D, respectively. There were no significant differences in the mean VTG values among sites A-D. Although it should be clarified how and why the unusually high VTG values occurred at sites A-C, our results suggested that wild male C. reevesii turtles would not be significantly affected by xenobiotic estrogens at environmentally relevant levels in terms of serum VTG elevation.     

Supramolecular Ligands for Histone Tails by Employing a Multivalent Display of Trisulfonated Calix[4]arenes

Post‐translational modification of histone tails plays critical roles in gene regulation. Thus, molecules recognizing histone tails and controlling their epigenetic modification are desirable as biochemical tools to elucidate regulatory mechanisms. There are, however, only a few synthetic ligands that bind to histone tails with substantial affinity. We report CA2 and CA3, which exhibited sub‐micromolar affinity to histone tails (especially tails with a trimethylated lysine). Multivalent display of trisulfonated calix[4]arene was important for strong binding. CA2 was applicable not only to synthetic tail peptides but also to endogenous histone proteins, and was successfully used to pull‐down endogenous histones from nuclear extract. These findings indicate the utility of these supramolecular ligands as biochemical tools for studying chromatin regulator protein and as a targeting motif in ligand‐directed catalysis to control epigenetic modifications.     

Force control of twisted and coiled polymer actuators via active control of electrical heating and forced convective liquid cooling

For decades, numerous artificial muscles have been proposed in order to implement beneficial features of biological muscles into robotics. Unfortunately, traditional artificial muscles experienced difficulties in imitating properties of the biological muscles due to mechanical and control issues. Recently, twisted and coiled polymer actuators (TCP) have been shown to produce large mechanical power via thermal stimulations and strong linearity. In this paper, a high-performance TCP thermally cycled by electrical heating and forced convective liquid cooling is designed and associated control algorithms are presented. We elaborate the model of the TCP that is simple, yet provides insight into how the electrical heating and the forced convective liquid cooling contribute to the TCP actuation. The proposed model is verified by experimental studies. Based on the proposed model, we design a feedforward–feedback controller and switching laws, which actively control the TCP in both the heating and cooling cycles. Furthermore, we extend our control methodology to agonist–antagonist TCPs. From the experimental studies, the proposed method is shown to be effective in both single TCP and antagonistic TCPs.     

Study on FBR core concepts to increase proliferation resistance of plutonium in LWR–FBR transition period

The possibility to enhance proliferation resistance of discharged plutonium in fast breeder reactor (FBR) has been investigated in terms of reactor core-design aspects. The provisional target for proliferation resistance measures based on Saito's attractiveness (ATTR) is defined. It is found that a few percent of plutonium loading and/or Am/Cm loading, which come from various types of spent fuel, might satisfy the provisional target with a minimum impact on the core neutronic performances. On Am/Cm loading core, decay heat constraints for fuel-handling aspects are found to be important and should be considered in design. There is not significant change on the current developing scenarios for light water reactor–FBR transition period by applying the measures based on Saito's ATTR. It is found that applying Kimura's proposal, 15% ²³⁸Pu content requires about 7% MA loading fraction both in the core and the blanket, and it only can be applied at limited case. The period to consume minor actinides is shorter than to consume plutonium.