Synthesis of anatase TiO_2 with exposed {001} and {101} facets and photocatalytic activity

Anatase titanium(Ⅳ) oxide(TiO_2) particles with exposed {001} and {101} facets were prepared by hydrothermal treatment of amorphous TiO_2 with H_2O_2-NH_3 solution. Crystal phase, shape, and size of TiO_2 particles are found to be greatly dependent on the ratio of H_2O_2-NH_3 solution. The prepared TiO_2 particles with specific exposed crystal faces show higher photocatalytic activity for acetaldehyde decomposition than commercial spherical TiO_2 particles. This result implies that recombination is prevented by spatial separation of redox sites in the particles because of selective migration of electrons and positive holes to specific exposed crystal faces and/or different reactivity of electrons and positive holes on the specific exposed crystal face.     

Rapid preparation of monodisperse biodegradable polymer nanospheres using a membrane emulsification technique under low gas pressure

Nanospheres of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA), a biodegradable polymer, have been prepared using the conventional solvent diffusion method. In this study, a method combining the solvent diffusion method and a two-step (premix) membrane emulsification technique is proposed for the preparation of monodisperse PLGA nanospheres with a diameter of 200 nm. The monodispersity of the PLGA nanospheres was higher than that of nanospheres obtained by the conventional solvent diffusion method. Generally, preparation of small particles or droplets by the membrane emulsification technique requires a supply of high-pressure nitrogen gas to force the emulsion or dispersion solution through the small pores of the membrane. However, in the technique proposed here, low-pressure nitrogen gas (0.02–0.11 kgf/cm²) is sufficient. Thus, using this technique, one can obtain monodisperse PLGA nanospheres with a diameter of 200 nm in a relatively short period of time under low-pressure nitrogen gas.     

Determination of dissolved natural thorium and uranium in Horonobe and Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory groundwater and its thermodynamic analysis

At two underground research laboratories situated at Horonobe and Mizunami, Japan, trace amounts of natural thorium and uranium dissolved in deep groundwater were investigated with the help of chemical pre-concentration method. The groundwater was sampled from underground boreholes under the geochemical condition of no atmospheric exposure, and the colloid contribution was checked by in situ two size-fractionated ultrafiltration systems. A rough decrease by half in the concentration after in situ filtration suggested the presence of natural colloids and suspended matter that were carriers of a portion of the elements. The Th and U concentrations in groundwater after 10 kDa filtration was evaluated as dissolved species, and was identified thermodynamically using existing hydrogeological and geochemical data, such as the mineral components in the groundwater at a given pH, ionic strength, concentration of co-existing ions, redox potential, and a hypothetical solubility-limiting solid phase. The crystalline solid phase of tetravalent thorium and uranium dioxides made the solubility very low compared with that of the amorphous phase.     

Evaluation of cost reduction potential for 1 kW class SOFC stack production: Implications for SOFC technology scenario

Recently, a commercial version of a residential solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system with a flat tubular cell has been developed. However, the system cost still remains very high, which is a barrier to its widespread use. In this study, the potential for cost reductions in SOFC stack production was investigated in order to contribute to the viability of the widespread use of such residential SOFC systems in future. A cost analysis of 700 W SOFC stack production based on a process integration modeling was conducted. The present bottom–up approach enabled us to perform a sensitivity analysis with a variety of parameters in terms of cell design, the production process and cell performance. This allowed us to investigate the effects of these factors on the production cost, thereby revealing the quantitative impact of each technological improvement on the cost reduction potential. The present analysis also revealed innovation pathways which could result in technology scenarios where residential SOFC systems could reach a break-even point in comparison with the baseload electricity cost. The analysis of the cost reduction potential presented here provides a useful viewpoint for developing a research strategy for state-of-the-art SOFC technology.     

Numerical simulation of critical current performance in Nb3Sn strand subjected to periodic bending deformation

In the ITER Engineering Design Activity (EDA), four NB₃Sn model coils were developed and successfully tested. However, it was revealed that the critical current of the conductor degraded with the increase of electromagnetic force. One of the explanations of this phenomenon is a strand bending caused by enormous electromagnetic force. The authors therefore developed a simulation code using the distributed circuit model to investigate dependency of the critical current performance on the periodic bending deformation. The simulation results were in good agreement with the experiments. The dependence of the critical current on the periodic transverse load, temperature, periodic load pitch, thickness of Ta barrier which prevents Cu stabilizer from being contaminated by Sn, twist pitch of the strand, and RRR of the bronze matrix was investigated using the developed code. The results showed that the critical current degraded less with decreasing the pitch of the transverse load and increasing the Ta barrier thickness. It suggests that the shorter cabling pitch and the larger bending stiffness prevent the critical current degradation. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 171(3): 7–15, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20923     

Quail egg yolk (Coturnix coturnix japonica) enriched with omega-3 fatty acids

This experiment was carried out with 58-week old laying quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) assigned to four treatment groups with eight quails per replication in six repetitions in a completely randomized design. The treatments consisted of diets with different levels of flaxseed (0, 1.5, 3.0, and 5.0%). The amounts of cholesterol and total lipids and the fatty acid composition of quail egg yolk were determined in four 21-day cycles. No difference was found in cholesterol levels between the four treatments and the four cycles. The increased ingestion of linolenic acid (LNA) in diet reduced the formation of arachidonic acid (AA) significantly. The 3.0 and 5.0% treatment groups presented a reduction in total saturated fatty acids (TSFA) with the increase in percent flaxseed in feed comparatively to the control value. The n-3 fatty acid level was high in all treatments when compared to that of the control group. The n-6/n-3 ratio decreased from 21.30 (control) to 4.52 (5.0%), which is a better value from the nutritional viewpoint.     

Probabilistic enhancement of approximate indexing in metric spaces

Some approximate indexing schemes have been recently proposed in metric spaces which sort the objects in the database according to pseudo-scores. It is known that (1) some of them provide a very good trade-off between response time and accuracy, and (2) probability-based pseudo-scores can provide an optimal trade-off in range queries if the probabilities are correctly estimated. Based on these facts, we propose a probabilistic enhancement scheme which can be applied to any pseudo-score based scheme. Our scheme computes probability-based pseudo-scores using pseudo-scores obtained from a pseudo-score based scheme. In order to estimate the probability-based pseudo-scores, we use the object-specific parameters in logistic regression and learn the parameters using MAP (Maximum a Posteriori) estimation and the empirical Bayes method. We also propose a technique which speeds up learning the parameters using pseudo-scores. We applied our scheme to the two state-of-the-art schemes: the standard pivot-based scheme and the permutation-based scheme, and evaluated them using various kinds of datasets from the Metric Space Library. The results showed that our scheme outperformed the conventional schemes, with regard to both the number of distance computations and the CPU time, in all the datasets.     

Dynamic Control of a Self-Controlled Synchronous Motor Drive System

Dynamic performance of a speed control system containing a self-controlled synchronous motor is analyzed in detail. It is shown that a field voltage control combined with a margin angle control secures safe commutation of the inverter during transients that cause a large variation in the dc link current and that a current limiter enables the motor speed to change almost linearly at a maximum torque. A simple and efficient control strategy for a fast speed response without an overshoot is then proposed, and the effectiveness of this proposed control as well as the field voltage and margin angle controls is confirmed by experimental investigation.