Estimating energy consumption from night-time DMPS/OLS imagery after correcting for saturation effects

A methodology is presented to accurately estimate electric power consumption from saturated night-time Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) imagery using a stable light correction. An area correction for the stable light image of DMSP/OLS for the year 1999 was performed and the build-up area rate data were used to clarify the intensity distribution characteristics of the stable light. Based on the spatial distribution characteristics of the stable light, the saturation light of the electric power supply area of Japan was corrected using a cubic regression equation. The regression between the correction calculations by the cubic regression equation and the statistical electric power consumption data was applied in Japan and also in China, India and 10 other Asian countries. The correction method was then evaluated. This study confirms that electric power consumption can be estimated with high precision from the stable light.     

Handwriting character classification using Freeman’s olfactory KIII model

KIII model is an olfactory model proposed by W. J. Freeman referring to a physiological structure of mammal??s olfactory system. The KIII model has been applied to kinds of pattern recognition systems, for example, electronic nose, tea classification, etc. However, the dynamics of neurons in the KIII model is given by Hodgkin-Huxley??s second-order differential equation and it consumes a very high computation cost. In this paper, we propose a simplified dynamics of chaotic neuron instead of the Hodgkin-Huxley dynamics at first, and secondly, we propose to use Fourier transformation with high resolution capability to extract features of time series behaviors of internal states of M1 nodes in KIII model instead of the conventional standard deviation method. Furthermore, paying attention to the point that human brain does visual processing as same as olfactory processing in the sense of information processing, a handwriting image recognition problem is treated as a new application field of KIII model. Through the computer simulation of the handwriting character classification, it is shown that the proposed method is useful by the comparison of experiment results with both computation time and recognition accuracy.     

Extreme Compaction Effects on Gas Transport Parameters and Estimated Climate Gas Exchange for a Landfill Final Cover Soil

Landfill sites have been implicated in greenhouse warming scenarios as a significant source of atmospheric methane. In this study, the effects of extreme compaction on the two main soil-gas transport parameters, the gas diffusion coefficient (Dp) and the intrinsic air permeability (ka), and the cumulative methane oxidation rate in a landfill cover soil were investigated. Extremely compacted landfill cover soil exhibited negligible inactive soil-air contents for both Dp and ka. In addition, greater Dp and ka were observed as compared with normal compacted soils at the same soil-air content (ε), likely because of reduced water-blockage effects under extreme compaction. These phenomena are not included in existing predictive models for Dp(ε) and ka(ε). On the basis of the measured data, new predictive models for Dp(ε) and ka(ε) were developed with model parameters (representing air-filled pore connectivity and water-blockage effects) expressed as functions of dry density (ρb). The developed Dp(ε) and ka(ε) models together with soil-water retention data for soils at normal and extreme compaction (ρb = 1.44 and 1.85??g?cm-3) implied that extremely compacted soils will exhibit lower Dp and ka at natural field-water content (-100??cm H2O of soil-water matric potential) because of much lower soil-air content. Numerical simulations of methane gas transport, including a first-order methane oxidation rate, were performed for differently compacted soils by using the new predictive Dp(ε) model. Model results showed that compaction-induced difference in soil-air content at a given soil-water matric potential condition is likely the most important parameter governing methane oxidation rates in extremely compacted landfill cover soil.     

Micropatterning of single myotubes on a thermoresponsive culture surface using elastic stencil membranes for single-cell analysis

We have developed a micropatterning procedure for single myotubes and demonstrated recovery of patterned myotubes without the use of methods that might cause damage to the cells. Since skeletal muscle is a highly ordered tissue mainly composed of myotubes, analysis of single myotubes is one of the promising approaches for studying the various diseases related to skeletal muscle tissues. However, the analysis of single myotubes is quite complicated because of the difficulty in distinguishing individual myotubes differentiated on a normal cell culture surface. In the present study, thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes, which have rectangular holes (30, 50, 100, and 200 μm in width; 500, 750, and 1000 μm in length) through them, were fabricated by using a photolithography technique and used for single myotube micropatterning. A bovine serum albumin-coated (BSA-coated) stencil membrane was placed on a cell culture surface and C2C12 myoblasts were seeded on it. Since the cells could not attach to the surface of the stencil membrane, the cell proliferated and differentiated into myotubes in the hole areas specifically. By peeling off the membrane, a micropattern of myotubes was obtained. It was revealed that the optimum width of rectangular holes for a micropattern of single myotubes was between 30 to 50 μm. Furthermore, by placing a membrane on a thermoresponsive culture surface, recovery of the micropatterned myotubes was possible by lowering the temperature. This method involving the stencil membranes and a thermoresponsive culture surface is useful for analyzing subcellular or single myotubes.     

Results of environmental radiation monitoring at the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories,JAEA, following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

In response to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, emergency monitoring of the environmental radiation was performed at the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories (NCL), Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). This article describes the results of the monitoring, including air absorbed dose rate and radionuclide concentration in air and fallout. The air absorbed dose rate began to increase from about 1 am on 15 March 2011 and varied over time, with three peaks: 4.8 μGy/h, 2.1 μGy/h and 3.1 μGy/h at 8 am on 15 March, 5 am on 16 March and 4 am on 21 March, respectively. The increase in the radionuclide concentrations in air and fallout showed a tendency similar to that in the case of the dose rate. The ¹³¹I/¹³⁷Cs concentration ratio in air varied considerably every day, and the maximum was about 100. The ¹³⁷Cs amount in the fallout for a month from 15 March to April 15 was about 120 times higher than that after the Chernobyl accident in May 1986 and about 30 times higher than that in Tokyo in June 1963 during the atmospheric nuclear weapon tests. The committed effective dose due to inhalation was estimated from the observed radionuclide concentration in air.     

Evaluation of vertical cell fluidity in a multilayered sheet of skeletal myoblasts

The procedure for fabricating a multilayered cell sheet has been developed by combining multiple sheets using a thermo-responsive surface and stamp system. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that the fluidity of a multilayered sheet of skeletal myoblasts could be estimated as vertical diffusivity and changed upon addition of dermal fibroblasts.     

Synthesis of Cs–aluminosilicate zeolites and thermal phase transformation from BIK to CAS frameworks

The hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite from a gel containing Cs to some alkali cations is thoroughly investigated, and a new route for the synthesis of CAS-type zeolite is found by the thermal treatment of BIK-type zeolite, which was prepared by the conventional synthesis method from aluminosilicate gel containing cesium and additional alkali metal ions. The effect of the alkali cations on the phase transformation of BIK into CAS at 900 °C is also investigated. It is found that lithium cations play an important role in the transformation and that the time required for the transformation into CAS decreases with the lithium content in the starting mixture. The required time for the transformation in potassium-containing BIK is more than that in lithium-containing BIK. The mechanism of structural transformation is considered.     

Thermodynamic simulation model of the isasmelt process for copper matte

A computer model has been constructed to simulate thermodynamically the behavior of the minor elements Zn, Pb, As, Sb, and Bi as well as the major elements Cu, Fe, Si, O, and S in the Isasmelt process, producing copper matte. The model is based on the new concept that there are two independent reaction sites in a slag bath: one for fast oxidation and the other for slow reduction. The oxidizing reaction at the first site produces matte, magnetite-rich slag and gas from chalcopyritic concentrate and siliceous flux. The slag is then partially reduced with lump coal at a site removed from the first site. The oxidizing and reducing reactions are assumed to proceed under a separate set of equilibrium conditions. The process heat balance and thermodynamic distribution of the minor elements are united and expressed as functions of varying weights and compositions of concentrate, flux (silica, limestone), coal, oil, and oxygen-enriched air. The process chemistry was analyzed in terms of Fe₃O₄, FeO, and FeS activities, as well as SO₂ partial pressure. The thermodynamic model explains well the minor element distributions observed in the 15 tons per hour pilot furnace, and it is used to project the optimal smelting conditions for the full-scale 100 tons per hour Isasmelt furnace.