Measurement of the Vertical Distribution of Reflected Solar Radiation*

The purpose of this study was to develop a devicefor measuring the vertical distribution of the reflected radiation to the inside of a room from terrace to building.The proposed device is attached to aluminum plates that are painted matte black at intervals of 20 cm on polystyrene insulation. The surface temperature of the aluminum plate, called the SAT (sol-air temperature), is used as an indicator of the quantity of solar radiation. In order to compare terrace materials, two of the measuring devices were located facing south.Concrete tile, artificial turf, and wood chips were selected as materials to be comparedfor the surface of the terrace and were laid in front of the measuring devices. The results indicate that the SAT reflected onto a vertical plane was higher closer to the ground for all materials. Hourly fluctuations of the vertical distribution of the reflected solar radiation differed, depending on the terrace surface material. When concrete tiles of different thicknesses were compared, the temporal heating patterns varied due to differences in heat capacity. These results lead us to the conclusion that using the developed measuringdevice enables grasping the effect of vertical distribution of reflected solar radiation from a terrace

Identification of the human sphingolipid C4-hydroxylase, hDES2, and its up-regulation during keratinocyte differentiation

AbstractThe C4-hydroxylation of dihydrosphingosine or dihydroceramide is a key reaction in the biosynthesis of phytosphingolipids, both in yeasts and in mammalian cells. Mouse DES2 (mDES2) was recently cloned and shown to work as a Δ4-desaturase/C4-hydroxylase, when expressed in yeast cells. Here, we cloned a human homologue of mDES2, hDES2, by homology search utilizing a BLAST program. When expressed in HEK 293 cells, hDES2 exhibited hydroxylase activity for dihydroceramide. Northern blot analyses of hDES2 revealed high expression in skin, intestines, and kidney, sites reportedly possessing high levels of phytosphingolipids. Furthermore, up-regulation of hDES2 mRNA expression and subsequent phytoceramide production were observed during vitamin C/serum-induced differentiation of human keratinocytes. These results suggest that the newly cloned hDES2 plays an essential role in phytosphingolipid synthesis in human skin and other phytosphingolipid-containing tissues

Fractal dimensions of fracture surfaces of rock fragments

Several rock-fracture experiments are carried out under the conditions of dynamic impact and static uniaxial loading. Irregularity of the fracture surfaces of basalt and dunite fragments is quantitatively described by "fractal dimension". The fractured surfaces produced by dynamic impacts have a small fractal dimension indicating the relatively smooth surfaces. On the other hand, the fracture surfaces produced by static uniaxial loading have a large fractal dimension. In the case of the dynamic impact, basalt and dunite possess similar fractal dimensions, while in the case of static loading, they have different distributions of fractal dimension. Thus the fractal dimension of a fragment may provide a useful information on the fracture processes