Evaluation of CO2 Storage Potential for Feasibility Study Sites on Innovative Zero-emission Coal Gasification Power Generation

AbstractWe have investigated storage potential in a feasibility study of a CO2 geologic storage system design. This study is a part of a research project titled —Innovative Zero-emission Coal Gasification Power Generation||. In commercial use cases, the total amount of CO2 storage is approximately 30 million tons, which means that theannual amount of CO2 storage is 1.54 million tons in a 20-year injection cycle. In the case of large-scale CO2 storage, the total amount of CO2 storage is assumed to be 200 million tons; the annual amount of CO2 storage is 10 million tons in a 20-year cycle. We selected three reservoir sites—sites A, B, and C—as commercial use cases. An additional site, Site D, was selected as a large-scale CO2 storage site. the storage capacities of aquifers distributed in 4 sites,sites A, B, and C as commercial use cases and site D as large-scale CO2 storage case, were evaluated. Additionally, injectivity and long-term behavior were examined through numerical analyses. These results indicated the possible of sites A, B, and C as commercial use and site D as large-scale CO2 storage.This paper describes the site selection, geological characterization, and CO2 storage potential of sites selected for case studies

Genetic Structure and Potential Environmental Determinants of Local Genetic Diversity in Japanese Honeybees (<i>Apis cerana japonica</i>)

<div><p>Declines in honeybee populations have been a recent concern. Although causes of the declines remain unclear, environmental factors may be responsible. We focused on the potential environmental determinants of local populations of wild honeybees, <i>Apis cerana japonica</i>, in Japan. This subspecies has little genetic variation in terms of its mitochondrial DNA sequences, and genetic variations at nuclear loci are as yet unknown. We estimated the genetic structure and environmental determinants of local genetic diversity in nuclear microsatellite genotypes of fathers and mothers, inferred from workers collected at 139 sites. The genotypes of fathers and mothers showed weak isolation by distance and negligible genetic structure. The local genetic diversity was high in central Japan, decreasing toward the peripheries, and depended on the climate and land use characteristics of the sites. The local genetic diversity decreased as the annual precipitation increased, and increased as the proportion of urban and paddy field areas increased. Positive effects of natural forest area, which have also been observed in terms of forager abundance in farms, were not detected with respect to the local genetic diversity. The findings suggest that <i>A</i>. <i>cerana japonica</i> forms a single population connected by gene flow in its main distributional range, and that climate and landscape properties potentially affect its local genetic diversity.</p></div

Locations of sites (<i>numbers</i>) where <i>Apis cerana japonica</i> workers were collected.

<p>Borders (<i>broken lines</i>) between prefectures are shown.</p

Genetic variation in father and mother populations inferred from <i>Apis cerana japonica</i> workers at each locus and at multiple loci.

<p>Genetic variation in father and mother populations inferred from <i>Apis cerana japonica</i> workers at each locus and at multiple loci.</p

Low Cholesterol Triggers Membrane Microdomain-dependent CD44 Shedding and Suppresses Tumor Cell Migration*

CD44 is a cell surface adhesion molecule for hyaluronan and is implicated in tumor invasion and metastasis. Proteolytic cleavage of CD44 plays a critical role in the migration of tumor cells and is regulated by factors present in the tumor microenvironment, such as hyaluronan oligosaccharides and epidermal growth factor. However, molecular mechanisms underlying the proteolytic cleavage on membranes remain poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that cholesterol depletion with methyl-β-cyclodextrin, which disintegrates membrane lipid rafts, enhances CD44 shedding mediated by a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 10 (ADAM10) and that cholesterol depletion disorders CD44 localization to the lipid raft. We also evaluated the effect of long term cholesterol reduction using a statin agent and demonstrated that statin enhances CD44 shedding and suppresses tumor cell migration on a hyaluronan-coated substrate. Our results indicate that membrane lipid organization regulates CD44 shedding and propose a possible molecular mechanism by which cholesterol reduction might be effective for preventing and treating the progression of malignant tumors

Effects of environmental propertie and collection month on local genetic diversity in <i>Apis cerana japonica</i>.

<p>Coefficients for standardized explanatory variables estimated in a model with the lowest Akaike’s information criterion are shown.</p

Effects of environmental properties and of collection month on local genetic diversity in <i>Apis cerana japonica</i>.

<p>Environmental properties are longitude (a, b, c, d), annual precipitation (e, f, g, h), annual mean of the daily mean temperature (i, j, k, l), and paddy field (q, r, s, t) and urban areas (u, v, w, x) at the sites. Collection month (m, n, o, p) is also shown. Diversity and heterozygosity are plotted for the fathers at 139 sites and mothers at 63 sites. Predictions (<i>lines</i>) pertaining to diversity and heterozygosity were obtained from the explanatory variables in models with the lowest Akaike’s information criterion, when other explanatory variables are given as mean values.</p