FLOW BEHAVIORS IN A HIGH SOLID FLUX CIRCULATING FLUIDIZED BED COMPOSED OF A RISER, A DOWNER AND A BUBBLING FLUIDIZED BED

A circulating fluidized bed coal gasifier cold model which consists of an acrylic riser, a downer, and a bubbling fluidized bed were set up. Flow behaviors were investigated using silica sand with the solid mass flux up to 336 kg/m2•s. The effects of the solid inventory and the seals between the three reaction zones on the solid mass flux were investigated and discussed

An innate interaction between IL-18 and the propeptide that inactivates its precursor form

Uncontrolled secretion of mature interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 is responsible for severe autoinflammatory or autoimmune disorders and various allergic diseases. Here we report an intramolecular interaction between IL-18 and its propeptide, which is proteolytically removed from its precursor proIL-18 during maturation. The intramolecular interaction was recapitulated intermolecularly using recombinant propeptide. These results suggest the possibility of developing a novel class of peptide-based IL-18 inhibitors that could serve as therapeutic agents for IL-18-related inflammatory diseases

Impact of Low-Variability SOTB Process on Ultra-Low-Voltage Operation of 1 Million Logic Gates

In this study, we demonstrate near-0.1 V minimum operating voltage of a low-variability Silicon on Thin Buried Oxide (SOTB) process for one million logic gates on silicon. Low process variability is required to obtain higher energy efficiency during ultra-low-voltage operation with steeper subthreshold slope transistors. In this study, we verify the decrease in operating voltage of logic circuits via a variability-suppressed SOTB process. In our measurement results with test chips fabricated in 65-nm SOTB and bulk processes, the operating voltage at which the first failure is observed was lowered from 0.2 to 0.125 V by introducing a low-variability SOTB process. Even at 0.115 V, over 40% yield can be expected as per our measurement results on SOTB test chips

Flume Experiments Evaluating the Efficacy of a Large Wood Trap Featuring Horizontal Rods

Large wood (LW) disasters, which often accompany sediment-related disasters, occur worldwide. To prevent and mitigate such disasters, we developed a unique LW trap featuring horizontal rods aligned with the flow. When LW enters the trap, it is scooped up by the rods and thus separated from water and sediment. We explored trapping efficacy using a flume of slope 0.087. Water circulated at a constant rate of 1.8 L/s, LW was added to the flow, and the trapping rates were measured. We focused on the relative wood length (Lw) with respect to the horizontal rod spacing (Sr), the number of LW units supplied, and the supply rate. A longer relative length (Lw/Sr) of LW was associated with a higher trapping rate. The trapping rate was also high when the LW number or supply rate was high. The critical Lw/Sr value was 1.5; below this value, LW was not trapped. This study yields the basic information needed to design traps featuring horizontal rods to mitigate LW-related disasters

Detection and identification of furan fatty acids from fish lipids by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-Q-TOF-MS), we have developed a new method for detection and identification of furan fatty acids (F-acids), which are widely distributed in living organisms and foods as minor lipid components and are known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. For this purpose, total fatty acids prepared from the testis lipids of Japanese chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) were examined without any concentration or isolation of F-acids. In negative ESI mode, F-acids gave a prominent [M−H]− ion, by which individual F-acids could be detected and identified. High-resolution extracted ion chromatograms clearly showed the occurrence of five major F-acid homologs as already reported by GC/MS. The method was successfully applied to several fish samples and revealed the occurrence of F-acids for the first time in the two New Zealand fish, hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae) and school shark (Galeorhinus galeus)

SOTB Implementation of a Field Programmable Gate Array with Fine-Grained Vt Programmability

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are one of the most widespread reconfigurable devices in which various functions can be implemented by storing circuit connection information and logic values into configuration memories. One of the most important issues in the modern FPGA is the reduction of its static leakage power consumption. Flex Power FPGA, which has been proposed to overcome this problem, uses a body biasing technique to implement the fine-grained threshold voltage (Vt) programmability in the FPGA. A low-Vt state can be assigned only to the component circuits along the critical path of the application design mapped on the FPGA, so that the static leakage power consumption can be reduced drastically. Flex Power FPGA is an important application target for the SOTB (silicon on thin buried oxide) device, which features a wide-range body biasing ability and the high sensitivity of Vt variation by body biasing, resulting in a drastic subthreshold leakage current reduction caused by static leakage power. In this paper, the Flex Power FPGA test chip is fabricated in SOTB technology, and the functional test and performance evaluation of a mapped 32-bit binary counter circuit are performed successfully. As a result, a three orders of magnitude static leakage reduction with a bias range of 2.1 V demonstrates the excellent Vt controllability of the SOTB transistors, and the 1.2 V bias difference achieves a 50× leakage reduction without degrading speed