Development of a State-of-the-Art Dry Low NOx Gas Turbine Combustor for IGCC with CCS

The successful development of the coal-based integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) with carbon capture and storage (CCS) requires gas turbines capable of achieving dry low nitrogen oxide (NOx) combustion of hydrogen-rich syngas fuels for low emissions and high plant efficiency. This chapter describes the development of a “multi-cluster combustor” as a state-of-the-art dry low NOx combustor for hydrogen-rich syngas fuels. The combustor consists of multiple clusters of pairs of one fuel nozzle and one air hole that are installed coaxially. The essence of the design concept is the integration of two key technologies: rapid mixing of fuel and air for low NOx and flame lifting for flashback-resistant combustion. The combustor has been developed in three steps: burner development, combustor development, and feasibility demonstration for practical plants. The combustor was tested with a practical syngas fuel in a multi-can combustor configuration in an IGCC pilot plant in the final step. The combustor achieved the dry low NOx combustion of the syngas fuel in the pilot plant and the test results demonstrated the feasibility for achieving dry low NOx combustion of the syngas fuel in practical plants

Foreign Produced Content and Japanese Price Disinflation: An Empirical Study

This research investigates the role non-macroeconomic factors have played in subduing inflationary pressures in Japan. We investigate the hypothesis that the under-recognized presence of goods with high foreign produced content (FPC) in the consumer market basket has coincided with reduced price-level increases over the time period 1991-2004. An empirical examination and descriptive comparison of CPI market basket items and import data categories suggest the negative relationship between FPC and the CPI inflation rate over this time period is significant. Our conclusions suggest the extent to which measures of inflation are considered to be an accurate gauge of macroeconomic conditions or monetary policy effectiveness is overstated

Surface microstructured selective emitters for TPV systems

科研費報告書収録論文(課題番号:11555057・基盤研究(B)(2)・H11～H13/研究代表者:湯上, 浩雄/太陽熱光起電力による高温輻射-電力直接変換システムの開発

Intersubband electronic Raman scattering in narrow GaAs single quantum wells dominated by single-particle excitations

We measured resonant Raman scattering by intersubband electronic excitations in GaAs/AlAs single quantum wells (QWs) with well widths ranging from 8.5 to 18 nm. In narrow (less than 10 nm) QWs with sufficiently high electron concentrations, only single-particle excitations (SPEs) were observed in intersubband Raman scattering, which was confirmed by the well-width dependence of Raman spectra. We found characteristic variations in Raman shift and line shape for SPEs with incident photon energy in the narrow QWs.Comment: 5 pages including 4 figure

Evidence for True Fall-mating in Japanese Newt Cynops pyrrhogaster

The mating season of Japanese newt Cynops pyrrhogaster is generally thought to occur once a year in spring to early summer, during the months of April to June, as in many other Japanese amphibians. However, in fall, from September to October, we often observed breeding colored males demonstrating a mating behavior with females in the field. In this study, in order to identify their true mating season, we anatomically and histologically investigated the annual maturation cycle of gonads and reproductive organs, including cloacal spermathecae in females, and, using a molecular marker, identified the seasonal origins of sperm, which are released in spring to perform insemination. We found that, in fall, ovaries are somewhat immature, while the testes were mature and the sperm already stored in the deferent ducts. Females stored a significant amount of sperm in around 80% of the spermatechae examined in October and 100% in December. When artificially ovulated in March before contact with male partners after hibernation, the females spawned fertilized eggs and these developed normally. Finally, we identified heterozygous genotypes of the visual pigment gene for the two different population types in the embryos, which were derived from a female who established contact with males of the same population in fall and then switched to males from another population until oviposition in spring. We therefore, conclude that the true mating season of this species occurs from fall to early summer, interrupted only by winter, and lasts six months longer (from October to June) than generally believed

Investigation of Relation between EFTB Test and RF Conductive Immunity Test Using BER and Baseband Signal

High-speed telecommunication systems are influenced by electromagnetic environments because they need a wide bandwidth to transmit signals. Immunity tests of telecommunication equipment are effective for improving its immunity to electromagnetic environments. However, immunity tests are expensive to carry out because there are several different tests. The correlation among the tests should therefore be examined in order to reduce the kinds of tests that are necessary. This paper investigates the correlation between the electrical fast transient/burst (EFTB) test and the radio frequency (RF) conductive immunity test. Imitation equipment was constructed with a balun, and a baseband signal was transmitted from the associated equipment to the imitation equipment. Then, disturbances were applied to the equipment, and the telecommunication quality was evaluated by using the bit error rate (BER). The results from the EFTB test indicated that the BER was less than 6×10 −5 and the value was independent of the peak value. The results from the RF conductive immunity test indicated that the BER was affected by the longitudinal conversion loss (LCL)

Isopeptide bond formation mediated by δ-selenolysine for chemical ubiquitination

Protein ubiquitination is involved in nearly all biological processes in Eukaryotes. To gain precise insights into the function of ubiquitination in these processes, researchers frequently employ ubiquitinated protein probes with well-defined structures. While chemical protein synthesis has afforded a variety of ubiquitinated protein probes, there remains a demand for efficient synthesis methods for complex probes, such as ubiquitinated glycoproteins and ubiquitinated cysteine-containing proteins. In this study, we introduce a new method to obtain ubiquitinated proteins through isopeptide bond formation mediated by δ-selenolysine residues. We synthesized δ-selenolysine derivatives in both L- and D-forms starting from DL-δ-hydroxy-DL-lysine, accomplished by substituting the δ-mesylate with KSeCN and by enzymatic optical resolution with L- and D-aminoacylase. We synthesized ubiquitin (46–76)-α-hydrazide with a δ-seleno-L-lysine residue at position 48, as well as ubiquitin (46–76)-α-thioester, using solid-phase peptide synthesis. Subsequently, the δ-selenolysine-mediated ligation of these peptides, followed by one-pot deselenization, provided the desired isopeptide-linked ubiquitin peptide. The new δ-selenolysine-mediated isopeptide bond formation offers an alternative method to obtain complex ubiquitin- and ubiquitin-like probes with multiple post-translational modifications. These probes hold promise for advancing our understanding of ubiquitin biology