IR SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS OF THERMAL BEHAVIOR OF ADSORBED WATER ON Y-TYPE ZEOLITE

In this study, we measured the IR spectra of water adsorbed at a differential temperature under constant pressure. Our purpose is to present a simple estimation method for the recycled temperature condition of water adsorbents. For a NaY zeolite, the IR integrated intensity of the bending vibration band of adsorbed water was increased with a decrease of temperature. The IR spectra were measured from 230℃ to 30℃ for several ion-exchanged Y-type zeolites. On the other hand, the adsorption isotherms of water on these zeolites were measured at 30℃. The result of this work is that the best correlation between the IR integrated intensity and the amount of adsorbed water was found for some of the zeolites. We concluded that the obtained correlation equation could easily estimate the amount of water desorbed between arbitrary temperatures

Estimation of cool summer damage in the Tohoku region based on the MRI AGCM

We analyzed the impact of climate change due to global warming on the risk of cool summer damage to paddy rice in the Tohoku region of Japan. We downscaled the atmospheric general circulation model of the Meteorological Research Institute(MRI AGCM) to 10 km, and we used monthly average temperatures and their standard deviations to correct the bias of the simulated temperatures. We did not use daily averaged temperatures to determine the risk of cool summer damage. Instead, we used the cooling degree calculated from the average daily temperature over a period of time(CDAT). We also used the standardized yield calculated from temperatures during the month preceding beading. An examination of the reproducibility of cooling damage occurring under the current climate was based on bias-corrected data which revealed that although the simulated risk of cool summer damage slightly underestimated both the CDAT and the standardized yield, the areal distributions of risk were similar to those in years of cool summer damage. We assumed that the heading stage occurred 15.6 days earlier than current climate because of the impact of temperature increase under the future climate and therefore calculated the CDAT and standardized yield by advancing the critical period by half a month. During the second- and third-coolest summers under the future climate scenario, the risk of cool summer damage decreased in the southern Tohoku region facing the Pacific Ocean and inAomori Prefecture on the Japan Sea side, but the risk of cool summer damage was almost the same as during the observed cool summer of 1980. In summary, our results revealed that under a future climate, simulated by the MRI AGCM, the risk of cool summer damage will persist in the Tohoku region; risk management for cool summer damage will therefore be essential, even though global temperatures rise

Characterization of Ion Cyclotron Wall Conditioning Using Material Probes in LHD

The ion cyclotron wall conditioning (ICWC) is one of the conditioning methods to reduce impurities and to remove tritium from the plasma facing components. Among the advantages of ICWC are the possible operation under strong magnetic field for fully torus area based on the charge exchange damage observed in thin SS samples arranged on a hexahxedron block holder with three different facings, the areas influenced by ICWC is estimated. On the plasma facing area of the material holder, high density of helium bubbles is observed by transmission electron microscope (TEM). But the other areas show no observable damage. The fact that the bubble were observed only in a sample facing the plasma implies that the effective particles, most probably charge exchange neutrals come to the wall straightly Thus, cleaning of the surfaces un-exposed to plasma directly and those in shadow area is difficult by ICWC

Climate mitigation sustains agricultural research and development expenditure returns for maize yield improvement in developing countries

Governmental expenditure on agricultural research and development (R&D) has played a substantial role in increasing crop yields in recent decades. However, studies suggest that annual yield growth rates would decline in a warming climate compared to that in a non-warming climate. Here, we present how projected climate could alter maize yield gain owing to a US$ 1 billion increase in agricultural R&D expenditure (referred to as yield response) for 71 maize-producing countries using global gridded crop model simulations with socioeconomic and climate scenarios as inputs. For the middle of this century (2041–2060) under the low warming scenario (shared socioeconomic pathways: SSP126), the median yield response between countries is estimated to be the highest at 27.2% in the low-income group, followed by 6.6% in the lower-middle-income group, 1.0% in the high-income group, and 0.1% in upper-middle-income group. The projected median yield response for lower (the low- and lower-middle)-income groups under the high warming scenario (SSP585) was approximately half than that under the low warming scenario: 27.2% → 15.6% for the low-income, 6.6% → 1.7% for the lower-middle-income, and 1.0% → 0.6% for the high-income groups. For the upper-middle-income group, where there is limited room for adopting high-yielding technology and management already being used in higher (the high- and higher-middle)-income groups, the negative impacts of climate change cannot be offset and yields are projected to decline, even with continued R&D investments (0.1% → –0.2%). Even if the R&D expenditures increase at the same value, expected yield gains will depend on future warming levels. This finding suggests that climate mitigation is a prerequisite for maintaining the yield returns from agricultural R&D investments in developing countries