An innovative culture technique for microalgae using hollow fiber membranes

A hollow fiber culture system has been proposed for supplying the carbon dioxide to the microalgae, to replace the conventional air bubbling system which has been adopted to supply carbon dioxide in most conventional microalgal culture. In order to examine the usefulness of hollow fiber membranes for the microalgal culture, the microalgal growth rate for Chlorella sp. and the effective mass transfer coefficient of carbon dioxide through the hollow fiber membranes have been measured using the proposed photobioreactor filled with hollow fibers. The microalgal growth rate using hollow fiber membranes was found to be three times greater than that observed in the conventional non-membrane photobioreactor. Please download the full abstract below

Early-Onset Chronic Inflammatory Disease Associated with Maternal Microchimerism

Maternal microchimerism (mMc) refers to the presence of a small population of cells originating from the mother. Whether mMc leads to autoimmune responses in children remains controversial. We describe here an 11-year-old boy with persistent fever and elevated levels of C-reactive protein from infancy onward. During infancy, the patient presented with high fever, skin rashes, and hepatic dysfunction. Careful examination including a liver biopsy failed to reveal the cause. At 4 years old, petechiae developed associated with thrombocytopenia and positive anti-dsDNA autoantibodies. Steroid pulse therapy was effective, but the effect of low-dose prednisone was insufficient. At age 9, an extensive differential diagnosis was considered especially for infantile onset autoinflammatory disorders but failed to make a definitive diagnosis. On admission, the patient exhibited short stature, hepatosplenomegaly, generalized superficial lymphadenopathy, and rashes. Laboratory findings revealed anemia, elevated levels of inflammation markers, and hypergammaglobulinemia. Serum complement levels were normal. Serum levels of IL-6 and B-cell activating factor were elevated. Viral infections were not identified. Although HLA typing revealed no noninherited maternal antigens in lymphocytes, female cells were demonstrated in the patient’s skin and lymph nodes, suggesting that maternal microchimerism might be involved in the pathogenesis of fever without source in infants

Affectionless control by the same-sex parents increases dysfunctional attitudes about achievement

AbstractBackgroundThe affectionless control parenting has been associated with depression in recipients. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of this parenting style on dysfunctional attitudes predisposing to depression.MethodsThe subjects were 666 Japanese volunteers. Perceived parental rearing was evaluated by the Parental Bonding Instrument, which has the care and protection subscales. Parental rearing was classified into four types, i.e., optimal parenting (high care/low protection), affectionate constraint (high care/high protection), neglectful parenting (low care/low protection), and affectionless control (low care/high protection). Dysfunctional attitudes were evaluated by the 24-item Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, which has the achievement, dependency and self-control subscales.ResultsMales with paternal affectionless control had higher achievement scores than those with paternal optimal parenting (P=.016). Similarly, females with maternal affectionless control had higher achievement scores than those with maternal optimal parenting (P=.016).ConclusionThe present study suggests that affectionless control by the same-sex parents increases dysfunctional attitudes about achievement

Kinetic Analysis and Prediction of Thermal Decomposition Behavior of Tertiary Pyridine Resin in the Nitrate Form

AbstractThe thermal decomposition behavior of the tertiary pyridine resin, which was used during the nuclide-separation process in the Advanced Optimization by Recycling Instructive Elements (Advanced ORIENT) cycle, was investigated in its nitrate form (TPR-NO3), in order to determine ways of preventing its runaway reaction. A thermal analysis of TPR-NO3 and an analysis of the gases produced during decomposition were employed for the purpose. In addition, the kinetics parameters were evaluated via a kinetic analysis of the empirical thermal data. Finally, the validity of the reaction model was assessed by comparing the thermal behavior predicted by the estimated reaction model with that determined by the results of a gram-scale heating test performed in our previous study. We found that, when TPR-NO3 was heated, first, nitric acid was removed. Subsequently, TPR-NO3 was oxidized by the removed nitric acid. Under the assumption that it took place an autocatalytic oxidation and nth order thermal decomposition in parallel, the thermogravimetric analysis data could be fitted very well using a nonlinear regression model. The thermal behavior of TPR-NO3 could be predicted by the reaction model determined in this study under conditions where the cooling effect owing to evaporation was ignored. In addition, the maximum temperature and time to maximum rate of a runaway reaction predicted using the determined reaction model gave the result on the side of prudence

Fabrication of Bi2212 Cross Whiskers Junction

An intrinsic Josephson junction has been successfully fabricated without any micro-fabrication technique. Two Bi2212 whiskers were crossed with one another and joined by post-annealing. The inter-whisker electrical transport properties were measured by the four-probe method. The temperature dependence of resistance exhibited metallic behavior above TC. The resistance decreased to zero around 80K, corresponding to the superconducting transition. The current-voltage characteristics at 5K exhibited a small hysteresis and voltage jump, which can be explained by the intrinsic Josephson effect.Comment: 3 page PDF fil

The development of a highperformance perfluorinated polymer electret and its application to micro power generation

Abstract Recently, micro power generation using electrets has attracted much attention due to its large power output at a low frequency range. Since the theoretical power output is proportional to the square of the surface charge density of the electret, the development of a high-performance electret is required. In the present study, it is shown that the surface charge density of a CYTOP electret is significantly improved by the addition of terminal groups. Based on this fact, a novel high-performance polymer electret has been developed by doping a silane-coupling reagent into the polymer. A series of measurements of surface potential and TSD (thermally stimulated discharge) spectra was made for various CYTOP films prepared with different silane-coupling reagent concentrations. It is found that the surface charge density, charge stability and thermal resistibility of electric charges are markedly improved by the doping. A surface charge density of 1.5 mC cm −2 , which is three times larger than that of Teflon AF, has been obtained on a 15 μm thick film. In addition, the thermal stability of the CYTOP electret is superior to that of Teflon AF. Power generation experiment is also performed using the patterned CYTOP electret of 20 × 20 mm 2 . At a low seismic frequency of 20 Hz, 0.7 mW power generation has been accomplished, which is about 2.5 times higher than our previous result