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The energy recovered from increasing amounts of municipal solid waste (MSW) is very advantageous as a source of sustainable energy. An option to convert MSW to useful products is the production of syngas for electric power generation. This strategy is viable with new and emerging technologies based on gasification. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the energy potential of MSW from its segregation. Through the obtained results, it was verified the expressive energy gain with segregation and consequent drying of MSW. It was estimated a production of 368 kW–770 kW, per tonne of processed MSW, in the studied gasification system. Therefore, the pre-treatment of waste through segregation may be a practical mean of achieving a sustainable route of electric power generation from MSW through gasification and combustion, as long as the process of segregation is executed through simple steps and with low cost. With the segregation of organic materials, in addition to doubling the amount of energy produced by the gasifier, it is also possible to make organic matter available for biodigestion and/or processes for production of gases with high aggregate value.

著者人数: 12名, Accepted: 2014-02-10, 資料番号: SA1004680000

Micro-spot two-photon photoemission (micro-2PPE) spectroscopy is used to probe unoccupied electronic levels at sub-monolayer (ML) films of lead phthalocyanine (PbPc) on graphite (HOPG). The high-energy resolution (30 meV) 2PPE spectra with high-lateral resolution (0.4 μm) show well-resolved features due to molecule-derived occupied/unoccupied levels and the image potential state (IPS). The surface images based on photoemission from the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) become laterally uniform after an annealing procedure. By contrast, the images based on the peak due to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the next LUMO (LUMO + 1) are laterally inhomogeneous even after the annealing. The IPS peak is broadened to higher energy by 0.3 eV for sub-ML films and becomes sharp when a 1 ML film is formed. The broadening indicates that the electron in the IPS is scattered by molecules within the mean free path in the range from 1 to 10 nm. PbPc molecules are randomly distributed including nm-clusters. The LUMO and LUMO + 1 levels are stabilized as the cluster size increases. The inhomogeneity of the surface image due to the LUMO + 1 peak arises from the size distribution of the nm-clusters. The present results demonstrate that the unoccupied levels are more sensitive to the environment than the occupied levels.

A high-precision sample stage for photoemission microscopy has been constructed to translate the sample by ±3 mm with accuracy better than 100 nm. The stage is actuated by step motors settled outside the vacuum. The accuracies of the translations were measured by observing a standard patterned sample with a photoemission electron microscope (PEEM) of 50 nm resolution. The accuracy was nearly independent of the distance of each translation step and the error was not accumulated by repeated steps. After round-trip translations up to 0.2 mm, the sample came back to the original position with accuracy of ±50 nm. The performance of the stage was demonstrated by observing growth processes of lead phthalocyanine (PbPc) films formed on graphite.

The membrane transport properties of 5-FU and its prodrugs were investigated using Caco-2 cell monolayers. To elucidate a membrane transport of prodrug itself, 2-O-alkoxy-5-fluoropyrimidone (2-O-alkoxy-5FP) derivative, which was stable in buffer and Caco-2 cell, was selected as a test compound. The permeation of 2-O-alkoxy-5FP derivatives was markedly greater than that of 5-FU. The dose-dependency of apical to basal (AP-BL) and BL-AP transports showed that 5-FU was dominantly transported by passive diffusion and ethoxy-5FP was transported by passive diffusion and unsaturated efflux transporter in the apical membrane of Caco-2 cell monolayers. Furthermore, treatment of Cap-Na, an enhancer of paracellular transport, demonstrated that 5-FU and 2-O-alkoxy-5FP derivatives permeated through paracellular and transcellular route, respectively. The significantly increased permeability of 2-O-alkoxy-5FP derivatives was mainly related to capping of hydrophilic functional group, and the moderate increase in permeability among 2-O-alkoxy-5FP derivatives was dependent on prolongation of the alkyl chain length.

The thin film growth of lead phthalocyanine (PbPc) on graphite substrate has been studied by photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) operated with tunable UV laser radiation. Origin of the contrast of PEEM images was elucidated by comparison with microspot ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (Micro-UPS). The photoelectron yield curves measured with PEEM for annealed films of different coverages were in agreement with the shifts of the vacuum levels determined by Micro-UPS. Below 1 monolayer (ML) coverage, PbPc molecules did not form islands/domains but were sparsely distributed and formed uniform films. Above 1 ML, PbPc molecules formed stable islands of bilayer in a well-ordered 1 ML film. On the other hand, for as-deposited films with thickness equivalent to annealed 0.3 ML coverage, PbPc molecules formed metastable bilayer islands of a few μm-size in the sparsely packed uniform film. These results demonstrate the capability of combined use of the complementary methods PEEM and Micro-UPS to resolve inhomogeneity of electronic structure.

The Okayama muon telescope and the extensive air shower (EAS) array in Large Area Air Shower (LAAS) experiments were used to measure both muon and electron components in EAS events. The average ratio of the number of muon tracks to electron tracks 0.01 ± 0.005 was derived from this analysis, which is consistent with the typical core distance of EAS from the telescope in PeV energies derived from EAS simulation results.

The sidereal anisotropy of cosmic rays with energy in the range of 10 14 – 10 15 eV was obtained by using Large Area Air Show (LAAS) experiments which deployed extensive air shower (EAS) arrays in large part of Japan. The first harmonic amplitude and phase in a function of right ascension axis are ( 0.23 ± 0.04 ) × 10 −2 and 0.4 ± 0.7 hour, respectively, and those of the second harmonics are ( 0.06 ± 0.04 ) × 10 −2 and 7.5 ± 2.6 hour, respectively. The first harmonic amplitude are compared with the diffusive mode of cosmic ray propagation, which predicts the dependence of anisotropy amplitudes on primary cosmic ray rigidities. The exponent value of rigidity dependence of diffusion coefficient is estimated as 0.34 ± 0.01 , in good agreement with Kolmogorov type spectrum of turbulence of galactic magnetic filed. Although a sky map in equatorial coordinates indicates excess and deficit regions above the isotropic expectation, their deviations were consistent with statistical ones, and more statistics are required to point the region and the opening angle of them.

We have developed low standby power (LSTP) FET utilizing HfSiON dielectric. Due to optimizations of channel and offset spacer structure, we could put threshold voltage of pFET into the place of LSTP region, working through the Fermi-level-pinning effect. This resulted in the reduction of propagation delay and in performance improvement of our test product. We could also introduce reverse body-biasing technique for standby leakage reduction even for LSTP device. In order to characterize positive bias temperature instability (PBTI) of nFET, we have evaluated the kinetics of the electron trapping in amorphous HfSiON (a-HfSiON) and partially crystallized HfSiON (c-HfSiON) dielectric. We have found that the difference in PBTI reflects the structural diversity between them, such as spatial and energy distribution of the traps. We need to take notice of such diversity and figure out the origin of PBTI. Phosphorus penetration into HfSiON should be avoided in terms of gate leakage increase and TDDB degradation. To suppress it, we proposed double-layer gate electrode structure, which consisted of as-deposited amorphous layer followed by poly-Si layer.

Anisotropic surface diffusion of In atoms was observed by photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) when a square-shaped microstructure of In metal was deposited onto thin films of perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxyric acid-dianhydride (PTCDA) grown on cleaved MoS 2 and GeS surfaces. For In microstructure on PTCDA/MoS 2 system, the PEEM images showed a triangle pattern, although the deposited shape of the In microstructure was square, indicating that In atoms diffuse to three directions on PTCDA/MoS 2 . Such triangle pattern was not observed on PTCDA/GeS but an oval structure was observed, revealing that In atoms diffuse to two directions on PTCDA/GeS with different diffusion constant. The two directions correspond well with surface crystal axes of GeS. Since the unit cells of PTCDA adsorbed on these two crystal surfaces are nearly the same, it is suggested that different anisotropic diffusion of In in these systems is related to strong In-PTCDA interaction which may be affected by the surface structure of underlying substrate.

In the energy region 10 - 100 TeV both the c.r. composition from direct measurements and the cross section for high energy secondary production in the very forward region for p-air interactions are rather uncertain. Contemporaneous measurements of the total energy and of the threshold energy/nucleon of the primary particle can be provided by the atmospheric Cherenkov light and high energy muons. These measurements are performed by the combined operation of the Cherenkov array of the EAS-TOP experiment on the surface (810 gcm(2) atmospheric depth) and of the LVD experiment in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratories (3300 m w.e.; E-mu(th) = 1.3 TeV) leading to the measurement of < N-mu > (E-mu > 1.3 TeV, E-o) in the given energy range. The combined operation of the experiments and preliminary results are reported.

In this paper we outline and apply a procedure to evaluate sound fields in a concert hall which involve scattered reflections. We adopted an experimental method and used a 1/10 scale model of the concert hall. Arrays of circular columns were placed in front of its walls to act as the scattering obstacles. The acoustic properties of the hall were measured both with and without the arrays of circular columns. Here, the quality of the scattered sound field was evaluated in terms of four orthogonal physical factors: sound pressure level (SPL), initial time-delay gap between the direct sound and the first reflection (Δt1), subsequent reverberation time (Tsub), and magnitude of the interaural cross-correlation function (IACC). The IACC at central seats near the stage and seating area near the columns were improved by the arrays of circular columns.

We have succeeded in measuring the Young's moduli of inorganic films with a diamond tip of 160–200 nm in diameter using magnetic-force-controlled atomic force microscopy (MFC-AFM). The measurement of Young's moduli was carried out by detecting the tip amplitude on the sample with an applied force of 20 nN. This technique was applied successfully to obtain Young's moduli mapping of gold islands with 1 nm thickness and nickel films with 10 nm thickness. We obtained an effective spring constant of 3000 N m−1 on gold and 21 000 N m−1 on nickel using MFC-AFM. We could normalize the effective area of the contact radius between the tip and the sample. A value of 350 GPa was derived for the Young's modulus of the nickel film, indicative of the elasticity of native nickel oxide (NiO2). This shows that the MFC-AFM technique measures the mechanical properties of a thin layer on top of the sample.

A chemiluminescence(CL)-based gas sensor made of γ-Al2O3 emits CL during catalytic oxidation of a combustible odor vapor. The CL intensity is proportional to the concentration of ethanol or acetone vapor in air. The algebraic sum rule is applicable to the CL intensities by the mixed gas of these two kinds of vapors, when the sensor is heated above 450°C. The CL intensities are measured in periodic temperature cycles between 650 and 450°C. The concentrations of vapor components can be detected analytically by measuring total CL intensities during the high and low temperatures for air containing mixed vapors of various concentrations of ethanol below 400 ppm and acetone below 200 ppm.

Lipopolysaccharide treatment of mouse macrophage-like J774 cells was found to result in the activation of three different nuclear proteins which specifically bind to oligonucleotide containing the NF-kappa B motif of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) gene. These are designated as NF-kappa B1, -kappa B2, and -kappa B3, according to their electrophoretic mobilities (fast, intermediate, and slow, respectively). Immunological and UV cross-linking studies showed that NF-kappa B1 consists of only p50 subunit, whereas both NF-kappa B2 and -kappa B3 contain NF-kappa B p65 subunit and c-Rel. In addition, NF-kappa B2 was also found to contain p50 subunit of NF-kappa B. The binding of three types of NF-kappa B proteins to HIV NF-kappa B motif was effectively inhibited by other NF-kappa B motifs, whose 3' half-site nucleotide sequences are T/A-T-T/C-CC (HIV, interleukin-6, interferon (INF)-beta, H2-Kb, I-E alpha d, and TNF-alpha 2 (nucleotide position -510)) and much less effectively by NF-kappa B motifs with 3' half-site sequences of TGCCC (TNF-alpha 3, nucleotide position -610), ATCTC (G-CSF), TATTC (Fc gamma R), or TCCTT (TNF-alpha 1, nucleotide position -850). Our data also suggested that NF-kappa B1 and -kappa B2 which contain p50 subunit of NF-kappa B bind with the higher preference for NF-kappa B motif of H2-Kb gene promoter than that of INF-beta, whereas NF-kappa B3 which does not contain p50 subunit appears to preferentially bind to NF-kappa B sites of IFN-beta.

The instrumented Charpy impact test has been widely used as a simple method semi-empirically evaluating the material impact toughness. The authors have developed a new dynamic fracture tougness evaluation system using a instrumented Charpy impact testing machine aided with a personal computer, which has been called the ‘CAI (Computer-Aided instrumented Charpy Impact testing)’ system. Using the CAI system, dynamic fracture toughness such as K d , J d , T mat and various energies can be obtained from the load-deflection curve of a single pre-cracked specimen. In this paper, in addition to the detail of the CAI system, the elastic deformation behaviour of the Charpy testing machine and its correspondence in the CAI system are described.

At the Neutrino 98 conference the Super Kamiokande collaboration presented a reduction of up-going μ-like events compared to down-going μ -like events by a factor of 0.54 −0.05 +0.06 for an exposure of 33 kton-years. Also, the zenith angle distribution observed by MACRO for -1 ≤ cos Θ ≤ −0.1 does not fit well for the no oscillation expectation. On the basis of x 2 tested results (shape, absolute value), however, their claim for neutrino oscillations cannot be considered to be firmly established from the standpoint of statistical evidence.

The effects of Cu2+, Fe2+ and Zn2+ on 15-hydroxy prostaglandin dehydrogenase activity in rabbit kidney cortex were examined. Cu2+ and Zn2+ (0.05-0.5 mM) inhibited the activity of this enzyme in a dose-dependent manner. The concentration required for 50% inhibition was approximately 0.1 mM for Cu2+ and 0.15 mM for Zn2+. The inhibition by both metals was uncompetitive and non-competitive with regard to NAD+ and prostaglandin E2, respectively, indicating that the mechanisms of the inhibition on the enzyme of both metals may be the same. Fe2+ had no effect on the activity of this enzyme. These results suggest that Cu2+ and Zn2+ have the potential to modulate the catabolism of prostaglandins by the kidney cortex.

In this study, we attempted to elucidate the metabolic pathway and enzymes actually involved in oxalate formation from glycolate in rat and human liver. In rat liver, the formation of oxalate from glycolate appeared to take place predominantly via glyoxylate. The oxalate formation from glycolate observed with crude enzyme preparations was almost entirely accounted for by the sequential actions of glycolate oxidase and xanthine oxidase (XOD) or lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Under the conditions used, no significant activity was attributable to glycolate dehydrogenase, an enzyme reported to catalyze the direct oxidation of glycolate to oxalate. Among the three enzymes known to catalyze the oxidation of glyoxylate to oxalate, glycolate oxidase and XOD showed much lower activities (a higher Km and lower Vmax) toward glyoxylate than those with the respective primary substrates. As to LDH, none of the LDH subunit-deficient patients examined showed profoundly lowered urinary oxalate excretion. Based on the results obtained, the presumed efficacies in vivo of individual enzymes, as catalysts of glyoxylate oxidation, and the in vivo conditions assumed to allow their catalysis of oxalate production are discussed.

Previous neutron measurements in the mixed magnetic system, CsMn1-xCoxCl3·2H2O have been extended to samples with x = 0.035, 0.05 and 0.075. In this system two kinds of magnetic ions with competing orthogonal spin anisotropies are randomly distributed. The ordering temperatures TN (x are clearly detected through the appearance of magnetic Bragg reflections. However, there are no indications for the existence of any other phase transition under the experimental conditions. The observed magnetic phase below TN (x) corresponds to an oblique antiferromagnetic phase predicted for such a system.

Micronuclei time response and the effects of multiple treatments of mutagens on induction of micronuclei were studied. In the time-response investigation, mice were treated once with each of 5 mutagens, then killed at various times. The bone marrow was examined for the presence of micronucleated erythrocytes (MNEs). The maximal frequencies for MNEs occurred around 30 h post treatment for all mutagens tested. To examine the effects of multiple treatments, the frequencies of MNEs observed after a single- or a 5-treatment schedule were compared for 9 mutagens. Both treatment schedules were equally sensitive in detecting alkylating agents and spindle poisons, whereas the 5-treatment schedule was more sensitive for anti-metabolites. The 5-treatment schedule was particularly effective for detecting the anti-metabolites 5-fluorouracil and methotrexate, which require longer than 30 h to induce micronuclei (Maier and Schmid, 1976). These results suggest that it is practicable to sample at 30 h in the single-treatment schedule, and seem to support the usefulness of the 5-treatment schedule in screening tests.

NADP-dependent formate dehydrogenase (NADP+) (EC 1.2.1.43) from Clostridium thermoaceticum has been purified to a specific activity of about 1100 mumol min-1 mg-1 when assayed at 55 degrees C and pH 7.5. The enzyme is extremely oxygen-sensitive and 7.6 microM of O2 causes 50% inhibition of initial velocity under assay conditions. Purification was done in an atmosphere at 95% N2 and 5% H2 and by including azide, dithionite, and glycerol as stabilizing agents in all buffer solutions. The enzyme contains, in molar ratios, 2 tungsten, 2 selenium, 36 iron, and about 50 inorganic sulfur. It has a molecular weight of about 340,000 and consist of two each of two different subunits giving the composition alpha 2 beta 2. The molecular weight of the alpha-subunit is 96,000 and that of the beta-subunit is 76,000. The selenium resides in the two alpha-subunits. Tungsten is released from the protein on denaturation and may exist as a tungsten cofactor. The enzyme catalyzes a reduction of CO2 with NADPH at pH 7.5 and 55 degrees C and Keq at these conditions is (2.35 +/- 0.49) x 10(-2) if CO2 is considered the active species and (1.48 +/- 0.31) x 10(-3) if HCO3- is the active species.

These studies demonstrated that 5-ethyl-5-(3-hydroxyl-1-methyl-butyl)-barbituric acid (PB-OH), a major metabolite of pentobarbital, antagonized pentobarbital-induced narcosis in both naive and pentobarbital tolerant mice. In PB-OH pretreated mice, the sleeping time induced by sodium pentobarbital was significantly shorter than that of the saline control animals. However, PB-OH failed to modify the pentobarbital-induced hypothermia. The findings also demonstrated that hepatic microsomal enzyme activity and half lives of pentobarbital and PB-OH in both plasma and brain were not modified by the pretreatment of PB-OH. The specific antagonistic effect of PB-OH appears to be a direct effect on sites in the CNS.

The effects of N-ethyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) on the induction of micronuclei were examined in mouse fetuses exposed in utero. By this study, MNNG was proved to be mutagenic in vivo. The frequency of micronucleated erythrocytes (MNEs) in fetal liver peaked at 18 h after a single intraperitonela injection into pregnant mice on day 13 of gestation. Then, to examine the effects of administration routes on the induction of micronuclei, the chemical was given by various routes, and the percentage of MNEs (%MNEs) in fetuses were examined 18 h after treatment. The %MNEs after administration of MNNG intraperitoneally, subcutaneously, intravenously, and orally was 4.7, 1.9, 0.8 and 0.3, respectively. The control value was 0.3. In the intraperitoneally treated mice, %MNEs for fetuses in the uterine horn olcated nearer the injection site was higher than that in the other. In addition, in the intraperitoneally treated mice, there was a tendency for the higher %MNEs to occur in the fetuses located near the injection site. Together with the results on the distribution of MNNG in mice (Frei and Lawley, 1976), these findings suggest that MNNG might be inactivated in the maternal systemic circulation and that the agent which induces micronuclei might be distributed to the fetuses by diffusion.

To compare the size of micronuclei induced by clastogens and by spindle poisons, bone-marrow smears were prepared 24 h after a single intraperitoneal injection of triethylenemelamine (TEM) (0.3 mg/kg) or vincristine (VCR) (0.125 mg/kg) into male mice. 100 micronucleated erythrocytes (MNEs) were randomly selected from each group and photomicrographed. Diameters of the cytoplasm (D) and the micronucleus (d) of each MNE were measured on the photographs. Relatively large micronuclei (d greater than or equal to D/4) were frequent (74%) in the VCR-treated group, and infrequent (2%) in the TEM-treated group. The frequencies of MNEs resulting in d greater than or equal to D/4 were determined for several other mutagens. All clastogens tested could be classified as TEM type, and all spindle poisons as VCR type. These findings indicate that it is possible to analyze the action site of micronucleus-inducing agents on the basis of the relative sizes of micronuclei.