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We studied homogeneity in the microwave surface resistance of Au-coated YBa2Cu3O7−δ (Au/YBCO) films. The Au/YBCO film with 4-inches in diameter was prepared in-situ with the thicknesses of 68 nm and 365 nm for the Au layer and the YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) layer, respectively. We measured the effective surface resistance (RS,eff) of the Au/YBCO film at temperatures of 25 K, 60 K, 70 K, and 77 K, respectively, at 29 different positions on the film. The RS,eff values were analyzed with the finite thicknesses of the Au and the YBCO layers taken into consideration. The local RS,eff values of the Au/YBCO film appeared to be almost uniform at 25 K. Meanwhile significant positional dependences were observed for the RS,eff of the Au/YBCO film at 60 K, 70 K and 77 K, respectively, which seemed to be due to non-uniform local penetration depth (λ) of the YBCO layer rather than due to variations in the local real-part conductivity of the YBCO layer. The observed results could not be attributed to the properties of the Au layer. At temperatures below the critical temperature of YBCO, the observed RS,eff values of the Au/YBCO film were significantly lower than those estimated using the surface resistance of Au and YBCO, which reflected proximity effects of the normal-metal Au layer in contact with the superconducting YBCO layer. Homogeneity in the RS,eff of the Au/YBCO film might be correlated with the distributions in the local λ of the YBCO layer, providing valuable information needed for designing microwave filters.

Iron-based nanoparticles with uniform and high particle dispersion, which are supported on carbon structures, have been used for various applications. However, their preparation still suffers from complicated synthesis involving multiple steps and from the high price of precursors and solvents. In the present work, a new carbon encapsulated iron-carbide nanoparticle supported on nitrogen-doped porous carbon (Fe5C2@C/NPC) structure was introduced. It was made using a simple solid-state reaction with sequential thermal treatments. Fe5C2@C/NPC is a highly active and stable catalyst for the high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction. It showed very high hydrocarbon productivity (4.71 gHC·gcat−1·h−1) with high CO conversions (up to 96%).

This study investigates the effect of cobalt loading (5–20 wt% Co) on the physical properties of the alumina support and cobalt particle size of Co/γ-Al2O3 catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reaction (T = 210 °C (set), P = 20 bar, H2/CO = 2). To characterize the catalysts and correlate these characteristics with their catalytic activities in FTS, N2 adsorption, inductively coupled plasma, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies were conducted. N2 adsorption and XRD analyses showed that as the cobalt loading was increased up to 15 wt%, the number of cobalt oxide particles increased by the direct interaction between cobalt oxide and the alumina support surface, but that when the cobalt loading was further increased to 20 wt%, the particle size of the cobalt oxide increased abruptly due to the additional cobalt loading on the previously loaded cobalt oxide. These physical properties of the supported cobalt catalysts were attributed to the pore structure of the alumina support. From the TEM micrographs, the size of cobalt particles was roughly estimated to increase from 20 to 50 nm at a cobalt loading up to 15 wt% Co/γ-Al2O3 to 70–100 nm at 20 wt% cobalt loading. For the 5–15 wt% Co/γ-Al2O3 catalysts, CO conversion and C5+ liquid oil productivity increased with increasing cobalt loading because they were strongly proportional to the number of cobalt particle active sites. However, the 20 wt% Co/γ-Al2O3 catalyst showed the highest value of α because the larger cobalt particles increased the opportunity for chain growth. The XPS data also supported the greater reducibility of the cobalt species in 20 wt% Co/γ-Al2O3 and hence its larger size compared to that at low cobalt loading.

The thermal durability of thermal barrier coating systems (TBCs) obtained using feedstock powders with different purity and phase content was investigated by thermal shock testing with different cycle times, including the effects on the sintering and phase transformation behaviors. Four 8 wt.% yttria-stabilized zirconia powders, with regular purity (TC1), high purity (TC2 and TC3), and without monoclinic phase (TC4), were employed to prepare the topcoat of TBC by atmospheric plasma spray on a NiCoCrAlY bondcoat deposited by high velocity oxy-fuel. The microstructure and phase stability of the topcoats affected the TBCs’ lifetime in the short-term (1 h) and long-term (24 h) furnace cyclic test (FCT) at 1100 °C and jet engine thermal shock (JETS) test. In the short-term FCT and JETS tests, in which coatings are severely subjected to thermal stress, the TBCs’ lifetime is most affected by the microstructure of the topcoat. The coating layer with the lowest monoclinic phase in the as-sprayed state showed the lowest phase-transformation characteristics in the isothermal oxidation test (1400 °C). These properties resulted in the best lifetime in the long-term FCT. Therefore, the coating material and evaluating methods of TBCs’ life should be selected depending on the usage environment.

An antiferromagnetic-IrMn-based giant-magnetoresistance spin-valve (GMR-SV) multilayer on a high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) film was prepared using an ion-beam deposition system. The exchange bias coupling field (Hex), coercivity (HC), and magnetoresistance ratio (MR (%)) of the hybrid YBCO/GMR-SV multilayer structure were measured and compared at room temperature and 77 K. The MR ratio (%) of the hybrid YBCO/GMR-SV structure measured by the four-probe method at 77 K was − 9.3%, different from that of the conventional GMR-SV structure. The phenomenon of a negative MR (%) below the critical temperature (Tc) can be explained by the current-in-plane tunneling effect, when the resistance of the middle gap (G) layer between the high-temperature superconductor YBCO and GMR-SV multilayer reaches a value comparable to the plane resistance of the upper metal layer. In order to analyze the inversed MR (%) of the hybrid YBCO/GMR-SV multilayer structure, the equivalent circuit for each layer was constructed and an equation of the output voltage was derived.

High-TC GdBa2Cu3O7−δ (GdBCO) superconductor has been popular for making superconductive tapes that have much potential for various fields of large-scale applications. We investigated aging effects on the microwave surface resistance (RS) of Ag-coated GdBCO layer on Hastelloy substrate, so called GdBCO coated conductors (CCs), and Ag-coated GdBCO films on LaAlO3 (LAO) single-crystal substrates at cryogenic temperatures and compared them with each other. Unlike the RS of Ag-coated GdBCO films showing significant degradation in 4 weeks, no significant aging effects were found in our Ag-coated GdBCO CCs aged 85 weeks. The reactive co-evaporation deposition and reaction (RCE-DR) method was used for preparing the Ag-coated GdBCO CCs. Such durability of the Ag-coated GdBCO CCs in terms of the RS could be explained by existence of a protective impurity phase, i.e., Gd-free Ba–Cu–O phase as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy study combined with the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements. Although the scope of this study is limited to the Ag-coated GdBCO CCs prepared by using the RCE-DR method, our results suggest that a solution for preventing the aging effects on transport properties of other kinds of Ag-coated GdBCO CCs could be realized by means of an artificially-grown protective impurity layer.

The thermal durability of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) obtained using feedstock powders with different purity and phase content was investigated by cyclic thermal testing, including the effects on the sintering and phase transformation behaviors. Three kinds of 8 wt.% yttria-stabilized zirconia, namely regular purity (8YSZ), high purity (HP), and no monoclinic phase (nMP), were employed to prepare top coats by atmospheric plasma spraying on a NiCoCrAlY bond coat using a high-velocity oxy-fuel system. Use of 8YSZ, HP, and nMP for plasma spraying affected the microstructure and lifetime of the TBC in furnace cyclic testing (FCT) at 1100 °C and the sintering rate during annealing at 1400 °C for 50, 100, 200, and 400 h. In FCT, the TBC formed from nMP showed the longest durability, while that formed from HP showed lifetime performance similar to that obtained with regular-purity 8YSZ. The TBC obtained with nMP also exhibited the lowest monoclinic phase transition rate, followed by those obtained using HP and 8YSZ.

A cobalt-silica hybrid nanocatalyst bearing small cobalt particles of diameter ~5 nm was prepared through a hydrothermal reaction and hydrogen reduction. The resulting material showed very high CO conversion (>82%) and high hydrocarbon productivity (~1.0 gHC·g−1 cat·h−1) with high activity (~8.5 × 10−5 molCO·g Co −1 ·s−1) in the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis reaction.

In this paper, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient of carbon dioxide at low temperature of −30 to −20 °C in a horizontal smooth tube was investigated experimentally. The test devices consist of mass flowmeter, pre-heater, magnetic gear pump, test section (evaporator), condenser and liquid receiver. Test section is made of cooper tube. Inner and outer diameter of the test section is 8 and 9.52 mm, respectively. The experiment is conducted at mass fluxes from 100 to 300 kg/m2 s, saturation temperature from −30 to −20 °C. The main results are summarized as follows: In case that the mass flux of carbon dioxide is 100 kg/m2 s, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient is almost constant regardless of vapor quality. In case of 200 and 300 kg/m2 s, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient increases steadily with increasing vapor quality. For the same mass flux, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient increases as the evaporation temperature of the refrigerant decreases. In comparison of heat transfer correlations with the experimental result, the evaporation heat transfer correlations do not predict them exactly. Therefore, more accurate heat transfer correlation than the previous one is required.

The paper proposes a method for parallelizing migrations to reduce the time required for virtual machine (VM) relocation. During VM relocation, VMs need to wait for their migrations in a chain due to the limited resource of the physical machines (PMs), lengthening the VM relocation time. The essence of the proposed scheme is to break off the VMs' chained migration wait and enables VM migrations to be performed in parallel. The VMs' chained migration wait can be broken off by allowing some VMs, called breakup VMs, to migrate without waiting. A breakup VM is the first VM in a chain of migrations with which the total migration time is reduced when the chain is split at that VM and performed in parallel. Breakup VMs are selected recursively from all the split migration chains until the total migration time can no longer be reduced. After all breakup VMs are selected, VMs' chained migrations are parallelized by temporarily migrating the breakup VMs to spare PMs regardless of their initial migration order. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated through simulation. The VM relocation time is affected by the number of VMs and PM utilization in a cluster. Therefore, we simulate relocations of 100---800 VMs in clusters with different average CPU and memory utilizations of PMs. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme reduces VM relocation time by 21.9---62.0 % while using 1.6---5.8 % spare PMs to parallelize the chained migrations.

Background Isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutation is common in low-grade glioma (approximately 80%) and acute myeloid leukemia (approximately 10%). Other than brain tumor or hematologic malignancies, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCC) is a well-known solid tumor with IDH1 mutation (6.8–20%). Histologically, poor differentiation and clear cell change are associated with IDH1 mutation in iCC. Since hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) shares histologic features with iCC, some specific subtypes of HCC might show a higher IDH1 mutation rate than reported before (0.5–1.5%). Methods Forty-six cases of iCC and 48 cases of HCC (including 20 cases of clear cell type and 13 cases of pseudoglandular pattern) were tested for IDH1 mutation by pyrosequencing. Results Three cases in iCC (6.5%) and five cases in HCC (10.4%) had IDH1 mutation, all of which were Arg132Cys. IDH1 mutant HCCs were all clear cell type. Although the IDH1 mutation rate between iCC and HCC demonstrated no significant difference, clear cell HCC revealed statistically increased mutation rate compared to that of HCC without clear cell change (P = 0.009). Presence of IDH1 mutation was related with poor survival in clear cell HCC patients (P = 0.004). Conclusions Clear cell HCC showed higher frequency of IDH1 mutation rate than other variants of HCC. This result consolidates the assumption that morphological features of tumors reflect molecular alterations.

We investigated microwave losses of single-crystalline Si and 4H-SiC at cryogenic temperatures at 8.6–24 GHz using a method involving a dielectric resonator with high-T c superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-δ films used to improve the measurement sensitivity. The loss tangent of our undoped n-type Si appeared to be extremely low at temperatures below 20 K with a value of 1 × 10−6 at 24 GHz at 10 K, which is more than 100 times lower than the value of 2 × 10−4 at 6.8 GHz at 10 K reported by Krupka et al. [IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech. 54, 3995 (2006)] for undoped p-type Si. Meanwhile, the loss tangent of pristine 4H-SiC appeared to be very high with a value of 0.01 at 10 K at 8.6 GHz, which is 4000 times higher than that of our undoped Si. When the pristine 4H-SiC was irradiated with thermal neutrons, the loss tangent was enhanced by seven times due to the significantly reduced electrical resistivity. Our results show that, at temperatures below 20 K, the loss tangent of undoped n-type Si is low enough for various cryogenic applications and that thermal neutron irradiation could provide a useful means of reducing the electrical resistivity of SiC possibly by means of neutron transmutation doping.

Cytoplasmic polyadenylation binding protein 1 (CPEB1) is a RNA binding protein, which regulates translation of target mRNAs by regulating polyadenylation status. CPEB1 plays important roles in the regulation of germline cell development by modulating cell cycle progression through the polyadenylation of target mRNAs such as cyclin B1. Similar mechanism is reported in proliferating astrocytes by us, although CPEB1 is involved in the transport of target mRNAs as well as local translation at dendritic spines. In this study, we found the expression of CPEB1 in cultured rat primary neural progenitor cells (NPCs). EGF stimulation of cultured NPCs induced rapid phosphorylation of CPEB1, a hallmark of CPEB1-dependent translational control along with cyclin B1 polyadenylation and translation. EGF-induced activation of ERK1/2 and Aurora A kinase was responsible for CPEB1 phosphorylation. Pharmacological inhibition studies suggested that ERK1/2 is involved in the activation of Aurora A kinase and regulation of CPEB1 phosphorylation in cultured NPCs. Long-term incubation in EGF resulted in the down-regulation of CPEB1 expression, which further increased expression of cyclin B1 and cell cycle progression. When we down-regulated the expression of CPEB1 in NPCs by siRNA transfection, the proliferation of NPCs was increased. Increased NPCs proliferation by down-regulation of CPEB1 resulted in eventual up-regulation of neuronal differentiation with increase in both pre- and post-synaptic proteins. The results from the present study may suggest the importance of translational control in the regulation of neuronal development, an emerging concept in many neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorder.

Fischer–Tropsch synthesis was carried out over industrially important Fe/Cu/K/SiO2 catalysts containing a small amount of residual sodium which originated from the sodium carbonate solution used as a precipitating agent. The structural promoter, SiO2, was incorporated by two comparative sequences: immediately after precipitation (AP) or after a subsequent wash (AW). Whereas AW exhibited severe deactivation during the reaction, AP displayed high and stable catalytic activity for the entire reaction time. Furthermore, AP showed higher selectivity of liquid hydrocarbons, in particular heavy hydrocarbons, than AW. We attribute the advantageous catalytic performance observed in AP to the enhanced reducibility and higher surface basicity of AP, potentially induced by higher dispersion of catalysts and promoters.

The purpose of this study was to produce a metabolomic profile of a human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) pellet sample to identify biomarkers of adipogenic differentiation using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. hMSC adipogenesis was monitored over four cycles of differentiation; one cycle consisted of treatment with adipogenic induction medium for 3 days followed by adipogenic maintenance medium for 1 day. Adipogenesis in control hMSCs was confirmed by Oil Red O staining. A NMR micro-imaging machine with a zqpr pulse (total volume) sequence was used to examine the metabolic changes in the cell pellet samples. Several lipid peaks were predominant among the various metabolite peaks in the NMR spectroscopy data. In particular, the lipid methylene (-[CH2]n-) signal at 1.3 ppm increased 3.6-fold during the first cycle, 15.7-fold during the second cycle, and 28.3-fold during the third cycle. Our findings indicate that NMR spectral peaks related to lipid metabolites can be used as a biomarker of hMSC adipogenesis.

Fischer–Tropsch synthesis was carried out over precipitated iron-based catalysts with different amounts of CO2 in the feed stream while maintaining both total reaction pressure (1.5 MPa) and partial pressure of H2 + CO (0.75 MPa) using an inert balance gas, N2. The CO2 in the feed stream decreased the rate of hydrocarbon formation, but it had no significant influence on the carbon number distribution of hydrocarbons. The CO2 in the feed stream also suppressed CO2 formation, decreasing both CO conversion and CO2 selectivity. We attribute the decreased reaction rate to the partial competition in the adsorption behavior between CO and CO2 as revealed in the temperature-programmed desorption.

Povidone-iodine (polyvinylpyrrolidone iodine, PI), which is commonly used as a pre- and postoperative oral antiseptic, has been reported to cause pneumonia secondary to its pulmonary aspiration. Because no studies have yet investigated the underlying mechanisms of PI-induced pneumonia, we conducted an animal study to analyze the effect of PI on the lung following its pulmonary instillation. The lungs of 61 male Sprague–Dawley rats (150–250 g) were instilled with varying volumes of either phosphate-buffered saline or PI solutions varying in strength from 0.01% to 10%. The lungs were harvested from the rats 1 h or 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, or 21 days after instillation for radiologic examination, macroscopic and light and scanning electron microscopic assessment, and an assessment of pulmonary toxicity using an MTT-based cytotoxicity assay. Macroscopically, atelectasis was the primary pulmonary lesion after PI instillation. The primary light and scanning electron microscopic findings were an initial inflammatory phase with edema, alveolar rupture, and leukocyte infiltration into the pulmonary interstitium, which progressed into a phase of lung parenchyma loss, and then resolved itself with scar tissue formation. Lung tissue viability following 1-day exposure to 0.01%, 0.1%, 1%, or 5% PI progressively decreased in a significant dose-dependent manner. PI aspiration can cause lung injury, including pulmonary fibrosis.

To optimize the performance of an adsorption bed, layered beds of activated carbon and zeolite 5A are used for multicomponent gas separation (H2: 72.2%, CO2: 21.6%, CO: 2.03%, CH4: 4.17%). The adsorption dynamic characteristics were studied experimentally and theoretically using layered beds of activated carbon and zeolite 5A at 8 atm adsorption pressure and 16.67 L/min feed rate. Non-isothermal and non-adiabatic models, based on a linear driving force model and Dual-Site Langmuir adsorption isotherm model, were used. As the carbon ratio increased, the average velocity of CH4 wavefront became slow, and wavefronts of CO and CO2 propagated quickly on average.

Yellow-colored exhaust gas streams from internal engines or gas turbines, frequently referred to as “yellow plume,” contain nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at concentrations as low as 15 ppm. The process developed in this work for decolorizing the yellow plume is based on reduction of NO2 to NO utilizing a combination of a Pt catalyst and a reducing agent. A stoichiometric excess of carbon monoxide, diesel oil, methanol or ethanol were used as reducing agents. Depending on the type of the reductant, the active temperature window of NO2 reduction was varied with methanol and CO being active at lower temperatures and ethanol and diesel oil at higher temperatures. By changing the Pt loading of the catalysts the active temperature window of NO2 reduction was also changed, higher loading Pt catalysts being active at lower temperatures. This scheme of NO2 reduction process was verified in a pilot-scale test with the real exhaust gas from the gas turbine power plant, showing 96% of NO2 reduction at the stack temperatures of 102–123 °C and at space velocities of 28,000–95,000 h−1 with inherent CO in the exhaust gas as the reducing agent.

To find an ideal adsorbent for carbon dioxide capture, a new polyethyleneimine modified silica gel material was synthesized with a simple procedure. Three silica gel materials with various particle sizes (15, 25 and 40–63 μm) were prepared and functionalized with polyethyleneimine. The carbon dioxide adsorption amounts of modified silica gel and non-modified silica gel were calculated using a mass balance equation at three different temperatures (298.15, 308.15 and 318.15 K), respectively, and the influence of gas pressure and particle size on adsorption was discussed. Experimental data showed that the carbon dioxide adsorption capacity of modified silica gel was better than non-modified silica gel, and the adsorption capacity gradually decreased with increasing particle size. The smaller particle size (15 μm) PEI modified silica gel had the largest adsorption capacity, at 298.15 K, and the adsorption amounts of various particle sizes of PEI-silica better fit the Langmuir isotherm model.

Tissue engineering represents an innovative approach for the development of novel clinical modalities for the reconstruction of adipose tissue defects. Each year a variety of medical procedures are required for the repair of adipose tissue traumas and abnormalities, including cosmetic facial reconstructions of the cheek, chin and jaw. Currently, there has been a growing interest in in vitro differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) into adipogenic, myogenic, neurogenic and osteogenic cells among other cell types. The fast growing interest in the use of adipose precursor cells in tissue engineering applications creates a need for more research in the development of scaffolds that can support the attachment and proliferation of these adult stem cells in vitro and in situ. Cell-based approaches utilizing adipogenic progenitor cells in combination with biomaterial carriers for fat tissue engineering have been developed and were reported to repair defect sites. Plasma treatment has the advantage of modifying the surface region to a depth of only a few nanometers without affecting the bulk properties. A commonly used method is to introduce hydrogen peroxides at the surface either by inert gas plasma treatment followed by exposure to oxygen or by corona discharge treatment. This advantage can benefit the fabrication of scaffolds with interpenetrating porous structure for tissue engineering. Plasma technique can be easily used to induce the desired groups or chains onto the surface of a material, so it has a special application to improve the cell affinity of the scaffold. β-Glucans are polymers of glucose that mainly construct the outer cell wall of fungi and certain bacteria. They have been demonstrated to have immune stimulatory activity, especially to enhance wound healing by increasing macrophage infiltration into the injury sites and stimulating tissue granulation and re-epithelialization. The present study concentrated on enhancing the cellular responses of ADSCs on the surface-modified composites of β-glucan and PLGA by microwave-induced argon plasma treatment.

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) was carried out using Al2O3-supported Co catalyst coated on metallic monolith. Considering the liberation of a large amont of heat from the highly exothermic FTS reaction, catalytic activity of Co catalyst coated on metallic monolith was tested and compared with that of pellet-type catalysts. The reaction was carried out in a conventional tubular fixed-bed reactor and simulated distillation (SIMDIS) analysis method was used to determine the liquid products distribution. Proper control of degree of reaction, as well as the reaction temperature gave rise to a shift of products selectivity toward higher hydrocarbons, especially C13−C18 diesel range hydrocarbons.

In this study, a Pd catalyst was prepared with promoters such as CeO2, BaO and SrO in a washcoated form on a metallic monolith for autothermal reforming of methane to syngas for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. A reactor was installed with an electric heater in the form of the metallic monolith as a start-up device instead of a burner with which stable and fast start-ups (within 4 min) were achieved. Gas hourly space velocity and O2/CH4 governed, methane conversion, while H2O/CH4 controlled H2/CO ratio. A methane conversion of approx. 96%, H2+CO selectivity of approx. 85%, and H2/CO of approx. 2.6 were obtained under the conditions of gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) at 103000 h−1, O2/CH4=0.7 and H2O/CH4=0.35.

The performance of multi-bed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for producing high purity hydrogen from synthesis gas was studied experimentally and theoretically using layered beds of activated carbon and zeolite 5A. Nonisothermal and nonadiabatic models, considering linear driving force model and Dual-site Langmuir adsorption isotherm model, were used. The effects of the following PSA variables on separation process were investigated: linear velocity of feed, adsorption time and purge gas quantity. As a result, we recovered a high purity H2 product (99.999%) with a recovery of 66% from synthesis gas when the pressure was cycled between 1 and 8 atm at ambient temperature.

Adsorption of carbon dioxide by hydrotalcites was investigated by using a gravimetric method at 450 ‡C. Hydrotalcites possessed higher adsorption capacity of CO2 than other basic materials such as MgO and Al2O3. Two different preparation methods of hydrotalcite with varying Mg/Al ratio were employed to determine their effects on the adsorption capacity of CO2. In addition, varying amounts of K2CO3 were impregnated on the hydrotalcite to further increase its adsorption capacity of CO2. The hydrotalcite prepared by the high supersaturation method with Mg/Al=2 showed the most favorable adsorption-desorption pattern with high adsorption capacity of CO2. K2CO3 impregnation on the hydrotalcite increased the adsorption capacity of CO2 because it changed both the chemical and the physical properties of the hydrotalcite. The optimum amount of K2CO3 impregnation was 20 wt%. The hydrotalcite prepared by the high supersaturation method with Mg/Al=2 and 20 wt% K2CO3 impregnation has the highest adsorption capacity of CO2 with 0.77 mmol CO2/g at 450 ‡C and 800 mmHg.

Eight 2-alkylaminosubstituted 5,8-dimethoxy-4-methylquinolines and nine 2-alkylaminosubstituted or 2,6-disubstituted 4-methylquinoline-5,8-diones were synthesized and evaluated in vitro cytotoxicity against four human cancer cell lines (HOP62, SK-OV-3, HCT15 and SF295).

Five 1-azaanthraquinone-3-carboxamides were synthesized and evaluated in vitro cytotoxicity against four human cancer cell lines. The most active compound, 7b, exhibited cytotoxic activity comparable to doxorubicin.

Grinding tests for garnet were carried out by using an attrition mill under wet processes. Effects of feed filling ratios and a chemical agent (sodium hexametaphosphate, SHP) were investigated on the grinding time of the garnet. The progeny particles obtained were screened into various particle size intervals, which were 100 mesh over, 100/400 mesh and 400 mesh under. In order to estimate the mass fraction of the particles in a given particle size interval, mathematical models were derived from the first-order reaction model, then compared to experimental data. It was observed that variation of the feed filling ratio did not show a significant effect on the mass fraction of the product. The chemical agent was, however, effective so that the mass fraction could be controlled by adjusting the content of SHP.

Background Akt regulates various cellular processes, including cell growth, survival, and metabolism. Recently, Akt's role in neurite outgrowth has also emerged. We thus aimed to identify neuronal function-related genes that are regulated by Akt. Methods We performed suppression subtractive hybridization on two previously established PC12 sublines, one of which overexpresses the wild-type (WT) form and the other, the dominant-negative (DN) form of Akt. These sublines respond differently to NGF's neuronal differentiation effect. Results A variety of genes was identified and could be classified into several functional groups, one of which was developmental processes. Two genes involved in neuronal differentiation and function were found in this group. v-Maf musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene homolog K (MafK) induces the neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells and immature telencephalon neurons, and synaptotagmin I (SytI) is essential for neurotransmitter release. Another gene, syntenin-1 (Syn-1) was also recognized in the same functional group into which MafK and SytI were classified. Syn-1 has been reported to promote the formation of membrane varicosities in neurons. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analyses show that the transcript levels of these three genes were lower in PC12 (WT-Akt) cells than in parental PC12 and PC12 (DN-Akt) cells. Furthermore, treatment of PC12 (WT-Akt) cells with an Akt inhibitor resulted in the increase of the expression of these genes and the improvement of neurite outgrowth. These results indicate that dominant-negative or pharmacological inhibition of Akt increases the expression of MafK, SytI, and Syn-1 genes. Using lentiviral shRNA to knock down endogenous Syn-1 expression, we demonstrated that Syn-1 promotes an increase in the numbers of neurites and branches. Conclusions Taken together, these results indicate that Akt negatively regulates the expression of MafK, SytI, and Syn-1 genes that all participate in regulating neuronal integrity in some way or another.