Improvement of the photostability for YVO4:Bi,Eu nanoparticles synthesized by the citrate route

YVO₄:Bi³⁺,Eu³⁺ nanophosphor synthesized by the citrate route shows the photobleaching behavior, i.e., the decrease in photoluminescence intensity under the continuous irradiation of excitation light. This photobleaching property is remarkably suppressed by the washing post-treatment combined with centrifugation and the hydrothermal post-treatment. A relation between the fraction of photobleach and the amount of citrate ions coordinating to metallic ions at the surface of nanoparticles verifies that the photobleaching behavior of YVO₄:Bi³⁺,Eu³⁺ nanophosphor originates from the redox reaction between the citrate ions and V⁵⁺ in YVO₄ host crystal. The long-term light fastness test reveals that the hydrothermally treated YVO₄:Bi³⁺,Eu³⁺ nanophosphor has sufficient photostability for practical use over 15 years outside.     

Selective and in-situ determination of carbonate and oxide particles in aqueous solution using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for wearable information equipment

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been applied for quantitative analysis of Al₂O₃, CaCO₃ and MgO particles suspended in water. In the single elemental system, the plasma emission intensities of Al, Ca and Mg were linearly increased with concentration of elements in the range of 1.0×10^?5–1.0×10^?3  M, 1.0×10^?4–2.0×10^?3 M and 8.0×10^?5 –4.0×10^?3 M, respectively. We also investigated the concentration dependence of breakdown spectra for suspended mixtures of Al₂O₃, CaCO₃ and MgO particles. The emission lines, such as Al I, Ca I, Ca II and Mg I, were appeared in the LIBS spectrum simultaneously, and each emission peak could be deconvoluted. The plasma emission intensities of Al, Ca and Mg in the multielemental system were also linearly increased with their concentrations in the range of 1.0×10^?5–1.0×10^?3 M, 1.0×10^?4–2.0×10^?3 M and 4.0×10^?4–2.0×10^?3 M, respectively. LIBS was found to be available for quantitative and qualitative measurement of the concentrations of Al₂O₃, CaCO₃ and MgO particles suspended in water. The present results suggest that LIBS is a potentially useful tool for in-situ analysis on particles composition and concentrations for environmental monitoring by the wearable information equipments.     

Water mist formation in vapor-mist dielectrics and its effect

It has been proposed that vapor-mist dielectrics in which mixing liquid droplets such as tetrachloroethlene in a gas have the ability of increasing flashover, impulse voltage, and of suppressing partial discharge. Vapor-mist methods have been performed on other materials and the effect of the mist can also be obtained on benzene, hexane, and even water as general materials. Although these studies have been carried out, neither the discharge mechanism on vapor-mist nor the reason for the increase of the discharge voltage is understood fully because the mist is of various sizes. On the other hand, agglomeration of water molecules can be studied with the FR-IR method, and are classified into monomer, dimer, trimer (including polymer). Water gives mist stats which are significant in discussing effects. This paper describes states of water mist and their effect under nonuniform field with positive and negative polarities. Water mist in vapor exists as dimer and trimer, and their amount decreases with the reduction of temperature. These mists have no effect on discharge suppression. However, when the mists are formed by space charges, the inception voltage is increased by these mists in the negative polarity.     

Prediction of the capacity of a heat exchanger by a thermal network method: Modified effective specific heat model considering the influence of static pressure distributions of refrigerants

In this paper, we proposed a method to predict the capacity of a heat exchanger by considering static pressure distributions of refrigerants. The thermal network method was modified by adding an equivalent heat generation term into a heat balance equation that was connected with calculated 1D static pressure distributions of refrigerants. An experiment was performed with a heat exchanger having two rows and two passes to verify the accuracy of the proposed method. The result showed the error of the predicted capacity to be less than 1% for an evaporator and less than 2% for a condenser. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 31(5): 376–390, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.10039     

The dependence of structure and conductivity in three-dimensional phosphate ionic conductors on composition

Two series of solid solutions, Na _x Ca_(1−x)/2Zr₂(PO₄)₃ (NCZP(x), 0⩽x⩽1) and Na _x Nb_1-x Zr_1+x (PO₄)₃(NNZP(x), 0⩽x⩽1), were synthesized. They were examined by powder X-ray diffraction, infra-red (i.r.) absorption and Raman scattering. Ionic conductivities of graphite coated samples were measured. A complete series of solid solutions was formed for NCZP(x), while a second phase was found forx<0.1 for NNZP(x). The i.r. and Raman spectra of their solid solutions consistently showed the formation of PO₄ tetrahedra with different geometries. The composition dependence of conductivity is interpreted on the basis of a structural change around Na⁺.     

Application of a novel polypropylene to the insulation of an electric power cable

Cross‐linked polyethylene (XLPE) has been widely adopted as insulating material for high‐voltage power cables up to 500 kV. Further improvement of electrical and thermal properties on insulating material is required in order to increase cable operation efficiency. Therefore, the development of novel insulating material possessing high thermal properties will be necessary. Recent progress of catalysis technology contributes to obtain new polymeric materials which may be applied to electrical insulation. The authors investigated the basic properties of newly developed stereoregular syndiotactic polypropylene (s‐PP) which is synthesized with homogeneous metallocene catalyst. Though recycling of cross‐linked polymers such as conventionally used XLPE may be difficult because of their poor heat deformation, the s‐PP which is not cross‐linked must be suitable for recycling. A series of experiments on its physical and electrical properties gave the following results.

• (1) s‐PP has sufficient flexibility compared with isotactic polypropylene (i‐PP ).
• (2) Both AC and lightning impulse breakdown strength of s‐PP in spite of no cross‐linking are superior to those of XLPE in the temperature range from 25 to 90 °C.
• (3) Degradation by copper of s‐PP is less than that of i‐PP.
• (4) s‐PP/VLDPE blend shows sufficient brittleness temperature for use.

These results suggested that s‐PP should serve as insulating material for power cables at higher‐temperature operation. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 146(1): 18–26, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002//eej.10210     

Recursion Schemata for Slowly Growing Depth Circuit Classes

We characterize iterated log depth circuit classes between AC⁰ and AC¹ by Cobham-like bounded recursion schemata. We also give alternative characterizations which utilize the safe recursion method developed by Bellantoni and Cook.     

Occurrence,horizontal transfer and degeneration of VDE intein family in Saccharomycete yeasts

VDE is a homing endonuclease gene originally discovered as an intervening element in VMA1s of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. There have been two independent subfamilies of VDE, one from S. cerevisiae strain X2180-1A and the other from Saccharomyces sp. DH1-1A in the host VMA1 gene, and they share the identity of 96.3%. In order to search the occurrence, intra/interspecies transfer and molecular degeneration of VDE, complete sequences of VMA1 in 10 strains of S. cerevisiae, eight species of saccharomycete yeasts, Candida glabrata and Kluyveromyces lactis were determined. We found that six of 10 S. cerevisiae strains contain VDEs 99.7-100% identical to that of the strain X2180-1A, one has no VDE, whereas the other three harbour VDEs 100% identical to that of the strain DH1-1A. S. carlsbergensis has two VMA1s, one being 99.8% identical to that of the strain X2180-1A with VDE 100% identical to that of the strain DH1-1A and the other containing the same VMA1 in S. pastorianus with no VDE. This and other evidence indicates that intra/interspecies transmissions of VDEs have occurred among saccharomycete yeasts. Phylogenetic analyses of VMA1 and VDE suggest that the S. cerevisiae VDEs had branched earlier than other VDEs from an ancestral VDE and had invaded into the host loci as relatively late events. The two VDEs seemed to degenerate in individual host loci, retaining their splicing capacity intact. The degeneration of the endonuclease domains was distinct and, if compared, its apparent rate was much faster than that of the protein-splicing domains.     

Determination of acrylamide in processed foods by LC/MS using column switching

An LC/MS method was developed for the determination of acrylamide (AA) in processed or cooked foods. AA was extracted with a mixture of water and acetone from homogenized food samples after the addition of 13C-labeled acrylamide (AA-1-(13)C) as an internal standard. The extract was concentrated, washed with dichloromethane for defatting, and cleaned up on Bond Elut C18, PSA and ACCUCAT cartridge-columns, and then AA was determined by LC/MS in the selected ion recording (SIR) mode. For the LC/MS analysis, four LC columns were connected in-line and the flow of the mobile phase was switched according to a time-program. Monitoring ions for AA were m/z 72 and 55, and those for AA-1-(13)C were m/z 73 and 56. AA and AA-1-(13)C were determined without interference from the matrices in all samples. The recoveries of AA from potato chips, corn snack, pretzel and roasted tea spiked at the level of 500 ng/g of AA were 99.5-101.0% with standard deviations (SD) in the range from 0.3 to 1.6%. The limits of detection and quantification of the developed method were 9 and 30 ng/g for AA in samples, respectively. The method was applied to the analysis of AA in various processed or cooked food samples purchased from retail markets. High levels of AA were found in potato chips and French-fried potato (467-3,544 ng/g). Fried and sugar-coated dough cakes (karinto) contained 374 and 1,895 ng/g. Corn snacks contained 117-535 ng/g of AA. Roasted foods (such as roasted sesame seed, roasted barley (mugi-cha), roasted tea (hoji-cha), coffee beans and curry powder) contained 116-567 ng/g of AA. Foods made from fish, egg and meat contained lower levels of AA than the plant-based foods. Foods containing much water showed a tendency to have low levels of AA compared with dry foods. The proposed method was applicable to the analysis of AA in variety of processed foods.     

Near-infrared spectroscopic monitoring of the diffusion process of deuterium-labeled molecules in wood. Part I: softwood

The diffusion process of several molecules (D2O, n-butanol (OD) and t-butanol (OD)) in softwood (Sitka spruce) was investigated by means of a deuterium exchange method and Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) polarization spectroscopy. The location of OH groups in different states of order of cellulose in wood was clarified by analyzing the FT-NIR transmission spectra ranging from 7200 to 6000 cm(-1). Four absorption bands were assigned to 2 x v(OH) absorptions of the amorphous regions, OH groups in semi-crystalline regions, and two types of intramolecular hydrogen-bonded OH groups in the crystalline regions, respectively. The saturation level of accessibility was very different for these absorption bands (i.e., 70-80, 60, and 40-50% for the amorphous, semi-crystalline, and crystalline regions, respectively). However, the saturation accessibilities for each absorption band varied little with molecular structure and geometry of the diffusants. The diffusion rate of D2O was much faster than that of n-butanol (OD) and t-butanol (OD) for all states of orders. The size effect of the butanols led to slight differences in the diffusive transport in the crystalline regions.