Chiral lewis acid-catalyzed enantioselective michael reactions in water

Asymmetric Michael reactions of ß-ketoesters with enones were effectively catalyzed by complexes of silver salts and BINAP derivatives in water. The reactions have proved to give Michael adducts in high yields with high enantioselectivities. These reactions are the first example of Lewis acid-catalyzed asymmetric Michael reactions in water.     

Generation of disk-like domains with nanometer scale thickness in merocyanine dye LB film induced by hydrothermal treatment

We have characterized the binary LB films of merocyanine dye (MS) and arachidic acid (C₂₀) before and after hydrothermal treatment (HTT), which is defined as a heat treatment under relative humidity of 100%, focusing on the morphology studied by bright field (BF) microscopy and fluorescence (FL) microscopy. BF microscopy observation has revealed that the as-deposited MS-C₂₀ binary LB film is found to emit intense red fluorescence over the whole film area by 540-nm excitation. Since the surface image is almost featureless, it is considered that the crystallite sizes of J-aggregate are less than 10 μm. Interestingly, after HTT, round-shaped domains are observed in the LB systems, and the sizes are reaching 100 μm in diameter. Crystallites of J-aggregate, which are bluish in color and emit intense red fluorescence, tend to be in the round domains. We have observed two different types of domains, i.e., blue-rimmed domains and white-rimmed domains, which are postulated to be confined in the inner layers and located at the outermost layer, respectively. The thickness of the domains is equal to or less than that of the double layer of the MS-C₂₀ mixed LB film, which is ca. 5.52 nm. The molecular order of MS in the J-aggregate is improved by the HTT process leading to the significant sharpening of the band shape together with the further red shift of the band (from 590 to 594 nm up to 597 to 599 nm). The reorganized J-band is considered to be ‘apparently’ isotropic owing to the random growth of the J-aggregate in the film plane. We consider that the lubrication effect by the presence of water molecules predominates in the HTT process.     

ISO/IEC、美日中氢能技术标准化体系比较与建议

技术标准在技术进步、国际贸易中具有重要作用。全景式梳理、比较氢能技术标准化体系发展与现状,对于促进技术进步、规范国际贸易至关重要。本文综述了ISO/IEC、美国、日本和中国等5个主体氢能技术标准化体系：介绍了上述5个主体的氢能标准化机构,详细梳理了ISO/IEC氢能国际标准与美日中氢能国家标准/行业标准的层级结构比例,并按标准具体内容将其归类到8个技术类别中,分析了各主体在8个技术类别中的分布与特征。文中指出相比于美国和日本,中国氢能技术标准化体系存在行业标准数量较少、氢能产业联盟在行业标准制定中主导性弱和部分技术类别覆盖度低的不足。针对上述不足,文章对中国氢能技术标准体系提出两条发展建议：增加行业标准数量,以发挥其对标准体系补充、完善的作用,为此需赋予中国氢能产业联盟制定行业标准的权限;优化中国氢能技术标准分布,提高氢储运与加注以及氢能应用等技术类别的覆盖度,保障氢能产业从定点示范运营到城市群大规模推广的顺利升级。     

Perpendicular oriented cylinders via directional coalescence of spheres embedded in block copolymer films induced by solvent annealing

Polystyrene-b-poly(methyl acrylate) (PS-b-PMA) block copolymer with PS volume fraction of 25.2 vol% was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization. Non-pretreated silicon wafers were used as the substrates to prepare perpendicular oriented PS cylinders in PMA matrix via solvent annealing which could induce the transformation of spheres to vertically oriented and hexagonally packed cylinders. The spherical microdomains were formed after the evaporation of solvents from the solutions of the block copolymer in selective solvents mixed from methanol, acetone and dichloromethane. The thickness of films could be as thick as 1000 nm, which were much thicker than usual cases and the cylinders came from the directional coalescence of the spheres, thus any pre-treatments of the substrates were not required for perpendicular orientation. The structures were characterized by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), atom force microscopy (AFM) and grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS).     

Rubber‐toughened polyamide‐6 with a low thermal expansion coefficient: effect of preferential distribution of rubber and inorganic filler

The effects of morphological changes on the thermal expansion, toughness and heat resistance of polyamide‐6 (PA)/styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene (SEBS)/polyphenylene ether (PPE) blends were investigated. Compared with the typical ‘sea (PA matrix)–island (PPE domain)–lake (SEBS in PPE domain)’ morphology, an injection‐molded ternary blend with a preferential distribution of SEBS component at the interface between PA and PPE exhibited a low coefficient of linear thermal expansion (CLTE) in the flow direction. This low CLTE was ascribed to the deformation of SEBS and PA into a co‐continuous microlayer network structure during injection molding. Consequently, the expansion preferentially occurred towards the thickness direction. Further CLTE reduction either by a change in PA viscosity or by the selective location of an inorganic filler was examined, and its influences on impact strength and heat resistance are discussed based on transmission electron microscopy observations. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry     

Design and manufacturing of JT-60SA vacuum vessel

JT-60 is planned to be upgraded to JT-60SA tokamak machine with fully superconducting coils, which is a project of the JA-EU satellite tokamak program under both Broader Approach program and Japanese domestic program. The JT-60SA vacuum vessel (VV) has a D-shape poloidal cross section and a toroidal configuration with 10° facet segmented in toroidal direction. The material of the VV is 316L stainless steel with low cobalt content of <0.05 wt%. A double wall structure is adopted for the VV to ensure high rigidity and high toroidal one-turn resistance simultaneously.Fundamental welding R&D and a trial manufacturing of the 20° upper half of the VV have been performed to study the manufacturing procedure. After the confirmation of the quality of the mock-up, manufacturing of the actual VV started in November 2009.     

Estimation of Small Reservoir Storage Capacities with Remote Sensing in the Brazilian Savannah Region

Small reservoirs play an important role in supporting the local economy in the savannah areas of Brazil and are primarily used for the provision of water for irrigation and watering livestock. Hundreds of small reservoirs have been built in the last few decades in the Preto River Basin, but efficient water management and sound planning are hindered by inadequate knowledge of the number, storage capacity and spatial distribution of reservoirs in the basin. The main reason for the lack of this information is that current methodologies for quantifying the physical parameters of reservoirs are laborious, time consuming and costly. To address this lack of data, a simple method to estimate reservoir storage volumes based on remotely sensed reservoir surface area measured with LANDSAT was developed. The method was validated with a subset of reservoirs in the Preto River Basin for which surface areas, shapes and depths were determined with ground-based survey measurements. The agreement between measured and the remotely sensed reservoir volumes was satisfactory, indicating that remotely-sensed images can be used for improved management of water in the Brazilian Savannah region. With the newly developed methods we found that the Preto River Basin’s 147 small reservoirs can store 19 × 10⁶ m³ of water at full capacity.     

Simplified method for determining cadmium concentrations in rice foliage and soil by using a biosensor kit with immunochromatography

BACKGROUND: The behavior of cadmium in ecosystems needs to be monitored because of the human toxicity of this heavy metal. The need recently arose for a simple and quick on‐site test for trace levels of Cd in food and environmental samples. In response, an immunochromatographic assay kit for detecting Cd was manufactured by Kansai Electric Power Co. of Japan. This kit uses the antigen–antibody complex reaction between the Cd–EDTA complex and an anti‐Cd–EDTA antibody and shows the results in terms of the degree of color developed on a test paper. We previously reported the successful use of this kit to determine Cd concentrations in brown rice. Here, we applied the kit to the determination of Cd concentrations in rice foliage and soil. RESULTS: Cadmium in rice foliage was not extracted successfully by the method used for brown rice. However, it was successfully extracted by 0.1 mol L^?1 HCl solution at a rice foliage:HCl ratio of 1:20, and coexisting metals were removed sufficiently by the column treatment. The Cd concentrations determined by immunochromatographic assay were well correlated with the values obtained by acid decomposition and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The 0.1 mol L^?1 HCl‐extractable Cd concentration in soil was also determined successfully with the kit. CONCLUSION: Approximate Cd concentrations in rice plants and 0.1 mol L^?1 HCl‐extractable Cd concentrations in soil can be monitored easily and quickly by this method at locations where facilities for acid digestion and precision analysis are not available. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Hybrid Counterfactual Logics

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the hybrid formalism fits naturally in the context of David Lewis’s counterfactual logic and that its introduction into this framework is desirable. This hybridization enables us to regard the inference “The pig is Mary; Mary is pregnant; therefore the pig is pregnant” as a process of updating local information (which depends on the given situation) by using global information (independent of the situation). Our hybridization also has the following technical advantages: (i) it preserves the completeness and decidability of Lewis’s logic; (ii) it allows us to characterize the Limit Assumption as a proof-rule with some side-conditions; and (iii) it enables us to establish a general Kripke completeness result by using the proof-rule corresponding to the Limit Assumption.     

Proposal of Design Criteria for Gas Entrainment from Vortex Dimples Based on a Computational Fluid Dynamics Method

Design criteria for gas entrainments (GE) from the liquid surface in a fast breeder reactor system were proposed in this paper for the two types of GE phenomena from a vortex dimple based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The first gas entrainment phenomenon is a gas core extension directly to the outlet piping level, which induces large amount of GE to the flow system. The second is continuous bubble detachments from the tip of the vortex dimple. Based on CFD calculations for elemental experiments of the surface vortex, local CFD non-dimensional numbers were defined as the design criteria to prevent GE. In conclusion, it was found that the CFD non-dimensional numbers are useful for the design parameters of GE prevention.