Energy Problems and Energy Control System in the Japanese Steel Industry

With the second oil crisis as a turning point, energy issues have come to occupy a most vital position in business. For the steel industry in particular, which is a heavy oil consumer, energy conservation is as vital as it is anywhere. Steelmakers are therefore committed to a variety of energy-conserving measures, including (1) the installation of waste heat recovery facilities, (2) the organization of elaborate economizing campaigns, (3) the orientation toward continuous operations (continuous casting, etc.) by integrating indispensable processes and excluding dispensable ones, and (4) the increased use of hot rolling and direct rolling, etc.

On the other hand, the steel industry has energy-generating facilities and by-product energy-generating processes that form a complicated energy supply-demand structure. Energy balance is intimately related to the operating rate and the operating method of each steel works, and this so much so that the minimization of specific energy costs does not necessarily entail total cost minimization.

Because of this, there is a rapidly expanding need for a scientifically built “software system” within which the aforementioned relationships are quantitatively analyzed to minimize overall plant costs in relation to the changing external environment. This paper discusses this system by referring to the developments and achievements made so far by the Yawata works of Nippon Steel Corporation.     

Genotoxicity and endocrine-disruption potentials of sediment near an oil spill site: two years after the Hebei Spirit oil spill

The Hebei Spirit oil spill episode (December 7, 2007) has affected the western coastal area of South Korea; however, there is limited information on the potential toxicity of the oil spill to the ecosystem or humans. The potential toxicity of sediments collected from the affected area (n = 22) 2 years after the spill was evaluated. Acute lethal toxicity tests using Vibrio fischeri and Moina macrocopa and tests for genotoxicity and alteration of steroidogenesis using chicken DT40 cells and H295R cells, respectively, were conducted. Both crude and weathered oil extracts were evaluated in order to link the observed toxicity in the sediment extracts to the oil spill. Whereas toxicity to bacteria and daphnids was observed in only two elutriate samples, 10 of the 22 sediment extracts showed genotoxic potential in DT40 cells. The mechanisms of genotoxicity involved nucleotide excision repair (XPA(-/)), homologous recombination (RAD54(-/-)), and translesion synthesis pathways (REV3(-/-)). In addition, nine sediment extracts caused significantly greater production of E2 in H295R cells, and significant up-regulation of CYP19, CYP11B2, and 3βHSD2 by sediment extracts was observed. The pattern of toxicities observed in both crude and weathered oil samples was similar to that observed in the sediment extracts. The genotoxicicity and endocrine-disruption potential of the sediment extracts suggest a need for long-term followup for such toxicity in humans and wildlife in this area.     

Self-healing of tightly focused scalar and vector Bessel-Gauss beams at the focal plane

The property of self-healing at the focal plane for both scalar and vector Bessel-Gauss (BG) beams is investigated in the tight focusing condition. For the BG beam, which is partially obstructed at the pupil plane, the spatial intensity distribution at the focal plane is well recovered. Furthermore, recovery of not only intensity but also polarization distribution is observed for an obstructed vector BG beam. This self-healing effect for both the intensity and polarization components is recognized even when the half of the beam is obstructed by a semicircular obstacle. The effect of the size of the obstacle on recovery of polarization and intensity distribution is studied. The role of the beam size at the pupil plane is also discussed.     

Toxicity of puffer fish fins

Puffer fish is prized as a Japanese traditional food and its fin is also used in the cuisine. However, whether the fin is edible or not is determined for convenience from the toxicity of skin, since little information is available about the toxicity of puffer fish fins. In the present study, we examined the toxicity of fins and skin of three toxic species, Takifugu vermicularis, T. snyderi, and T. porphyreus. The toxicity of T. vermicularis fins (< 5-52.4 MU/g) was significantly lower than that of skin (<5-1200 MU/g). HPLC analysis showed that tetrodotoxin was a major toxic principle irrespective of the toxicity value in each tissue of T. vermicularis. In the case of T. snyderi and T. porphyreus, the toxicity of fins was at almost the same level as that of the skin. The toxicity (< 10-12 MU/g) of caudal fins of T. porphyreus was apparently increased to 16.5-22.0 MU/g by drying. However, the toxin amounts in the dried fins were slightly decreased as compared with those of the non-dried fins. These results demonstrate that puffer fish with toxic skin also have toxic fins.     

Parallel inference machines at ICOT

Japan's fifth generation computer systems (FGCS) project aims at the research and development of new computer technology for knowledge information processing system (KIPS) that will be required in 1990s. In this project, logic programming is adopted for the base for software and hardware system to be developed. As a primitive operation of logic programming is syllogistic inference, machines studied and built in the project are called inference machines.

One of the project's target machines is a parallel inference machine (PIM) having about 1000 processing elements. Smaller scale PIMs are also planned as intermediate targets. In addition to PIMs, sequential inference machines (SIMs) have been developed for a software development tool. A personal type SIM is called PSI which is a logic programming workstation. For research and development of parallel software systems, especially, an operating system for PIM (PIMOS), a multi-PSI system which consists of several CPUs of PSI connected with a high-speed network, is also under development. In the intermediate stage plan of the project, parallel software research is emphasized and conducted more systematically.

This paper describes research and development plans for the parallel inference machine in conjunction with the parallel software research.     

Effect of ingestion of thermally oxidized frying oil on peroxidative criteria in rats

Thermally oxidized rapeseed oils (4 levels of deterioration; used by a manufacturer of fried fish paste in a conventional manner) were fed to rats at a practical level of concentration. Rats were fed a diet ad libitum for 13 weeks that contained 15% of a test oil. The effects of the diet on several biochemical criteria related to peroxidative alterations were investigated. In groups given thermally oxidized oils relative liver weight, relative kidney weight, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBA-RS) in the liver and reduced glutathione content were increased significantly in proportion to the degree of deterioration of the oil, compared with the group given fresh oil. Tocopherol contents in both serum and liver were decreased considerably in proportion to the deterioration level of the supplied oils. The above criteria correlated well with various deterioration indices of the oil. For instance, TBA-RS was well correlated (p<0.001) with petroleum ether-insoluble oxidized fatty acid (r=0.9191), column chromatographically separated polar fraction (r=0.9056), glyceride dimer fraction (r=0.9023) and carbonyl value (r=0.8647).     

Sharper focal spot formed by higher-order radially polarized laser beams

The intensity distributions near the focal point for radially polarized laser beams including higher-order transverse modes are calculated based on vector diffraction theory. For higher-order radially polarized mode beams as well as a fundamental mode (R-TEM01*) beam, the strong longitudinal component forms a sharper spot at the focal point under a high-NA focusing condition. In particular, double-ring-shaped radially polarized mode (R-TEM11*) beams can effectively reduce the focal spot size because of destructive interference between the inner and the outer rings with pi phase shift. Compared with an R-TEM01* beam focusing in a limit of NA=1, the full width at half-maximum values of the focal spot for an R-TEM11* beam are decreased by 13.6% for the longitudinal component and 25.8% for the total intensity.     

Fabrication of all solid-state lithium-ion batteries with three-dimensionally ordered composite electrode consisting of Li0.35La0.55TiO3 and LiMn2O4

A composite electrode between three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) Li_0.35La_0.55TiO₃ (LLT) and LiMn₂O₄ was fabricated by colloidal crystal templating method and sol–gel process. A close-packed PS beads with the opal structure was prepared by filtration of a suspension containing PS beads. Li–La–Ti–O sol was injected by vacuum impregnation process into the voids between PS beads, and then was heated to form 3DOM-LLT. Three-dimensionally ordered composite material consisting of LiMn₂O₄ and LLT was prepared by sol–gel process. The prepared composite was characterized with SEM and XRD. All solid-state Li-ion battery was fabricated with the LLT–LiMn₂O₄ composite electrode as a cathode, dry polymer electrolyte and Li metal anode. The prepared all solid-state cathode exhibited a volumetric discharge capacity of 220 mAh cm⁻³.