Determination of dissolved natural thorium and uranium in Horonobe and Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory groundwater and its thermodynamic analysis

At two underground research laboratories situated at Horonobe and Mizunami, Japan, trace amounts of natural thorium and uranium dissolved in deep groundwater were investigated with the help of chemical pre-concentration method. The groundwater was sampled from underground boreholes under the geochemical condition of no atmospheric exposure, and the colloid contribution was checked by in situ two size-fractionated ultrafiltration systems. A rough decrease by half in the concentration after in situ filtration suggested the presence of natural colloids and suspended matter that were carriers of a portion of the elements. The Th and U concentrations in groundwater after 10 kDa filtration was evaluated as dissolved species, and was identified thermodynamically using existing hydrogeological and geochemical data, such as the mineral components in the groundwater at a given pH, ionic strength, concentration of co-existing ions, redox potential, and a hypothetical solubility-limiting solid phase. The crystalline solid phase of tetravalent thorium and uranium dioxides made the solubility very low compared with that of the amorphous phase.     

Preparation of phosphoric acid resins with large cation exchange capacities from macroreticular poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-divinylbenzene) beads and their behavior in uptake of metal ions

In order to prepare phosphoric acid resins (RGPs) with large cation exchange capacities, effects of porosity and cross-linking of the precursory poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-divinylbenzene) beads on their functionalization with phosphoric acid were studied. Two series of precursory copolymers were prepared: one was prepared by changing the amount of divinylbenzene (1–25 mol %) but by fixing that of isobutyl acetate (porogen) at 140 vol % per monomer mixture; the other by changing the amount of the porogen (40–160 vol %) but by fixing that of the cross-linker at 10 mol %. It was clarified that porosity of the precursors plays an important role in the functionalization. Highly porous precursors were functionalized with high efficiency; for example, even the precursors containing 10 mol % of divinylbenzene resulted in RGPs having cation exchange capacities as large as 6–7 meq/g, so long as BET specific surface areas of the precursors were greater than ca. 30 m²/g. The selectivity study has revealed that RGP exhibits the characteristic metal ion selectivity. Lithium ion was adsorbed in preference to sodium and potassium ions; and so-called hard Lewis acid cations, such as uranyl, ferric, and aluminum ions, are adsorbed even from strongly acidic media (1 < pH < 2). Among common divalent metal ions, in addition, the resin exhibits the highest selectivity toward lead ion. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 63: 1327–1334, 1997     

Surface shape measurement by phase-shifting digital holography with a wavelength shift

Surface contouring by phase-shifting digital holography is proposed and verified by experiments and numerical simulations. Digital holograms are recorded before and after mode hopping of a laser diode subject to current tuning, and the difference of the reconstructed phases at each wavelength is computed to deliver surface contours of a diffusely reflecting surface. Since normal incidence on the object is employed, the method does not need the removal of the tilt component and is free from the shadowing effect as advantages over the dual-incidence method proposed before by the first author.     

A TEM study on melt-crystallized poly(butylene terephthalate)

A study was made to investigate an optimum condition for ruthenium tetraoxide staining of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) with glass transition temperature as low as ca. 23 degrees C for TEM observation of melt-grown PBT crystals. The morphological study of ultrathin sections prepared based on optimum staining at 25 degrees C for 8 h revealed formation of fringed-micellar crystal nuclei in the early stage and folded-chain fringed-micellar crystals in the later stage of isothermal crystallization at 40 degrees C from melt. The fraction of chain-folded crystals increased with increasing crystallization temperature from the quantitative analysis of crystal thickness in comparison with the reported morphology using the replica method.     

Geology and fluid chemistry of the Fushime geothermal field, Kyushu, Japan

The Fushime geothermal field is located in a depression close to the coast line. The system is characterized by very high reservoir temperature (>350°C), and a high salinity production fluid. Geological analysis shows that the main reservoir in this field occurs in a fractured zone developed around a dacite intrusion located in the center of the field. High permeability zones recognized by drilling data are found to be associated with fault zones. One of these zones is clearly associated with a NW–SE trending andesite dike swarm which was encountered in some wells.Alteration in the system can be divided into four zones, in order of increasing temperature, based on calcium–magnesium aluminosilicate mineral assemblages: i.e., the smectite, transition, chlorite and epidote zones. The feed zone is located in the chlorite and epidote zones, which can be further divided into three sub-zones according to their potassium or sodium aluminosilicate mineralogy, from the center of the discharge zone: K-feldspar–quartz, sericite–quartz, and albite–chlorite zones.Chloride concentration of the sea-water is 19,800 mg/l, and Br/Cl mole ratio is 1.55. Based on geochemical information, the reservoir chloride concentration of this field ranges from 11,600 to 22,000 mg/kg. The Clres (Cl in reservoir), Br/Cl ratios and stable isotope data indicate that the Fushime geothermal fluid originated from sea-water and is diluted by ground water during its ascent. Some fluids produced from geothermal wells show low pH (about 4). It is thought that sulfide mineral (PbS, ZnS) precipitation during production produces this acidic fluid.     

HD/SHD still image database system and image distribution in broadband network applications

This paper focuses on a practical design for an efficient scalable image database and retrieval system over broadband networks. It describes a concrete solution for the implementation of HD/SHD (high-definition/super-high-definition) still image retrieval services which can be used in different applications. The structure of the complete system, consisting of a directory server, an image server, and MMI (man-machine interface) devices, has been presented, detailing each element and their corresponding functions. The desired HD/SHD image is displayed on the HD-PDP (plasma display panel) with the aid of image matching. The proposed system generates image index automatically, eliminating special skills in preparing index images and crucially reducing the processing time (from 35 min to 110 s), and does not use keywords. It has been also shown that these indices can be used for quite accurate image retrieval, i.e., the system provides high precision rates (currently up to 98%) to the user, eliminating troubles encountered in the image retrieval operations due to limitation on the user’s age, culture, knowledge, and languages.The broadband IP networks currently have a number of issues from the viewpoint of practical system operations, and so the requirements and issues needed for the networks are discussed from the viewpoint of in-service performance, differentiation among different types of services, secure connections, and so on, focusing on handling of HD/SHD still images.     

Wien2wannier: From linearized augmented plane waves to maximally localized Wannier functions

We present an implementation of an interface between the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave package Wien2k and the wannier90 code for the construction of maximally localized Wannier functions. The FORTRAN code and a documentation is made available and results are discussed for SrVO₃, Sr₂IrO₄ (including spin-orbit coupling), LaFeAsO, and FeSb₂.     

A new data mining approach to estimate causal effects of policy interventions

This paper presents a data driven approach that enables one to obtain a measure of comparability between-groups in the presence of observational data.The main idea lies in the use of the general framework of conditional multiple correspondences analysis as a tool for investigating the dependence relationship between a set of observable categorical covariates X and an assignment-to-treatment indicator variable T, in order to obtain a global measure of comparability between-groups according to their dependence structure. Then, we propose a strategy that enables one to find treatment groups, directly comparable with respect to pre-treatment characteristics, on which estimate local causal effects.     

Physics‐based model of lithium‐ion batteries running on a circuit simulator

The authors developed a physics‐based equivalent circuit model of a lithium‐ion battery (LIB) whose parameters are continually updated, reflecting the theoretical calculation results of the Butler‐Volmer equation, diffusion equations of the lithium‐ion and lithium, and Nernst equations of the liquid and solid phases. The developed model was applied to the charge/discharge simulations of an LIB, and the experimental and simulated results of constant current discharges and pulsed‐charge/discharge were found to be in excellent agreement. In particular, using the developed model, analyzing transient responses of the LIB derived from the transition of the electric double layer charging to the electrode reaction is possible. These results demonstrate that the electrochemical performance of an LIB can be calculated on a circuit simulator using the developed model.