Transient induced creep for irradiated fuels

Creep of nuclear fuels under irradiation has generally been considered as an athermal process. A transient state of irradiation induced creep, however, was treated with kinetic equations based on thermodynamics. For this purpose, the kinetic equations for enhanced diffusion, annihilation of excess vacancies and migration probability under irradiation were derived. Effective works were introduced to the above processes as a result of the fission damage, and reduced activation energies for each process were defined. Based on the knowledge obtained in the transient state, the effective activation energies in the steady state were discussed. The above concepts were examined using the experiments of Clough.     

Boiling two-phase flow under microgravity

To study the effects of reduced gravity on the flow regime and the heat transfer characteristics of a boiling two-phase horizontal flow, parabolic flight experiments were performed by using an aircraft. The gravity level during the parabolic flight and the duration time were about −0.01g_e +0.01g_e and 20 s, respectively. Under earth gravity, many small bubbles are detached very frequently from the heater rod surface, flowing into the upper stream due to the buoyancy and resulting in a stratified flow in the cases of lower inlet fluid velocity and higher heat flux. Under microgravity conditions, bubbles are hardly detached from the heater rod, growing and coalescing to become much larger along the heater rod, surrounding the heater rod in the downstream. This tendency was more noticeable in the cases of lower inlet fluid velocity, higher heat flux and lower inlet fluid subcooling. The local heat transfer coefficients at the bottom of the heater rod tend to decrease slightly under microgravity compared with those under earth gravity because of the reduction of the heat removal due to natural convection. On the other hand, the local heat transfer coefficients at the top of the heater rod tend to increase slightly under microgravity. However, the differences of the local heat transfer coefficients are very small in spite of large differences of the flow regimes under earth gravity and microgravity.     

Miscibility and Physical Properties of Poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyhexanoate)/Poly(ethylene oxide) Binary Blends

In order to improve some inferior physical properties of bacterial poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyhexanoate) [P(3HB‐co‐3HHx)] by blending with PEO, the miscibility, spherulite morphology, crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of P(3HB‐co‐3HHx)/PEO binary biodegradable polymer blends were investigated. A good miscibility between P(3HB‐co‐3HHx) with a 3HHx unit content of 11 mol‐% and PEO in the amorphous state was found when the PEO weight fraction was 10 wt.‐%, while the miscibility decreased dramatically when the PEO weight fraction exceeded 20 wt.‐%. Strongly depending on the blend composition, the mechanical properties of P(3HB‐co‐3HHx) was found to be significantly improved by blending with PEO with a weight fraction of ≈5–17.5 wt.‐%.

     

Adaptation to climate change and conservation of biodiversity using green infrastructure

In recent years, we have experienced mega‐flood disasters in Japan due to climate change. In the last century, we have been building disaster prevention infrastructure (artificial levees and dams, referred to as “grey infrastructure”) to protect human lives and assets from floods, but these hard protective measures will not function against mega‐floods. Moreover, in a drastically depopulating society such as that in Japan, farmland abandonment prevails, and it will be more difficult to maintain grey infrastructure with a limited tax income. In this study, we propose the introduction of green infrastructure (GI) as an adaptation strategy for climate change. If we can use abandoned farmlands as GI, they may function to reduce disaster risks and provide habitats for various organisms that are adapted to wetland environments. First, we present a conceptual framework for disaster prevention using a hybrid of GI and conventional grey infrastructure. In this combination, the fundamental GI, composed of forests and wetlands in the catchment (GI‐1) and additional multilevel GIs such as flood control basins that function when floodwater exceeds the planning level (GI‐2) are introduced. We evaluated the flood attenuation function (GI‐1) of the Kushiro Wetland using a hydrological model and developed a methodology for selecting suitable locations of GI‐2, considering flood risk, biodiversity and the distribution of abandoned farmlands, which represent social and economic costs. The results indicated that the Kushiro Wetland acts as a large natural reservoir that attenuates the hydrological peak discharge during floods and suitable locations for introducing GI‐2 are concentrated in floodplain areas developing in the downstream reaches of large rivers. Finally, we discussed the network structure of GI‐1 as a hub and GI‐2 as a dispersal site for conservation of the Red‐crowned Crane, one of the symbolic species of Japan.     

Correspondence between colour and odour for women in pre‐menopause and post‐menopause

Cross‐modal correspondences in the human sensory systems often appear for different levels of sensory inputs, such as colour and odour. However, whether there is hormonal modification of such colour‐odour correspondence has remained unclear. Here, we experimentally investigated the influence of hormonal changes in menopausal women by conducting evaluations of colour and odour impressions, matching tasks between colour and odour, and odor identification tasks, comparing two groups of women: premenopausal and postmenopausal. The results showed that both premenopausal and postmenopausal women had similar impressions and images of colours for odors, while postmenopausal women had significantly lower abilities of odor identification than premenopausal women. This suggested that the degree of conviction about an odor's identification might slightly affect the subjects’ impressions of odors and their corresponding colour choices. Menopause might not directly affect cognitive aspects regarding colour or odor, but might instead affect their perceptions.     

Colour-odour correspondences in women during the menstrual cycle: Comparative analysis between the menstrual and ovulation phases

Women might experience modulation in their perception and cognition of colours and odours during the menstrual cycle, but how women's impressions of and correspondence between colours and odours differ according to the cycle changes remains unknown. Here, we experimentally examined women's performance of several tasks, including evaluation of impressions of colours and odours, matching/nonmatching of colours with odours, and identification of odours, comparing two phases: the beginning of menstruation and ovulation. The results showed that participants had similar impressions of colours and odours and made similar colour choices for odours in both the menstrual and ovulation phases, while “pleasant-unpleasant” impressions of colour and odour might vary according to the menstrual cycle. We found no significant differences in odour identification between the phases. The findings imply that hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle might affect “pleasant-unpleasant” impressions of colour and odour but not other features regarding impressions or crossmodal correspondence. In future studies, examination with a large number of participants is necessary.     

Cross-layer selective routing for cost and delay minimization in IEEE 802.11ac wireless mesh network

Wireless Networks - A Wireless Internet-access Mesh NETwork (WIMNET) provides scalable and reliable internet access through the deployment of multiple access points (APs) and gateways (GWs). In...     

Stable and Metastable Phase Relationships in the System ZrO2–ErO1.5

Stable and metastable phase relationships in the system ZrO₂–ErO_1.5 were investigated using homogeneous samples prepared by rapid quenching of melts and by arc melting. The rapidly quenched samples were annealed in air for 48 h at 1690°C or for 8 months at 1315°C. Two tetragonal phases ( t - and t '-phases) were observed after quenching samples heated at 1690°C to a room temperature, whereas one t -phase and cubic ( c -) phase were found in those treated at 1315°C. Since the t '-phase is obtained through a diffusionless transformation during cooling from a high-temperature c -phase, t - and c -phases can coexist at high temperature. The t - and c -phases field spans from 4 to 10 mol% ErO_1.5 at 1690°C and from 3 to 15 mol% ErO_1.5 at 1315°C. The equilibrium temperature T ^t-m ₀ between the t - and monoclinic ( m -) phases estimated from A_s and M_s temperatures decreased with increasing ErO_1.5 contents.     

Factors influencing the hydration of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) and the appearance of an intermediate second staging phase

The hydration of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) was investigated by changing the interlayer anion species, the Mg/Al ratio of the LDH hosts and the relative humidity (RH). The anions were CO₃²⁻, Cl⁻, Br⁻, NO₃⁻, I⁻, SO₄²⁻, and ClO₄⁻ (listed in the order of ion size, small to large) and LDHs with Mg/Al = 1.90 (LDH2) and 2.91 (LDH3) were used. Their XRD profiles were measured by an XRD diffractometer while controlling the RH in the range 0–95% at 25 °C. Only I⁻, SO₄²⁻, and ClO₄⁻ LDH2s and SO₄²⁻ LDH3 showed a large step-wise basal-spacing expansion, 0.24–0.28 nm, under high RH conditions (> ca. 60%) probably due to the insertion of one water layer into the interlayer space. Such hydration occurred more favorably for the LDHs with larger anions and those with a higher layer charge (LDH2). Among them, I⁻ and ClO₄⁻ LDH2s exhibited the second staging – alternate stacking of hydrated (H) and non-hydrated (NH) interlayers – in the intermediate RH region.