Effect of inoculum conditioning on hydrogen fermentation and pH effect on bacterial community relevant to hydrogen production

The effect of conditioning for a variety of inoculums on fermentative hydrogen production was investigated. In addition, the effects of pH condition on hydrogen fermentation and bacterial community were investigated. The effect of conditioning on hydrogen production was different depending on the inoculum types. An appreciable hydrogen production was shown with anaerobic digested sludge and lake sediment without conditioning, however, no hydrogen was produced when refuse compost and kiwi grove soil were used as inoculums without conditioning. The highest hydrogen production was obtained with heat-conditioned anaerobic digested sludge, almost the same production was also obtained with unconditioned digested sludge. The pH condition considerably affected hydrogen fermentation, hydrogen gas was efficiently produced with unconditioned anaerobic sludge when the pH was controlled at 6.0 throughout the culture period and not when only the initial pH was adjusted to 6.0 and 7.0. Hydrogen production decreased when the culture pH was only adjusted at the beginning of each batch in continuous batch culture, and additionally, bacterial community varied with the change in hydrogen production. It was suggested that Clostridium and Coprothermobacter species played important role in hydrogen fermentation, and Lactobacillus species had an adverse effect on hydrogen production.     

Hydrotalcites Catalyze the Acidolysis Polymerization of Phenolic Acid to Create Highly Heat‐Resistant Bioplastics

Acidolysis polymerization has been used to prepare phenol‐derived polymers such as liquid crystalline (LC) polymers, and is catalyzed by mildly‐alkaline salts. The catalytic effects of hydrotalcites (HTs), which are natural alkalescent minerals with controllable basicity, are investigated on the acidolysis copolymerization of coumarates such as p‐coumaric acid and caffeic acid. As a result, the LC copolymer prepared in the presence of HT with a Mg/Al ratio of 3 shows higher molecular weight values than copolymers prepared in the presence of any other alkalescent salts. On the other hand, the copolymers prepared in the presence of HTs show a clear LC state where the polymer chains are oriented on the surface of the glass fibers. The resin, which is oriented by glass fiber fillers aligning along its longitudinal axis and is annealed at 300 °C for 20 min, shows a softening temperature of 305 °C while keeping a high mechanical strength of 85 MPa and a high mechanical modulus over 1 GPa.     

Lipase-catalyzed esterification of 2-monoricinolein for 1,2(2,3)-diricinolein synthesis

The purpose of this investigation was to develop conditions for producing 2-monoricinoleoyl DAG. We used lipase-catalyzed hydrolysis of triricinolein to obtain 2-monoricinolein and thereafter synthesized 1,2(2,3)-diricinolein through esterification of 2-monoricinolein, using ricinoleic acid as the acyl donor. Five different 1,3-specific immobilized lipases were tested for the initial methanolysis reaction: Candida antarctica type B, Rhizomucor miehei, Rhizopus oryzae (ROL), Thermomyces lanuginosus, and Aspergillus niger. For the second esterification reaction, we investigated these five lipases plus Pseudomonas cepacia, Penicillium roquefortii, Candida rugosa, and Pseudomonas fluorescence. Toluene and diisopropyl ether (DIPE) were examined as reaction media at a water activity of 0.11. ROL in DIPE gave the highest yield of 2-monoricinolein from triricinolein, 78% after 3 h of reaction. The isolated 2-monoricinolein was esterified with ricinoleic acid for synthesis of 1,2(2,3)-diricinolein. ROL in DIPE gave the highest yield of 1,2(2,3)-diricinolein, 58% after 1 h of reaction, and NMR analysis showed that the purity was 97.2%. This methodology can used for synthesizing radiolabeled 1,2(2,3)-diricinolein to study lipid biosynthesis in castor and other oilseeds.     

Combination of capacitance and conductive working fluid to speed up the fabrication of a narrow, deep hole in electrical discharge machining using a dielectric-encased wire electrode

An attempt was made to increase the machining speed of a new electrical discharge machining system for fabricating narrow, deep holes in metal. The method employs a wire encased in a dielectric jacket as the tool electrode, in contrast with the conventional pipe electrode. The role of the dielectric jacket is to completely suppress unnecessary secondary discharges occurring between the sidewalls of the wire and the fabricated hole. In the present study, the effectiveness of the combination of conductive working fluid and a capacitor connected to the work piece and the tool electrode was examined. Although electrode wear was severe, machining speed with this combination (saline water at 150–250 μS/cm and capacitance at 8 μF) was twice as fast compared with fabricating a hole ( 0.8–0.9 mm) without a capacitor and saline water in a 20-mm thick carbon steel block. The mechanisms involved are discussed based on electrical circuit theory and electrochemical corrosion.     

Various conformations of carbon nanocoils prepared by supported Ni-Fe/molecular sieve catalyst

The carbon nanocoils with various kinds of conformations were prepared by the catalytic pyrolysis of acetylene using the Ni metal catalyst supported on molecular Sieves which was prepared using Fe-containing kaolin as the raw material. There are four kinds of carbon nanocoils conformations produced by this catalyst. The influences of reaction temperature and gas conditions on the conformations of the nanocoils were investigated and the reasons of forming nano-size coils were discussed by comparison with pure Ni metal catalyst.     

The relationship between intramembranous particles and aquaporin molecules in the plasma membranes of normal rat skeletal muscles: a fracture-label study

The plasma membrane of skeletal muscles contains water channels such as aquaporin 4 (AQP4), aquaporin 3 (AQP3) and aquaporin 7 (AQP7). In dehydrated mice, we have recently reported the altered distribution of the aggregations of intramembranous particles (IMPs), such as orthogonal array (a crystal-like structure) and IMP cluster (a rosette-like structure) on the freeze-fractured skeletal muscle plasma membranes. In this fracture-label study, we first tested whether the orthogonal arrays (OAs) were composed of AQP4 in skeletal muscles and further analyzed the relationship between IMPs including IMP clusters and AQP3 molecules. As a result, many of the gold particles indicating AQP4 was associated with OAs (79%) by our fracture-label technique. On the other hand, approximately 50% of gold particles indicating AQP3 were associated with IMP clusters. Thus we confirmed that the OAs are composed of AQP4 in skeletal muscles, and further demonstrated that some of the IMP clusters are composed of AQP3 and may participate in maintaining osmotic homeostasis in skeletal myofibers. The fracture-label method is useful in investigating the molecular identification of membrane proteins such as AQP3 and AQP4.     

Periodic traction in migrating large amoeba of Physarum polycephalum

The slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a giant multinucleated cell exhibiting well-known Ca²⁺-dependent actomyosin contractions of its vein network driving the so-called cytoplasmic shuttle streaming. Its actomyosin network forms both a filamentous cortical layer and large fibrils. In order to understand the role of each structure in the locomotory activity, we performed birefringence observations and traction force microscopy on excised fragments of Physarum. After several hours, these microplasmodia adopt three main morphologies: flat motile amoeba, chain types with round contractile heads connected by tubes and motile hybrid types. Each type exhibits oscillations with a period of about 1.5 min of cell area, traction forces and fibril activity (retardance) when fibrils are present. The amoeboid types show only peripheral forces while the chain types present a never-reported force pattern with contractile rings far from the cell boundary under the spherical heads. Forces are mostly transmitted where the actomyosin cortical layer anchors to the substratum, but fibrils maintain highly invaginated structures and contribute to forces by increasing the length of the anchorage line. Microplasmodia are motile only when there is an asymmetry in the shape and/or the force distribution.     

Soft Decision with Soft Target for Car-like Mobile Vehicle in Dynamic Environment

Online flexible operation of a car-like mobile vehicle with non-holonomic constraints in dynamic environment is still a very challenging problem because the surrounding situations are not qualified in static, knowledge is only partial and the execution is often associated with uncertainty. The difficulty lies in the setting of appropriate moving sub-targets in real-time to obtain a collision-free and low-cost path. In this paper, we present a new approach for the autonomous motion control of mobile vehicle in a narrow area with static and dynamic obstacles. It is based on the selection of sub-target points of vehicle's movement called ‘soft target’ which is a target set defined as all possible and reachable via-points in a navigation space. The soft target is acquired by online learning based on the final target and environment information. Each element of it has its membership value in [0, 1] denoting its evaluation degree. With the acquired soft target, soft decision is made like human's decision process by predictive fuzzy control (PFC) to achieve final target safely and economically. The simulation results show the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed vehicle motion control method. © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.