Large-scale production and purification of an Erwinia ananas ice nucleation protein and evaluation of its ice nucleation activity

The ice nucleation-active protein of Erwinia ananas IN-10 (inaA protein) was over-expressed as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli in a yield of 15.3 mg of inaA protein from 60 mg of bacterial cells on a dry-matter basis. The inaA protein was purified from the inclusion bodies by solubilization with detergents to obtain a protein preparation free from sugar and lipid. This preparation had a distinct ice nucleation activity, indicating that the inaA protein per se is able to act as a nucleus.     

Adaptive internal model of intrinsic kinematics involved in learning an aiming task.

The elbowjoint angle and the shoulder joint angle of participants aiming at targets were multiplied in an experiment that used a position-recording system and a cathode-ray tube screen. The linear transformation in joint angles (intrinsic coordinates) corresponded to a nonlinear transformation between the hand coordinates and the screen coordinates (extrinsic coordinates). We examined whether participants could learn this transformation in the intrinsic coordinates or in the extrinsic coordinates by investigating intermanual (between-hands) transfer under an intrinsically consistent condition and an extrinsically consistent condition. Positive intermanual transfer was observed in the former condition but not in the latter condition. Results suggest that participants can learn the linear transformation in joint angles under the intrinsic coordinates and that the central nervous system adaptively represents the intrinsic kinematics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A New Hybrid Phosphine Ligand for Palladium‐Catalyzed Amination of Aryl Halides

A new hybrid phosphine was designed. The phosphine combines two common structural characteristics found among the effective phosphine ligands reported recently, namely, three tert‐alkyl substituents binding to the phosphorus and an aryl group at an appropriate position. A hybrid phospine/palladium system is versatile and effective for the coupling reaction of various aryl halides with primary and secondary amines including carbazole.     

Plastic behaviours during tempering by crystal plasticity analyses using fast Fourier transform

ABSTRACT

Heat treatment, such as quenching and carburising, often involves volume change caused by phenomena such as thermal expansion, phase transformation, and carbide precipitation during tempering. During the tempering process, an external force induces additional plastic deformation. The authors termed this phenomenon ‘tempering plasticity’. In this study, we performed crystal plasticity analysis using fast Fourier transform considering the volume change in carbides to assess the mechanism of tempering plasticity. As a result, tempering plastic strain occurred as the volume fraction of carbide increased, and the tempering plastic phenomenon could be reproduced based on the transformation model proposed by Greenwood–Johnson. The result supports the idea that the volume change accompanied by carbide precipitation is an important mechanism that invokes tempering plasticity.     

The development of soft gripper for the versatile robot hand

This paper deals with a new type of soft gripper which can softly and gently conform to objects of any shape and hold them with uniform pressure. This gripping function is realized by means of a mechanism consisting of multi-links and series of pulleys which can be simply actuated by a pair of wires. The possibilities of this gripper are demonstrated by a pair of mechanical model.     

Brilliant cosmetic film for ambient displays,with cholesteric liquid crystal

We have successfully developed a cosmetic film with polymerized cholesteric material. The film features a variety of colors by helical pitch gradients, diffusive texture, and arbitrary color patterns. It hides the display when turned off, and transmits display images when turned on. We believe it could change the display in the OFF‐state from the conventional black wall to specially designed decorations. In addition, they can be applied to hidden sensors.     

Performance-aware server architecture recommendation and automatic performance verification technology on IaaS cloud

In this paper, we propose a server architecture recommendation and automatic performance verification technology, which recommends and verifies appropriate server architecture on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud with bare metal servers, container-based virtual servers and virtual machines. Recently, cloud services are spread, and providers provide not only virtual machines but also bare metal servers and container-based virtual servers. However, users need to design appropriate server architecture for their requirements based on three types of server performances, and users need much technical knowledge to optimize their system performance. Therefore, we study a technology that satisfies users’ performance requirements on these three types of IaaS cloud. Firstly, we measure performance and start-up time of a bare metal server, Docker containers, KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtual machines on OpenStack with changing number of virtual servers. Secondly, we propose a server architecture recommendation technology based on the measured quantitative data. A server architecture recommendation technology receives an abstract template of OpenStack Heat and function/performance requirements and then creates a concrete template with server specification information. Thirdly, we propose an automatic performance verification technology that executes necessary performance tests automatically on provisioned user environments according to the template. We implement proposed technologies, confirm performance and show the effectiveness.     

Development and evaluation of a palm-sized optical PM2.5 sensor

A new palm-sized optical PM_2.5 sensor has been developed and its performance evaluated. The PM_2.5 mass concentration was calculated from the distribution of light scattering intensity by considering the relationship between scattering intensity and particle size. The results of laboratory tests suggested that the sensor can detect particles with diameters as small as ～0.3 µm and can measure PM_2.5mass concentrations as high as ～600 µg/m³. Year-round ambient observations were conducted at four urban and suburban sites in Fukuoka, Kadoma, Kasugai, and Tokyo, Japan. Daily averaged PM_2.5 mass concentration data from our sensors were in good agreement with corresponding data from the collocated standard instrument at the Kadoma site, with slopes of 1.07–1.16 and correlation coefficients (R) of 0.90–0.91, and with those of the nearest observatories of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, at 1.7–4.1 km away from our observation sites, with slopes of 0.97–1.23 and R of 0.89–0.95. Slightly greater slopes were observed in winter than in summer, except at Tokyo, which was possibly due to the photochemical formation of relatively small secondary particles. Under high relative humidity conditions (>70%), the sensor has a tendency to overestimate the PM_2.5 mass concentrations compared to those measured by the standard instruments, except at Fukuoka, which is probably due to the hygroscopic growth of particles. This study demonstrates that the sensor can provide reasonable PM_2.5 mass concentration data in urban and suburban environments and is applicable to studies on the environmental and health effects of PM_2.5.

Copyright © 2018 American Association for Aerosol Research     

PREPARATION OF AMORPHOUS Ti-Pd ALLOYS AND THEIR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

The amorphous Ti_(l_x)Pd_x alloys within a wider composition range of 0.25相似文献   

Effect of ultrafine grain refinement on hydrogen embrittlement of metastable austenitic stainless steel

Micro-tensile tests were performed on high-pressure-torsion-processed specimens of type 304 steel with grain sizes in the range of 0.1–0.5 μm to clarify the effect of ultrafine grain refinement on the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) of metastable austenitic steel. The ultrafine-grained (UFG) specimens with average grain sizes < ～0.4 μm exhibited a limited uniform elongation followed by a steady-stress regime in the stress–strain curves, which was attributed to a martensitic transformation. A high yield stress and a moderate elongation to failure were attained for the UFG specimens with an average grain size of ～0.5 μm in the uncharged state. Hall–Petch relationships well hold between the yield stress and the average grain size for each uncharged and hydrogen-charged specimen. Hydrogen charging increased the friction stress by 40% but did not change the Hall–Petch coefficient. Hydrogen-induced ductility loss was mitigated by ultrafine grain refinement. Ductility loss due to hydrogen charging manifested in the local deformation after a martensitic transformation. This indicates that hydrogen does not significantly affect the martensitic transformation, but shortens the subsequent local deformation process.