EFFECT OF CALCIUM ALGINATE COATING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF IMMOBILIZED YEAST CELLS IN CALCIUM ALGINATE BEADS

A cell immobilization technique to prevent cell leakage from the matrix in a very common system, alginate-Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was investigated. A double coating of immobilized cell beads prevented leakage very well in flask fermentation even when shaking was applied. The suitable concentrations of sodium alginate were 5, 5 and 3 wt% for the core, internal coating and external coating, respectively. The suitable concentration of calcium chloride was 1 wt% for all cases. Fermentation using a fixed bed reactor containing the immobilized cells was carried out successfully for 25 d.     

AC measurement of heat capacity and magnetocaloric effect for pulsed magnetic fields

A new calorimeter for measurements of the heat capacity and magnetocaloric effect of small samples in pulsed magnetic fields is discussed for the exploration of thermal and thermodynamic properties at temperatures down to 2 K. We tested the method up to μ(0)H=50?T, but it could be extended to higher fields. For these measurements we used carefully calibrated bare-chip Cernox(?) and RuO(2) thermometers, and we present a comparison of their performances. The monotonic temperature and magnetic field dependences of the magnetoresistance of RuO(2) allow thermometry with a precision as good as ±4 mK at T=2?K. To test the performance of our calorimeter, heat capacity and magnetocaloric effect for the spin-dimer compound Sr(3)Cr(2)O(8) and the triangular lattice antiferromagnet RbFe(MoO(4))(2) are presented.     

Invited Paper: Depth reproducibility of multiview depth‐fused 3‐D display

Abstract— A multi‐view depth‐fused 3‐D (DFD) display that provides smooth motion parallax for wide viewing angles is proposed. A conventional DFD display consists of a stack of two transparent emitting screens. It can produce motion parallax for small changes in observation angle, but its viewing zone is rather narrow due to the split images it provides in inclined views. On the other hand, even though multi‐view 3‐D displays have a wide viewing angle, motion parallax in them is discrete, depending on the number of views they show. By applying a stacked structure to multi‐view 3‐D displays, a wide‐viewing‐angle 3‐D display with smooth motion parallax was fabricated. Experimental results confirmed the viewing‐zone connection of DFD displays while the calculated results show the feasibility of stacked multi‐view displays.     

Efficient intraliposomal entrapment of hydrophilic platinum oligonuclear complexes

A simple method for intraliposomal entrapment of platinum complexes is presented, where hydrophilic platinum oligonuclear complexes, 1-methyluracil green (MeUG), uridine green (UdG) and uridine blue (UdB), are included inside liposomes and allowed to react with bilayer lipids. The liposomes prepared in this method exhibit higher entrapment efficiency and higher distribution to organs (liver, kidney, spleen, lung) and blood (but not B16 cancer cells) than those prepared from mononuclear Pt complexes [cis-diamminedichloroplatinum, cis-diammine-1,1′-dicarboxylatocyclobutaneplatinum, and cis-dichloro-cis-dihydroxy-trans-bis(isopropylamine)platinum)].     

Design and operation of an air-conditioning system fueled by wood pellets

A room-cooling system of 2 kW capacity fueled by wood pellets was designed, built and tested. The system was demonstrated during summer at the Yakushima Field Station of Kagoshima University, Japan. It contained a pellet feeder, a pellet burner, a heat exchanger, a lithium bromide–water absorption heat pump and a control unit. The volume of the test room was 36.9 m³ and ambient temperature 30 °C. The airflow temperature from the room unit was decreased to 16 °C by the system, and the room temperature could be successfully controlled to 24 °C steady state. Room heating in winter was also demonstrated. Since the air was heat exchanged, the overall energy efficiency of the cooling system was low at about 19%. However, the calculation based on the heat flow showed that the efficiency could be enhanced to about 75% by direct heating of the regenerator by the flue gas.     

Effect of Al(OH)3 Addition on β-LiAlO2 Crystal Growth

Crystal growth of rod-shaped β-LiAlO₂ was previously reported by us, and the rod-shaped β-LiAlO₂ crystals were 1.5 μ in diameter and 10 to 15 μm long. In the present study needle-shaped β-LiAlO₂ crystals which were thinner and had larger aspect ratios (length/diameter) than the rodshaped β-LiAlO₂ crystals were grown by using LiOH–Al₂O₃–Al(OH)₃–NaOH as the raw material. These crystals were 0.7 to 1 μm in diameter, 9 to 13 μm long, and had aspect ratios of about 10 to 13.     

Preparation of VO2 films by organometallic chemical vapour deposition and dip-coating

Low-pressure organometallic chemical vapour deposition (OMCVD) and dip-coating of VO₂ films using vanadyl tri(isobutoxide) as the starting material were investigated. In OMCVD, discontinuous VO₂ films, which were composed of fine needle crystals, formed under very limited conditions, around 600° C with a flow rate of oxygen gas of 0.2 to 0.5 cm³ sec^–1. However, very uniform and tightly packed VO₂ films were grown by deposition at 300 to 700° C in the absence of oxygen gas and subsequent annealing in nitrogen at 500° C for 2 h. The films exhibited a sharp semiconductor to metal transition at 60 to 70° C, accompanied by a change in the resistivity by four to five orders of magnitude. In dip-coating with two-step heat-treatments (300° C for 1 h in nitrogen and subsequently 500° C for 2 h in nitrogen), of the gel films formed from VO(O-i-Bu)₃-H₂O-i-PrOH system, uniform (0 1 1) oriented VO₂ films were formed. A transition in the electrical conductivity by two to two and a half orders of the magnitude was found to occur around 60° C. Before and after the transition, no distinct variation in the XRD pattern was observed.     

Diffusion of unreacted monomers detected by ATR FTIR spectroscopy in a photosensitive printing plate after the photoreaction

A water‐developable flexographic printing plate consisting of poly(acrylonitrile‐co‐butadiene), polybutadiene, and carboxylated polyurethane as a polymer matrix, hexanediol dimethacrylate and polybutadiene diacrylate as reactive monomers, and benzildimethylketal as a photoinitiator was prepared and its photoreaction followed by structural change caused by the diffusion of unreacted monomers was characterized. Analysis combined ¹³C‐NMR and attenuated total reflection (ATR) FTIR showed the photoreaction occurred predominantly at the surface of exposure to the light at first, and then the reaction proceeded to the direction of the opposite surface with an increase in the exposure time. Diffusion of unreacted monomers after the photoreaction from the unexposed side to the exposed side was monitored by ATR FTIR. The diffusivity of unreacted monomers was dependent on the extent of photoreaction in the plate and the molecular weight of diffusing monomers. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 2903–2907, 2004