Fuel loads in U.S. Cities

Sources of burnable material within U.S. cities are analyzed. Based on a detailed evaluation of construction practices, storage of burnable contents, building function and layout, and density of buildings in city districts, we derive urban fuel load densities in terms of land use type and geographic location. Residential building fuel loads vary regionally from 123 to 150 kg m^–2; non-residential building classes have loads from 39 to 273 kg m^–2. The results indicate that average U.S. urban area fuel loads range from 14 to 21 kg m^–2.     

Fabrication of mesoporous silica KIT-6/polymer composite and its low thermal expansion property

Here we fabricate mesoporous silica KIT-6/epoxy polymer composite as low thermal expansion material. From the specific gravity of the composites, almost all the mesopores (around 90%) are successfully filled with the epoxy polymers. The thermal mobility of the confined polymer molecules inside the mesopores is restricted by the rigid silica frameworks. Therefore, the volume expansion degree of the composites is much lower than that of epoxy polymer. Through the comparative experimental using FSM-16-type mesoporous silica with a 2 dimensional (2D) hexagonal mesostructure, it is proved that KIT-6 system with a 3D bicontinuous gyroid mesostructure more effectively contributes low thermal expansion property.     

Thermoelectric Properties of (Bi1−x Sb x )2S3 with Orthorhombic Structure

Thermoelectric properties of the substitution system (Bi_1?x Sb _x )₂S₃ have been investigated, where binary Bi₂S₃ and Sb₂S₃ are narrow-gap semiconductors. It is confirmed that metallic conduction, originating from mobile electrons due to production of sulfur vacancies, is observed in Bi₂S₃ over a wide temperature range below room temperature. In Sb₂S₃, mobile carriers are not created and insulating behavior is observed because of the considerably wide bandgap. Change of the carrier number by substitution of antimony contributes strongly to the thermoelectric properties (resistivity and Seebeck coefficient). As a result, the nondimensional figure of merit, ZT, decreases monotonically with increasing antimony content. The maximum value of ZT is obtained in Bi₂S₃ as ZT ≈ 0.1 at room temperature. It is pointed out that control of the carrier number, which is achieved by production of sulfur vacancies, is important to achieve high thermoelectric performance in the (Bi_1?x Sb _x )₂S₃ system. It is possible that the thermoelectric efficiency could be improved by control of the carrier concentration in the bismuth-rich region, including pure binary Bi₂S₃.     

Functional immobilization of recombinant alkaline phosphatases bearing a glutamyl donor substrate peptide of microbial transglutaminase

Covalent and site-specific protein immobilization catalyzed by microbial transglutaminase (MTG) was investigated using recombinant Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase (AP) tagged with a glutamyl donor substrate peptide (MLAQGS) of MTG. A polystyrene surface physically coated with beta-casein or bovine serum albumin (BSA) was employed as an MTG-specific surface displaying reactive lysine residues. MTG-mediated protein immobilization through catalytic varepsilon-(gamma-glutamyl)lysine bond formation between the peptide tag of recombinant APs and beta-casein- or BSA-coated surface was verified by the detection of AP activity on the surface. It was found that the length and the insertion position of the peptide tag did not significantly affect the efficacy of enzymatic immobilization of the recombinant APs. On the other hand, pH and ionic strength in the reaction media had crucial effects on the immobilization yields. Interestingly, the optimum pH range of MTG-mediated protein immobilization differed markedly from that for an MTG-catalyzed reaction in aqueous solution. The results suggest that the concentration of reactive species due to electrostatic interaction between the enzyme-substrate intermediate and the protein-adsorbed surface is a key factor governing MTG catalysis at a solid surface.     

Gingival and dermal fibroblasts: their similarities and differences revealed from gene expression

Gene expression profiles in normal human gingival and dermal fibroblasts were investigated using DNA microarrays. Their fundamental characteristics were almost identical, but 5% of their genes were uniquely expressed. These results help us to choose an optimal cell source for effective fibroblast-based cell therapy that is dependent on differential gene expression profiles.     

Targeted proteome analysis of microalgae under high-light conditions by optimized protein extraction of photosynthetic organisms

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Variational method for super-resolution optical flow

The motion fields in an image sequence observed by a car-mounted imaging system depend on the positions in the imaging plane. Since the motion displacements in the regions close to the camera centre are small, for accurate optical flow computation in this region, we are required to use super-resolution of optical flow fields. We develop an algorithm for super-resolution optical flow computation. Super-resolution of images is a technique for recovering a high-resolution image from a low-resolution image and/or image sequence. Optical flow is the appearance motion of points on the image. Therefore, super-resolution optical flow computation yields the appearance motion of each point on the high-resolution image from a sequence of low-resolution images. We combine variational super-resolution and variational optical flow computation in super-resolution optical flow computation. Our method directly computes the gradient and spatial difference of high-resolution images from those of low-resolution images, without computing any high-resolution images used as intermediate data for the computation of optical flow vectors of the high-resolution image.     

Transfer of CuInS2 thin film by lift-off process and application to superstrate-type thin-film solar cells

Transfer of a CuInS₂ thin film grown on a Mo/soda-lime glass substrate was investigated using a lift-off process. The CuInS₂ thin film was flatly exfoliated, with preferential peeling occurring in the CuInS₂/MoS₂ interface vicinity. This suggests that the interfacial MoS₂ layer behaves as a sacrificial layer. The lift-off process was also applied to solar cell fabrication. A superstrate-type CuInS₂ thin-film solar cell was fabricated and exhibited no significant degradation of conversion efficiency compared with a substrate-type CuInS₂ thin-film solar cell. The lift-off process could therefore also be applied to fabricate the upper part of a tandem solar cell structure.