Capture of CO2 from flue gas via multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were modified by 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (APTS) solution and were tested for its CO₂ adsorption potential at multiple temperatures (20-100 °C). The physicochemical properties of CNTs were changed after the modification, which makes CNTs adsorb more CO₂ gases. The adsorption capacities of CO₂ via CNTs and CNTs(APTS) decreased with temperature indicating the exothermic nature of adsorption process and increased with water content in air at 0-7%. The mechanism of CO₂ adsorption on CNTs and CNTs(APTS) appears mainly attributable to physical force regardless of temperature change, which makes regeneration of spent CNTs at a relatively low temperature become feasible. The CNTs(APTS) have good adsorption performance of CO₂ at 20 °C as compared to many types of modified carbon or silica adsorbents documented in the literature. This suggests that the CNTs(APTS) are promising low-temperature adsorbents for CO₂ capture from flue gas.     

Thermal perceptions,general adaptation methods and occupant's idea about the trade-off between thermal comfort and energy saving in hot–humid regions

A field study conducted in workplaces and residences in Taiwan is carried out to clarify two questions in detail: (1) do people in the tropical climate regions demonstrate a correlation between thermal sensation and thermal dissatisfaction the same as the PMV–PPD formula in the ISO 7730; and (2) does the difference in opportunities to choose from a variety of methods to achieve thermal comfort affects thermal perceptions of occupants? A new predicted formula of percentage of dissatisfied (PD) relating to mean thermal sensation votes (TSVs) is proposed for hot and humid regions. Besides an increase in minimum rate of dissatisfied from 5% to 9%, a shift of the TSV with minimum PD to the cool side of sensation scale is suggested by the new proposed formula. It also reveals that the limits of TSV corresponding to 80% acceptability for hot and humid regions are −1.45 and +0.65 rather than −0.85 and +0.85 suggested by ISO 7730. It is revealed in the findings that the effectiveness, availability and cost of a thermal adaptation method can affect the interviewees' thermal adaptation behaviour. According to the discussion of interviewees' idea about the trade-off between thermal comfort and energy saving, it is found that an energy-saving approach at the cost of sacrificing occupant's thermal comfort is difficult to set into action, but those ensure the occupant's comfort are more acceptable and can be easily popularized.     

Performance prediction of a hybrid ventilation system in an apartment house

The performance of a hybrid ventilation system, composed of a natural supply inlet and mechanical exhaust, was predicted numerically for a South Korean apartment. Analysis was performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for three ventilating flow rates: 30, 60, and 120 m³/h. The heating period chosen in this study reflects how residents are usually exposed to poorer indoor environments in winter. An effort was made to create acceptable residential comforts regarding air current, temperature and CO₂ concentration distributions. The results show that ventilating flow rates are identified as an important parameter, not only in residential comfort, but also in energy savings. An ACH of 0.7 or greater seems to be a reasonable value for the permissible minimum ventilation flow rate in occupied zones. The results also show that for a ventilating flow rate of 60 m³/h, some acceptable criteria are satisfied and residents achieve comfort. In the 30 and 120 m³/h cases, however, residents no longer feel as comfortable with regard to thermal conditions and air currents. Lastly, when a whole apartment has a flow rate of 180 m³/h, and the living room-kitchen region has a flow rate of 120 m³/h, energy losses occur.     

Fabrication of hollow silica particles using copolymeric spheres prepared in supercritical carbon dioxide

Amine functional polymeric spheres were prepared via the dispersion polymerization of 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate and methylmethacrylate in supercritical carbon dioxide, and they were employed efficiently as templates for the fabrication of hollow silica particles. A small amount of divinyl benzene was used as a crosslinking agent to control the morphology of the copolymeric particles from clumpy solid to spherical shape. The assembly of the polymeric spheres with tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) through hydrothermal methods produced core-shell type hybrid particles. The whole process required neither surface treatment for the polymeric particles nor addition of any acidic or basic catalyst for the hydrolysis of silica precursor because dimethylamino groups of the copolymeric spheres were able to absorb water and catalyze the hydrolysis of TEOS for the deposition of the silica gel network. The polymeric cores were completely removed by calcination process and silica hollow particles with well-defined structure were obtained finally. The silica hollow particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, which clearly revealed that the silica spheres had the hollow structure with 151 nm wall thickness.     

Performance evaluation of an MR damper in building structures considering soil–structure interaction effects

Since the force generated by a magneto‐rheological (MR) damper has large nonlinearity, the performance of an MR damper is dependent on response characteristics such as frequency and amplitude. Soil–structure interaction (SSI) is generally known to have a large effect on the seismic response of a building structure. In this study, the performance of an MR damper in mitigating the seismic response of a building structure is evaluated considering the SSI effects. First, the performance variance of an MR damper due to the change of the structural natural period is investigated by constructing its normalized response spectrum through the numerical analysis of many earthquake wave records and the natural period of a structure. The variable friction force of an MR damper is normalized by the structural base shear force, and its amplitude and decrement of response are quantitatively evaluated. Then, the response characteristics of the SSI system due to the lengthening of the structural natural period and various soil conditions are numerically evaluated based on the response spectrum analysis. Finally, the numerical results with and without considering the SSI effects are comparatively evaluated for the building structure with an MR damper. The comparison results show that the SSI effect should be considered in order that the undesirable effect of an MR damper on the structural control would not be neglected. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inhibitory effects of garlic and other spices on biogenic amine production in Myeolchi-jeot,Korean salted and fermented anchovy product

This study was carried out to reduce biogenic amine contents in Myeolchi-jeot, Korean salted and fermented anchovy (Engraulis japonicus). The effects of a variety of spices including ginger, garlic, green onion, red pepper, clove and cinnamon, on biogenic amine production were determined by HPLC. The greatest inhibitory effect on biogenic amine production was observed in the culture treated by garlic extract. In the culture, the contents of putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, tyramine and spermidine were reduced by up to 11.2%, 18.4%, 11.7%, 30.9% and 17.4%, respectively, compared to control. The other spice extracts tested showed less or no effect in reducing biogenic amine contents. In addition, the extract of garlic showed the highest antimicrobial activity against the amine producers tested. The extract of garlic at a concentration of 5% (weight basis) was finally applied to the ripening of Myeolchi-jeot in situ, and then overall production of biogenic amines in Myeolchi-jeot was found to be reduced by up to 8.7%, compared to control. Consequently, it is expected that the findings of this study might be helpful for enhancing the safety of Myeolchi-jeot.     

Discovery of a Novel Triazolopyridine Derivative as a Tankyrase Inhibitor

More than 80% of colorectal cancer patients have adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) mutations, which induce abnormal WNT/β-catenin activation. Tankyrase (TNKS) mediates the release of active β-catenin, which occurs regardless of the ligand that translocates into the nucleus by AXIN degradation via the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Therefore, TNKS inhibition has emerged as an attractive strategy for cancer therapy. In this study, we identified pyridine derivatives by evaluating in vitro TNKS enzyme activity and investigated N-([1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyridin-3-yl)-1-(2-cyanophenyl)piperidine-4-carboxamide (TI-12403) as a novel TNKS inhibitor. TI-12403 stabilized AXIN2, reduced active β-catenin, and downregulated β-catenin target genes in COLO320DM and DLD-1 cells. The antitumor activities of TI-12403 were confirmed by the viability of the colorectal cancer cells and its lack of visible toxicity in DLD-1 xenograft mouse model. In addition, combined 5-FU and TI-12403 treatment synergistically inhibited proliferation to a greater extent than that in a single drug treatment. Our observations suggest that TI-12403, a novel selective TNKS1 inhibitor, may be a suitable compound for anticancer drug development.     

PLEKHA8P1 Promotes Tumor Progression and Indicates Poor Prognosis of Liver Cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) records the second-lowest 5-year survival rate despite the avalanche of research into diagnosis and therapy. One of the major obstacles in treatment is chemoresistance to drugs such as 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), making identification and elucidation of chemoresistance regulators highly valuable. As the regulatory landscape grows to encompass non-coding genes such as long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a relatively new class of lncRNA has emerged in the form of pseudogene-derived lncRNAs. Through bioinformatics analyses of the TCGA LIHC dataset, we have systematically identified pseudogenes of prognostic value. Initial experimental validation of selected pseudogene-derived lncRNA (PLEKHA8P1) and its parental gene (PLEKHA8), a well-studied transport protein in Golgi complex recently implicated as an oncogene in both colorectal and liver cancer, indicates that the pseudogene/parental gene pair promotes tumor progression and that their dysregulated expression levels affect 5-FU-induced chemoresistance in human HCC cell line FT3-7. Our study has thus confirmed cancer-related functions of PLEKHA8, and laid the groundwork for identification and validation of oncogenic pseudogene-derived lncRNA that shows potential as a novel therapeutic target in circumventing chemoresistance induced by 5-FU.     

Doping Molecular Monolayers: Effects on Electrical Transport Through Alkyl Chains on Silicon

n‐Si/C_nH_{2n + 1}/Hg junctions (n = 12, 14, 16 and 18) can be prepared with sufficient quality to assure that the transport characteristics are not anymore dominated by defects in the molecular monolayers. With such organic monolayers we can, using electron, UV and X‐ray irradiation, alter the charge transport through the molecular junctions on n‐ as well as on p‐type Si. Remarkably, the quality of the self‐assembled molecular monolayers following irradiation remains sufficiently high to provide the same very good protection of Si from oxidation in ambient atmosphere as provided by the pristine films. Combining spectroscopic (UV photoemission spectroscopy (UPS), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger, near edge‐X‐ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS)) and electrical transport measurements, we show that irradiation induces defects in the alkyl films, most likely C?C bonds and C? C crosslinks, and that the density of defects can be controlled by irradiation dose. These altered intra‐ and intermolecular bonds introduce new electronic states in the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)–lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) gap of the alkyl chains and, in the process, dope the organic film. We demonstrate an enhancement of 1–2 orders of magnitude in current. This change is clearly distinguishable from the previous observed difference between transport through high quality and defective monolayers. A detailed analysis of the electrical transport at different temperatures shows that the dopants modify the transport mechanism from tunnelling to hopping. This study suggests a way to extend significantly the use of monolayers in molecular electronics.     

CMOS TDI readout circuit that improves SNR for satellite IR applications

A novel CMOS readout circuit for a satellite infrared time delay and integration (TDI) array is proposed. An integrate-while-read readout for the TDI scheme is adopted, and a dead pixel elimination circuit solving a critical problem of the TDI scheme is integrated within a chip. In addition, an adaptive charge capacity control method is utilised to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Using the proposed circuit, the SNR at 200 K can be improved by as much as 12 dB.