Isolation of a new highly CO2 tolerant fresh water Microalga Chlorella sp. KR-1

A fresh-water microalga, which has tolerance to high concentrations of CO₂, was isolated. The KR-1 strain was identified to be as genus Chlorella. Though Chlorella KR-1 showed maximum growth at 10% CO₂, the strain showed a good growth rate up to 50% CO₂. The results indicated the feasibility of the KR-1 strain for mass cultivation using condensed stack gases.     

Extension of the method of auxiliary mapping for three‐dimensional elliptic boundary value problems

In this paper, we extend the method of auxiliary mapping (MAM), introduced by Babuška and Oh, to three dimensions so that the extended MAM (3‐D MAM) can effectively handle three‐dimensional elliptic problems containing the singularities caused by the non‐smooth domains. There are three type of singularities caused by non‐smoothness of domains in R ³: the vertex, the edge, and the vertex–edge combined singularities. To deal with the singularities of these types, we present three auxiliary mappings and formulas for the transformed bilinear forms and the transformed linear functionals by these auxiliary mappings. Then we present 3‐D MAM and constructions of the blending‐type elemental mappings for elements containing singularities. Numerical experiments that show the effectiveness of 3‐D MAM are provided. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gold nanoparticle-assisted delivery of brain-derived neurotrophic factor to cerebral organoids

Gold nanoparticle(AuNP)-assisted delivery of proteins/drugs to cells or in vivo systems has long been studied.However,their interaction with in vivo mimicking o...     

Control of molecular weight distribution in propylene polymerization with Ziegler–Natta/metallocene catalyst mixtures

Propylene polymerization was investigated with a sequential addition of Ziegler–Natta and metallocene catalysts. From the fact that the molecular weights of polypropylene (PP) produced with Ziegler–Natta and with metallocene catalysts differ, it was possible to control the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of PP with a sequential addition of methylaluminoxane and rac-ethylenebis(indenyl)zirconium dichloride followed by triethylaluminum and magnesium dichloride-supported titanium tetrachloride catalyst. The obtained PP exhibited a wide MWD curve with shoulder peak. The position and height of each peak was controlled with the variation of polymerization time for each catalyst as well as the amount of each catalyst. The MWD of PP prepared with sequential addition of catalysts was much wider than that of PP obtained from each catalyst. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 67:2213–2222, 1998     

Satellite selection scheme for reducing handover attempts in LEO satellite communication systems

Low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication systems perform frequent intersatellite handovers for both fixed and mobile users. This paper proposes a satellite selection scheme for new/handover call requests when two or more satellites can be seen simultaneously. Each satellite in this scheme has a non-uniform transmitter antenna gain according to its relative position inside the coverage area. The antenna gain is proportional to the residual distance in the satellite's direction of movement and it compensates for the difference in path losses between satellite links. The residual distance distribution of the selected satellite and the mean number of intersatellite handovers during a call connection are calculated and compared with the results based on conventional methods. The proposed scheme can reduce the intersatellite handover call attempt rate without increasing system load and terminal complexity. Furthermore, this scheme can be extended to reduce both intersatellite and interbeam handover call attempt rates in a multiple spot beam environment. Especially, the average number of intersatellite and interbeam handovers during a call can be significantly reduced by using a hybrid algorithm with the proposed non-uniform power transmission scheme. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interphase cure characterization in epoxy composites by fluorescence technique

Monitoring the reaction of an aromatic diamine cure agent with epoxy by fluorescence technique was used for cure characterization of the interphase in epoxy/glass and epoxy/carbon composites. The effect of the various surface treatments was first studied by the model interphase obtained by using a quartz plate for glass or a modified quartz plate for carbon surface. Aminosilane treated quartz cured faster and showed increased cure extent, while water aging and air oxidation showed almost no effect on the cure kinetics in comparison to the untreated quartz surface. For a model carbon surface, air oxidation showed a faster reaction only at the early stage of cure. The effects of the various surface treatments on glass or carbon fiber were also studied with the actual composites made by a thin coating of epoxy-diamine melt on glass or carbon fiber bundles. Epoxy/glass fiber composite showed a similar trend as the model interphase system. In the case of epoxy/carbon fiber composite, both air oxidation and water aging treatment showed a faster cure reaction at the early stage of cure. Furthermore, air oxidation treatment for the epoxy/carbon fiber composite showed somewhat increased cure extent. The reasons for these trends have been discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 63: 1769–1775, 1997     

Effect of orientation on the biodegradability of uniaxially stretched aliphatic copolyester films

The effects of uniaxial drawing conditions on the orientation of aliphatic copolyester films were investigated by using both Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR) dichroism and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) methods. The results showed that orientation in uniaxially drawn films was determined by the drawing rate and drawing temperature. At higher drawing rates and higher drawing temperatures, higher orientation was obtained due to a large deformation of spherulites. The WAXD patterns of drawn films exhibited the preferential orientation of lamellar crystallites. The results of microbial degradation indicated that development of crystalline orientation evidently depressed biodegradability of samples. Video microscopy observations revealed that the degree of orientation played a dominant role in determining the rate of surface erosion. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 64: 1999–2006, 1997     

Liquid-liquid phase separation in polysulfone/solvent/water systems

The cloud point curves for polysulfone (PSf)/solvent/water systems were determined by a titration method. A small amount of water was needed to induce liquid-liquid demixing and the temperature effect was small. From numerical calculations, it was found that the binary interaction parameters for the PSf/solvent/water system enlarges the homogeneous region in the phase diagram with a smaller nonsolvent-polymer interaction parameter χ₁₃, a greater nonsolvent-solvent interaction parameter χ₁₂, and a smaller solvent-polymer interaction parameter χ₂₃ and the effect of polymer molecular weight was negligible except in the range of low molecular weight. The phase diagrams, calculated with constant χ₁₂ that was chosen from the concentration-dependent interaction parameter g₁₂ value of the concentration range, were similar to the results obtained with g₁₂. The slope of the tie lines indicated that demixing of the ternary system occurred at relatively similar nonsolvent concentration in both phases. A value of 2.7 for the water-PSf interaction parameter was obtained by fitting the experimental cloud point curve with the calculated binodal lines. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 65: 2643–2653, 1997