A comparative study of ethanol production by Issatchenkia orientalis strains under stress conditions

The ability of 13 strains of multi-stress-tolerant Issatchenkia orientalis yeast to produce ethanol was examined under different stress conditions, including conditions of elevated H₂SO₄ and Na₂SO₄ concentrations and increased heat. The MF-121 strain produced a significant amount of ethanol after the incubation in acidic media containing high concentrations of salt, e.g., 50 g/l Na₂SO₄ at pH 2.0, or at high temperatures, e.g., 43°C, when compared with other strains.     

Effects of triton WR 1339 and orotic acid on lipid metabolism in rats

In order to investigate the effect of hepatic cholesterol flux on biliary bile acids, Triton WR 1339 and orotic acid were administered to rats, and the biliary cholesterol, phospholipids and bile acids were analyzed together with serum lipoproteins and hepatic lipids. Triton, which raised serum very low density lipoprotein and lipid levels and decreased serum high density lipoprotein liver lipid levels, increase the biliary cholic acid group/chenodeoxycholic acid group ratio (CA/CDCA) in the bile without affecting the total amount of bile acids and the other biliary lipids. Orotic acid, which decreased serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations and increased liver lipid levels, increased the biliary excretion of cholesterol and phospholipids, but produced no significant change in the total amount of bile acids and in the CA/CDCA ratio in bile.     

Fe content effects on electrochemical properties of Fe-substituted Li2MnO3 positive electrode material

Fe-substituted Li₂MnO₃ including a monoclinic layered rock-salt structure (C2/m), (Li_1+x(Fe_yMn_1−y)_1−xO₂, 0 < x < 1/3, 0.1 ≤ y ≤ 0.5) was prepared by coprecipitation-hydrothermal-calcination method. The sample was assigned as two-phase composite structure consisting of the cubic rock-salt () and monoclinic ones at high Fe content above 30% (y ≥ 0.3), while the sample was assigned as a monoclinic phase (C2/m) at low Fe content less than 20%. In the monoclinic Li₂MnO₃-type structure, the Fe ion tends to substitute a Li (2b) site, which corresponds to a center position of Mn⁴⁺ hexagonal network in Mn-Li layer. The electrochemical properties including discharge characteristics under high current density (<3600 mA g⁻¹ at 30 °C) and low temperature (<−20 °C at 40 mA g⁻¹) were severely affected by chemical composition (Fe content and Li/(Fe + Mn) ratio), crystal structure (monoclinic phase content) and powder property (specific surface area). Under the optimized Fe content (0.2 < y < 0.4), the Li/sample cells showed high initial discharge capacity (240-300 mAh g⁻¹) and energy density (700-950 mWh g⁻¹) between 1.5 and 4.8 V under moderate current density, 40 mA g⁻¹ at 30 °C. Results suggest that Fe-substituted Li₂MnO₃ would be a non-excludable 3 V positive electrode material.     

SIMULATED EFFECTIVE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF SINTERED,RANDOMLY PACKED SPHERES AND STATISTICAL STRUCTURES OF PACKINGS

Effective thermal conductivity of sintered spherical particles is estimated by a computer simulation. The simulation consists of (i)simulated random packing of equal spheres by a method of "rigid sphere free fall into a virtual box," (ii) finite element method (FEM) estimation of the thermal resistance of a "sintered" pair of spheres, and (iii) simulated heat conduction tests of a "random network," as a model of sintered particles, of thermal resistors with the estimated resistance; these tests yield the effective conductivity of sintered spherical particle aggregates. Statistical structures of the random packings of spheres are examined. The random packings constructed are standard "loose random packings." The cumulative diameter distribution of circles appearing on cross-sections of the packings is in complete agreement with the theoretical prediction for all three orthogonal directions, implying that the packing structures are isotropic. And, despite this result, the zenithal distribution of branch orientations deviates from a uniform one; more spheres are in contact with their neighbors at the zenithal angles of theta approxequal 45 degrees. The effective conductivities obtained are not isotropic but transversely isotropic, which is due to the deviation of branch orientations.     

Adhesion of polysaccharides to intact cells and protoplasts of Nicotiana tabacum BY-2 and its stimulative effects on protoplast growth

The adhesion of water-soluble beta-d-glycans, including cellulose-adhesive schizophyllan, xyloglucan, and locust bean gum to intact cells and protoplasts of Nicotiana tabacum BY-2 was examined using their fluorescent derivatives. Fluorescence microscopy showed that schizophyllan, xyloglucan, locust bean gum, and xanthan gum bound to the intact cells, and that schizophyllan, xanthan gum, and succinoglycan bound to the protoplasts. These adhesive beta-d-glycans raised considerably the number of the cells regenerated from protoplasts. The results suggest that some water soluble beta-d-glycans showing affinity for intact cells and/or protoplasts will be suitable for use as stabilizers of protoplast division.     

Sorption and diffusion of volatile organic compounds in fluoroalkyl methacrylate‐grafted PDMS membrane

Pervaporation is known as an excellent method for the purification of contaminated water, the extraction of aroma compounds, etc., and has been widely studied. The prediction of permeation is important for treatment, extraction, and quantitative analysis. To predict permeation, a solution–diffusion mechanism is proposed. The octanol–water partition coefficient (Pow) has been generally used in expressing hydrophobicity. The hydrophobicity, Pow, is closely related to the solubility of organic compounds. Also, the molecular volume is closely related to the diffusion of organic compounds. In this study, we improved polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes by plasma grafting of fluoroalkyl methacrylates (FALMA) to enhance the affinity of PDMS to volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Furthermore, we investigated the pervaporation through the plasma‐grafted PDMS membrane and the PDMS membrane and the solution–diffusion mechanism of various VOCs. The permselectivity of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and toluene determined by the sorption and the diffusion characteristics permeating in the membrane was high. Because the molecular volume of the VOCs is greated than that of water and the permeates quickly penetrate in rubbery membranes like PDMS, permselectivity was not affected by the diffussivity. Solubility significantly affected the permselectibity during pervaporation through a hydrophobic rubbery membrane. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 75: 773–783, 2000     

Terahertz dielectric properties of plasma-sprayed thermal-barrier coatings

We investigated the electromagnetic wave transmittance and dielectric properties of yttria partially stabilised zirconia thermal-barrier coatings by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy in which the samples were irradiated by a pulsed THz wave in the frequency range of 0.1-6.3 THz. The coating microstructure was varied by changing the spray conditions and the THz transmittance and dielectric constants were examined as functions of frequency. The coatings exhibited a high transmittance of 20%-80% at frequencies below 0.5 THz and almost zero transmittance above 1.5 THz. The refractive index n for different coatings ranges from 4 to 6, depending on the coating microstructure. For any given coating, n increases to some extent with increasing frequency. Unlike the imaginary part of the dielectric constant, the real part of the dielectric constant is strongly correlated with the porosity of the coatings, which suggests that terahertz spectroscopy may potentially be used to non-destructively evaluate the porosity of ceramic coatings.     

Proposal of cause–effect pattern library for realizing sustainable businesses

Sustainable business design has gained growing interest in recent years. However, it is often difficult to clarify which business activities actually contribute to (or violate) the sustainability of the earth due to high complexity of environmental and economical system of our society. In order to help a business to generate sustainable business ideas handling this complexity in a systematic and comprehensive manner, this paper proposes a method to formulate a wide variety of causalities in our society into a cause–effect pattern library and illustrates how to use it for design and planning of sustainable businesses.     

Environmentally benign precipitation copolymerization of methacrylate ester and styrene to make polymeric microspheres in supercritical carbon dioxide

The polymeric microspheres were synthesized by the precipitation copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) with methacrylic acid(MAA) or 2‐hydoxyethyl methacrylate (2‐HEMA) containing styrene (ST) in SC‐CO₂. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the products were spherical microparticles, with the addition of MAA and/or 2‐HEMA as the monomer, with diameter of 0.2–2 μm. The effects of copolymerization pressure, temperature, and ratios of GMA/MAA, ST, and/or GMA/2‐HEMA, on the particle size and morphology were investigated in detail. A new experiment setup is proposed for the large amount of production, based on the rule of lower monomer concentration, more stable system, and better use of the present polymerization apparatus. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 2425–2431, 2007