Evaluation of Desulphurization Flux in CaO‐Al2O3‐BaO‐CeO2‐MgO System

The flux of the CaO‐Al₂0₃‐BaO‐CeO₂‐MgO system as a desulphurization flux containing no fluorine for the secondary metallurgy process was evaluated in this study. The flux composition was designed using the eutectic compositions of the binary systems. The melting and desulphurization abilities of the fluxes were evaluated by measuring their liquidus temperatures and the distribution ratios of sulphur between the fluxes and the carbon‐saturated iron or stainless steel. The lowest liquidus temperature of 1325°C was obtained by adding 5.7 mass% MgO to the 80mass%A‐20mass%B flux. (A: 12CaO‐7Al₂O₃, B: BaCeO₃+12mass%Al₂O₃). The distribution ratios of sulphur and sulphide capacities of the fluxes in this study were higher than those of the commercial product of calcium aluminate flux. This means that the CaO‐Al₂O₃‐BaO‐CeO₂‐MgO fluxes developed in this study have higher desulphurization and melting abilities compared with the commercial product of calcium aluminate flux.     

Comparison of Centralized and Decentralized Systems in Power System Restoration

This paper proposes a multiagent approach to decentralized power system restoration for distribution system networks and presents a comparison of centralized and decentralized systems for power system restoration. Numerous studies have been conducted on power system restoration problems. From the viewpoint of system structures, this research can be divided into two categories: centralized systems and decentralized systems. In this study, we solve a power system restoration problem for a power distribution network by two different methods: mathematical programming (MIP) and the proposed multiagent‐based method (MAS). The proposed multiagent system consists of several distributing substation agents (DSAGs) and load agents (LAGs). An LAG corresponds to the customer load, and a DSAG supplies electricity to the LAG. From the simulation results, it can be seen that the proposed system can reach the right solution by making use of only local information and that the solution quality is better than that of the centralized system (MIP). This means that the proposed multiagent restoration system is a promising approach to larger scale distribution networks.     

Nanowrinkled and Nanoporous Polyethylene Membranes Via Entanglement Arrangement Control

Crystalline homopolymers, including polyethylene (PE), which has the simplest architecture, form a nanometer‐sized combination of crystalline and amorphous components, but their arrangement control, similar to self‐assembled phase‐separation of block‐copolymers, is usually difficult. However, molecular entanglements trapped between crystalline and amorphous components of homopolymers coincide with the segmental linking points on the interfaces of the microphase separation for block copolymers. Nanowrinkled PE membranes are prepared with a network of 30 nm‐thick homogeneous lamellae using a novel entanglement control technique composed of biaxial melt‐drawing and melt‐shrinking procedures, which are limited for highly entangled ultrahigh molecular weight materials. Such a network arrangement of nanowrinkling lamellae spreading on membrane surface and also across the membrane thickness improves the mechanical properties of both tensile strength and tearing strength. Subsequent cold‐drawing causes delamination of the lamellar interfaces, leading to the resultant nanoporous morphology composed of passing‐through channels that are several tens of nanometers in diameter, without any solvent processing.     

Phase transformation and interface segregation behavior in Si3N4 ceramics sintered with La2O3–Lu2O3 mixed additive

Microstructure and mechanical property of silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) ceramic are strongly dependent on the selection of sintering additives. When rare‐earth (RE) oxide is used as the sintering additive, segregation of RE ions at interface between Si₃N₄ grain and intergranular glassy film (IGF) is believed to play a critical role. Although the ionic radius of RE ion is known to be an empirical parameter to modify the mechanical property, the correlation between the segregated ions and their ionic radii is still under controversy. In order to address this issue, (i) rate of α‐β phase transformation and (ii) segregation behavior at the interface were studied for Si₃N₄ ceramics sintered using mixture of La₂O₃ and Lu₂O₃ as additives in this study. Specimens of Lu content 30% and higher exhibited lower activation energies for the α‐β phase transformation as compared with those of Lu content 20% and lower. In terms of the segregation behavior, La was preferably segregated at one site and Lu at the other site along β‐Si₃N₄/IGF interface in the specimens of Lu content 30% and higher. It is understood from these results that Lu segregation site should be more closely related with grain growth.     

Attribute-based quality classification of academic papers

Investigating the relevant literature is very important for research activities. However, it is difficult to select the most appropriate and important academic papers from the enormous number of papers published annually. Researchers search paper databases by combining keywords, and then select papers to read using some evaluation measure—often, citation count. However, the citation count of recently published papers tends to be very small because citation count measures accumulated importance. This paper focuses on the possibility of classifying high-quality papers superficially using attributes such as publication year, publisher, and words in the abstract. To examine this idea, we construct classifiers by applying machine-learning algorithms and evaluate these classifiers using cross-validation. The results show that our approach effectively finds high-quality papers.     

NMR-Guided Repositioning of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs into Tight Junction Modulators

Bioavailability is a major bottleneck in the clinical application of medium molecular weight therapeutics, including protein and peptide drugs. Paracellular transport of these molecules is hampered by intercellular tight junction (TJ) complexes. Therefore, safe chemical regulators for TJ loosening are desired. Here, we showed a potential application of select non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) as TJ modulators. Based on our previous observation that diclofenac and flufenamic acid directly bound various PDZ domains with a broad specificity, we applied solution nuclear magnetic resonance techniques to examine the interaction of other NSAIDs and the first PDZ domain (PDZ1) of zonula occludens (ZO)-1, ZO-1(PDZ1). Inhibition of ZO-1(PDZ1) is expected to provide loosening of the epithelial barrier function because the domain plays a crucial role in maintaining TJ integrity. Accordingly, diclofenac and indomethacin were found to decrease the subcellular localization of claudin (CLD)-2 but not occludin and ZO-1 at the apicolateral intercellular compartment of Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) II cells. These NSAIDs exhibited 125–155% improved paracellular efflux of fluorescein isothiocyanate insulin for the Caco-2 cell monolayer. We propose that these NSAIDs can be repurposed as drug absorption enhancers for peptide drugs.     

Consumer confusion from price competition and excessive product attributes under the curse of dimensionality

AI & SOCIETY - The purpose of our study is to (i) investigate the effects of the number of products, product attributes, and prices on consumer confusion, (ii) conduct a numerical analysis to...     

Well‐defined,environment‐friendly synthesis of polypeptides based on phosgene‐free transformation of amino acids into urethane derivatives and their applications

In this study, both naturally occurring and artificial amino acids were successfully transformed into the corresponding urethane derivatives using diphenyl carbonate. The urethanes thus prepared could be efficiently cyclized into amino acid N‐carboxyanhydrides (NCAs) without the requirement of phosgene. In addition, the presence of primary amines converted the urethane derivatives into NCAs and initiated the ring‐opening polymerization of the in situ formed NCAs, allowing for the well‐defined synthesis of polypeptides. These polypeptides contained initiating ends functionalized by an amine‐derived residue and propagating ends bearing the reactive amino group. By precise control of the structures of the polypeptides, various polypeptide conjugates such as block copolymers and graft copolymers were successfully synthesized as designed, and their applications in antifouling coatings against proteins, drug delivery systems and biosensors were demonstrated. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry