A Mutant D‐Fructose‐6‐Phosphate Aldolase (Ala129Ser) with Improved Affinity towards Dihydroxyacetone for the Synthesis of Polyhydroxylated Compounds

A mutant of D ‐fructose‐6‐phosphate aldolase (FSA) of Escherichia coli, FSA A129S, with improved catalytic efficiency towards dihydroxyacetone (DHA), the donor substrate in aldol addition reactions, was explored for synthetic applications. The k_cat/K_M value for DHA was 17‐fold higher with FSA A129S than that with FSA wild type (FSA wt). On the other hand, for hydroxyacetone as donor substrate FSA A129S was found to be 3.5‐fold less efficient than FSA wt. Furthermore, FSA A129S also accepted glycolaldehyde (GA) as donor substrate with 3.3‐fold lower affinity than FSA wt. This differential selectivity of both FSA wt and FSA A129S for GA makes them complementary biocatalysts allowing a control over donor and acceptor roles, which is particularly useful in carboligation multi‐step cascade synthesis of polyhydroxylated complex compounds. Production of the mutant protein was also improved for its convenient use in synthesis. Several carbohydrates and nitrocyclitols were efficiently prepared, demonstrating the versatile potential of FSA A129S as biocatalyst in organic synthesis.     

Generation of Brønsted Acid Over Alumina-Supported Niobia Calcined at High Temperatures

Nb₂O₅/Al₂O₃ catalysts calcined at high temperatures exhibited the Brønsted acid property. A monolayer of niobic acid-like compound, which has distorted octahedral symmetry, was stabilized over 16 wt% Nb₂O₅/Al₂O₃ catalyst calcined at 1,173 K. The two-dimensional Nb–O–Nb network of stabilized niobic acid-like compound probably accounts for the generation of Brønsted acid.     

Oxygen Potential Analysis to Evaluate Irradiation Behavior in MOX and MA-Bearing MOX Fuels

Oxygen potentials of oxide nuclear fuels are important thermodynamic data in development of nuclear fuel technologies. Minor actinide bearing MOX （mixed oxide） fuels have been developed as sodium cooled fast reactor fuels. Content of Am which is one of the minor actinide elements causes oxygen potentialto increase. The effects of the oxygen potential increase on the irradiation behavior were evaluated. Profiles of temperature and O/M （oxygen-to-metal） ratio in the pellets were evaluated to better understand the irradiation behavior. From these data, local oxygen potential in the radial direction of the pellets was calculated, and was compared with free energy of compounds composed of fission products. Based on this comparison, it was concluded that Cs2MoO4 was likely formed at pellet periphery of （U07Pu03）O1.98 and （U0.66Pu03Amoo16Npo.016）Ol.976 The extent of cladding tube inner surface oxidation was predicted by using the calculated oxygen potential. No significant difference between irradiation behaviors of （Uo.7Puo3）O2_x and （U0.66PUo 3Amo.016Npo.016）O2.x pellets was confirmed.     

Crystallographic analysis for acicular ferrite formation in low carbon steel weld metals

Inclusions contributing to acicular ferrite nucleation were investigated from a crystallographic point of view in low carbon low alloy steelweld metals. The samples from electro slag welding (ESW) and submerged arc welding (SAW) deposits with various cooling rates were prepared in this study. In those samples, intragranular acicular ferrite formation was observed from inclusions. The inclusions contributing to acicular ferrite formation were of multi-phase type consisting of amorphous phase, spinel type and MnS. They were surrounded by a Ti-enriched layer. It was confirmed by selected area diffraction patterns and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer analyses that the Ti-enriched layer was TiO. The acicular ferrite had a Baker–Nutting orientation relationship with the TiO layer on the inclusion surface. The misfit was 3.0% at the interface between the acicular ferrite and TiO. Therefore, it is considered that TiO on the inclusion surface contributes to the heterogeneous nucleation of acicular ferrite by small lattice misfit. However, themorphologies of ferrite growth which nucleated from inclusions were different in both samples. Whereas the growth of ferrites nucleated from TiO was enough in ESW, the size of nucleated ferrite in SAW was a few hundred millimetres in size. In the early stage of nucleation from TiO, ferrite had small deviation from Kurdjumov–Sachs orientation relationship (K–S relationship) in both ESW and SAW. However, there was a difference in the growth stage of ferrite. The ferrite orientations were gradually changed to fit to the K–S relationship in ESW. On the other hand, the nucleated ferrite in SAW stopped growing and the newly nucleated ferrite which had K–S relationship prior to austenite was formed adjacently because of large super cooling due to small heat input.     

Effective synthesis of ethanol from CO2 on polyfunctional composite catalysts

Synthesis of ethanol by hydrogenation of carbon dioxide has been investigated by developing the novel composite catalysts. The three different kinds of elementary reaction functions for ethanol synthesis were undertaken. The catalytic functions are partial reduction of CO₂ to CO, C–C bond formation, and –OH group insertion. For this purpose, supported Rh catalyst, Fe-based modified Fisher–Tropsch catalyst, and Cu-based modified methanol synthesis catalyst were combined by different ways. As a result, high space–time yields of ethanol as high as 0.8–0.9 kg/l h were obtained.     

Synthesis of an AlN Polycrystalline Bulk Layer and Nanotubes by Using NH3 and Bi

A bulk layer of aluminum nitride (AlN) polycrystals was synthesized on a boron nitride crucible surface by heating Al chunks with 5 mol% of bismuth at 1273 K for 3 h under NH₃ gas flow. The fragments of the layer were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The platelet grains of AlN with a size of 0.1–1.0 μm and having preferred orientation of the c -axis perpendicular to the layer were formed at the crucible side. Nanotubes 6–15 μm long and about 20–100 nm thick grew on the gas phase side of the layer.     

Power variation control of a wind generator by using feed forward control

The pitch control of wind generators is usually made by a feed back control concept. However, under the conditions where a wind speed changes very frequently due to geographic reasons of the site and the target system has large rotor inertia, the feed back signal which is applied to the control system to compensate disturbance such as wind speed variations is delayed, and consequently the control strategy to keep the generated power at a constant value does not work well. If the wind speed shows too much variation, this will cause a violent variation of power and result in step out operation of the generator from the power system due to magnetic saturation. This paper proposes a control strategy to reduce the power variations by introducing feed forward control combining with the conventional feed back control.     

Characteristics of N2/SF6 mixture gas in creeping discharge developing in narrow gap with backside electrode

The flashover voltage with a backside electrode was found to be lower than that without the backside electrode. Under microsecond pulse voltage application, we describe the characteristics of a creeping discharge developed in the narrow gap with the backside electrode. Using a CCD camera and ultrahigh‐speed camera, we observed the corona extension processes. The lowest flashover voltage was found to be obtained at positive polarity with a SF₆ content D = 3%. In the corona extension obtained using an ultrahigh‐speed camera, peculiar differences were observed in the corona extension process. The corona extension increased, and rapid flashover was observed at D = 3%. Using a CCD camera, small coronas were detected from the backside electrode. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 158(2): 31–38, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20431