Brominated organic contaminants in the liver and egg of the common cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) from Japan

The contamination profiles of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), biphenyls (PBBs), dibenzo-p-dioxins (PBDDs), and dibenzofurans (PBDFs) were determined in the liver and egg of common cormorants from Japan. PBDEs and PBBs were detected in all the samples; especially the former were detected at elevated levels. PBDDs/PBDFs were also detected in cormorants, albeit the concentrations were lower than those of the PBBs. The total concentration of PBDEs ranged from 330 to 2600 in the liver and from 600 to 3300 in the egg on a nanogram per gram of lipid basis. The concentration of PBBs was in the range from 3.0 to 33 (in the liver) and from 3.4 to 82 (in the egg) on a nanogram per gram of lipid basis. The 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexabromobiphenyl (BB-153) was the most predominant PBB congener in either organ, which corresponds to a major constituent of the BFR FireMaster BP-6. Concentrations of PBDDs/ PBDFs in the liver (range from 21 to 470) were slightly higher than in the egg (range from 31 to 160) on a picogram per gram of lipid basis. The results of this study imply that common cormorants accumulate a high level of PBDEs and PBBs. Comparing the concentrations of brominated organic compounds with those of chlorinated analogues, good relevance between PBBs and coplanar PCBs (r2 = 0.746 [liver] and 0.715 [egg]) was elucidated. To our knowledge, the present study demonstrates the first report of PBDEs, PBBs, and PBDDs/PBDFs in the common cormorant from Japan.     

Ultrasound navigation based on minimally designed vehicle inspired by the bio-sonar strategy of bats

ABSTRACT

In this study, we conducted vehicle experiments and a numerical simulation based on a simple algorithm inspired by the bio-sonar system of bats to investigate how the behavioral strategy employed by bats contributes to acoustic navigation for minimal-design sensing. In particular, a double-pulse scanning method inspired from the echolocation behavior of bats was proposed, in which (1) the direction of ultrasound emission by a vehicle equipped with 1 transmitter and 2 receivers was alternately shifted between the movement direction of the vehicle and the direction of the nearest obstacle, and (2) the movement direction of the vehicle was calculated for every double-pulse emission based on integrated information from all echoes detected. As a result of 100 repeated drives in a practical course, the success rate of an obstacle-avoidance drive improved from 13% with the conventional single-pulse scanning method to 73% with the proposed method. Furthermore, the numerical simulation demonstrated that the proposed method achieves robust path planning by suppressing the localization ambiguity due to the interference of multiple echoes. The practical experiments and numerical simulation suggest that bats employ a simple behavioral solution in the operation of acoustic sensing for various problems occurring in the real world.     

Photoinduced Synthesis of P‐Perfluoroalkylated Phosphines from Triarylphosphines and Their Application in the Copper‐Free Cross‐Coupling of Acid Chlorides and Terminal Alkynes

A practical synthesis yielding P‐perfluoroalkylated phosphines from triarylphosphines and perfluoroalkyl iodides has been developed. The photoinduced reaction involves the substitution of aryl groups on the phosphorus atom with perfluoroalkyl groups to successfully afford P‐perfluoroalkylated phosphines. In addition, the P‐perfluoroalkylated phosphines were found to promote the Cu‐free cross‐coupling reaction of acid chlorides with terminal alkynes.

     

Spin-current-driven thermoelectric coating

Energy harvesting technologies, which generate electricity from environmental energy, have been attracting great interest because of their potential to power ubiquitously deployed sensor networks and mobile electronics. Of these technologies, thermoelectric (TE) conversion is a particularly promising candidate, because it can directly generate electricity from the thermal energy that is available in various places. Here we show a novel TE concept based on the spin Seebeck effect, called 'spin-thermoelectric (STE) coating', which is characterized by a simple film structure, convenient scaling capability, and easy fabrication. The STE coating, with a 60-nm-thick bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi:YIG) film, is applied by means of a highly efficient process on a non-magnetic substrate. Notably, spin-current-driven TE conversion is successfully demonstrated under a temperature gradient perpendicular to such an ultrathin STE-coating layer (amounting to only 0.01% of the total sample thickness). We also show that the STE coating is applicable even on glass surfaces with amorphous structures. Such a versatile implementation of the TE function may pave the way for novel applications making full use of omnipresent heat.     

Fabrication of Langmuir-Blodgett films using amphiphilic peptides

To introduce self-organization ability of transmembrane proteins into Langmuir (L) and Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) techniques, we focused on "amphiphilic peptide" (AP) which is composed of two distinct hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains. Three types of APs of different average hydropathies were used to prepare the AP/lipid mixed L and LB films. According to the circular dichroism spectra, the secondary structures of APs were not uniform but were a mixture of alpha-helix, beta-strand and random coil. The fraction of alpha-helix was higher for lower hydropathy AP. The interaction between AP and lipid in the L film and the structure of the LB film were also depended on the APs used.     

Two-Dimensional Simulation of Cake Growth in Slip Casting

A two-dimensional computer simulation of cake growth was studied for the slip casting of alumina with a gypsum mold. Based on the Adcock and McDowall model, the method of finite differences was applied to the simulation, and numerical calculations were performed for the cake growth on the inside wall of a rectangular, box-type mold by using the cake-growth controlling parameters that were obtained experimentally. Good agreement was observed between the experimental and calculated cake growth in the vicinity of the boundary between the gypsum mold and the silicon rubber and at the rectangular corner of the gypsum mold. The present simulation method is expected to be useful for estimating cake growth on molds with complicated shapes in slip casting.     

Energetics of three-state unfolding of a protein: canine milk lysozyme

Thermodynamics of thermal transitions of a calcium-binding lysozyme,canine milk lysozyme (CML), was studied using differential scanningcalorimetry and compared with those for homologous proteins,human     

Effects of solar spectrum and module temperature on outdoor performance of photovoltaic modules in round‐robin measurements in Japan

The performance of six photovoltaic (PV) modules composed of polycrystalline silicon (pc‐Si), amorphous silicon (a‐Si), and hydrogenated amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon (a‐Si:H/c‐Si) modules was investigated at eight locations in Japan from August 2007 to December 2008. In addition, solar irradiance, solar spectrum, and module temperature were simultaneously measured in these round‐robin measurements. In this study, we evaluate quantitatively the effects of module temperature and solar spectrum on the performance of the PV modules as thermal factor (TF) and spectral factor (SF), respectively. Furthermore, we investigate the variation in module performance, which is converted into module performance under standard test conditions (STC) using the TF and SF. In the case of the pc‐Si modules, the variations in performance ratio under STC (PR_STC) for these modules range from 0.056 to 0.074 through the round‐robin measurements. The TF indicates that the contribution of module temperature to the variation in performance is large, between about 15 and 20%. However, the SF suggests that the contribution of solar spectrum is quite small, less than 3%. In the case of the a‐Si modules, the contribution of module temperature is about 8%. The performance is largely influenced by solar spectrum, more than 12% at its maximum. Consequently, the variations in the corrected PR_STC of the a‐Si modules are between 0.117 and 0.141. These large variations may result from the effects of thermal annealing and light soaking. The variation in PR_STC of the a‐Si:H/c‐Si module is similar to that of the pc‐Si modules. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.