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Although the theoretical energy densities of lithium-oxygen batteries (LOBs) far exceed those of lithium-ion batteries, the practical values of the LOBs are usually much lower because of the use of...

This paper reports the electrode performance of a Si anode composed of nanoparticles prepared by spray deposition in a solid-state cell. Upon lithiation, the Si nanoparticles undergo volume expansi...

Lithium-air battery (LAB) is considered to be one of the most promising energy storage devices because of its large theoretical energy density. However, low cyclability caused by battery degradation prevents its practical use. Here we employed X-ray CT to monitor the structural development of laminated cell of lithium air batteries without dismantling the cells. The results are compared with those of SEM/EDS and FIB-SEM/EDS analyses, which were carried out after dismantling the cells. Figure 1 shows XCT images of cross section and slice of laminated cell of lithium air battery after several discharge/charge cycles. Each component is well resolved. Figure 2 shows XCT images of cross section of laminated cell of lithium air battery (a) as prepared, and after (b) one, and (c) ten discharge/charge cycles. It is clear lithium became porous even just after one cycle. The porous layer became much thicker after 10 cycles. For detailed understanding of the structure of the porous layer of lithium, the cells were dismantled and were subject to SEM/EDS and FIB-SEM/EDS analyses. Degradation of lithium layer was much less significant if the anode and cathode were separated by solid electrolyte (Ohara). Detailed results and advantages of XCT will discussed. Figure 1

Summary While lithium-oxygen batteries exhibit high theoretical energy densities that by far exceed those of conventional lithium-ion batteries, there are a limited number of examples that actually demonstrate cells with high energy density. The limitation of the positive electrode with a capacity high enough to sustain repeated discharge/charge cycles under high areal capacity conditions hinders the implementation of the lithium-oxygen batteries with practically high energy density. In this study, we develop a carbon black powder-based self-standing membrane, which exhibits a discharge capacity of ~7,000 mAh/gelectrode even under high current density conditions (>0.4 mA/cm2). Using the developed self-standing carbon membrane as the positive electrode, a 500-Wh/kg class rechargeable lithium-oxygen battery was fabricated and a repeated discharge/charge cycle was demonstrated at 0.1 C-rate. The results obtained in this study provide new material research directions to realize high energy density rechargeable lithium-oxygen batteries and facilitate their future development.

This paper presents an empirical analysis of airport choice and passenger movement on international flights from local cities in Japan to Narita and Haneda Airports in the Tokyo metropolitan area. This is the first study to evaluate airport choice behavior in Japan empirically by using the micro data collected by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2010 (i.e., when time slots for international long-haul flights were first assigned at Haneda). The analysis confirms that flight connectivity is a crucial element in airport choice.Further, Japanese airlines and their associated alliances are able to attract passengers arriving from local cities by using Haneda airport. Above all, we find that the introduction of long-haul international flights from Haneda has met the needs of a number of passengers arriving from local cities in Japan owing to the convenience of the domestic flight network, especially for business purpose passengers.

In this paper we use a multi-sector overlapping generations life-cycle general equilibrium model to conduct a simulation analysis with regard to fiscal reconstruction in Japan. Most life-cycle general equilibrium analyses in Japan have a single manufacturing sector, making it impossible to analyze to differences between the targets of expenditure cuts. A feature of this paper is that it makes this possible by extending this to multiple sectors. A temporary shock seen in the results of the simulation in this paper is that an increase in consumption taxes causes a rise in GDP. This rise in GDP, however, is caused by an increase in the consumption of fixed capital, and national income declines. As regards differences in the methods of reducing expenditure, cuts in education spending and other government spending cause a greater reduction in GDP than reductions in public investment. This is because the reduction of public investment causes capital formation to decline and thus has a long-term negative impact on production activity, whereas the reduction of education spending and other such government spending has a negative impact directly on production activity at the time of the reduction. In the medium term, cases in which consumption taxes are increased make it possible to achieve high GDP, though in the long term GDP increases in cases in which public investment and education spending are reduced. Our analysis also shows that cases of reductions in other types of government spending are accompanied by lower GDP than in any of the other cases.

In this paper, we estimate public pension obligations in Japan using three indices named the open-group, the closed-group, and the plan-termination unfunded obligations and we evaluate Japan's 2004 public pension reform. The reform cleared away obligations of the open-group measure through the introduction of a fixed contribution program and an automatic adjustment of benefit levels. By the closed-group measure continuing the system with the past and current generation, the reform reduces obligations to ¥376 trillion. Measuring with the plan-termination, to which the abolition of the present system is required, the reform reduces obligations to ¥419 trillion.

To produce antibodies that permit the immunohistochemical discrimination of choline acetyltransferase of the common type (cChAT) from its splice variant of a peripheral type (pChAT), we immunized rabbits with a cChAT specific recombinant protein encoded by ChAT exons 7 and 8 of the rat cChAT gene. Successful antibody production was proved by Western blotting on rat brain and on HEK293 cells expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP), cChAT-GFP and pChAT-GFP. By immunohistochemistry our antiserum clearly labeled known cholinergic structures in rat brain, but gave no positive staining in the trigeminal ganglion which contained many neurons positive with pChAT antiserum.

We investigate possible origins of trends using a deterministic threshold model, where we refer to long-term variabilities of price changes (price movements) in financial markets as trends. From the investigation we find two phenomena. One is that the trend of monotonic increase and decrease can be generated by dealers' minuscule change in mood, which corresponds to the possible fundamentals. The other is that the emergence of trends is all but inevitable in the realistic situation because of the fact that dealers cannot always obtain accurate information about deals, even if there is no influence from fundamentals and technical analyses., 23 pages, 9 figures

In regard to a noise from encapsulation for power semiconductor devices, we investigated the vibration action of a flange which is the main cause of noise occurrence. Furthermore, we studied the influence of the vibration on the reliability of the power semiconductor encapsulation, and looked at a plan to reduce the vibration. We found that Lorentz power caused the flange to vibrate from the magnetic flux change which accompanies switching of a main current. The flange vibrated with a maximum amplitude of 8μ with 2.5kHz (current: 600A). The vibration amplitude of the encapsulated semiconductor device was estimated as about 60μm. At this time, the largest stress occurrence was 12kg/mm2. The value was 1/2 or less that the limit fatigue of the flange composed of 42 alloy. We concluded there would be no problem regarding fatigue destruction of the flange.Furthermore, when a vibration absorber was fixed between the flange and the insulator, the vibration of the flange could be reduced to about 1/10. This measure was considered to contribute to low noise operation.

This paper presents an effect of riblet shape on turbulent drag reduction. The experiment was carried out in an N.P.L.blow-down-type wind tunnel with a working section of 500mm×500mm×2000mm. In order to investigate the details of drag reduction for riblet shape, rib models of scaling up riblets were used in this experiment. The parameters were 5 kinds for the rib model and 7 kinds for the riblet model. The time-mean velocity and skin friction were measured by the Pitot and static pressure tubes and Preston tube respectively. The Reynolds stress was obtained using the data processing system connected to a hot wire anemometer. Consequently it was found that(i)the Reynolds stress and skin friction become smallest near the surface for the rib with the section of an equilateral triangle, and(ii)the drag reduction attains maximum for the riblet of V groove with nearly equilateral triangular section.

近世寺院史において，地方寺院の組織及び運営について目を向けた研究は極めて少ない。しかし，近世において寺院は地域文化の重要な担い手であり，その社会的意味は意味は今日よりはるかに大きかったに違いない。地域史の再発見，地域文化の再評価のためには，地方寺院の研究が欠かせないものと考えられる。本研究は，新潟県上越市に所在する真宗寺院，浄興寺に残された寺務日誌の分析から，18世紀半ばにおける同寺の運営組織を明らかにしようとするものである。筆者は，この研究を通じて，同寺の運営が山内寺院住職らによって構成される役僧たちの監督下，台所とよばれる事務局を通じて処理され，その周辺に非役の僧，門前，中間等のその活動を補助する人々が組織されていたことを明らかにした。, There exist very rare studies about local buddhist ternpels in early modern times, especialy on their management sysytern. These studies should be promoted, because temples was rnuch more imfluential in a local society than modern times. From these we will able to understand that period more clearly. The authers tried to make clear the management system of Jokoji-temple from analyzing the contents of its diaries written by monks, who were the members of secretary office of that temple. According to our estimate, there were about ten secretary monks. Under them, there were 3-5 clerks, who treated dairy works. Besides, 20-30 mens including monks worked under their direction.

Cholinergic structures in the arm of the cephalopod Octopus vulgaris were studied by immunohistochemistry using specific antisera for two types (common and peripheral) of acetylcholine synthetic enzyme choline acetyltransferase (ChAT): antiserum raised against the rat common type ChAT (cChAT), which is cross-reactive with molluscan cChAT, and antiserum raised against the rat peripheral type ChAT (pChAT), which has been used to delineate peripheral cholinergic structures in vertebrates, but not previously in invertebrates. Western blot analysis of octopus extracts revealed a single pChAT-positive band, suggesting that pChAT antiserum is cross-reactive with an octopus counterpart of rat pChAT. In immunohistochemistry, only neuronal structures of the octopus arm were stained by cChAT and pChAT antisera, although the pattern of distribution clearly differed between the two antisera. cChAT-positive varicose nerve fibers were observed in both the cerebrobrachial tract and neuropil of the axial nerve cord, while pChAT-positive varicose fibers were detected only in the neuropil of the axial nerve cord. After epitope retrieval, pChAT-positive neuronal cells and their processes became visible in all ganglia of the arm, including the axial and intramuscular nerve cords, and in ganglia of suckers. Moreover, pChAT-positive structures also became detectable in nerve fibers connecting the different ganglia, in smooth nerve fibers among muscle layers and dermal connective tissues, and in sensory cells of the suckers. These results suggest that the octopus arm has two types of cholinergic nerves: cChAT-positive nerves from brain ganglia and pChAT-positive nerves that are intrinsic to the arm.

We studied the immunohistochemical localization of CD44 and heparan sulfate (HS) chains in rat enamel organ by confocal laser scanning microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. We also investigated the binding sites of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), one of the heparin-binding growth factors (HBGF), on Microslicer-sections to clarify its role in the cell-cell interaction of HS. At the differentiation stage of ameloblast, weak immunoreactivity for CD44 was detected on the plasma membrane of the inner enamel epithelium, external enamel epithelium and the cells adjacent to the inner enamel epithelium. In accordance with the differentiation of preameloblasts into secretory ameloblasts, this immunoreactivity increased in stratum intermedium cells. At the secretory stage, stratum intermedium cells showed the most intense immunoreactivity in the enamel organ. At the maturation stage, strong immunoreactivity was seen on papillary layer cells. On the other hand, the lateral plasma membrane of ruffle-ended (RA) and smooth-ended ameloblast (SA) showed weak reactivity. No immunoreactivity was detected on the ruffled border of RA and the distal plasma membrane of SA. Immunolocalization of HS chains was similar to that of CD44. The binding activity of bFGF was also intense on stratum intermedium cells and papillary layer cells. These findings suggest that: 1) stratum intermedium cells and papillary layer cells express CD44 and HS chains in accordance with their differentiation; 2) HS chains on the plasma membrane of these cells may regulate calcium transport by their negative charge; and 3) HS chains on the stratum intermedium and papillary layer may play an important role in the differentiation and activity of ameloblasts by preserving HBGF.

Immunohistochemical techniques were used to study the distribution of cholinergic neurons containing choline acetyltransferase of the common type (cChAT), the synthetic enzyme of acetylcholine, in the central nervous system of the slug Limax maximus and Limax valentianus. Because the antiserum applied here was raised against a recombinant protein encoded by exons 7 and 8 of the rat gene for ChAT, three methods were used in order to validate antibody specificity for the Limax counterpart enzyme. Western blot combined with ChAT activity assay following native gel electrophoresis and immunoprecipitation analysis both indicated that immunoreactive Limax brain molecules were capable of synthesizing acetylcholine. Western blot after denatured gel electrophoresis of Limax brain extracts revealed a single band of about 67kDa. All findings obtained with these three methods clearly indicated that the antiserum effectively recognized Limax cChAT. 1400 neuronal cell bodies positive for cChAT, mainly small to medium-sized, were found in various brain regions in the buccal, cerebral, pleural, parietal, visceral and pedal ganglia. cChAT immunoreactive nerve fibers were distributed extensively in the neuropil, connectives and commissures of these central ganglia. The map of cChAT-positive cells provided here are valuable for understanding the cholinergic mechanism in the slug brain, as well as giving an important hint to clarifying the mechanisms of learning and memory in higher vertebrates including humans.

Choline acetyltransferase of the peripheral type (pChAT) is a splice variant that lacks exons 6-9 of the common-type ChAT (cChAT); the role of pChAT remains unknown. We investigated the expression of pChAT and cChAT after axotomy to try to elucidate its function. In the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve (DMNV), nucleus ambiguus (NA), and hypoglossal nucleus (HN) of control rats, we observed neural expression of cChAT but no pChAT-positive neurons. Following nerve transection, we clearly detected pChAT-labeled neurons in the DMNV and weakly labeled neurons in the NA, but pChAT was not seen in the HN. In the DMNV, the mean number of cChAT-positive neurons decreased rapidly to 40.5% of control at 3 days post transection, and to 5.0% of control after 7 days. The number of cChAT-positive neurons then gradually increased and reached a plateau of about 25% of control value at 28 days post transection. pChAT-positive neurons did not appear until 7 days after transection. On the same day, pChAT mRNA was detected in the DMNV neurons by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) by using laser capture microdissection. The number of pChAT-positive neurons gradually decreased, and only 10% of the cholinergic neurons retained pChAT expression 56 days post transection. Double-immunofluorescence analysis showed that some of the DMNV neurons expressed both cChAT and pChAT upon recovery from axotomy. These results suggest that the expression of pChAT is associated with the regenerative or degenerative processes of motoneurons especially for general visceral efferents.

This study provides the first immunohistochemical evidence visualizing cholinergic octopus neurons containing choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), the synthetic enzyme of acetylcholine. Because the antiserum applied here was raised against a recombinant protein encoded by exons 7 and 8 of the rat gene for ChAT, and initially used for studies in mammals, to validate antibody specificity for the octopus counterpart enzyme we therefore used three methods. Immunoprecipitation using Pansorbin indicated that immunoreactive octopus brain molecules were capable of synthesizing acetylcholine. Western blot analysis after denatured gel electrophoresis of octopus brain extracts revealed a single band at approximately 81 kDa. A gel slice containing the 81-kDa protein after native (nondenatured) gel electrophoresis exhibited high ChAT activity. All findings obtained with these three methods clearly indicated that the antiserum effectively recognizes octopus ChAT. The immunohistochemical use of the antiserum in the retina, optic lobe, and its neighboring peduncle complex detected enzyme-containing neuronal cell bodies in only two regions, the cell islands of the optic lobe medulla and the cortical layer of the posterior olfactory lobule. Immunoreactive fibers and probable nerve terminals were also found in the plexiform layer of the deep retina, within the stroma of the optic gland, and the neuropils of the optic lobe, peduncle lobe, and olfactory lobe. These results provide information on the morphology and distribution patterns of cholinergic neurons in the octopus visual system, a useful invertebrate model for learning and memory where the cholinergic system, as in higher vertebrates including mammals, plays an important role.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the turbulent mixing in a diesel spray by large eddy simulation (LES). As the first step for the numerical simulation of diesel spray by LES the LES of transient circular gas jets and particle laden jets were conducted. The simulation of transient circular jets in cylindrical coordinates has numerical instability near the central axis. To reduce the instability of calculation, azimuthal velocity around the central axis is calculated by the linear interpolation and filter width around the axis is modified to the radial or axial grid scale level. A transient circular gas jet was calculated by the modified code and the computational results were compared with experimental results with a Reynolds number of about 13000. The computational results of mean velocity and turbulent intensity agreed with experimental results for z/D>10. Predicted tip penetration of the jet also agreed to experimental data. Next, the simulations of transient circular particle laden jets were performed at the mass loading ratios of particles of 0.13 and 0.8. The particles were glass beads and the Sauter mean diameter of beads was 0.035 mm. Prediction underestimated the turbulent intensity of particles and overestimated the length of potential core. When the mass loading of particles increased, the discrepancy between predicted and experimental results increased.

ACC3, a human adenoid cystic carcinoma cell system of salivary gland origin, is able to synthesize and secrete a large amount of basement membrane molecules in vitro. To define the ultrastructural secreting pathway of these molecules, we immunolocalized heparan sulphate proteoglycan (HSPG) in ACC3 for 7 days of culture. In the early stage of culture, the main compartments immunolabelled were rough endoplasmic reticulum (rER) and small secretory vesicles. From days 3 to 4 after plating, it was noticed that HSPG was localized in partially dilated spaces of the perinuclear, rER and Golgi cisternae and in lysosomes or those fused with multivesicular bodies and endosomes. On and after day 5, almost every Golgi apparatus showed marked dilatation of the cisternae and HSPG was immunolocalized in these dilated spaces. In the later stage of culture, autophagic vacuoles or secondary lysosomes, which were simultaneously labelled for HSPG and cathepsin D, were accumulated in the cytoplasm. HSPG deposition in the intercellular space was clearly demonstrated from day 1 and increased during the culture. The results indicate that ACC3 cells have an enhanced turnover cycle for HSPG: not only its biosynthesis but also degradation of both endogenous or exogenous HSPG. Such intracellular events may be reflected in the characteristic histology and biological behaviour of adenoid cystic carcinomas.

A rare aneurysm in the horizontal segment (A1) of the right anterior cerebral artery was found in a 58-year-old male presenting with subarachnoid hemorrhage. No obvious bleeding source was observed on the day of onset, but 7 days later, a definite diagnosis was made based on the discovery of cerebral vasospasm by a repeat angiogram. The aneurysm was clipped via the right frontotemporal approach 15 days after onset. He suddenly developed neurological symptoms such as consciousness disturbance, right hemiplegia, and aphasia on the 4th postoperative day, when remission of the cerebral vasospasm was confirmed by transcranial Doppler ultrasound examinations and cerebral angiography. The ischemic symptoms were probably due to cerebral embolus caused by intraluminal thrombi, which had formed during the maximum phase of vasospasm and became detached during the remission phase.

Ventriculoperitoneal shunt has been the general surgical treatment for hydrocephalus in children. However, classification by sites of the shunt malfunction in cases of hydrocephalus have not been consistent, thus leading to some confusion.

鉄鋼のガス分析においてSamplingということは,もっとも大きな問題であり,巣,偏析などがなく,かつそのガス組成を適確にしめす分析値を得ることが大切である.これらの問題を究明するためにSamplingのさいの分析試料用金型の大きさの問題およびこの鋳込試料より分析試料を採取する場合の試料採取位置について検討した結果,Samplingのさいの金型は小さい方が偏析が少なくてよい.また鋳込試料より分析試料の採取位置については,その試料の中央部より採取するのが偏析が少なく,かつ試料全体を代表する平均値が得られることを知った.