Optimizing the composition of (Ce,La)(Co,Fe)for permanent magnet applications using density functional theory.

In this work, we calculated physical quantities, including the magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant () and magnetization (), for disordered (Ce,La)(Co,Fe)systems. Based on the results, we propose CeCoFeas the optimum composition for high-performance permanent magnets. The calculations employed the full-potential Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green's function method, and dealt with the compositional disorder of the systems within the coherent potential approximation.

Interaction between the substrate and probe in liquid metal Ga: experimental and theoretical analysis.

Interaction between two bodies in a liquid metal is an important topic for development of metallic products with high performance. We conducted atomic force microscopy measurements and achieved the interaction between the substrate and the probe in liquid Ga of an opaque and highly viscous liquid. The interaction cannot be accessed with the normal atomic force microscopy, electron microscopy, and beam reflectometry.

An Aqueous Redox Flow Battery Using CO as an Active Material with a Homogeneous Ir Catalyst.

For the application of CO as an energy storage material, a H storage system has been proposed based on the interconversion of CO and formic acid (or formate). However, energy losses are inevitable in the conversion of electrical energy to H as chemical energy (≈70 % electrical efficiency) and H to electrical energy (≈40 % electrical efficiency). To overcome these significant energy losses, we developed a system based on the interconversion of CO and formate for the direct storage and generation of electricity.

Optical properties of extreme tellurium nanowires formed in subnanometer-diameter channels.

Single tellurium (Te) chains attract much attention as extreme nanowires with unique electronic and spintronic properties. Here, we encapsulate Te from a melt into channels of zeolites AFI (∼0.73 nm-channel diameter) and mordenite (MOR, ∼0.

DNP NMR spectroscopy enabled direct characterization of polystyrene-supported catalyst species for synthesis of glycidyl esters by transesterification.

Polymer-supported catalysts have been of great interest in organic syntheses, but have suffered from the difficulty in obtaining direct structural information regarding the catalyst species embedded in the polymer due to the limitations of most analytical methods. Here, we show that dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced solid-state NMR is ideally positioned to characterize the ubiquitous cross-linked polystyrene (PS)-supported catalysts, thus enabling molecular-level understanding and rational development. Ammonium-based catalysts, which show excellent catalytic activity and reusability for the transesterification of methyl esters with glycidol, giving glycidyl esters in high yields, were successfully characterized by DNP N NMR spectroscopy at N natural abundance.

Thermal stability and oxidation characteristics of α-pinene, β-pinene and α-pinene/β-pinene mixture.

Turpentine is a renewable resource, has good combustion performance, and is considered to be a fuel or promising additive to diesel fuel. This is very important for the investigation of thermal stability and energy oxidation characteristics, because evaluation of energy or fuel quality assurance and use safety are necessary. The main components of turpentine are α-pinene and β-pinene, which have unsaturated double bonds and high chemical activity.

Was there an improvement in the years of life lost (YLLs) for non-communicable diseases in the Soma and Minamisoma cities of Fukushima after the 2011 disaster? A longitudinal study.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine cause-specific years of life lost (YLL) changes between predisaster and postdisaster in disaster-affected municipalities, compared with the national average. We estimated the YLL in Soma and Minamisoma cities (the subject area) in Fukushima, Japan, where the tsunami and the nuclear accident hit in 2011.

Participants: We used vital registration records from a national survey conducted between January 2006 and December 2015.

 sp. nov. (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Alcyonacea), a new soft coral species in the family Xeniidae from Miyazaki, Japan.

A new soft coral species, (Alcyonacea, Xeniidae), is described from Miyazaki in the warm-temperate region of Japan. This new species has conspicuous and unique spindle sclerites in addition to the simple ellipsoid platelet-shaped sclerites typically found in the genus . These unique spindles are a specific key morphological characteristic for this new species and for differentiating this species among congeneric species.

Screening toward the Development of Fingerprints of Atomic Environments Using Bond-Orientational Order Parameters.

A combination of atomic numbers and bond-orientational order parameters is considered a candidate for a simple representation that involves information on both the atomic species and their positional relation. The 504 candidates are applied as the fingerprint of the molecules stored in QM9, a data set of computed geometric, energetic, electronic, and thermodynamic properties for 133 885 stable small organic molecules made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and fluorine atoms. To screen the fingerprints, a regression analysis of the atomic charges given by Open Babel was performed by supervised machine learning.

Flow-to-Friction Transition in Simulated Calcite Gouge: Experiments and Microphysical Modeling.

A (micro)physical understanding of the transition from frictional sliding to plastic or viscous flow has long been a challenge for earthquake cycle modeling. We have conducted ring-shear deformation experiments on layers of simulated calcite fault gouge under conditions close to the frictional-to-viscous transition previously established in this material. Constant velocity () and -stepping tests were performed, at 550°C, employing slip rates covering almost 6 orders of magnitude (0.

Role of constituents for the chirality isolation of single-walled carbon nanotubes by the reversible phase transition of a thermoresponsive polymer.

The simple sorting procedure and continuous use of poly(-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), a well-known thermoresponsive polymer, have a high potential for the mass production of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with a specific electronic structure. However, knowledge of efficient single-chirality sorting methods with mixed surfactant systems is not applicable. In this work, we explored experimental conditions by controlling the interaction among PNIPAM, sodium cholate (SC) and SWCNTs.

The second offshore production of methane hydrate in the Nankai Trough and gas production behavior from a heterogeneous methane hydrate reservoir.

Following the first attempt at producing gas from a naturally occurring methane hydrate (MH) deposit in the Daini-Atsumi Knoll in the eastern Nankai Trough area off Honshu Island, Japan in 2013, a second attempt was made in April to June of 2017 at a nearby location using two producer wells sequentially and applying the depressurization method. The operation in the first borehole (AT1-P3) continued for 12 days with a stable drawdown of around 7.5 MPa and 41 000 m of methane gas being produced despite intermittent sand-production events.

Insight into the biological effects of acupuncture points by X-ray absorption fine structure.

Exploration of the biological effects of transition metal ions in acupuncture points is essential to clarify the functional mechanism of acupuncture treatment. Here we show that in the SP6 acupuncture point (Sanyinjiao) the Fe ions are in a high-spin state of approximately te in an Fe-N(O) octahedral crystal field. The Fe K-edge synchrotron radiation X-ray absorption fine structure results reveal that the Fe-N and Fe-O bond lengths in the SP6 acupuncture point are 2.

Fabrication of air-stable, transparent Cu grid electrodes by etching through a PVA-based protecting layer patterned using a screen mesh.

As an alternative to conventional indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrodes, a transparent Cu grid electrode was fabricated by etching a sputtered Cu on a flexible polyethylene naphthalate film through a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based protecting layer. The masking pattern of the PVA-based polymer on the Cu was generated by evaporation of an aqueous solution containing PVA-based polymers using a screen mesh as a template. The solution formed a stable liquid-bridge network between contact points of the screen mesh and the substrate after being dropped onto the mesh placed on the substrate.

Evolution of a key trait greatly affects underground community assembly process through habitat adaptation in earthworms.

Underground community assemblies have not been studied well compared with aboveground communities, despite their importance for our understanding of whole ecosystems. To investigate underground community assembly over evolutionary timescales, we examined terrestrial earthworm communities (Oligochaeta: Haplotaxida) in conserved mountainous primary forests in Japan as a model system. We collected 553 earthworms mostly from two dominant families, the Megascolecidae and the Lumbricidae, from 12 sites.

Causal Context Presented in Subsequent Event Modifies the Perceived Timing of Cause and Effect.

The effect of perceived causality on other aspects of perception, such as temporal or spatial perception, has interested many researchers. Previous studies have shown that the perceived timing of two events is modulated when the events are intentionally produced or the causal link between the two events was known in advance. However, little research has directly supported the idea that causality alone can modulate the perceived timing of two events without having knowledge about causal links in advance.

Sulfur-Oxidizing Bacteria Mediate Microbial Community Succession and Element Cycling in Launched Marine Sediment.

A large amount of marine sediment was launched on land by the Great East Japan earthquake. Here, we employed both on-site and laboratory studies on the launched marine sediment to investigate the succession of microbial communities and its effects on geochemical properties of the sediment. Twenty-two-month on-site survey showed that microbial communities at the uppermost layer (0-2 mm depth) of the sediment changed significantly with time, whereas those at the deeper layer (20-40 mm depth) remained nearly unchanged and kept anaerobic microbial communities.

Information Accumulation over Time in Monkey Inferior Temporal Cortex Neurons Explains Pattern Recognition Reaction Time under Visual Noise.

We recognize objects even when they are partially degraded by visual noise. We studied the relation between the amount of visual noise (5, 10, 15, 20, or 25%) degrading 8 black-and-white stimuli and stimulus identification in 2 monkeys performing a sequential delayed match-to-sample task. We measured the accuracy and speed with which matching stimuli were identified.

Why Are There Failures of Systematicity? The Empirical Costs and Benefits of Inducing Universal Constructions.

Systematicity is a property of cognition where capacity for certain cognitive abilities implies capacity for certain other (structurally related) cognitive abilities. This property is thought to derive from a capacity to represent/process common structural relations between constituents of cognizable entities, however, systematicity may not always materialize in such admissible contexts. A theoretical challenge is to explain why systematicity fails to materialize in contexts that allow the realization (e.

Systematicity and a Categorical Theory of Cognitive Architecture: Universal Construction in Context.

Why does the capacity to think certain thoughts imply the capacity to think certain other, structurally related, thoughts? Despite decades of intensive debate, cognitive scientists have yet to reach a consensus on an explanation for this property of cognitive architecture-the basic processes and modes of composition that together afford cognitive capacity-called systematicity. Systematicity is generally considered to involve a capacity to represent/process common structural relations among the equivalently cognizable entities. However, the predominant theoretical approaches to the systematicity problem, i.

Temporal and Spatial Predictability of an Irrelevant Event Differently Affect Detection and Memory of Items in a Visual Sequence.

We examined how the temporal and spatial predictability of a task-irrelevant visual event affects the detection and memory of a visual item embedded in a continuously changing sequence. Participants observed 11 sequentially presented letters, during which a task-irrelevant visual event was either present or absent. Predictabilities of spatial location and temporal position of the event were controlled in 2 × 2 conditions.

Ecophysiology of Zetaproteobacteria Associated with Shallow Hydrothermal Iron-Oxyhydroxide Deposits in Nagahama Bay of Satsuma Iwo-Jima, Japan.

Previous studies of microbial communities in deep-sea hydrothermal ferric deposits have demonstrated that members of Zetaproteobacteria play significant ecological roles in biogeochemical iron-cycling. However, the ecophysiological characteristics and interaction between other microbial members in the habitat still remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated microbial communities in a core sample obtained from shallow hydrothermal iron-oxyhydroxide deposits at Nagahama Bay of Satsuma Iwo-Jima, Japan.

Survival of free-living Acholeplasma in aerated pig manure slurry revealed by (13)C-labeled bacterial biomass probing.

Many studies have been performed on microbial community succession and/or predominant taxa during the composting process; however, the ecophysiological roles of microorganisms are not well understood because microbial community structures are highly diverse and dynamic. Bacteria are the most important contributors to the organic-waste decomposition process, while decayed bacterial cells can serve as readily digested substrates for other microbial populations. In this study, we investigated the active bacterial species responsible for the assimilation of dead bacterial cells and their components in aerated pig manure slurry by using (13)C-labeled bacterial biomass probing.