All-Solid-State Rechargeable Air Batteries Using Dihydroxybenzoquinone and Its Polymer as the Negative Electrode

A proof-of-concept study was conducted on an all-solid-state rechargeable air battery (SSAB) using redox-active 2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone (DHBQ) and its polymer (PDBM) and a proton-conductive polymer (Nafion). DHBQ functioned well in the redox reaction with the solid Nafion ionomer at 0.47 and 0.57 V vs. RHE, similar to that in acid aqueous solution. The resulting air battery exhibited an open circuit voltage of 0.80 V and a discharge capacity of 29.7 mAh g_DHBQ⁻¹ at a constant current density (1 mA cm⁻²). With PDBM, the discharge capacity was much higher, 176.1 mAh g_PDBM⁻¹, because of the improved utilization of the redox-active moieties. In the rate characteristics of the SSAB-PDBM, the coulombic efficiency was 84 % at 4 C, which decreased to 66 % at 101 C. In a charge/discharge cycle test, the capacity remaining after 30 cycles was 44 %, which was able to be significantly improved, to 78 %, by tuning the Nafion composition in the negative electrode.     

A finite element analysis of strain localization for soft rock using a constitutive equation with strain softening

Summary It is well known that deformation and/or strain of geological materials localize when they come close to the failure state. In the present: study, we try to analyze the deformation problem using a constitutive relation with strain hardening and strain softening. The constitutive model of a soft rock and overconsolidated clay using an elasto-plastic constitutive theory with memory was originally developed by Adachi and Oka. This type of formulation is shown to be easily applied to analyze the material behavior of strain softening because there is a similarity to that in viscoplasticity. Using the proposed model, the loss of uniqueness of the solution to the initial value problem can be avoided and a special or complicated numerical technique, e.g., an arc length method, does not need to be used. When we use constitutive equations with strain softening in a finite element analysis, there is a problem of strong mesh size dependency of numerical results. To remedy the mesh size dependency, we generalize the Adachi-Oka model based on the concept of non-localization by Bazant. We apply the proposed constitutive model to the behavior of a sedimentary soft rock in the drained triaxial compression test. It is found that mesh size dependency becomes smaller using the non-localization of the constitutive model.

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Eine Finite-Element-Analyse der lokalisierten Verformung von weichem Gestein bei einem Stoffgesetz mit Entfestigung

Übersicht Bekanntlich findet bei geologischen Stoffen in der Nähe des Versagenszustandes eine Lokalisierung der Verformung statt. Die Analyse dieses Problems wird in diesem Beitrag auf der Grundlage eines Stoffansatzes mit Ver- und Entfestigung unternommen. Entwickelt wurde das zugrunde gelegte elastischplastische Stoffmodell mit Gedächtnis von Adachi und Oka für weiches Gestein und übermäßig verdichteten Ton. Wegen der Ähnlichkeit zur Viskoplastizität läßt sich diese Formulierung des Stoffgesetzes leicht auf die Analyse des Verhaltens von entfestigendem Material anwenden, da der Eindeutigkeitsverlust der Lösung des Anfangswertproblems vermieden wird und besondere Rechenverfahren wie etwa die Bogenlängenmethode nicht benötigt werden. Bei der Benutzung von Stoffgesetzen in einer Finite-Element-Rechnung hängen die Ergebnisse stark von der Netzeinteilung ab. Um dies abzustellen, wird das Modell von Adachi und Oka auf der Grundlage von Bazant's Konzept der Nichtlokalisierung verallgemeinert. Anwendungsbeispiel ist das Verhalten von weichem Gestein im drainierten Triaxial-Test. Es zeigt sich, daß mit dem Konzept der Nichtlokalisierung im Stoffmodell der Einfluß der Netzeinteilung geringer wird.

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Presented at the workshop on Numerical Methods for Localization and Bifurcation of Granular bodies, held at the Technical University of Gdask (Poland), September 25–30, 1989.     

Quarkonia at Finite T: An Approach Based On QCD Sum Rules and the Maximum Entropy Method

Quarkonium spectral functions at finite temperature are studied, making use of a recently developed method of analyzing QCD sum rules by the maximum entropy method. This approach enables us to directly obtain the spectral function from the sum rules, without having to introduce any specific assumption about its functional form. QCD sum rules for heavy quarkonia incorporate finite temperature effects in form of changing values of the various gluonic condensates that appear in the operator product expansion. These changes depend on the energy density and pressure at finite temperature, which we extract from quenched lattice QCD calculations. As a result, it is found that the charmonium ground states of both S-wave and P-wave channels dissolve into the continuum already at temperatures around or slightly above the critical temperature T _c , while the bottomonium states are less influenced by temperature effects, surviving up to about 2.5 T _c or higher for S-wave and about 2.0 T _c for P-wave states.     

A practical synthesis of archaeosine and its base

A practical synthetic route to 7-formamidino-7-deazaguanosine (archaeosine), a hypermodified nucleoside observed in archaeal tRNA, has been developed, which involves the addition of hydroxylamine to the cyano group of 7-cyano-7-deazaguanosine (preQ₀-nucleoside) and a subsequent Pd-catalyzed hydrogenation. PreQ₀-nucleoside was obtained from an optimized β-selective glycosylation developed by Hocek et al. The corresponding archaeosine base was subsequently synthesized in high yield from its precursor 7-cyano-7-deazaguanine (preQ₀).     

Decomposition of Insoluble and Hard-to-Degrade Animal Proteins by Enzyme E77 and Its Potential Applications

Insoluble and hard-to-degrade animal proteins are group of troublesome proteins, such as collagen, elastin, keratin, and prion proteins that are largely generated by the meat industry and ultimately converted to industrial wastes. We analyzed the ability of the abnormal prion protein-degrading enzyme E77 to degrade insoluble and hard-to-degrade animal proteins including keratin, collagen, and elastin. The results indicate that E77 has a much higher keratinolytic activity than proteinase K and subtilisin. Maximal E77 keratinolytic activity was observed at pH 12.0 and 65 °C. E77 was also adsorbed by keratin in a pH-independent manner. E77 showed lower collagenolytic and elastinolytic specificities than proteinase K and subtilisin. Moreover, E77 treatment did not damage collagens in ovine small intestines but did almost completely remove the muscles. We consider that E77 has the potential ability for application in the processing of animal feedstuffs and sausages.     

Universal fluorescent labeling of amplification products using locked nucleic acids

Amplification/hybridization‐based genetic analyses using primers containing locked nucleic acids (LNAs) present many benefits. Here, we developed a novel design for universal fluorescent PCR using LNAs. Universal fluorescent PCR generates intermediate nonlabeled fragments and final fluorescent fragments in a two‐step amplification process that uses locus‐specific primers with universal tails and universal fluorescent primers. In this study, a few standard nucleotides were replaced with LNAs only in the fluorescent universal primers. The sequence of the fluorescent universal primer significantly affected the amplification efficiency. For primers with three LNAs, the fluorescent primers with stable M13(‐47) sequences provided the most efficient signal (approximately tenfold higher than the primers with M13(‐21) sequences at lower Tm values). Moreover, AT‐rich LNA substitutions in the fluorescent primers produced much lower amplification efficiencies than GC‐rich substitutions. GC‐rich LNAs produced greater differences in Tm values among primers, and resulted in the preferential production of fluorescently labeled amplicons. The specificity and sensitivity of LNA‐containing fluorescent primers were assessed by genotyping eight STRs in Japanese individuals, and full STR profiles could be generated using as little as 0.25 ng of genomic DNA. The method permitted clear discrimination of alleles and represents sensitive STR genotyping at a reduced cost.