The thermoelectric properties of ternary full-Heusler alloys, Co
2
YZ
, which are in a ferromagnetic state up to high temperature above 300 K, were measured and are discussed in terms of the crystal ...structure and electronic states. Among the full-Heusler alloys studied, the Co
2
MnSi sample exhibited the highest absolute value of Seebeck coefficient and also the highest electrical conductivity in the temperature range from 300 K to 1023 K. The highest power factor of 2.9 × 10
−3
W/m-K
2
was obtained for the Co
2
MnSi sample at 550 K, demonstrating the potential of half-metallic full-Heusler alloys as thermoelectric materials.
Summary Objective To provide scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of forest bathing as a natural therapy by investigating its physiological benefits using biological indicators in outdoor ...settings. Study design Within-group comparisons were used to examine psychological and physiological responses to exposure to real forest and urban environments. Methods Young Japanese male adults participated in a 3-day, 2-night field experiment. Physiological responses as well as self-reported psychological responses to forest and urban environmental stimuli were measured in real settings. The results of each indicator were compared against each environmental stimulus. Results Heart rate variability analysis indicated that the forest environment significantly increased parasympathetic nervous activity and significantly suppressed sympathetic activity of participants compared with the urban environment. Salivary cortisol level and pulse rate decreased markedly in the forest setting compared with the urban setting. In psychological tests, forest bathing significantly increased scores of positive feelings and significantly decreased scores of negative feelings after stimuli compared with the urban stimuli. Conclusion Physiological data from this field experiment provide important scientific evidence on the health benefits of forest bathing. The results support the concept that forest bathing has positive effects on physical and mental health, indicating that it can be effective for health promotion. Despite the small sample size in this study, a very clear tendency towards positive physiological and psychological outcomes in forests was observed.
Electronic structure calculations and measurements of the thermoelectric properties of boron (B)-doped magnesium silicide (Mg2Si) have been performed. The calculations predict that the preferential ...B-doping site is an interstitial site of Mg2Si, leading to increase electron carriers. As predicted by the calculations, the prepared B-doped and non-doped polycrystalline Mg2Si samples exhibit an n-type electrical transport property. B-doping enhances the electrical conductivity and slightly lowers the absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient of Mg2Si, whereas it does not affect the thermal conductivity. Reflecting the enhancement of electrical conductivity, the dimensionless figure of merit, ZT, of Mg2Si is improved by the B-doping.
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Marine aerosol samples were collected over the western North Pacific along the latitudinal transect from 44° N to 10° N in late summer 2008 for measurements of organic nitrogen (ON) and organic ...carbon (OC) as well as isotopic ratios of total nitrogen (TN) and total carbon (TC). Increased concentrations of methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and diethylammonium (DEA+) at 40–44° N and subtropical regions (10–20° N) together with averaged satellite chlorophyll-a data and 5-day back trajectories suggest a significant influence of marine biological activities on aerosols in these regions. ON exhibited increased concentrations up to 260 ngN m−3 in these marine biologically influenced aerosols. Water-insoluble organic nitrogen (WION) was found to be the most abundant nitrogen in the aerosols, accounting for 55 ± 16% of total aerosol nitrogen. In particular, the average WION/ON ratio was as high as 0.93 ± 0.07 at 40–44° N. These results suggest that marine biological sources significantly contributed to ON, a majority of which is composed of water-insoluble fractions in the study region. Analysis of the stable carbon isotopic ratios (δ13C) indicated that, on average, marine-derived carbon accounted for ~88 ± 12% of total carbon in the aerosols. In addition, the δ13C showed higher values (from −22 to −20‰) when ON/OC ratios increased from 0.15 to 0.35 in marine biologically influenced aerosols. These results clearly show that organic nitrogen is enriched in organic aerosols originated from an oceanic region with high biological productivity, indicating a preferential transfer of nitrogen-containing organic compounds from the sea surface to the marine atmosphere. Both WION concentrations and WION/water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC) ratios tended to increase with increasing local wind speeds, indicating that sea-to-air emissions of ON via sea spray contribute significantly to the marine organic aerosols over the study region.
High-dose methotrexate (Hd-MTX) therapy has recently been applied to the treatment of adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) based on pediatric protocols; however, its effectiveness for adult ALL ...has not yet been confirmed in a rigorous manner. We herein conducted a randomized phase III trial comparing Hd-MTX therapy with intermediate-dose (Id)-MTX therapy. This study was registered at UMIN-CTR (ID: C000000063). Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-negative ALL patients aged between 25 and 64 years of age were enrolled. Patients who achieved complete remission (CR) were randomly assigned to receive therapy containing Hd-MTX (3 g/m
) or Id-MTX (0.5 g/m
). A total of 360 patients were enrolled. The CR rate was 86%. A total of 115 and 114 patients were assigned to the Hd-MTX and Id-MTX groups, respectively. The estimated 5-year disease-free survival rate of the Hd-MTX group was 58%, which was significantly better than that of the Id-MTX group at 32% (P=0.0218). The frequencies of severe adverse events were not significantly different. We herein demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of Hd-MTX therapy for adult Ph-negative ALL. Our results provide a strong rationale for protocols containing Hd-MTX therapy being applied to the treatment of adult ALL.
•We performed single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements of Mg2-xSi single crystals.•All samples contained about 0.5% interstitial Mg (Mgi) at the 4b (1/21/21/2) site.•The existence of Mgi was ...validated by using the Hamilton test.•The Mg at the 8c (1/41/41/4) site tended to decrease with increasing x.•Thermoelectric properties were related to the 8c Mg site occupancy, not to the Mgi.
We investigate the existence of Mg at an interstitial (1/21/21/2) site of Mg-deficient Mg2Si samples, whose nominal composition is Mg2−xSi (x=0, 0.095, 0.182, 0.260, and 0.333). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements indicate that the interstitial Mg (Mgi) is contained in all samples, and its occupancy is around 0.5% regardless of x. This result is supported by the Hamilton test: a hypothesis that the Mgi exists in the Mg2−xSi samples is not rejected at the significant level below 0.10. On the other hand, the Mg occupancy at an (1/41/41/4) site tends to decrease with increasing x. The Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity of Mg2−xSi is discussed in terms of the x dependence of Mgi (1/21/21/2) and Mg (1/41/41/4) site occupancies.
A granulation method using a planetary centrifugal mixer, called planetary centrifugal granulation, has been developed for small-scale production, such as extemporaneous preparation in pharmacies. ...Although the impact of its operational parameters on granulation is described, the scale
effect has not been investigated. Therefore, we aimed to reveal the effects of vessel size and vessel filling rate on granule properties. In this study, ibuprofen 20% granules consisting of lactose, cornstarch, sodium carmellose, and talc were used as model granules. Granulation was performed
using geometrically similar containers, 6–58 mL, with a filling rate of 20–70%. After granulation, we monitored the granule properties, for example, median diameter (d50), span of particle size distribution, and sphericity. At filling rates of 40% and 50% in the 58-mL vessel, the
granules grew larger in diameter, and at a rate of 30%, the granules showed a higher sphericity. When the filling rate was 30%, d50 became larger and the span decreased as the vessel size increased. The yields of the granules were higher than 95% when using the 12–58 mL vessel. Lastly,
the drug content uniformity and drug dissolution behavior of the granules produced in different vessel size were examined. The granules showed similar drug consistencies and drug dissolution profiles. In conclusion, the quality of the products was not affected by changes in vessel size. Thus,
pharmacists could prepare and compound the granule formulations with high yield and appropriate quality using an adequate vessel in the same manner.
The influence of the aspect ratio of grains on the thermal stability of coercivity of Nd-Fe-B hot-deformed magnets was systematically investigated by experimental and numerical approaches. With ...increasing amount of Nb doping from 0.2 at.% to 0.6 at.% in the hot-deformed magnets, the aspect ratio of grains, defined as the ratio of the width to the height of a Nd2Fe14B grain (Dc/Dab), decreased while the average grain size was preserved. No change of temperature coefficient of coercivity (β) was observed in the as hot-deformed samples with different grain aspect ratios. However, the reduction of aspect ratio (increase of the height and reduction of the width of platelet shaped Nd2Fe14B grains) improves β for the sample infiltrated with a Nd-Cu eutectic alloy; i.e., from β = −0.42 %/°C to −0.40 %/°C for the aspect ratio reduction from 4.7 to 3.1. Micromagnetic simulations indicated that the grain aspect ratio is not a dominant factor to the thermal stability of coercivity for exchange-coupled anisotropic polycrystals. While smaller aspect ratio reduces demagnetizing field caused by magnetically isolated grains, resulting in the improvement of the thermal stability of the coercivity for Nd-Cu infiltrated hot-deformed magnets.
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To investigate the seasonal changes in biogenic water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) aerosols in a boreal forest, aerosol samples were collected continuously in the canopy of a deciduous forest in ...northern Japan during 2009–2010. Stable carbon isotopic composition of WSOC (δ13CWSOC) in total suspended particulate matter (TSP) exhibited a distinct seasonal cycle, with lower values from June through September (−25.5±0.5 ‰). This cycle follows the net CO2 exchange between the forest ecosystem and the atmosphere, indicating that δ13CWSOC likely reflects the biological activity at the forest site. WSOC concentrations showed the highest values in early summer and autumn. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis indicated that the factor in which biogenic secondary organic aerosols (BSOAs) dominated accounted for ~40 % of the highest concentrations of WSOC, where BSOAs mostly consisted of α-/β-pinene SOA. In addition, primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) made similar contributions (~57 %) to the WSOC near the forest floor in early summer. This finding indicates that the production of both primary and secondary WSOC aerosols is important during the growing season in a deciduous forest. The methanesulfonic acid (MSA) maximum was also found in early summer and had a distinct vertical gradient with larger concentrations near the forest floor. Together with the similar vertical gradients found for WSOC and δ13CWSOC as well as the α-/β-pinene SOA tracers, our results indicate that the forest floor, including ground vegetation and soil, acts as a significant source of WSOC in TSP within a forest canopy at the study site.
Submicron organic aerosol was measured simultaneously with an Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) and a particle‐into‐liquid sampler (PILS) capable of measuring water‐soluble organic carbon ...(WSOC) during the winter and summer of 2004 in Tokyo. Both techniques are being used to investigate the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), and the combined data sets provide unique insights. In summer, about 80% (40–65%) of organic aerosols were oxygenated when scaled by total (carbon) mass concentration, due to high photochemical activity, leading to the active formation of SOA. In winter the fraction of oxygenated organic aerosol is reduced to 39% (total mass base) and 23% (carbon mass base). Previous AMS studies have shown that signals at m/z 44 of the AMS mass spectra of ambient aerosols are dominated by COO+, which typically originates from oxygenated organic aerosols (OOA). The signals at m/z 44 and the derived OOA mass concentrations were highly correlated with WSOC (r2 = 0.78–0.91) throughout these seasons, indicating that OOA and WSOC were very similar in their chemical characteristics. Approximately 88 ± 29% of OOA was found to be water soluble on the basis of the comparison of the WSOC concentrations with those of oxygenated organic carbon (OOC) derived from the AMS data.
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