Automated single nucleotide polymorphism typing using bead array in capillary tube

A low-cost and simple on-site technique for genotyping single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was developed. The technique is based on allele-specific primer PCR and the recently developed bead arrays in a single tip technique. The performance of the method was verified by genotyping four SNPs that correlate with cardiovascular diseases.     

Charge behavior in flowing oil in oil/ pressboard insulation system by electro-optic field measurement

The electrical insulation structure of most power transformers is a combination of insulating oil and solid materials. One of the crucial problems we face in transformer operation is flow electrification, which occurs at a flowing oil/solid material interface. Thus, for the transformer insulation design, we need to clarify the now electrification phenomena. In this paper, we measured the electric field strength in an oil/pressboard composite insulation system using an electro-optic method of the Kerr effect. We obtained the time variation of electric field distribution in both flowing uncharged and charged oil. It is notable that we could quantitatively clarify the electric field distortion in flowing charged oil by flow electrification. Furthermore, we measured the leakage current from divided electrodes and derived a charge density distribution along the flow direction. Finally, we quantitatively discussed the electric field distribution and the charge behavior from the measurement results.     

Simultaneous removal of NO/sub x/, SO/sub x/, and CO/sub 2/ at elevated temperature using a plasma-chemical hybrid process

In previous studies, the authors confirmed that the plasma-chemical combined hybrid process for controlling NO flue gas emission was extremely effective and economical in comparison with the conventional selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system and other technologies. In the present study, we carried out experiments on the simultaneous removal of NO/sub x/ and SO/sub x/ at elevated temperature using the plasma-chemical hybrid process. A series of experiments was performed to quantify all the reaction byproducts such as N/sub 2/O, CO, HNO/sub 2/, HNO/sub 3/, NO/sub 3//sup -/, and SO/sub 4//sup -/ to evaluate the simultaneous NO/sub x/ and SO/sub x/ removal efficiency. The oxidation from NO to NO/sub 2/ without decreasing NO/sub x/ concentration (i.e., minimum reaction byproducts) and with least power consumption is the key for the optimum operation of the plasma reactor. The produced NO/sub 2/ was totally converted to N/sub 2/ and Na/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ with Na/sub 2/SO/sub 3/ or Na/sub 2/S with and without NaOH using the barrier-type packed-bed plasma reactor followed by the packed-column chemical reactor. The NO/sub 2/ reduction was more effective for Na/sub 2/S than Na/sub 2/SO/sub 3/ but produces H/sub 2/S with Na/sub 2/S. For both cases at least five times the stoichiometric amount of chemicals were required for complete NO/sub 2/ reduction. Nearly 100% of NO/sub x/ and SO /sub 2/ and 40% Of CO/sub 2/ simultaneous removal were achieved with less than 5 ppm of N/sub 2/O and CO. The operating cost was less than 1/4 the SCR process. The additional SO/sub 2/ treatment system can be eliminated.     

Partial discharge inception characteristics under butt gap condition in liquid nitrogen/ PPLP/sup /spl reg// composite insulation system for high temperature superconducting cable

The partial discharge (PD) inception characteristics are studied in liquid nitrogen (LN/sub 2/)/polypropylene laminated paper (PPLP/sup /spl reg//) composite insulation system for high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable. Experimental results revealed that the magnitude of the initial PD increased as the PD inception electric field strength was increased, because the injected energy increased. Initial PD was generated at the first and third quadrant of applied AC voltage phase. The probability of initial PD at the positive and negative voltage phase was almost the same. The reason is because liquid nitrogen is a nonpolar molecule and we used symmetric electrode configuration with uniform electric field distribution. Finally, it was pointed out that PD inception electric field strength (PDIE) depended on the volume of the butt gap because of the increasing probability of weak points of electrical insulation, and PDIE linearly decreased with increasing stressed volume of the butt gap in the log-log scale.     

Investigation of partial discharge mechanism by simultaneous measurement of current waveform and light emission

We observed current pulse waveforms of partial discharge (PD) in SF₆ gas so as to investigate the PD mechanism. We also measured light intensity and light emission image of PD simultaneously under different conditions of applies voltage and SF₆ gas pressure. From these experiments, we found that the “double-peak current waveform” appeared at high pressure and high voltage conditions. We also analyzed the mutual correlation of waveforms between a single current and the light emission. Moreover, we obtained experimental evidence of filmentlike light image appearing at the PD tip under the same condition with double-peak current waveform. From the electric field analysis around the needle electrode tip, we believe that the filamentlike light image expands beyond the critical electric field of SF₆ gas. Thus, we concluded that these current waveforms with double peaks showed evidence of leader-type PD, leading to breakdown. Finally, we could point out that leader-type PD should be distinguished and measured for the diagnosis of GIS insulation performance. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 129(4): 58–65, 1999     

Insulation performance of pressurized liquid helium underquench-induced thermal bubble disturbance for superconducting powerapparatus

We have been studying quench-induced `dynamic' breakdown characteristics of LHe and have already found that the electrical insulation performance of LHe was degraded drastically by the thermal bubble disturbance due to quench of superconductors. In this paper, in order to improve the insulation performance of LHe under quench conditions, we measured dynamic breakdown and prebreakdown characteristics of pressurized LHe. Experimental results revealed that breakdown voltage of LHe under quench conditions at 0.2 MPa was greatly improved, reaching 2 to 4× compared with that at atmospheric pressure under both uniform and non-uniform electric fields. Moreover, for practical and efficient insulation design of superconducting power apparatus, we investigated the dynamic breakdown voltage of LHe as functions of pressure and gap length     

Electrode conditioning characteristics in vacuum under impulse voltage application in nonuniform electric field

In this paper, we quantitatively investigated the impulse conditioning mechanism under nonuniform electric field electrodes in a vacuum. A negative standard lightning impulse voltage was applied between rod and plane electrodes whose materials were Cu-Cr, stainless steel and Cu and the gap lengths were d=5 and 10 mm, respectively. Experimental results revealed the transition of the breakdown (BD) sport region on the rod electrode and the corresponding BD field strength in the conditioning process. As a result, we found that the BD spot region started at the tip of the rod electrode and moved to the wider region of the rod electrode with lower electric field as the shots of the voltage application increased before the saturation of the BD voltage. Finally, by analyzing the results with an electric field strength, we propose that "the conditioning degree" along the electrode surface distributed directly proportional to the electric field distribution under a nonuniform electric field in a vacuum, irrespective of the electrode materials     

Sound isolation by piezoelectric polymer films connected to negative capacitance circuits

Sound isolation has been achieved using a piezoelectric polymer film connected to a negative capacitance feedback circuit. A curved PVDF film was located in the middle of an acoustic tube and the transmission loss of sound through the film was determined in the audio frequency range. At any chosen frequency, the complete isolation of sound was achieved by adjusting the feedback, i.e. the complex capacitance of the circuit was matched precisely to that of the film.