Studies of characteristics and design of superconducting fault current limiter with adjustable trigger current level in current limiting operation

Superconducting fault current limiters (SCFCLs) are expected to improve not only reliability but also stability of power systems. To introduce an SCFCL in a power system, various specifications such as trigger current level, impedance in current limiting operation, recovery time, and so on are necessary. Fault analyses point out that accuracy of the trigger current level is necessary. Therefore, an SCFCL of a transformer type with adjustable trigger current level was proposed and manufactured. Using the trial SCFCL, adjustability of the trigger current level was confirmed. It is found that the SCFCL has good limiting and recovery characteristics. In this paper, characteristics of the SCFCL are considered from a design point of view. Most of the specifications necessary for design depend on the characteristics in current limiting operation. Therefore, the characteristics of the SCFCL in current limiting operation are discussed. It is shown that this kind of SCFCL has good property for easy design, and its design principle is summarized. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 141(3): 30–38, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10054     

Malignant tumors of the kidney, brain, and soft tissues in children and young adults with the tuberous sclerosis complex

BACKGROUND: The tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by seizures, mental retardation, and benign tumors of the brain, heart, skin, and kidney. Malignant tumors also can occur in patients with tuberous sclerosis, particularly in the kidney, although they occur less frequently than benign tumors. The types of malignancy that occur in TSC have not been characterized fully. METHODS: Clinical and pathologic features of 8 malignant tumors from 6 TSC patients ranging in age from 22 months to 21 years are reviewed. Six tumors were renal, one was from the inguinal region, and one was from the brain. The tumors were analyzed for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in the chromosomal regions of the TSC1, TSC2, and VHL genes. RESULTS: Three patients (ages 7, 8, and 20 years) had renal cell carcinomas (RCCs). Two of these patients had multifocal RCCs. All three patients with RCC also had prominent multifocal dysplasia of renal cyst epithelium. Two patients (ages 20 and 21 years) had malignant angiomyolipomas (1 renal and 1 inguinal). One patient (age 22 months) had a Grade 4 giant cell astrocytoma (glioblastoma multiforme). LOH in the region of the TSC2 gene was found, either in the malignant tumor or in benign tumors, in all five patients whose DNA could be analyzed. CONCLUSIONS: Children with TSC, as well as adults with the disease, are at risk for developing malignant tumors. Two types of renal malignancy occur in TSC: RCC, which appears to arise from dysplastic renal cyst epithelial cells, and malignant angiomyolipoma. Tumors cytologically similar to malignant angiomyolipomas also may occur at extrarenal sites. LOH analyses suggest that the majority of patients with TSC who develop malignant tumors have germline TSC2, rather than TSC1, gene mutations.     

A Kinetic Model of Degradation of Phenol in Water by Direct Contact of Gas Nonpulsed Corona Discharge

Reaction byproducts from degradation of aqueous phenol by contact of gas d.c. corona discharge with treated water were analyzed by liquid chromatography. According to the retention time, three byproducts, pyrocatechol, hydroquinone, 1,4‐benzoquinone, were identified. Also, acetic acid was detected as a final relatively stable byproduct by gas chromatography. A simple reaction model in which relevant elementary reactions are assumed to be first order was proposed to correlate the practical behavior of degradation processes.     

Porous Ceramic Filters Produced by Hot Isostatic Pressing

Porous TiO₂ ceramics were produced by capsule-free hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) and were evaluated by measuring gas permeability and pore size distribution. In comparison to conventionally sintered TiO₂, the HIPed TiO₂ has a higher permeability and narrower pore size distribution. The differences are caused by the effects of high-pressure gas during sintering.     

Diana — A fast and high capacity computer code for interchannel coolant mixing in rod arrays

A mathematical model and digital computer program are presented for the subchannel thermal and hydraulic analysis of sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel assemblies. The newly developed FORTRAN-IV computer code ‘DIANA’ is much more useful than many other subchannel mixing analysis codes, especially for large size fuel assemblies which contain more than about 80 subchannels, and for assemblies undergoing swelling and thermal bowing which cause deformed coolant flow ducts, because of high computing speed, reduction of necessary core memory and accurate solution by momentum conservation. Numerical solutions are presented for a deformed rod bundle which contains 179 subchannels.     

The preparation of TiO2 nanometer photocatalyst film by a hydrothermal method and its sterilization performance for Giardia lamblia

The photocatalytic property of TiO(2) is utilized to sterilize the Giardia lamblia in an aqueous solution in this study. The TiO(2) colloidal solution used for the film was prepared by the modified hydrothermal method and it was directly coated on a UV-lamp, which was set up using a photoreactor manufactured in our laboratory. The TiO(2) film was very stably attached to the UV-lamp, and it was transparent until 5-time coating. The size of the TiO(2) particle in the film was distributed around 20-30 nm and the film thickness was about 200 nm per 1-time coating.The G. lamblia cell was just partially damaged under UV-irradiation without a TiO(2) photocatalyst, but the dead cell became very small and the dead body finally disappeared with an increase in the intensity of UV-irradiation after 2 h. In addition, under the TiO(2)/UV-irradiation system, the sterilized (dead) rate of G. lamblia was very fast. The sterilizing power increased at lower pH in the initial step, but it rather increased at a higher pH in the final step. And the sterilization of G. lamblia was very sensitive to the temperature, and resulted in an increase in the sterilized rate at higher temperatures. On the basis of these experimental observations, it can be concluded that TiO(2) photocatalyst under UV-irradiation could be adopted as one of the sterilization modalities for the G. lamblia.     

Characterization of Secretory Phospholipase A<Subscript>2</Subscript> with Phospholipase A<Subscript>1</Subscript> Activity in Tobacco, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nicotiana tabacum</Emphasis> (L.)

A cDNA encoding protein with homology to plant secretory phospholipase A₂ (sPLA₂), denoted as Nt1 PLA₂, was isolated from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). The cDNA encodes a mature protein of 118 amino acid residues with a putative signal peptide of 29 residues. The mature form of Nt1 PLA₂ has 12 cysteines, Ca²⁺ binding loop and catalytic site domain that are commonly conserved in plant sPLA₂s. The recombinant Nt1 PLA₂ was expressed as a fusion protein with thioredoxin in E. coli BL21 cells and was purified by an ion exchange chromatography after digestion of the fusion proteins by Factor Xa protease to obtain the mature form. Interestingly, Nt1 PLA₂ could hydrolyze the ester bond at the sn-1 position of glycerophospholipids as well as at the sn-2 position, when the activities were determined using mixed-micellar phospholipids with sodium cholate. Both activities for the sn-1 and -2 positions of glycerophospholipids required Ca²⁺ essentially, and maximal activities were found in an alkaline region when phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol or phosphatidylethanolamine was used as a substrate. The level of Nt1 PLA₂ mRNA was detected at a higher level in tobacco flowers than stem, leaves and roots, and was induced by salicylic acid.     

Influence of film structure on gas barrier properties of SiOxNy films

SiO_xN_y thin films were deposited on PET substrates by dc magnetron sputtering under various nitrogen gas flow ratios, and the influence of the nitrogen gas flow ratio on the gas barrier performance was examined on the basis of local structure of SiO_xN_y. The surface morphology of the films was evaluated by FE-SEM and AFM observations. The local structure of SiO_xN_y was determined by FT-IR analysis and measurement of refractive index. No obvious macro-defects, such as pinholes, were observed in the films and the surface morphology of all samples was similar. The film density increased with increasing nitrogen gas flow ratio during the deposition process. However, the gas barrier performance decreased with increasing nitrogen gas flow ratio. On the basis of FT-IR analysis, it was determined that the structure of the SiO_xN_y film was a random bonding model (RBM) structure and an increase in the nitrogen gas flow ratio caused an increase in hydrogen termination in the Si-O-N network. The degradation of gas barrier performance at a high nitrogen gas flow ratio is due to the discontinuous Si-O-N network caused by the hydrogen termination.     

Isolation and Identification of Antihypertensive Peptides from Antarctic Krill Tail Meat Hydrolysate

ABSTRACT:  Antarctic krill ( Euphausia superba ) obtained from the huge biomass in Antarctic waters is an important food product in Japan. Antarctic krill peptide powder (AKPP) prepared from the tail meat by enzymatic hydrolysis significantly decreased the systolic blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats by a single oral administration (1, 10, or 100 mg). Presumably, the effect of AKPP was through inhibition of the conversion of angiotensin, which mediates blood pressure elevation, from its inactive propeptide to the mature angiotensin. Two potent angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides were isolated from AKPP by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and identified as Val-Trp (IC₅₀= 2.75 μg/mL; 12.9 μM) and Leu-Lys-Tyr (IC₅₀= 4.26 μg/mL; 10.1 μM). Val-Trp and Leu-Lys-Tyr comprised 0.025%± 0.0023% (w/w) and 0.018%± 0.0023% (w/w) of AKPP, respectively, as measured by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). The contributions of Val-Trp and Leu-Lys-Tyr to the ACE inhibitor activity of AKPP were 17.7%± 1.60% and 8.04%± 1.03%, respectively, suggesting that these 2 peptides constitute a substantial portion of the overall ACE inhibitor potential of AKPP.