A comprehensive economic analysis of biomass gasification systems

This paper presents a comprehensive economic analysis of biomass gasification systems. There has recently been interest in promoting biomass energy systems in Japan's domestic sector. However, there are problems in achieving this project. The costs of plant construction are very high compared with conventional plants. Accordingly, the unit costs of electricity will be increased to levels comparable with those of other environmental energy systems. Copyright © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. In this paper, biomass energy systems using woody biomass are proposed from the viewpoint of successful environmental business. Biomass integrated gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) plants operated by independent power producers and biomass gasification cogeneration (BGCGS) plants in sawmills or asphalt‐concrete production factories have the potential for implementation in the near future. Our analysis concludes that the systems proposed in this paper provide the following outcomes with subsidies: (1) the generating cost of BIGCC ranges from 15.1 to 36.6 yen/kWh, (2) the generating cost of BGCGS ranges from 2.6 to 32.2 yen/kWh, and (3) the cost reduction of BGCGS products in asphalt factories amounts to about 60 million yen per year. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 153(3): 52–63, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20089     

Low superoxide dismutase activity in schizophrenic patients with tardive dyskinesia

BACKGROUND: Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a therapy-resistant adverse effect of neuroleptics. Although the exact pathophysiology of TD is unknown, oxygen radicals have been speculated to play a role in TD based on several lines of evidence. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is a key enzyme which scavenges oxygen radicals. The authors investigated the association between erythrocyte SOD activity and TD. METHODS: Erythrocyte SOD activities were measured, blinded as to the presence or absence of TD. In 30 patients with schizophrenia who had been on typical neuroleptics for more than 10 years. TD severity was independently assessed, using the abnormal involuntary movement scale (AIMS), by two raters. RESULTS: There was a significant decrease in erythrocyte SOD activity in the definite TD group (N = 10) as compared with the no TD (N = 8) and questionable TD (N = 12) groups. Erythrocyte Cu,Zn-SOD activities correlated with AIMS scores. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with TD had low SOD activities as compared to those without TD. As a causal link between SOD activity and TD was not established in this study, larger prospective studies are warranted to determine whether patients with low SOD activity are susceptible to neuroleptic-induced TD.     

Quantitation of hepatitis G virus RNA in allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients. Stem Cell Transplantation Team

In thermolysin, tryptophan 115 seems to be at the S2 subsite. Trp-115 was replaced with tyrosine, phenylalanine, leucine, and valine during site-directed mutagenesis in order to evaluate the role of Trp-115 in the proteolytic activity of thermolysin. The mutant enzymes with Tyr-115 or Phe-115 had as much proteolytic activity as the wild-type enzyme, but the other two mutant enzymes had no activity. We found earlier that the substitution of Trp-115 with alanine, glutamic acid, lysine, and glutamine causes the enzyme to lose all activity, so an aromatic amino acid at position 115 seems to be essential for thermolysin.     

Design and performance of wideband GaAs MMIC's for high-speedoptical communication systems

Advanced design techniques for GaAs wideband direct-coupled amplifiers are described. The amplifier achieved a 20 dB gain with a 3 dB bandwidth of 13 GHz and a 5-7 dB noise figure. An equalizing amplifier module consisting of amplifier and variable attenuator monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) exhibited a high gain of 43 dB over a 10 GHz band with a controllable gain of 20-43 dB     

Study of meniscus behavior and surface properties during casting in a high-frequency magnetic field

Surface quality of continuously cast metals can be improved by imposing a continuous high-frequency magnetic field from the outside of a mold. Newly proposed concepts of “soft contacting solidification” and “slow cooling solidification,” which is tightly related to the mechanism of improving surface quality, were confirmed in model experiments by using molten gallium and tin. The meniscus motion of the molten gallium accompanied by a mold oscillation and magnetic pressure was measured by a laser level sensor. The shape variation of a meniscus and the process of ripple formation in an oscillation cycle were directly visualized by an optical fiberscope camera. Moreover, molten tin was continuously cast and the relationship between the surface quality and the meniscus motion was studied. A mechanical model for predicting the space between the oscillation marks is proposed. The casting process using intermittent highfrequency magnetic field was developed. New functions of this field were investigated regarding the control of initial solidification. It was found that the surface quality of the continuously cast metal can be improved by the intermittent high-frequency magnetic field as well as the continuous high-frequency magnetic field. Formerly Undergraduate Student, Department of Materials Processing Engineering, Nagoya University,     

Two flavone 2'-glucosides from Scutellaria baicalensis

Two new flavone glucosides, 5,2',6'-trihydroxy-6,7,8-trimethoxyflavone 2'-O-glucoside and 5,2',6'-trihydroxy-6,7-dimethoxyflavone 2'-O-glucoside were isolated from the aqueous methanol extract of the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis. From the extract, seven phenolics, 5,7,2',6'-terahydroxyflavone, 5,7,2',5'-tetrahydroxy-8,6'-dimethoxyflavone, skullcapflavone II, baicalin, baicalin methyl ester, wogonin 7-glucuronide and 3,5,7,2',6'-pentahydroxyflavanone were also isolated.     

Development of 500-kV XLPE cables and accessories for long distanceunderground transmission line. III. Electrical properties of 500-kVcables

500-kV XLPE-insulated cable with an insulation thickness of 27 mm has been developed for long-distance transmission lines. Basic studies on 500-kV XLPE cable have shown that contaminants in the insulation may be the factor determining electrical performance. This hypothesis is justified by the good correlation obtained between statistical estimations of the size of the largest contaminant in the insulation and the electrical characteristics of full-sized cables. Voltage-withstand and long-term tests have confirmed the design values for minimum breakdown stress, for AC and impulse voltage, and for the degradation coefficients     

Gigahertz SAW filter developed using new submicrometre techniques

A photolithographic technique was developed that uses 1/10-reduction photoprinting with a phase-shifting mask to make gigahertz SAW devices. Combined with a positive-type resist, this new technique produces IDT electrodes with smaller deviations in width compared with using a negative-type resist. Very sharp 40 nm thick AI electrodes with 0.4 μm lines and spaces were achieved. A 2.5 GHz SAW filter suitable for optical communication systems was developed     

Finite cover method for linear and non‐linear analyses of heterogeneous solids

We introduce the finite cover method (FCM) as a generalization of the finite element method (FEM) and extend it to analyse the linear and non‐linear mechanical behaviour of heterogeneous solids and structures. The name ‘FCM’ is actually an alias for the manifold method (MM) and the basic idea of the method has already been established for linear analyses of structures with homogeneous materials. After reviewing the concept of physical and mathematical covers for approximating functions in the FCM, we present the formulation for the static equilibrium state of a structure with arbitrary physical boundaries including material interfaces. The problem essentially involves the discontinuities in strains, and possibly has the discontinuities in displacement caused by interfacial debonding or rupture of material interfaces. We simulate such non‐linear mechanical behaviour after presenting simple numerical examples that demonstrate the equivalence between the approximation capabilities of the FCM and those of the FEM. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A low-drive-voltage, high-speed monolithic multiple-quantum-wellmodulator/DFB laser light source

A high-speed InGaAs/InAlAs multiple-quantum-well (MQW) intensity modulator and an InGaAsP/InGaAs MQW distributed feedback laser were monolithically integrated by using a hybrid growth technique combining molecular beam epitaxy and metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. An operating drive voltage of only 2.0 V, a 20-dB on/off ratio, and a 3-dB bandwidth greater than 15 GHz were obtained. This device operated stably in a single mode and with a side-mode suppression ratio of more than 50 dB