A SPECIFIC QUALITATIVE DETECTION METHOD FOR PEANUT (ARACHIS HYPOGAEA) IN FOODS USING POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION

A qualitative method for detection of peanuts in foods using polymerase chain reaction was developed. A universal primer pair CP 03‐5′/CP 03‐3′ was designed to confirm the validity of the DNAs for PCR. The plant‐specific amplified fragments were detected from 13 kinds of plants using the universal primer pair. In addition, for the specific detection of peanuts with high sensitivity, the primer pair agg 04‐5′/agg 05‐3′ was designed to detect the gene encoding the peanut agglutinin precursor. The primer pair specifically generates a 95‐bp amplified fragment from peanut genomic DNA. Five hundred femto grams of peanut genomic DNA can be detected using the established method. The same qualitative results were obtained from both model processed and nonprocessed food samples containing 0.001, 0.01 and 0.1% of peanut. Moreover, it was shown that the trace amount of peanut in the commercial food products could be qualitatively detected using this method. The reproducibility and applicability of the proposed methods were verified in a six‐laboratory collaborative study.     

Improved Modified Switching Transient Pulse Width Modulation (MT‐PWM) Method Applied to H‐Bridge Type Step‐Down Converter

The authors have devised a new method to decrease high‐frequency harmonics in a specific frequency band by modifying the switching transient slope. In previous studies, there were several problems in applying modified transient pulse width modulation (MT‐PWM) to actual converters. In this paper, three problems are solved using an improved MT‐PWM method. First, the MT‐PWM signal was obtained using a trial‐and‐error approach that involved complex computation procedures in the previous studies. In this paper, a new calculation procedure for obtaining the MT‐PWM waveform using a simple calculation is proposed. Second, a new controller (drain‐source voltage controller) based on voltage feedback is proposed in order to realize a modified switching transient to increase the stability of the switching operation. Third, the dependency of MT‐PWM on source voltage variation is investigated in order to implement MT‐PWM in an actual step‐down converter. From this result, the concept of a new type of controller with the source voltage variation taken into consideration is proposed. Finally, the authors attempted to apply MT‐PWM to an H‐bridge converter to expand the application of MT‐PWM. An H‐bridge converter with MT‐PWM for a dc motor drive is successfully operated in an experiment.     

Proposal of Series‐Parallel Continuously Regulated Chopper Suitable for Auxiliary Power Supply of Railway Vehicle

The conventional auxiliary power supply (APS) of a railway vehicle is directly connected to the catenary through the LC filter. Hence, the switching devices of the APS must have a high breakdown voltage to account for catenary voltage fluctuation. On the other hand, low‐voltage switching devices have better characteristics that are desirable for low‐loss and high‐frequency operation. Therefore, a step‐down converter is incorporated between the LC filter and inverter to adapt to catenary voltage fluctuations when using low‐voltage switching devices. This paper proposes the series‐parallel continuously regulated chopper as a novel step‐down converter. First, the fundamental operation characteristics and output voltage control method of the proposed chopper are introduced. The simulation and experimental results for the fundamental characteristics are then described; the simulation and experimental values were almost the same as the theoretical values. The proposed chopper controls the output voltage at the expected value without dramatic fluctuation regardless of the input voltage fluctuation. In addition, a resonance damping control for a constant power load is proposed. The operational characteristics were considered under different potential distributions or load conditions.