Synthesis of β-Si3N4 by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Beta-type CVD-Si₃N₄ plates (up to 1.1 mm thick) have been prepared by adding TiCl₄ vapor to the system SiCl₄-NH₃-H₂ at deposition temperatures of 1350° to 1450°C, while α-type or amorphous CVD-Si₃N₄ was obtained without TiCl₄ vapor at the same deposition temperature. Three to four wt % 777V was included in the β-type CVD-Si₃N₄ matrix. The density, preferred orientation, and lattice parameters of β-type CVD-Si₃N₄ were examined.     

Electrical Conduction in β-Bi2O3 Doped with Sb2O3

Electrical conduction in tetragonal β-Bi₂O₃ doped with Sb₂O₃ was investigated by measuring electrical conductivity, ionic transference number, and Seebeck coefficient. The β-Bi₂O₃ doped with 1 to 10 mol% Sb₂O₃ was stable up to 600°C and showed an oxygen ionic and electronic mixed conduction, where the electron conduction was predominant at low oxygen pressures. The oxygen-ion conductivity showed a maximum at 4 mol% Sb₂O₃, whereas the activation energy for the ionic conduction remained unchanged for 4 to 10 mol% Sb₂O₃-doped specimens. These results were interpreted in terms of the oxygen vacancy concentration and the distortion of the tetragonal structure. The electron conductivity and its oxygen pressure dependence decreased with increasing Sb₂O₃ content. The fact that Sb⁵⁺ is partially reduced by excess electrons in heavily doped β specimens at low oxygen pressures is explained.     

Formation of Lead Zirconate-Lead Titanate Solid Solutions

Formation of the Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ solid solution in the system PbO-TiO₂-ZrO₂ was studied by chemical analysis and X-ray powder diffrac-tometry. Only PbTiO₃ and Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ were found as reaction products. The following three elementary reactions seemed to be reasonable for the formation of the Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ phase: PbO + TiO₂→ PbTiO₃, PbTiO₃+ PbO + ZrO₂→Pb(Zr_1-λTi_λ)O₃, and Pb(Zr_l-λTi_λ)O₃+ PbTiO₃→ Pb(Zr_1-λ'Ti_λ')O₃ (λ<λ').     

Plasma Behavior in a High‐Temperature Noble Gas Plasma Disk‐Shaped MHD Power Generator

R‐θ two‐dimensional numerical simulations have been carried out to clarify the plasma behavior in a high‐temperature noble gas plasma disk‐shaped magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator. At low inlet total temperature and high load resistance, the plasma has spiral structure which is similar to the nonuniform structure under the weak noble gas ionization condition in a seed‐plasma MHD generator. As seen in a linear‐shaped Faraday‐type MHD generator, the plasma becomes stable with increase in the inlet total temperature because the coulomb collision of electrons becomes dominant. Even at low inlet total temperature, the ionization instability can be suppressed for low load resistance, because the relatively low electron temperature due to less Joule heating makes the ionization relaxation time longer than plasma residential time.     

Effect of Axial Slit on Metallic Tube for Wireless Power Transfer via Magnetic Resonance Coupling

Wireless power transfer using a metallic tube with an axial slit was attempted to demonstrate the wireless power transfer using magnetic resonance coupling to the diagnostics infrastructure. The transmission efficiency with variable distance was measured using the transmission and receiver resonators in the tube. Besides, the transmission and receiver resonators were, respectively, set outside and inside the tube. These experiments are carried out in the computational study using FDTD method.     

Active control for the suspension of large-sized buses using fuzzy logic

An active suspension of large-sized buses by using fuzzy logic is considered. The active control for the suspension is determined by minimizing the mean squares of vertical and rotary accelerations of vehicle body subject to the constraints of suspension and tyre deflections. The vehicle model is assumed to be a linear system with six degrees of freedom excited by road profiles. The tuning of fuzzy control rules and associated parameters that characterize the active control is carried out where two kinds of road profiles are considered. In the simulation results, the proposed active suspension shows improved performance over passive suspension     

Entrance effect correction on the flow of moisturized soy protein isolate melt in an extrusion viscometer

A newly developed capillary viscometer, having an airtight sample cell and capillary system, was utilized to determine the flow properties of moisturized [70% dry basis (d.b.)] soy protein isolate (SPI) melt at 140°C. Pressure drop measurement with an orifice die was done to clarify the large end effect. An end effect correction method was performed by subtracting the orifice die data from the capillary tube data, and reasonable results were obtained. The flow properties of the SPI melt were thus elucidated and could be classified as those of a power law fluid with flow behaviour index of 0.35. It was concluded that SPI with 70% d.b. moisture is an extremely high pseudoplastic fluid at 140°C.     

Sensory Analysis of Taste-Active Components in the Extract of Boiled Snow Crab Meat

A synthetic extract, prepared from 44 pure chemicals on the basis of the analytical data on the leg meat extract of the boiled snow crab, Chionoecetes opilio, satisfactorily reproduced the taste of the natural extract except for a slight lack of body and mildness. A series of taste panel assessments on synthetic extracts prepared by omitting or adding extractive component(s) were carried out by a triangle difference test and changes in taste profile were assessed. Only 12 components, Ala, Arg, Glu, Gly, glycine betaine, AMP, CMP, GMP, Na⁺, K⁺, Cl^?, and PO₄^3-, were found to contribute more or less toward producing the characteristic taste of the snow crab.     

Novel Measurement of Hypoxanthine in Fish Using Direct Measurement Probe and Chemiluminescence Flow Injection Analysis

Direct measurements of hypoxanthine (Hx) in fish flesh were carried out using a sardine and a grunt twice with the same fish, and the average of 10 successive measurements (from 120 sec to 480 sec after pressing the probe against fish tissue) was taken as the Hx concentration by direct measurement. Results with two nearby tissues of one sample were 42.9 ± 4.9 μM and 42.6 ± 2.6 μM for the sardine, and 639 ± 33 μM and 598 ± 29 μM for the grunt. For sardine, Hx results from this direct method did not agree well with perchloric acid extraction measurements, but they were much better for grunt.