Reduction of alternating current loss in a high-TC superconducting transmission cable by means of helical pitch adjustment

We have reported that the alternating current (ac) losses in a 66 kV_rms 3-core high-T_C superconducting (HTS) transmission cable fabricated by Tokyo Electric Power Company and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. are calculated correctly by using an electric-circuit model. According to the calculated results, the circumferential field losses are dominant in the total ac losses in compared with the self-field losses and the axial-field losses. The helical pitches of each layer in the HTS cable are designed to obtain almost same layer currents, which gives the minimum self-field losses. We think that the optimum helical pitches giving the minimum total losses are different from the helical pitches designed by the companies and calculate the optimum values in the condition of the same helical direction of each layer in the cable. As a result, for example, it is found that the ac loss of 2.1 W m⁻¹ cc⁻¹ at transporting 1 kA_rms can be reduced to 1.8 W m⁻¹ cc⁻¹ (about 14% reductions) after redesigning the cable with the optimum helical pitches. The optimum helical pitches are obtained for each given transport current. After redesigning, the distribution of layer currents is not uniform and the circumferential fields are reduced.     

Development of a simple method for fabrication of transparent conductive films with high mechanical strength

We have developed a simple method of fabricating transparent conductive films with a high mechanical strength on glass and indium tin oxide substrates. It does not require a large excess of organic solvents and polymerization catalysts and can yield smooth films by spin-coating of a mixture of a commercially available aqueous dispersion of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(4-styrene sulfonate) and a neat liquid of tetraethyl orthosilicate. Preparation conditions such as feed ratio, kinds of additives, and annealing temperature and time were optimized to give highly conductive, transparent and mechanically strong films.     

Development of anchored oligothiophenes on substrates for the application to the tunable transparent conductive films

Bis(triethoxysilyl)-substituted oligothiophene with a moderate π-conjugation length was newly synthesized and polymerized to give a polysilsesquioxane network having oligothiophene units dispersed homogeneously without phase separation. The polymer was fixed on glass or ITO substrate by spin-coating and annealing. The resulting film exhibited a high mechanical strength due to the covalent bonding with the substrates, and was electrochemically stable even after 300 redox cycles in electrolyte solution. Chemical oxidation of the polymer films yielded electrically conductive and almost transparent films.     

Dietary supplementation of gamma-linolenic acid improves skin parameters in subjects with dry skin and mild atopic dermatitis

Disruption of the skin barrier function caused by epidermal hyper-proliferation, results in the skin becoming dry and showing high transepidermal water loss (TEWL). Gamma linolenic acid (GLA) is reportedly efficacious for treating TEWL and epidermal hyper-proliferation. In this study, to elucidate the effect of GLA-rich oil on skin function, GLA-containing food was given to adults with dry skin or mild atopic dermatitis and skin parameters were evaluated. In the results, we recognized beneficial effects on the TEWL index. The efficacy of GLA was also demonstrated to be statistically significant especially in subjects with pro-inflammatory features. The results suggest that the mechanism of improvement of skin barrier has been associated with possible generation of anti-inflammatory metabolites from GLA. The clinical physician also confirmed that none of the subjects showed any noteworthy side effects. GLA-enriched food appears to be safe and to improve skin barrier function in subjects with dry skin conditions and mild atopic dermatitis.     

Using Decision Trees to Construct a Practical Parser

This paper describes a novel and practical Japanese parser that uses decision trees. First, we construct a single decision tree to estimate modification probabilities; how one phrase tends to modify another. Next, we introduce a boosting algorithm in which several decision trees are constructed and then combined for probability estimation. The constructed parsers are evaluated using the EDR Japanese annotated corpus. The single-tree method significantly outperforms the conventional Japanese stochastic methods. Moreover, the boosted version of the parser is shown to have great advantages; (1) a better parsing accuracy than its single-tree counterpart for any amount of training data and (2) no over-fitting to data for various iterations. The presented parser, the first non-English stochastic parser with practical performance, should tighten the coupling between natural language processing and machine learning.     

Microfactories; new applications of micromachine technology to the manufacture of small products

 Concepts of microfactories consisting of microdevices made by micromachine technologies are discussed. A microfactory is a small production system whose size is very small with respect to the dimensions of the small products. Typical examples of microfactories are classified according to production types. Microfactory systems have a great possibility to innovate the production systems of small products by making the best use of the inherent properties of the systems such as miniaturized facilities, mobility and flexibility. The microfactory saves energy, manufacturing space and mineral resources with decreasing size of the factory facilities. Received: 5 August 1996 / Accepted:19 August 1996     

The Application of Phase-only Filters to Optical Interconnects and Pattern Recognition

Abstract

We have recently developed a new type of liquid-crystal spatial light-modulator which acts as a phase-only spatial light-modulator for coherent light. The use of this device as a flexible filter in the Fourier plane of an optical correlation system is described, and it is shown how it may also be used as a flexible interconnect capable of simultaneously providing continuous amplitude and binary phase modulation.     

A self-learning digital neural network using wafer-scale LSI

A large-scale, dual-network architecture using wafer-scale integration (WSI) technology is proposed. By using 0.8 μm CMOS technology, up to 144 self-learning digital neurons were integrated on each of eight 5 in silicon wafers. Neural functions and the back-propagation (BP) algorithm were mapped to digital circuits. The complete hardware system packaged more than 1000 neurons within a 30 cm cube. The dual-network architecture allowed high-speed learning at more than 2 gigaconnections updated per second (GCUPS). The high fault tolerance of the neural network and proposed defect-handling techniques overcame the yield problem of WSI. This hardware can be connected to a host workstation and used to simulating a wide range of artificial neural networks. Signature verification and stock price prediction have already been demonstrated with this hardware