Nippon Sheet Glass (Japan)

This is the second of two papers concerning errors in the measurement of the thermal insulating properties of Vacuum Insulating Glass (VIG) due to non-uniformities in the heat flow due to the support pillars. Part 1 deals with the situation where the measurement area is in direct thermal contact with the glass sheets. This paper discusses how the non-uniformities and associated measurement errors can be reduced using thermally insulating buffer plates on each side of the specimen. A single parameter is developed that characterises the maximum error for measurement areas of all sizes. Values of this parameter are given for all practically relevant designs of the VIG and properties of the buffer plates. Methods are developed for selecting measurement conditions that lead to acceptable tradeoffs between reducing the errors associated with non-uniformities in the heat flow and errors due to heat flow through the edges of the specimen.

Non-uniformities in the heat flow through the support pillars in vacuum insulating glass (VIG) can lead to significant errors in the measurement of the thermal insulating properties of these devices. This paper discusses these errors in instruments for which the measurement area is in direct thermal contact with the glass sheets. The spatial non-uniformities of the heat flow in different VIG designs are modelled using the finite element method. For measuring areas with large dimension compared with the separation of the support pillars, the errors are unacceptably large for all practical designs of VIG when using guarded hot plate instruments. These errors are less for heat flow meter instruments due to the construction of the heat flux transducer.

ABSTRACTDengue virus (DENV) is the cause of dengue / severe dengue and a virus of the Flaviviridae family, furthermore, dengue fever has rapidly spread in the world in recent decades. DENV is transmitted by female mosquitoes, mainly of the specie Aedes aegypti. The main method to control or prevent the transmission of DENV is to combat the mosquito vectors. Among these, one of important methods is to monitor the DENVs in the mosquito vectors.For the detection of DENV, nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) were recommended, of which criterion standard is real-time RT-PCR with highly sensitive and specific. However, it takes long time as to judge the result per a reaction, besides the necessity of the treatment of RNA in advance, example of extraction, concentration and purification.It was our object in this time to develop the method of real-time RT-PCR detecting DENVs in shorter time, moreover without especial treatment of RNA from the mosquito in advance. Besides, this work was performed with combing the mobile real-time PCR device with the one-step RT-PCR reagent.Firstly, we succeeded in shortening the time of real-time RT-PCR for the detection of DENV per one reaction, so that the judgement needed less than 20 minutes if genomic RNA treated in advance. Moreover, each value on the real-PCR device was quantitatively correlated with the positive control RNA from 1.0 × 10 ^ 3 copies to 1.0 × 10 ^ 0 copies per reaction (This correlation coefficient R2 > 0.95). Additionally, it made sure that this method could be applied to each DENV serotype.Secondly, we established the basis of procedure for the real-time RT-PCR without the treatment in advance so-called “direct”. As the result that the positive control RNA additive was utilized instead of the real DENV, spiked into the mosquito homogenized and sampled the supernatant without treatment, it was possible to detect on the real-time RT-PCR even if mosquitoes immediately after blood-feeding. For this reason, this method might be able to utilize in human sera, too.According to the results of this work, we could suggest the method is possible to detect DENV more quickly and more simply than heretofore. The Real-time “direct” RT-PCR, especially, could be performed with mobile real-time PCR PCR1100 device and one step RT-PCR reagent only. This method must help to detect some viruses other than DENV, too.

We systematically study medium‐range structures including more than three neighboring atoms around iron ions (Fe2+ and Fe3+) in soda‐lime glass samples with low iron oxide concentrations (MFe2O3) and a wide number ratio of Fe2+ to all iron ions (Fe2+/ΣnFe). The precise medium‐range structures around iron ions in glass have not yet been revealed because of a lack of the appropriate measurement methods. To avoid this problem, we used element‐specific nuclear resonant inelastic scattering (NRIS) with synchrotron X‐rays to observe the vibrations of iron ions (57Fe). The vibrations are related to medium‐range structures with more than three neighboring atoms and to the potential asymmetry and the coordination environment, around iron ions. The NRIS method has high sensitivity and can measure over a wide concentration range. Linear combination fitting of the X‐ray absorption fine structure spectra, which measures only the first neighbors but is a faster than using the NRIS method, was also used additionally. A systematically produced set of glasses with 0.015–5 wt% MFe2O3 and 0–0.85 Fe2+/ΣnFe was measured with these methods. It was found that the soda‐lime glass possessed two different medium‐range structures with different iron ion valences (~2+ or ~3+), which were determined by the Fe2+/ΣnFe, and that these structures were generated during production of the glass. Moreover, these medium‐range structures were the same from 0.015 to 5 wt% MFe2O3.

Sound insulation plate made of transparent polycarbonate are installed on existing concrete noise barriers to achieve higher noise reduction. However, it is almost impossible to install higher noise barrier without reinforcing the viaduct sufficiently because of wind load increase. Therefore, the authors have proposed a novel noise barrier, sound insulation plate of which can reduce wind load with hinge mechanism. In this paper, noise insulation performance of the novel noise barrier as insertion loss was evaluated in rail line. And acoustic analysis by finite element method in frequency domains was conducted to inspect the applicability for noise reduction estimation. Then the measured insertion loss shows no sound leakage from the clearance of sound insulation plate and the numerical results shows that it is applicable to visualize the distribution of sound transmission and estimate the sound reduction effect according to the noise barrier height.

Generally speaking, the energy of the direct sound exceeds that of reflections in rooms for listening to speech. In this case, early-reflections enhance loudness of the direct sound. It is well-known that the useful-to-detrimental sound ratio, in which useful is the sum of the direct sound and early-reflections and detrimental is late-reflections, can predict speech intelligibility. On the other hand, considering speech leakage from the adjacent room, the first-arriving sound is attenuated by the boundary wall, and it is sometimes too weak to trigger the temporal integration of loudness. This would change the time structure of the useful energy. In the present study, prediction of speech intelligibility in such particular situations was investigated. Word intelligibility tests were performed in reverberant sound fields varying reverberation time, direct-to-reverberation ratio, and rise time at the onset of reverberation sound. The results demonstrated that prediction accuracy of the useful-to-detrimental ratio was still in a practical range though the parameters systematically affect the prediction error.

NSG glanova™, a novel glass composition for chemical strengthening has been developed. Produced by the float process, this cost‐effective material provides the advantages of soda‐lime glass while achieving strength and breakage properties approaching that of aluminosilicate glass. These properties give a new option as cover glass for smartphones and tablets.

Sato et al. suggested the equal-intelligibility contours that enable us to predict sound insulation performance and background noise level required to achieve a certain level of speech privacy/security on the basis of the word intelligibility test [Sato et al., Appl. Acoust. 73, 43-49 (2012)]. However, temporal aspects of sound fields, which would affect intelligibility scores, were not considered in the intelligibility test. In the present study, intelligibility tests were performed to investigated the effects of temporal aspects of sound fields on the scores. The possibility of using reverberation time as one of the predictors of speech privacy performance will be discussed on the basis of intelligibility tests.

Synchronous belts are rubber-composite materials with rubber, helical cords and facing fabrics. The helical cord is the tension member of the belt and is made of glass fibers, aramid fibers, or steel wires. Recent trends require increasingly high stiffness for the rubber belts. The use of carbon fibers and hybrid cords with carbon fibers are considered to be an effective way to achieve high stiffness for helical cords. This paper presents the study is to improve the bending fatigue strength of hybrid cords, where the center strand is made of carbon fibers, and the outer strands are made of glass fibers. The optimum cord composition for good bending fatigue durability is discussed following experimentation, mechanical analysis using a simplified mechanical model and FEM analysis. The model reasonably explained the initiation of the fatigue failure initiation site in the hybrid cords. The optimum cord composition was proposed for the bending fatigue strength basing on the simplified mechanical model. This was verified by experimental data showing good fatigue life. The use of such helical cords can considerably extend the operating life of synchronous belts.Copyright © 2009 by ASME

The proton conductive electrolyte membrane and the electrodes for intermediate temperature fuel cell were made from the phosphoric acid treated gypsum as a proton conductor. The membrane and the electrodes were built into single cell and tested at intermediate temperature region. The power density of the fuel cell was 0.56 mW/cm−2 at 150 °C without any humidification and 1.38 mW/cm−2 at 150 °C, 5% relative humidity. The open circuit voltage of the cell was increased higher than 0.7 V when the electrodes were annealed at 150 °C, 5%R.H., however the reasons for this are still to be further investigated. The results show that the potential of the phosphoric acid treated gypsum for the intermediate temperature proton conductor.