Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films were studied with and without applying fixed pulse bias and frequency at variable pulse widths in double bent Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc(FCVA) system. Both from Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) analyses it has been observed that the ratio of sp/sp is maximal at pulse width of 15 μs with fixed pulse bias 3kV and frequency 200 kHz. Increa...

Intracellular recordings from guinea pig trigeminal motoneurons (TMNs) in brain stem slices were used to determine the underlying ionic mechanisms responsible for our previously demonstrated enhancement of TMN excitability during jaw movements by serotonin (5-HT). 5-HT (0.5-100 microM) depolarized motoneurons and increased input resistance in the majority of neurons tested. Additionally, 5-HT r...

electric power industry have always try to provide reliable electricity to customers and at the same time decrease system costs. high voltage circuit-breakers are an essential part of the power network. this study has developed a maintenance and replacement scheduling model for high voltage circuit- breakers that minimize maintenance costs while maintaining the acceptable reliability. this mode...

With the increase of sensitive loads and, in many cases, causing disturbances in distribution systems, power quality monitor allocation has become a subject with increasingly importance. Therefore, it becomes necessary to have well-formed strategies to allocate such equipment, since they have high cost that needs to be minimized. With this objective, this research provides a methodology for mon...

-In this paper, the findings from systematic experiments with the purpose to determine the degradation effect of single and multiple current pulses on the microstructure of the Metal Oxide (MO) varistor are described. Six distribution class varistors from one manufacturer were used in these experiments. The first part of the paper describes the electrical condition after application of single a...

Ion current rectification inversion is observed in a funnel-shaped nanochannel above a threshold voltage roughly corresponding to the under-limiting to over-limiting current transition. Previous experimental studies have examined rectification at either low-voltages (under-limiting current region) for conical nanopores/funnel-shaped nanochannels or at high-voltages (over-limiting region) for st...

The effects of Zn(2+) were evaluated on high-voltage-activated Ca(2+) currents expressed by pyramidal neurons acutely dissociated from rat piriform cortex. Whole-cell, patch-clamp experiments were carried out using Ba(2+) (5 mM) as the charge carrier. Zn(2+) blocked total high-voltage-activated Ba(2+) currents with an IC(50) of approximately 21 microM. In addition, after application of non-satu...