A review of mainly the past two years is undertaken of the industrial applications of pulsed power. Repetitively operated pulsed power generators with a moderate peak power have been developed for industrial applications. These generators are reliable and have low maintenance. Development of the pulsed power generators helps promote industrial applications of pulsed power for such things as food processing, medical treatment, water treatment, exhaust gas treatment, ozone generation, engine ignition, ion implantation and others. Here, industrial applications of pulsed power are classified by application for biological effects, for pulsed streamer discharges in gases, for pulsed discharges in liquid or liquidmixture, and for material processing.Index Terms -Pulsed power, industrial application, bioelectrics, exhaust gas treatment, discharge in liquid, material processing.

A pulsed discharge produced underwater has been an attractive method to treat waste water. For the optimization and realization of the water treatment system utilizing underwater pulsed discharge, modeling analysis could be one of the essential works. However, there is still no simulation work about the underwater pulsed discharge due to the lack of knowledge about its characteristic parameters such as electron temperature, electron density, and so on. In this paper, the temperature and the electron density in a pulsed discharge plasma produced underwater are measured and presented. A magnetic pulse compressor (MPC) was developed and used to create the electrical discharge in water. The developed MPC is all-solid state and is, therefore, a maintenance-free generator. To define the temperature and the electron density in an underwater pulsed discharge plasma, two kinds of spectroscopic measurements, called the line-pair method and Stark broadening, were carried out. According to the experimental results, the temperature and the electron density in the pulsed discharge plasma between point-plane electrodes immersed in water are determined to be 15 000 K and 10 18 /cm 3 , respectively.

Experimental investigation of HV short pulsed strcamcr discharges in dry air-fed ozonizers under various operating conditions arc reported. Ozone concentration, energy input and ozone production yield (efficiency) were measured at various voltagcs (14 to 37 kV), pulse repetition rates (25 to 400 pulses per second, pps), flow rales (1.5 to 3.0 llmin) and different gap spacings (10 to 20 mm) at a pressure of 1.01~10~ Pa in dry air. A spiral copper wire (1 m m in diamcler) madc to a cylindrical configuration (18 to 38 m m in diamcter) in a concentric coaxial clcckade system of various dimensions was employcd. A magnetic pulse comprcssor provided the H V and current pulses. Higher voltage and highcr repetition rates yielded higher concentrations of ozane at a fiwcd air flow rate. The present invcstigation was extended to assess the performance of this pulsed ozone generator using dry air under desired conditions of high concentration and high yield of ozone for industrial applications. ' Ucidcustia Corporation, 'lokyo, ]apau On Icavc from Universily of Windsor, Departnicnt of F.1cctrical and Cnnipiitcv h n ineering, Windsor, Ontario, Cauadn, hhnriscript was rcreived 011 11 Jrly 1999, in revisEd b m i a f

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT• Recently, we have shown that itraconazole co-administration increases the plasma concentrations of S(-)-and R(+)-fexofenadine enantiomers, and it appears to affect this P-glycoprotein (P-gp)-mediated transport of S(-)-fexofenadine to a greater extent compared with that of R(+)-fexofenadine.• Although verapamil is a P-gp inhibitor and co-administration is known to increase the bioavailability of racemic fexofenadine, little is known about the inhibitory effect of verapamil for each fexofenadine enantiomer. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS• Similar to the drug-interaction study with itraconazole, verapamil altered the stereoselective pharmacokinetics of fexofenadine to a greater extent on S(-)-fexofenadine than on R(+)-fexofenadine.• This effect by verapamil may be due to the differing affinities of P-gp for each enantiomer.• However, since the inhibitory effect of verapamil did not eliminate the difference in pharmacokinetics of fexofenadine enantiomers, it is likely that other mechanisms in addition to P-gp contribute to the stereoselective pharmacokinetics of fexofenadine. AIMSThe aim was to compare possible effects of verapamil, as a P-glycoprotein (P-gp) inhibitor, on the pharmacokinetics of each fexofenadine enantiomer, as a P-gp substrate. METHODSThirteen healthy Japanese volunteers (10 male and three female) were enrolled. In a randomized, two-phase, crossover design, verapamil was dosed 80 mg three times daily (with total daily doses of 240 mg) for 6 days, and on day 6, a single 120-mg dose of fexofenadine was administered along with an 80-mg dose of verapamil. Subsequently, fexofenadine was administered alone after a 2-week wash-out period. The plasma concentrations of fexofenadine enantiomers were measured up to 24 h after dosing. RESULTSDuring the control phase, the mean AUC0-• of S(-)-and R(+)-fexofenadine was 700 ng h -1 ml -1 [95% confidence interval (CI) 577, 823] and 1202 ng h -1 ml -1 (95% CI 1007, 1396), respectively, with a significant difference (P < 0.001). Verapamil had a greater effect on the pharmacokinetic parameters of S(-)-fexofenadine compared with those of the R(+)-enantiomer, and increased AUC0-• of S(-)-fexofenadine and R(+)-fexofenadine by 3.5-fold (95% CI of differences 1.9, 5.1; P < 0.001) and by 2.2-fold (95% CI of differences 1.7, 3.0; P < 0.001), respectively. The R/S ratio for the AUC0-• was reduced from 1.76 to 1.32 (P < 0.001) by verapamil treatments. CONCLUSIONThis study indicates that P-gp plays a key role in the stereoselectivity of fexofenadine pharmacokinetics, since the pharmacokinetics of fexofenadine enantiomers were altered by the P-gp inhibitor verapamil, and this effect was greater for S-fexofenadine compared with R-fexofenadine.