Flicker contribution from wind turbine installations

In this paper, the flicker emission from a wind park connected to a grid with a high wind energy penetration is evaluated. The influence of wind speed, turbulence intensity, grid voltage quality, grid types, and number of turbines operating in the same group is measured and analyzed. The investigated wind turbines are of constant-speed stall-regulated type. It is found that the voltage quality of the grid to which the turbines are connected strongly influences the flicker emission of the turbines. Moreover, it is found that the formula used in IEC-61400-21 for determining the flicker contribution from a whole wind park gives too low total flicker value.     

Microdistribution and composition of usewear polish on prehistoric stone tools

The use of prehistoric stone tools can be classified according to the usewear traces on the tool working edge. The polish resulting from the use of the tool contains minute amounts of the original worked material. Using the micro PIXE mapping technique, a comparative study of a set of experimental tools and a set of mesolithic end-scrapers was performed. For both sets of tools, increased concentrations of elements associated with the worked material were found in small localized regions. The composition of these regions was probed by point measurements and two main groups of P, Ca and S, K compounds were identified. The X-ray attenuation in the polish layer suggests that the deposited elements diffuse into the bulk flint.     

Silver Nanoparticle Synthesis via Photochemical Reduction with Sodium Citrate

The aim of this paper is to provide a simple and efficient photoassisted approach to synthesize silver nanoparticles, and to elucidate the role of the key factors (synthesis parameters, such as the concentration of TSC, irradiation time, and UV intensity) that play a major role in the photochemical synthesis of silver nanoparticles using TSC, both as a reducing and stabilizing agent. Concomitantly, we aim to provide an easy way to evaluate the particle size based on Mie theory. One of the key advantages of this method is that the synthesis can be “activated” whenever or wherever silver nanoparticles are needed, by premixing the reactants and irradiating the final solution with UV radiation. UV irradiance was determined by using Keitz’s theory. This argument has been verified by premixing the reagents and deposited them in an enclosed space (away from sunlight) at 25 °C, then checking them for three days. Nothing happened, unless the sample was directly irradiated by UV light. Further, obtained materials were monitored for 390 days and characterized using scanning electron microscopy, UV-VIS, and transmission electron microscopy.     

Triplen harmonics: Myths and reality

In a symmetrical and balanced three-phase system with distorted waveforms, a well-known rule states that each harmonic order corresponds to a specified sequence (positive, negative or zero). In this ideal case, the current in the neutral conductor (or more generally in the return path) contains only triplen harmonics. However, this rule is no longer valid in practical distribution systems subject to unbalance and waveform distortion, in which phase and neutral currents at any sequence generally contain components of any harmonic order. Possible improper extension of the ideal case concepts to general situations may create a sort of myth, to be removed by providing tutorial and practical examples.This paper provides a direct quantification of the extent to which non-triplen harmonics are present in the zero-sequence current components and triplen harmonics are present in the positive and negative sequence current components. An original set of indicators, built on the basis of the theoretical symmetrical component-based framework developed by the authors, is introduced for assessing the specific impact of the triplen harmonics at the different sequences. Some classical myths based on the ideal case are illustrated and discussed on specific examples including theoretical cases and experimental analyses, quantifying the actual role played by the triplen harmonics in these applications.     

Optical properties of pulsed generation in capillary gas laserswith internal-mirror waveguide resonators

The angular distribution and coherence of pulsed capillary lasers with the optical feedback implemented by waveguide Fabry-Perot resonators with internal mirrors have been theoretically studied. We have shown that spatially-coherent, low divergence radiation can be generated even for short pulse duration if the cavity parameters (the refractive index of the capillary wall and the waveguide dimensions) are properly chosen     

Structural and spectroscopic effects of Ag–Eu3+ codoping of TeO2–PbO glass ceramics

Structural and spectroscopic behavior of TeO₂–PbO–Eu₂O₃ glass ceramics containing small amounts of Ag₂O (0.5 mol%) or metallic Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) (0.33 mol%) have been studied by varying their Eu₂O₃ content (0–10 mol%). The structural behavior of these samples was investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The average unit-cell parameters, crystallites size, and the quantitative ratio of the crystallographic phases in the samples were evaluated based on XRD data. FTIR spectroscopy data revealed that the TeO₃ and TeO₄ are the main structural units of these glass ceramics and their ratio, TeO₃/TeO₄, changes as function of the europium oxide content and the codoping of the samples. Luminescence spectroscopy measurements evidenced the important peaks located at 438, 550, and 722 nm due to the Pb²⁺ ions and at 589 and 611 nm due to the Eu³⁺ ions present in the studied samples. The presence of AgNPs in the studied glass ceramics determines a considerable enhancement of the luminescence bands of Eu³⁺ ions from 589 and 611 nm.     

Solid-state grafting of maleic anhydride onto polypropylene: The influence of morphology of polypropylene on heterogeneous reaction

Polypropylene (PP) was modified with maleic anhydride (MAH) via heterogeneous solid-state radical grafting performed in a fluidized polymerization reactor. The effect of PP morphology and different concentration of initiator (dibenzoyl peroxide, DBP) on the course of the reaction and grafting efficiency was evaluated with using infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and particle surface analysis (BET method). With respect to obtained results, the reaction course can be strongly affected by the reaction conditions and PP morphology. Unlike the reactive modification in melt, heterogeneous reaction exhibits lower extent of β-scission albeit the reaction conversion is lower. Solid-state grafting can be used as an alternative method for the surface modification of nonpolar surfaces with polar monomers under mild conditions.     

System Level Hardware/Software Partitioning Based on Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search

This paper presents two heuristics for automatic hardware/software partitioning of system level specifications. Partitioning is performed at the granularity of blocks, loops, subprograms, and processes with the objective of performance optimization with a limited hardware and software cost. We define the metric values for partitioning and develop a cost function that guides partitioning towards the desired objective. We consider minimization of communication cost and improvement of the overall parallelism as essential criteria during partitioning. Two heuristics for hardware/software partitioning, formulated as a graph partitioning problem, are presented: one based on simulated annealing and the other on tabu search. Results of extensive experiments, including real-life examples, show the clear superiority of the tabu search based algorithm.     

Efficient March Tests for a Reduced 3-Coupling and 4-Coupling Faults in Random-Access Memories

This paper presents two new march test algorithms, MT-R3CF and MT-R4CF, for detecting reduced 3-coupling and 4-coupling faults, respectively, in n × 1 random-access memories (RAMs). To reduce the length of the tests, only the coupling faults between physically adjacent memory cells have been considered. The tests assume that the storage cells are arranged in a rectangular grid and that the mapping from logical addresses to physical cell locations is known completely. The march tests need 30n and 41n operations, respectively. In this paper any memory fault is modelled by a set of primitive memory faults called simple faults. We prove, using an Eulerian graph model, the ability of the test algorithms to detect all simple coupling faults. This paper also includes a study regarding the ability of the test MT-R3CF to detect interacting linked 3-coupling faults. This work improves the results presented in [1] where a similar model of reduced 3-coupling faults has been considered and a march test with 38n operations has been proposed. To compare these new march tests with other published tests, simulation results are presented in this paper.