Parametric studies on drill-string motions

Experimental and numerical investigations are conducted into drill-string motions. The numerical efforts are carried out by using a reduced-order model with attention to stick–slip interactions between a drill string and an outer shell. These efforts are complemented by experimental studies conducted with a unique, laboratory scale model. Qualitative and quantitative changes in the system behavior are studied with respect to the rotation speed and mass imbalance. Comparisons are made between the numerical findings and the corresponding experimental results. In addition, the influence of contact conditions between the drill string and the outer shell on the drill-string dynamics is also examined. The findings of the work suggest that small changes in the system rotation speed can have a significant influence on the nature of drill-string motions and they also provide guidelines for steering the system out of regions of undesirable dynamics and maintaining drill-string motions close to the center of a borehole.     

Renewable energy credit driven wind power growth for system reliability

Environmental concerns over electric power generation from conventional sources has led to widespread public support for renewable energy sources. Governments throughout the world have responded by providing various forms of financial incentives to promote power generation from renewable energy sources. The rapid growth of wind power since the last decade has primarily been driven by governmental subsidies. Long-term growth of wind power should, however, be driven by sustainable market mechanisms. A potential solution is to recognize monetary values to the environmental benefits from renewable energy sources, and to specify targets for their growth. The environmental benefits from wind sources can be leveraged to allow market competition of these sources with the less costly conventional generating sources. A probabilistic method to evaluate the impact of renewable energy credit and wind penetration level on the cost and adequacy of power generating systems is presented in this paper. The technique incorporates reliability and economic analyses and is applied to a published test system to illustrate the results and their influence on key system variables. The paper provides useful information to system planners and policy makers on wind energy application in electric power systems.     

Electrolyte stability determines scaling limits for solid-state 3D Li ion batteries

Rechargeable, all-solid-state Li ion batteries (LIBs) with high specific capacity and small footprint are highly desirable to power an emerging class of miniature, autonomous microsystems that operate without a hardwire for power or communications. A variety of three-dimensional (3D) LIB architectures that maximize areal energy density has been proposed to address this need. The success of all of these designs depends on an ultrathin, conformal electrolyte layer to electrically isolate the anode and cathode while allowing Li ions to pass through. However, we find that a substantial reduction in the electrolyte thickness, into the nanometer regime, can lead to rapid self-discharge of the battery even when the electrolyte layer is conformal and pinhole free. We demonstrate this by fabricating individual, solid-state nanowire core-multishell LIBs (NWLIBs) and cycling these inside a transmission electron microscope. For nanobatteries with the thinnest electrolyte, ≈110 nm, we observe rapid self-discharge, along with void formation at the electrode/electrolyte interface, indicating electrical and chemical breakdown. With electrolyte thickness increased to 180 nm, the self-discharge rate is reduced substantially, and the NWLIBs maintain a potential above 2 V for over 2 h. Analysis of the nanobatteries' electrical characteristics reveals space-charge limited electronic conduction, which effectively shorts the anode and cathode electrodes directly through the electrolyte. Our study illustrates that, at these nanoscale dimensions, the increased electric field can lead to large electronic current in the electrolyte, effectively shorting the battery. The scaling of this phenomenon provides useful guidelines for the future design of 3D LIBs.     

Design of an i.v. formulation of an unstable prodrug candidate for prostate cancer treatment: solution chemistry of N-(glutaryl-hyp-ala-ser-cyclohexylglycyl-gln-ser-leu)-doxorubicin

The chemical degradation of N-(glutaryl-hyp-ala-ser-cyclohexylglycyl-gln-ser-leu)-doxorubicin (henceforth referred to as doxorubicin peptide conjugate 1) was studied in buffered aqueous solution. The pH-rate profile of degradation shows that the doxorubicin conjugate is most stable between pH 5 and 6. The dependence of log k_obsd on pH in acidic medium is characteristic of specific acid-catalysis of the sugar hemiaminal of 1 (as in the case of doxorubicin). Isolation of degradates and structural determination shows that the degradation at lower pH values yields the water-insoluble aglycone doxorubicinone, supporting the mechanism of acid-catalyzed loss of the amino sugar. At pH higher than 5, a more complicated degradation pattern is observed, including the loss of the amino sugar and the aromatization of the saturated ring to give 7,8-dehydro-9,10-desacetyldoxorubicinone as one of the major products. Around the pH of maximum stability in solution, the rate of degradation of 1 is significantly greater than that for doxorubicin, which rules out the formulation of a room temperature solution product with a sufficiently long shelflife for market use. Design of a stable lyophilized formulation for sterile reconstitution based on the physicochemical properties of 1 is described.     

Functional Properties of Soy Protein Isolates Produced from Ultrasonicated Defatted Soy Flakes

This study aimed to determine the effect of pretreating defatted soy flakes with ultrasound on soy protein isolate (SPI) yield and functionality. Defatted soy flakes dispersed into water (16%, w/w) were sonicated for 30, 60 and 120 s at ultrasonic amplitudes of 21 and 84 μm_pp (peak to peak amplitude in μm), representing low and high power, respectively. The power densities were 0.30 and 2.56 W mL⁻¹, respectively. The SPI yield increased by 13 and 34%, after sonication for 120 s at low and high power, respectively. The sonication of defatted soy flakes for 120 s at the higher power level improved the SPI solubility by 34% at pH 7.0, while decreasing emulsification and foaming capacities by 12 and 26%, respectively, when compared to control SPI. Rheological behavior of the SPI was also modified with significant loss in consistency coefficient due to sonication. Some of these results could be explained by the loss of the protein native state with increased sonication time and power.     

Reliability evaluation of generating systems containing wind power and energy storage

Global environmental concerns associated with conventional energy generation have led to the rapid growth of wind energy in power systems. Many jurisdictions around the world have set high wind penetration targets in their energy generation mix. Wind speed is variable in nature, and power output from a wind farm is not readily controllable. High wind penetration can lead to high-risk levels in power system reliability and stability. In order to maintain the system stability, wind energy dispatch is usually restricted and energy storage is considered to smooth out the fluctuations and improve supply continuity. The benefits from using energy storage are highly dependent on the operating strategies associated with wind and storage in the power system. A simulation technique that can consider wind farm and energy storage operating strategies is presented. Different operating strategies are compared and the resulting benefits are evaluated. The system impacts of energy storage capacity and operating constraints, wind energy dispatch restrictions, wind penetration level and wind farm location on the reliability benefits from energy storage are illustrated.     

Atomistic visualization: Space–time multiresolution integration of data analysis and rendering

Time-varying three-dimensional scattered data representing snapshots of atomic configurations produced by molecular dynamics simulations are not illuminating by themselves; gaining insight into them poses a tremendous challenge. In order to take the advantage of maximal information offered by these simulations, we have proposed an efficient scheme, which integrates various analysis and rendering tasks together in order to support interactive visualization of the data at space–time multiresolution. Additional data produced by various analytical techniques on the fly represent the atomic system under consideration at diverse length- (e.g., nearest neighbor, next-nearest neighbor or beyond) and time- (e.g., instantaneous, finite intervals or overall averages) scales. In particular, the radial distribution functions, coordination environments, clusters and rings are computed and visualized to understand the structural behavior whereas a variety of displacement data and covariance matrices are explored to understand the dynamical behavior. While the spatial distributions of atoms need to be reproduced correctly during rendering, we take the advantage of high flexibility in rendering other attributes because of the lack of their direct physical relevance. A combination of different techniques including animation, color maps, pathlines, different types of glyphs, and graphics hardware accelerated approach is exploited to render the original and extracted data. First-principles molecular dynamics simulation data for liquid systems are used to justify the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed scheme.     

Oxidative degradation studies of an oxazolidinone-derived antibacterial agent, RWJ416457, in aqueous solutions

The rates of oxidative degradation of a new antibacterial drug, RWJ416457, in aqueous solutions were investigated over the pH-range of 2 to 10. Two oxidative degradates were identified and the influences of pH, buffer concentration, metal ions, metal chelating agents, and temperatures were studied. The pH, metal chelating agents, and metal ions significantly changed the product distribution in addition to the degradation rate. Oxidative degradation is believed to follow a hydrogen abstraction (HAT) pathway. One degradate was the major product under acidic conditions and its predominance is attributed to a resonance-stabilized intermediate. The importance of the resonance structure was diminished under neutral and basic conditions. The product distribution changed and two degradates were formed in equal amounts. The study results guided the formulation development to minimize oxidation.     

The interaction between cytoplasmic dynein and dynactin is required for fast axonal transport

Fast axonal transport is characterized by the bidirectional, microtubule-based movement of membranous organelles. Cytoplasmic dynein is necessary but not sufficient for retrograde transport directed from the synapse to the cell body. Dynactin is a heteromultimeric protein complex, enriched in neurons, that binds to both microtubules and cytoplasmic dynein. To determine whether dynactin is required for retrograde axonal transport, we examined the effects of anti-dynactin antibodies on organelle transport in extruded axoplasm. Treatment of axoplasm with antibodies to the p150(Glued) subunit of dynactin resulted in a significant decrease in the velocity of microtubule-based organelle transport, with many organelles bound along microtubules. We examined the molecular mechanism of the observed inhibition of motility, and we demonstrated that antibodies to p150(Glued) disrupted the binding of cytoplasmic dynein to dynactin and also inhibited the association of cytoplasmic dynein with organelles. In contrast, the anti-p150(Glued) antibodies had no effect on the binding of dynactin to microtubules nor on cytoplasmic dynein-driven microtubule gliding. These results indicate that the interaction between cytoplasmic dynein and the dynactin complex is required for the axonal transport of membrane-bound vesicles and support the hypothesis that dynactin may function as a link between the organelle, the microtubule, and cytoplasmic dynein during vesicle transport.