Hybrid grounding system

This paper presents an application of a hybrid grounding scheme to a paper mill 13.8-kV generator. The article describes the grounding problem, lists user examples of stator ground failure, and provides a theoretical explanation for the problem and resulting generator damage. Various grounding methods used in industrial applications, including an innovative hybrid grounding scheme that maintains continuity of service, controls transient overvoltages, and effectively limits damage to stator iron is presented. Finally various ground protection schemes for the generator grounding and system grounding configurations, and a list of additional resource material is presented.     

Alkoxide-based precursors for direct drawing of metal oxide micro- and nanofibres

The invention of electrospinning has solved the problem of producing micro- and nanoscaled metal oxide fibres in bulk quantities. However, until now no methods have been available for preparing a single nanofibre of a metal oxide. In this work, the direct drawing method was successfully applied to produce metal oxide (SnO₂, TiO₂, ZrO₂, HfO₂ and CeO₂) fibres with a high aspect ratio (up to 10 000) and a diameter as small as 200 nm. The sol–gel processing includes consumption of precursors obtained from alkoxides by aqueous or non-aqueous polymerization. Shear thinning of the precursors enables pulling a material into a fibre. This rheological behaviour can be explained by sliding of particles owing to external forces. Transmission (propagation) of light along microscaled fibres and their excellent surface morphology suggest that metal oxide nanofibres can be directly drawn from sol precursors for use in integrated photonic systems.     

A Novel Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Antagonist HBU651 Ameliorates Peripheral and Hypothalamic Inflammation in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice

Obesity is a chronic peripheral inflammation condition that is strongly correlated with neurodegenerative diseases and associated with exposure to environmental chemicals. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated nuclear receptor activated by environmental chemical, such as dioxins, and also is a regulator of inflammation through interacting with nuclear factor (NF)-κB. In this study, we evaluated the anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory activity of HBU651, a novel AhR antagonist. In BV2 microglia cells, HBU651 successfully inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-mediated nuclear localization of NF-κB and production of NF-κB-dependent proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6. It also restored LPS-induced mitochondrial dysfunction. While mice being fed a high-fat diet (HFD) induced peripheral and central inflammation and obesity, HBU651 alleviated HFD-induced obesity, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia, and liver enzyme activity, without hepatic and renal damage. HBU651 ameliorated the production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, proinflammatory Ly6c^high monocytes, and macrophage infiltration in the blood, liver, and adipose tissue. HBU651 also decreased microglial activation in the arcuate nucleus in the hypothalamus. These findings suggest that HBU651 may be a potential candidate for the treatment of obesity-related metabolic diseases.     

A procedure for the computational investigation of stress-relaxation phenomena

The analysis of stress-relaxation tests in viscoelastic materials is discussed. Stress-relaxation tests are performed by means of a two-stage process, as a stretching stage up to an assumed strain level, according to a given strain rate, followed by a constant strain stage. Major attention is devoted to the influence of experimental variables, namely the strain level and the strain rate during stretching stage, on the subsequent relaxation phenomena. A constitutive analysis to interpret the behaviour shown by experimental tests is performed, accounting for the influence of the above mentioned experimental variables, to get an actual definition of time dependent behaviour of the material. This procedure is applied to investigate stress-relaxation phenomena in polymeric materials and soft biological tissues, as ligaments. The results confirm the necessity to analyse data from stress-relaxation tests taking into account the experimental variables that characterize the different stages, and evaluating the influence of the specific variables outlined.     

Thermal fluctuations of haemoglobin from different species: adaptation to temperature via conformational dynamics

Thermodynamic stability, configurational motions and internal forces of haemoglobin (Hb) of three endotherms (platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus; domestic chicken, Gallus gallus domesticus and human, Homo sapiens) and an ectotherm (salt water crocodile, Crocodylus porosus) were investigated using circular dichroism, incoherent elastic neutron scattering and coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations. The experimental results from Hb solutions revealed a direct correlation between protein resilience, melting temperature and average body temperature of the different species on the 0.1 ns time scale. Molecular forces appeared to be adapted to permit conformational fluctuations with a root mean square displacement close to 1.2 Å at the corresponding average body temperature of the endotherms. Strong forces within crocodile Hb maintain the amplitudes of motion within a narrow limit over the entire temperature range in which the animal lives. In fully hydrated powder samples of human and chicken, Hb mean square displacements and effective force constants on the 1 ns time scale showed no differences over the whole temperature range from 10 to 300 K, in contrast to the solution case. A complementary result of the study, therefore, is that one hydration layer is not sufficient to activate all conformational fluctuations of Hb in the pico- to nanosecond time scale which might be relevant for biological function. Coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations permitted to explore residue-specific effects. They indicated that temperature sensing of human and chicken Hb occurs mainly at residues lining internal cavities in the β-subunits.     

AFC Tracking Algorithms

The automatic frequency control (AFC) loop is beginning to play an important role in digital data links. There is very little published literature which deals with AFC loop implementations and performance in noise (in contrast to the large body of literature dealing with phase-locked loops). This paper presents a brief discussion of eight different AFC loop implementations, including the block diagram, discriminator characteristic, and loop tracking error in the presence of gaussian noise. Tracking performance of the various loops is compared in the presence of noise for CW, DPSK, and MFSK signaling.     

Electrodeposition of Cu from Acidic Sulphate Solutions in the Presence of PEG: An Electrochemical and Spectroelectrochemical Investigation – Part I

This paper deals with the effects of PEG during Cu electrodeposition from an acidic sulphate solution. This investigation was carried out with electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical techniques. Potentiostatically grown layers were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Adsorption of PEG on the growing Cu surface can be inferred from electrokinetic, SERS and morphological evidence: variations of the estimated exchange current density, qualitative and quantitative differences in the potentiostatic transients, changes on the cathodic current efficiency, effects on the three-dimensional crystallisation mode under both compact and dendritic growth conditions, appearance of surface-enhanced PEG-related Raman bands. SERS spectra revealed cathodic reactivity of adsorbed PEG.