Optimum section selection procedure for horizontal axis tidal stream turbines

Stochastic behavior of renewable energy sources forces designers to optimize the energy converters for the purpose of capturing the maximum amount of available energy. The performance of horizontal axis wind and tidal turbines mainly depends on the geometrical properties such as chord and twist distributions and also the types of sections which are utilized along the blade. The purpose of presented paper is introducing a procedure which can be utilized in order to select the optimum sections for horizontal axis tidal turbines for the purpose of increasing the turbine performance. The presented procedure also can be applied for horizontal axis wind turbines. For the purpose of evaluating the performance of the proposed method, two design types (chord and twist distributions) of tidal turbines are selected as case studies. Power coefficient is considered as objective function, and three types of hydrofoils namely NACA63-8xx, NACA44xx, and RISO-A1-xx are selected as candidate solutions. A blade element momentum theory model is used for calculating the power coefficient. The discrete ant colony optimization algorithm is selected as optimization tool. The results indicate that the utilization of the proposed method will considerably decrease the required process time for obtaining the optimum sections across the blade span, and also it is shown that using different types of sections across the blade span can increase the power coefficient of the turbine. The importance of the proposed method will be significant when various types of hydrofoils and airfoils can be considered as candidate sections across the blade span.

     

Extraction Behavior of Americium and Curium on Selected Extraction Chromatography Resins from Pure Acidic Matrices

Due to the similar chemical properties between the neighboring trivalent actinide elements americium and curium, their extraction behavior is often perceived as indistinguishable. In this work, the characterization of seven extraction chromatography resins (TEVA, TRU, DGA(N), Actinide, Ln, Ln2, and Ln3) for these trivalent actinides from acidic matrices (HNO₃, HCl, and HBr) has provided some evidence to the contrary. In most cases, Am(III) and Cm(III) exhibit identical extraction properties. However, separation is possible with TRU and DGA(N) resins as demonstrated in this study. The extraction shows a strong dependency on the specific anion in solution that follows the order NO₃^?>Br^?>Cl^?.     

Preparation of wide range refractive index diamond-like carbon films by means of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition technology has been elaborated for obtaining diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings of a wide range of properties. Alternative and direct bias voltages have been applied on the substrate, and refractive index dependencies upon various deposition technological parameters have been investigated. The frequency of the bias voltage has been varied in the region of 150-450 kHz. The maximum refractive index range that has been achieved is 1.46-3.2. Thin DLC films have been prepared on crystalline silicon substrates. Because of the wide range of physical, optical, and mechanical properties of the obtained films, they can successfully be applied in different fields of nano-optics.     

Pro-Inflammatory S100A8 and S100A9 Proteins: Self-Assembly into Multifunctional Native and Amyloid Complexes

S100A8 and S100A9 are EF-hand Ca(2+) binding proteins belonging to the S100 family. They are abundant in cytosol of phagocytes and play critical roles in numerous cellular processes such as motility and danger signaling by interacting and modulating the activity of target proteins. S100A8 and S100A9 expression levels increased in many types of cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and they are implicated in the numerous disease pathologies. The Ca(2+) and Zn(2+)-binding properties of S100A8/A9 have a pivotal influence on their conformation and oligomerization state, including self-assembly into homo- and heterodimers, tetramers and larger oligomers. Here we review how the unique chemical and conformational properties of individual proteins and their structural plasticity at the quaternary level account for S100A8/A9 functional diversity. Additional functional diversification occurs via non-covalent assembly into oligomeric and fibrillar amyloid complexes discovered in the aging prostate and reproduced in vitro. This process is also regulated by Ca(2+)and Zn(2+)-binding and effectively competes with the formation of the native complexes. High intrinsic amyloid-forming capacity of S100A8/A9 proteins may lead to their amyloid depositions in numerous ailments characterized by their elevated expression patterns and have additional pathological significance requiring further thorough investigation.     

Azide‐ and Alkyne‐Bearing Metabolic Chemical Reporters of Glycosylation Show Structure‐Dependent Feedback Inhibition of the Hexosamine Biosynthetic Pathway

Metabolic chemical reporters (MCRs) of protein glycosylation are analogues of natural monosaccharides that bear reactive groups, like azides and alkynes. When they are added to living cells and organisms, these small molecules are biosynthetically transformed into nucleotide donor sugars and then used by glycosyltransferases to modify proteins. Subsequent installation of tags by bioorthogonal chemistries can then enable the visualization and enrichment of these glycoproteins. Although this two‐step procedure is powerful, the use of MCRs has the potential to change the endogenous production of the natural repertoire of donor sugars. A major route for the generation of these glycosyltransferase substrates is the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP), which results in uridine diphosphate N‐acetylglucosamine (UDP‐GlcNAc). Interestingly, the rate‐determining enzyme of the HBP, glutamine fructose‐6‐phosphate amidotransferase (GFAT), is feedback inhibited by UDP‐GlcNAc. This raises the possibility that a build‐up of UDP‐MCRs would block the biosynthesis of UDP‐GlcNAc, resulting in off target effects. Here, we directly test this possibility with recombinant human GFAT and a small panel of synthetic UDP‐MCRs. We find that MCRs with larger substitutions at the N‐acetyl position do not inhibit GFAT, whereas those with modifications of the 2‐ or 6‐hydroxy group do. These results further illuminate the considerations that should be applied to the use of MCRs.     

Whole-Genome Amplification—Surveying Yield,Reproducibility, and Heterozygous Balance,Reported by STR-Targeting MIPs

Whole-genome amplification is a crucial first step in nearly all single-cell genomic analyses, with the following steps focused on its products. Bias and variance caused by the whole-genome amplification process add numerous challenges to the world of single-cell genomics. Short tandem repeats are sensitive genomic markers used widely in population genetics, forensics, and retrospective lineage tracing. A previous evaluation of common whole-genome amplification targeting ~1000 non-autosomal short tandem repeat loci is extended here to ~12,000 loci across the entire genome via duplex molecular inversion probes. Other than its improved scale and reduced noise, this system detects an abundance of heterogeneous short tandem repeat loci, allowing the allelic balance to be reported. We show here that while the best overall yield is obtained using RepliG-SC, the maximum uniformity between alleles and reproducibility across cells are maximized by Ampli1, rendering it the best candidate for the comparative heterozygous analysis of single-cell genomes.     

LoRAS: an oversampling approach for imbalanced datasets

Machine Learning - The Synthetic Minority Oversampling TEchnique (SMOTE) is widely-used for the analysis of imbalanced datasets. It is known that SMOTE frequently over-generalizes the minority...