Structural Two-Parameter Exponential Damage Model Performance Analysis under Earthquake Excitation

AbstractOn the basis of the earthquake damage assessment criteria and destroyed model, the inter-story drifts of the structure under rare earthquake are obtained through the capacity spectrum method, combining the nonlinear static analysis with the structural element's plastic hinges distribution, and the earthquake damage of structure is evaluated. In this paper the relationship between the hysteretic energy of the structure and the maximal displacement is used to get the structural hysteretic energy, which greatly improved the computational efficiency and this method has broad engineering application prospects

Extension of geodesic acoustic mode theory to helical systems

The present paper extends the theory of geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) oscillation, which so far has been applied to tokamaks, to helical systems. By using drift kinetic equations for three-dimensional equilibriums, a generalized dispersion relation is obtained including Landau damping. The oscillation frequency is obtained in terms of the squared sum of Fourier components of the magnetic field intensity expressed by means of magnetic flux coordinates. An analytic form of the collisionless damping rate of GAM is obtained by solving the dispersion relation perturbatively. It is found that the GAM frequency is higher in helical systems than in tokamaks and that damping rate is enhanced in multi-helicity magnetic configurations. However, damping rates are predicted to be small if the temperature of electrons is higher than that of ions

Potential measurements with heavy ion beam probe system on LHD

The heavy ion beam probe system in the Large Helical Device (LHD) was improved as follows. At first, the additional new sweeper was installed into the diagnostic port to extend the observable region. By using this sweeper, the potential profile was measured in a wider minor radius range than in previous experiments, in the case of outward shifted magnetic configuration of LHD. Next, the real time control system was installed to control the probe beam orbit for measuring the potential in plasma with large plasma current. In this system, a digital signal processor was used to control the probe beam in real time. The system worked well in the fixed position observation mode. In the sweeping mode for profile measurement, this control system became unstable. The details of this system and the experimental results are reported in this article

Progress and Challenges in Improving Nutritional Quality in Wheat

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) houses a wide range of nutritional components such as iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), vitamins and phenolic acids, which are important for plant metabolism and human health. The bioavailability of these nutritional components is low due to their interaction with other components and low quantity in the endosperm. Biofortification is a more sustainable approach that could improve the bioavailability of essential nutritional components. Substantial progress has been made to improve nutritional quality through the application of conventional, technological and transgenic approaches. This has led to the discovery, cloning and introgression of the Gpc-B1 gene; the invention of online databases with minimally characterized biosynthetic, metabolic pathways and biological processes of wheat-related species; the establishment of genetic variation in grain Fe and Zn content and the biofortification of wheat with Zn by the HarvestPlus organization. Nonetheless, the biofortification of wheat with micronutrients and phenolic acids is still a challenge due to incomplete understanding of the wheat genome, biosynthesis and translocation of selected nutritional components into different wheat grain compartments. There is a need to integrate selected omics technologies to obtain a holistic overview and manipulate key biological processes involved in the remobilization and biosynthesis of nutritional components into desired wheat grain compartments