Superconducting Bearing Design for Outer Rotor Flywheel Using Lumped Parameter Techniques

This paper describes the application of lumped parameter modeling techniques to designing high temperature superconducting bearings for outer-rotor flywheel energy storage systems. The lumped parameter models decrease computational time by 99% compared to Finite Element Analysis (FEM) without compromising fidelity needed to capture the non-linear and hysteretic force-displacement behavior between a levitated permanent magnet and bulk superconductor. The techniques formulated can be used to quickly evaluate lifting capacity and translational stiffness for a superconducting bearing design. The validity of the modeling approach has been verified by comparing results from FEM studies and experimental tests.Center for Electromechanic

Transnational reflections on transnational research projects on men, boys and gender relations

This article reflects on the research project, ‘Engaging South African and Finnish youth towards new traditions of non-violence, equality and social well-being’, funded by the Finnish and South African national research councils, in the context of wider debates on research, projects and transnational processes. The project is located within a broader analysis of research projects and projectization (the reduction of research to separate projects), and the increasing tendencies for research to be framed within and as projects, with their own specific temporal and organizational characteristics. This approach is developed further in terms of different understandings of research across borders: international, comparative, multinational and transnational. Special attention is given to differences between research projects that are in the Europe and the EU, and projects that are between the global North and the global South. The theoretical, political and practical challenges of the North-South research project are discussed

Subtropical Real Root Finding

We describe a new incomplete but terminating method for real root finding for large multivariate polynomials. We take an abstract view of the polynomial as the set of exponent vectors associated with sign information on the coefficients. Then we employ linear programming to heuristically find roots. There is a specialized variant for roots with exclusively positive coordinates, which is of considerable interest for applications in chemistry and systems biology. An implementation of our method combining the computer algebra system Reduce with the linear programming solver Gurobi has been successfully applied to input data originating from established mathematical models used in these areas. We have solved several hundred problems with up to more than 800000 monomials in up to 10 variables with degrees up to 12. Our method has failed due to its incompleteness in less than 8 percent of the cases

An investigation of the existence of a surface water layer on aircraft radomes during simulated flight in heavy precipitation

An experiment to investigate the electromagnetic attenuation effects of an impacting water spray on an aircraft weather radome was conducted in Langley's 4 X 7 m. wind tunnel equipped with a water spray system. Results indicate no significant liquid water film formed at the stagnation point of the radome under the test conditions. However, a water sheath was observed standing away from the radome surface, which could possibly have significant attenuation properties of its own. Due to the lack of fidelity in modeling both the natural environment with the tunnel apparatus and the water sheath, it is recommended that further studies be undertaken to better define the water distribution in the vicinity of the radome and measure its effect on weather radar performance

Variation in Grazing Sward Chicory Content After Periods of Low Rainfall

Multispecies (MS) swards can reduce chemical nitrogen (N) fertiliser requirement due to the legume components of the sward mixtures, and have the potential to increase drought tolerance, particularly where chicory (CH, Chicorium intybus L.) is included in the sward mixture. A grazed plot experiment was established to investigate the persistency of forage herb species in MS swards under typical Irish grazing conditions. The swards contained three plant functional groups: grass, legume and herb; four sward types were established which included sward mixtures of the following species: perennial ryegrass (PRG, Lolium perenne L.) white clover (WC, Trifolium repens L.), red clover (RC, Trifolium pratense L.), CH and ribwort plantain (PL, Plantago lanceolata L.). The sward content of the various species in the sown mixtures was evaluated over three years (2020, 2021 and 2022). The summer of 2022 experienced dry weather conditions in which rainfall was well below average thus providing an opportunity to assess the drought tolerance of CH in grazed swards. The proportion of sward CH content from two late season cuts was assessed over the three years and this study reports the changes in sward CH content between years and grazing rotations. Average sward CH content was 14.7, 6.1, and 1.5% across all sward types in late summer of 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively; average sward CH content was 13.7, 9.4 and 24.6 across all sward types in autumn of 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively

Confidentiality and public protection: ethical dilemmas in qualitative research with adult male sex offenders

This paper considers the ethical tensions present when engaging in in-depth interviews with convicted sex offenders. Many of the issues described below are similar to those found in other sensitive areas of research. However, confidentiality and public protection are matters that require detailed consideration when the desire to know more about men who have committed serious and harmful offences is set against the possibility of a researcher not disclosing previously unknown sensitive information that relates to the risk of someone being harmed.</p

ELF3 controls thermoresponsive growth in Arabidopsis

Plant development is highly responsive to ambient temperature, and this trait has been linked to the ability of plants to adapt to climate change [1]. The mechanisms by which natural populations modulate their thermoresponsiveness are not known [2]. To address this, we surveyed Arabidopsis accessions for variation in thermal responsiveness of elongation growth and mapped the corresponding loci. We find that the transcriptional regulator EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3) controls elongation growth in response to temperature. Through a combination of modeling and experiments, we show that high temperature relieves the gating of growth at night, highlighting the importance of temperature-dependent repressors of growth. ELF3 gating of transcriptional targets responds rapidly and reversibly to changes in temperature. We show that the binding of ELF3 to target promoters is temperature dependent, suggesting a mechanism where temperature directly controls ELF3 activity

Jekyll and Hyde: men's constructions of feminism and feminists

Research and commentary on men's responses to feminism has demonstrated the range of ways in which men have mobilised both against and for feminist principles. This paper argues that further analyses of men's responses require a sophisticated theory of discourse acknowledging the fragmented and contradictory nature of representation. A corpus of men's talk on feminism and feminists was studied to identify the pervasive patterns in men's accounting and regularities in rhetorical organisation. Material from two samples of men was included: a sample of white middle-class 17-18 year old school students and a sample of 60 interviews with a more diverse sample of older men aged 20 to 64. Two interpretative repertoires of feminism and feminists were identified. These set up a 'Jekyll and Hyde' binary and positioned feminism along with feminists very differently as reasonable versus extreme and monstrous. Both repertoires tended to be deployed together and the paper explores the ideological and interactional consequences of typical deployments along with the identity work accomplished by the men as they positioned themselves in relation to these

Reduced-Order Dynamic Model of Permanent Magnet and HTSC Interaction in an Axisymmetric Frame

This paper presents a reduced order model for a permanent magnet (PM) and high-temperature superconductor (HTSC) in an axisymmetric frame. This model is formulated as a bond-graph to aid integration into system models for applications such as lift bearings, where the nonlinear force–displacement interactions are important for stability analysis and control design. The reduced-order model is based on the mechanical and electromagnetic interaction between a PM and bulk HTSC. Performance of the proposed reduced-order model is compared to finite element method (FEM) analysis and experimental tests to confirm the static and transient performance.Center for Electromechanic