Fault Diagnosis approach based on a model-based reasoner and a functional designer for a wind turbine. An approach towards self-maintenance

The objective of this on-going research is to develop a design methodology to increase the availability for offshore wind farms, by means of an intelligent maintenance system capable of responding to faults by reconfiguring the system or subsystems, without increasing service visits, complexity, or costs. The idea is to make use of the existing functional redundancies within the system and sub-systems to keep the wind turbine operational, even at a reduced capacity if necessary. Re-configuration is intended to be a built-in capability to be used as a repair strategy, based on these existing functionalities provided by the components. The possible solutions can range from using information from adjacent wind turbines, such as wind speed and direction, to setting up different operational modes, for instance re-wiring, re-connecting, changing parameters or control strategy. The methodology described in this paper is based on qualitative physics and consists of a fault diagnosis system based on a model-based reasoner (MBR), and on a functional redundancy designer (FRD). Both design tools make use of a function-behaviour-state (FBS) model. A design methodology based on the re-configuration concept to achieve self-maintained wind turbines is an interesting and promising approach to reduce stoppage rate, failure events, maintenance visits, and to maintain energy output possibly at reduced rate until the next scheduled maintenance

But i see old people everywhere : Dispelling the myth that eldercare is learned in nongeriatric clerkships

Purpose: To test the assumption that knowledge, attitudes, and skills (KAS) in geriatrics are learned via exposure to elderly patients in nongeriatric clerkships. In the developed world, the proportion of adults ≥65 years old will soon surpass the proportion of children \u3c14. However, clinical clerkships containing geriatric rotations are not mandated by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education. Method: The authors assessed differences in geriatrics-focused KAS between medical students who completed a rotation in eldercare and those who completed a traditional nongeriatric clerkship. Over two academic years, the authors randomly assigned 263 clinical clerks to a clerkship year that did (eldercare group) or did not contain a two-week rotation focused on geriatrics. All students completed questionnaires that assessed their knowledge of and attitudes toward geriatric patients before and after their clerkships. Before graduation, all students completed an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) including a clinical station focused on geriatrics. Results: Questionnaire and OSCE station response rates were 74.8% and 100%, respectively. The eldercare group had significantly higher knowledge scores (P = .004). Students\u27 attitudes toward older adults worsened over the clerkship year in both groups, but slightly less in the eldercare group; that group had significantly higher OSCE geriatric station scores and overall pass rates (both: P \u3c .001). Conclusions: Geriatrics is often regarded as a nonessential discipline. This study showed, however, that a clerkship year containing a specialized geriatric rotation is significantly more effective than a traditional clerkship year in preparing students to care for an aging population. © by the Association of American Medical Colleges

Representation of older patients in the safety analysis of protein kinase inhibitor registration studies

INTRODUCTION: Older patients (≥65 years old) make up the majority of the cancer population. Older patients seem to experience more adverse events (AEs) from protein kinase inhibitors (PKIs) in clinical practice. Yet they are underrepresented in clinical trials. We aimed to evaluate whether age-related safety differences were described at authorization of PKIs. Representation of older patients in registration studies was also evaluated.MATERIALS AND METHODS: European Public Assessment Reports (EPARs) of PKIs authorized between 2010 and 2015 were evaluated for the description of age-related safety- and pharmacokinetic differences. The International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirement for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) E7 guideline was applied to EPARs to assess the representation of older patients. Study results were presented descriptively.RESULTS: Eighteen PKIs with 19 EPARs were analyzed. Age-related safety differences were described in 14 out of 19 EPARs, and age-related pharmacokinetic differences in 1 out of 19 EPARs. More than 100 older patients were included in half of the studies. Older patients were not excluded solely by age, although other inclusion and exclusion criteria negatively influenced enrollment of older patients. None of the PKIs met all criteria from the ICH E7 guideline.DISCUSSION: Age-related safety differences are described for most PKIs. Older patients were underrepresented in PKI registration studies. Adequate representation of older patients in clinical trials for PKIs is vital, since they make up most of the cancer population.</p

Aeroservoelastic design definition of a 20 MW common research wind turbine model

Wind turbine upscaling is motivated by the fact that larger machines can achieve lower levelized cost of energy. However, there are several fundamental issues with the design of such turbines, and there is little public data available for large wind turbine studies. To address this need, we develop a 20 MW common research wind turbine design that is available to the public. Multidisciplinary design optimization is used to define the aeroservoelastic design of the rotor and tower subject to the following constraints: blade‐tower clearance, structural stresses, modal frequencies, tip‐speed and fatigue damage at several sections of the tower and blade. For the blade, the design variables include blade length, twist and chord distribution, structural thicknesses distribution and rotor speed at the rated. The tower design variables are the height, and the diameter distribution in the vertical direction. For the other components, mass models are employed to capture their dynamic interactions. The associated cost of these components is obtained by using cost models. The design objective is to minimize the levelized cost of energy. The results of this research show the feasibility of a 20 MW wind turbine and provide a model with the corresponding data for wind energy researchers to use in the investigation of different aspects of wind turbine design and upscaling. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134256/1/we1970.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134256/2/we1970_am.pd

Proximate response of fish, conch, and sea turtles to the presence of the invasive seagrass Halophila stipulacea in Bonaire

In this report we examined the proximate response of fish assemblages, queen conch, and sea turtles on H. stipulacea meadows in Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands. Here we primarily focused on the differences between the invasive species H. stipulacea and the principal species of native sea grass in Lac Bay, namely turtle grass Thalassia testudinum

Offshore monopile in the southern North Sea: Part I, calibrated input sea state

Safe, reliable access is an essential precondition for the successful maintenance of offshore wind farms. Access from vessels to wind turbines depends on the severity of the sea state in the vicinity of the turbine support structure. This paper presents a validation of a numerical boundary condition developed to reproduce the seasonal sea state at Teesside Offshore Wind Farm, off the coast of the UK. The boundary condition, called customSpectrum, was derived from wave energy spectra obtained by analysis of existing field measurements of wave free-surface displacement at the wind farm site and implemented in OpenFoam, the open-source computational fluid dynamics library. OpenFoam was then used to simulate typical spring, summer, autumn and winter sea states as uni-directional waves. Predicted surface elevations and significant wave heights were found to be in agreement with in situ buoy data, thus validating the OpenFoam model. Satisfactory agreement was achieved between analytical and numerically predicted spectral density functions for the horizontal and vertical water particle velocity components. It was found that the wave activity at Teesside is uni-modal in spring and autumn, and bi-modal in summer and winter. Extending the procedure to multi-directional waves in crossing seas is recommended

Opti-Owecs: Final Report Vol. 0: Executive Summary

It was the particular mission of the project 'Structural and Economic Optimisation of Bottom-Mounted Offshore Wind Energy Converters' (Opti-OWECS) to extend the state-of-the-art, to determine required methods and to demonstrate practical solutions which will significantly reduce the electricity cost. This will facilitate the exploitation of true offshore sites on a commercial base in a medium time scale of 5 to 10 years from now. In several fields, e.g. support structure design, installation of the offshore wind energy converters, operation and maintenance, dynamics of the entire offshore wind energy converter, structural reliability considerations, etc., the study demonstrated new propositions which will contribute significantly to a mature offshore wind energy technology. This was achieved due to a smooth cooperation of leading industrial engineers and researchers from the wind energy field, offshore technology and power management. Moreover, an innovative design methodology devoted particularly to offshore wind energy conversion systems (OWECS) was developed and successfully demonstrated. The so-called 'integrated OWECS design approach' considers the components of an offshore wind farm as parts of an entire system. Therefore interactions between sub-systems are considered in a complete and practical form as possible so that the design solution is governed by overall criteria such as: levelised production costs, adaptation to the actual site conditions, dynamics of the entire system, installation effort as well as OWECS availability. Furthermore, a novel OWECS cost model was developed which led among other work of the project to the identification of the main cost drivers, i.e. annual mean wind speed, distance from shore, operation and maintenance aspects including wind turbine reliability and availability. A link between these results and a database of the offshore wind energy potential in Europe, developed by the previous Joule project JOUR 0072, facilitated the first estimate of energy cost consistent over entire regions of Northern Europe. The European Commission has supported the project in the scope of the framework of the Non Nuclear Energy Programme JOULE Ill (Research and Technical Development) under grant JOR3-CT95-0087

Combined analysis of trabectome and phaco-trabectome outcomes by glaucoma severity.

Prior glaucoma severity staging systems were mostly concerned with visual field function and retinal nerve fiber layer, but did not include intraocular pressure or medications to capture resistance to treatment. We recently introduced a simple index that combines pressure, medications, and visual field damage and applied it to stratify outcomes of trabectome surgery. In the analysis presented here, we combined data of trabectome alone and trabectome with same session cataract surgery to increase testing power and chances of effect discovery. This microincisional glaucoma surgery removes the primary resistance to outflow in glaucoma, the trabecular meshwork, and has been mostly used in mild glaucoma. Traditional glaucoma surgeries have a relatively high complication rate and have been reserved for more advanced disease stages. In the analysis presented here we include our data of trabectome combined with cataract surgery. This is a common practice pattern as both occur in the same age group with increasing frequency. For patients in higher glaucoma index (GI) groups, the intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction was 2.34+/-0.19 mmHg more than those in a GI group one level lower while holding everything else constant. Those who had undergone trabectome combined with phacoemulsification had an IOP reduction that was 1.29+/-0.39 mmHg less compared to those with trabectome alone. No statistically significant difference was found between genders and age groups while holding everything else constant. Hispanics had a 3.81+/-1.08 mmHg greater IOP reduction. Pseudoexfoliation and steroid glaucoma patients had an IOP reduction that was greater by 2.91+/-0.56 and 3.86+/-0.81 mmHg, respectively, than those with primary open angle glaucoma. These results suggest a role for trabectome-mediated ab interno trabeculectomy beyond mild forms of glaucoma. Additionally, the multifactorial glaucoma index demonstrates a role in staging patients when comparing glaucoma surgical modalities