Assessment of the applicability of failure frequency models for dense phase carbon dioxide pipelines

In Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) schemes, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is captured from large scale industrial emitters and transported to geological sites for storage. The most efficient method for the transportation of CO2 is via pipeline in the dense phase. CO2 is a hazardous substance which, in the unlikely event of an accidental release, could cause people harm. To correspond with United Kingdom (UK) safety legislation, the design and construction of proposed CO2 pipelines requires compliance with recognised pipeline codes. The UK code PD-8010-1 defines the separation distance between a hazardous pipeline and a nearby population as the minimum distance to occupied buildings using a substance factor. The value of the substance factor should be supported by the results of a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) approach to ensure the safe design, construction and operation of a dense phase CO2 pipeline. Failure frequency models are a major part of this QRA approach and the focus of this paper is a review of existing oil and gas pipeline third-party external interference failure frequency models to assess whether they could be applied to dense phase CO2 pipelines. It was found that the high design pressure requirement for a dense phase CO2 pipeline typically necessitates the use of high wall thickness linepipe in pipeline construction; and that the wall thickness of typical dense phase CO2 pipelines is beyond the known range of applicability for the pipeline failure equations used within existing failure frequency models. Furthermore, even though third party external interference failure frequency is not sensitive to the product that a pipeline transports, there is however a limitation to the application of existing UK fault databases with to onshore CO2 pipelines as there are currently no dense phase CO2 pipelines operating in the UK. Further work needs to be conducted to confirm the most appropriate approach for calculating failure frequency for dense phase CO2 pipelines, and it is recommended that a new failure frequency model suitable for dense phase CO2 pipelines is developed that can be readily updated to the latest version of the fault database

The selectivity of responses to red-green colour and achromatic contrast in the human visual cortex: An fMRI adaptation study

© 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley and Sons Ltd. There is controversy as to how responses to colour in the human brain are organized within the visual pathways. A key issue is whether there are modular pathways that respond selectively to colour or whether there are common neural substrates for both colour and achromatic (Ach) contrast. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) adaptation to investigate the responses of early and extrastriate visual areas to colour and Ach contrast. High-contrast red-green (RG) and Ach sinewave rings (0.5 cycles/degree, 2 Hz) were used as both adapting stimuli and test stimuli in a block design. We found robust adaptation to RG or Ach contrast in all visual areas. Cross-adaptation between RG and Ach contrast occurred in all areas indicating the presence of integrated, colour and Ach responses. Notably, we revealed contrasting trends for the two test stimuli. For the RG test, unselective processing (robust adaptation to both RG and Ach contrast) was most evident in the early visual areas (V1 and V2), but selective responses, revealed as greater adaptation between the same stimuli than cross-adaptation between different stimuli, emerged in the ventral cortex, in V4 and VO in particular. For the Ach test, unselective responses were again most evident in early visual areas but Ach selectivity emerged in the dorsal cortex (V3a and hMT+). Our findings support a strong presence of integrated mechanisms for colour and Ach contrast across the visual hierarchy, with a progression towards selective processing in extrastriate visual areas. We measured responses to red-green color and achromatic contrast in human visual cortex with fMRI adaptation. Cross adaptation between the two contrast types occurred across the visual hierarchy indicating integrated color and achromatic responses. Selective adaptation for color (i.e. greater adaptation to color than achromatic contrast) emerged in ventral cortex, particularly in areas V4 and VO, whereas selective adaptation to achromatic contrast (i.e. greater adaptation to achromatic than color contrast) was evident in dorsal cortex (V3a, hMT+). Our findings suggest a progression from integrated color and achromatic responses in early visual cortex to more selective processing in extrastriate visual areas.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Doping dependence of the resonance peak and incommensuration in high-TcT_{c} superconductors

The doping and frequency evolutions of the incommensurate spin response and the resonance mode are studied based on the scenario of the Fermi surface topology. We use the slave-boson mean-field approach to the $t-t^{\prime}-J$ model and including the antiferromagnetic fluctuation correction in the random-phase approximation. We find that the equality between the incommensurability and the hole concentration is reproduced at low frequencies in the underdoped regime. This equality observed in experiments was explained {\it only} based on the stripe model before. We also obtain the downward dispersion for the spin response and predict its doping dependence for further experimental testing, as well as a proportionality between the low-energy incommensurability and the resonance energy. Our results suggest a common origin for the incommensuration and the resonance peak based on the Fermi surface topology and the d-wave symmetry.Comment: 5 pages, 4 PS figure

The N-terminal signal sequence and the last 98 amino acids are not essential for the secretion of Bacillus sp TS-23 alpha-amylase in Escherichia coli

A truncated Bacillus sp. TS-23 alpha -amylase gene lacking 96 and 294 bp at its 5' and 3' end respectively was prepared by polymerase chain reaction and cloned into Escherichia coli expression vector, pQE-30, under the control of T5 promoter. SDS-PAGE and activity staining analyses showed that the His(6)-tagged amylase had a molecular mass of approximately 54 kDa. Isopropyl-beta -D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) induction of E. coli M15 cells bearing the recombinant plasmid resulted in the extracellular production of active amylase. Western blot analysis also revealed that the truncated amylase was present in the periplasmic space and culture medium

Oxygen radical-mediated oxidation reactions of an alanine peptide motif - density functional theory and transition state theory study

Background: Oxygen-base (O-base) oxidation in protein backbone is important in the protein backbone fragmentation due to the attack from reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, an alanine peptide was used model system to investigate this O-base oxidation by employing density functional theory (DFT) calculations combining with continuum solvent model. Detailed reaction steps were analyzed along with their reaction rate constants. Results: Most of the O-base oxidation reactions for this alanine peptide are exothermic except for the bond-breakage of the C-alpha-N bond to form hydroperoxy alanine radical. Among the reactions investigated in this study, the activated energy of OH alpha-H abstraction is the lowest one, while the generation of alkylperoxy peptide radical must overcome the highest energy barrier. The aqueous situation facilitates the oxidation reactions to generate hydroxyl alanine peptide derivatives except for the fragmentations of alkoxyl alanine peptide radical. The C-alpha-C-beta bond of the alkoxyl alanine peptide radical is more labile than the peptide bond. Conclusion: the rate-determining step of oxidation in protein backbone is the generation of hydroperoxy peptide radical via the reaction of alkylperoxy peptide radical with HO2. The stabilities of alkylperoxy peptide radical and complex of alkylperoxy peptide radical with HO2 are crucial in this O-base oxidation reaction

Identification of essential histidine residues in a recombinant alpha-amylase of thermophilic and alkaliphilic Bacillus sp strain TS-23

To understand the structure-function relationships of a truncated Bacillus sp. strain TS-23 alpha-amylase, each of His-137, His-191, His-239, His-269, His-305, His-323, His-361, His-436, and His-475 was replaced with leucine. The molecular masses of the purified wild-type and mutant enzymes were approximately 54 kDa. The specific activity of His323Leu and His436Leu was decreased by more than 52%, while His239Leu, His305Leu, and His475Leu showed activity similar to that of the wild-type enzyme. As compared with the wild-type enzyme, His323Leu and His436Leu exhibited a 62% decrease in the value of k(cat)/K-m. Alterations in His-191, His-239, His-305, and His-475 did not cause a significant change in the K-m or k(cat) values. At 70degreesC, a decreased half-life was observed in His436Leu. These results indicate that His-137, His-269, and His-361 of Bacillus sp. strain TS-23 alpha-amylase are important for proper catalytic activity and that His-436 may contribute to the thermostability of the enzyme

Factor copula models for item response data

Factor or conditional independence models based on copulas are proposed for multivariate discrete data such as item responses. The factor copula models have interpretations of latent maxima/minima (in comparison with latent means) and can lead to more probability in the joint upper or lower tail compared with factor models based on the discretized multivariate normal distribution (or multidimensional normal ogive model). Details on maximum likelihood estimation of parameters for the factor copula model are given, as well as analysis of the behavior of the log-likelihood. Our general methodology is illustrated with several item response data sets, and it is shown that there is a substantial improvement on existing models both conceptually and in fit to data

MSSM Higgs sector CP violation at photon colliders: Revisited

We present a comprehensive analysis on the MSSM Higgs sector CP violation at photon colliders including the chargino contributions as well as the contributions of other charged particles. The chargino loop contributions can be important for the would-be CP odd Higgs production at photon colliders. Polarization asymmetries are indispensable in determining the CP properties of neutral Higgs bosons.Comment: 24 pages, 40 figure

Observation of Two New N* Peaks in J/psi -> ppi−nˉp pi^- \bar n and pˉπ+n\bar p\pi^+n Decays

The $\pi N$ system in decays of $J/\psi\to\bar NN\pi$ is limited to be isospin 1/2 by isospin conservation. This provides a big advantage in studying $N^*\to \pi N$ compared with $\pi N$ and $\gamma N$ experiments which mix isospin 1/2 and 3/2 for the $\pi N$ system. Using 58 million $J/\psi$ decays collected with the Beijing Electron Positron Collider, more than 100 thousand $J/\psi \to p \pi^- \bar n + c.c.$ events are obtained. Besides two well known $N^*$ peaks at 1500 MeV and 1670 MeV, there are two new, clear $N^*$ peaks in the $p\pi$ invariant mass spectrum around 1360 MeV and 2030 MeV. They are the first direct observation of the $N^*(1440)$ peak and a long-sought "missing" $N^*$ peak above 2 GeV in the $\pi N$ invariant mass spectrum. A simple Breit-Wigner fit gives the mass and width for the $N^*(1440)$ peak as $1358\pm 6 \pm 16$ MeV and $179\pm 26\pm 50$ MeV, and for the new $N^*$ peak above 2 GeV as $2068\pm 3^{+15}_{-40}$ MeV and $165\pm 14\pm 40$ MeV, respectively

A probabilistic method for the detection of obstructed cracks of beam-type structures using spatial wavelet transform

This paper reports both the theoretical development and the numerical verification of a practical wavelet-based crack detection method, which identifies first the number of cracks and then the corresponding crack locations and extents. The value of the proposed method lies in its ability to detect obstructed cracks when measurement at or close to the cracked region is not possible. In such situations, most nonmodel-based methods, which rely on the abnormal change of certain indicators (e.g., curvature and strain mode shapes) at or close to the cracks, cannot be used. Most model-based methods follow the model updating approach. That is, they treat the crack location and extent as model parameters and identify them by minimizing the discrepancy between the modelled and measured dynamic responses. Most model-based methods in the literature can only be used in single- or multi-crack cases with a given number of cracks. One of the objectives of this paper is to develop a model-based crack detection method that is applicable in a general situation when the number of cracks is not known in advance. To explicitly handle the uncertainties associated with measurement noise and modelling error, the proposed method uses the Bayesian probabilistic approach. In particular, the method aims to calculate the posterior (updated) probability density function (PDF) of the crack locations and the corresponding extents. The proposed wavelet-based crack detection method is verified and demonstrated through a comprehensive series of numerical case studies, in which noisy data were generated by a Bernoulli-Euler beam with semi-rigid connections. The results show that the method can correctly identify the number of cracks even when the crack extent is small. The effects of the number of cracks and the crack extents on the results of crack detection are also studied and discussed in this paper. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.H.F. Lam, C.T. N