451 research outputs found
Wave Energy: a Pacific Perspective
This is the author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by The Royal Society and can be found at: http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/.This paper illustrates the status of wave energy development in Pacific Rim countries by characterizing the available resource and introducing the region‟s current and potential future leaders in wave energy converter development. It also describes the existing licensing and permitting process as well as potential environmental concerns. Capabilities of Pacific Ocean testing facilities are described in addition to the region‟s vision of the future of wave energy
Capture of particles of dust by convective flow
Interaction of particles of dust with vortex convective flows is under
theoretical consideration. It is assumed that the volume fraction of solid
phase is small, variations of density due to nonuniform distribution of
particles and those caused by temperature nonisothermality of medium are
comparable. Equations for the description of thermal buoyancy convection of a
dusty medium are developed in the framework of the generalized Boussinesq
approximation taking into account finite velocity of particle sedimentation.
The capture of a cloud of dust particles by a vortex convective flow is
considered, general criterion for the formation of such a cloud is obtained.
The peculiarities of a steady state in the form of a dust cloud and backward
influence of the solid phase on the carrier flow are studied in detail for a
vertical layer heated from the sidewalls. It is shown that in the case, when
this backward influence is essential, a hysteresis behavior is possible. The
stability analysis of the steady state is performed. It turns out that there is
a narrow range of governing parameters, in which such a steady state is stable.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, published in Physics of Fluid
In silico assessment of potential druggable pockets on the surface of α1-Antitrypsin conformers
The search for druggable pockets on the surface of a protein is often performed on a single conformer, treated as a rigid body. Transient druggable pockets may be missed in this approach. Here, we describe a methodology for systematic in silico analysis of surface clefts across multiple conformers of the metastable protein α1-antitrypsin (A1AT). Pathological mutations disturb the conformational landscape of A1AT, triggering polymerisation that leads to emphysema and hepatic cirrhosis. Computational screens for small molecule inhibitors of polymerisation have generally focused on one major druggable site visible in all crystal structures of native A1AT. In an alternative approach, we scan all surface clefts observed in crystal structures of A1AT and in 100 computationally produced conformers, mimicking the native solution ensemble. We assess the persistence, variability and druggability of these pockets. Finally, we employ molecular docking using publicly available libraries of small molecules to explore scaffold preferences for each site. Our approach identifies a number of novel target sites for drug design. In particular one transient site shows favourable characteristics for druggability due to high enclosure and hydrophobicity. Hits against this and other druggable sites achieve docking scores corresponding to a Kd in the µM–nM range, comparing favourably with a recently identified promising lead. Preliminary ThermoFluor studies support the docking predictions. In conclusion, our strategy shows considerable promise compared with the conventional single pocket/single conformer approach to in silico screening. Our best-scoring ligands warrant further experimental investigation
An NLO QCD analysis of inclusive cross-section and jet-production data from the ZEUS experiment
The ZEUS inclusive differential cross-section data from HERA, for charged and
neutral current processes taken with e+ and e- beams, together with
differential cross-section data on inclusive jet production in e+ p scattering
and dijet production in \gamma p scattering, have been used in a new NLO QCD
analysis to extract the parton distribution functions of the proton. The input
of jet data constrains the gluon and allows an accurate extraction of
\alpha_s(M_Z) at NLO;
\alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1183 \pm 0.0028(exp.) \pm 0.0008(model)
An additional uncertainty from the choice of scales is estimated as \pm
0.005. This is the first extraction of \alpha_s(M_Z) from HERA data alone.Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures, to be submitted to EPJC. PDFs available at
http://durpdg.dur.ac.uk/hepdata in LHAPDFv
Search for lepton-flavor violation at HERA
A search for lepton-flavor-violating interactions and has been performed with the ZEUS detector using the entire HERA I
data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 130 pb^{-1}. The data
were taken at center-of-mass energies, , of 300 and 318 GeV. No
evidence of lepton-flavor violation was found, and constraints were derived on
leptoquarks (LQs) that could mediate such interactions. For LQ masses below
, limits were set on , where
is the coupling of the LQ to an electron and a
first-generation quark , and is the branching ratio of
the LQ to the final-state lepton ( or ) and a quark . For
LQ masses much larger than , limits were set on the four-fermion
interaction term for LQs that couple to an electron and a quark
and to a lepton and a quark , where and are
quark generation indices. Some of the limits are also applicable to
lepton-flavor-violating processes mediated by squarks in -Parity-violating
supersymmetric models. In some cases, especially when a higher-generation quark
is involved and for the process , the ZEUS limits are the most
stringent to date.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by EPJC. References and 1 figure (Fig.
6) adde
Inclusive jet cross sections and dijet correlations in photoproduction at HERA
Inclusive jet cross sections in photoproduction for events containing a
meson have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated
luminosity of . The events were required to have a
virtuality of the incoming photon, , of less than 1 GeV, and a
photon-proton centre-of-mass energy in the range . The measurements are compared with next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD
calculations. Good agreement is found with the NLO calculations over most of
the measured kinematic region. Requiring a second jet in the event allowed a
more detailed comparison with QCD calculations. The measured dijet cross
sections are also compared to Monte Carlo (MC) models which incorporate
leading-order matrix elements followed by parton showers and hadronisation. The
NLO QCD predictions are in general agreement with the data although differences
have been isolated to regions where contributions from higher orders are
expected to be significant. The MC models give a better description than the
NLO predictions of the shape of the measured cross sections.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, charm jets ZEU
Measurement of event shapes in deep inelastic scattering at HERA
Inclusive event-shape variables have been measured in the current region of
the Breit frame for neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering using an
integrated luminosity of 45.0 pb^-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA.
The variables studied included thrust, jet broadening and invariant jet mass.
The kinematic range covered was 10 < Q^2 < 20,480 GeV^2 and 6.10^-4 < x < 0.6,
where Q^2 is the virtuality of the exchanged boson and x is the Bjorken
variable. The Q dependence of the shape variables has been used in conjunction
with NLO perturbative calculations and the Dokshitzer-Webber non-perturbative
corrections (`power corrections') to investigate the validity of this approach.Comment: 7+25 pages, 6 figure
High-E_T dijet photoproduction at HERA
The cross section for high-E_T dijet production in photoproduction has been
measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 81.8
pb-1. The events were required to have a virtuality of the incoming photon,
Q^2, of less than 1 GeV^2 and a photon-proton centre-of-mass energy in the
range 142 < W < 293 GeV. Events were selected if at least two jets satisfied
the transverse-energy requirements of E_T(jet1) > 20 GeV and E_T(jet2) > 15 GeV
and pseudorapidity requirements of -1 < eta(jet1,2) < 3, with at least one of
the jets satisfying -1 < eta(jet) < 2.5. The measurements show sensitivity to
the parton distributions in the photon and proton and effects beyond
next-to-leading order in QCD. Hence these data can be used to constrain further
the parton densities in the proton and photon.Comment: 36 pages, 13 figures, 20 tables, including minor revisions from
referees. Accepted by Phys. Rev.
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