24,268 research outputs found
A South African review of harmonic emission level assessment as per IEC61000-3-6
Large-scale renewable power producing plants are being integrated into South African networks.
Network operators need to ensure that Renewable Power Plants (RPP) do not negatively affect the
power quality levels of their networks, as harmonics amongst others could become a concern.
IEC 61000-3-6 details a method for allocating voltage harmonic emission limits for distorting loads.
This method works well for the allocation of emission limits; however it does not address the
management of harmonic emissions once a plant is connected to the network. The management of
harmonic emissions requires that network operators measure or quantify the emissions from loads and
generators to determine compliance. Post-connection quantification of harmonic levels and
compliance is a challenge for network operators. The question asked is “How should a network
operator measure/quantify the harmonic emissions of a load/generator to establish compliance with the
calculated limits as per IEC 61000-3-6”.
This paper reviews within a South African context methods of assessing harmonic emission levels and
then evaluates these methods by means of field data. Opportunities for improvement are identified
and operational requirements discussed
A Variational Approach for Minimizing Lennard-Jones Energies
A variational method for computing conformational properties of molecules
with Lennard-Jones potentials for the monomer-monomer interactions is
presented. The approach is tailored to deal with angular degrees of freedom,
{\it rotors}, and consists in the iterative solution of a set of deterministic
equations with annealing in temperature. The singular short-distance behaviour
of the Lennard-Jones potential is adiabatically switched on in order to obtain
stable convergence. As testbeds for the approach two distinct ensembles of
molecules are used, characterized by a roughly dense-packed ore a more
elongated ground state. For the latter, problems are generated from natural
frequencies of occurrence of amino acids and phenomenologically determined
potential parameters; they seem to represent less disorder than was previously
assumed in synthetic protein studies. For the dense-packed problems in
particular, the variational algorithm clearly outperforms a gradient descent
method in terms of minimal energies. Although it cannot compete with a careful
simulating annealing algorithm, the variational approach requires only a tiny
fraction of the computer time. Issues and results when applying the method to
polyelectrolytes at a finite temperature are also briefly discussed.Comment: 14 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript fil
Design concepts for bioreactors in space
Microbial food sources are becoming viable and more efficient alternatives to conventional food sources especially in the context of Closed Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) in space habitats. Since bioreactor designs for terrestrial operation will not readily apply to conditions of microgravity, there is an urgent need to learn about the differences. These differences cannot be easily estimated due to the complex nature of the mass transport and mixing mechanisms in fermenters. Therefore, a systematic and expeditious experimental program must be undertaken to obtain the engineering data necessary to lay down the foundations of designing bioreactors for microgravity. Two bioreactor design concepts presented represent two dissimilar approaches to grappling with the absence of gravity in space habitats and deserve to be tested for adoption as important components of the life support function aboard spacecrafts, space stations and other extra-terrestrial habitats
New insight into cataract formation -- enhanced stability through mutual attraction
Small-angle neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations
combined with an application of concepts from soft matter physics to complex
protein mixtures provide new insight into the stability of eye lens protein
mixtures. Exploring this colloid-protein analogy we demonstrate that weak
attractions between unlike proteins help to maintain lens transparency in an
extremely sensitive and non-monotonic manner. These results not only represent
an important step towards a better understanding of protein condensation
diseases such as cataract formation, but provide general guidelines for tuning
the stability of colloid mixtures, a topic relevant for soft matter physics and
industrial applications.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. Let
Design concepts for bioreactors in space
Microbial food sources are becoming viable and more efficient alternatives to conventional food sources, especially in the context of closed ecological life support systems (CELSS) in space habitats. Two bioreactor design concepts presented represent two dissimilar approaches to grappling with the absence of gravity in space habitats and deserve to be tested for adoption as important components of the life support function aboard spacecraft, space stations and other extra-terrestrial habitats
Using White Dish CMB Anisotropy Data to Probe Open and Flat-Lambda CDM Cosmogonies
We use data from the White Dish experiment to set limits on cosmic microwave
background radiation anisotropies in open and spatially-flat-Lambda cold dark
matter cosmogonies. We account for the White Dish calibration uncertainty, and
marginalize over the offset and gradient removed from the data. Our 2-sigma
upper limits are larger than those derived previously. These upper limits are
consistent with those derived from the -DMR data for all models tested.Comment: 17 pages of latex. Uses aasms4.sty. 4 figures included. Submitted to
ApJ
Amplitude Zeroes in Collinear Processes or What Is Left from a Factorizable 2d Model in Higher Dimensions
We show that for collinear processes, i.e. processes where the incoming and
outgoing momenta are aligned along the same line, the S-matrix of the tree
level 2+1 dimensional Thirring model factorizes: any S - matrix element is a
product of elements. In particular this means nullification of
all collinear amplitudes for .Comment: latex , 8 pp., 2 fig. not include
Cognitive function in people with and without freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease
Freezing of gait (FOG) is common in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) which is extremely debilitating. One hypothesis for the cause of FOG episodes is impaired cognitive control, however, this is still in debate in the literature. We aimed to assess a comprehensive range of cognitive tests in older adults and people with Parkinson’s with and without FOG and associate FOG severity with cognitive performance. A total of 227 participants took part in the study which included 80 healthy older adults, 81 people with PD who did not have FOG and 66 people with PD and FOG. A comprehensive battery of neuropsychological assessments tested cognitive domains of global cognition, executive function/attention, working memory, and visuospatial function. The severity of FOG was assessed using the new FOG questionnaire and an objective FOG severity score. Cognitive performance was compared between groups using an ANCOVA adjusting for age, gender, years of education and disease severity. Correlations between cognitive performance and FOG severity were analyzed using partial correlations. Cognitive differences were observed between older adults and PD for domains of global cognition, executive function/attention, and working memory. Between those with and without FOG, there were differences for global cognition and executive function/attention, but these differences disappeared when adjusting for covariates. There were no associations between FOG severity and cognitive performance. This study identified no significant difference in cognition between those with and without FOG when adjusting for covariates, particularly disease severity. This may demonstrate that complex rehabilitation programs may be undertaken in those with FOG
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