TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Electrical and Mechanical Ventricular Activation During Left Bundle Branch Block and Resynchronization

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) aims to treat selected heart failure patients suffering from conduction abnormalities with left bundle branch block (LBBB) as the culprit disease. LBBB remained largely underinvestigated until it became apparent that the amount of response to CRT was heterogeneous and that the therapy and underlying pathology were thus incompletely understood. In this review, current knowledge concerning activation in LBBB and during biventricular pacing will be explored and applied to current CRT practice, highlighting novel ways to better measure and treat the electrical substrate

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Exploring students’ engineering designs through open-ended assignments

This paper aims at presenting the experience of the Power Conversion project in teaching students to design a proof-of-principle contactless energy transfer system for the charging of electrical vehicles. The Power Conversion is a second-year electrical engineering (EE) project in which students are to gather and apply EE knowledge to design and test a system. This system is to work with power level and operates independent from an electricity grid. The instructional method used in this project is design-based learning (DBL). As an educational approach, DBL is to support students to gather and apply knowledge in open-ended assignments. The set-up of the project has gone through different modifications and iterations in three consecutive years regarding the organisation and supervision of the students. We have analysed the students’ design products in the past three academic years in order to evaluate whether the project set-up and supervision have influenced students’ designs. Results indicate that the open-ended character of the project has a positive influence on the designs especially regarding the criteria on efficiency, Maximum Power Point Tracking algorithm and power tracking. This paper aims at presenting the experience of the Power Conversion project in teaching students to design a proof-of-principle contactless energy transfer system for the charging of electrical vehicles. The Power Conversion is a second-year electrical engineering (EE) project in which students are to gather and apply EE knowledge to design and test a system. This system is to work with power level and operates independent from an electricity grid. The instructional method used in this project is design-based learning (DBL). As an educational approach, DBL is to support students to gather and apply knowledge in open-ended assignments. The set-up of the project has gone through different modifications and iterations in three consecutive years regarding the organisation and supervision of the students. We have analysed the students’ design products in the past three academic years in order to evaluate whether the project set-up and supervision have influenced students’ designs. Results indicate that the open-ended character of the project has a positive influence on the designs especially regarding the criteria on efficiency, Maximum Power Point Tracking algorithm and power tracking

Convergence analysis of SEM and FEM to an analytical field distribution in the airgap

\u3cp\u3eThe optimisation routines and the validation models for the Electrical Machines(EM) are often based on Finite Element Method (FEM) models. However, their computation time is manifestly high, and are often replaced by semi-analytical models, which approximate the essential performance of EM with reduced computational cost. Therefore, the trade-off between the model accuracy and the size of the problem leads to the appropriate choice of the modelling technique [1]. Recently, Spectral Element Method (SEM) which uses higher order mesh elements compared to FEM, has been implemented for EM [2]. The latter benefits from higher convergence rate, resulting in a smaller size of the problem. Therefore, SEM is considered a potential option for building low-cost EM models. However, complex EM geometries are challenging for any technique, limiting their accuracy by the high aspect ratio and shapes with sharp corners. Consequently, the performance analysis must be thoroughly checked before making the choice. In this paper, the performance analysis of both SEM and FEM is discussed. An analytical solution for the magnetic field is used for the reference which is generated by the Harmonic Model (HM) [3] using a finite number of harmonics.\u3c/p\u3

Modeling and design optimization of a shaft-coupled motor and magnetic gear

This paper presents the modeling and design of an actuator consisting of an electrical motor and a magnetic gear. To minimize the overall actuator dimensions, both of the electromagnetic devices need to be optimally designed and matched. An issue in performing a simultaneous design as such arises from a high number of design variables that significantly increases the complexity of the optimization problem. A method to reduce the design variables is discussed in this paper, which is the application of response surface methodology (RSM) to represent the optimized torques of the electrical motor and magnetic gear as polynomial functions of their respective dimensions. Prior to the application of RSM, optimization problem statements are defined for the electrical motor and magnetic gear, for which the optimization objective and constraint functions are derived from analytical electromagnetic models of the considered electromagnetic devices

3-D Modeling of shielding of magnetic stray fields based on superposition of 2-D models

This paper concerns the superposition of twodimensional semi-analytical models to model three-dimensional shielding configurations. The 2-D semi-analytical models are used to describe the effect of magnetic shielding on the stray field of a single-sided coreless linear permanent magnet motor. The modeling results are compared to 3-D finite element analysis and to measurements. It is found that an accurate description of the tendencies and the order of magnitude is given. Furthermore, the comparison of the superposition of 2-D semi-analytical models with the measurements shows that saturation and neglecting the 3-D effects cause the deviation between model and measurement

Validation of a harmonic model for eddy currents in slitted conducting plates

\u3cp\u3eThe paper describes a 3D semi-analytical harmonic modeling technique that is capable of modeling eddy current distributions in segmented conducting structures, such as slitted conducting plates, and the associated magnetic fields. The spatially varying conductivity of a conducting region is incorporated into the solutions of magnetic-field quantities and the induced current density. The harmonic model is compared to results obtained with finite element analysis. An experimental setup is used to measure the field distribution above differently slitted conducting plates, in which eddy currents are induced by a coil. The measurement results are compared to simulation results, and the perturbations are analyzed.\u3c/p\u3