Transport critical current density of Ag-sheathed Pr-doped (Tl, Cr)Sr2CaCu2O7 superconductor tapes in applied magnetic field

Powder-in-tube Tl-1212 (Tl,Cr)-Sr-(Ca,Pr)-Cu-O/Ag tapes were prepared and processed with different thermomechanical treatments. The processing conditions caused the variation of the transport critical current density (Jc) in the tapes. Tapes subjected to rolling showed lower Jc compared to the pressed tapes. Uniaxial pressing is more effective in densifying the tape cores by forcing the grains into closer contact and enhances the connectivity between grains. All the tapes showed a majority phase of 1212. The existence of 1201 phase considerably reduced Jc in the rolled tapes. Intermediate rolling is not favorable in improving Jc for the irregular grains structure, in contrast to Bi-2223 superconductors with plate-like grains. The in-field behavior of the tapes indicates that they are dominated by weak links as Jc falls rapidly in low applied field (H<0.06 T). No anisotropic transport properties were observed for all the tapes. SEM images showed randomly oriented irregular grains making texturing difficult to achieve. Neither the grain size nor the morphology was changed significantly by the thermomechanical treatments. The observed irregular grains imply that high-angle tilt boundaries were formed with intergranular weak links. Grain morphology is suggested to be the key factor that limits the Jc in these tapes

Bi-based mono-core superconductor tapes : fabrication process and the effect of the thermomechanical treatment on the transport properties / K.T. Lau and R-Abd Shukor

Fabrication of the Bi-based tapes started with the preparation of its precursor powder with composition of Bi1.8 Pb 0.4 Sr2 Ca2.2 Cu3 O10+y. The post-annealed powder with a majority of 2212 phase was then ground before it was packed into a silver tube. Then the composite was sway-rolled and drawn into wire with diameter of 1.08 mm. To make it into tape form, the wire was cut into shorter length before went through rolling process using a roller machine. The tapes were divided into sample groups and underwent different thermo-mechanical treatments. All the final processed Bi-based tapes had mixed superconductor phases of 2223 and 2212. Most part of HTSC grains in the tapes melted during the sintering. Transport voltage-current characteristics of the tapes was found to obey the power law relationship. The thermo-mechanical treatment was found necessary to improve the structural quality of the tapes

Development of Artificial Neural Network Model in Predicting Performance of the Smart Wind Turbine Blade

This paper demonstrates the applicability of artificial neural networks (ANNs) that use multiple bck-propagation networks (MBP) and a non-linear autoregressive exogenous model (NARX) for predicting the deflection of a smart wind turbine blade specimen. A neural network model has been developed to perform the deflection with respect to the number of wires required as the output parameter, and parameters such as load, current, time taken and deflection as the input parameters. The network has been trained with experimental data obtained from experimental work. The various stages involved in the development of a genetic algorithm based neural network model are addressed in detail in this paper

Characterisation of the muon beams for the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment

A novel single-particle technique to measure emittance has been developed and used to characterise seventeen different muon beams for the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE). The muon beams, whose mean momenta vary from 171 to 281 MeV/c, have emittances of approximately 1.2–2.3 π mm-rad horizontally and 0.6–1.0 π mm-rad vertically, a horizontal dispersion of 90–190 mm and momentum spreads of about 25 MeV/c. There is reasonable agreement between the measured parameters of the beams and the results of simulations. The beams are found to meet the requirements of MICE

THE AC CONDUCTIVITY OF SAMARIUM PHOSPHATE GLASSES

The AC conductivity of SIGMA(AC) samarium phosphate glasses with different Sm2O3 content is measured in frequency range of 10^3 to 10^7 hz over the temperature range of300 to 553 K. The observed frequency dependence can be expressed as SIGMA(AC)=AW^s, where 0.6 < s < 1 which confirms the electron hopping phenomena. The bulk conductivity increases with the increasing temperature and decreases with the increasing neodymium content

ENHANCING GRAPHITIC CARBON CONTENT OF CARBON-BASED ELECTRODE MATERIALS BY PULSED ELECTROPHORETIC DEPOSITION FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL CAPACITOR

Crystallinity of carbon electrode materials and their deposition techniques are the crucial factors for electrochemical capacitor (EC) performance. The present work investigates deposit yield and graphitic content of activated carbon (AC) and CNT coatings deposited by pulsed electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Pulse voltage with pulse separation times of 30 to 50 s, alternated with the long pulse width (i.e. 2.5 min) was applied. Although the pulse separation time at 30 s reduced the CNT coating yield, its graphitic content increased by 40 % as compared to the CNT coating deposited by continuous voltage EPD, as indicated by the IG/ID ratio of Raman spectra. However, graphitic content increase was not observed in the deposition of AC. Consequently, the CNT deposition gained a higher graphitic-nongraphitic content ratio than the AC. This finding opened up the possibility of the EC performance enhancement by the graphitic CNT control in electrode materials through EPD process

A search for resonances decaying into a Higgs boson and a new particle X in the XH → qqbb final state with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy resonances decaying into a Higgs boson (H) and a new particle (X) is reported, utilizing 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at collected during 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The particle X is assumed to decay to a pair of light quarks, and the fully hadronic final state is analysed. The search considers the regime of high XH resonance masses, where the X and H bosons are both highly Lorentz-boosted and are each reconstructed using a single jet with large radius parameter. A two-dimensional phase space of XH mass versus X mass is scanned for evidence of a signal, over a range of XH resonance mass values between 1 TeV and 4 TeV, and for X particles with masses from 50 GeV to 1000 GeV. All search results are consistent with the expectations for the background due to Standard Model processes, and 95% CL upper limits are set, as a function of XH and X masses, on the production cross-section of the resonance

Prognostic Value of N-terminal B-type Natriuretic Peptide in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Multicenter Study

Background: Several models have been developed to help the clinician in risk stratification for Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS),such as the TIMI and GRACE risk scores. However, there is conflicting evidence for the prognostic value of NT-ProBNP in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Objective: (1) To explore the association of NT-proBNP with 30-day clinical outcome in AMI patients. (2) To compare the prognostic value of NT-proBNP with TIMI and GRACE risk scores in AMI patients. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, prospective observational study recruiting patients presented with AMI between 29-October-2015 and 14-January-2017, involving 1 cardiology referral centre and 4 non-cardiology hospitals. NT-proBNP level (Alere Triage®, US)was measured within 24 hours fromthe diagnosis of AMI. Patientswere followed-up for 1 month. Results: A total of 186 patients were recruited, 143 from tertiary cardiology centre and 43 from non-cardiology hospitals. Mean age was 54.7±10.0 years, 87.6% male and 64% were STEMI. The NT-proBNP level ranged from 60 to 16700pg/ml, with a median of 714pg/ml. Using the 75th centile as the cutoff, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis for the 30-day cardiac related mortality was significantly higher for patient with NT-proBNP level of ≥1600pg/ml (6.4% vs. 0.7%, p=0.02). Cox-regression analysis showed that NT-proBNP level of ≥1600pg/ml was an independent predictor of 30-day cardiac related mortality, regardless of TIMI risk score, GRACE score, LV ejection fraction and study hospitals (HR 9.274, p=0.054, 95%CI 0.965, 89.161). Readmission for heart failure at 30-day was also higher for patient with NT-proBNP level of ≥1600pg/ml (HR 9.308, p=0.053, 95%CI 0.969, 89.492). NT-proBNP level was not associated with all-cause mortality, risk of readmission for ACS, arrhythmia and stroke (pN0.05). By adding 50 score to GRACE risk score for NT-proBNP level of ≥1600pg/ml, combination of GraceNT-proBNP scores of more than 200 appeared to be a better independent predictor for 30-day cardiac related mortality (HR:28.28, p=0.004, 95%CI 2.94, 272.1). ROC analysis showed that this new score had 75% sensitivity and 91.2% specificity in predicting 30-day cardiac related mortality (AUC 0.791, p=0.046). Conclusions: NT-proBNP is a useful point-of-care risk stratification biomarker in AMI. It can be combined to the current risk score model for better risk stratification in AMI patients

Functionally Orthologous Viral and Cellular MicroRNAs Studied by a Novel Dual-Fluorescent Reporter System

Recent research raised the possibility that some viral microRNAs (miRNAs) may function as orthologs of cellular miRNAs. In the present work, to study the functional orthologous relationships of viral and cellular miRNAs, we first constructed a dual-fluorescent protein reporter vector system for the easy determination of miRNA function. By expressing the miRNAs and the indicator and internal control fluorescent proteins individually from a single vector, this simple reporter system can be used for miRNA functional assays that include visualizing miRNA activity in live cells. Sequence alignments indicated that the simian virus 40 (SV40) encoded miRNA sv40-mir-S1-5p contains a seed region identical to that of the human miRNA hsa-miR423-5p. Using the new reporter system, it was found that sv40-mir-S1-5p and hsa-miR423-5p downregulate the expression of common artificial target mRNAs and some predicted biological targets of hsa-miR423-5p, demonstrating that they are functional orthologs. The human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) encoded hiv1-miR-N367 also contains a seed sequence identical to that of the human miRNA hsa-miR192. Functional assays showed that hiv1-miR-N367 and hsa-miR192 could downregulate common artificial and predicted biological targets, suggesting that these miRNAs may also act as functional orthologs. Thus, this study presents a simple and universal system for testing miRNA function and identifies two new pairs of functional orthologs, sv40-mir-S1-5p and hsa-miR423-5p as well as hiv-1-miR-N367 and hsa-miR192. These findings also expand upon our current knowledge of functional homology and imply that a more general phenomenon of orthologous relationships exists between viral and cellular miRNAs