10,888 research outputs found
Conceptual design of a floating support structure for an offshore vertical axis wind turbine : the lessons learnt
The design of floating support structures for wind turbines located offshore is a relatively new field. In contrast, the offshore oil and gas industry has been developing its technologies since the mid 1950s. However, the significantly and subtly different requirements of the offshore wind industry call for new methodologies. An Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) funded project called NOVA (for Novel Vertical Axis wind turbine) examined the feasibility of a large offshore vertical axis wind turbine in the 10-20 MW power range. The development of a case study for the NOVA project required a methodology to be developed to select the best configuration, based on the system dynamics. The design space has been investigated, ranking the possible options using a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method called TOPSIS. The best 'class' or design solution (based on water plane area stability) has been selected for a more detailed analysis. Two configurations are considered: a barge and a semi-submersible. The iterations to optimise and compare these two options are presented here, taking their dynamics and costs into account. The barge concept evolved to the 'triple doughnut-Miyagawa' concept, consisting of an annular cylindrical shape with an inner (to control the damping) and outer (to control added mass) bottom flat plates. The semi-submersible was optimised to obtain the best trade-off between dynamic behaviour and amount of material needed. The main conclusion is that the driving requirement is an acceptable response to wave action, not the ability to float or the ability to counteract the wind turbine overturning moment. A simple cost comparison is presented
Do (and say) as I say: Linguistic adaptation in human-computer dialogs
© Theodora Koulouri, Stanislao Lauria, and Robert D. Macredie. This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.There is strong research evidence showing that people naturally align to each other’s vocabulary, sentence structure, and acoustic features in dialog, yet little is known about how the alignment mechanism operates in the interaction between users and computer systems let alone how it may be exploited to improve the efficiency of the interaction. This article provides an account of lexical alignment in human–computer dialogs, based on empirical data collected in a simulated human–computer interaction scenario. The results indicate that alignment is present, resulting in the gradual reduction and stabilization of the vocabulary-in-use, and that it is also reciprocal. Further, the results suggest that when system and user errors occur, the development of alignment is temporarily disrupted and users tend to introduce novel words to the dialog. The results also indicate that alignment in human–computer interaction may have a strong strategic component and is used as a resource to compensate for less optimal (visually impoverished) interaction conditions. Moreover, lower alignment is associated with less successful interaction, as measured by user perceptions. The article distills the results of the study into design recommendations for human–computer dialog systems and uses them to outline a model of dialog management that supports and exploits alignment through mechanisms for in-use adaptation of the system’s grammar and lexicon
Electron microscopical study to assess the in vitro effects of the synthetic trioxolane OZ78 against the liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica
Adult Fasciola hepatica were incubated for 48 h in vitro in the synthetic peroxide, OZ78 at a concentration of 100 μg/ml and then prepared for scanning and transmission electron microscopy. There was limited disruption to the external fluke surface, with only slight swelling and blebbing of the interspinal tegument in the midbody and ventral tail regions. By contrast, significant disruption was observed to the ultrastructure of the tegument and subtegumental tissues. There was severe swelling of the basal infolds in the tegumental syncytium and the flooding spread internally to affect the subtegumental tissues. In the tegumental system, there was swelling of the cisternae of granular endoplasmic reticulum and of the mitochondria, with the latter showing signs of breaking down. Autophagic vacuoles and lipid droplets were present and the synthesis of tegumental secretory bodies was much reduced. The gastrodermal cells were severely affected, with swelling and degeneration of the mitochondria and the presence of autophagic vacuoles and lipid droplets. The granular endoplasmic reticulum was swollen and vesiculated and the cells contained few secretory bodies. Both the vitelline and testis follicles showed evidence of extensive cellular disruption and degeneration. This study confirms previous data indicating the potential flukicidal activity of OZ7
Neutrino signals from electroweak bremsstrahlung in solar WIMP annihilation
Bremsstrahlung of and gauge bosons, or photons, can be an important
dark matter annihilation channel. In many popular models in which the
annihilation to a pair of light fermions is helicity suppressed, these
bremsstrahlung processes can lift the suppression and thus become the dominant
annihilation channels. The resulting dark matter annihilation products contain
a large, energetic, neutrino component. We consider solar WIMP annihilation in
the case where electroweak bremsstrahlung dominates, and calculate the
resulting neutrino spectra. The flux consists of primary neutrinos produced in
processes such as and , and secondary neutrinos produced via the decays of gauge
bosons and charged leptons. After dealing with the neutrino propagation and
flavour evolution in the Sun, we consider the prospects for detection in
neutrino experiments on Earth. By comparing our signal with that for
annihilation to , we show that the detection prospects for the
bremsstrahlung annihilation channel are favourable.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. Discussion expanded; matches published versio
Fatigue Crack Shape Control under Bending by Cold Working
ABSTRACT. This paper presents an experimental study of crack shape evolution i
Proton-Neutron Interaction near Closed Shells
Odd-odd nuclei around double shell closures are a direct source of
information on the proton-neutron interaction between valence nucleons. We have
performed shell-model calculations for doubly odd nuclei close to Pb,
Sn and Sn using realistic effective interactions derived from
the CD-Bonn nucleon-nucleon potential. The calculated results are compared with
the available experimental data, attention being focused on particle-hole and
particle-particle multiplets. While a good agreement is obtained for all the
nuclei considered, a detailed analysis of the matrix elements of the effective
interaction shows that a stronger core-polarization contribution seems to be
needed in the particle-particle case.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Proccedings of the International Conference
"Nuclear Structure and Related Topics", Dubna, Russia, September 2-6, 2003,
to be published in Yadernaia Fizika (Physics of Atomic Nuclei
An Acoustic Charge Transport Imager for High Definition Television Applications: Low-Voltage SAW Amplifiers on Multilayer GaAs/ZnO Substrates
This thesis addresses the acoustoelectric issues concerning the amplification of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) and the reflection of SAWs from slanted reflector gratings on GaAs, with application to a novel acoustic charge transport (ACT) device architecture. First a simple model of the SAWAMP was developed, which was subsequently used to define the epitaxially grown material structure necessary to provide simultaneously high resistance and high electron mobility. In addition, a segmented SAWAMP structure was explored with line widths on the order of an acoustic wavelength. This resulted in the demonstration of SAWAMPS with an order of magnitude less voltage and power requirements than previously reported devices. A two-dimensional model was developed to explain the performance of devices with charge confinement layers less then 0.5 mm, which was experimentally verified. This model was extended to predict a greatly increased gain from the addition of a ZnO overlay. These overlays were experimentally attempted, but no working devices were reported due to process incompatibilities. In addition to the SAWAMP research, the reflection of SAWs from slanted gratings on GaAs was also studied and experimentally determined reflection coefficients for both 45 deg grooves and Al stripes on GaAs have been reported for the first time. The SAWAMp and reflector gratings were combined to investigate the integrated ring oscillator for application to the proposed ACT device and design parameters for this device have been provided
Metabolic Alterations in Obstructive Jaundice: Effect of Duration of Jaundice and Bile-Duct Decompression
We examined the effect of prolonged bile duct obstruction, and subsequent biliary decompression, on
biochemical and metabolic parameters, using a reversible jaundice model in male Fischer 344 rats. The
animals were studied after biliary obstruction for varying periods (4 days, one week, and two weeks) and
following decompression. They were sacrificed one or two weeks following decompression. All the rats
were compared to sham operated, pair-fed, controls. Obstructive jaundice rapidly increased bilirubin,
liver enzymes, serum free fatty acid, and triglyceride levels. Glucose levels were significantly decreased
in the jaundice rats compared to their pair-fed controls. Only after two weeks of jaundice was significant
hypoalbuminemia observed. Following decompression, all biochemical and metabolic values gradually
returned to normal levels, except for albumin. Hypoalbuminemia was not reversed within the two-week
post-decompression period. The rats jaundiced for two weeks had significantly higher mortality,
compared to the other groups. We conclude that prolonged jaundice adversely affects the metabolic
capacity of the rats, with albumin concentration being markedly decreased, and that biliary decompression
could not reverse completely all the alterations seen with cholestasis, especially following two
weeks of bile duct obstruction
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