Recommendations for repositories and scientific gateways from a neuroscience perspective

Digital services such as repositories and science gateways have become key resources for the neuroscience community, but users often have a hard time orienting themselves in the service landscape to find the best fit for their particular needs. INCF (International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility) has developed a set of recommendations and associated criteria for choosing or setting up and running a repository or scientific gateway, intended for the neuroscience community, with a FAIR neuroscience perspective. These recommendations have neurosciences as their primary use case but are often general. Considering the perspectives of researchers and providers of repositories as well as scientific gateways, the recommendations harmonize and complement existing work on criteria for repositories and best practices. The recommendations cover a range of important areas including accessibility, licensing, community responsibility and technical and financial sustainability of a service.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to Scientific Dat

Development of a day-ahead solar power forecasting model chain for a 250 MW PV park in India

Due to the steep rise in grid-connected solar Photovoltaic (PV) capacity and the intermittent nature of solar generation, accurate forecasts are becoming ever more essential for the secure and economic day-ahead scheduling of PV systems. The inherent uncertainty in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) forecasts and the limited availability of measured datasets for PV system modeling impacts the achievable day-ahead solar PV power forecast accuracy in regions like India. In this study, an operational day-ahead PV power forecast model chain is developed for a 250 MWp solar PV park located in Southern India using NWP-predicted Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) from the European Centre of Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) models. The performance of the Lorenz polynomial and a Neural Network (NN)-based bias correction method are benchmarked on a sliding window basis against ground-measured GHI for ten months. The usefulness of GHI transposition, even with uncertain monthly tilt values, is analyzed by comparing the Global Tilted Irradiance (GTI) and GHI forecasts with measured GTI for four months. A simple technique for back-calculating the virtual DC power is developed using the available aggregated AC power measurements and the inverter efficiency curve from a nearby plant with a similar rated inverter capacity. The AC power forecasts are validated against aggregated AC power measurements for six months. The ECMWF derived forecast outperforms the reference convex combination of climatology and persistence. The linear combination of ECMWF and NCMRWF derived AC forecasts showed the best result

Epoxy-Glass Microballoon Syntactic Foams: Rheological Optimization of the Processing Window

In this paper, we discuss the chemorheology of epoxy based syntactic foams containing glass microballoons of varying density, with an aim of establishing the effect of microballoon loading on its processability. The primary objective is to determine the maximum microballoon loading that disperses uniformly in the resin without the aid of any diluent. The viscosity and dynamic mechanical properties of epoxy formulations containing varying amounts of glass microballoons were established by parallel plate rheometry. Our studies reveal that solventless processing of formulations with microballoon loading > 60% poses practical difficulties due to prohibitively high viscosities, although a packing efficiency of 74% is theoretically allowed in the case of hexagonal close packing. The presence of microballoons does not alter the curing mechanism. The mechanical properties of syntactic foams were inversely proportional to the loading and type of glass microballoons

Thermal Activation of Mendable Epoxy through Inclusion of Microcapsules and Imidazole Complexes

<p>Epoxy resin was encapsulated in poly(urea–formaldehyde) microcapsules using an in situ dispersion polymerization technique. The efficiency of Ni and Cu–imidazole complexes as latent hardeners was compared to that of 2-methylimidazole. Calorimetric studies revealed higher reactivity of the nickel complex toward oxirane functionalities. Both the complexes could effectively cure the epoxy released from within the microcapsules in the event of damage followed by thermal treatment. The curing could be effected at lower temperature (<i>T</i>_onset = 145°C) using [Ni(2-Me-ImidH)₄Cl]Cl as compared to [Cu(2-Me-ImidH)₄Cl]Cl (<i>T</i>_onset = 152°C). A healing efficiency of 100 ± 2% could be achieved at 30% microcapsule loading, irrespective of the type of metal complex used. </p

Sustainable Bis-benzoxazines from Cardanol and PET-Derived Terephthalamides

This paper deals with the preparation of sustainable benzoxazines that exhibit enormous potential to compete with the existing petro-based advance performance thermosets. The phenolic component used for the synthesis of benzoxazine is derived from naturally occurring cardanol, which is obtained from cashew nut tree, Anacardium occidentale. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was chosen as a sustainable feedstock for the amine fraction used to prepare the benzoxazine monomer containing amide linkages. Microwave-assisted aminolysis of PET was performed to obtain bis­(amino-ethyl) terephthalamide (BAET) and α,ω-aminoligo­(ethylene terephthalamide) (AOET), which were employed as the difunctional amine for the preparation of bis-benzoxazines. In comparison to the traditional method, microwave-assisted aminolysis of PET was found to be significantly faster, and the reaction completion time could be brought down appreciably. Mannich-like condensation of cardanol with PET-derived terephthalamides and paraformaldehyde led to the formation of bis-benzoxazines with amide linkages, the structure of which was confirmed through FT-IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The curing behavior of the bis-benzoxazines was studied using nonisothermal differential scanning calorimetry. The presence of amide linkages in addition to the polar group formed during the ring opening of benzoxazines led to the improvement in adhesive strength, which was quantified in terms of lap shear strength