3,940 research outputs found
Capture of liquid hydrogen boiloff with metal hydride absorbers
A procedure which uses metal hydrides to capture some of this low pressure (,1 psig) hydrogen for subsequent reliquefaction is described. Of the five normally occurring sources of boil-off vapor the stream associated with the off-loading of liquid tankers during dewar refill was identified as the most cost effective and readily recoverable. The design, fabrication and testing of a proof-of-concept capture device, operating at a rate that is commensurate with the evolution of vapor by the target stream, is described. Liberation of the captured hydrogen gas at pressure .15 psig at normal temperatures (typical liquefier compressor suction pressure) are also demonstrated. A payback time of less than three years is projected
Analysis of ischaemic crisis using the informational causal entropy-complexity plane
In the present work, an ischaemic process, mainly focused on the reperfusion stage, is studied using the informational causal entropy-complexity plane. Ischaemic wall behavior under this condition was analyzed through wall thickness and ventricular pressure variations, acquired during an obstructive flow maneuver performed on left coronary arteries of surgically instrumented animals. Basically, the induction of ischaemia depends on the temporary occlusion of left circumflex coronary artery (which supplies blood to the posterior left ventricular wall) that lasts for a few seconds. Normal perfusion of the wall was then reestablished while the anterior ventricular wall remained adequately perfused during the entire maneuver. The obtained results showed that system dynamics could be effectively described by entropy-complexity loops, in both abnormally and well perfused walls. These results could contribute to making an objective indicator of the recovery heart tissues after an ischaemic process, in a way to quantify the restoration of myocardial behavior after the supply of oxygen to the ventricular wall was suppressed for a brief period.Fil: Legnani, Walter. Universidad TecnolĂłgica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de LanĂşs; ArgentinaFil: Traversaro Varela, Francisco. Instituto TecnolĂłgico de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; ArgentinaFil: Redelico, Francisco Oscar. Hospital Italiano; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes; ArgentinaFil: Cymberknop, Leandro Javier. Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires. Departamento de Bioingenieria; Argentina. Universidad TecnolĂłgica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Armentano, Ricardo Luis. Universidad TecnolĂłgica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; Argentina. Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires. Departamento de Bioingenieria; ArgentinaFil: Rosso, Osvaldo AnĂbal. Universidad de los Andes; Chile. Universidade Federal de Alagoas; Brasil. Hospital Italiano; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; Argentin
Flavin Binding to the Deca-heme Cytochrome MtrC: Insights from Computational Molecular Simulation
Certain dissimilatory bacteria have the remarkable ability to use extracellular metal oxide minerals instead of oxygen as terminal electron sinks, using a process known as "extracellular respiration". Specialized multiheme cytochromes located on the outer membrane of the microbe were shown to be crucial for electron transfer from the cell surface to the mineral. This process is facilitated by soluble, biogenic flavins secreted by the organism for the purpose of acting as an electron shuttle. However, their interactions with the outer-membrane cytochromes are not established on a molecular scale. Here, we study the interaction between the outer-membrane deca-heme cytochrome MtrC from Shewanella oneidensis and flavin mononucleotide (FMN in fully oxidized quinone form) using computational docking. We find that interaction of FMN with MtrC is significantly weaker than with known FMN-binding proteins, but identify a mildly preferred interaction site close to heme 2 with a dissociation constant (Kd) = 490 μM, in good agreement with recent experimental estimates, Kd = 255 μM. The weak interaction with MtrC can be qualitatively explained by the smaller number of hydrogen bonds that the planar headgroup of FMN can form with this protein compared to FMN-binding proteins. Molecular dynamics simulation gives indications for a possible conformational switch upon cleavage of the disulphide bond of MtrC, but without concomitant increase in binding affinities according to this docking study. Overall, our results suggest that binding of FMN to MtrC is reversible and not highly specific, which may be consistent with a role as redox shuttle that facilitates extracellular respiration
Universal interface width distributions at the depinning threshold
We compute the probability distribution of the interface width at the
depinning threshold, using recent powerful algorithms. It confirms the
universality classes found previously. In all cases, the distribution is
surprisingly well approximated by a generalized Gaussian theory of independant
modes which decay with a characteristic propagator G(q)=1/q^(d+2 zeta); zeta,
the roughness exponent, is computed independently. A functional renormalization
analysis explains this result and allows to compute the small deviations, i.e.
a universal kurtosis ratio, in agreement with numerics. We stress the
importance of the Gaussian theory to interpret numerical data and experiments.Comment: 4 pages revtex4. See also the following article cond-mat/030146
Depinning of elastic manifolds
We compute roughness exponents of elastic d-dimensional manifolds in
(d+1)-dimensional embedding spaces at the depinning transition for d=1,...,4.
Our numerical method is rigorously based on a Hamiltonian formulation; it
allows to determine the critical manifold in finite samples for an arbitrary
convex elastic energy. For a harmonic elastic energy, we find values of the
roughness exponent between the one-loop and the two-loop functional
renormalization group result, in good agreement with earlier cellular automata
simulations. We find that the harmonic model is unstable with respect both to
slight stiffening and to weakening of the elastic potential. Anharmonic
corrections to the elastic energy allow us to obtain the critical exponents of
the quenched KPZ class.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Roughness at the depinning threshold for a long-range elastic string
In this paper, we compute the roughness exponent zeta of a long-range elastic
string, at the depinning threshold, in a random medium with high precision,
using a numerical method which exploits the analytic structure of the problem
(`no-passing' theorem), but avoids direct simulation of the evolution
equations. This roughness exponent has recently been studied by simulations,
functional renormalization group calculations, and by experiments (fracture of
solids, liquid meniscus in 4He). Our result zeta = 0.390 +/- 0.002 is
significantly larger than what was stated in previous simulations, which were
consistent with a one-loop renormalization group calculation. The data are
furthermore incompatible with the experimental results for crack propagation in
solids and for a 4He contact line on a rough substrate. This implies that the
experiments cannot be described by pure harmonic long-range elasticity in the
quasi-static limit.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
A mean-field kinetic lattice gas model of electrochemical cells
We develop Electrochemical Mean-Field Kinetic Equations (EMFKE) to simulate
electrochemical cells. We start from a microscopic lattice-gas model with
charged particles, and build mean-field kinetic equations following the lines
of earlier work for neutral particles. We include the Poisson equation to
account for the influence of the electric field on ion migration, and
oxido-reduction processes on the electrode surfaces to allow for growth and
dissolution. We confirm the viability of our approach by simulating (i) the
electrochemical equilibrium at flat electrodes, which displays the correct
charged double-layer, (ii) the growth kinetics of one-dimensional
electrochemical cells during growth and dissolution, and (iii) electrochemical
dendrites in two dimensions.Comment: 14 pages twocolumn, 17 figure
Modeling the iron oxides and oxyhydroxides for the prediction of environmentally sensitive phase transformations
Iron oxides and oxyhydroxides are challenging to model computationally as
competing phases may differ in formation energies by only several kJ/mol, they
undergo magnetization transitions with temperature, their structures may
contain partially occupied sites or long-range ordering of vacancies, and some
loose structures require proper description of weak interactions such as
hydrogen bonding and dispersive forces. If structures and transformations are
to be reliably predicted under different chemical conditions, each of these
challenges must be overcome simultaneously, while preserving a high level of
numerical accuracy and physical sophistication. Here we present comparative
studies of structure, magnetization, and elasticity properties of iron oxides
and oxyhydroxides using density functional theory calculations with plane-wave
and locally-confined-atomic-orbital basis sets, which are implemented in VASP
and SIESTA packages, respectively. We have selected hematite, maghemite,
goethite, lepidocrocite, and magnetite as model systems from a total of 13
known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides; and use same convergence criteria and
almost equivalent settings in order to make consistent comparisons. Our results
show both basis sets can reproduce the energetic stability and magnetic
ordering, and are in agreement with experimental observations. There are
advantages to choosing one basis set over the other, depending on the intended
focus. In our case, we find the method using PW basis set most appropriate, and
combine our results to construct the first phase diagram of iron oxides and
oxyhydroxides in the space of competing chemical potentials, generated entirely
from first principlesComment: 46 pages - Accepted for publication in PRB (19 journal pages),
January 201
Mixing Bandt-Pompe and Lempel-Ziv approaches: another way to analyze the complexity of continuous-states sequences
In this paper, we propose to mix the approach underlying Bandt-Pompe
permutation entropy with Lempel-Ziv complexity, to design what we call
Lempel-Ziv permutation complexity. The principle consists of two steps: (i)
transformation of a continuous-state series that is intrinsically multivariate
or arises from embedding into a sequence of permutation vectors, where the
components are the positions of the components of the initial vector when
re-arranged; (ii) performing the Lempel-Ziv complexity for this series of
`symbols', as part of a discrete finite-size alphabet. On the one hand, the
permutation entropy of Bandt-Pompe aims at the study of the entropy of such a
sequence; i.e., the entropy of patterns in a sequence (e.g., local increases or
decreases). On the other hand, the Lempel-Ziv complexity of a discrete-state
sequence aims at the study of the temporal organization of the symbols (i.e.,
the rate of compressibility of the sequence). Thus, the Lempel-Ziv permutation
complexity aims to take advantage of both of these methods. The potential from
such a combined approach - of a permutation procedure and a complexity analysis
- is evaluated through the illustration of some simulated data and some real
data. In both cases, we compare the individual approaches and the combined
approach.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figure
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