Improved transient simulation of salient-pole synchronous generators with internal and ground faults in the stator winding

An improved model for simulating the transient behavior of salient-pole synchronous generators with internal and ground faults in the stator winding is established using the multi-loop circuit method. The model caters for faults under different ground conditions for the neutral, and accounts for the distributed capacitances of the windings to ground. Predictions from the model are validated by experiments, and it is shown that the model accurately predicts the voltage and current waveforms under fault conditions. Hence, it can be used to analyze important features of faults and to design appropriate protection schemes

Metallic liquid hydrogen and likely Al2O3 metallic glass

Dynamic compression has been used to synthesize liquid metallic hydrogen at 140 GPa (1.4 million bar) and experimental data and theory predict Al2O3 might be a metallic glass at ~300 GPa. The mechanism of metallization in both cases is probably a Mott-like transition. The strength of sapphire causes shock dissipation to be split differently in the strong solid and soft fluid. Once the 4.5-eV H-H and Al-O bonds are broken at sufficiently high pressures in liquid H2 and in sapphire (single-crystal Al2O3), electrons are delocalized, which leads to formation of energy bands in fluid H and probably in amorphous Al2O3. The high strength of sapphire causes shock dissipation to be absorbed primarily in entropy up to ~400 GPa, which also causes the 300-K isotherm and Hugoniot to be virtually coincident in this pressure range. Above ~400 GPa shock dissipation must go primarily into temperature, which is observed experimentally as a rapid increase in shock pressure above ~400 GPa. The metallization of glassy Al2O3, if verified, is expected to be general in strong oxide insulators. Implications for Super Earths are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 14th Liquid and Amorphous Metals Conference, Rome 201

Seismic Analysis of Prestressed Bridge Pier Based on Fiber Section

AbstractFiber model analysis method based on flexibility method is carried out to build analysis model for integral cast in-situ prestressed bridge piers, and the nonlinear time-history analysis is conducted with the low-peried cyclic loading. The hysteretic behavior of prestressed reinforced concrete pier and common reinforced concrete pier are compared and analyzed. The results showed that prestressed reinforced concrete pier has preferable re-centring capacity, smaller residual deformation and worse energy dissipation capacity. Along with the increase of distance from prestress location to section centroid, the tension degree of prestressed reinforcements and the reinforcement ratio come a decrease the residual deformation and energy dissipation capacity of pier

Effect of Chinese herbal medicines on rumen fermentation, methanogenesis and microbial flora in vitro

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of three Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) on rumen fermentation, methane emission and population of ruminal microbes using an in vitro gas production technique. Three healthy wethers of Dazu Black goats with similar bodyweights and permanent rumen fistulae were utilized as donors of ruminal fluid. The three botanical medicines were cablin patchouli herb (CPH), atractylodes rhizome (AR) and Amur cork tree (AC). Each CHM was added at a level of 25 g/kg to the substrate dry matter. In vitro gas production was recorded, and methane concentration was determined at 12 and 24 hours of incubation. After 24 hours, the incubation was stopped, and the inoculants were measured for pH, ammonia nitrogen and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) concentrations. Total deoxyribonucleic acid of ruminal microbes was extracted from the inocula, and populations were determined by a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Populations of total rumen methanogens, protozoa, total fungi, Ruminococcus albus, Fibrobacter succinogenes and Ruminococcus flavefaciens were expressed as a proportion of total rumen bacterial 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid. Compared to the control, CPH decreased gas production and methane production at 12 and 24 hours of incubation, and inhibited methanogens and total fungi growth. AR decreased acetate to propionate ratio, and methanogens and total fungi populations, but increased propionate molar proportion. AC decreased total VFA concentration, acetate to propionate ratio, gas production at 12 and 24 hours of incubation, methane production at 12 and 24 hours of incubation, and methanogens and total fungi growth, but increased the propionate molar proportion. In conclusion, CPH and AC both suppressed methanogenesis significantly, and the suppression was mediated primarily via the direct action against the rumen microbes involved in methane formation. AC also indirectly abates methane release by occupying the hydrogen (H2) normally utilized for methanogenesis.Keywords: In vitro gas production, methane, rumen fermentation parameter, rumen microbe

Molecular Beam Epitaxy of Ga(In)AsN/GaAs Quantum Wells towards 1.3µm and 1.55µm

In this article, we report an attempt of extending the InGaAsN materials towards 1.3µm and 1.55µm wavelength. All these InGaAsN samples are grown in a plasma-assisted solid-source molecular-beam epitaxy (SS-MBE) system. Our experiments revealed that the nitrides could be grown with both direct nitrogen beam and dispersive nitrogen. The nitrogen incorporation rate could be reduced by the presence of indium flux. The interaction between nitrogen and indium might lead to 3D growth mode and growth dynamics. It is proved that the increasing growth rate reduces the nitrogen incorporation efficiency. The data for nitrogen sticking coefficient are somewhat contradictive. The growth with dispersive nitrogen source causes the improvement of material quality. Fixed indium flux is a better way for the wavelength control. Also, we report some growth optimization work for better PL property and the annealing effect on the samples. Literature is sometimes reviewed for comparison.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Ammonium uptake and assimilation are required for rice defense against sheath blight disease

Nitrogen (N) is an important nutrient for plant growth and yield production, and rice grown in paddy soil mainly uses ammonium (NH4+) as its N source. Previous studies have shown that N status is tightly connected to plant defense; however, the roles of NH4+ uptake and assimilation in rice sheath blight disease response have not been studied previously. Here, we analyzed the effects of different N sources on plant defense against Rhizoctonia solani. The results indicated that rice plants grown in N-free conditions had higher resistance to sheath blight than those grown under N conditions. In greater detail, rice plants cultured with glutamine as the sole N source were more susceptible to sheath blight disease compared to the groups using NH4+ and nitrate (NO3–) as sole N sources. N deficiency severely inhibited plant growth; therefore, ammonium transporter 1;2 overexpressors (AMT1;2 OXs) were generated to test their growth and defense ability under low N conditions. AMT1;2 OXs increased N use efficiency and exhibited less susceptible symptoms to R. solani and highly induced the expression of PBZ1 compared to the wild-type controls upon infection of R. solani. Furthermore, the glutamine synthetase 1;1 (GS1;1) mutant (gs1;1) was more susceptible to R. solani infection than the wild-type control, and the genetic combination of AMT1;2 OX and gs1;1 revealed that AMT1;2 OX was less susceptible to R. solani and required GS1;1 activity. In addition, cellular NH4+ content was higher in AMT1;2 OX and gs1;1 plants, indicating that NH4+ was not directly controlling plant defense. In conclusion, the present study showed that the activation of NH4+ uptake and assimilation were required for rice resistance against sheath blight disease

Tibetan sheep are better able to cope with low energy intake than Small-tailed Han sheep due to lower maintenance energy requirements and higher nutrient digestibilities

Tibetan sheep are indigenous to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and are well-adapted to and even thrive under the harsh alpine conditions. Small-tailed Han sheep were introduced to the plateau because of their high prolificacy and are maintained mainly in feedlots. Because of their different backgrounds, we hypothesised that Tibetan and Small-tailed Han sheep would differ in their utilization of energy intake and predicted that Tibetan sheep would cope better with low energy intake than Small-tailed Han sheep. To test this prediction, we determined nutrient digestibilities, energy requirements for maintenance and blood metabolite and hormone concentrations involved in energy metabolism in these breeds. Sheep of each breed (n = 24 of each, all wethers and 1.5 years of age) were distributed randomly into one of four groups and offered ad libitum diets of different digestible energy (DE) densities: 8.21, 9.33, 10.45 and 11.57 MJ DE/kg Dry matter (DM). Following 42 d of measuring feed intake, a 1-week digestion and metabolism experiment was done. DM intakes did not differ between breeds nor among treatments but, by design, DE intake increased linearly in both breeds as dietary energy level increased (P < 0.001). The average daily gain (ADG) was significantly greater in the Tibetan than Small-tailed Han sheep (P = 0.003) and increased linearly in both breeds (P < 0.001). In addition, from the regression analysis of ADG on DE intake, daily DE maintenance requirements were lower for Tibetan than for Small-tailed Han sheep (0.41 vs 0.50 MJ/BW0.75, P < 0.05). The DE and metabolizable energy (ME) digestibilities were higher in the Tibetan than Small-tailed Han sheep (P < 0.001) and increased linearly as the energy level increased in the diet (P < 0.001). At the lowest energy treatment, Tibetan sheep when compared with Small-tailed Han sheep, had: 1) higher serum glucose and glucagon, but lower insulin concentrations (P < 0.05), which indicated a higher capacity for gluconeogenesis and ability to regulate glucose metabolism; and 2) higher non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and lower very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and triglyceride (TG) concentrations (P < 0.05), which indicated a higher capacity for NEFA oxidation but lower ability for triglyceride (TG) synthesis. We concluded that our prediction was supported as these differences between breeds conferred an advantage for Tibetan over Small-tailed Han sheep to cope better with low energy diets

Investigation of the influence of rail hardness on the wear of rail and wheel materials under dry conditions (ICRI wear mapping project)

Some railway managers and practitioners fear that introducing premium rail materials will have a detrimental effect on the wheels of trains that use the line. A review of relevant investigations across all scales in the laboratory, and in the field has been carried out. This showed that, as rail hardness increases, its wear, and overall system wear reduces. Wheel wear does increase with increasing rail hardness, but only for wheels running on rails that are softer than them. Similar trends were observed in all studies, so it seems that the fears were unfounded. While the wear trends appear well characterised some issues have been identified. One relates to the varying work hardening capability of wheel and rail materials. Often only bulk hardness is quoted, but work hardening can increase material surface hardness by up to 2.5 times and make materials that were initially softer, harder than the opposing material. Another related issue is test length. It is essential that enough cycles are applied such that the materials reach steady state wear, i.e., the point at which work hardening has reached its limit. In previous work it is not always clear that steady state wear has been reached. Some gaps have been identified in the current knowledge base, the largest of which is the failure to determine which mechanisms lead to the wear trends seen. Analysis of recent work on different clad layers on rail discs and premium rail materials allowed some of these gaps to be addressed. Results indicated that opposing wheel material hardened to the same level independent of rail hardness. Wheel wear is therefore stress driven under the conditions used, and dictated by the wheel material properties only. At higher slip levels relationships become less clear, but here temperature and therefore hot hardness is most influential and is as yet uncharacterised

Cosmological constraints on unparticle dark matter

In unparticle dark matter (unmatter) models the equation of state of the unmatter is given by $p=\rho/(2d_U+1)$, where $d_U$ is the scaling factor. Unmatter with such equations of state would have a significant impact on the expansion history of the universe. Using type Ia supernovae (SNIa), the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements and the shift parameter of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to place constraints on such unmatter models we find that if only the SNIa data is used the constraints are weak. However, with the BAO and CMB shift parameter data added strong constraints can be obtained. For the $\Lambda$UDM model, in which unmatter is the sole dark matter, we find that $d_U > 60$ at 95% C.L. For comparison, in most unparticle physics models it is assumed $d_U<2$. For the $\Lambda$CUDM model, in which unmatter co-exists with cold dark matter, we found that the unmatter can at most make up a few percent of the total cosmic density if $d_U<10$, thus it can not be the major component of dark matter.Comment: Replaced with revised version. BAO data is added to make a tighter constraint. Version accepted for publication on Euro.Phys.J.

Identification of a candidate gene for Rc-D1, a locus controlling red coleoptile colour in wheat

Red coleoptile is an easily observed agronomic trait of wheat and has been extensively studied. However, the molecular mechanism of this trait has not yet been revealed. In this study, the MYB gene TaMYB-D1 was isolated from the wheat cultivar ‘Gy115’, which possesses red coleoptiles. This gene resided at the short arm of the homoelogous group 7 chromosomes. TaMYB-D1 was the only gene expressed in the coleoptiles of ‘Gy115’ and was not expressed in ‘Opata’ and ‘CS’, which have uncoloured coleoptiles. Phylogenetic analysis placed TaMYB-D1 very close to ZmC1 and other MYB proteins regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis. The encoded protein of TaMYB-D1 had an integrated DNA binding domain of 102 amino acids and a transcription domain with 42 amino acids, similar to the structure of ZmC1. Transient expression analysis in onion epidermal cells showed that TaMYB-D1 was located at the plant nucleus, which suggested its role as a transcription factor. The expression of TaMYB-D1 was accompanied with the expression of TaDFR and anthocyanin biosynthesis in the development of the coleoptile of ‘Gy115’. Transient expression analysis showed that only TaMYB-D1 induced a few ‘Opata’ coleoptile cells to synthesize anthocyanin in light, and the gene also induced a colour change to red in many cells with the help of ZmR. All of these results suggested TaMYB-D1 as the candidate gene for the red coleoptile trait of ‘Gy115’