Search results for "HAP"
showing 10 items of 2767 documents
Performance Study of Twisted Darrieus Hydrokinetic Turbine With Novel Blade Design
2021
Abstract Twisted Darrieus water turbine is receiving growing attention for small-scale hydropower generation. Accordingly, the need for raised water energy conversion incentivizes researchers to focus on the blade shape optimization of twisted Darrieus turbine. In view of this, experimental analysis has been performed to appraise the efficiency of a spiral Darrieus water rotor in the present work. To better the performance parameters of the studied water rotor with twisted blades, three novel blade shapes, namely U-shaped blade, V-shaped blade, and W-shaped blade, have been numerically tested using a computational fluid dynamics three-dimensional numerical model. The maximum power coefficie…
Stability of Asymmetric Lipid Bilayers Assessed by Molecular Dynamics Simulations
2009
The asymmetric insertion of amphiphiles into biological membranes compromises the balance between the inner and outer monolayers. As a result, area expansion of the receiving leaflet and curvature strain may lead to membrane permeation, shape changes, or membrane fusion events. We have conducted both atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers to study the effect of an asymmetric distribution of lipids between the two monolayers on membrane stability. Highly asymmetric lipid bilayers were found to be surprisingly stable within the submicrosecond time span of the simulations. Even the limiting case of a monolayer immersed in …
Anthropoid versus strepsirhine status of the African Eocene primates Algeripithecus and Azibius: craniodental evidence.
2009
Recent fossil discoveries have demonstrated that Africa and Asia were epicentres for the origin and/or early diversification of the major living primate lineages, including both anthropoids (monkeys, apes and humans) and crown strepsirhine primates (lemurs, lorises and galagos). Competing hypotheses favouring either an African or Asian origin for anthropoids rank among the most hotly contested issues in paleoprimatology. The Afrocentric model for anthropoid origins rests heavily on the >45 Myr old fossil Algeripithecus minutus from Algeria, which is widely acknowledged to be one of the oldest known anthropoids. However, the phylogenetic position of Algeripithecus with respect to other p…
Quenching of gA deduced from the β-spectrum shape of 113Cd measured with the COBRA experiment
2020
A dedicated study of the quenching of the weak axial-vector coupling strength gA in nuclear processes has been performed by the COBRA collaboration. This investigation is driven by nuclear model calculations which show that the β-spectrum shape of the fourfold forbidden non-unique decay of 113Cd strongly depends on the effective value of gA. Using an array of CdZnTe semiconductor detectors, 45 independent 113Cd spectra were obtained and interpreted in the context of three nuclear models. The resulting effective mean values are g‾A(ISM)=0.915±0.007, g‾A(MQPM)=0.911±0.013 and g‾A(IBFM-2)=0.955±0.022. These values agree well within the determined uncertainties and deviate significantly from th…
Intermolecular oxidative dehydrogenative 3,3′-coupling of benzo[b]furans and benzo[b]thiophenes promoted by DDQ/H+: total synthesis of shandougenine B
2016
With an excess of a strong acid, 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-quinone (DDQ) is shown to promote metal-free intermolecular oxidative dehydrogenative (ODH) 3,3'-coupling of 2-aryl-benzo[b]furans and 2-aryl-benzo[b]thiophenes up to 92% yield as demonstrated with 9 substrates. Based on the analysis of oxidation potentials and molecular orbitals combined with EPR, NMR and UV-Vis observations, the studied reaction is initiated by a DDQ-substrate charge transfer complex and presumably proceeds via oxidation of the substrate into an electrophilic radical cation that further reacts with another molecule of a neutral substrate. The coupling reactivity can easily be predicted from the oxidation potent…
Pot-Economy Autooxidative Condensation of 2-Aryl-2-lithio-1,3-dithianes
2018
The autoxidative condensation of 2-aryl-2-lithio-1,3-dithianes is here reported. Treatment of 2-aryl-1,3-dithianes with n-BuLi in the absence of any electrophile leads to condensation of three molecules of 1,3-dithianes and formation of highly functionalized α-thioether ketones orthothioesters in 51-89% yields upon air exposure. The method was further expanded to benzaldehyde dithioacetals, affording corresponding orthothioesters and α-thioether ketones in 48-97% yields. The experimental results combined with density functional theory studies support a mechanism triggered by the autoxidation of 2-aryl-2-lithio-1,3-dithianes to yield a highly reactive thioester that undergoes condensation wi…
Menstrual problems and lifestyle among Spanish university women
2020
Menstrual problems affect many young women worldwide, conditioning both their academic performance and quality of life. This study sought to analyse the prevalence of menstrual problems and their possible relationship with lifestyle among Spanish university women, as part of a research project (UniHcos Project) involving a cohort of 11 Spanish universities with 7208 university students. A descriptive analysis was performed using the bivariate chi-square test and the Student&rsquo
2D size, position and shape definition of defects by B-scan image analysis
2015
The non-destructive evaluation of defects by automatic procedures is of great importance for structural components. Thanks to the developments of the non-contact ultrasonic techniques, the automation of the inspections is gaining a progressively important role. In this work, an automatic inspection technique for the evaluation of defects by the analysis of B-scan images obtained by a laser ultrasonic system is presented. The data are extracted directly from a B-scan map obtained for a panel with internal defects, and are used to build an image of the cross section of the panel. The proposed automatic procedure allows the definition of size, position and shape of defects in panels of known t…
Multisensory texture exploration at the tip of the pen
2016
A tool for the multisensory stylus-based exploration of virtual textures was used to investigate how different feedback modalities (static or dynamically deformed images, vibration, sound) affect exploratory gestures. To this end, we ran an experiment where participants had to steer a path with the stylus through a curved corridor on the surface of a graphic tablet/display, and we measured steering time, dispersion of trajectories, and applied force. Despite the variety of subjective impressions elicited by the different feedback conditions, we found that only nonvisual feedback induced significant variations in trajectories and an increase in movement time. In a post-experiment, using a pa…
A 3D‑scaffold of PLLA induces the morphological differentiation and migration of primary astrocytes and promotes the production of extracellular vesi…
2019
The present study analyzed the ability of primary rat astrocytes to colonize a porous scaffold, mimicking the reticular structure of the brain parenchyma extracellular matrix, as well as their ability to grow, survive and differentiate on the scaffold. Scaffolds were prepared using poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) via thermally-induced phase separation. Firstly, the present study studied the effects of scaffold morphology on the growth of astrocytes, evaluating their capability to colonize. Specifically, two different morphologies were tested, which were obtained by changing the polymer concentration in the starting solution. The structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, and a…