Mitigation of edgewise vibrations in wind turbine blades by means of roller dampers

Edgewise vibrations in wind turbine blades are lightly damped, and large amplitude vibrations induced by the turbulence may significantly shorten the fatigue life of the blade. This paper investigates the performance of roller dampers for mitigation of edgewise vibrations in rotating wind turbine blades. Normally, the centrifugal acceleration of the rotating blade can reach to a magnitude of 7–8g, which makes it possible to use this kind of damper with a relatively small mass ratio for suppressing edgewise vibrations effectively. The parameters of the damper to be optimized are the mass ratio, the frequency ratio, the coefficient of rolling friction and the position of the damper in the blade. The optimization of these parameters has been carried out on a reduced 2-DOF nonlinear model of the rotating wind turbine blade equipped with a roller damper in terms of a ball or a cylinder, ignoring the coupling with other degrees of freedom of the wind turbine. The edgewise modal loading on the blade has been calculated from a more sophisticated 13-DOF aeroelastic wind turbine model with due consideration to the indicated couplings, the turbulence and the aerodynamic damping. Various turbulence intensities and mean wind speeds have been considered to evaluate the effectiveness of the roller damper in reducing edgewise vibrations when the working conditions of the wind turbine are changed. Further, the optimized roller damper is incorporated into the 13-DOF wind turbine model to verify the application of the decoupled optimization. The results indicate that the proposed damper can effectively improve the structural response of wind turbine blades.     

Radicals in skew polynomial and skew Laurent polynomial rings

We provide a general procedure for characterizing radical-like functions of skew polynomial and skew Laurent polynomial rings under grading hypotheses. In particular, we are able to completely characterize the Wedderburn and Levitzki radicals of skew polynomial and skew Laurent polynomial rings in terms of ideals in the coefficient ring. We also introduce the T-nilpotent radideals, and perform similar characterizations.     

On the origin of Kaluza’s idea of unification and its relation to earlier work by Thirring

We argue that the starting point of Kaluzas idea of unifying electrodynamics and gravity was the analogy between gravitation and electromagnetism which was pointed out by Einstein and Thirring. It seems that Kaluzas attention was turned to this point by the three papers on the Lense–Thirring effect and the analogy between gravitation and electromagnetism which were published a short time before Kaluzas paper was submitted. We provide here also an English translation of the third of these papers (Phys. Zeits. 19: 204, 1918).     

Rapidity dependence of charged antihadron to hadron ratios in Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=200 GeV

We present ratios of the numbers of charged antihadrons to hadrons (pions, kaons, and protons) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=200 GeV as a function of rapidity in the range y=0-3. While the ratios at midrapidity are approaching unity, the K(-)/K(+) and p;/p ratios decrease significantly at forward rapidities. An interpretation of the results within the statistical model indicates a reduction of the baryon chemical potential from mu(B) approximately 130 MeV at y=3 to mu(B) approximately 25 MeV at y=0.     

Towards a Comprehensive Stability Theory for Feynman’s Operational Calculus: The Time-Dependent Setting

We obtain lower bounds on blow-up of solutions for the 3D magneto-micropolar equations. More precisely, we establish some estimates for the solution \((\mathbf{u},\mathbf{w},\mathbf{b}) (t)\) in its maximal interval \([0,T^{*})\) provided that \(T^{*}<\infty\), which show for \(\delta\in(0,1)\) that \(\|(\mathbf{u},\mathbf{w},\mathbf{b})(t)\|_{\dot{H}^{s}}\) is at least of the order \((T^{*}-t)^{-(\delta s)/(1+2\delta)}\) for \(s\geq1/2+\delta\). In particular, by choosing a suitable \(\delta\), one concludes that \(\|(\mathbf{u},\mathbf{w},\mathbf{b})(t)\|_{\dot{H}^{s}}\) is at least of the order \((T^{*}-t)^{-s/4}\), and \((T^{*}-t)^{1/4-s/2}\) for \(s\geq1\), and \(1/2< s<3/2\), respectively. We also show that \((T^{*}-t)^{-s/3}\) is a lower rate for \(\|(\mathbf{u},\mathbf{w},\mathbf{b})(t)\|_{\dot{H}^{s}}\) if \(s>3/2\).     

On the survival of peptide cations after electron capture: Role of internal hydrogen bonding and microsolvation

Electron capture by both bare and microsolvated small peptide dications was investigated by colliding these ions with sodium vapor in an accelerator mass spectrometer to provide insight into processes that occur on the microsecond time frame. Survival of the intact peptide monocation after electron capture depends strongly on molecular size. For dipeptides, no intact reduced species were observed; the predominant ions correspond to loss of hydrogen and ammonia. In contrast, the intact reduced species was observed for larger peptides. Calculated structures indicate that the diprotonated dipeptide ions form largely extended structures with low probability of internal ionic hydrogen bonding (i.e., charge solvation) whereas internal ionic H-bonding occurs extensively for larger peptide dications. Solvation of the peptide ions with between one to seven methanol molecules reduces the total extent of H loss even for dipeptides where intact reduced species can survive more than a microsecond after electron capture. The yield of ions corresponding to cleavage of NCalpha bonds (c+ and z+* ions) does not depend strongly on peptide size but decreases with the extent of microsolvation for the dipeptide dications. H-bonding appears to play an important role for the survival of the intact reduced ions but less so for the formation of c+ and z+* ions. Our results indicate that electron capture predominantly occurs at the ammonium groups (at least 70 to 80%), and provides important new insights into the electron capture dissociation process.     

Substrates and Cyclic Peptide Inhibitors of the Oligonucleotide-Activated Sirtuin 7**

The sirtuins are NAD⁺-dependent lysine deacylases, comprising seven isoforms (SIRT1–7) in humans, which are involved in the regulation of a plethora of biological processes, including gene expression and metabolism. The sirtuins share a common hydrolytic mechanism but display preferences for different ϵ-N-acyllysine substrates. SIRT7 deacetylates targets in nuclei and nucleoli but remains one of the lesser studied of the seven isoforms, in part due to a lack of chemical tools to specifically probe SIRT7 activity. Here we expressed SIRT7 and, using small-angle X-ray scattering, reveal SIRT7 to be a monomeric enzyme with a low degree of globular flexibility in solution. We developed a fluorogenic assay for investigation of the substrate preferences of SIRT7 and to evaluate compounds that modulate its activity. We report several mechanism-based SIRT7 inhibitors as well as de novo cyclic peptide inhibitors selected from mRNA-display library screening that exhibit selectivity for SIRT7 over other sirtuin isoforms, stabilize SIRT7 in cells, and cause an increase in the acetylation of H3 K18.     

Self-assembling cyclic peptides: molecular dynamics studies of dimers in polar and nonpolar solvents

The self-assembly of cyclic D,L-alpha-peptides into hollow nanotubes is a crucial mechanistic step in their application as antibacterial and drug-delivery agents. To understand this process, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed on dimers of cyclic peptides formed from cyclo [(-L-Trp-D-N-MeLeu-)4-]2 and cyclo [(-L-Trp-D-Leu-)4-]2 subunits in nonpolar (nonane) and polar (water) solvent. The dimers were observed to be stable only in nonpolar solvent over the full 10 ns length of the MD trajectory. The behavior of the dimers in different solvents is rationalized in terms of the intersubunit hydrogen bonding, hydrogen bonding with the solvent, and planarity of the rings. It is shown that the phi and psi dihedral angles of a single uncapped ring in nonane lie in the beta-sheet region of the Ramachandran plot, and the ring stays in a flat conformation. Steered MD (SMD) simulations based on Jarzynski's equality were performed to obtain the potential of mean force as a function of the distance between the two rings of the capped dimer in nonane. It is also shown that a single peptide subunit prefers to reside close to the nonane/water interface rather than in bulk solvent because of the amphiphilic character of the peptide ring. The present MD results build the foundation for using MD simulations to study the mechanism of the formation of cyclic peptide nanotubes in lipid bilayers.     

Origin of Stability in Branched Alkanes

The potential origins of stability in branched alkanes are investigated, paying close attention to two recent hypotheses: geminal steric repulsion and protobranching. All alkane isomers through C₆H₁₄ along with heptane and octane were investigated at the MPW1B95/6‐311++G(d,p) level. Their geminal steric repulsion, total steric repulsion, and orbital interactions were evaluated by using natural bond orbital analysis. All measures of steric repulsion fail to explain the stability of branched alkanes. The extra stability of branched alkanes and protobranching, in general, is tied to stabilizing geminal σ→σ* delocalization, particularly of the type that involves adjacent C? C bonds and, thus, preferentially stabilizes branched alkanes. This picture is corroborated by valence bond calculations that attribute the effect to additional ionic structures (e.g., CH₃⁺ :CH₂ :CH₃^? and CH₃:^? CH₂: CH₃⁺ for propane) that are not possible without protobranching.