Time-Domain Approach to Estimate Series Capacitance of an Isolated Phase Winding of a Transformer

Information available in frequency response data is equivalently available in the time domain as a response due to an impulse excitation. The idea to pursue this equivalence to estimate series capacitance is linked to the well-known fact that under impulse excitation, the line/neutral current in a transformer has three distinct components, of which, the initial capacitive component is the first to manifest, followed by the oscillatory and inductive components. Of these, the capacitive component is temporally well separated from the rest-a crucial feature permitting its direct access and analysis. Further, the winding initially behaves as a pure capacitive network, so the initial component must obviously originate from only the (series and shunt) capacitances. With this logic, it should therefore be possible to estimate series capacitance, just by measuring the initial capacitive component of line current and the total shunt capacitance. The principle of the method and details of its implementation on two actual isolated transformerwindings (uniformly wound) are presented. For implementation, a low-voltage recurrent surge generator, a current probe, and a digital oscilloscope are all that is needed. The method is simple and requires no programming and needs least user intervention, thus paving the way for its widespread use.

Dynamics of intermittent force fluctuations in vesicular nanotubulation

Irregular force fluctuations are seen in most nanotubulation experiments. The dynamics behind their presence has, however, been neither commented upon nor modeled. A simple estimate of the mean energy dissipated in force drops turns out to be several times the thermal energy. This coupled with the rate dependent nature of the deformation reported in several experiments point to a dynamical origin of the serrations. We simplify the whole process of tether formation through a three-stage model of successive deformations of sphere to ellipsoid, neck-formation, and tubule birth and extension. Based on this, we envisage a rate-softening frictional force at the neck that must be overcome before a nanotube can be pulled out. Our minimal model includes elastic and visco-elastic deformation of the vesicle, and has built-in dependence on pull velocity, vesicle radius, and other material parameters, enabling us to capture various kinds of serrated force-extension curves for different parameter choices. Serrations are predicted in the nanotubulation region. Other features of force-extension plots reported in the literature such as a plateauing serrated region beyond a force drop, serrated flow region with a small positive slope, an increase in the elastic threshold with pull velocity, force-extension curves for vesicles with larger radius lying lower than those for smaller radius, are all also predicted by the model. A toy model is introduced to demonstrate that the role of the friction law is limited to inducing stick-slip oscillations in the force, and all other qualitative and quantitative features emerging from the model can only be attributed to other physical mechanisms included in the deformation dynamics of the vesicle. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Optimal error estimate using mesh equidistribution technique for singularly perturbed system of reaction-diffusion boundary-value problems

In this article, we study the problem of determining an appropriate grading of meshes for a system of coupled singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problems having diffusion parameters with different magnitudes. The central difference scheme is used to discretize the problem on adaptively generated mesh where the mesh equation is derived using an equidistribution principle. An a priori monitor function is obtained from the error estimate. A suitable a posteriori analogue of this monitor function is also derived for the mesh construction which will lead to an optimal second-order parameter uniform convergence. We present the results of numerical experiments for linear and semilinear reaction-diffusion systems to support the effectiveness of our preferred monitor function obtained from theoretical analysis. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Estimating the volume of glaciers in the Himalayan-Karakoram region using different methods

Ice volume estimates are crucial for assessing water reserves stored in glaciers. Due to its large glacier coverage, such estimates are of particular interest for the Himalayan-Karakoram (HK) region. In this study, different existing methodologies are used to estimate the ice reserves: three area-volume relations, one slope-dependent volume estimation method, and two ice-thickness distribution models are applied to a recent, detailed, and complete glacier inventory of the HK region, spanning over the period 2000-2010 and revealing an ice coverage of 40 775 km(2). An uncertainty and sensitivity assessment is performed to investigate the influence of the observed glacier area and important model parameters on the resulting total ice volume. Results of the two ice-thickness distribution models are validated with local ice-thickness measurements at six glaciers. The resulting ice volumes for the entire HK region range from 2955 to 4737 km(3), depending on the approach. This range is lower than most previous estimates. Results from the ice thickness distribution models and the slope-dependent thickness estimations agree well with measured local ice thicknesses. However, total volume estimates from area-related relations are larger than those from other approaches. The study provides evidence on the significant effect of the selected method on results and underlines the importance of a careful and critical evaluation.

LOWER BOUNDS FOR BOXICITY

An axis-parallel b-dimensional box is a Cartesian product R-1 x R-2 x ... x R-b where R-i is a closed interval of the form a(i),b(i)] on the real line. For a graph G, its boxicity box(G) is the minimum dimension b, such that G is representable as the intersection graph of boxes in b-dimensional space. Although boxicity was introduced in 1969 and studied extensively, there are no significant results on lower bounds for boxicity. In this paper, we develop two general methods for deriving lower bounds. Applying these methods we give several results, some of which are listed below: 1. The boxicity of a graph on n vertices with no universal vertices and minimum degree delta is at least n/2(n-delta-1). 2. Consider the g(n,p) model of random graphs. Let p <= 1 - 40logn/n(2.) Then with high `` probability, box(G) = Omega(np(1 - p)). On setting p = 1/2 we immediately infer that almost all graphs have boxicity Omega(n). Another consequence of this result is as follows: For any positive constant c < 1, almost all graphs on n vertices and m <= c((n)(2)) edges have boxicity Omega(m/n). 3. Let G be a connected k-regular graph on n vertices. Let lambda be the second largest eigenvalue in absolute value of the adjacency matrix of G. Then, the boxicity of G is a least (kappa(2)/lambda(2)/log(1+kappa(2)/lambda(2))) (n-kappa-1/2n). 4. For any positive constant c 1, almost all balanced bipartite graphs on 2n vertices and m <= cn(2) edges have boxicity Omega(m/n).

DEEP WASHINGTON PHOTOMETRY OF INCONSPICUOUS STAR CLUSTER CANDIDATES IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

We present deep Washington photometry of 45 poorly populated star cluster candidates in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We have performed a systematic study to estimate the parameters of the cluster candidates by matching theoretical isochrones to the cleaned and dereddened cluster color-magnitude diagrams. We were able to estimate the basic parameters for 33 clusters, out of which 23 are identified as single clusters and 10 are found to be members of double clusters. The other 12 cluster candidates have been classified as possible clusters/asterisms. About 50% of the true clusters are in the 100-300 Myr age range, whereas some are older or younger. We have discussed the distribution of age, location, and reddening with respect to field, as well as the size of true clusters. The sizes and masses of the studied sample are found to be similar to that of open clusters in the Milky Way. Our study adds to the lower end of cluster mass distribution in the LMC, suggesting that the LMC, apart from hosting rich clusters, also has formed small, less massive open clusters in the 100-300 Myr age range.

High Temperatures Result in Smaller Nurseries which Lower Reproduction of Pollinators and Parasites in a Brood Site Pollination Mutualism

In a nursery pollination mutualism, we asked whether environmental factors affected reproduction of mutualistic pollinators, non-mutualistic parasites and seed production via seasonal changes in plant traits such as inflorescence size and within-tree reproductive phenology. We examined seasonal variation in reproduction in Ficus racemosa community members that utilise enclosed inflorescences called syconia as nurseries. Temperature, relative humidity and rainfall defined four seasons: winter; hot days, cold nights; summer and wet seasons. Syconium volumes were highest in winter and lowest in summer, and affected syconium contents positively across all seasons. Greater transpiration from the nurseries was possibly responsible for smaller syconia in summer. The 3-5 degrees C increase in mean temperatures between the cooler seasons and summer reduced fig wasp reproduction and increased seed production nearly two-fold. Yet, seed and pollinator progeny production were never negatively related in any season confirming the mutualistic fig-pollinator association across seasons. Non-pollinator parasites affected seed production negatively in some seasons, but had a surprisingly positive relationship with pollinators in most seasons. While within-tree reproductive phenology did not vary across seasons, its effect on syconium inhabitants varied with season. In all seasons, within-tree reproductive asynchrony affected parasite reproduction negatively, whereas it had a positive effect on pollinator reproduction in winter and a negative effect in summer. Seasonally variable syconium volumes probably caused the differential effect of within-tree reproductive phenology on pollinator reproduction. Within-tree reproductive asynchrony itself was positively affected by intra-tree variation in syconium contents and volume, creating a unique feedback loop which varied across seasons. Therefore, nursery size affected fig wasp reproduction, seed production and within-tree reproductive phenology via the feedback cycle in this system. Climatic factors affecting plant reproductive traits cause biotic relationships between plants, mutualists and parasites to vary seasonally and must be accorded greater attention, especially in the context of climate change.

Using long time series of agricultural-derived nitrates for estimating catchment transit times

The estimation of water and solute transit times in catchments is crucial for predicting the response of hydrosystems to external forcings (climatic or anthropogenic). The hydrogeochemical signatures of tracers (either natural or anthropogenic) in streams have been widely used to estimate transit times in catchments as they integrate the various processes at stake. However, most of these tracers are well suited for catchments with mean transit times lower than about 4-5 years. Since the second half of the 20th century, the intensification of agriculture led to a general increase of the nitrogen load in rivers. As nitrate is mainly transported by groundwater in agricultural catchments, this signal can be used to estimate transit times greater than several years, even if nitrate is not a conservative tracer. Conceptual hydrological models can be used to estimate catchment transit times provided their consistency is demonstrated, based on their ability to simulate the stream chemical signatures at various time scales and catchment internal processes such as N storage in groundwater. The objective of this study was to assess if a conceptual lumped model was able to simulate the observed patterns of nitrogen concentration, at various time scales, from seasonal to pluriannual and thus if it was relevant to estimate the nitrogen transit times in headwater catchments. A conceptual lumped model, representing shallow groundwater flow as two parallel linear stores with double porosity, and riparian processes by a constant nitrogen removal function, was applied on two paired agricultural catchments which belong to the Research Observatory ORE AgrHys. The Global Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) approach was used to estimate parameter values and uncertainties. The model performance was assessed on (i) its ability to simulate the contrasted patterns of stream flow and stream nitrate concentrations at seasonal and inter-annual time scales, (ii) its ability to simulate the patterns observed in groundwater at the same temporal scales, and (iii) the consistency of long-term simulations using the calibrated model and the general pattern of the nitrate concentration increase in the region since the beginning of the intensification of agriculture in the 1960s. The simulated nitrate transit times were found more sensitive to climate variability than to parameter uncertainty, and average values were found to be consistent with results from others studies in the same region involving modeling and groundwater dating. This study shows that a simple model can be used to simulate the main dynamics of nitrogen in an intensively polluted catchment and then be used to estimate the transit times of these pollutants in the system which is crucial to guide mitigation plans design and assessment. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Lower bounds for testing triangle-freeness in Boolean functions

Given a Boolean function , we say a triple (x, y, x + y) is a triangle in f if . A triangle-free function contains no triangle. If f differs from every triangle-free function on at least points, then f is said to be -far from triangle-free. In this work, we analyze the query complexity of testers that, with constant probability, distinguish triangle-free functions from those -far from triangle-free. Let the canonical tester for triangle-freeness denotes the algorithm that repeatedly picks x and y uniformly and independently at random from , queries f(x), f(y) and f(x + y), and checks whether f(x) = f(y) = f(x + y) = 1. Green showed that the canonical tester rejects functions -far from triangle-free with constant probability if its query complexity is a tower of 2's whose height is polynomial in . Fox later improved the height of the tower in Green's upper bound to . A trivial lower bound of on the query complexity is immediate. In this paper, we give the first non-trivial lower bound for the number of queries needed. We show that, for every small enough , there exists an integer such that for all there exists a function depending on all n variables which is -far from being triangle-free and requires queries for the canonical tester. We also show that the query complexity of any general (possibly adaptive) one-sided tester for triangle-freeness is at least square root of the query complexity of the corresponding canonical tester. Consequently, this means that any one-sided tester for triangle-freeness must make at least queries.

Spatio-temporal correlations in aqueous systems: computational studies of static and dynamic heterogeneity by 2D-IR spectroscopy

Local heterogeneity is ubiquitous in natural aqueous systems. It can be caused locally by external biomolecular subsystems like proteins, DNA, micelles and reverse micelles, nanoscopic materials etc., but can also be intrinsic to the thermodynamic nature of the aqueous solution itself (like binary mixtures or at the gas-liquid interface). The altered dynamics of water in the presence of such diverse surfaces has attracted considerable attention in recent years. As these interfaces are quite narrow, only a few molecular layers thick, they are hard to study by conventional methods. The recent development of two dimensional infra-red (2D-IR) spectroscopy allows us to estimate length and time scales of such dynamics fairly accurately. In this work, we present a series of interesting studies employing two dimensional infra-red spectroscopy (2D-IR) to investigate (i) the heterogeneous dynamics of water inside reverse micelles of varying sizes, (ii) supercritical water near the Widom line that is known to exhibit pronounced density fluctuations and also study (iii) the collective and local polarization fluctuation of water molecules in the presence of several different proteins. The spatio-temporal correlation of confined water molecules inside reverse micelles of varying sizes is well captured through the spectral diffusion of corresponding 2D-IR spectra. In the case of supercritical water also, we observe a strong signature of dynamic heterogeneity from the elongated nature of the 2D-IR spectra. In this case the relaxation is ultrafast. We find remarkable agreement between the different tools employed to study the relaxation of density heterogeneity. For aqueous protein solutions, we find that the calculated dielectric constant of the respective systems unanimously shows a noticeable increment compared to that of neat water. However, the `effective' dielectric constant for successive layers shows significant variation, with the layer adjacent to the protein having a much lower value. Relaxation is also slowest at the surface. We find that the dielectric constant achieves the bulk value at distances more than 3 nm from the surface of the protein.

High-Temperature Workability of Thixocast A356 Aluminum Alloy

The present work highlights the role of globular microstructure on the workability of A356 aluminum alloy at elevated temperature. The hot deformation behavior was studied by isothermal hot compression tests in the temperature range 573 K to 773 K (300 A degrees C to 500 A degrees C) and strain rate range of 0.001 to 10 s(-1). The flow stress data obtained from the tests were used to estimate the strain rate sensitivity and strain rate hardening. Flow stress analysis of the alloy shows that the effect of temperature on strain hardening is more significant at lower strain levels and strain rate sensitivity is independent of strain. The results also reveal that the flowability of conventionally cast alloy increases after changing the dendritic microstructure into a globular structure through semisolid processing route. Thixocast alloy exhibits lower yield strength and higher elongation at elevated temperature in comparisons to conventionally cast values. This property has an important implication toward thixo-forming at an elevated temperature. (C) The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2015

Lower bounds on Ricci flow invariant curvatures and geometric applications

We consider Ricci flow invariant cones C in the space of curvature operators lying between the cones ``nonnegative Ricci curvature'' and ``nonnegative curvature operator''. Assuming some mild control on the scalar curvature of the Ricci flow, we show that if a solution to the Ricci flow has its curvature operator which satisfies R + epsilon I is an element of C at the initial time, then it satisfies R + epsilon I is an element of C on some time interval depending only on the scalar curvature control. This allows us to link Gromov-Hausdorff convergence and Ricci flow convergence when the limit is smooth and R + I is an element of C along the sequence of initial conditions. Another application is a stability result for manifolds whose curvature operator is almost in C. Finally, we study the case where C is contained in the cone of operators whose sectional curvature is nonnegative. This allows us to weaken the assumptions of the previously mentioned applications. In particular, we construct a Ricci flow for a class of (not too) singular Alexandrov spaces.

An estimate of the number of tropical tree species

The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher's alpha and an approximate pantropical stem total to estimate the minimum number of tropical forest tree species to fall between similar to 40,000 and similar to 53,000, i.e., at the high end of previous estimates. Contrary to common assumption, the Indo-Pacific region was found to be as species-rich as the Neotropics, with both regions having a minimum of similar to 19,000-25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of similar to 4,500-6,000 tree species. Very few species are shared among the African, American, and the Indo-Pacific regions. We provide a methodological framework for estimating species richness in trees that may help refine species richness estimates of tree-dependent taxa.

Estimate of N2O release from pit-toilets

The use of pit-toilets has severely contaminated the groundwater with nitrate ions in Mulbagal town, Karnataka, India. This paper examines the potential of nitrate ions in the pit-toilet effluents to transform to N2O and to escape to atmosphere from 16 wards of Mulbagal town. Anaerobic conditions prevailing in the pit-toilet convert 25 % of the available N to ammonium ions. Only 3-33 % of ammonium ions transform to nitrate ions in the pit-toilet and escape with the effluent. During migration to aquifer, only 4.5 % of available nitrate concentration in the effluent transforms to N-2 and N2O gases in the 1.5-m-thick saturated zone underlying the pit-toilet; 36-55 % of the gases comprise N2O and the remainder of N-2. Further only 18 % of N2O formed escapes to atmosphere, while the remainder is retained in soil solution. Calculations show that 9.88 x 10(13) molecules of N2O/cm(2) would be cumulatively released from 16 wards of Mulbagal town, over an area of 4.9 km(2).

A novel interferometric technique to estimate thermal diffusivity of `optically transparent solid' using `Isothermal surface velocimetry'

One-dimensional transient heat flow is interpreted as a procession of `macro-scale translatory motion of indexed isothermal surfaces'. A new analytical model is proposed by introducing velocity of isothermal surface in Fourier heat diffusion equation. The velocity dependent function is extracted by revisiting `the concept of thermal layer of heat conduction in solid' and `exact solution' to estimate thermal diffusivity. The experimental approach involves establishment of 1 D unsteady heat flow inside the sample through Step-temperature excitation. A novel self-reference interferometer is utilized to separate a `unique isothermal surface' in time-varying temperature field. The translatory motion of the said isothermal surface is recorded using digital camera to estimate its velocity. From the knowledge of thermo-optic coefficient, temperature of the said isothermal surface is predicted. The performance of proposed method is evaluated for Quartz sample and compared with literature.