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Large Distortion (large + distortion)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Engineering50%

Selected Abstracts

Escherichia coli cyclophilin B binds a highly distorted form of trans -prolyl peptide isomer

FEBS JOURNAL, Issue 18 2004
Michiko Konno
Cyclophilins facilitate the peptidyl-prolyl isomerization of a trans -isomer to a cis -isomer in the refolding process of unfolded proteins to recover the natural folding state with cis -proline conformation. To date, only short peptides with a cis -form proline have been observed in complexes of human and Escherichia coli proteins of cyclophilin A, which is present in cytoplasm. The crystal structures analyzed in this study show two complexes in which peptides having a trans -form proline, i.e. succinyl-Ala- trans -Pro-Ala- p -nitroanilide and acetyl-Ala-Ala- trans -Pro-Ala-amidomethylcoumarin, are bound on a K163T mutant of Escherichia coli cyclophilin B, the preprotein of which has a signal sequence. Comparison with cis -form peptides bound to cyclophilin A reveals that in any case the proline ring is inserted into the hydrophobic pocket and a hydrogen bond between CO of Pro and N,2 of Arg is formed to fix the peptide. On the other hand, in the cis -isomer, the formation of two hydrogen bonds of NH and CO of Ala preceding Pro with the protein fixes the peptide, whereas in the trans -isomer formation of a hydrogen bond between CO preceding Ala-Pro and His47 N,2 via a mediating water molecule allows the large distortion in the orientation of Ala of Ala-Pro. Although loss of double bond character of the amide bond of Ala-Pro is essential to the isomerization pathway occurring by rotating around its bond, these peptides have forms impossible to undergo proton transfer from the guanidyl group of Arg to the prolyl N atom, which induces loss of double bond character. [source]

Large displacement FEM modelling of the cone penetration test (CPT) in normally consolidated sand

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 7 2003
Endra Susila
Abstract A new finite element model based on a large strain formulation has been developed to study cone penetration in normally consolidated sand. An auto-adaptive remeshing technique was utilized for handling the very large distortion of sand surrounding the cone tip. A frictional contact interface utilizing Mohr,Coulomb's theory was chosen to represent interactions between the surface of the cone and sand. To model the sand behaviour, the non-associated Drucker,Prager constitutive model was selected. ABAQUS, a commercial finite element software package, was used to implement the model. The explicit solution algorithm was chosen due to its effectiveness for complicated contact problems. Analysis results proved that the model successfully captured the cone penetration behavior in sand. In addition, a chart to predict internal friction angles based on cone tip resistance for different vertical effective stresses was provided. This paper also shows a typical distribution of sleeve resistance, tip resistance,penetration relationship, and typical contours of vertical, horizontal, and shear stresses in normally consolidated sand. Finally, a non-uniform resistance was found along the length of the friction sleeve. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Calibration of the pass-through magnetometer,II.

GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2002
Application
Summary We describe the experimental procedure we use to calibrate a cryogenic pass-through magnetometer. The procedure is designed to characterize the magnetometer sensitivity as a function of position within the sensing region. Then we extend a theory developed in an earlier paper to cover inexact observations and apply it to the data set. The theory allows the calculation of a smooth, harmonic, internally consistent interpolating function for each of the nine components of the response tensor of the magnetometer. With these functions we can calculate the response to a dipole source in any orientation and position, and predict the magnetometer signal from any kind of specimen. The magnetometer in the paleomagnetic laboratory onboard the research vessel Joides Resolution is the subject of one such experiment and we present the results. The variation with position of sensitivity is displayed in a series of plane slices through the magnetometer. We discover from the calibration model that the X and Z coils are misaligned so that the magnetic centre of the coils is displaced from the geometric centre by approximately 0.7 cm. We synthesize the signal expected from the magnetometer when a variety of simple cores are measured. We find that, unless appropriate corrections are made, changes in magnetization direction can appear as variations in magnetic intensity, and conversely, fluctuations in the magnetization strength can produce apparent swings in declination and inclination. The magnitude of these effects is not small and is certainly worth taking into account in the interpretation of records from this kind of instrument. In a pilot study on data from a core measured with the shipboard magnetometer, we observe some large distortions, particularly in declination, that are attributable to uncorrected instrumental effects. [source]

Stabilized updated Lagrangian corrected SPH for explicit dynamic problems

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 13 2007
Y. Vidal
Abstract Smooth particle hydrodynamics with a total Lagrangian formulation are, in general, more robust than finite elements for large distortion problems. Nevertheless, updating the reference configuration may still be necessary in some problems involving extremely large distortions. However, as discussed here, a standard updated formulation suffers the presence of zero-energy modes that are activated and may completely spoil the solution. It is important to note that, unlike an Eulerian formulation, the updated Lagrangian does not present tension instability but only zero-energy modes. Here a stabilization technique is incorporated to the updated formulation to obtain an improved method without any mechanisms and which is capable to solve problems with extremely large distortions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]