Piezoelectric energy harvesting is the process of extracting electrical using harvester devices. Any stress in piezoelectric material will generate induced voltage. Previous device with stiff cantilever beam was generated low harvested energy. A flexural proposed to improve Polyvinylidene difluoride a polymer attached flexible circuit made polyimide. Four interdigitated electrode circuits were ...

In this paper, the energy flux in a pile modelled as an elastic shell, is studied theoretically and experimentally. Based on analysis, new procedure proposed to quantify installation efficiency. This of importance for vibratory foundations offshore wind turbines it believed be first that relies directly propagating down rather than supplied by shaker. The approach tested piles installed two dis...

Voltage gated potassium channels open and inactivate in response to changes of the voltage across the membrane. After removal of the fast N-type inactivation, voltage gated Shaker K-channels (Shaker-IR) are still able to inactivate through a poorly understood closure of the ion conduction pore. This, usually slower, inactivation shares with binding of pore occluding peptide toxin two important ...

We measured unidirectional K+ in- and efflux through an inward rectifier K channel (IRK1) expressed in Xenopus oocytes. The ratio of these unidirectional fluxes differed significantly from expectations based on independent ion movement. In an extracellular solution with a K+ concentration of 25 mM, the data were described by a Ussing flux-ratio exponent, n', of approximately 2.2 and was constan...

The mechanisms by which voltage-gated channels sense changes in membrane voltage and energetically couple this with opening of the ion conducting pore has been the source of significant interest. In voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels, much of our knowledge in this area comes from Shaker-type channels, for which voltage-dependent gating is quite rapid. In these channels, activation and deacti...

The aims of the study are to develop a non-invasive animal model of circular motion exercise and to evaluate the effect of this type of exercise on bone turnover in young rats. The circular motion exercise simulates isometric exercise using an orbital shaker that oscillates at a frequency of 50 Hz and is capable of speeds from 0-400 rpm. A cage is fixed on top of the shaker and the animals are ...

Charged residues in the S4 transmembrane segment play a key role in determining the sensitivity of voltage-gated ion channels to changes in voltage across the cell membrane. However, cooperative interactions between subunits also affect the voltage dependence of channel opening, and these interactions can be altered by making substitutions at uncharged residues in the S4 region. We have studied...