Equilibrium morphologies of a macromolecule under soft confinement

We study equilibrium shapes and shape transformations of a confined semiflexible chain inside a soft lipid tubule using simulations and continuum theories. The deformed tubular shapes and chain conformations depend on the relative magnitude of their bending moduli. We characterise the collapsed macromolecular shapes by computing statistical quantities that probe the polymer properties at small length scales and report a prolate to toroidal coil transition for stiff chains. Deformed tubular shapes, calculated using elastic theories, agree with simulations. In conjunction with scattering studies, our work may provide a mechanistic understanding of gene encapsulation in soft structures.

A Low-Cost Surge Current Detection Sensor with Predictive Lifetime Display Function for Maintenance of Surge Protective Devices

In this study, a low-cost surge current detection sensor (SCDS) that can measure high current surges using a low-current toroidal coil is proposed for maintenance of a surge protective device (SPD). The proposed SCDS is designed to display the predicted lifetime of the SPD based on the magnitude of surge current and number of surges. In addition, a method for measuring high surge current using a toroidal coil that can usually measure only low current is proposed. A lightning strike counter consists of a microcontroller with a low-power liquid crystal display (LCD) driver, 3 VDC lithium battery, and signal conditioning circuit that converts amplitude information of the surge current into duration information of a negative pulse to facilitate processing in the microcontroller. In this paper, we propose a software algorithm that can calculate the remaining lifetime of SPD based on the amplitude and number of surge currents. There is also an option to select the capacity of the surge protective device and the number of phase lines, allowing it to assess the predicted lifetime for various types of Class II SPDs. The proposed SCDS is measured as 7.2 μA from the battery power consumption test, and the service life is calculated to be 11.1 years. It meets the International Standard IEC62561-6 test conditions of the lightning strike counter and is expected to be useful in the maintenance of SPDs and lightning protection systems.