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Objectives: Previous studies have confirmed a link between specific inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the causal relationship between them is not completely clear. This Mendelian Randomization (MR) study aims to evaluate the causal relationship between 18 inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory bowel disease. Method: Two-sample Mendelian randomization utilized genetic variances associated with IBD from two extensive publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS) (Crohn's Disease (CD): 12,194 cases and 28,072 controls; Ulcerative Colitis (UC): 12,336 cases and 33,609 controls). The data of inflammatory cytokines was acquired from a GWAS including 8,293 healthy participants. We used inverse variance weighted method, MR-Egger, weighted median, simple model and weighted model to evaluate the causal relationship between inflammatory cytokines and IBD. Sensitivity analysis includes heterogeneity and pleiotropy analysis to evaluate the robustness of the results. Results: The findings indicated suggestive positive associations between Interleukin-13 (IL-13) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) with CD (odds ratio, OR: 1.101, 95%CI: 1.021-1.188, p = 0.013; OR: 1.134, 95%CI: 1.024-1.255, p = 0.015). IL-13 also displayed a significant positive correlation with UC (OR: 1.099, 95%CI: 1.018-1.186, p = 0.016). Stem cell factor (SCF) was suggested to be associated with the development of both CD and UC (OR: 1.032, 95%CI: 0.973-1.058, p = 0.012; OR: 1.038, 95%CI: 1.005-1.072, p = 0.024). Conclusion: This study proposes that IL-13 may be a factor correlated with the etiology of IBD (CD and UC), while MIF just be specifically associated with CD. Additionally, SCF appears more likely to be involved in the downstream development of IBD (CD and UC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of plasma displacement is one of the most basic diagnostic tools in the study of plasma equilibrium and control in a toroidal magnetic confinement configuration. During pulse discharge, the eddy current induced in the vacuum vessel and shell will produce an additional magnetic field at the plasma boundary, which will have a significant impact on the measurement of plasma displacement using magnetic probes. In the newly built Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX) reversed field pinch device, the eddy current in the composite shell can be obtained at a high spatial resolution. This device offers a new way to determine the plasma displacement for KTX through the multipole moment expansion of the eddy current, which can be obtained by unique probe arrays installed on the inner and outer surfaces of the composite shell. In an ideal conductor shell approximation, the method of multipole moment expansion of the poloidal eddy current for measuring the plasma displacement in toroidal coordinates, is more accurate than the previous method based on symmetrical magnetic probes, which yielded results in cylindrical coordinates. Through an analytical analysis of many current filaments and numerical simulations of the current distribution in toroidal coordinates, the scaling relation between the first moment of the eddy current and the center of gravity of the plasma current is obtained. In addition, the origin of the multipole moment expansion of the eddy current in KTX is retrieved simultaneously. Preliminary data on the plasma displacement have been collected using these two methods during short pulse discharges in the KTX device, and the results of the two methods are in reasonable agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bloom-forming cyanobacteria, Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, is a producer of the cytotoxic cylindrospermopsin (CYN). In this study, the growth, toxin yield, and expression of CYN biosynthesis genes of C. raciborskii were examined under varying phosphorus (P) concentrations. The results show the cell number at 0.00 and 0.01 mg L-1 P was significantly lower than that at higher P concentrations (≥0.5 mg L-1). The chlorophyll a content, filament length, heterocyst, and akinete numbers at P ⩽ 0.05 mg L-1 were also significantly reduced. The intracellular and extracellular CYN concentrations and the extracellular proportions increased during the culture period, and larger values were observed at higher P concentrations. Total CYN content reached 45.34-63.83 fg cell-1 and extracellular CYN proportion reached 11.49%-20.44% at the stationary growth phase. A significantly positive correlation was observed between CYN production and cell growth rate. Three cyr genes were expressed constantly even at P-deficient conditions. The transcription of cyr genes at P-replete conditions or after P supplementation increased from 1.18-fold to 8.33-fold. In conclusion, C. raciborskii may rapidly reorganize metabolic processes as an adaptive response to environmental P fluctuations. CYN production and cyr gene expression were constitutive metabolic processes in toxic C. raciborskii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a reversed field pinch device, the conductive shell is placed as close as possible to the plasma so as to balance the plasma during discharge. Plasma instabilities such as the resistive wall mode and certain tearing modes, which restrain the plasma high parameter operation, respond closely with conditions in the wall, in essence the eddy current present. Also, the effect of eddy currents induced by the external coils cannot be ignored when active control is applied to control instabilities. One diagnostic tool, an eddy current probe array, detects the eddy current in the composite shell. Magnetic probes measuring differences between the inner and outer magnetic fields enable estimates of the amplitude and angle of these eddy currents. Along with measurements of currents through the copper bolts connecting the poloidal shield copper shells, we can obtain the eddy currents over the entire shell. Magnetic field and eddy current resolutions approach 2 G and 6 A, respectively. Additionally, the vortex electric field can be obtained by eddy current probes. As the conductivity of the composite shell is high, the eddy current probe array is very sensitive to the electric field and has a resolution of 0.2 mV/cm. In a bench test experiment using a 1/4 vacuum vessel, measurements of the induced eddy currents are compared with simulation results based on a 3D electromagnetic model. The preliminary data of the eddy currents have been detected during discharges in a Keda Torus eXperiment device. The typical value of toroidal and poloidal eddy currents across the magnetic probe coverage rectangular area could reach 3.0 kA and 1.3 kA, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact and lightweight support platform has been used as a holder for the interferometer system on the Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX), which is a reversed field pinch device. The vibration caused by the interaction between the time-varying magnetic field and the induced current driven in the metal optical components has been measured and, following comparison with the mechanical vibration of the KTX device and the refraction effect of the ambient turbulent air flow, has been identified as the primary vibration source in this case. To eliminate this electromagnetic disturbance, nonmetallic epoxy resin has been selected as the material for the support platform and the commercially available metal optical mounts are replaced. Following these optimization steps and mechanical reinforcements, the stability of the interferometer platform has improved significantly. The phase shift caused by the vibration has been reduced to the level of background noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, with a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation model, we compare the structures of a primary magnetic island to those of a secondary magnetic island, and these islands are formed during collisionless magnetic reconnection in a force-free current sheet. The out-of-plane magnetic field By is enhanced in the center of both the primary and secondary islands; however, a quadrupole structure of By with a good symmetry may be formed at the ends of the primary island. The in-plane electric field also exists in both the primary and secondary islands. The electric field Ex has a positive value in the left and a negative value in the right of the islands, while the electric field Ez has a positive value in the upper part and a positive value in the lower part of the islands. However, the in-plane electric field exists in the outer part of the primary island, while it exists in the center of the secondary island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial and temporal evolutions of compound sawteeth were directly observed using 2D electron cyclotron emission imaging on experimental advanced superconducting tokamak. The compound sawtooth consists of partial and full collapses. After partial collapse, the hot core survives as only a small amount of heat disperses outwards, whereas in the following full collapse a large amount of heat is released and the hot core dissipates. The presence of two q×1 surfaces was not observed. Instead, the compound sawtooth occurs mainly at the beginning of an ion cyclotron resonant frequency heating pulse and during the L-H transition phase, which may be related to heat transport suppression caused by a decrease in electron heat diffusivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dispersion relation for geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) is derived by applying a gyrokinetic model that accounts for the effects from both collisions and impurities. Based on the dispersion relation, an analysis is performed for the non-monotonic behavior of GAM damping versus the characteristic collision rate at various impurity levels. As the effective charge increases, the maximum damping rate is found to shift towards lower collision rates, nearer to the parameter range of a typical tokamak edge plasma. The relative strengths of ion-ion and impurity-induced collision effects, which are illustrated by numerical calculations, are found to be comparable. Impurity-induced collisions help decrease the frequency of GAM, while their effects on the damping rate are non-monotonic, resulting in a weaker total damping in the high collision regime. The results presented suggest considering collision effects as well as impurity effects in GAM analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A solid-state source based terahertz (THz) interferometer diagnostic system has been designed and characterized for the Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX). The THz interferometer utilizes the planar diodes based frequency multiplier (X48) to provide the probing beam at fixed frequency 0.650 THz, and local oscillator is provided by an independent solid-state diode source with tunable frequency (0.650 THz +/- 10 MHz). Both solid-state sources have approximately 1 mW power. The planar-diode mixers optimized for high sensitivity, ~750 mV/mW, are used in the heterodyne detection system, which permits multichannel interferometer on KTX with a low phase noise. A sensitivity of 16 (nel)min = 4.5 x 1016 m-2 and a temporal resolution of 0.2 µs have been achieved during the initial bench test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX) is still operated in the commissioning phase, and preparation for the operation capability of the KTX phase II upgrade is underway. The diagnostics in the KTX have been greatly developed: (1) the terahertz interferometer has been upgraded to seven chords for electron density profile inversion; (2) a Thomson scattering system with a 5 Joule laser has been installed and commissioning is in progress; (3) a 3D movable probe system has been developed for the electromagnetic turbulence measurement; (4) double-foil soft x-ray imaging diagnostics have been set up and a bench test has been completed; (5) an edge capacitive probe has been installed for the radial electrical field measurement; (6) a multi-channel spectrograph system has been built for detecting impurities of carbon and oxygen. In addition, the design of a new compact torus injection system has been completed for feeding and momentum driving. Pilot research, such as the 3D reversed field pinch physics and electromagnetic turbulence, etc, have been conducted in the discharge status of the KTX. The 3D spectra characters of electromagnetic turbulence are firstly measured using a classical two-point technique by Langmuir probe arrays set on the 3D movable probe system and edge magnetic sensors. The forward scattering is collected by the interferometer system, which shows the potential for turbulence research. The electromagnetic turbulence is tentatively investigated in the KTX. The formation of a quasi-single-helicity state in the KTX regime is also preliminarily explored in simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX) is a new reversed field pinch (RFP) device at the University of Science and Technology of China. The construction and assembly of KTX, including the vacuum chamber, conducting shell, magnetic field windings, power supply system, active control coils, vacuum pump and data acquisition system, have been completed on August 1, 2015. Immediately following that, the first plasma was obtained on August 15, 2015. Intensive conditioning of the machine is underway to ramp up the plasma current toward its full operation. An active feedback mode control system has been built and has been implemented to control the error field around the vertical gaps of the conducting shell. The pulsed power supply systems of ohmic heating field and toroidal field (TF), using thyristor and energy storage capacitors, have been tested and commissioned. The TF power supply has flexibility in being able to operate with a reversed TF configuration and stable TF configuration. The fundamental diagnostic tools are developed for early KTX operation. Currently, the plasma current is up to 205 kA and the maximum discharge length is 21 ms, approaching to the conducting shell penetration time. Furthermore, typical RFP discharges are being produced with RFP state lasting 2 ms. These initial operation results for KTX are described in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]