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Nuclear fusion is one of the most attractive alternatives to carbon-dependent energy sources

Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy was included with insurance coverage from 1999 onwards in Japan, with the incidence of peptic ulcer expected to decrease as a consequence. This study investigated the temporal dynamics of peptic ulcer in Japan and identified underlying contributory factors using mathematical models. We investigated the seroprevalence of H. pylori and analysed a snapshot of peptic ulcer cases. Ten statistical models that incorporated important events – H. pylori infection, the cohort effect, eradication therapy and the natural trend for reduction – were fitted to the case data. The hazard of infection with H. pylori was extracted from published estimates. Models were compared using the Akaike information criterion (AIC), and factor contributions were quantified using the coefficient of determination. The best-fit model indicated that 88.1% of the observed snapshot of cases (AIC = 289.2) included the effects of (i) H. pylori infection, (ii) the cohort effect and (iii) eradication therapy, as explanatory variables, the contributions of which were 80.8%, 4.0% and 3.2%, respectively. Among inpatients, a simpler model with (i) H. pylori infection only was favoured (AIC = 107.7). The time-dependent epidemiological dynamics of peptic ulcers were captured and H. pylori infection and eradication therapy explained ⩾84% of the dramatic decline in peptic ulcer occurrence.

General characteristics of a fishbone mode in KSTAR are investigated. Fishbone activities are observed with a Mirnov coil, an electron cyclotron emission radiometer (from the core to the edge of plasmas) and an beam emission spectroscopy system (core or edge plasmas) which are measuring fluctuations of poloidal magnetic fields, electron temperatures, and densities, respectively. Temporal evolutions of these fluctuations are similar to the observations from other tokamaks. An interesting and notable feature found in KSTAR fishbone modes is that radial coherence structures of electron temperature and density with respect to magnetic fluctuations are non-monotonic that they have a local minimum at [Formula: see text] and a maximum at [Formula: see text] in addition to the usual global peak near the q = 1 surface, where r/ a is the normalized minor radius and q is the safety factor. Furthermore, the associated temporal evolution of the electron temperatures in slow-time scale, i.e., less than 1 kHz, with the fishbone activities show that there exist a drop in temperature or increase in temperature depending on inside or outside the q = 1 surface, respectively, from the core to the edge plasmas except that there are almost no temperature changes in the intermediate region which seems to be correlated with the non-monotonic coherence profile. Such a non-monotonic structure and the slow temporal evolution of temperatures are explained with barely trapped resonating fast ions with the banana orbit widths of the order of the minor radius, so that they transit the core and the edge regions simultaneously without trespassing the mid-plane intermediate region.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been documented as a risk factor for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). However, there are few large cohort studies, and there is no report about the impact of HBV vaccination. We conducted this study to evaluate these issues. We used the nationwide cohort of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database for 1997-2013. We compared the incidence and the risk of developing NHL and CD20+ aggressive lymphoma between HBV and non-HBV cohorts. The hazard ratios (HRs) were computed using Cox proportional hazards models. We matched these two large cohorts to reconfirm the data. We also compared the incidence of NHL between cohorts born before and after the inception of universal HBV vaccination. We found that HBV infection increased the risk for developing NHL and CD20+ aggressive lymphoma, with HRs of 4.14 and 5.52, with a higher incidence of 17.07 and 13.9 per 100 000 person-years, respectively, compared to the non-HBV cohort. The incidence of NHL in the cohort born in the era before universal HBV vaccination was higher with 1.85 per 100 000 person-years compared to 0.74 in the cohort born later aged younger than 20. Our study confirms that HBV confers a greater risk for developing NHL, especially CD20+ aggressive lymphoma. The impact of HBV vaccination is protective against lymphoma development in the teenagers in an endemic area, but longer follow-up is needed for older age.

A small nonaxisymmetric (3D) magnetic field can induce nonambipolar transport of the particle species confined in a tokamak and thus a significant change of plasma rotation. This process can be in a favor of instability control in the region where the tokamak plasma is sufficiently collisional and resistive, as observed in the applications of n=1 resonant magnetic perturbations to the KSTAR tokamak. The plasma rotation can be globally accelerated due to radially drifting electrons and constrained to the electron root, if the radial transport is enhanced by an amplified 3D response. This mechanism is verified by a kinetically self-consistent magnetohydrodynamic modeling for both response and transport, which offers the quantitative explanations on the internal n=1 structure detected by electron-cyclotron-emission imaging and the cocurrent plasma spinning observed in the experiments.

UAVs (Unmanned aerial Vehicles) can acquire images easily without large cost. For this reason, use of UAV is spreading to diverse fields such as orthoimages and DEM/DSM production. The spatial resolution of images is usually expressed as a GSD (Ground Sampling Distance). The GSD from UAV has higher performance than other platforms such as satellites and aircraft because it shoot at low altitude. However, blurring and noise may occur on UAV images due to the weather and the stability of UAV. However, since the GSD from UAV cannot sufficiently meet the spatial resolving power of the actual image system, a criterion for determining the spatial resolution of image is needed. Therefore we emphasize that the quality of the image needs to be analysed. Actual performance indicators such as GRD (Ground Resolved Distance) and NIIRS (National Image Interpretability Rating Scales), which can be measured through image analysis, are representative examples of image quality interpretation. It is possible to extract NIIRS form image quality related parameters such as MTF (Modulation Transfer Function), RER (Relative Edge Response) and SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). In this paper, we aim to apply the Edge analysis method to UAV and to analyse the result. The analysis result showed that while GSD and NIIRS were highly dependent to imaging altitude, GRD and image sharpness showed optimal altitude ranges. The exact optimal range varied between images taken at different weather conditions. While we need a further study, this may indicate that edge analysis may provide an optimal operational altitude range suitable for the sensors.

KSTAR has a nonlinear magnetic material, INCOLOY® alloy 908 (Incoloy), in toroidal field and poloidal field (PF) coil systems. The effect of Incoloy on the magnetic configuration for the plasma ini...

A one-year epidemiological survey.To compare bacterial strains and antimicrobial susceptibilities of urinary isolates from hospital and community spinal cord injury (SCI) patients.A specialized SCI unit in a freestanding rehabilitation hospital.From June 2012 through May 2013, urine cultures were obtained from all of the newly admitted patients. Bacterial strains and antimicrobial susceptibilities were compared between patients from community and hospital settings.The proportion of Enterobacteriaceae in the total urinary isolates from hospital-dwelling patients was smaller than that from community-dwelling patients (66.0 vs. 85.5%, P0.001), while the proportions of Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter and Enterococcus species were relatively larger (8.7%, 6.0% and 12.0% vs. 2.8%, 0.7% and 2.8%, respectively, P0.05). The isolates from hospital-dwelling patients showed lower susceptibility to ampicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and all generations of cephalosporin (P0.05), and a higher prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producers (41.7 vs. 5.4%, P0.001), compared with those from community-dwelling patients. The susceptibility rates to levofloxacin were lower than 50% in both community and hospital-dwelling patients.Broader-spectrum antibiotics should be considered in treating nosocomial urinary tract infection (UTI) of SCI patients because of the relatively wide variety of organisms and higher frequency of antibiotic-resistant strains, including ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae in hospital-derived specimens. Furthermore, in areas with high prevalence of fluoroquinolone resistance, fluoroquinolones should be used with caution during empirical treatment for UTI in SCI patients.

Since the first plasma in Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR), the electron cyclotron heating (ECH) system has been an essential tool for ECH-assisted start-up using second-harm...

Risk management in global information technology (IT) projects is becoming a critical area of concern for practitioners. Global IT projects usually span multiple locations involving various culturally diverse groups that use multiple standards and technologies. These multiplicities cause dynamic risks through interactions among internal (i.e., people, process, and technology) and external elements (i.e., business and natural environments) of global IT projects. This study proposes an agile risk-management framework for global IT project settings. By analyzing the dynamic interactions among multiplicities (e.g., multi-locations, multi-cultures, multi-groups, and multi-interests) embedded in the project elements, we identify the dynamic risks threatening the success of a global IT project. Adopting the principles of service-oriented architecture (SOA), we further propose a set of agile management strategies for mitigating the dynamic risks. The mitigation strategies are conceptually validated. The proposed framework will help practitioners understand the potential risks in their global IT projects and resolve their complex situations when certain types of dynamic risks arise.

The eco-friendly synthesis of nanoparticles through various biological means helps to explore various plants for their ability to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Here we have synthesized AgNPs by using rhizome extract ofDioscorea batatasat as well as room temperature (). AgNPs were characterized under UV-vis spectrophotometer, SEM, FTIR, XRD, and EDX. The antimicrobial activity of AgNPs was evaluated on gram positive (B. substilisandS. aureus), gram negative (E. coli), and fungi (S. cerivisaeandC. albicans). At room temperature,S. cerivisaeandC. albicanswere found to be more susceptible to AgNPs than at .

This study was conducted to determine whether the different residual stresses caused by different welding speeds affect the static and fatigue strength of laser-welded lap joints. Residual stresses in STS301L laser-welded lap joints of different thicknesses under two laser-welding speed conditions, 4.1 m/min and 5.1 m/min, were evaluated with the incremental hole-drilling strain gage method at the middle of the heat-affected zone (HAZ). Then, static and fatigue tests were performed. The results show that higher static and fatigue strengths were obtained from the specimens welded with a 4.1 m/min welding speed than from the specimens welded at 5.1 m/min. The main difference was due to the compressive principal residual stress magnitude and its orientation near the HAZ. Also, the micro-hardness profile along the failure interface was measured to verify the static and fatigue failure behavior.

Metal contamination issues are becoming increasingly common in India and elsewhere, with many documented cases of metal toxicity in mining industries, foundries, smelters, coal-burning power plants and agriculture. Heavy metals, such as cadmium, copper, lead, chromium and mercury are major environmental pollutants, particularly in areas with high anthropogenic pressure. Heavy metal accumulation in soils is of concern in agricultural production due to the adverse effects on food safety and marketability, crop growth due to phytotoxicity, and environmental health of soil organisms. The influence of plants and their metabolic activities affects the geological and biological redistribution of heavy metals through pollution of the air, water and soil. This article details the range of heavy metals, their occurrence and toxicity for plants. Metal toxicity has high impact and relevance to plants and consequently it affects the ecosystem, where the plants form an integral component. Plants growing in metal-polluted sites exhibit altered metabolism, growth reduction, lower biomass production and metal accumulation. Various physiological and biochemical processes in plants are affected by metals. The contemporary investigations into toxicity and tolerance in metal-stressed plants are prompted by the growing metal pollution in the environment. A few metals, including copper, manganese, cobalt, zinc and chromium are, however, essential to plant metabolism in trace amounts. It is only when metals are present in bioavailable forms and at excessive levels, they have the potential to become toxic to plants. This review focuses mainly on zinc, cadmium, copper, mercury, chromium, lead, arsenic, cobalt, nickel, manganese and iron.

We investigated the local electronic structure and magnetic properties of the cobaltite double perovskites La2CoIrO6 and La2CoPtO6 using Co L2,3-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. Despite similarity in the local electronic structure (Co(2+) high-spin states) as well as in the crystal structure (P2(1)/n), only La2CoIrO6 exhibits substantial orbital and spin magnetic moments of Co(2+), whereas they are much weaker in the case of La2CoPtO6. This composition dependence is consistent with the results of magnetization measurements. The details of the mechanism of ferromagnetic ordering in the Co(2+) sublattice in La2CoIrO6 and the lack thereof in La2CoPtO6 are explained in terms of the orbital hybridization of the Co minority-spin t(2g) state and the Ir/Pt j(eff) = 1/2 state.

BACKGROUND Elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) generally have an unfavorable clinical course and are under-represented in clinical trials. The aim of this study was to analyze the prognosis and treatment outcome of elderly AML patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS We studied 205 AML patients aged 65 years or older at our hospital. Prior to study initiation, we designated 13 variables to be analyzed for their impact on complete remission (CR) rate and overall survival (OS). RESULTS Induction regimen (standard chemotherapy) and good performance status (PS) (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group PS 0-1) independently influenced the achievement of CR. Multivariate analysis also determined five poor prognostic factors for OS: poor PS (score 2-4), presence of comorbidities, elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase level (> or =2x upper normal limit), extreme leukocytosis (> or =100 x 10(9)/l) and marked thrombocytopenia (< or =20 x 10(9)/l). Age was not an independent contributing factor in terms of either CR attainment or OS duration. Low-risk patients, who possessed one or less non-leukocytosis poor prognostic factor, had significantly longer disease-free survival and OS than their high-risk counterparts. CONCLUSIONS Elderly AML patients should be risk-stratified at diagnosis. Anthracycline-based induction chemotherapy would be the best therapeutic option for such patients.

High solar performance Zr–ZrO2 cermet solar coatings were designed using a numerical computer model and deposited experimentally. The layer thickness and Zr metal volume fraction for the Zr–ZrO2 cermet solar selective coatings on a Zr or Al reflector with a surface ZrO2 or Al2O3 anti-reflection layer were optimized to achieve maximum photo-thermal conversion efficiency at 80°C under concentration factors of 1–20 using the downhill simplex method in multi-dimensions in the numerical calculation. The dielectric function and the complex refractive index of Zr–ZrO2 cermet materials were calculated using Sheng's approximation. Optimization calculations show that Al2O3/Zr–ZrO2/Al solar coatings with two cermet layers and three cermet layers have nearly identical solar absorptance, emittance and photo-thermal conversion efficiency that are much better than those for films with one cermet layer. The optimized Al2O3/Zr–ZrO2/Al solar coating film with two cermet layers has a high solar absorptance value of 0.97 and low hemispherical emittance value of 0.05 at 80°C for a concentration factor of 2. The Al2O3/Zr–ZrO2/Al solar selective coatings with two cermet layers were deposited using dc magnetron sputtering technology. During the deposition of Zr–ZrO2 cermet layer, a Zr metallic target was run in a gas mixture of argon and oxygen. By control of oxygen flow rate the different metal volume fractions in the cermet layers were achieved using dc reactive sputtering. A solar absorptance of 0.96 and normal emittance of 0.05 at 80°C were achieved.

Afferent loop syndrome (ALS) is a debilitating complication of recurrent gastric cancer. Surgical intervention is usually not feasible in the face of poor general performance, presence of advanced peritoneal carcinomatosis and limited survival of the patients. Non-surgical approaches include internal drainage by stenting at the stenotic or anastomotic site and external drainage via the percutaneous routes. Percutaneous transhepatic duodenal drainage (PTDD) has been shown to provide effective palliation for ALS, but long-term catheterization is usually inevitable. We hereby present two cases of recurrent gastric cancer whose ALS was successfully treated with PTDD followed by weekly 24-h infusion of high-dose 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin (HDFL). PTDD rapidly ameliorated the incapacitating symptoms of ALS, and the effective, low-toxicity chemotherapy subsequently led to tumor regression, restoration of bowel patency and removal of the drainage tube. At present, both patients have remained ALS-free and drainage-free for 16 and 17 months, respectively. Our results indicate that this non-surgical approach with PTDD followed by weekly HDFL could serve as a safe and effective treatment for ALS in recurrent gastric cancer complicated by peritoneal carcinomatosis.

We have investigated the origin of a semiconducting phase of the re-entrant Na/Si(111)-3 × 1 surface formed by adding extra adatoms on the earlier 3 × 1 phase at 1/3 monolayers (MLs). The additional Na adatoms are found to form quasi–one-dimensional (1D) atomic chains in our scanning tunnelling microscopy images while keeping the surface semiconducting. The unique features in our valence band and in high-resolution electron-energy-loss spectra suggest that the re-entrant 3 × 1 surface is a Mott-Hubbard–type insulator. We thus report a novel quasi-1D insulator-insulator transition where electron-electron correlation plays a decisive role.

Multiscale interaction between the magnetic island and turbulence has been demonstrated through simultaneous two-dimensional measurements of turbulence and temperature and flow profiles. The magnetic island and turbulence mutually interact via the coupling between the electron temperature ($T_e$) gradient, the $T_e$ turbulence, and the poloidal flow. The $T_e$ gradient altered by the magnetic island is peaked outside and flattened inside the island. The $T_e$ turbulence can appear in the increased $T_e$ gradient regions. The combined effects of the $T_e$ gradient and the the poloidal flow shear determine two-dimensional distribution of the $T_e$ turbulence. When the reversed poloidal flow forms, it can maintain the steepest $T_e$ gradient and the magnetic island acts more like a electron heat transport barrier. Interestingly, when the $T_e$ gradient, the $T_e$ turbulence, and the flow shear increase beyond critical levels, the magnetic island turns into a fast electron heat transport channel, which directly leads to the minor disruption., 15 pages, 6 figures

Experiments of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECH) power scan in KSTAR tokamak clearly demonstrate that both the cutoff density for non-local heat transport (NLT) and the threshold density for intrinsic rotation reversal can be determined by the collisionality. We demonstrate that NLT can be affected by ECH, and the intrinsic rotation direction follows the changes of NLT. The cutoff density of NLT and threshold density for rotation reversal can be significantly increased by ECH. The poloidal flow of turbulence in core plasma is in the electron and the ion diamagnetic direction in ECH plasmas and high density OH plasma, respectively. The auto-power spectra of density fluctuation are almost the same in the outer region for both ECH and OH plasmas. On the other hand, the divergence in density fluctuation spectra at high frequency range between OH and ECH plasma is clearly observed in core region. The features of linear confinement and saturated confinement also appeared in ECH plasma, which is similar to the linear ohmic confinement (LOC) mode and saturate ohmic confinement (SOC) mode. All these observations in macroscopic parameters and micro fluctuations suggest a possible link between the macro phenomena and the structural changes in turbulence mode.

In the KSTAR Tokamak, a “Tangential Thomson Scattering” (TTS) diagnostic system has been designed and installed to measure electron density and temperature profiles. In the edge system, TTS has 12 optical fiber bundles to measure the edge profiles with 10–15 mm spatial resolution. These 12 optical fibers and their spatial resolution are not enough to measure the pedestal width with a high accuracy but allow observations of L-H transition or H-L transitions at the edge. For these measurements, the prototype ITER edge Thomson Nd:YAG laser system manufactured by JAEA in Japan is installed. In this paper, the KSTAR TTS system is briefly described and some TTS edge profiles are presented and compared against the KSTAR Charge Exchange Spectroscopy and other diagnostics. The future upgrade plan of the system is also discussed in this paper.

A Doppler reflectometer has been designed to measure the poloidal propagation velocity on the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) tokamak. It has the operating frequency range of V-band (50-75 GHz) and the monostatic antenna configuration with extraordinary mode (X-mode). The single sideband modulation with an intermediate frequency of 50 MHz is used for the heterodyne measurement with the 200 MHz in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) phase detector. The corrugated conical horn antenna is used to approximate the Gaussian beam propagation and it is installed together with the oversized rectangular waveguides in the vacuum vessel. The first commissioning test of the Doppler reflectometer system on the KSTAR tokamak is planned in the 2014 KSTAR experimental campaign.

Addition of cetuximab showed trend, but not significantly, to improve the therapeutic effects of gemcitabine and oxaliplatin combination for advanced biliary tract cancer in current randomized phase II trial. The trend of improvement did not correlate with KRAS mutation status. Biomarkers finding for selecting patients who will benefit most from anti-EGFR targeted therapy is warranted. Background Previous clinical trials have not proved that adding epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors to chemotherapy confers a survival benefit for patients with advanced biliary tract cancer (ABTC). Whether the KRAS mutation status of tumor cells confounded the results of past studies is unknown. Patients and methods ABTC patients stratified by KRAS status, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, and primary tumor location were randomized 1 : 1 to receive GEMOX (800 mg/m2 gemcitabine and 85 mg/m2 oxaliplatin) or C-GEMOX (500 mg/m2 cetuximab plus GEMOX) every 2 weeks. The primary end point was objective response rate (ORR). Results The study enrolled 122 patients between December 2010 and May 2012 (62 treated with C-GEMOX and 60 with GEMOX). Compared with GEMOX alone, C-GEMOX was associated with trend to better ORR (27% versus 15%; P = 0.12) and progression-free survival (PFS, 6.7 versus 4.1 months; P = 0.05), but not overall survival (OS, 10.6 versus 9.8 months; P = 0.91). KRAS mutations, which were detected in 36% of tumor samples, did not affect the trends of difference in ORR and PFS between C-GEMOX and GEMOX. The two treatment arms had similar adverse events, except that more patients had skin rashes, allergic reactions, and neutropenia in the C-GEMOX arm. Of patients with C-GEMOX, the presence of a grade 2 or 3 skin rash was associated with significantly better ORR, PFS, and OS. Conclusions Addition of cetuximab did not significantly improve the ORR of GEMOX chemotherapy in ABTC, although a trend of PFS improvement was observed. The trend of improvement did not correlate with KRAS mutation status. Clinical Trials number This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01267344). All patients gave written informed consent.

Electronic excitation spectra of the alkali-metal (AM) (Na,Cs)-adsorbed Si(111)7 × 7 surfaces have been investigated by using high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy. We find that AM induces metal-semiconductor transitions at the early stage of adsorption by completely filling half-filled Si adatom dangling-bond states. A loss peak of energy less than 0.31 eV appears as a precursor of the semiconducting phases, which disappears with increasing coverage, resulting in the formation of energy gaps of 0.43eV and 1.08 eV for Cs and Na, respectively. Both Cs- and Na-adsorbed surfaces become metallic at saturation, in sharp contrast with the semiconducting K-saturated surface, We discuss the physical origin of the AM-induced loss peaks and its implications for the electrical phase transitions.

The problem of steady three-dimensional Euler flow over finite wings has been solved by the method of Clebsch velocity decomposition. The velocity field is decomposed into an irrotational and a rotational part. The Euler equations are then recast into an elliptic-like equation and several convection equations. This approach provides a generalization of the full potential formulation to rotational Euler physics by allowing variations of convective quantities. Finite volume and finite difference schemes are used to derive numerical results. Different wings at different flow conditions including a case with multiple shocks occurrence were tested to demonstrate the ability of the proposed method. Comparisons with available experimental data and results from existing code are presented.

One of the important rotational resonances in nonaxisymmetric neoclassical transport has been experimentally validated in the KSTAR tokamak by applying highly nonresonant $n=1$ magnetic perturbations to rapidly rotating plasmas. These so-called bounce-harmonic resonances are expected to occur in the presence of magnetic braking perturbations when the toroidal rotation is fast enough to resonate with periodic parallel motions of trapped particles. The predicted and observed resonant peak along with the toroidal rotation implies that the toroidal rotation in tokamaks can be controlled naturally in favorable conditions to stability, using nonaxisymmetric magnetic perturbations.

Summary form only given. Edge characteristics of a tokamak plasma are of interest due to their importance in ITER (international thermonuclear experimental reactor). Especially, the particle flux and temperature after the ELM (edge localized mode) crash are of interest. In 2011 KSTAR campaign, plasma parameters such as the ion flux and electron temperature were measured at the far scrape-off layer (far-SOL) of tokamak plasma by using electrical probe diagnostics. The distance between SOL and the position of the probe was ~40cm. The ion flux and electron temperature were similar with those of core mm interferometer and the edge ECE diagnostic results. The results show good correlation with edge H-alpha signals measured by a filterscope which represent characteristic behavior of the edge plasma such as ELM. Note that the measurement location of H-alpha signals is placed different from the position of the electrical probe. In order to see the exact correlation, a photo diode with an H-alpha filter is installed inside the probe in 2012 KSTAR campaign. As a result, correlations between electrical and H-alpha signals are measured at the same poloidal and toroidal position. The far-SOL characteristics such as the ion flux and electron temperature were calculated from electrical signals. This paper reports the experimental findings on the edge plasma characteristics during ELMs which could give a clue for the far-SOL particle transport.

This paper investigated the initial void growth that determines the electromigration failure time for Cu/low-k interconnects. A method to derive the initial void growth rate prior to line failure by analyzing the resistance traces was developed. The statistical data from multi-linked structures show a linear relationship between the void growth rates before and after failure. An extended the Korhonen model was developed taking into account the stress effect on void growth for Cu interconnects. The model was able to account for the observed EM statistics, thus suggesting that the effect of stress should be included for EM lifetime extrapolation.

Several solution acceleration techniques, used to obtain steady state CFD solutions as quickly as possible, are applied to an implicit, upwind Euler solver to evaluate their effectiveness. The implicit system is solved using either ADI or ILU and the solution acceleration techniques evaluated are quasi-Newton iteration, Jacobian freezing, multigrid and GMRES. ILU is a better preconditioner than ADI because it can use larger time steps. Adding GMRES does not always improve the convergence. However, GMRES preconditioned with ILU and multigrid can take advantage of Jacobian freezing to produce an efficient scheme that is relatively independent of grid size and grid quality.

This article presents a design optimization method for maximizing lift without increasing the drag of multielement airfoils at takeoff and landing configurations. It uses an incompressible Navier-Stokes flow solver (INS2D), a chimera overlaid grid system (PEGSUS), and a constrained numerical optimizer (DOT). Aerodynamic sensitivity derivatives are obtained using finite differencing. The method is first validated with single-element airfoil designs and then applied to three-element airfoil designs. Reliable design results are obtained at reasonable costs. Results demonstrate that numerical optimization can be an attractive design tool for the development of multielement high-lift systems.

The effects of sensitivity derivatives on the performance of aerodynamic design optimization were evaluated. Sensitivity derivatives were obtained by both analytical and finite-difference approaches. A sensitivity code was developed to analytically obtain sensitivity derivatives for the two-dimensional Euler equations using the material derivative concept of continuum mechanics. Several inverse design optimizations were performed to evaluate the merits of the analytical approach in comparison with the finite-difference approach. The results show that the analytical approach provides accurate sensitivity derivatives consistently, improves the convergence of the design cycle, and hence reduces the design cost.

A cheese extract and a standard solution with a mixture of peptides and amino acids were used to evaluate the separations of reverse-phase HPLC with alternative mobile phases to be used in conjunction with sensory evaluation. Acceptable resolution of components was observed when acetonitrile was replaced with absolute ethanol and trifluoroacetic acid was replaced with food-grade hydrochloric acid. The average hydrophobicity and molecular weight of the peptides and amino acids were used to construct a linear regression equation with corrected retention times. Suspected bitter compounds were not confined to any one section of the chromatogram based on the established regression model.

International audience; Toroidal rotation profiles have been investigated in KSTAR H-mode plasma using combined auxiliary heating by co-neutral beam injection (NBI) and electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECH). The ion temperature and toroidal rotation are measured with x-ray imaging crystal spectroscopy and charge exchange recombination spectroscopy. H-mode plasma is achieved using co-current 1.3MW NBI, and a 0.35MW ECH pulse is added to the flat-top of H-mode. The core rotation profiles, which are centrally peaked in the pure NBI heating phase, flatten when ECH is injected, while the edge pedestal is unchanged. Dramatic decreases in the core toroidal rotation values (Delta V-tor/V-tor similar to -30%) are observed when on-axis ECH is added to H-mode. The experimental data show that the decrease of core rotation velocity and its gradient are correlated with the increase of core electron temperature and its gradient, and also with the likely steepening of the density gradient. We thus explore the viability of a hypothesized ITG (ITG ion temperature gradient instability) -> TEM (trapped electron mode instability) transition as the explanation of the observed counter-current flow induced by ECH. However, the results of linear microstability analyses using inferred profiles suggest that the TEM is excited only in the deep core, so the viability of the hypothesized explanation is not yet clear.

A method for direct assessment of the equilibrium E × B flow velocity ( E×B flow shear is responsible for the turbulence suppression and transport reduction in tokamak plasmas) is investigated based on two facts. The first one is that the apparent poloidal rotation speed of density fluctuation patterns is close to the turbulence rotation speed in the direction perpendicular to the local magnetic field line within the flux surface. And the second “well-known” fact is that the turbulence rotation velocity consists of the equilibrium E × B flow velocity and intrinsic phase velocity of turbulence in the E × B flow frame. In the core region of the low confinement (L-mode) discharges where a strong toroidal rotation is induced by neutral beam injection, the apparent poloidal velocities (and turbulence rotation velocities) are good approximations of the E×B flow velocities since linear gyrokinetic simulations suggest that the intrinsic phase velocity of the dominant turbulence is significantly lower than the app...

A circuit is described to display cross head displacement to a resolution of 1 mu m, and to provide a proportional analogue voltage for a chart recorder. This has applications where strain gauge systems are inappropriate or impractical, and also permits recording of displacement versus time, an option otherwise not available.

SUMMARY Several solution acceleration techniques, used to obtain steady-state CFD solutions as quickly as possible, are applied to an upwind Euler scheme to evaluate their effectiveness. Generalized minimal residual (GMRES), multigrid (MG), and ADI are compared to a four-stage Runge-Kutta scheme using several grids. The use of different acceleration schemes combinations of produces a complementary effect: the convergence becomes relatively independent of both size and quality of the grid.

Edge localized modes (ELMs) in high-confinement mode plasmas were completely suppressed in KSTAR by applying $n=1$ nonaxisymmetric magnetic perturbations. Initially, the ELMs were intensified with a reduction of frequency, but completely suppressed later. The electron density had an initial 10% decrease followed by a gradual increase as ELMs were suppressed. Interesting phenomena such as a saturated evolution of edge ${T}_{e}$ and broadband changes of magnetic fluctuations were observed, suggesting the change of edge transport by the applied magnetic perturbations.

Summary form only given. Diagnostic of the edge region, called scrape-off layer (SOL) of tokamak plasma is of great interest because the research on the SOL plays an important role in understanding discharge characteristics between the plasma facing components and core region. For this reason, plasma diagnostics have been developed and adapted to the fusion plasma with high time resolution and small perturbation. Recently, Chung and co-worker [Lee et al, J. Appl. Phys. 101, 033305 (2007)] have developed a floating harmonic method that could measure plasma parameters, such as plasma density (or ion flux) and electron temperature without disturbing plasma, even in reactive plasmas which causes deposition on the probe. We have improved the floating harmonic method for more fast acquisition to utilize the diagnostic for tokamak plasmas. The ion flux and electron temperature were measured at far SOL region and compared with both interferometer and electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostics. Our preliminary results show similar trend with that of interferometer and the ECE, which indicates that our method can be applied as a diagnostic for fusion plasma and the behavior of the edge plasma such as Edge Localized Mode (ELM) can be seen from the measurement.

A two-point, aerodynamic design method is presented that improves the aerodynamic performance of transonic airfoils over a range of the flight envelope. It couples an Euler flow solver and a numerical optimization tool. The major limitation of single-point design is the poor off-design performance. Two-point design is used to extend the optimized performance range over more of the desired flight envelope. The method is applied to several transonic flow design points, and the results are compared to single-point design results. The secondary design points are chosen by varying the Mach number and the angle of attack. The two-point designs perform better than the single-point design over the design-point range.

Numerical solutions for the Navier-Stokes equations are obtained for laminar, hypersonic flows around a flatbased projectile using perfect gas, equilibrium air, and nonequilibrium air models. The effects of different gas models are investigated for a freestream condition of Mach 20 at an altitude of 73 km. The species compositions for the equilibrium and nonequilibrium gases are obtained by minimizing the Helmholtz free energy and by solving species continuity equations, respectively. The chemical equations are combined with the gasdynamics equations using a loosely coupled technique. A finite volume method is implemented with the flux vector splitting of Steger and Warming for convective terms and centered differencing for viscous terms. Both explicit and implicit time integration schemes are used.

There has been a tenacious search for pharmaceuticals of natural origin, as they are cost-effective and are noted for having little or no side effects. The rate at which diseases are developing resistance to synthetic drugs is quite alarming, and the side effects of these drugs remain an excruciating agony to the pharmaceutical industry. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have wide applications in current technology. However, their use in medicine has not been adequately explored. Chemical methods for the synthesis are associated with environmental benignity and tissue toxicity on in vivo administration. For the first time, we have synthesized AuNPs from leaf extracts of Teraxacum officinale that were found to have significant anti-melanoma, tyrosinase inhibitory and anti-microbial effects, and hence stand as promising candidates for use in cosmetics medical and food industries.