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Dielectric measurements are one of the most reliable techniques for investigating the molecular dynamics of water in moist materials. However, dielectric measurements of moist wood have not yet been carried out in a wide frequency range that can be used to evaluate the molecular dynamics of water in wood. We performed dielectric measurements of a deciduous tree, Zelkova serrata, along the fiber direction in the frequency range of 40 Hz to 10 GHz at room temperature around the fiber saturation point of wood to investigate the molecular dynamics of water in wood. Cole–Cole-type relaxation process reflecting the molecular dynamics of the water is observed in the GHz region. The water content dependences of the relaxation time and strength of this process are similar to those of the relaxation process of free water observed in polymer–water mixtures. However, the τ − β CC diagram of this process markedly deviates from that of the relaxation process of free water in polymer–water mixtures. The molecular mechanism of this characteristic relaxation process is interpreted as the formation of the local structure of water restricted in the void spaces of wood. The water molecules adsorbed on the inner walls of the void spaces form a local structure, and the local structure grows in the length direction along the walls of the void spaces with increasing water content of wood. The molecular dynamics of these water molecules is strongly restricted between the inner walls of the void spaces and air spaces, and the strongly restricted molecular dynamics of the water leads to the characteristic relaxation process observed in the GHz region. We give molecular descriptions of the strongly restricted water adsorbed on the inner walls of the void spaces of wood around the fiber saturation point.

This study analyzes the dependences of the size of the luminous region of hydrocarbon pellet cloud on the ablation rate, as well as on the ambient plasma electron density and temperature. The data were obtained in a series of experiments where spherical solid polystyrene pellets with a diameter of ≈900 μm at a speed of ≈450 m s−1 were injected into hydrogen plasma of the large helical device. The ambient plasma with an electron temperature of 0.5–1.5 keV and a density of (1–7) × 1019 m−3 was maintained by injection of neutral atom beams with total the heating power of 3–14 MW. A scaling law was derived for determining the transverse size of the cloud’s luminous region from the known values of the pellet’s current radius as well as the values of the density and temperature of the ambient plasma at the place of image acquisition. The interdependencies between various dimensions of the luminous region obtained in the line spectrum are established. The presence of such dependences makes it possible to describe the dimensions of the luminous region comprehensively by means of the scaling law for its transverse size.

A comparison of characteristics between a nonlocal transport phenomenon and an electron internal transport barrier (ITB) in the Large Helical Device is performed with a transient transport analysis and from the viewpoint of a dynamic behavior of transport state. The electron ITB is characterized by a jump of electron temperature gradient. In contrast, the transient transport analysis indicates the nonlocal transport phenomenon is characterized by a jump of electron heat flux. And seen from the viewpoint of the dynamic behavior of transport state, the physical mechanism of the appearance of the nonlocal transport phenomenon is found to be qualitatively different from that of the formation of the electron ITB (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

This paper presents a proposal of the remote participation system for the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER). The object of this paper is to clarify technical issues to analyze the ITER data safely and conveniently. The Japanese case is considered as an example, but technologies presented here can be used worldwide. Major technical issues are as follows: (1) the long distance data transfer; (2) the massive data server; (3) the secure network; (4) the convenient and fast data analysis system. Raw data of ITER can be transferred from France to Japan in a short time by optimizing TCP/IP parameters. The virtual private network (VPN) technology provides a secure environment of the data mirroring and the distributed computation. The analysis server with the WEB user interface enables physicists to analyze the ITER data from the Internet. Streaming data, such as plasma parameters in the steady state, video and sound of the ITER plasma and the status of experiment, which provides feeling of reality, are delivered by using the multi-cast technology. These technologies are being developed in SNET, which is a virtual laboratory for Japanese fusion community. International collaboration is required to develop a global distributed file system and a data analysis system further.

AbstractTwo methods for measuring the spatial distribution of the temperature of electrons in a cloud near a polystyrene pellet that ablates in LHD heliotron plasma are described. The first method is based on measuring the ratio of the local emission-coefficient values at wavelengths of 486 ± 5 nm (the H _β line) and 630 ± 5 nm (continuum). The second (new) method is based on the measurement of radiation distributions of the H _β line in the direction along the magnetic field. Both the methods use an assumption about the partial local thermodynamic equilibrium in the cloud and show close results. It is shown for the first time that the temperature of cloud electrons increases from 0.8 eV in the immediate vicinity of the pellet surface to 6.0–7.0 eV at a distance of 6–8 mm from the pellet in the direction along the magnetic field, which agrees with the experimentally observed longitudinal distribution of the H _β radiation in the cloud.

Ion-beam irradiation effects on polyimide, Kapton™, were studied with respect to optical and electronic properties. Stack films of Kapton™ (12.5 μm thick) were irradiated to various ion beams in air or vacuo at room temperature and subjected to ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy, and change in absorbance and energy gap is discussed. The UV–vis absorption spectrum, which is assigned to the transition of electrons in benzene rings from π to π * orbital, upon He 2+ (6 MeV/u) irradiation in air, shifted towards longer wavelength direction for all cases, and the shift was more obvious for higher linear energy transfer (LET) ion beams. The energy gap of the transition was estimated, and the H + and He 2+ ion beams caused little change in the transition energy gap Eg , while the heavier ions such as C 6+ and Si 14+ caused more significant decrease. This decrease is assumed to the structural changes around benzene rings, and the infrared spectroscopy revealed breakage in imide groups next to benzene ring in the repeating unit of polyimide.

We present an analysis of the spectral emission of Fe XIII near 200 A. High-resolution spectra were recorded at two densities (~2 × 1011 and ~1013 cm−3) in the laboratory and compared to collisional radiative model calculations based on the CHIANTI database, and to models using atomic data from distorted-wave and R-matrix calculations. The Fe XIII lines in this wavelength range are sensitive indicators of plasma density below ~ 1011 cm–3. The laboratory data thus test calculations in the astrophysical high-density limit. Significant differences between the measurements and models were found for several line ratios. Differences in the wavelengths employed in the different models also changed the agreement with the measurements. The best agreement was found for comparisons with CHIANTI.

This paper presents the control, data acquisition, data analysis and remote participation facilities of the Large Helical Device (LHD), which is designed to confine the plasma in steady state. In LHD the plasma duration exceeds 3000 s by controlling the plasma position, the density and the ICRF heating. The “LABCOM” data acquisition system takes both the short-pulse and the steady-state data. A two-layer Mass Storage System with RAIDs and Blu-ray Disk jukeboxes in a storage area network has been developed to increase capacity of storage. The steady-state data can be monitored with a Web browser in real time. A high-level data analysis system with Web interfaces is being developed in order to provide easier usage of LHD data and large FORTRAN codes in a supercomputer. A virtual laboratory system for the Japanese fusion community has been developed with Multi-protocol Label Switching Virtual Private Network Technology. Collaborators at remote sites can join the LHD experiment or use the NIFS supercomputer system as if they were working in the LHD control room.

Edge cooling experiments with a tracer-encapsulated solid pellet in the large helical device (LHD) show a significant rise in core electron temperature (the maximum rise is around 1 keV) as well as in many tokamaks. This experimental result indicates the possible presence of the nonlocality of electron heat transport in plasmas where turbulence as a cause of anomalous transport dominates. The nonlocal electron temperature rise in the LHD takes place in almost the same parametric domain (e.g. in a low density) as in the tokamaks. Meanwhile, the experimental results of LHD show some new aspects of nonlocal electron temperature rise, for example the delay in the nonlocal rise of core electron temperature relative to the pellet penetration time increases with the increase both in the collisionality in the core plasma and the electron temperature gradient scale length in the outer region of the plasma.

Experimental data on spatial distributions of a pellet cloud electron density are necessary for the development of many applications of pellet injection, namely, plasma fuelling, discharge control, and plasma diagnostics. An improved approach of electron density measurements inside the cloud of a polystyrene pellet ablating in hot plasma of the large helical device is described. Density values of (1-30) × 10(16) cm(-3) depending on the background plasma parameters and distance from the solid pellet were measured.

1. To clarify the underlying mechanism of hepatic fat accretion due to methionine (Met) deficiency in broiler chickens, the present study investigated the effect of Met deficiency on the hepatic carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) system, which imports fatty acids into mitochondria. 2. Fifteen-d-old male meat-type chickens were fed on either a control diet (containing 0.52 g/100 g Met) or a Met-deficient diet (containing 0.27 g Met/100 g). After a 10-d feeding period, the birds were killed by decapitation and their livers excised to determine hepatic CPT1 and CPT2 mRNA levels and for the related hepatic fatty acid-supported mitochondrial respiration to be measured. 3. Met deficiency decreased body weight gain and feed efficiency and increased hepatic lipid content compared to the control group. Whereas the hepatic CPT2 mRNA level in the Met-deficient group remained unchanged compared to that of the control group, the CPT1 mRNA level was decreased in the Met-deficient group and CPT1-dependent hepatic mitochondrial respiration was impaired. 4. Our results suggest that the hepatic lipid accretion that occurs in response to Met deficiency might be attributable to the impairment of CPT1-mediated fatty acid import into mitochondria.

In local island (m/n = 1/1) divertor discharges in the large helical device a stable super dense core plasma develops when a series of pellets are injected. A core region with a density as high as 4.6 × 1020 m−3 and a temperature of 0.85 keV is maintained by an internal diffusion barrier with a very high density gradient. In a study of island dynamics, we find that an externally imposed large island (m/n = 1/1) as large as 15% of the minor radius is healed when beta at the island exceeds a critical value.

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the possible experiments with the D + D in Large Helical Device geometry and dynamics of fusion products. The transfer of energy from the fusion product to background plasma particles is discussed and the separation of the fusion products with the use of the drift resonances is considered.

The long-pulse plasma discharge experiment is an important experiment in the Large Helical Device, which has a superconducting coil system and the capability of steady-state operation. The experiment of long-pulse plasma discharge was carried out using mainly ion cyclotron range of frequencies heating. The maximum plasma duration is 31 min and 45 s, and the total injected heating energy reached 1.3 GJ. Swing of the magnetic axis is adopted as an effective method to scatter the local heat load on the dive rtor plate during the discharge. The plasma was terminated abruptly by the influx of metallic impurities accompanied by a spark in the vacuum vessel.

Cold pulse inversion in a helical plasma is observed in the Large Helical Device (LHD) and thus the strong non-local effects are evident in the helical device as well as in tokamaks. A hydrogen pellet or tracer encapsulated solid pellet is injected into the edge of the LHD plasmas. A significant rise of the electron temperature is observed in the central region in response to the edge cooling. Transient analysis indicates a heat flux jump despite the absence of a change in the local temperature gradient. The non-local temperature rise takes place in the low density and high temperature regime just as predicted by the TFTR scaling.

A long-pulse plasma discharge of more than 30 min duration was achieved on the Large Helical Device (LHD). A plasma of ne = 0.8 × 1019 m−3 and Ti0 = 2.0 keV was sustained with PICH = 0.52 MW, PECH = 0.1 MW and averaged PNBI = 0.067 MW. The total injected heating energy was 1.3 GJ. One of the keys to the success of the experiment was a dispersion of the local plasma heat load to divertors, accomplished by sweeping the magnetic axis inward and outward. Causes limiting the long pulse plasma discharge are discussed. An ion impurity penetration limited further long-pulse discharge in the 8th experimental campaign (2004).

A long-pulse plasma discharge for more than 30 min. was achieved on the Large Helical Device (LHD). A plasma of ne = 0.8× 1019 m−3 and Ti0 = 2.0 keV was sustained with PICH = 0.52 MW, PECH = 0.1 MW and averaged PNBI = 0.067 MW. Total injected heating energy was 1.3 GJ, which was a quarter of the prepared RF heating energy. One of the keys to the success of the experiment was a dispersion of the local plasma heat load to divertors, accomplished by shifting the magnetic axis inward and outward.

Transient transport experiments are performed in plasmas with and without internal transport barriers (ITB) on LHD and JT-60U. The dependence of χe on the electron temperature, Te, and on the electron temperature gradient, ∇Te, is analysed with an empirical non-linear heat transport model. In plasmas without an ITB, two different types of non-linearity of the electron heat transport are observed from cold/heat pulse propagation: the χe depends on Te and ∇Te in JT-60U, while the ∇Te dependence is weak in LHD. Inside the ITB region, there is none or weak ∇Te dependence both in LHD and JT-60U. Growth of the cold pulse driven by the negative Te dependence of χe is observed inside the ITB region (LHD) and near the boundary of the ITB region (JT-60U).

The Large Helical Device is a heliotron device with L = 2 and M = 10 continuous helical coils with a major radius of 3.5–4.1 m, a minor radius of 0.6 m and a toroidal field of 0.5–3 T, which is a candidate among toroidal magnetic confinement systems for a steady state thermonuclear fusion reactor. There has been significant progress in extending the plasma operational regime in various plasma parameters by neutral beam injection with a power of 13 MW and electron cyclotron heating (ECH) with a power of 2 MW. The electron and ion temperatures have reached up to 10 keV in the collisionless regime, and the maximum electron density, the volume averaged beta value and stored energy are 2.4 × 1020 m−3, 4.1% and 1.3 MJ, respectively. In the last two years, intensive studies of the magnetohydrodynamics stability providing access to the high beta regime and of healing of the magnetic island in comparison with the neoclassical tearing mode in tokamaks have been conducted. Local island divertor experiments have also been performed to control the edge plasma aimed at confinement improvement. As for transport study, transient transport analysis was executed for a plasma with an internal transport barrier and a magnetic island. The high ion temperature plasma was obtained by adding impurities to the plasma to keep the power deposition to the ions reasonably high even at a very low density. By injecting 72 kW of ECH power, the plasma was sustained for 756 s without serious problems of impurities or recycling.

"It is very important to demonstrate the ability to sustain the plasma in a steady state on the Large Helical Device (LHD), which has external helical magnetic coils and is a superconducting device. The long pulse discharge experiment was carried out using the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) heating mainly. The plasma discharge of 31 minutes and 45 seconds was achieved by a total injected heating energy of 1.3GJ. Swing of the magnetic axis to scatter the local heat load on the divertor plate was one of the key methods for the steady state operation. The repetitive hydrogen pellet injection was tried successfully to fuel the minority hydrogen ions for long pulse operation."

Magnetic island formation is experimentally investigated in the Large Helical Device. The (m, n) = (1, 1) vacuum magnetic island is generated by using the local island diverter field, where m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers, respectively. The island width depends on plasma parameters (the electron temperature and the β) and the magnetic axis position. In the case of Rax = 3.53 m the magnetic island in the plasma is larger than that in the vacuum field. Here, Rax is the major radius of the magnetic axis. In the case of Rax = 3.6 m the magnetic island is not generated when the error field is less than the threshold which is increased as the β is increased. Evidence of island current is obtained when the magnetic island is formed due to a small error field. However, the mechanism that generates the island is not yet known.

New design approaches are proposed for the LHD-type heliotron D–T demo-reactor FFHR2 to solve the key engineering issues of blanket space limitation and replacement difficulty. A major radius of over 14 m is selected to permit a blanket-shield thickness of about 1 m and to reduce the neutron wall loading and toroidal field, while achieving an acceptable cost of electricity. Two sets of optimization are successfully carried out. One is to reduce the magnetic hoop force on the helical coil support structures by adjustment of the helical winding coil pitch parameter and the poloidal coils design, which facilitates expansion of the maintenance ports. The other is a long-life blanket concept using carbon armour tiles that soften the neutron energy spectrum incident on the self-cooled flibe-reduced activation ferritic steel blanket. In this adaptation of the spectral-shifter and tritium breeder blanket (STB) concept a local tritium breeding ratio over 1.2 is feasible by optimized arrangement of the neutron multiplier Be in the carbon tiles, and the radiation shielding of the superconducting magnet coils is also significantly improved. Using constant cross sections of a helically winding shape, the 'screw coaster' concept is proposed to replace in-vessel components such as the STB armour tiles. The key R&D issues for developing the STB concept, such as radiation effects on carbon and enhanced heat transfer of Flibe, are elucidated.

A repetitive pellet injector has been developed for investigation of refueling issues towards the steady-state operation in Large Helical Device (LHD). Continuous operation of more than 10000 pellet launching at 10 Hz has been demonstrated. The maximum repeating rate is 11 Hz. No technical constraint for longer operation has been found. The reliability of pellet launch has exceeded 99.9%. The initial application to the NBI-heated plasmas has been successful in the last experimental campaign of LHD. Although the pulse length is limited by the operational constraint of NBI, the plasma with a density of 8 × 1019 m-3 has been sustained for 2 s by the pellet injection at 10 Hz. A prospect for the future experiment is discussed on the basis of the initial result.

Transient transport experiments are performed in LHD plasma with electron internal transport barrier (e-ITB). Evidence for a reduction of electron heat diffusivity inside the ITB is observed from cold and heat pulse propagations. The observed enhancement of the cold pulse peak is explained by the temperature dependent electron heat diffusivity. The heat diffusivity inside the ITB decreases with an increase in the electron temperature in LHD.

The large helical device (LHD) is the world largest helical system having all superconducting coils. After completion of LHD in 1998, six experimental campaigns have been carried out successfully. The maximum stored energy, central electron temperature, and volume averaged beta value are 1.16 MJ, 10 keV, and 3.2%, respectively. The confinement time of the LHD plasma appears to be equivalent to that of tokamaks. One of the most important missions for LHD is to prove steady-state operation, which is also significant to international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) and to future fusion reactors. LHD is quite appropriate for this purpose based upon the beneficial feature of a helical system, that is, no necessity of the plasma current. So far, the plasma discharge duration was achieved up to 150 s. The plasma density was kept constant by feedback control of gas puffing with real time information of the line density. The issue for demonstrating steady-state operation is whether divertor function to control particle and heat flux is effective enough. Relevant to this, LHD diagnostics should be consistent with the following: 1) continuous operation of main diagnostics during long-pulse operation for feedback control and physics understanding; 2) measurement of fraction of H, He, and impurities in the plasma; 3) heat removal and measure against possible damage or surface erosion of diagnostic components inside of the vacuum chamber; 4) data acquisition system for handling real time data display and a huge amount of data. Although there are already some achievements on the above subjects, there remain still several issues to be resolved. On the other hand, the long-pulse operation of the plasma gives benefits to the diagnostics. For example, the polarizing angle of ECE emission can be changed during the discharge, and the intensity dependence on the polarizing angle has been obtained. The spatial scanning of the neutral particle analyzer and the spectrometer can supply the spatial profiles of the fast neutral particle flux and the specific impurity lines. In this paper, the present status of these issues and future plans are described.

Standard diagnostics for fundamental plasma parameters and for plasma physics are routinely utilized for daily operation and physics studies in the large helical device (LHD) with high reliability. Diagnostics for steady-state plasma are under intensive development, especially for Te, ne (yttrium–aluminium garnet (YAG) laser Thomson, CO2 laser polarimeter), data acquisition in steady-state and heat-resistant probes. To clarify the plasma properties of the helical structure, two- or three-dimensional diagnostics are being aggressively developed: tangential cameras (fast SX TV, photon counting CCD, Hα TV); tomography (tangential SX CCD, bolometer); imaging (bolometer, ECE, reflectometer). Divertor and edge physics are important key issues for steady-state operation. Diagnostics for neutral flux (Hα array, Zeeman spectroscopy) and ne (fast scanning probe, Li beam probe, pulsed radar reflectometer) are also in advanced stages of development. In addition to these, advanced diagnostics are being intensively developed in LHD through domestic and international collaborations.

A repetitive pellet injector has been developed for investigation of refueling issues towards the steady-state operation in Large Helical Device (LHD). Continuous operation of more than 10000 pellet launching at 10 Hz has been demonstrated. The maximum repeating rate is 11 Hz. No technical constraint for longer operation has been found. The reliability of pellet launch has exceeded 99.9%. The initial application to the NBI-heated plasmas has been successful in the last experimental campaign of LHD. Although the pulse length is limited by the operational constraint of NBI, the plasma with a density of 8 × 1019 m-3 has been sustained for 2 s by the pellet injection at 10 Hz. A prospect for the future experiment is discussed on the basis of the initial result.

This paper presents strategic Tabu Search (TS) for unit commitment in power systems. TS is more useful for solving a combinatorial problem. However, it is inclined to be more time-consuming for a large scale optimization problem due to the increase of solution candidates in the neighborhood. In this paper, a couple of strategies are taken to improve the performance of TS. One is to provide the upper and lower bounds of variables. The other is to introduce the ordinal optimization (OO) in TS and reduce computational effort in creating solution candidates. The proposed method is successfully applied to a sample system.

Significant progress has been made with ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) heating in the Large Helical Device. This is mainly due to better confinement of the helically trapped particles and less accumulation of impurities in the region of the plasma core. During the past two years, ICRF heating power has been increased from 1.35 to 2.7 MW. Various wave-mode tests were carried out using minority-ion heating, second-harmonic heating, slow-wave heating and high-density fast-wave heating at the fundamental cyclotron frequency. This fundamental heating mode extended the plasma density range of effective ICRF heating to a value of 1×1020 m−3. This use of the heating mode was its first successful application in large fusion devices. Using the minority-ion mode gave the best performance, and the stored energy reached 240 kJ using ICRF alone. This was obtained for the inward-shifted magnetic axis configuration. The improvement associated with the axis-shift was common for both bulk plasma and highly accelerated particles. For the minority-ion mode, high-energy ions up to 500 keV were observed by concentrating the heating power near the plasma axis. The confinement properties of high-energy particles were studied for different magnetic axis configurations, using the power-modulation technique. It confirmed that with the inward-shifted configuration the confinement of high-energy particles was better than with the normal configuration. By increasing the distance of the plasma to the vessel wall to about 2 cm, the impurity influx was sufficiently reduced to allow sustainment of the plasma with ICRF heating alone for more than 2 min.

Internal transport barriers with respect to electron thermal transport (eITB) were observed in the large helical device, when the electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECH) power was highly localized on the centre of a plasma sustained by neutral beam injection. The eITB is characterized by a high central electron temperature of 6–8 keV with an extremely steep gradient, as high as 55 keV m−1 and a low electron thermal diffusivity within a normalized average radius ρ≈0.3 as well as by the existence of clear thresholds for the ECH power and plasma collisionality.

Bolometer diagnostics are installed on the Large Helical Device (LHD) to provide measurements of the total (broad spectrum) electromagnetic radiation emitted by the plasma. Three types of detectors are used: resistive metal film bolometers, absolute extreme ultraviolet photodiodes and infrared imaging video bolometers. Details of the installation in LHD are given for each type of detector. The detector calibration, data analysis and tomography techniques are described and compared and sample results are shown.

The behaviour of high-energy ions accelerated by an ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) electric field in the large helical device (LHD) is discussed. A better confinement performance of high-energy ions in the inward-shifted magnetic axis configuration was experimentally verified by measuring their energy spectrum and comparing it with the effective temperature determined by an electron slowing down process. In the standard magnetic axis configuration a saturation of the measured tail temperature was observed as the effective temperature was increased. The ratio between these two quantities is a measure of the quality of transfer efficiency from high-energy ions to a bulk plasma; when this efficiency was compared with Monte Carlo simulations the results agreed fairly well. The ratio of the stored energy of the high-energy ions to that of the bulk plasma was measured using an ICRF heating power modulation method; it was deduced from phase differences between total and bulk plasma stored energies and the modulated ICRF heating power. The measured high energy fraction agreed with that calculated using the injected ICRF heating power, the transfer efficiency determined in the experiment and the confinement scaling of the LHD plasma.

The infrared (IR) imaging bolometer has the merit of being able to measure wide two-dimensional images of the plasma radiation. Two IR imaging video bolometers (IRVB, one type of IR imaging bolometer system) were installed on the large helical device (LHD). Using these IRVBs, the asymmetric radiation collapse that is similar to the multifaceted asymmetric radiation from the edge was measured in LHD. From the results of the asymmetric collapse study in LHD, the high radiation region is localized on the inboard side and under the midplane on the vacuum vessel, but this region is not the nearest point from the plasma to the first wall. From other reports on LHD, it is written that the wall recycling is not a trigger for the asymmetric radiation onset, which is confirmed by this new result.

By changing the distribution of the coil currents in the helical coils of the large helical device (LHD) the plasma could be scraped off on the stainless steel inboard wall at the last closed flux surface, eliminating the ergodic edge region and helical divertor (HD) plasmas. During such NBI-heated discharges slow oscillations (1–2.5 Hz) have been observed in the major global parameters. These oscillations exhibit many similarities to the ‘breathing’ relaxation phenomenon observed during long pulse experiments in LHD when the divertor material was stainless steel. These similarities include a large core radiation fraction, significant radiation from the metallic impurities and dependence of the oscillation frequency on density. In contrast, discharges using the graphite HD show hollow radiation profiles and reduced levels of radiation from heavy impurities. Modeling shows that differences in the density dependence of the oscillation frequency between the wall limiter and HD cases can be attributed to differences in the impurity diffusion between the core and ergodic edge regions.

The shift and fine line shape of H α emissions in large helical device (LHD) plasmas have been analyzed by a high resolution spectroscopic system. The minimum detectable velocity for hydrogen atoms is 10 3 m/s. This is confirmed by a newly developed light source with a magnetic field of 1.13 T. In a long-pulse NBI plasma of LHD, hydrogen atoms move toward the plasma from the divertor with velocity of 10 4 m/s. Fine spectral profile of H α was measured with a linear polarizer and it shows an asymmetric structure. The spectrum consists of cold component shifted to the blue side and tail extended to 656.0 nm. The energy corresponding to the tail is from 8 to 100 eV.

The infrared (IR) imaging video bolometer (IRVB) is an imaging bolometer which uses a large (9?cm×9?cm) thin (1 μm) gold foil and an IR camera to provide images of radiation from the plasma. Calibration of the IRVB using a lamp has been performed to compensate for any nonuniformities in the foil’s thickness and its thermal properties due to blackening of the foil with graphite to improve the IR emissivity. This calibration revealed close to expected values for the calibration coefficient proportional to the product of the thermal conductivity and the foil thickness in the central region of the foil, while these values were anomalously high near the foil edge. The calibration coefficient proportional to the thermal diffusivity is a factor of 2 smaller than the expected value at the center and drops further at the edge of the foil. Using a derived expression for the IRVB noise equivalent power, a sensitivity comparison shows the IRVB using current IR technologies to be ? 200 times less sensitive than an equivalent conventional resistive bolometer operating under ideal conditions.

Summary. Forests and soils are a major sink of carbon, and land use changes can affect the magnitude of above ground and below ground carbon stores and the net flux of carbon between the land and the atmosphere. Studies on methods for examining the future consequences of changes in patterns of land use change and carbon flux gains importance, as they provide different options for CO2 mitigation strategies. In this study, a simulation approach combining Markov chain processes and carbon pools for forests and soils has been implemented to study the carbon flows over a period of time. Markov chains have been computed by converting the land use change and forestry data of India from 1997 to 1999 into a matrix of conditional probabilities reflecting the changes from one class at time t to another class time t + 1. Results from Markov modeling suggested Indian forests as a potential sink for 0.94 Gt carbon, with an increase in dense forest area of about 75.93 Mha and decrease of about 3.4 Mha and 5.0 Mha in open and scrub forests, if similar land use changes that occurred during 1997–1999 would continue. The limiting probabilities suggested 34.27 percent as dense forest, 6.90 as open forest, 0.4 percent mangrove forest, 0.1 percent scrub and 58 percent as non-forest area. Although Indian forests are found to be a potential carbon sink, analysis of results from transition probabilities for different years till 2050 suggests that, the forests will continue to be a source of about 20.59 MtC to the atmosphere. The implications of these results in the context of increasing anthropogenic pressure on open and scrub forests and their contribution to carbon source from land use change and forestry sector are discussed. Some of the mitigation aspects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use change and forestry sector in India are also reviewed in the study.

Ipomoea imperati (Convolvulaceae) lives on the sandy shores of the Brazilian coast and in other areas of the world. The anti-inflammatory activity of a methanol-water extract of the leaves of I. imperati was investigated in experimental models of acute and subchronic inflammation. Topical application of the extract (10 mg/ear) inhibited mouse ear edema induced by croton oil (89.0 +/- 1.3% by the lipid fraction with an IC50 of 3.97 mg/ear and 57.0 +/- 1.3% by the aqueous fraction with an IC50 of 3.5 mg/ear) and arachidonic acid (42.0 +/- 2.0% with an IC50 of 4.98 mg/ear and 31.0 +/- 2.0% with an IC50 of 4.72 mg/ear). Phospholipase A2, purified from Apis mellifera bee venom, was also inhibited by the extract (5.0 mg/ml lipid and aqueous fraction) in vitro in a dose-dependent manner (85% by the lipid fraction with an IC50 of 3.22 mg/ml and 25% by the aqueous fraction with an IC50 of 3.43 mg/ml). The methanol-water extract of I. imperati (1000 mg/kg) administered by the oral route also inhibited the formation of cotton pellet-induced granulomas (73.2 +/- 1.2% by the lipid fraction and 56.14 +/- 2.7% by the aqueous fraction) and did not cause gastric mucosal lesions. I. imperati extracts (10 mg/ml) also inhibited in a dose-dependent manner the muscle contractions of guinea pig ileum induced by acetylcholine and histamine (IC50 of 1.60 mg/ml for the lipid fraction and 4.12 mg/ml for the aqueous fraction). These results suggest the use of I. imperati as an anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic agent in traditional medicine.

This paper describes the novel method for generating the narrow vertical jet of magnetic fluid. This jet is formed by the vibration of magnetic fluid-permanent annular magnet system. The dynamic behavior of narrow magnetic fluid jet is analyzed by a three-dimensional motion analysis system. Effect of the excitation amplitude on the jet formation of magnetic fluid and the atomization characteristics is revealed experimentally.

Characteristics of the sequential impact of two magnetic fluid droplets on the paper surface under an applied magnetic field were studied with a three-dimensional motion analysis system. Effect of a magnetic field on the phenomenon of sequential impact of two droplets were revealed.

The utility of ICRF heating in the LHD was demonstrated in the third campaign carried out in 1999. This paper summarizes the investigations made in 2000 with a focus on the optimization of ICRF heating. The flexibility of the LHD magnetic configuration was fully utilized as a key factor in the investigations. The experiments include (a) scan of magnetic field intensity, (b) scan of aspect ratio, (c) scan of magnetic axis shift, (d) scan of quadrupole magnetic field, and (e) cancellation of magnetic island. The performance of the ICRF heating was thus optimized with respect to magnetic parameters, while optimization was achieved mainly with respect to heating regime and wall conditioning in the third campaign. Some of these parameters are directly related to the orbit of trapped particles. Therefore, the relation between particle orbits and the performance of ICRF heating is also addressed in this paper based on analyses of the high-energy tail of ions.

An experimental study is presented of the dynamic behavior of the impacting droplet of magneto-rheological suspension under applied magnetic fields. Effects of magnetic fields on the impact phenomena between a MR fluid droplet and paper on the hard rubber mat were revealed with a three-dimensional motion analysis system. In case of perpendicular magnetic field to a target surface, the MR fluid droplet did not collapse completely by its impact, but MR fluid spikes were formed by the magnetic field. In case of parallel magnetic field to a target surface, the MR fluid droplet showed complicated deformation. In case of strong parallel field, the MR fluid droplet showed breakup into few droplets.

This paper is concerned with the dynamic behavior of a magnetic fluid-permanent magnet system subjected to the vertical vibration. The surface response of magnetic fluid adsorbed to a disc permanent magnet is investigated experimentally. Experiment is performed on a vibration-testing system. The electrodynamic shaker is operated at a given frequency, displacement, and acceleration. The dynamic behavior of magnetic fluid surface is analyzed by a three-dimensional motion analysis system. The displacement of the permanent magnet is also measured with an optical displacement detector system. It is shown that the response amplitude depends on the excitation frequency at the constant excitation amplitude. The 1=2-sub harmonic response on the surface of magnetic fluid is observed at higher frequencies. This response is observed as polygonal modes with large amplitude azimuthal waves. The response of the system such as jumping motion is also shown at the resonance frequency of the system.

The Shafranov shift is derived from the two-dimensional profile of x-ray intensity measured with a soft x-ray CCD camera in large helical device. The accuracy of the measurement of the magnetic axis is 3% of the Shafranov shift at high β. The measured Shafranov shift increases linearly up to 280±3 mm, which is 47% of the minor radius as the volume averaged β βdia measured with a diamagnetic loop is increased up to 2.6%. The Shafranov shift measured with a soft x-ray CCD camera agrees with that calculated with the three-dimensional equilibrium code VMEC. The reduction of the Shafranov shift due to the higher harmonics of the Fourier components of the magnetic field is also observed.

User-friendly visualization tools are indispensable for quick recognition of experimental data. One such tool, the dwscope component of the MDS-Plus system, is widely used to visualize the data that MDS-Plus acquires. However, the National Institute for Fusion Science does not use MDS-Plus, so our researchers on the Large Helical Device (LHD) project cannot use dwscope without modification. Therefore, we developed a new visualization tool, NIFScope. The user interface of NIFScope is based on JavaScope, which is a Java version of dwscope, but NIFScope has its own unique characteristics, including the following: (1) the GUI toolkit is GTK+; (2) Ruby is the equation evaluator; and (3) data loaders are provided as Ruby modules. With these features, NIFScope becomes a multi-purpose and flexible visualization tool. For example, because GTK+ is a multi-platform open source GUI toolkit, NIFScope can run on both MS-Windows and UNIX, and it can be delivered freely. The second characteristic enables users to plot various equations besides experimental data. Furthermore, Ruby is an object-oriented script language and is widely used on the Internet, allowing it to serve not only as an equation evaluator but also as an ordinal programming language. This means users can easily add new data loaders for their own data formats.

This study concerns an autopsy case of motor neuron disease with dementia (MND-D) that exhibited unusual clinical and neuropathological findings. The patient was a Japanese man without any relevant family history who was 60 years old at the time of death. His clinical manifestation included character change at the age of 54, followed by frozen gait, dysarthria and bradykinesia and he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He gradually developed spastic paresis and died of respiratory failure 6 years after onset of the illness. Neuropathological examinations showed prominent degeneration in the striatonigral and pallidoluysian systems in addition to the neuronal loss and microvacuolation in the second to third layers of the frontal and temporal cortex, the involvement of the upper and lower motor neuron systems and the presence of ubiquitinated neuronal inclusions. To our knowledge, five cases of motor neuron disease (MND) combined with pallido-nigro-luysian atrophy (PNLA) have been reported previously, but the present case is the first report of MND-D combined with the degeneration of the striatonigral and pallidoluysian systems. Such an association may represent more than a coincidental occurrence, and it suggests that MND-D is not simply a disease of the motor neuron system but a multisystem degeneration.