1. |
- Abel, I, et al.
(author)
-
Overview of the JET results with the ITER-like wall
- 2013
-
In: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1741-4326 .- 0029-5515. ; 53:10, s. 104002-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Following the completion in May 2011 of the shutdown for the installation of the beryllium wall and the tungsten divertor, the first set of JET campaigns have addressed the investigation of the retention properties and the development of operational scenarios with the new plasma-facing materials. The large reduction in the carbon content (more than a factor ten) led to a much lower Z(eff) (1.2-1.4) during L- and H-mode plasmas, and radiation during the burn-through phase of the plasma initiation with the consequence that breakdown failures are almost absent. Gas balance experiments have shown that the fuel retention rate with the new wall is substantially reduced with respect to the C wall. The re-establishment of the baseline H-mode and hybrid scenarios compatible with the new wall has required an optimization of the control of metallic impurity sources and heat loads. Stable type-I ELMy H-mode regimes with H-98,H-y2 close to 1 and beta(N) similar to 1.6 have been achieved using gas injection. ELM frequency is a key factor for the control of the metallic impurity accumulation. Pedestal temperatures tend to be lower with the new wall, leading to reduced confinement, but nitrogen seeding restores high pedestal temperatures and confinement. Compared with the carbon wall, major disruptions with the new wall show a lower radiated power and a slower current quench. The higher heat loads on Be wall plasma-facing components due to lower radiation made the routine use of massive gas injection for disruption mitigation essential.
|
|
2. |
- Romanelli, F, et al.
(author)
-
Overview of the JET results
- 2011
-
In: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1741-4326 .- 0029-5515. ; 51:9
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Since the last IAEA Conference JET has been in operation for one year with a programmatic focus on the qualification of ITER operating scenarios, the consolidation of ITER design choices and preparation for plasma operation with the ITER-like wall presently being installed in JET. Good progress has been achieved, including stationary ELMy H-mode operation at 4.5 MA. The high confinement hybrid scenario has been extended to high triangularity, lower ρ*and to pulse lengths comparable to the resistive time. The steady-state scenario has also been extended to lower ρ*and ν*and optimized to simultaneously achieve, under stationary conditions, ITER-like values of all other relevant normalized parameters. A dedicated helium campaign has allowed key aspects of plasma control and H-mode operation for the ITER non-activated phase to be evaluated. Effective sawtooth control by fast ions has been demonstrated with3He minority ICRH, a scenario with negligible minority current drive. Edge localized mode (ELM) control studies using external n = 1 and n = 2 perturbation fields have found a resonance effect in ELM frequency for specific q95values. Complete ELM suppression has, however, not been observed, even with an edge Chirikov parameter larger than 1. Pellet ELM pacing has been demonstrated and the minimum pellet size needed to trigger an ELM has been estimated. For both natural and mitigated ELMs a broadening of the divertor ELM-wetted area with increasing ELM size has been found. In disruption studies with massive gas injection up to 50% of the thermal energy could be radiated before, and 20% during, the thermal quench. Halo currents could be reduced by 60% and, using argon/deuterium and neon/deuterium gas mixtures, runaway electron generation could be avoided. Most objectives of the ITER-like ICRH antenna have been demonstrated; matching with closely packed straps, ELM resilience, scattering matrix arc detection and operation at high power density (6.2 MW m-2) and antenna strap voltages (42 kV). Coupling measurements are in very good agreement with TOPICA modelling. © 2011 IAEA, Vienna.
|
|
3. |
|
|
4. |
- Luo, Y. -W, et al.
(author)
-
Database of diazotrophs in global ocean : abundance, biomass and nitrogen fixation rates
- 2012
-
In: Earth System Science Data. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1866-3508 .- 1866-3516. ; 4:1, s. 47-73
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Marine N-2 fixing microorganisms, termed di-azotrophs, are a key functional group in marine pelagic ecosystems. The biological fixation of dinitrogen ( N-2) to bioavailable nitrogen provides an important new source of nitrogen for pelagic marine ecosystems and influences primary productivity and organic matter export to the deep ocean. As one of a series of efforts to collect biomass and rates specific to different phytoplankton functional groups, we have constructed a database on diazotrophic organisms in the global pelagic upper ocean by compiling about 12 000 direct field measurements of cyanobacterial diazotroph abundances (based on microscopic cell counts or qPCR assays targeting the nifH genes) and N-2 fixation rates. Biomass conversion factors are estimated based on cell sizes to convert abundance data to diazotrophic biomass. The database is limited spatially, lacking large regions of the ocean especially in the Indian Ocean. The data are approximately log-normal distributed, and large variances exist in most sub-databases with non-zero values differing 5 to 8 orders of magnitude. Reporting the geometric mean and the range of one geometric standard error below and above the geometric mean, the pelagic N-2 fixation rate in the global ocean is estimated to be 62 (52-73) Tg Nyr(-1) and the pelagic diazotrophic biomass in the global ocean is estimated to be 2.1 (1.4-3.1) Tg C from cell counts and to 89 (43-150) Tg C from nifH- based abundances. Reporting the arithmetic mean and one standard error instead, these three global estimates are 140 +/- 9.2 Tg Nyr(-1), 18 +/- 1.8 Tg C and 590 +/- 70 Tg C, respectively. Uncertainties related to biomass conversion factors can change the estimate of geometric mean pelagic diazotrophic biomass in the global ocean by about +/- 70 %. It was recently established that the most commonly applied method used to measure N-2 fixation has underestimated the true rates. As a result, one can expect that future rate measurements will shift the mean N-2 fixation rate upward and may result in significantly higher estimates for the global N-2 fixation. The evolving database can nevertheless be used to study spatial and temporal distributions and variations of marine N-2 fixation, to validate geochemical estimates and to parameterize and validate biogeochemical models, keeping in mind that future rate measurements may rise in the future.
|
|
5. |
- Tyrrell, Jessica, et al.
(author)
-
Genetic variation in the 15q25 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor gene cluster (CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4) interacts with maternal self-reported smoking status during pregnancy to influence birth weight.
- 2012
-
In: Human molecular genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1460-2083 .- 0964-6906. ; 21:24, s. 5344-5358
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with low birth weight. Common variation at rs1051730 is robustly associated with smoking quantity and was recently shown to influence smoking cessation during pregnancy, but its influence on birth weight is not clear. We aimed to investigate the association between this variant and birth weight of term, singleton offspring in a well-powered meta-analysis. We stratified 26 241 European origin study participants by smoking status (women who smoked during pregnancy versus women who did not smoke during pregnancy) and, in each stratum, analysed the association between maternal rs1051730 genotype and offspring birth weight. There was evidence of interaction between genotype and smoking (P = 0.007). In women who smoked during pregnancy, each additional smoking-related T-allele was associated with a 20 g [95% confidence interval (95% CI): 4-36 g] lower birth weight (P = 0.014). However, in women who did not smoke during pregnancy, the effect size estimate was 5 g per T-allele (95% CI: -4to 14 g; P = 0.268). To conclude, smoking status during pregnancy modifies the association between maternal rs1051730 genotype and offspring birth weight. This strengthens the evidence that smoking during pregnancy is causally related to lower offspring birth weight and suggests that population interventions that effectively reduce smoking in pregnant women would result in a reduced prevalence of low birth weight.
|
|
6. |
- Fowkes, F. G. R., et al.
(author)
-
Development and validation of an ankle brachial index risk model for the prediction of cardiovascular events
- 2014
-
In: European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2047-4881 .- 2047-4873. ; 21:3, s. 310-320
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background The ankle brachial index (ABI) is related to risk of cardiovascular events independent of the Framingham risk score (FRS). The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a risk model for cardiovascular events incorporating the ABI and FRS. Design An analysis of participant data from 18 cohorts in which 24,375 men and 20,377 women free of coronary heart disease had ABI measured and were followed up for events. Methods Subjects were divided into a development and internal validation dataset and an external validation dataset. Two models, comprising FRS and FRS + ABI, were fitted for the primary outcome of major coronary events. Results In predicting events in the external validation dataset, C-index for the FRS was 0.672 (95% CI 0.599 to 0.737) in men and 0.578 (95% CI 0.492 to 0.661) in women. The FRS + ABI led to a small increase in C-index in men to 0.685 (95% CI 0.612 to 0.749) and large increase in women to 0.690 (95% CI 0.605 to 0.764) with net reclassification improvement (NRI) of 4.3% (95% CI 0.0 to 7.6%, p = 0.050) and 9.6% (95% CI 6.1 to 16.4%, p < 0.001), respectively. Restricting the FRS + ABI model to those with FRS intermediate 10-year risk of 10 to 19% resulted in higher NRI of 15.9% (95% CI 6.1 to 20.6%, p < 0.001) in men and 23.3% (95% CI 13.8 to 62.5%, p = 0.002) in women. However, incorporating ABI in an improved newly fitted risk factor model had a nonsignificant effect: NRI 2.0% (95% CI 2.3 to 4.2%, p = 0.567) in men and 1.1% (95% CI 1.9 to 4.0%, p = 0.483) in women. Conclusions An ABI risk model may improve prediction especially in individuals at intermediate risk and when performance of the base risk factor model is modest.
|
|
7. |
|
|
8. |
- Lawson, K. D., et al.
(author)
-
Enhancements to the JET poloidally scanning vacuum ultravioletvisible spectrometers
- 2012
-
In: Review of Scientific Instruments. - : AIP Publishing. - 0034-6748 .- 1089-7623. ; 83:10, s. 10D536-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Enhancements to the JET poloidally scanning spectrometers are presented, which will aid the exploitation of the recently installed ITER-like wall in JET. They include the installation of visible filterphotomultiplier tube assemblies and spectrometers and the replacement of large rotating mirrors in the JET vacuum with small oscillating mirrors outside. The upgrade has resulted in a more robust and reliable diagnostic than before, which is described. Drifts in the mirror angle reconstructed from quadrature encoder signals are found, a reference signal being required. The use of the small scanning mirrors necessitated the inclusion of focusing mirrors to maintain throughput into the vacuum ultraviolet spectrometers. The mirror design has taken account of the extreme sensitivity of the focusing to the grazing angle of incidence, an aspect of importance in the design of grazing incidence focusing components on future machines, such as ITER. The visible system has been absolutely calibrated using an in-vessel light source.
|
|