R&D ERL: High power RF systems

The Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) project, now under construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory, requires two high power RF systems. The first RF system is for the 703.75 MHz superconducting electron gun. The RF power from this system is used to drive nearly half an Ampere of beam current to 2.5 MeV. There is no provision to recover any of this energy so the minimum amplifier power is 1 MW. It consists of 1 MW CW klystron, transmitter and power supplies, 1 MW circulator, 1 MW dummy load and a two-way power splitter. The second RF system is for the 703.75 MHz superconducting cavity. The system accelerates the beam to 54.7 MeV and recovers this energy. It will provide up to 50 kW of CW RF power to the cavity. It consists of 50 kW transmitter, circulator, and dummy load. This paper describes the two high power RF systems and presents the test data for both

Gain-Bandwith Product of Power Grid Tubes and Application to AGS Power Amplifier Driver

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Estrogen-Receptor Expression and Function in Thymocytes in Relation to Gender and Age

The expression of estrogen receptor (ER) in thymocytes was studied in young, middle-aged, and old (2, 12, and 24 months, respectively) female and male C57BL/6J mice. Western immunoblots prepared from the thymocytes of females of all age groups showed the presence of a 67-kD protein band, which has been associated with the apparent MW of denatured ER. Flow cytometry analysis o,f cells stained with a monoclonal anti-ER antibody (clone 13H2) disclosed ER expression in both females and males of all age groups. In vivo treatment with estradiol (E2) led to an increase in the specific activity of thymic creatine kinase (CK) in the female mice, whereas the male thymocytes responded with an increase in CK activity only on treatment with dihydrotestosterone (DHT). The data show no differences in ER expression between male and females, but the receptor appears not to be functional in males. Interestingly, when estradiol was applied to co-cultures of lymphoid-depleted fetal thymus (FT) explants and bone-marrow cells, or thymocytes, from young and old females, it resulted in increased cellularity of cultures containing cells of the young, and not those of the old. The proportion of CD4/CD8 phenotypes of the developing cells in these cultures was not affected by E2 treatment. These observations provide a new insight into ER expression and function in T-cell development in relation to gender and age

Stabilization of the Plate Current in Vacuum Tube Power Amplifier Using Cathode Resistor

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Higher order mode damper for low energy RHIC electron cooler SRF booster cavity

To improve RHIC luminosity for heavy ion beam energies below 10 GeV/nucleon, the Low Energy RHIC electron Cooler (LEReC) is currently under commissioning at BNL. The Linac of LEReC is designed to deliver a 1.6 MeV to 2.6 MeV electron beam, with rms dp/p less than 5e-4. A 704 MHz superconducting radio frequency (SRF) booster cavity in this Linac provides up to 2.2 MeV accelerating voltage. With such a low energy and very demanding energy spread requirement, control of Higher Order Modes (HOMs) in the cavities becomes critical and needs to be carefully evaluated to ensure minimum impact on the beam. In this paper, we report the multiphysics design of the HOM damper for this cavity to meet the energy spread requirement, as well as experimental results of the cavity with and without the HOM damper.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Commissioning results from the recently upgraded RHIC LLRF system

During RHIC Run 10, the first phase of the LLRF Upgrade was successfully completed. This involved replacing the aging VME based system with a modern digital system based on the recently developed RHIC LLRF Upgrade Platform, and commissioning the system as part of the normal RHIC start up process. At the start of Run 11, the second phase of the upgrade is underway, involving a significant expansion of both hardware and functionality. This paper will review the commissioning effort and provide examples of improvements in system performance, flexibility and scalability afforded by the new platform. The RHIC LLRF upgrade is based on the recently developed RHIC LLRF Upgrade Platform. The major design goals of the platform are: (1) Design a stand alone, generic, digital, modular control architecture which can be configured to satisfy all of the application demands we currently have, and which will be supportable and upgradeable into the foreseeable future; and (2) It should integrate seamlessly into existing controls infrastructure, be easy to deploy, provide access to all relevant control parameters (eliminate knobs), provide vastly improved diagnostic data capabilities, and permit remote reconfiguration. Although the system is still in its infancy, we think the initial commissioning results from RHIC indicate that these goals have been achieved, and that we've only begun to realize the benefits the platform provides

Interlayer Registry Determines the Sliding Potential of Layered Metal Dichalcogenides: The case of 2H-MoS2

We provide a simple and intuitive explanation for the interlayer sliding energy landscape of metal dichalcogenides. Based on the recently introduced registry index (RI) concept, we define a purely geometrical parameter which quantifies the degree of interlayer commensurability in the layered phase of molybdenum disulphide (2HMoS2). A direct relation between the sliding energy landscape and the corresponding interlayer registry surface of 2H-MoS2 is discovered thus marking the registry index as a computationally efficient means for studying the tribology of complex nanoscale material interfaces in the wearless friction regime.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

The Hetero-Hexameric Nature of a Chloroplast AAA+ FtsH Protease Contributes to Its Thermodynamic Stability

FtsH is an evolutionary conserved membrane-bound metalloprotease complex. While in most prokaryotes FtsH is encoded by a single gene, multiple FtsH genes are found in eukaryotes. Genetic and biochemical data suggest that the Arabidopsis chloroplast FtsH is a hetero-hexamer. This raises the question why photosynthetic organisms require a heteromeric complex, whereas in most bacteria a homomeric one is sufficient. To gain structural information of the possible complexes, the Arabidopsis FtsH2 (type B) and FtsH5 (type A) were modeled. An in silico study with mixed models of FtsH2/5 suggests that heteromeric hexamer structure with ratio of 4∶2 is more likely to exists. Specifically, calculation of the buried surface area at the interfaces between neighboring subunits revealed that a hetero-complex should be thermodynamically more stable than a homo-hexamer, due to the presence of additional hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions. To biochemically assess this model, we generated Arabidopsis transgenic plants, expressing epitope-tagged FtsH2 and immuno-purified the protein. Mass-spectrometry analysis showed that FtsH2 is associated with FtsH1, FtsH5 and FtsH8. Interestingly, we found that ‘type B’ subunits (FtsH2 and FtsH8) were 2–3 fold more abundant than ‘type A’ (FtsH1 and FtsH5). The biochemical data corroborate the in silico model and suggest that the thylakoid FtsH hexamer is composed of two ‘type A’ and four ‘type B’ subunits

Essential versus accessory aspects of cell death: recommendations of the NCCD 2015

Cells exposed to extreme physicochemical or mechanical stimuli die in an uncontrollable manner, as a result of their immediate structural breakdown. Such an unavoidable variant of cellular demise is generally referred to as ‘accidental cell death’ (ACD). In most settings, however, cell death is initiated by a genetically encoded apparatus, correlating with the fact that its course can be altered by pharmacologic or genetic interventions. ‘Regulated cell death’ (RCD) can occur as part of physiologic programs or can be activated once adaptive responses to perturbations of the extracellular or intracellular microenvironment fail. The biochemical phenomena that accompany RCD may be harnessed to classify it into a few subtypes, which often (but not always) exhibit stereotyped morphologic features. Nonetheless, efficiently inhibiting the processes that are commonly thought to cause RCD, such as the activation of executioner caspases in the course of apoptosis, does not exert true cytoprotective effects in the mammalian system, but simply alters the kinetics of cellular demise as it shifts its morphologic and biochemical correlates. Conversely, bona fide cytoprotection can be achieved by inhibiting the transduction of lethal signals in the early phases of the process, when adaptive responses are still operational. Thus, the mechanisms that truly execute RCD may be less understood, less inhibitable and perhaps more homogeneous than previously thought. Here, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death formulates a set of recommendations to help scientists and researchers to discriminate between essential and accessory aspects of cell death