Automatic radioxenon analyzer for CTBT monitoring

Over the past 3 years, with support from US DOE`s NN-20 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) R&D program, PNNL has developed and demonstrated a fully automatic analyzer for collecting and measuring the four Xe radionuclides, {sup 131m}Xe(11.9 d), {sup 133m}Xe(2.19 d), {sup 133}Xe (5.24 d), and {sup 135}Xe(9.10 h), in the atmosphere. These radionuclides are important signatures in monitoring for compliance to a CTBT. Activity ratios permit discriminating radioxenon from nuclear detonation and that from nuclear reactor operations, nuclear fuel reprocessing, or medical isotope production and usage. In the analyzer, Xe is continuously and automatically separated from the atmosphere at flow rates of about 7 m{sup 3}/h on sorption bed. Aliquots collected for 6-12 h are automatically analyzed by electron-photon coincidence spectrometry to produce sensitivities in the range of 20-100 {mu}Bq/m{sup 3} of air, about 100-fold better than with reported laboratory-based procedures for short time collection intervals. Spectral data are automatically analyzed and the calculated radioxenon concentrations and raw gamma- ray spectra automatically transmitted to data centers

Aspects of String-Gas Cosmology at Finite Temperature

We study string-gas cosmology in dilaton gravity, inspired by the fact that it naturally arises in a string theory context. Our main interest is the thermodynamical treatment of the string-gas and the resulting implications for the cosmology. Within an adiabatic approximation, thermodynamical equilibrium and a small, toroidal universe as initial conditions, we numerically solve the corresponding equations of motions in two different regimes describing the string-gas thermodynamics: (i) the Hagedorn regime, with a single scale factor, and (ii) an almost-radiation dominated regime, which includes the leading corrections due to the lightest Kaluza Klein and winding modes, with two scale factors. The scale factor in the Hagedorn regime exhibits very slow time evolution with nearly constant energy and negligible pressure. By contrast, in case (ii) we find interesting cosmological solutions where the large dimensions continue to expand and the small ones are kept undetectably small.Comment: 21 pages, 5 eps figure

Vav3 collaborates with p190-BCR-ABL in lymphoid progenitor leukemogenesis, proliferation, and survival

Despite the introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, the prognosis for p190-BCR-ABL(+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia remains poor. In the present study, we present the cellular and molecular roles of the Rho GTPase guanine nucleotide exchange factor Vav in lymphoid leukemogenesis and explore the roles of Vav proteins in BCR-ABL-dependent signaling. We show that genetic deficiency of the guanine nucleotide exchange factor Vav3 delays leukemogenesis by p190-BCR-ABL and phenocopies the effect of Rac2 deficiency, a downstream effector of Vav3. Compensatory up-regulation of expression and activation of Vav3 in Vav1/Vav2-deficient B-cell progenitors increases the transformation ability of p190-BCR-ABL. Vav3 deficiency induces apoptosis of murine and human leukemic lymphoid progenitors, decreases the activation of Rho GTPase family members and p21-activated kinase, and is associated with increased Bad phosphorylation and up-regulation of Bax, Bak, and Bik. Finally, Vav3 activation only partly depends on ABL TK activity, and Vav3 deficiency collaborates with tyrosine kinase inhibitors to inhibit CrkL activation and impair leukemogenesis in vitro and in vivo. We conclude that Vav3 represents a novel specific molecular leukemic effector for multitarget therapy in p190-BCR-ABL-expressing acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

A draft human pangenome reference

Here the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium presents a first draft of the human pangenome reference. The pangenome contains 47 phased, diploid assemblies from a cohort of genetically diverse individuals. These assemblies cover more than 99% of the expected sequence in each genome and are more than 99% accurate at the structural and base pair levels. Based on alignments of the assemblies, we generate a draft pangenome that captures known variants and haplotypes and reveals new alleles at structurally complex loci. We also add 119 million base pairs of euchromatic polymorphic sequences and 1,115 gene duplications relative to the existing reference GRCh38. Roughly 90 million of the additional base pairs are derived from structural variation. Using our draft pangenome to analyse short-read data reduced small variant discovery errors by 34% and increased the number of structural variants detected per haplotype by 104% compared with GRCh38-based workflows, which enabled the typing of the vast majority of structural variant alleles per sample

Observation of {sup 135}Xe with the PNNL ARSA System

The automated radioxenon sampler-analyzer (ARSA) developed by PNNL and with funding and support form the DOE NN-20 CTBT research and development program, observed 9.1-hr {sup 135}Xe in a sample of New York City air obtained on April 4th, 1997. The report below briefly describes the ARSA system and the first ever reported measurement of the short-lived {sup 135}Xe from an automated radioxenon system

Determination of Cd-thionein in biological materials: Comparative standard recovery by five current methods using protein nitrogen for standard calibration.

Five methods of metallothionein (MT) estimation in biological materials (Hg-saturation assay, Cd-saturation assay, thiolate group determination, Sephadex G-75 gel chromatography with subsequent Cd determination by Zeeman-AAS, and a radioimmunoassay (RIA)) were compared for their ability to recover standard MT (rabbit Cd-MTI) from liver or kidney S9. Uniform molar calibration of all assays was achieved using the known amino acid composition of standard MT and the nitrogen content of the standard MT stock solution as measured after complete Kjeldahl digestion. Known molar amounts of standard MT were added exogenously to rat liveror kidney-S9 samples and recoveries measured using the methods indicated. In an overall rating, RIA and Cd-saturation assay performed best with recoveries of 97 ± 12.0 and 105 ± 9.7%, respectively. On the other hand, the remaining methods either underestimated (thiolate group determination, G-75 Cd-AAS) or overestimated (Hg-saturation assay) the theoretical expectation by up to 44%

Radionuclide migration in groundwater. Annual progress report for 1982

Research has continued at a low-level waste disposal facility to characterize the physicochemical species of radionuclides migrating in groundwater. This facility consists of an unlined basin and connecting trench which receives effluent water containing low levels of a wide variety of fission and activation products and trace amounts of transuranic radionuclides. The effluent water percolates through the soil and a small fraction of it emerges at seepage springs located some 260 meters from the trench. The disposal basin and trench are very efficient in retaining most of the radionuclides, but trace amounts of a number of radionuclides existing in mobile chemical forms migrate in the groundwater from the trench to the springs. This facility provides the opportunity for characterizing the rates and mechanisms of radionuclide migration in groundwaters, identifying retardation processes, and validating geochemical models. 13 references, 25 figures, 23 tables

Disruptive moments and normative professionalism: An exploration of the (im)possibilities of a provocative pedagogy to stimulate the development of normative professionalism

Our concern is with the increasing influence of instrumentality in education at the expense of personhood formation. In our contribution we focus on normative professionalisation, an approach to professionalisation that brings together instrumentality, value orientation and morality. In our contribution, the focus is on normative professionalisation of (future) teachers. In our theoretical framework, we combine the dialogical self theory (DST) with its method of self confrontation (SCM) in a provocative research instrument. With this instrument, respondents in our research are challenged to reflect on so-called ‘disruptive moments’ as motors for their professional development. We present two case studies situated in The Netherlands: one of a young women in her last year of teacher training, and one of a team of teacher trainers. Respondents evaluate the process positively, in particular because the process does justice to their personal and professional biography. In addition they appreciate their involvement in the analysis of the data. Our conclusion is that the adapted SCM is a promising instrument to stimulate the process of normative professionalisation