Nuclear Technologies in a Sustainable Energy System; Selected Papers from an IIASA Workshop, May 25-27, 1981

This book stems from the effort within IIASA to explore possible "sustainable" global energy systems that might eventually replace the current "consumptive" system. In investigating the possible contributions nuclear technologies might make to a sustainable energy system, it had become clear that it is not so much particular, distinct technologies within the nuclear family that should be examined but rather particularly advantageous configurations of mutually complementary technologies. Only when one considers exploiting a whole spectrum of arrangements of fission breeders, fusion reactors, and accelerators does the true potential of nuclear power become apparent

The usability of description logics: understanding the cognitive difficulties presented by description logics

Description Logics have been extensively studied from the viewpoint of decidability and computational tractability. Less attention has been given to their usability and the cognitive difficulties they present, in particular for those who are not specialists in logic. This paper reports on a study into the difficulties associated with the most commonly used Description Logic features. Psychological theories are used to take account of these. Whilst most of the features presented no difficulty to participants, the comprehension of some was affected by commonly occurring misconceptions. The paper proposes explanations and remedies for some of these difficulties. In addition, the time to confirm stated inferences was found to depend both on the maximum complexity of the relations involved and the number of steps in the argument

Optical Properties of MFe_4P_12 filled skutterudites

Infrared reflectance spectroscopy measurements were made on four members of the MFe_4P_12 family of filled skutterudites, with M=La, Th, Ce and U. In progressing from M=La to U the system undergoes a metal-insulator transition. It is shown that, although the filling atom induces such dramatic changes in the transport properties of the system, it has only a small effect on lattice dynamics. We discuss this property of the compounds in the context of their possible thermoelectric applications.Comment: Manuscript in ReVTeX format, 7 figures in PostScirpt forma

Renormalization group improvement of the NRQCD Lagrangian and heavy quarkonium spectrum

We complete the leading-log renormalization group scaling of the NRQCD Lagrangian at $O(1/m^2)$. The next-to-next-to-leading-log renormalization group scaling of the potential NRQCD Lagrangian (as far as the singlet is concerned) is also obtained in the situation $m\alpha_s \gg \Lambda_{QCD}$. As a by-product, we obtain the heavy quarkonium spectrum with the same accuracy in the situation m\alpha_s^2 \simg \Lambda_{QCD}. When $\Lambda_{QCD} \ll m\alpha_s^2$, this is equivalent to obtain the whole set of $O(m\alpha_s^{(n+4)} \ln^n \alpha_s)$ terms in the heavy quarkonium spectrum. The implications of our results in the non-perturbative situation $m\alpha_s \sim \Lambda_{QCD}$ are also mentioned.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX. Minor changes. Final versio

Hadronic B Decays Involving Even Parity Charmed Mesons

Hadronic B decays containing an parity-even charmed meson in the final state are studied. Specifically we focus on the Cabibbo-allowed decays $\bar B\to D^{**} \pi(\rho), D^{**}\bar D_s^{(*)}, \bar D^{**}_sD^{(*)}$ and $\bar B_s\to D_s^{**}\pi(\rho)$, where $D^{**}$ denotes generically a p-wave charmed meson. The $B\to D^{**}$ transition form factors are studied in the improved version of the Isgur-Scora-Grinstein-Wise quark model. We apply heavy quark effective theory and chiral symmetry to study the strong decays of p-wave charmed mesons and determine the magnitude of the $D_1^{1/2}-D_1^{3/2}$ mixing angle. Except the decay to $D_1(2427)^0\pi^-$ the predictions for $B^-\to D^{**0}\pi^-$ agree with experiment. The sign of $D_1^{1/2}-D_1^{3/2}$ mixing angle is found to be positive in order to avoid a severe suppression on the production of $D_1(2427)^0\pi^-$. The interference between color-allowed and color-suppressed tree amplitudes is expected to be destructive in the decay $B^-\to D_1(2427)^0\pi^-$. Hence, an observation of the ratio $D_1(2427)^0\pi^-/D_1(2427)^+\pi^-$ can be used to test the relative signs of various form factors as implied by heavy quark symmetry. Although the predicted $B^-\to D_1(2420)^0\rho^-$ at the level of $3\times 10^{-3}$ exceeds the present upper limit, it leads to the ratio $D_1(2420)\rho^-/D_1(2420)\pi^-\approx 2.6$ as expected from the factorization approach and from the ratio $f_\rho/f_\pi\approx 1.6$ . Therefore, it is crucial to have a measurement of this mode to test the factorization hypothesis. For $\bar B\to \bar D_s^{**}D$ decays, it is expected that \bar D_{s0}^*D\gsim \bar D_{s1}D as the decay constants of the multiplet $(D_{s0}^*,D_{s1})$ become the same in the heavy quark limit.Comment: 27 pages, Belle's new data on DD_s^{**} productions in B decays and on the radiative decay D_{s1}-> D_s\gamma are updated and discussed. Add two reference

Macrophage polarisation affects their regulation of trophoblast behaviour

Introduction During the first trimester of human pregnancy, fetally-derived extravillous trophoblast (EVT) cells invade into uterine decidua and remodel the uterine spiral arteries to ensure that sufficient blood reaches the maternal-fetal interface. Decidual macrophages have been implicated in the regulation of decidual remodelling and aberrant activation of these immune cells is associated with pre-eclampsia. Methods The monocytic cell line THP-1 was activated to induce an M1 or M2 phenotype and the conditioned media was used to treat the EVT cell line SGHPL-4 in order to determine the effect of macrophage polarisation on trophoblast behaviour in-vitro. SGHPL-4 cell functions were assessed using time-lapse microscopy, endothelial-like tube formation assays and western blot. Results The polarisation state of the THP-1 cells was found to differentially alter the behaviour of trophoblast cells in-vitro with pro-inflammatory M1 conditioned media significantly inhibiting trophoblast motility, impeding trophoblast tube formation, and inducing trophoblast expression of caspase 3, when compared to anti-inflammatory M2 conditioned media. Discussion Macrophages can regulate trophoblast functions that are critical during decidual remodelling in early pregnancy. Importantly, there is differential regulation of trophoblast function in response to the polarisation state of these cells. Our studies indicate that the balance between a pro- and anti-inflammatory environment is important in regulating the cellular interactions at the maternal-fetal interface and that disturbances in this balance likely contribute to pregnancy disorders associated with poor trophoblast invasion and vessel remodelling

Monte Carlo Methods for Estimating Interfacial Free Energies and Line Tensions

Excess contributions to the free energy due to interfaces occur for many problems encountered in the statistical physics of condensed matter when coexistence between different phases is possible (e.g. wetting phenomena, nucleation, crystal growth, etc.). This article reviews two methods to estimate both interfacial free energies and line tensions by Monte Carlo simulations of simple models, (e.g. the Ising model, a symmetrical binary Lennard-Jones fluid exhibiting a miscibility gap, and a simple Lennard-Jones fluid). One method is based on thermodynamic integration. This method is useful to study flat and inclined interfaces for Ising lattices, allowing also the estimation of line tensions of three-phase contact lines, when the interfaces meet walls (where "surface fields" may act). A generalization to off-lattice systems is described as well. The second method is based on the sampling of the order parameter distribution of the system throughout the two-phase coexistence region of the model. Both the interface free energies of flat interfaces and of (spherical or cylindrical) droplets (or bubbles) can be estimated, including also systems with walls, where sphere-cap shaped wall-attached droplets occur. The curvature-dependence of the interfacial free energy is discussed, and estimates for the line tensions are compared to results from the thermodynamic integration method. Basic limitations of all these methods are critically discussed, and an outlook on other approaches is given