SPHERE: Irradiation of sphere-pac fuel of UPuO2−x containing 3% Americium

AbstractAmericium is a strong contributor to the long term radiotoxicity of high activity nuclear waste. Transmutation by irradiation in nuclear reactors of long-lived nuclides like 241Am is therefore an option for the reduction of radiotoxicity of waste packages to be stored in a repository. The SPHERE irradiation experiment is the latest of a series of European experiments on americium transmutation (e.g. EFTTRA-T4, EFTTRA-T4bis, HELIOS, MARIOS) performed in the HFR (High Flux Reactor). The SPHERE experiment is carried out in the framework of the 4-year project FAIRFUELS of the EURATOM 7th Framework Programme (FP7). During the past years of experimental works in the field of transmutation and tests of innovative nuclear fuels, the release or trapping of helium as well as helium induced fuel swelling have been shown to be the key issues for the design of Am-bearing targets. The main objective of the SPHERE experiment is to study the in-pile behaviour of fuel containing 3% of americium and to compare the behaviour of sphere-pac fuel to pellet fuel, in particular the role of microstructure and temperature on fission gas release (mainly He) and on fuel swelling.The SPHERE experiment is being irradiated since September 2013 in the HFR in Petten (The Netherlands) and is expected to be terminated in spring 2015. The experiment has been designed to last up to 18 reactor cycles (corresponding to 18 months) but may reach its target earlier.This paper discusses the rationale and objective of the SPHERE experiment and provides a general description of its design

Relativistic analysis of the 208Pb(e,e'p)207Tl reaction at high momentum

The recent 208Pb(e,e'p)207Tl data from NIKHEF-K at high missing momentum (p_m>300 MeV/c) are compared to theoretical results obtained with a fully relativistic formalism previously applied to analyze data on the low missing momentum (p_m < 300 MeV/c) region. The same relativistic optical potential and mean field wave functions are used in the two p_m-regions. The spectroscopic factors of the various shells are extracted from the analysis of the low-p_m data and then used in the high-p_m region. In contrast to previous analyses using a nonrelativistic mean field formalism, we do not find a substantial deviation from the mean field predictions other than that of the spectroscopic factors, which appear to be consistent with both low- and high-p_m data. We find that the difference between results of relativistic and nonrelativistic formalisms is enhanced in the p_m<0 region that will be interesting to explore experimentally.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX+Revtex, included 3 postscript figures. To appear in the Physical Review C (Rapid Communications

Human C-reactive protein aggravates osteoarthritis development in mice on a high-fat diet

Objective: C-reactive protein (CRP) levels can be elevated in osteoarthritis (OA) patients. In addition to indicating systemic inflammation, it is suggested that CRP itself can play a role in OA development. Obesity and metabolic syndrome are important risk factors for OA and also induce elevated CRP levels. Here we evaluated in a human CRP (hCRP)-transgenic mouse model whether CRP itself contributes to the development of ‘metabolic’ OA.Design: Metabolic OA was induced by feeding 12-week-old hCRP-transgenic males (hCRP-tg, n = 30) and wild-type littermates (n = 15) a 45 kcal% high-fat diet (HFD) for 38 weeks. Cartilage degradation, osteophytes and synovitis were graded on Safranin O-stained histological knee joint sections. Inflammatory status was assessed by plasma lipid profiling, flow cytometric analyses of blood immune cell populations and immunohistochemical staining of synovial macrophage subsets.Results: Male hCRP-tg mice showed aggravated OA severity and increased osteophytosis compared with their wild-type littermates. Both classical and non-classical monocytes showed increased expression of CCR2 and CD86 in hCRP-tg males. HFD-induced effects were evident for nearly all lipids measured and indicated a similar low-grade systemic inflammation for both genotypes. Synovitis scores and synovial macrophage subsets were similar in the two groups.Conclusions: Human CRP expression in a background of HFD-induced metabolic dysfunction resulted in the aggravation of OA through increased cartilage degeneration and osteophytosis. Increased recruitment of classical and non-classical monocytes might be a mechanism of action through which CRP is involved in aggravating this process. These findings suggest interventions selectively directed against CRP activity could ameliorate metabolic OA development

Short-range correlations in low-lying nuclear excited states

The electromagnetic transitions to various low-lying excited states of 16O, 48Ca and 208Pb are calculated within a model which considers the short-range correlations. In general the effects of the correlations are small and do not explain the required quenching to describe the data.Comment: 6 pages, 2 postscript figures, 1 tabl

Restoration of Overlap Functions and Spectroscopic Factors in Nuclei

An asymptotic restoration procedure is applied for analyzing bound--state overlap functions, separation energies and single--nucleon spectroscopic factors by means of a model one--body density matrix emerging from the Jastrow correlation method in its lowest order approximation for $^{16}O$ and $^{40}Ca$ nuclei . Comparison is made with available experimental data and mean--field and natural orbital representation results.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX style, to be published in Physical Review

Quaiselastic scattering from relativistic bound nucleons: Transverse-Longitudinal response

Predictions for electron induced proton knockout from the $p_{1/2}$ and $p_{3/2}$ shells in $^{16}$O are presented using various approximations for the relativistic nucleonic current. Results for the differential cross section, transverse-longitudinal response ($R_{TL}$) and left-right asymmetry $A_{TL}$ are compared at $|Q^2|=0.8$ (GeV/c)$^2$ corresponding to TJNAF experiment 89-003. We show that there are important dynamical and kinematical relativistic effects which can be tested by experiment.Comment: 10 pages, including 2 figures. Removed preliminary experimental data from the figure

Momentum Distribution in Nuclear Matter and Finite Nuclei

A simple method is presented to evaluate the effects of short-range correlations on the momentum distribution of nucleons in nuclear matter within the framework of the Green's function approach. The method provides a very efficient representation of the single-particle Green's function for a correlated system. The reliability of this method is established by comparing its results to those obtained in more elaborate calculations. The sensitivity of the momentum distribution on the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the nuclear density is studied. The momentum distributions of nucleons in finite nuclei are derived from those in nuclear matter using a local-density approximation. These results are compared to those obtained directly for light nuclei like $^{16}O$.Comment: 17 pages REVTeX, 10 figures ps files adde

Correlation effects in single-particle overlap functions and one-nucleon removal reactions

Single-particle overlap functions and spectroscopic factors are calculated on the basis of the one-body density matrices (ODM) obtained for the nucleus $^{16}O$ employing different approaches to account for the effects of correlations. The calculations use the relationship between the overlap functions related to bound states of the (A-1)-particle system and the ODM for the ground state of the A-particle system. The resulting bound-state overlap functions are compared and tested in the description of the experimental data from (p,d) reactions for which the shape of the overlap function is important.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures include

Relativistic mean field approximation to the analysis of 16O(e,e'p)15N data at |Q^2|\leq 0.4 (GeV/c)^2

We use the relativistic distorted wave impulse approximation to analyze data on 16O(e,e'p)15N at |Q^2|\leq 0.4 (GeV/c)^2 that were obtained by different groups and seemed controversial. Results for differential cross-sections, response functions and A_TL asymmetry are discussed and compared to different sets of experimental data for proton knockout from p_{1/2} and p_{3/2} shells in 16O. We compare with a nonrelativistic approach to better identify relativistic effects. The present relativistic approach is found to accommodate most of the discrepancy between data from different groups, smoothing a long standing controversy.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures (eps). Major revision made. New figures added. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Discovery That Theonellasterol a Marine Sponge Sterol Is a Highly Selective FXR Antagonist That Protects against Liver Injury in Cholestasis

Background: The farnesoid-x-receptor (FXR) is a bile acid sensor expressed in the liver and gastrointestinal tract. Despite FXR ligands are under investigation for treatment of cholestasis, a biochemical condition occurring in a number of liver diseases for which available therapies are poorly effective, mice harboring a disrupted FXR are protected against liver injury caused by bile acid overload in rodent models of cholestasis. Theonellasterol is a 4-methylene-24-ethylsteroid isolated from the marine sponge Theonella swinhoei. Here, we have characterized the activity of this theonellasterol on FXR-regulated genes and biological functions. Principal Findings: Interrogation of HepG2 cells, a human hepatocyte cell line, by microarray analysis and transactivation assay shows that theonellasterol is a selective FXR antagonist, devoid of any agonistic or antagonistic activity on a number of human nuclear receptors including the vitamin D receptor, PPARs, PXR, LXRs, progesterone, estrogen, glucorticoid and thyroid receptors, among others. Exposure of HepG2 cells to theonellasterol antagonizes the effect of natural and synthetic FXR agonists on FXR-regulated genes, including SHP, OSTa, BSEP and MRP4. A proof-of-concept study carried out to investigate whether FXR antagonism rescues mice from liver injury caused by the ligation of the common bile duct, a model of obstructive cholestasis, demonstrated that theonellasterol attenuates injury caused by bile duct ligation as measured by assessing serum alanine aminostrasferase levels and extent of liver necrosis at histopathology. Analysis of genes involved in bile acid uptake and excretion by hepatocytes revealed that theonellasterol increases the liver expression of MRP4, a basolateral transporter that is negatively regulated by FXR. Administering bile duct ligated mice with an FXR agonist failed to rescue from liver injury and downregulated the expression of MRP4. Conclusions: FXR antagonism in vivo results in a positive modulation of MRP4 expression in the liver and is a feasible strategy to target obstructive cholestasis