Results of COVID-19 screening in a dermatologic clinic in northern Italy

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has been a social, economic and sanitary challenge, which caused a great slowdown in most clinical activities. At the beginning of 2021, the gradual reopening of outpatient services was threatened by the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks in healthcare facilities. Methods Between January and March 2021, our dermatologic clinic promoted a screening campaign based on rapid antigen-testing: adhering patients were tested for COVID-19 and were visited only after getting a negative result. Results Among 635 recruited subjects, 514 agreed to be enrolled in the study, while 121 refused and were not tested. Only 1 of the 514 tests was positive for COVID-19, thus the incidence of COVID-19 infections was very low (0,002%). A significant percentage of patients (19,1%) refused to be tested. Among those who did not give consent for COVID-19 testing, 52,9% were male, although the total recruited population was prevalently female (56,1%). Discussion and conclusions Screening for COVID-19 in outpatient clinics is a promising tool to prevent virus outbreaks, despite the limitations posed by testing hesitancy. Moreover, the very low incidence of COVID-19 infection we detected could be seen as a sign of hope for the resumption of non-essential clinical activities

Overview on electrical issues faced during the SPIDER experimental campaigns

SPIDER is the full-scale prototype of the ion source of the ITER Heating Neutral Beam Injector, where negative ions of Hydrogen or Deuterium are produced by a RF generated plasma and accelerated with a set of grids up to ~100 keV. The Power Supply System is composed of high voltage dc power supplies capable of handling frequent grid breakdowns, high current dc generators for the magnetic filter field and RF generators for the plasma generation. During the first 3 years of SPIDER operation different electrical issues were discovered, understood and addressed thanks to deep analyses of the experimental results supported by modelling activities. The paper gives an overview on the observed phenomena and relevant analyses to understand them, on the effectiveness of the short-term modifications provided to SPIDER to face the encountered issues and on the design principle of long-term solutions to be introduced during the currently ongoing long shutdown.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures. Presented at SOFT 202

1 MV power supplies integration issues in MITICA experiment, the ITER Heating Neutral Beam Injector prototype

MITICA, the full scale prototype of ITER Heating Neutral Beam Injector required to heat up ITER plasma with 16.5 MW injected power, is under realization at the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) in Padova (Italy) with the contributions of JApanese and EUropean Domestic Agencies (JADA and EUDA, respectively). The objective of MITICA is to produce a 16.5 MW neutral beam, obtained by accelerating negative Deuterium ions up to 1 MeV for a total ion current of 40 A and then neutralized.MITICA Power Supply (PS), installed from 2016 to 2019, includes several non-standard equipment, with ratings well beyond the present industrial standard for insulation voltage level (-1 MVdc) and dimensions:- the Acceleration Grid Power Supply (AGPS), composed of five DC Generators (DCG) rated for -200kVdc each, connected in series to produce -1 MVdc acceleration voltage;- the Ion Source and Extraction Power Supply system (ISEPS);- the large air insulated Faraday cage (High Voltage Deck1, HVD1) hosting ISEPS and connected to the Transmission Line (TL) through an air-to-SF6 Bushing (High Voltage Bushing Assembly, HVBA);- a 100 m gas (SF6) insulated TL, connecting AGPS and ISEPS to the beam source installed inside the vacuum vessel through- the SF6-to-vacuum HV Bushing (HVB).The definition of the interfaces both between components supplied by the different DA’s and towards the buildings has been studied and finalized as far as possible during the design phase. Nevertheless, during the installation phase some issues emerged and had to be solved, minimizing modifications of the components already manufactured. The paper deals with the experience gained during the installation activities, focusing on solutions to interface the aforementioned equipment with NBTF buildings according to the stringent dimensional requirements and to the electrical insulation issues of the TL from the buildings. In particular, the solutions adopted to realize the electrical and mechanical interfaces between the TL and the HVBA are described in detail

The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility toward SPIDER operation

SPIDER is one of two projects of the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility under construction in Padova, Italy, at the Consorzio RFX premises. It will have a 100 keV beam source with a full- size prototype of the radiofrequency ion source for the ITER neutral beam injector (NBI) and also, similar to the ITER diagnostic neutral beam, it is designed to operate with a pulse length of up to 3600 s, featuring an ITER-like magnetic lter eld con guration (for high extraction of negative ions) and caesium oven (for high production of negative ions) layout as well as a wide set of diagnostics. These features will allow a reproduction of the ion source operation in ITER, which cannot be done in any other existing test facility. SPIDER realization is well advanced and the rst operation is expected at the beginning of 2018, with the mission of achieving the ITER heating and diagnostic NBI ion source requirements and of improving its performance in terms of reliability and availability. This paper mainly focuses on the preparation of the rst SPIDER operations\u2014integration and testing of SPIDER components, completion and implementation of diagnostics and control and formulation of operation and research plan, based on a staged strategy