Service as a Strategy: Promoting Democracy

"Youth engaged in service: A strategy for promoting democracy," was written in support of the view that a nation's youth must be prepared and willing to take their place as active, principled adult citizens of society for a democracy to thrive. It states that from voting to engaging in political discourse, to understanding how political systems operate, each successive generation must have the required tools to properly shape and participate in civil society and government. The paper contends that the participatory aspect of youth service aids in achieving this goal, and contributes to a heightened understanding of the forces that shape governments and societies. It gives support to the idea of empowering young people (through service programs) to play an active role in community development. The paper describes such programs as contributing to the evolution of democratic values as youth learn to reflect on the needs and traditions of diverse political cultures. In this regard, emphasis is placed on the power that service affords the youth to transcend traditional social divides, foster bonds of trust, and develop an ethic of working for the common good

Service as a Strategy: Youth and Community Development

"Youth Service: A Strategy for Youth and National Development," was written to promote the impact which civic service programs have in empowering young people in different countries. It refers to the concept of youth service as means of helping Institutions like the World Bank to achieve its central goal of reducing global poverty. The paper places less emphasis on programs that deliver services to young people and recommendations are made for the establishment of structured service programs which allow youth to play an important role in addressing the development priorities in their communities. It states that the values, attitudes, and skills acquired by youth -- and especially the choices made by the current generation of young people -- will influence the course of current events and shape the future in fundamental ways. It mentions how limited levels of education and life skills as well as limited access to employment or further education and training opportunities translates into disempowerment for these young citizens of the world. The paper acknowledges the concept of 'youth as resources in development,' and it commends service organizations for assisting young people to view themselves as a resource for change, rather than as a troubled, at-risk group

Policy Scan: An Exploratory Study of National Youth Service Policy in 19 Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper presents findings from an exploratory study of government policies that involve youth in community service in 19 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The research, which was performed in 2004, provides descriptive information and explores the context within which national youth service policies can emerge and thrive. While it is assumed that well-designed national youth service policies provide a framework for engaging youth in pro-social activities that benefit themselves and their communities, relatively little research is available on the subject. Findings indicate that 13 of 19 countries in the study have a national youth service policy, and that the policies vary in forms and configuration. Facilitators and obstacles of these policies are discussed. The paper concludes by providing recommendations to policy makers

Service as a Strategy: Combating Youth Unemployment

"Youth Engaged in Service: A Strategy for Combating Youth Unemployment," was written to promote youth service programs as a complimentary initiative in reducing rising levels of global unemployment. It contends that with higher numbers of young people becoming better educated and more enlightened than ever before, the absence of constructive alternatives may leave the youth experiencing "a sense of vulnerability, uselessness and idleness." The paper places emphasis on the need to provide young people with structured opportunities in which they apply their talents and abilities, while developing skills and habits that transfer to economic viability. Therefore, it examines how youth service programs can provide a valuable addition to traditional youth employment strategies

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

Modelling of the effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W divertor of JET

Effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W target of JET ITER-Like Wall was studied with multi-scale calculations. Plasma input parameters were taken from ELMy H-mode plasma experiment. The energetic intra-ELM fuel particles get implanted and create near-surface defects up to depths of few tens of nm, which act as the main fuel trapping sites during ELMs. Clustering of implantation-induced vacancies were found to take place. The incoming flux of inter-ELM plasma particles increases the different filling levels of trapped fuel in defects. The temperature increase of the W target during the pulse increases the fuel detrapping rate. The inter-ELM fuel particle flux refills the partially emptied trapping sites and fills new sites. This leads to a competing effect on the retention and release rates of the implanted particles. At high temperatures the main retention appeared in larger vacancy clusters due to increased clustering rate

Impact of fast ions on density peaking in JET: fluid and gyrokinetic modeling

The effect of fast ions on turbulent particle transport, driven by ion temperature gradient (ITG)/ trapped electron mode turbulence, is studied. Two neutral beam injection (NBI) heated JET discharges in different regimes are analyzed at the radial position ρ$_{t}$=0.6, one of them an L-mode and the other one an H-mode discharge. Results obtained from the computationally efficient fluid model EDWM and the gyro-fluid model TGLF are compared to linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic GENE simulations as well as the experimentally obtained density peaking. In these models, the fast ions are treated as a dynamic species with a Maxwellian background distribution. The dependence of the zero particle flux density gradient (peaking factor) on fast ion density, temperature and corresponding gradients, is investigated. The simulations show that the inclusion of a fast ion species has a stabilizing influence on the ITG mode and reduces the peaking of the main ion and electron density profiles in the absence of sources. The models mostly reproduce the experimentally obtained density peaking for the L-mode discharge whereas the H-mode density peaking is significantly underpredicted, indicating the importance of the NBI particle source for the H-mode density profile

Current Research into Applications of Tomography for Fusion Diagnostics

Retrieving spatial distribution of plasma emissivity from line integrated measurements on tokamaks presents a challenging task due to ill-posedness of the tomography problem and limited number of the lines of sight. Modern methods of plasma tomography therefore implement a-priori information as well as constraints, in particular some form of penalisation of complexity. In this contribution, the current tomography methods under development (Tikhonov regularisation, Bayesian methods and neural networks) are briefly explained taking into account their potential for integration into the fusion reactor diagnostics. In particular, current development of the Minimum Fisher Regularisation method is exemplified with respect to real-time reconstruction capability, combination with spectral unfolding and other prospective tasks