1,376 research outputs found
Kinetic instabilities that limit {\beta} in the edge of a tokamak plasma: a picture of an H-mode pedestal
Plasma equilibria reconstructed from the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST)
have sufficient resolution to capture plasma evolution during the short period
between edge-localized modes (ELMs). Immediately after the ELM steep gradients
in pressure, P, and density, ne, form pedestals close to the separatrix, and
they then expand into the core. Local gyrokinetic analysis over the ELM cycle
reveals the dominant microinstabilities at perpendicular wavelengths of the
order of the ion Larmor radius. These are kinetic ballooning modes (KBMs) in
the pedestal and microtearing modes (MTMs) in the core close to the pedestal
top. The evolving growth rate spectra, supported by gyrokinetic analysis using
artificial local equilibrium scans, suggest a new physical picture for the
formation and arrest of this pedestal.Comment: Final version as it appeared in PRL (March 2012). Minor improvements
include: shortened abstract, and better colour table for figures. 4 pages, 6
figure
Comment on "Drip Paintings and Fractal Analysis", arXiv:0710.4917v2, by K. Jones-Smith, H. Mathur and L.M. Krauss
In a recent manuscript (arXiv:0710.4917v2), Jones-Smith et al. attempt to use
the well-established box-counting technique for fractal analysis to
"demonstrate conclusively that fractal criteria are not useful for
authentication". Here, in response to what we view to be an extremely
simplistic misrepresentation of our earlier work by Jones-Smith et al., we
reiterate our position regarding the potential of fractal analysis for artwork
authentication. We also point out some of the flaws in the analysis presented
in by Jones-Smith et al.Comment: Comment on arXiv:0710.4917v2 [cond-mat.stat-mech
Microstability analysis of pellet fuelled discharges in MAST
Reactor grade plasmas are likely to be fuelled by pellet injection. This
technique transiently perturbs the profiles, driving the density profile hollow
and flattening the edge temperature profile. After the pellet perturbation, the
density and temperature profiles relax towards their quasi-steady-state shape.
Microinstabilities influence plasma confinement and will play a role in
determining the evolution of the profiles in pellet fuelled plasmas. In this
paper we present the microstability analysis of pellet fuelled H-mode MAST
plasmas. Taking advantage of the unique capabilities of the MAST Thomson
scattering system and the possibility of synchronizing the eight lasers with
the pellet injection, we were able to measure the evolution of the post-pellet
electron density and temperature profiles with high temporal and spatial
resolution. These profiles, together with ion temperature profiles measured
using a charge exchange diagnostic, were used to produce equilibria suitable
for microstability analysis of the equilibrium changes induced by pellet
injection. This analysis, carried out using the local gyrokinetic code GS2,
reveals that the microstability properties are extremely sensitive to the rapid
and large transient excursions of the density and temperature profiles, which
also change collisionality and beta e significantly in the region most strongly
affected by the pellet ablation.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. This is an author-created, un-copyedited
version of an article submitted for publication in Plasma Physics and
Controlled Fusion. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or
omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from i
Is group psychotherapy feasible for oncology outpatients attenders selected on the basis of psychological morbidity?
Of 120 consecutive attenders at an oncology outpatients department, 108 were screened for psychological symptoms using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983). Thirty-nine patients had significant scores indicating moderate anxiety and/or depression. We felt that this warranted an offer of group psychotherapy in the belief that sharing issues and exploring personal concerns may alleviate some of the experienced psychological distress. Only 10 patients consented to and were able to attend this group, with which five patients persisted. Thus in this group of patients with advanced cancer group psychotherapy was applicable only to a limited number of selected patients. The nature of this study and the size of the population markedly limited our ability to comment on the usefulness of group psychotherapy. Many patients, particularly the most severely psychologically distressed, continued to require other forms of support, particularly domiciliary individual therapy
(G)hosting television: Ghostwatch and its medium
This article’s subject is Ghostwatch (BBC, 1992), a drama broadcast on Halloween night of 1992 which adopted the rhetoric of live non-fiction programming, and attracted controversy and ultimately censure from the Broadcasting Standards Council. In what follows, we argue that Ghostwatch must be understood as a televisually-specific artwork and artefact. We discuss the programme’s ludic relationship with some key features of television during what Ellis (2000) has termed its era of ‘availability’, principally liveness, mass simultaneous viewing, and the flow of the television super-text. We trace the programme’s television-specific historicity whilst acknowledging its allusions and debts to other media (most notably film and radio). We explore the sophisticated ways in which Ghostwatch’s visual grammar and vocabulary and deployment of ‘broadcast talk’ (Scannell 1991) variously ape, comment upon and subvert the rhetoric of factual programming, and the ends to which these strategies are put. We hope that these arguments collectively demonstrate the aesthetic and historical significance of Ghostwatch and identify its relationship to its medium and that medium’s history. We offer the programme as an historically-reflexive artefact, and as an exemplary instance of the work of art in television’s age of broadcasting, liveness and co-presence
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