On the extrapolation to ITER of discharges in present tokamaks

An expression for the extrapolated fusion gain G = Pfusion /5 Pheat (Pfusion being the total fusion power and Pheat the total heating power) of ITER in terms of the confinement improvement factor (H) and the normalised beta (betaN) is derived in this paper. It is shown that an increase in normalised beta can be expected to have a negative or neutral influence on G depending on the chosen confinement scaling law. Figures of merit like H betaN / q95^2 should be used with care, since large values of this quantity do not guarantee high values of G, and might not be attainable with the heating power installed on ITER.Comment: 6 Pages, 3 figures, Submitted to Nuclear Fusion on the 29th of November 200

Study of heterogeneous nucleation of eutectic Si in high-purity Al-Si alloys with Sr addition

The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM InternationalAl-5 wt pct Si master-alloys with controlled Sr and/or P addition/s were produced using super purity Al 99.99 wt pct and Si 99.999 wt pct materials in an arc melter. The master-alloy was melt-spun resulting in the production of thin ribbons. The Al matrix of the ribbons contained entrained Al-Si eutectic droplets that were subsequently investigated. Differential scanning calorimetry, thermodynamic calculations, and transmission electron microscopy techniques were employed to examine the effect of the Sr and P additions on eutectic undercoolings and nucleation phenomenon. Results indicate that, unlike P, Sr does not promote nucleation. Increasing Sr additions depressed the eutectic nucleation temperature. This may be a result of the formation of a Sr phase that could consume or detrimentally affect potent AlP nucleation sites.This work is financially supported by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and managerially supported from the OAD

A Hedged Monte Carlo Approach to Real Option Pricing

In this work we are concerned with valuing optionalities associated to invest or to delay investment in a project when the available information provided to the manager comes from simulated data of cash flows under historical (or subjective) measure in a possibly incomplete market. Our approach is suitable also to incorporating subjective views from management or market experts and to stochastic investment costs. It is based on the Hedged Monte Carlo strategy proposed by Potters et al (2001) where options are priced simultaneously with the determination of the corresponding hedging. The approach is particularly well-suited to the evaluation of commodity related projects whereby the availability of pricing formulae is very rare, the scenario simulations are usually available only in the historical measure, and the cash flows can be highly nonlinear functions of the prices.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figure

Extragalactic neutrino background from very young pulsars surrounded by supernova envelopes

We estimate the extragalactic muon neutrino background which is produced by hadrons injected by very young pulsars at an early phase after supernova explosion. It is assumed that hadrons are accelerated in the pulsar wind zone which is filled with thermal photons captured below the expanding supernova envelope. In collisions with those thermal photons hadrons produce pions which decay into muon neutrinos. At a later time, muon neutrinos are also produced by the hadrons in collisions with matter of the expanding envelope. We show that extragalactic neutrino background predicted by such a model should be detectable by the planned 1 km$^2$ neutrino detector if a significant part of pulsars is born with periods shorter than $\sim 10$ ms. Since such population of pulsars is postulated by the recent models of production of extremely high energy cosmic rays, detection of neutrinos with predicted fluxes can be used as their observational test.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, A&A style, accepted to A&A Let

Electronic cigarettes: A position statement from the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand*

The TSANZ develops position statements where insufficient data exist to write formal clinical guidelines. In 2018, the TSANZ addressed the question of potential benefits and health impacts of electronic cigarettes (EC). The working party included groups focused on health impacts, smoking cessation, youth issues and priority populations. The 2018 report on the Public Health Consequences of E-Cigarettes from the United States NASEM was accepted as reflective of evidence to mid-2017. A search for papers subsequently published in peer-reviewed journals was conducted in August 2018. A small number of robust and important papers published until March 2019 were also identified and included. Groups identified studies that extended, modified or contradicted the NASEM report. A total of 3793 papers were identified and reviewed, with summaries and draft position statements developed and presented to TSANZ membership in April 2019. After feedback from members and external reviewers, a collection of position statements was finalized in December 2019. EC have adverse lung effects and harmful effects of long-term use are unknown. EC are unsuitable consumer products for recreational use, part-substitution for smoking or long-term exclusive use by former smokers. Smokers who require support to quit smoking should be directed towards approved medication in conjunction with behavioural support as having the strongest evidence for efficacy and safety. No specific EC product can be recommended as effective and safe for smoking cessation. Smoking cessation claims in relation to EC should be assessed by established regulators

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results