Results of an RF Pulsed Heating Experiment at SLAC

Results are reported from an experiment on RF pulsed heating of copper at SLAC. Damage in the form of cracks may be induced on the surface after the application of many pulses of RF. The experiment consists of two circularly cylindrical cavities operated in the TE011 mode at a resonant frequency of 11.424 GHz. Each cavity received 8.5 MW, 1.2 microsecond pulses at 60 Hz corresponding to a calculated temperature rise of 120 K on the copper surface. After 5.5 x 10^7 pulses, the experiment was stopped and the copper surfaces were examined. Damage is present on the area of the surface where the maximum heating occurred.Comment: 3 pages, 7 figures, Presented at LINAC 2000 conference, Paper ID THA1

In vivo combination of misonidazole and the chemotherapeutic agent CCNU.

The response of intramuscularly growing KHT sarcomas to the chemotherapeutic agent (1-(2-cloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea (CCNU) alone or simultaneously with the chemical radio-sensitizer misonidazole (MISO) was assessed using either a tumour growth-delay assay or an in vivo-in vitro tumour-excision assay. Median tumour growth delay following the combination of 20 mg/kg CCNU and either 0.5 or 1.0 mg/g MISO was 19.5 and 21.5 days, compared to 10 days for this CCNU dose alone. A similar degree of enhanced tumour response by MISO (factor of approximately 2 in tumour growth delay) was seen in RIF-1 tumours treated with 20 mg/kg CCNU plus 1.0 mg/g MISO. Clonogenic cell-survival studies with KHT sarcomas demonstrated that MISO at doses of 0.25, 0.5 or 1.0 mg/g given simultaneously with a range of CCNU doses produced dose-modifying factors (DMFs) of 1.9, 2.1 and 2.4 respectively. Normal tissue toxicity assessed by an LD50/7 assay led to DMFs of 1.2 and 1.4 for CCNU doses combined with 0.5 and 1.0 mg/g MISO. Thus in this animal tumour model the combination of CCNU and MISO appears to lead to a potential gain by a factor of approximately 1.7

Hybrid photonic-bandgap accelerating cavities

In a recent investigation, we studied two-dimensional point-defected photonic bandgap cavities composed of dielectric rods arranged according to various representative periodic and aperiodic lattices, with special emphasis on possible applications to particle acceleration (along the longitudinal axis). In this paper, we present a new study aimed at highlighting the possible advantages of using hybrid structures based on the above dielectric configurations, but featuring metallic rods in the outermost regions, for the design of extremely-high quality factor, bandgap-based, accelerating resonators. In this framework, we consider diverse configurations, with different (periodic and aperiodic) lattice geometries, sizes, and dielectric/metal fractions. Moreover, we also explore possible improvements attainable via the use of superconducting plates to confine the electromagnetic field in the longitudinal direction. Results from our comparative studies, based on numerical full-wave simulations backed by experimental validations (at room and cryogenic temperatures) in the microwave region, identify the candidate parametric configurations capable of yielding the highest quality factor.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. One figure and one reference added; minor changes in the tex

Tubulin-binding dibenz[c,e]oxepines: Part 2 Structural variation and biological evaluation as tumour vasculature disrupting agents

5,7-Dihydro-3,9,10,11-tetramethoxybenz[c,e]oxepin-4-ol 1, prepared from a dibenzyl ether precursor via Pd-catalysed intramolecular direct arylation, possesses broad-spectrum in vitro cytotoxicity towards various tumour cell lines, and induces vascular shutdown, necrosis and growth delay in tumour xenografts in mice at sub-toxic doses. The biological properties of 1 and related compounds can be attributed to their ability to inhibit microtubule assembly at the micromolar level, by binding reversibly to the same site of the tubulin αβ-heterodimer as colchicine 2 and the allocolchinol, N-acetylcolchinol 4

Emergent global patterns of ecosystem structure and function from a mechanistic general ecosystem model

Anthropogenic activities are causing widespread degradation of ecosystems worldwide, threatening the ecosystem services upon which all human life depends. Improved understanding of this degradation is urgently needed to improve avoidance and mitigation measures. One tool to assist these efforts is predictive models of ecosystem structure and function that are mechanistic: based on fundamental ecological principles. Here we present the first mechanistic General Ecosystem Model (GEM) of ecosystem structure and function that is both global and applies in all terrestrial and marine environments. Functional forms and parameter values were derived from the theoretical and empirical literature where possible. Simulations of the fate of all organisms with body masses between 10 µg and 150,000 kg (a range of 14 orders of magnitude) across the globe led to emergent properties at individual (e.g., growth rate), community (e.g., biomass turnover rates), ecosystem (e.g., trophic pyramids), and macroecological scales (e.g., global patterns of trophic structure) that are in general agreement with current data and theory. These properties emerged from our encoding of the biology of, and interactions among, individual organisms without any direct constraints on the properties themselves. Our results indicate that ecologists have gathered sufficient information to begin to build realistic, global, and mechanistic models of ecosystems, capable of predicting a diverse range of ecosystem properties and their response to human pressures

Recovery of cell subpopulations from human tumour xenografts following dissociation with different enzymes.

Human epidermoid tumours (Co112, HEp3, A431, ME180) grown in nude mice were dissociated using four different enzyme cocktails: 0.025% collagenase, 0.05% pronase, 0.04% DNase; 0.1% protease IX; 0.14% trypsin, 0.04% DNase; 0.025% collagenase, 0.02% DNase. Using these different enzymatic procedures, the total cell yields, host to tumour cell ratios, plating efficiencies and cell cycle distribution profiles obtained from each tumour model were compared. For all tumours tested, enzyme cocktail 1 was the most effective in releasing the greatest total number of cells g-1 tumour. However, for each tumour the percentage of neoplastic cells recovered, the plating efficiency and the cell cycle distributions varied according to the enzyme cocktail used to dissociate the tumour. For example, for HEp3 tumours, the highest plating efficiency was achieved using enzyme cocktail 4, whereas for ME180 tumours, this enzyme cocktail produced the lowest plating efficiency. Further, the effect of lethally irradiated (HR) feeder cells on the plating efficiency of the various tumours was found to be influenced by the enzymes chosen to dissociate the tumours. These studies indicate that the choice of an enzyme dissociation technique may profoundly influence the results obtained using human tumour xenografts