Photoionized Neon Plasma Experiments at Z: Data Processing and Analysis Development

Photoionized plasmas are a special class of plasma common in astrophysical environments, such as x-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei, but they are a relatively unexplored regime of laboratory plasmas. This thesis discusses an experimental effort using the Z-Machine at Sandia National Laboratories to study the atomic kinetics in photoionized plasmas via K-shell line absorption spectroscopy. The experiment employs the intense x-ray flux emitted by the collapse of a Z-pinch to heat and backlight a neon photoionized plasma contained within a cm-scale gas cell placed at various distances from the Z-pinch and filled with neon gas with pressures in the range from 3 torr to 30 torr. High-resolution spectra show absorption by several ionization stages of neon, including Be-, Li-, He-, and H-like ions. A suite of IDL programs have been developed to process the experimental data to produce transmission spectra. Analysis of these spectra yields ion areal-densities and charge state distributions, which can be used to benchmark atomic kinetics codes. In addition, the electron temperature is extracted from level population ratios of Li- and Be-like ions, which can be used to test heating models of photoionized plasmas. Multiple aspects of the processing and analysis methods are tested to identify areas that show improvement or must be improved upon. These include the method of zero-level of absorption estimation, correspondence between known gas filling pressure and measurements totals, temperature extraction from Li-like and Be-like level populations, and the use of Voigt line profiles and Stark broadened line profiles to model the absorption spectra. Finally, we discuss trends visible in the analysis results

Installing a Test Tap on a Metal Battery Case

A mechanical fitting and relatively simple and safe method of installing it on the metal case of a battery have been devised to provide access to the interior of the battery to perform inspection and/or to measure such internal conditions as temperature and pressure. A metal boss or stud having an exterior thread is attached to the case by capacitor-discharge stud welding (CDSW), which takes only 3 to 6 milliseconds and in which the metallurgical bond (weld) and the heat-affected zone are limited to a depth of a few thousandths of an inch (a few hundredths of a millimeter). These characteristics of CDSW prevent distortion of the case and localized internal heating that could damage the chemical components inside of the battery. An access hole is then drilled through the stud and case, into the interior of the battery. A mechanical fitting having a matching thread is installed on the stud and the interior end of the fitting is sealed with a pressure-sealing washer/gasket. The exterior end of the fitting is configured for attachment of whatever instrumentation is required for the selected inspection or measurement

Two New Tetraphyllidean Cestodes from \u3ci\u3ePotamotrygon circularis\u3c/i\u3e Garman (Chondrichthyes: Potamotrygonidae) in the Itacnai River, Brazill

The new genus Rhinebothroides is proposed to include three species of Rhinebothriumlike cestodes parasitizing freshwater stingrays in South America. They differ from Rhinebothrium species by having squared rather than elongate bothridia, by possessing internal seminal vesicles, and by exhibiting terminal genitalia at the ovarian level. Rhinebothroides circularisi sp. n. in Potamotrygon circularis from the Itacuai River in northwestern Brazil differs from R. moralarai by having more testes and bothridial loculi and differs from R. scorzai by lacking vitelline follicles proximate to the genital pore, by having a straight rather than coiled vagina, and by possessing craspedote rather than acraspedote proglottids. Potamotrygon circularis from the Itacuai River also hosted Potamotrygonocestus amazonensis sp. n. which differs from the only other member of the genus, P. magdalenensis, by having bothridial hooks 58-78µm long rather than 43-55 µm long, by possessing a shallow genital atrium rather than lacking one, and by having follicular rather than compact vitellaria

Two New Species of \u3ci\u3eAcanthobothrium\u3c/i\u3e Van Beneden 1849 (Cestoidea: Tetraphyllidea) from Freshwater Stingrays in South America

Two new species of Acanthobothrium are reported from freshwater stingrays in northern South America. Acanthobothrium quinonesi sp. n. is described from Potamotrygon magdalenae Dumeril collected from the Magdalena River in northern Colombia and A. amazonensis sp. n. from P. circularis Garman collected in the Itacuai River of northwestern Brazil. Acanthobothrium quinonesi differs from A. amazonensis by having a smaller and anteriorly-curved cirrus sac, 43-60 rather than 50-72 testes, and bothridial hooks 100-142 μm long rather than 145-184 μm long. Characters used in the taxonomy of Acanthobothrium species are listed to show that the new species resemble each other and A. terezae, also from a South American freshwater stingray, more than they do any other members of the genus

Individual differences in visual and olfactory cue preference and use by cats (Felis catus)

Highlights • Eight cats were trained in a T-maze using a two-alternative forced choice procedure. • Cats could use either an olfactory or visual cue to locate a food reward. • Cues were then put in conflict to determine which was preferred for the task. • Most cats used the visual cue to learn the location of the food. • Preferences were stable, repeatable and rapidly learned. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract Animals are constantly presented with stimuli through different sensory challenges, which may sometimes contain contradictory information and so they must decide which is more salient in a given situation. Both vision and olfaction are extensively utilised by the domestic cat (Felis catus) in a variety of biological contexts, but which modality tends to take priority when the two channels contain information of similar potential value is unknown, as is the tendency for different individuals to use different cues in relation to the same situation. Such individual difference may have important clinical implications as it may help to explain why animals living within the same house may respond differently to the same environment. For example a change in the olfactory features of the environment may be stressful to an individual who has a bias towards using this sensory modality, but have no significant impact on individuals who rely more on visual cues for orientation. Eight cats were trained in a T-maze using a two-alternative forced choice procedure. The positive and negative stimuli presented both visual and olfactory information. Thus, there were two cues that the cats could use in order to make the discrimination. After reaching criterion for their training stimuli the six successful cats were presented with a feature mismatch test in which the positive visual stimuli were combined with the negative olfactory stimuli and vice versa. This investigated which cues were of greater salience to them. Four out of six cats showed a significant preference (P = 0.022- 0.006) for the visual cue, but one individual showed a consistent preference for using the olfactory cue (P = 0.019). To investigate whether the cats using visual cues had learned anything about the olfactory stimulus, four were given an additional test in which they were presented with the olfactory stimulus alone. Three out of four cats successfully made this discrimination, (P = 0.006-0.003, unsuccessful cat P = 0.076). This demonstrated that the cats had the potential to use olfactory cues in the absence of visual ones. These results highlight the importance of considering sensory preferences as an individual trait, which may vary substantially from population level effects

Response patterns of simulated corn yield and soil nitrous oxide emission to precipitation change

Background Precipitation plays an important role in crop production and soil greenhouse gas emissions. However, how crop yield and soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emission respond to precipitation change, particularly with different background precipitations (dry, normal, and wet years), has not been well investigated. In this study, we examined the impacts of precipitation changes on corn yield and soil N2O emission using a long-term (1981–2020, 40 years) climate dataset as well as seven manipulated precipitation treatments with different background precipitations using the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) model. Results Results showed large variations of corn yield and precipitation but small variation of soil N2O emission among 40 years. Both corn yield and soil N2O emission showed near linear relationships with precipitation based on the long-term precipitation data, but with different response patters of corn yield and soil N2O emission to precipitation manipulations. Corn yield showed a positive linear response to precipitation manipulations in the dry year, but no response to increases in precipitation in the normal year, and a trend of decrease in the wet year. The extreme drought treatments reduced corn yield sharply in both normal and wet years. In contrast, soil N2O emission mostly responded linearly to precipitation manipulations. Decreases in precipitation in the dry year reduced more soil N2O emission than those in the normal and wet years, while increases in precipitation increased more soil N2O emission in the normal and wet years than in the dry year. Conclusions This study revealed different response patterns of corn yield and soil N2O emission to precipitation and highlights that mitigation strategy for soil N2O emission reduction should consider different background climate conditions

Did A Rising Tide Lift All Boats? The NIH Budget And Pediatric Research Portfolio

This paper examines National Institutes of Health (NIH) pediatric research spending in absolute terms and relative to the doubling of the NIH overall budget between fiscal years 1998 and 2003. Pediatric spending increased by an average annual rate of 12.8 percent during the doubling period (almost on par with the NIH average annual growth rate of 14.7 percent). However, the proportion of the total NIH budget devoted to the pediatric portfolio declined from 12.3 to 11.3 percent. We offer recommendations for implementing existing commitments to strengthen the pediatric research portfolio and to protect the gains of the doubling period

Phase Space Reconstruction from Accelerator Beam Measurements Using Neural Networks and Differentiable Simulations

Characterizing the phase space distribution of particle beams in accelerators is a central part of accelerator understanding and performance optimization. However, conventional reconstruction-based techniques either use simplifying assumptions or require specialized diagnostics to infer high-dimensional ($>$ 2D) beam properties. In this Letter, we introduce a general-purpose algorithm that combines neural networks with differentiable particle tracking to efficiently reconstruct high-dimensional phase space distributions without using specialized beam diagnostics or beam manipulations. We demonstrate that our algorithm accurately reconstructs detailed 4D phase space distributions with corresponding confidence intervals in both simulation and experiment using a single focusing quadrupole and diagnostic screen. This technique allows for the measurement of multiple correlated phase spaces simultaneously, which will enable simplified 6D phase space distribution reconstructions in the future

Multipoint-BAX: A New Approach for Efficiently Tuning Particle Accelerator Emittance via Virtual Objectives

Although beam emittance is critical for the performance of high-brightness accelerators, optimization is often time limited as emittance calculations, commonly done via quadrupole scans, are typically slow. Such calculations are a type of $\textit{multi-point query}$, i.e. each query requires multiple secondary measurements. Traditional black-box optimizers such as Bayesian optimization are slow and inefficient when dealing with such objectives as they must acquire the full series of measurements, but return only the emittance, with each query. We propose applying Bayesian Algorithm Execution (BAX) to instead query and model individual beam-size measurements. BAX avoids the slow multi-point query on the accelerator by acquiring points through a $\textit{virtual objective}$, i.e. calculating the emittance objective from a fast learned model rather than directly from the accelerator. Here, we use BAX to minimize emittance at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests II (FACET-II). In simulation, BAX is 20$\times$ faster and more robust to noise compared to existing methods. In live LCLS and FACET-II tests, BAX performed the first automated emittance tuning, matching the hand-tuned emittance at FACET-II and achieving a 24% lower emittance at LCLS. Our method represents a conceptual shift for optimizing multi-point queries, and we anticipate that it can be readily adapted to similar problems in particle accelerators and other scientific instruments

Skin Gene Expression Correlates of Severity of Interstitial Lung Disease in Systemic Sclerosis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100260/1/art38101.pd