Supporting System for the LHC Cold Mass

This note summarises the development work carried out on the supporting system for the LHC magnets since 1992. Various technical systems were assessed with variations in the materials, manufacturing methods and dimensions. The assessment concerned both the mechanical and thermal performance. Finally, a recommendation is made for the mass-produced LHC components

Measuring Costs And Benefits Of Non-Tariff Measures In Agri-Food Trade

This paper provides a systematic welfare-based approach to analyze the impact of non-tariff measures (NTMs) on trade and welfare in presence of market imperfections. We focus on standard-like measures such as technical barriers and sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. The approach overcomes the shortcomings of the mainstream approach based on the analysis of forgone trade caused by trade costs. The latter ignores market imperfections: welfare increases when NTMs are removed and trade expands. We explain how to account for external effects and market failures in trade-focused welfare analysis, leading to a more balanced overall assessment of measures despite a potential reduction of trade flows. We show that the relationship between trade, welfare, and NTMs is complex. The optimum NTM is often not zero. An application to shrimp trade illustrates the feasibility of the proposed approach. The illustration shows that the reinforcement of a food safety standard can be socially preferable to the status-quo situation, both domestically and internationallyexternality; trade; Welfare; Non-tariff measures; NTM

Trade restrictiveness indices in presence of externalities: an application to non-tariff measures

We extend the trade restrictiveness indices (TRIs) approach to the case of market failures and domestic regulations addressing them, in presence of arbitrary tariffs and other domestic price policy distortions. We focus on standard-like non-tariff measures (NTMs) affecting cost of production and potentially enhancing domestic demand by increasing product quality or reducing negative externalities. The impact of NTMs on trade is ambiguous depending on the relative strength of the supply cost and demand enhancing effects. We apply the framework to the NTM database of Kee, Nicita, and Olarreaga (2009) and derive ad valorem equivalents for NTMs and other policy distortions. These equivalents are then used to compute TRIs. 10% of the NTM ad valorem equivalents at the 6-digit level of the Harmonized System are negative indicating a net trade-enhancing effect of these NTMs in those sectors. Consequently, TRIs computed without a protectionist presumption are smaller than their constrained counterparts not allowing for trade enhancements effects of NTMs. Accounting for externalities and anti-protective effects significantly reduces the measure of trade policy restrictiveness for most countries

New Foods Produced with Genome-Editing Technique in the Global Marketplace

This Cornhusker Economics article builds upon a previous Cornhusker Economics article of September 8, 2021, on the heterogenous willingness to pay (WTP) for genome edited (GenEd) apples in France and the US (Beghin, 2022). Using graphical illustration, this new article summarizes in layman\u27s terms two related economic analyses by Marette et al. (2022) and (2023). These analyses investigate Research and Development (R&D) investment in food innovations based on New Plant Engineering Techniques (NPETs), such as GenEd and traditional hybridization methods, and then in the context of international trade. With trade, innovators compete globally with their food novelties in each other’s markets and in the rest of the world. Regulators in different countries may regulate these innovations and their use differently, affecting the scale of production and size of markets, hence the expected profitability of these innovations

Cryogenic bath-type heat exchangers for ultra-pure noble gas applications

Two cryogenic bath-type heat exchangers for ultra-pure noble gas applications were developed with particular emphasis on noble gas liquefaction in cryogenic distillation systems. The main objective was to construct heat exchangers for xenon from materials that do not emanate radon and that fulfill ultra-high vacuum standards. Therefore, only high-quality copper and stainless steel materials were used. Especially, large-area oxygen-free copper fins with high conductivity in a new design ensure efficient heat transfer. One bath-type Xe-Xe heat exchanger was designed with a diameter of 50 cm to achieve a xenon condensing capacity of at least 100 kg/h. In order to guarantee the necessary heat transfer between the two xenon reservoirs, this heat exchanger features a specially manufactured stainless steel flange with a copper plate welded inside. We first tested our concept on a dedicated bath-type heat exchanger with a reduced diameter of 30 cm using liquid nitrogen to liquefy the xenon. A model based on conservative assumptions such as film boiling on the nitrogen side and film condensation on the xenon side was developed and applied to caluclate the expected heat transfer for our design. We were able to demonstrate an adjustable xenon liquefaction rate of up to 113 kg/h limited only by our measurement procedure at a cooling efficiency of (0.98 ± 0.03) for the LN$_{2}$-Xe heat exchanger

Vanishing spin alignment : experimental indication of triaxial 28Si+28Si\bf ^{28}Si + {^{28}Si} nuclear molecule

Fragment-fragment-$\gamma$ coincidences have been measured for $\rm ^{28}Si + {^{28}Si}$ at an energy corresponding to the population of a conjectured resonance in $^{56}$Ni. Fragment angular distributions as well as $\gamma$-ray angular correlations indicate that the spin orientations of the outgoing fragments are perpendicular to the orbital angular momentum. This differs from the $\rm ^{24}Mg+{^{24}Mg}$ and the $\rm ^{12}C+{^{12}C}$ resonances, and suggests two oblate $\rm ^{28}Si$ nuclei interacting in an equator-to-equator molecular configuration.Comment: 14 pages standard REVTeX file, 3 ps Figures -- Accepted for publication in Physical Review C (Rapid Communication

Deciphering neuronal deficit and protein profile changes in human brain organoids from patients with creatine transporter deficiency

Creatine transporter deficiency (CTD) is an X-linked disease caused by mutations in the SLC6A8 gene. The impaired creatine uptake in the brain results in intellectual disability, behavioral disorders, language delay, and seizures. In this work, we generated human brain organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells of healthy subjects and CTD patients. Brain organoids from CTD donors had reduced creatine uptake compared with those from healthy donors. The expression of neural progenitor cell markers SOX2 and PAX6 was reduced in CTD-derived organoids, while GSK3β, a key regulator of neurogenesis, was up-regulated. Shotgun proteomics combined with integrative bioinformatic and statistical analysis identified changes in the abundance of proteins associated with intellectual disability, epilepsy, and autism. Re-establishment of the expression of a functional SLC6A8 in CTD-derived organoids restored creatine uptake and normalized the expression of SOX2, GSK3β, and other key proteins associated with clinical features of CTD patients. Our brain organoid model opens new avenues for further characterizing the CTD pathophysiology and supports the concept that reinstating creatine levels in patients with CTD could result in therapeutic efficacy