Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affect total phenolics content and antioxidant activity in leaves of oak leaf lettuce varieties

Plant secondary metabolites are considered key bioactive compounds for a healthy diet. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) may interact with host plant metabolism, inducing the accumulation of health-promoting phytochemicals and antioxidant molecules. Lettuce is a largely consumed vegetable, which may interact with AMF to alter its content of secondary metabolites and natural antioxidants molecules, as previously shown in cultivars belonging to var. capitata or var. longifolia. In this study, the effects of red and green leaf Lactuca sativa var. crispa inoculation with different AMF species, Rhizoglomus irregulare and Funneliformis mosseae, were investigated, by assessing the total phenolics and anthocyanins content, and the antioxidant activity of leaf tissue. A significant increase of antioxidant activity and of phenolics were observed in plants of both cultivars inoculated with R. irregulare, compared to non inoculated plants. Likewise, anthocyanins (in red leaf lettuce) were more abundant in inoculated plants than in controls. Altogether, the results indicate that R. irregulare strain showed a stronger ability than F. mosseae in affecting plant metabolism and that mycorrhizal inoculation may be used to enhance concentration of phenolics in leaf type lettuces, provided that a suitable AMF is selected

Self-consistent pedestal prediction for JET-ILW in preparation of the DT campaign

The self-consistent core-pedestal prediction model of a combination of EPED1 type pedestal prediction and a simple stiff core transport model is able to predict Type I ELMy (edge localized mode) pedestals of a large JET-ILW (ITER-like wall) database at the similar accuracy as is obtained when the experimental global plasma beta is used as input. The neutral penetration model [R. J. Groebner et al., Phys. Plasmas 9, 2134 (2002)] with corrections that take into account variations due to gas fueling and plasma triangularity is able to predict the pedestal density with an average error of 15%. The prediction of the pedestal pressure in hydrogen plasma that has higher core heat diffusivity compared to a deuterium plasma with similar heating and fueling agrees with the experiment when the isotope effect on the stability, the increased diffusivity, and outward radial shift of the pedestal are included in the prediction. However, the neutral penetration model that successfully predicts the deuterium pedestal densities fails to predict the isotope effect on the pedestal density in hydrogen plasmas

On the role of finite grid extent in SOLPS-ITER edge plasma simulations for JET H-mode discharges with metallic wall

The impact of the finite grid size in SOLPS-ITER edge plasma simulations is assessed for JET H-mode discharges with a metal wall. For a semi-horizontal divertor configuration it is shown that the separatrix density is at least 30% higher when a narrow scrape-off layer (SOL) grid width is chosen in SOLPS-ITER compared to the case for which the SOL grid width is maximised. The density increase is caused by kinetic neutrals being not confined inside the divertor region because of the reduced extent of the plasma grid. In this case, an enhanced level of reflections of energetic neutrals at the low-field side (LFS) metal divertor wall is observed. This leads to a shift of the ionisation source further upstream which must be accounted for as a numerical artefact. An overestimate in the cooling at the divertor entrance is observed in this case, identified by a reduced heat flux decay parameters lambda(div)(q). Otherwise and further upstream the mid-plane heat decay length lambda(q) parameter is not affected by any change in divertor dissipation. This confirms the assumptions made for the ITER divertor design studies, i.e. that lambda(q) upstream is essentially set by the assumptions for the ratio radial to parallel heat conductivity. It is also shown that even for attached conditions the decay length relations lambda(ne)>lambda(Te)>lambda(q) hold in the near-SOL upstream. Thus for interpretative edge plasma simulations one must take the (experimental) value of lambda(ne) into account, rather than lambda(q), as the former actually defines the required minimum upstream SOL grid extent.EURATOM 63305

Studies of the non-axisymmetric plasma boundary displacement in JET in presence of externally applied magnetic field

Non-axisymmetric plasma boundary displacement is caused by the application of the external magnetic field with low toroidal mode number. Such displacement affects edge stability, power load on the first wall and could affect efficiency of the ICRH coupling in ITER. Studies of the displacement are presented for JET tokamak focusing on the interaction between error field correction coils (EFCCs) and shape control system. First results are shown on the direct measurement of the plasma boundary displacement at different toroidal locations. Both qualitative and quantitative studies of the plasma boundary displacement caused by interaction between EFCCs and shape control system are performed for different toroidal phases of the external field. Axisymmetric plasma boundary displacement caused by the EFCC/shape control system interaction is seen for certain phase values of the external field. The value of axisymmetric plasma boundary displacement caused by interaction can be comparable to the non-axisymmetric plasma boundary displacement value produced by EFCCs

Gelatin-based coating enriched with blueberry juice preserves the nutraceutical quality and reduces the microbial contamination of tomato fruit

To preserve quality and extend the shelf life of tomato, a bioactive edible coating was prepared using gelatin wastes from pharmaceutical industry and lyophilised blueberry juice (BJ). The effectiveness of gelatin-coating (G) and G enriched with blueberry juice (GB) was tested, monitoring carotenoids, polyphenols and flavonoids content, the antioxidant activity and the antimicrobial efficiency of coating against the native microflora. After 7 d of storage, coated fruit showed higher phenolic and flavonoids content and increased antioxidant activity, while carotenoids were unaffected by the treatments. The growth of mesophilic bacteria of GB, and the growth of coliform bacteria of G and GB were significantly reduced during the entire period. The results indicate that GB preserved the nutritional quality of tomatoes and that BJ was able to increase the antimicrobial activity of the coating. This paves the way for a possible use of this biodegradable waste polymer as an eco-friendly coating material

Effect of the relative shift between the electron density and temperature pedestal position on the pedestal stability in JET-ILW and comparison with JET-C

The electron temperature and density pedestals tend to vary in their relative radial positions, as observed in DIII-D (Beurskens et al 2011 Phys. Plasmas 18 056120) and ASDEX Upgrade (Dunne et al 2017 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 59 14017). This so-called relative shift has an impact on the pedestal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability and hence on the pedestal height (Osborne et al 2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 063018). The present work studies the effect of the relative shift on pedestal stability of JET ITER-like wall (JET-ILW) baseline low triangularity (δ) unseeded plasmas, and similar JET-C discharges. As shown in this paper, the increase of the pedestal relative shift is correlated with the reduction of the normalized pressure gradient, therefore playing a strong role in pedestal stability. Furthermore, JET-ILW tends to have a larger relative shift compared to JET carbon wall (JET-C), suggesting a possible role of the plasma facing materials in affecting the density profile location. Experimental results are then compared with stability analysis performed in terms of the peeling-ballooning model and with pedestal predictive model EUROPED (Saarelma et al 2017 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion). Stability analysis is consistent with the experimental findings, showing an improvement of the pedestal stability, when the relative shift is reduced. This has been ascribed mainly to the increase of the edge bootstrap current, and to minor effects related to the increase of the pedestal pressure gradient and narrowing of the pedestal pressure width. Pedestal predictive model EUROPED shows a qualitative agreement with experiment, especially for low values of the relative shift.EURATOM 633053Swedish Energy Agency 40146-

Global and pedestal confinement and pedestal structure in dimensionless collisionality scans of low-triangularity H-mode plasmas in JET-ILW

Abstract A dimensionless collisionality scan in low-triangularity plasmas in the Joint European Torus with the ITER-like wall (JET-ILW) has been performed. The increase of the normalized energy confinement (defined as the ratio between thermal energy confinement and Bohm confinement time) with decreasing collisionality is observed. Moreover, at low collisionality, a confinement factor H98, comparable to JET-C, is achieved. At high collisionality, the low normalized confinement is related to a degraded pedestal stability and a reduction in the density-profile peaking. The increase of normalized energy confinement is due to both an increase in the pedestal and in the core regions. The improvement in the pedestal is related to the increase of the stability. The improvement in the core is driven by (i) the core temperature increase via the temperature-profile stiffness and by (ii) the density-peaking increase driven by the low collisionality. Pedestal stability analysis performed with the ELITE (edge-localized instabilities in tokamak equilibria) code has a reasonable qualitative agreement with the experimental results. An improvement of the pedestal stability with decreasing collisionality is observed. The improvement is ascribed to the reduction of the pedestal width, the increase of the bootstrap current and the reduction of the relative shift between the positions of the pedestal density and pedestal temperature. The EPED1 model predictions for the pedestal pressure height are qualitatively well correlated with the experimental results. Quantitatively, EPED1 overestimates the experimental pressure by 15–35%. In terms of the pedestal width, a correct agreement (within 10–15%) between the EPED1 and the experimental width is found at low collisionality. The experimental pedestal width increases with collisionality. Nonetheless, an extrapolation to low-collisionality values suggests that the width predictions from the KBM constraint are reasonable for ITER.EURATOM 63305