Planar channeling and quasichanneling oscillations in a bent crystal

Particles passing through a crystal under planar channeling experience transverse oscillations in their motion. As channeled particles approach the atomic planes of a crystal, they are likely to be dechanneled. This effect was used in ion-beam analysis with MeV energy. We studied this effect in a bent crystal for positive and negative particles within a wide range of energies in sight of application of such crystals at accelerators. We found the conditions for the appearance or not of channeling oscillations. Indeed a new kind of oscillations, strictly related to the motion of over-barrier particles, i.e. quasichanneling particles, has been predicted. Such oscillations, named planar quasichanneling oscillations, possess a different nature than channeling oscillations. Through computer simulation, we studied this effect and provided a theoretical interpretation for them. We show that channeling oscillations can be observed only for positive particles while quasichanneling oscillations can exist for particles with either sign. The conditions for experimental observation of channeling and quasichanneling oscillations at existing accelerators with available crystal has been found and optimized.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figure

CALCULATION OF NEUTRON-CAPTURE REACTIONS CONTRIBUTION TO ENERGY RELEASE IN VVER-1000 USING SERPENT CODE

Calculating the energy release in fuel elements is an important aspect of the modeling and design of nuclear reactors. Most of the energy is produced by fission, but a non-negligible percentage is coming from neutron capture reactions, such as (n, γ) or (n, α). We implement a previously developed method for the calculation of effective energy release using Serpent Monte Carlo code. We investigate the percentage of capture component in effective energy release for various models of VVER-1000 fuel: firstly, an equivalent cell, then fresh fuel assemblies of different compositions, differing in fuel enrichment and the presence of burnable absorbers. The results are compared to similar calculations previously done in MCNP 4 and MCU 5

Prediction of the Material Composition of the VVER-type Reactor Burned Pellet with Use of Neutron-Physical Codes

The purpose of neutron-physical calculations is typically isotopic composition of the fuel elements. However, in solving materials science problems related to nuclear fuel, researchers are usually interested in elemental composition of the fuel pellets, because the chemical and thermal physic properties are the same for differentisotopes of one chemical element. Nevertheless, for modeling of the elemental composition one should perform calculation of the isotopic composition and carry out the summation over all isotopes of a given chemical element. The development of computational tools allows the use of improved methods and codes, which held the consequent solution of tasks of heat conduction, neutron transport, and kinetics ofnuclides transformation. Thus the calculations take into account the dependence of the thermal conductivity from the changing isotopic composition and fuel burnup. This allows to perform neutron-physical and thermal-physical calculations of the reactor with detailed temperature distribution, taking into account temperature dependence of thermal conductivity and other characteristics. This approach was applied to calculations of the fuel pellet of the VVER type reactor and calculation of its elemental composition. Keywords: materials science, elemental composition, fuel pellet

Models of assessment of the influence of insurance assets securitization on stability of mutual insurance societies

The article reviews approaches to assessing the effectiveness of the mechanism of insurance assets securitization used to enhance the financial stability of the mutual insurance society, determined by the level of probability of its default. The approaches are based on the methods of simulation modeling of the financial flows of the society formed taking into account the patterns of random payments, deterministic premiums, proceeds and securitization costs. Following the results of a series of simulation experiments, the peculiarities of the influence of securitization on stability of a MIS are identified, and recommendations for its use are justified. The estimates of the costs of structuring the transaction are obtained, based on which a certain minimum volumes of securitization are determined, at which its use is appropriate.peer-reviewe

Space-Time Complexity in Hamiltonian Dynamics

New notions of the complexity function C(epsilon;t,s) and entropy function S(epsilon;t,s) are introduced to describe systems with nonzero or zero Lyapunov exponents or systems that exhibit strong intermittent behavior with ``flights'', trappings, weak mixing, etc. The important part of the new notions is the first appearance of epsilon-separation of initially close trajectories. The complexity function is similar to the propagator p(t0,x0;t,x) with a replacement of x by the natural lengths s of trajectories, and its introduction does not assume of the space-time independence in the process of evolution of the system. A special stress is done on the choice of variables and the replacement t by eta=ln(t), s by xi=ln(s) makes it possible to consider time-algebraic and space-algebraic complexity and some mixed cases. It is shown that for typical cases the entropy function S(epsilon;xi,eta) possesses invariants (alpha,beta) that describe the fractal dimensions of the space-time structures of trajectories. The invariants (alpha,beta) can be linked to the transport properties of the system, from one side, and to the Riemann invariants for simple waves, from the other side. This analog provides a new meaning for the transport exponent mu that can be considered as the speed of a Riemann wave in the log-phase space of the log-space-time variables. Some other applications of new notions are considered and numerical examples are presented.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure

Topological properties of punctual Hilbert schemes of almost-complex fourfolds (I)

In this article, we study topological properties of Voisin's punctual Hilbert schemes of an almost-complex fourfold $X$. In this setting, we compute their Betti numbers and construct Nakajima operators. We also define tautological bundles associated with any complex bundle on $X$, which are shown to be canonical in $K$-theory

Exosomes: From potential culprits to new therapeutic promise in the setting of cardiac fibrosis

Fibrosis is a significant global health problem associated with many inflammatory and degenerative diseases affecting multiple organs, individually or simultaneously. Fibrosis develops when extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling becomes excessive or uncontrolled and is associated with nearly all forms of heart disease. Cardiac fibroblasts and myofibroblasts are the main effectors of ECM deposition and scar formation. The heart is a complex multicellular organ, where the various resident cell types communicate between themselves and with cells of the blood and immune systems. Exosomes, which are small extracellular vesicles, (EVs), contribute to cell-to-cell communication and their pathophysiological relevance and therapeutic potential is emerging. Here, we will critically review the role of endogenous exosomes as possible fibrosis mediators and discuss the possibility of using stem cell-derived and/or engineered exosomes as anti-fibrotic agents