Absorbed-dose-to-water measurement using alanine in ultra-high-pulse-dose-rate electron beams

: Objective. The aim of the presented study is to evaluate the dose response of the PTB's secondary standard system, which is based on alanine and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy measurement, in ultra-high-pulse-dose-rate (UHPDR) electron beams.Approach. The alanine dosimeter system was evaluated in the PTB's UHPDR electron beams (20 MeV) in a range of 0.15-6.2 Gy per pulse. The relationship between the obtained absorbed dose to water per pulse and the in-beamline charge measurement of the electron pulses acquired using an integrating current transformer (ICT) was evaluated. Monte Carlo simulations were used to determine the beam quality conversion and correction factors required to perform alanine dosimetry.Main results. The beam quality conversion factor from the reference quality60Co to 20 MeV obtained by Monte Carlo simulation, 1.010(1), was found to be within the standard uncertainty of the consensus value, 1.014(5). The dose-to-water relative standard uncertainty was determined to be 0.68% in PTB's UHPDR electron beams.Significance. In this investigation, the dose-response of the PTB's alanine dosimeter system was evaluated in a range of dose per pulse between 0.15 Gy and 6.2 Gy and no evidence of dose-response dependency of the PTB's secondary standard system based on alanine was observed. The alanine/ESR system was shown to be a precise dosimetry system for evaluating absorbed dose to water in UHPDR electron beams

Quantum Electronics

Contains research objectives and summary of research for eight research projects split into three sections and a report on one research project.U. S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F44620-71-C-0051)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAB07-75-C-1346

Mitigation of Laser Damage Growth in Fused Silica with a Galvanometer Scanned CO2 Laser

At the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), mitigation of laser surface damage growth on fused silica using single and multiple CO{sub 2} laser pulses has been consistently successful for damage sites whose lateral dimensions are less than 100 {micro}m, but has not been for larger sites. Cracks would often radiate outward from the damage when a CO{sub 2} pulse was applied to the larger sites. An investigation was conducted to mitigate large surface damage sites using galvanometer scanning of a tightly focused CO{sub 2} laser spot over an area encompassing the laser damage. It was thought that by initially scanning the CO{sub 2} spot outside the damage site, radiating crack propagation would be inhibited. Scan patterns were typically inward moving spirals starting at radii somewhat larger than that of the damage site. The duration of the mitigation spiral pattern was {approx}110 ms during which a total of {approx}1.3 J of energy was delivered to the sample. The CO{sub 2} laser spot had a 1/e{sup 2}-diameter of {approx}200 {micro}m. Thus, there was general heating of a large area around the damage site while rapid evaporation occurred locally at the laser spot position in the spiral. A 30 to 40 {micro}m deep crater was typically generated by this spiral with a diameter of {approx}600 {micro}m. The spiral would be repeated until there was no evidence of the original damage in microscope images. Using this technique, damage sites as large as 300 mm in size did not display new damage after mitigation when exposed to fluences exceeding 22 J/cm{sup 2} at 355 nm, 7.5 ns. It was found necessary to use a vacuum nozzle during the mitigation process to reduce the amount of re-deposited fused silica. In addition, curing spiral patterns at lower laser powers were used to presumably ''re-melt'' any re-deposited fused silica. A compact, shearing interferometer microscope was developed to permit in situ measurement of the depth of mitigation sites

Mutations In Sry And Wt1 Genes Required For Gonadal Development Are Not Responsible For Xy Partial Gonadal Dysgenesis.

The WT1 transcription factor regulates SRY expression during the initial steps of the sex determination process in humans, activating a gene cascade leading to testis differentiation. In addition to causing Wilms' tumor, mutations in WT1 are often responsible for urogenital defects in men, while SRY mutations are mainly related to 46,XY pure gonadal dysgenesis. In order to evaluate their role in abnormal testicular organogenesis, we screened for SRY and WT1 gene mutations in 10 children with XY partial gonadal dysgenesis, 2 of whom with a history of Wilms' tumor. The open reading frame and 360 bp of the 5' flanking sequence of the SRY gene, and the ten exons and intron boundaries of the WT1 gene were amplified by PCR of genomic DNA. Single-strand conformation polymorphism was initially used for WT1 mutation screening. Since shifts in fragment migration were only observed for intron/exon 4, the ten WT1 exons from all patients were sequenced manually. No mutations were detected in the SRY 5' untranslated region or within SRY open-reading frame sequences. WT1 sequencing revealed one missense mutation (D396N) in the ninth exon of a patient who also had Wilms' tumor. In addition, two silent point mutations were found in the first exon including one described here for the first time. Some non-coding sequence variations were detected, representing one new (IVS4+85A>G) and two already described (-7ATG T>G, IVS9-49 T>C) single nucleotide polymorphisms. Therefore, mutations in two major genes required for gonadal development, SRY and WT1, are not responsible for XY partial gonadal dysgenesis.3817-2

In-situ monitoring of surface post-processing in large aperture fused silica optics with Optical Coherence Tomography

Optical Coherence Tomography is explored as a method to image laser-damage sites located on the surface of large aperture fused silica optics during post-processing via CO{sub 2} laser ablation. The signal analysis for image acquisition was adapted to meet the sensitivity requirements for this application. A long-working distance geometry was employed to allow imaging through the opposite surface of the 5-cm thick optic. The experimental results demonstrate the potential of OCT for remote monitoring of transparent material processing applications

Quantum Electronics

Contains report on ten research projects split into three sections.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-78-C-0020)National Science Foundation (Grant PHY77-07156)U. S. Air Force-Office of Scientific Research (Grant AFOSR-3042)National Science Foundation (Grant ENG77-24981

Quantum Electronics

Contains reports on three research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant PHY77-07156)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAABO7-76-C-1400)U. S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Grant AFOSR-76-3042)U. S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F-44620-76-C-0079)M.I.T. Sloan Fund for Basic Researc

Quantum Electronics

Contains reports on eight research projects divided into three sections.National Science Foundation (Grant PHY79-09739)Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-78-C-0020)U.S. Air Force Geophysics Laboratory (AFSC) (Contract F19628-79-C-0082)National Science Foundation (Grant ENG79-09980

Quantum Electronics

Contains research objectives and summary of research on eight research projects split into four sections.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAB07-76-C-1400)U. S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Grant AFOSR-76-3042)U. S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F44620-76-C-0079

Metastable lifetimes in a kinetic Ising model: Dependence on field and system size

The lifetimes of metastable states in kinetic Ising ferromagnets are studied by droplet theory and Monte Carlo simulation, in order to determine their dependences on applied field and system size. For a wide range of fields, the dominant field dependence is universal for local dynamics and has the form of an exponential in the inverse field, modified by universal and nonuniversal power-law prefactors. Quantitative droplet-theory predictions are numerically verified, and small deviations are shown to depend nonuniversally on the details of the dynamics. We identify four distinct field intervals in which the field dependence and statistical properties of the lifetimes are different. The field marking the crossover between the weak-field regime, in which the decay is dominated by a single droplet, and the intermediate-field regime, in which it is dominated by a finite droplet density, vanishes logarithmically with system size. As a consequence the slow decay characteristic of the former regime may be observable in systems that are macroscopic as far as their equilibrium properties are concerned.Comment: 18 pages single spaced. RevTex Version 3. FSU-SCRI-94-1