Analysis of HOM interaction between cavities by multi-modal s-parameter measurements

Accelerating cavities exchange HOM power through interconnecting beam pipes in case of signal frequencies above the cut-off of their propagating waveguide modes. This may lead either to improved HOM damping or - in the case most severe - to unwanted phase coherence of fields to the beam. Therefore the knowledge of the scattering properties of a cavity as a line element is needed to analyse all kinds of RF cavity-cavity interaction. Since there is a lack of measurement tools capable to provide a multidimensional scattering matrix at a given frequency point, we have been developing a method for this purpose. It uses a set of 2-port S-parameters of the device under test, embedded in a number of geometrically different RF environments. The application of the method is demonstrated with copper models of TESLA cavities

Energy Propagation through the TESLA Channel: Measurements with Two Waveguides Modes

A new method for the determination of S-matrices of devices in multimoded waveguides and first experimental experiences are presented. The theoretical foundations are given. The scattering matrix of a TESLA copper cavity at a frequency above the cut-off of the second waveguide mode has been measured

The design of the HOM-damping cells for the S-band linear collider

Damping cells for the higher order modes are necessary for the S-band linear collider to minimize BBU (Beam-Break-Up). The construction of the damper cells has to take into account the different field geometries of the higher order modes. So two different types of dampers have been designed: a wall slotted an an iris slotted cell. In order to optimize the two types of damping cells with respect to damping strength, impedance matching between coupling system and waveguide dampers and between damping cell and undamped cells and the tuning system, damping cells of both types have been built and examinated

The effect of a single HOM-damper cell within a channel of undamped cells

The effect of a single HOM-damper cell within a channel of undamped cells is described theoretically using an equivalent circuit model. From this a simple equation can be derived which relates the Q-value of the single damping-cell, the bandwidth of the passband under consideration, and the additional phase shift which is introduced by the damper cell to provide energy flow into the damper cell. This equation immediately shows the limitations of such single cell damping systems. Comparisons with experimental results are shown

Mode propagation in an iris type accelerator section loaded with single heavily HOM-damped cells

The wakefield effects in accelerator sections for future linear colliders will be reduced either by damping by detuning or by a combination of both. For the DESY/THD linac [1] it is forseen to employ heavily HOM-damped cells to provide a strong coupling to the TE/TM11-dipole passband as well as to the TM/TE11-dipole passband. For our experiments we have used wall-slotted damping cells. This leads to several problems concerning the propagation of fundamental and HOM-modes. Experimental investigations have been done. Results are presented

Quality factor measurements in cavities with mode overlap

A new method of measuring quality factors in cavities is presented. This method is well suited to measure quality factors in undamped cavities as well as in heavily damped cavities, and in addition this method provides a possibility of separating modes and measuring quality factors especially in cases of overlapping modes. Measurements have been carried out on HOM-damped cavities for the DESY/THD linear collider project. Results are presented

Thermodynamics of a Heavy Ion-Irradiated Superconductor: the Zero-Field Transition

Specific heat measurements show that the introduction of amorphous columnar defects considerably affects the transition from the normal to the superconducting state in zero magnetic field. Experimental results are compared to numerical simulations of the 3D XY model for both the pure system and the system containing random columnar disorder. The numerics reproduce the salient features of experiment, showing in particular that the specific heat peak changes from cusp-like to smoothly rounded when columnar defects are added. By considering the specific heat critical exponent alpha, we argue that such behavior is consistent with recent numerical work [Vestergren et al., PRB 70, 054508 (2004)] showing that the introduction of columnar defects changes the universality class of the transition.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Comparison of retinal regions-of-interest imaged by OCT for the classification of intermediate AMD

To study whether it is possible to differentiate intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD) from healthy controls using partial optical coherence tomography (OCT) data, that is, restricting the input B-scans to certain pre-defined regions of interest (ROIs). A total of 15744 B-scans from 269 intermediate AMD patients and 115 normal subjects were used in this study (split on subject level in 80% train, 10% validation and 10% test). From each OCT B-scan, three ROIs were extracted: retina, complex between retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and Bruch membrane (BM), and choroid (CHO). These ROIs were obtained using two different methods: masking and cropping. In addition to the six ROIs, the whole OCT B-scan and the binary mask corresponding to the segmentation of the RPE-BM complex were used. For each subset, a convolutional neural network (based on VGG16 architecture and pre-trained on ImageNet) was trained and tested. The performance of the models was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC), accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. All trained models presented an AUROC, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity equal to or higher than 0.884, 0.816, 0.685, and 0.644, respectively. The model trained on the whole OCT B-scan presented the best performance (AUROC = 0.983, accuracy = 0.927, sensitivity = 0.862, specificity = 0.913). The models trained on the ROIs obtained with the cropping method led to significantly higher outcomes than those obtained with masking, with the exception of the retinal tissue, where no statistically significant difference was observed between cropping and masking (p = 0.47). This study demonstrated that while using the complete OCT B-scan provided the highest accuracy in classifying intermediate AMD, models trained on specific ROIs such as the RPE-BM complex or the choroid can still achieve high performance

Antiviral treatment in schizophrenia:a randomized pilot PET study on the effects of valaciclovir on neuroinflammation

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia experience cognitive impairment, which could be related to neuroinflammation in the hippocampus. The cause for such hippocampal inflammation is still unknown, but it has been suggested that herpes virus infection is involved. This study therefore aimed to determine whether add-on treatment of schizophrenic patients with the anti- viral drug valaciclovir would reduce hippocampal neuroinflammation and consequently improve cognitive symptoms.METHODS: We performed a double-blind monocenter study in 24 male and female patients with schizophrenia, experiencing active psychotic symptoms. Patients were orally treated with the anti-viral drug valaciclovir for seven consecutive days (8 g/day). Neuroinflammation was measured with Positron Emission Tomography using the translocator protein ligand [ 11C]-PK11195, pre-treatment and at seven days post-treatment, as were psychotic symptoms and cognition. RESULTS: Valaciclovir treatment resulted in reduced TSPO binding (39%) in the hippocampus, as well as in the brainstem, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, amygdala, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, insula and cingulate gyri, nucleus accumbens and thalamus (31-40%) when using binding potential (BPND) as an outcome. With total distribution volume (VT) as outcome we found essentially the same results, but associations only approached statistical significance ( p = 0.050 for hippocampus). Placebo treatment did not affect neuroinflammation. No effects of valaciclovir on psychotic symptoms or cognitive functioning were found. CONCLUSION: We found a decreased TSPO binding following antiviral treatment, which could suggest a viral underpinning of neuroinflammation in psychotic patients. Whether this reduced neuroinflammation by treatment with valaciclovir has clinical implications and is specific for schizophrenia warrants further research.</p

Antiviral treatment in schizophrenia:a randomized pilot PET study on the effects of valaciclovir on neuroinflammation

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia experience cognitive impairment, which could be related to neuroinflammation in the hippocampus. The cause for such hippocampal inflammation is still unknown, but it has been suggested that herpes virus infection is involved. This study therefore aimed to determine whether add-on treatment of schizophrenic patients with the anti- viral drug valaciclovir would reduce hippocampal neuroinflammation and consequently improve cognitive symptoms.METHODS: We performed a double-blind monocenter study in 24 male and female patients with schizophrenia, experiencing active psychotic symptoms. Patients were orally treated with the anti-viral drug valaciclovir for seven consecutive days (8 g/day). Neuroinflammation was measured with Positron Emission Tomography using the translocator protein ligand [ 11C]-PK11195, pre-treatment and at seven days post-treatment, as were psychotic symptoms and cognition. RESULTS: Valaciclovir treatment resulted in reduced TSPO binding (39%) in the hippocampus, as well as in the brainstem, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, amygdala, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, insula and cingulate gyri, nucleus accumbens and thalamus (31-40%) when using binding potential (BPND) as an outcome. With total distribution volume (VT) as outcome we found essentially the same results, but associations only approached statistical significance ( p = 0.050 for hippocampus). Placebo treatment did not affect neuroinflammation. No effects of valaciclovir on psychotic symptoms or cognitive functioning were found. CONCLUSION: We found a decreased TSPO binding following antiviral treatment, which could suggest a viral underpinning of neuroinflammation in psychotic patients. Whether this reduced neuroinflammation by treatment with valaciclovir has clinical implications and is specific for schizophrenia warrants further research.</p