2,469 research outputs found
Radiation Rates for Low Z Impurities in Edge Plasmas
The role of impurity radiation in the reduction of heat loads on divertor
plates in present experiments such as DIII-D, JET, JT-60, ASDEX, and Alcator
C-Mod, and in planned experiments such as ITER and TPX places a new degree of
importance on the accuracy of impurity radiation emission rates for electron
temperatures below 250 eV for ITER and below 150 eV for present experiments. We
have calculated the radiated power loss using a collisional radiative model for
Be, B, C, Ne and Ar using a multiple configuration interaction model which
includes density dependent effects, as well as a very detailed treatment of the
energy levels and meta-stable levels. The "collisional radiative" effects are
very important for Be at temperatures below 10 eV. The same effects are present
for higher Z impurities, but not as strongly. For some of the lower Z elements,
the new rates are about a factor of two lower than those from a widely used,
simpler average-ion package (ADPAK) developed for high Z ions and for higher
temperatures. Following the approach of Lengyel for the case where electron
heat conduction is the dominant mechanism for heat transport along field lines,
our analysis indicates that significant enhancements of the radiation losses
above collisional radiative model rates due to such effects as rapid recycling
and charge exchange recombination will be necessary for impurity radiation to
reduce the peak heat loads on divertor plates for high heat flux experiments
such as ITER.Comment: Preprint for the 11th PSI meeting, gzipped postscript with 11
figures, 14 page
Calculations of Energy Losses due to Atomic Processes in Tokamaks with Applications to the ITER Divertor
Reduction of the peak heat loads on the plasma facing components is essential
for the success of the next generation of high fusion power tokamaks such as
the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) 1 . Many present
concepts for accomplishing this involve the use of atomic processes to transfer
the heat from the plasma to the main chamber and divertor chamber walls and
much of the experimental and theoretical physics research in the fusion program
is directed toward this issue. The results of these experiments and
calculations are the result of a complex interplay of many processes. In order
to identify the key features of these experiments and calculations and the
relative role of the primary atomic processes, simple quasi-analytic models and
the latest atomic physics rate coefficients and cross sections have been used
to assess the relative roles of central radiation losses through
bremsstrahlung, impurity radiation losses from the plasma edge, charge exchange
and hydrogen radiation losses from the scrape-off layer and divertor plasma and
impurity radiation losses from the divertor plasma. This anaysis indicates that
bremsstrahlung from the plasma center and impurity radiation from the plasma
edge and divertor plasma can each play a significant role in reducing the power
to the divertor plates, and identifies many of the factors which determine the
relative role of each process. For instance, for radiation losses in the
divertor to be large enough to radiate the power in the divertor for high power
experiments, a neutral fraction of 10-3 to 10-2 and an impurity recycling rate
of netrecycle of ~ 10^16 s m^-3 will be required in the divertor.Comment: Preprint for the 1994 APSDPP meeting, uuencoded and gzipped
postscript with 22 figures, 40 pages
Towards the production of radiotherapy treatment shells on 3D printers using data derived from DICOM CT and MRI: preclinical feasibility studies
Background: Immobilisation for patients undergoing brain or head and neck radiotherapy is achieved using perspex or thermoplastic devices that require direct moulding to patient anatomy. The mould room visit can be distressing for patients and the shells do not always fit perfectly. In addition the mould room process can be time consuming. With recent developments in three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies comes the potential to generate a treatment shell directly from a computer model of a patient. Typically, a patient requiring radiotherapy treatment will have had a computed tomography (CT) scan and if a computer model of a shell could be obtained directly from the CT data it would reduce patient distress, reduce visits, obtain a close fitting shell and possibly enable the patient to start their radiotherapy treatment more quickly. Purpose: This paper focuses on the first stage of generating the front part of the shell and investigates the dosimetric properties of the materials to show the feasibility of 3D printer materials for the production of a radiotherapy treatment shell. Materials and methods: Computer algorithms are used to segment the surface of the patient’s head from CT and MRI datasets. After segmentation approaches are used to construct a 3D model suitable for printing on a 3D printer. To ensure that 3D printing is feasible the properties of a set of 3D printing materials are tested. Conclusions: The majority of the possible candidate 3D printing materials tested result in very similar attenuation of a therapeutic radiotherapy beam as the Orfit soft-drape masks currently in use in many UK radiotherapy centres. The costs involved in 3D printing are reducing and the applications to medicine are becoming more widely adopted. In this paper we show that 3D printing of bespoke radiotherapy masks is feasible and warrants further investigation
Arecibo timing and single-pulse observations of 17 pulsars
We report on timing and single-pulse observations of 17 pulsars discovered at
the Arecibo observatory. The highlights of our sample are the recycled pulsars
J1829+2456, J1944+0907 and the drifting subpulses observed in PSR J0815+0939.
For the double neutron star binary J1829+2456, in addition to improving upon
our existing measurement of relativistic periastron advance, we have now
measured the pulsar's spin period derivative. This new result sets an upper
limit on the transverse speed of 120 km/s and a lower limit on the
characteristic age of 12.4 Gyr. From our measurement of proper motion of the
isolated 5.2-ms pulsar J1944+0907, we infer a transverse speed of 188 +/- 65
km/s. This is higher than that of any other isolated millisecond pulsar. An
estimate of the speed, using interstellar scintillation, of 235 +/- 45 km/s
indicates that the scattering medium along the line of sight is non-uniform. We
discuss the drifting subpulses detected from three pulsars in the sample, in
particular the remarkable drifting subpulse properties of the 645-ms pulsar
J0815+0939. Drifting is observed in all four components of the pulse profile,
with the sense of drift varying among the different components. This unusual
`bi-drifting'' behaviour challenges standard explanations of the drifting
subpulse phenomenon.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
PSR J1829+2456: a relativistic binary pulsar
We report the discovery of a new binary pulsar, PSR J1829+2456, found during
a mid-latitude drift-scan survey with the Arecibo telescope. Our initial timing
observations show the 41-ms pulsar to be in a 28-hr, slightly eccentric, binary
orbit. The advance of periastron, omegadot = 0.28 +/- 0.01 deg/yr is derived
from our timing observations spanning 200 days. Assuming that the advance of
periastron is purely relativistic and a reasonable range of neutron star masses
for PSR J1829+2456 we constrain the companion mass to be between 1.22 Msun and
1.38 Msun, making it likely to be another neutron star. We also place a firm
upper limit on the pulsar mass of 1.38 Msun. The expected coalescence time due
to gravitational-wave emission is long (~60 Gyr) and this system will not
significantly impact upon calculations of merger rates that are relevant to
upcoming instruments such as LIGO.Comment: Accepted MNRAS, 5 pages, 3 figure
Evolutionary Dynamics While Trapped in Resonance: A Keplerian Binary System Perturbed by Gravitational Radiation
The method of averaging is used to investigate the phenomenon of capture into
resonance for a model that describes a Keplerian binary system influenced by
radiation damping and external normally incident periodic gravitational
radiation. The dynamical evolution of the binary orbit while trapped in
resonance is elucidated using the second order partially averaged system. This
method provides a theoretical framework that can be used to explain the main
evolutionary dynamics of a physical system that has been trapped in resonance.Comment: REVTEX Style, Submitte
Chaos in the Kepler System
The long-term dynamical evolution of a Keplerian binary orbit due to the
emission and absorption of gravitational radiation is investigated. This work
extends our previous results on transient chaos in the planar case to the three
dimensional Kepler system. Specifically, we consider the nonlinear evolution of
the relative orbit due to gravitational radiation damping as well as external
gravitational radiation that is obliquely incident on the initial orbital
plane. The variation of orbital inclination, especially during resonance
capture, turns out to be very sensitive to the initial conditions. Moreover, we
discuss the novel phenomenon of chaotic transition.Comment: RevTeX, 22 pages, 6 figure
FMECA and FTA analysis applied to the manufacturing process of pulsating heat pipes
Pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) offer significant advantages for the thermal control of electronic components due to their simple manufacturing and high heat transfer rates. The reliability of PHPs has traditionally been assessed through long-life testing, but detailed reliability analyses from an equipment perspective are limited. The study of PHP reliability is essential due to its application and operational conditions. For instance, in aerospace applications these devices operate under severe conditions, and maintenance or replacement is impossible during operation, making them critical components in system functionality. The reliability analysis of PHPs focuses on the manufacturing process, considering future operating conditions. Although preliminary PHP testing will be conducted on Earth, laboratory conditions are less stringent due to the difficulty of replicating launch acceleration and space conditions for long-term testing under microgravity. This study presents an FMECA (Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) of the pulsating heat pipe manufacturing process, breaking down the production of each component. The results indicate that the most critical point is concentrated in the assembly of these components, leading to a higher incidence of welding failures. It recommends further work to improve welding and analyze mechanical stresses within the heat pipe
CitDet: A Benchmark Dataset for Citrus Fruit Detection
In this letter, we present a new dataset to advance the state of the art in
detecting citrus fruit and accurately estimate yield on trees affected by the
Huanglongbing (HLB) disease in orchard environments via imaging. Despite the
fact that significant progress has been made in solving the fruit detection
problem, the lack of publicly available datasets has complicated direct
comparison of results. For instance, citrus detection has long been of interest
in the agricultural research community, yet there is an absence of work,
particularly involving public datasets of citrus affected by HLB. To address
this issue, we enhance state-of-the-art object detection methods for use in
typical orchard settings. Concretely, we provide high-resolution images of
citrus trees located in an area known to be highly affected by HLB, along with
high-quality bounding box annotations of citrus fruit. Fruit on both the trees
and the ground are labeled to allow for identification of fruit location, which
contributes to advancements in yield estimation and potential measure of HLB
impact via fruit drop. The dataset consists of over 32,000 bounding box
annotations for fruit instances contained in 579 high-resolution images. In
summary, our contributions are the following: (i) we introduce a novel dataset
along with baseline performance benchmarks on multiple contemporary object
detection algorithms, (ii) we show the ability to accurately capture fruit
location on tree or on ground, and finally (ii) we present a correlation of our
results with yield estimations.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L
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The UK WTC 9/11 evacuation study: methodologies used in the elicitation and storage of human factors data
This paper describes the methodologies employed in the collection and storage of first-hand accounts of evacuation experiences derived from face-to-face interviews with evacuees from the World Trade Center (WTC) Twin Towers complex on 11 September 2001. In particular the paper describes the development of the High-rise Evacuation Evaluation Database (HEED). This is a flexible qualitative research tool which contains the full transcribed interview accounts and coded evacuee experiences extracted from those transcripts. The data and information captured and stored in the HEED database is not only unique, but it provides a means to address current and emerging issues relating to human factors associated with the evacuation of high-rise buildings
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