Experimental Study of Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) Coated Electrodes for Pulsed High Gradient Electron Gun

For the SwissFEL Free Electron Laser project at the Paul Scherrer Institute, a pulsed High Gradient (HG) electron gun was used to study low emittance electron sources. Different metals and surface treatments for the cathode and anode were studied for their HG suitability. Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) coatings are found to perform exceptionally well for vacuum gap insulation. A set of DLC coated electrodes with different coating parameters were tested for both vacuum breakdown and photo electron emission. Surface electric fields over 250MV/m (350 - 400kV, pulsed) were achieved without breakdown. From the same surface, it was possible to photo-emit an electron beam at gradients up to 150MV/m. The test setup and the experimental results are presentedComment: 4 pages, 14 figures, IPMHVC 2010 : IEEE International Power Modulator and High Voltage Conferenc

Dynamic Windows Scheduling with Reallocation

We consider the Windows Scheduling problem. The problem is a restricted version of Unit-Fractions Bin Packing, and it is also called Inventory Replenishment in the context of Supply Chain. In brief, the problem is to schedule the use of communication channels to clients. Each client ci is characterized by an active cycle and a window wi. During the period of time that any given client ci is active, there must be at least one transmission from ci scheduled in any wi consecutive time slots, but at most one transmission can be carried out in each channel per time slot. The goal is to minimize the number of channels used. We extend previous online models, where decisions are permanent, assuming that clients may be reallocated at some cost. We assume that such cost is a constant amount paid per reallocation. That is, we aim to minimize also the number of reallocations. We present three online reallocation algorithms for Windows Scheduling. We evaluate experimentally these protocols showing that, in practice, all three achieve constant amortized reallocations with close to optimal channel usage. Our simulations also expose interesting trade-offs between reallocations and channel usage. We introduce a new objective function for WS with reallocations, that can be also applied to models where reallocations are not possible. We analyze this metric for one of the algorithms which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first online WS protocol with theoretical guarantees that applies to scenarios where clients may leave and the analysis is against current load rather than peak load. Using previous results, we also observe bounds on channel usage for one of the algorithms.Comment: 6 figure

Empirical comparison of high gradient achievement for different metals in DC and pulsed mode

For the SwissFEL project, an advanced high gradient low emittance gun is under development. Reliable operation with an electric field, preferably above 125 MV/m at a 4 mm gap, in the presence of an UV laser beam, has to be achieved in a diode configuration in order to minimize the emittance dilution due to space charge effects. In the first phase, a DC breakdown test stand was used to test different metals with different preparation methods at voltages up to 100 kV. In addition high gradient stability tests were also carried out over several days in order to prove reliable spark-free operation with a minimum dark current. In the second phase, electrodes with selected materials were installed in the 250 ns FWHM, 500 kV electron gun and tested for high gradient breakdown and for quantum efficiency using an ultra-violet laser.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables. Follow up from FEL 2008 conference (Geyongju Korea 2008) New Title in JVST A (2010) : Vacuum breakdown limit and quantum efficiency obtained for various technical metals using DC and pulsed voltage source

Quantitative and molecular genetics of juvenile wood traits in radiata and slash/Caribbean pines.

The Juvenile Wood Initiative (JWI) project has been running successfully since July 2003 under a Research Agreement with FWPA and Letters of Association with the consortium partners STBA (Southern Tree Breeding Association), ArborGen and FPQ (Forestry Plantations Queensland). Over the last five and half years, JWI scientists in CSIRO, FPQ, and STBA have completed all 12 major milestones and 28 component milestones according to the project schedule. We have made benchmark progress in understanding the genetic control of wood formation and interrelationships among wood traits. The project has made 15 primary scientific findings and several results have been adopted by industry as summarized below. This progress was detailed in 10 technical reports to funding organizations and industry clients. Team scientists produced 16 scientific manuscripts (8 published, 1 in press, 2 submitted, and several others in the process of submission) and 15 conference papers or presentations. Primary Scientific Findings. The 15 major scientific findings related to wood science, inheritance and the genetic basis of juvenile wood traits are: 1. An optimal method to predict stiffness of standing trees in slash/Caribbean pine is to combine gravimetric basic density from 12 mm increment cores with a standing tree prediction of MoE using a time of flight acoustic tool. This was the most accurate and cheapest way to rank trees for breeding selection for slash/Caribbean hybrid pine. This method was also recommended for radiata pine. 2. Wood density breeding values were predicted for the first time in the STBA breeding population using a large sample of 7,078 trees (increment cores) and it was estimated that selection of the best 250 trees for deployment will produce wood density gains of 12.4%. 3. Large genetic variation for a suite of wood quality traits including density, MFA, spiral grain, shrinkage, acoustic and non-acoustic stiffness (MoE) for clear wood and standing trees were observed. Genetic gains of between 8 and 49% were predicted for these wood quality traits with selection intensity between 1 to 10% for radiata pine. 4. Site had a major effect on juvenile-mature wood transition age and the effect of selective breeding for a shorter juvenile wood formation phase was only moderate (about 10% genetic gain with 10% selection intensity, equivalent to about 2 years reduction of juvenile wood). 5. The study found no usable site by genotype interactions for the wood quality traits of density, MFA and MoE for both radiata and slash/Caribbean pines, suggesting that assessment of wood properties on one or two sites will provide reliable estimates of the genetic worth of individuals for use in future breeding. 6. There were significant and sizable genotype by environment interactions between the mainland and Tasmanian regions and within Tasmania for DBH and branch size. 7. Strong genetic correlations between rings for density, MFA and MoE for both radiata and slash/Caribbean pines were observed. This suggests that selection for improved wood properties in the innermost rings would also result in improvement of wood properties in the subsequent rings, as well as improved average performance of the entire core. 8. Strong genetic correlations between pure species and hybrid performance for each of the wood quality traits were observed in the hybrid pines. Parental performance can be used to identify the hybrid families which are most likely to have superior juvenile wood properties of the slash/Caribbean F1 hybrid in southeast Queensland. 9. Large unfavourable genetic correlations between growth and wood quality traits were a prominent feature in radiata pine, indicating that overcoming this unfavourable genetic correlation will be a major technical issue in progressing radiata pine breeding. 10. The project created the first radiata pine 18 k cDNA microarray and generated 5,952 radiata pine xylogenesis expressed sequence tags (ESTs) which assembled into 3,304 unigenes. 11. A total of 348 genes were identified as preferentially expressed genes in earlywood or latewood while a total of 168 genes were identified as preferentially expressed genes in either juvenile or mature wood. 12. Juvenile earlywood has a distinct transcriptome relative to other stages of wood development. 13. Discovered rapid decay of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in radiata pine with LD decaying to approximately 50% within 1,700 base pairs (within a typical gene). A total of 913 SNPS from sequencing 177,380 base pairs were identified for association genetic studies. 14. 149 SNPs from 44 genes and 255 SNPs from a further 51 genes (total 95 genes) were selected for association analysis with 62 wood traits, and 30 SNPs were shortlisted for their significant association with variation of wood quality traits (density, MFA and MoE) with individual significant SNPs accounting for between 1.9 and 9.7% of the total genetic variation in traits. 15. Index selection using breeding objectives was the most profitable selection method for radiata pine, but in the long term it may not be the most effective in dealing with negative genetic correlations between wood volume and quality traits. A combination of economic and biological approaches may be needed to deal with the strong adverse correlation

The Wiring Economy Principle: Connectivity Determines Anatomy in the Human Brain

Minimization of the wiring cost of white matter fibers in the human brain appears to be an organizational principle. We investigate this aspect in the human brain using whole brain connectivity networks extracted from high resolution diffusion MRI data of 14 normal volunteers. We specifically address the question of whether brain anatomy determines its connectivity or vice versa. Unlike previous studies we use weighted networks, where connections between cortical nodes are real-valued rather than binary off-on connections. In one set of analyses we found that the connectivity structure of the brain has near optimal wiring cost compared to random networks with the same number of edges, degree distribution and edge weight distribution. A specifically designed minimization routine could not find cheaper wiring without significantly degrading network performance. In another set of analyses we kept the observed brain network topology and connectivity but allowed nodes to freely move on a 3D manifold topologically identical to the brain. An efficient minimization routine was written to find the lowest wiring cost configuration. We found that beginning from any random configuration, the nodes invariably arrange themselves in a configuration with a striking resemblance to the brain. This confirms the widely held but poorly tested claim that wiring economy is a driving principle of the brain. Intriguingly, our results also suggest that the brain mainly optimizes for the most desirable network connectivity, and the observed brain anatomy is merely a result of this optimization