Novel inferences of ionisation & recombination for particle/power balance during detached discharges using deuterium Balmer line spectroscopy

The physics of divertor detachment is determined by divertor power, particle and momentum balance. This work provides a novel analysis technique of the Balmer line series to obtain a full particle/power balance measurement of the divertor. This supplies new information to understand what controls the divertor target ion flux during detachment. Atomic deuterium excitation emission is separated from recombination quantitatively using Balmer series line ratios. This enables analysing those two components individually, providing ionisation/recombination source/sinks and hydrogenic power loss measurements. Probabilistic Monte Carlo techniques were employed to obtain full error propagation - eventually resulting in probability density functions for each output variable. Both local and overall particle and power balance in the divertor are then obtained. These techniques and their assumptions have been verified by comparing the analysed synthetic diagnostic 'measurements' obtained from SOLPS simulation results for the same discharge. Power/particle balance measurements have been obtained during attached and detached conditions on the TCV tokamak.Comment: The analysis results of this paper were formerly in arXiv:1810.0496

Modification of bacterial cell membrane to accelerate decolorization of textile wastewater effluent using microbial fuel cells: role of gamma radiation

The aim of the present work was to increase bacterial adhesion on anode via inducing membrane modifications to enhance textile wastewater treatment in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). Real textile wastewater was used in mediator-less MFCs for bacterial enrichment. The enriched bacteria were pre-treated by exposure to 1 KGy gamma radiation and were tested in MFC setup. Bacterial cell membrane permeability and cell membrane charges were measured using noninvasive dielectric spectroscopy measurements. The results show that pre-treatment using gamma radiation resulted in biofilm formation and increased cell permeability and exopolysaccharide production; this was reflected in both MFC performance (average voltage 554.67 mV) and decolorization (96.42%) as compared to 392.77 mV and 60.76% decolorization for non-treated cells. At the end of MFC operation, cytotoxicity test was performed for treated wastewater using a dermal cell line, the results obtained show a decrease in toxicity from 24.8 to 0 (v/v%) when cells were exposed to gamma radiation. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy showed an increase in exopolysaccharides in bacterial consortium exposed to increasing doses of gamma radiation suggesting that gamma radiation increased exopolysaccharide production, providing transient media for electron transfer and contributing to accelerating MFC performance. Modification of bacterial membrane prior to MFC operation can be considered highly effective as a pre-treatment tool that accelerates MFC performance

The Prediction of Voting Behaviour in a Nuclear Energy Referendum

This report describes an application of Fishbein's model of intention formation to a study of voting choice in a nuclear energy ballot in the USA. The sample was randomly selected from the general public (N = 89). The model successfully predicted bvoting intention (multiple regression coefficient = .92) using two major variables: attitudes to the act of voting CON and subjective norms, i.e. the voter's perceptions of how the people or groups important to them (referents) would want them to vote. Both of these components contributed significantly to voting choice although the attitude was the primary determinant. The attitudes to the act of voting and the subjective norms were, in turn, well predicted from underlying beliefs, thus allowing identification of the specific issues which differentiated between those intending to vote PRO and CON on nuclear energy. In general both groups of voters agreed on their evaluations of the possible consequences of the ballot. Further, they were both well informed about the basic issues and potential legal consequences of the proposal. What ultimately appears to have influenced the direction of their vote was their disagreement (i.e. their contrary beliefs) about the likely effects of the proposal on three major issues: the economy, the energy crisis and improvements in nuclear safety. The positions taken on these issues clearly differentiated those intending to vote PRO and CON. It should be noted, however, that the other issues about which there was considerable debate, e.g. the question of the constitutional status of the proposal, did not significantly differentiate the two groups of voters

Transient studies of capillary-induced flow

This paper presents the numerical and experimental results of a study performed on the transient rise of fluid in a capillary tube. The capillary tube problem provides an excellent mechanism from which to launch an investigation into the transient flow of a fluid in a porous wick structure where capillary forces must balance both adverse gravitational effects and frictional losses. For the study, a capillary tube, initially charged with a small volume of water, was lowered into a pool of water. The behavior of the column of fluid during the transient that followed as more water entered the tube from the pool was both numerically and experimentally studied

Transient studies of G-induced capillary dryout and rewet

A transient, one-dimensional numerical code is developed to model the liquid motion in an axial groove with square cross section. Axial variation in liquid level, shear stress and heat transfer between the groove wall and the liquid, evaporation and transient body forces are accounted for in the model. Dryout and rewet of the groove are allowed; the front location is determined numerically using conservation of mass and linear extrapolation. Several numerical test results are presented and discussed

Structural characterization of Si(m)Ge(n) strained layer superlattices

SimGen strained layer superlattice (SLS) structures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GexSi1-x buffer layers on Si substrates to determine the effects of buffer layer composition, SLS thickness ratio, and superlattice periodicity, on the overall quality of these structures. X-ray diffraction methods were used to determine how closely actual periodicities and compositions met targeted values, and to evaluate the quality of these samples. In most instances the as-grown structures matched the targeted values to within 10%, though in some instances deviations of 20-25% in either the period or composition were observed. The quality of the SLS structures was greatly dependent on the composition of the buffer layer on which it was grown. SimGen SLS structures grown on Si- and Ge-rich buffer layers were of much higher quality than SimGem SLSs grown on Ge0.50Si0.50 layers, but the x-ray rocking curves of the SimGen samples indicated that they were far from perfect and contained moderate levels of defects. These results were confirmed by cross sectional transmission electron microscopy, which showed that the SimGem structures contained significant numbers of dislocations and that the layers were nonuniform in thickness and wavy in appearance. SimGen structures, however, displayed fewer defects but some dislocations and nonparallelism of layers were still observed