Guidelines for Analysis of Data Related to Ageing of Nuclear Power Plant Components and Systems

This guideline is intended to provide practical methods for practitioners to use in analyzing component and system reliability data, with a focus on detection and modeling of ageing. The emphasis is on frequentist and Bayesian approaches, implemented with MS EXCEL and the open-source software package WinBUGS. The methods described in this document can be implemented with other software packages.JRC.F.5-Safety of present nuclear reactor

Practical Issues in Component Aging Analysis

This paper examines practical issues in the statistical analysis of component aging data. These issues center on the stochastic process chosen to model component failures. The two stochastic processes examined are repair same as new, leading to a renewal process, and repair same as old, leading to a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. Under the first assumption, times between failures can treated as statistically independent observations from a stationary process. The common distribution of the times between failures is called the renewal distribution. Under the second process, the times between failures will not be independently and identically distributed, and one cannot simply fit a renewal distribution to the cumulative failure times or the times between failures. The paper illustrates how the assumption made regarding the repair process is crucial to the analysis. Besides the choice of stochastic process, other issues that are discussed include qualitative graphical analysis and simple nonparametric hypothesis tests to help judge which process appears more appropriate. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the issues discussed in the paper

Petrogenesis of Eocene Tamazert continental carbonatites (Central High Atlas, Morocco): implications for a common source for the Tamazert and Canary and Cape Verde Island carbonatites

The Tamazert Eocene alkaline complex of the Central High Atlas Range of Morocco hosts the largest outcropping occurrences of carbonatites in northern Africa. The complex consists of carbonatites and undersaturated ultramafic to syenitic alkaline to peralkaline silicate rocks. Mineralogically and geochemically the Tamazert carbonatites are classified as calciocarbonatites, magnesiocarbonatites and silicocarbonatites.They are enriched in light rare earth elements and large ion lithophile elements (Cs, Rb, Ba, U,Th), but depleted in high field strength elements (particularly, Ti, Nb and Ta). Stable and radiogenic isotope ratios vary in the range of δ13CPDB=-5·8 to 1·8 0/00, δ18OSMOW=6·9-23·5 0/00, initial 87Sr/86Sr=0·7031-0·7076, 143Nd/144Nd=0·5125-0·5129 and 206Pb/204Pb=18·29-19·89. Calciocarbonatites intruding Jurassic limestones have the highest δ13C and δ18O values and the most radiogenic initial 87Sr/86Sr, but least radiogenic 143Nd/144Nd, 206Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb isotope ratios, and are interpreted to have interacted with the limestones (crustal components). The magnesio- and silicocarbonatites have Sr, Nd and Pb isotope ratios that are nearly identical to those of low-87Sr/86Sr calciocarbonatites. The isotope signature of the high-Sr, low-87Sr/86Sr calciocarbonatites with mantle-type O and C isotopic compositions indicates the presence of HIMU- and EMI-type components in the mantle source of the Tamazert carbonatites, similar to what has been proposed for the Cape Verde and Canary Islands.The close similarity in carbonatite composition between the Cape Verde and Canary Islands and Tamazert suggests a common sublithospheric source for these carbonatites. We therefore propose that theTamazert carbonatites originated through melting of Canary plume material that may have flowed through a sub-lithospheric corridor extending from the Atlantic near the Canary Islands to the Middle Atlas, formed by the delamination of the subcontinental lithosphere in response to Africa-Europe collision at c. 42Ma. Seismic tomography data suggest that the common source may be within the lower mantle at depths >1000 km

Ubiquitin ligation to F-box protein targets by SCF-RBR E3-E3 super-assembly

E3 ligases are typically classified by hallmark domains such as RING and RBR, which are thought to specify unique catalytic mechanisms of ubiquitin transfer to recruited substrates(1,2). However, rather than functioning individually, many neddylated cullin-RING E3 ligases (CRLs) and RBR-type E3 ligases in the ARIH family-which together account for nearly half of all ubiquitin ligases in humans-form E3-E3 super-assemblies(3-7). Here, by studying CRLs in the SKP1-CUL1-F-box (SCF) family, we show how neddylated SCF ligases and ARIH1 (an RBR-type E3 ligase) co-evolved to ubiquitylate diverse substrates presented on various F-box proteins. We developed activity-based chemical probes that enabled cryo-electron microscopy visualization of steps in E3-E3 ubiquitylation, initiating with ubiquitin linked to the E2 enzyme UBE2L3, then transferred to the catalytic cysteine of ARIH1, and culminating in ubiquitin linkage to a substrate bound to the SCF E3 ligase. The E3-E3 mechanism places the ubiquitin-linked active site of ARIH1 adjacent to substrates bound to F-box proteins (for example, substrates with folded structures or limited length) that are incompatible with previously described conventional RING E3-only mechanisms. The versatile E3-E3 super-assembly may therefore underlie widespread ubiquitylation.Chemical Immunolog

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Practical Issues in Component Aging Analysis

This paper examines practical issues in the statistical analysis of component aging data. These issues center on the stochastic process chosen to model component failures. However, the paper also discusses practical issues related to parameter estimation and model validation. The two stochastic processes examined are repair same as new, leading to a renewal process, and repair same as old, leading to a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. Under the first assumption, times between failures can treated as statistically independent observations from a stationary process. The common distribution of the times between failures is called the renewal distribution. Under the second process, the times between failures will not be independently and identically distributed, and one cannot simply fit a renewal distribution to the cumulative failure times or the times between failures. The paper illustrates how the assumption made regarding the repair process is crucial to the analysis. The paper uses modern Bayesian computational techniques, based on Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling and freely available open-source software packages. Besides the choice of stochastic process, other issues that are discussed include qualitative graphical analysis and simple nonparametric hypothesis tests to help judge which process appears more appropriate, quantitative parameter estimation for both processes, and Bayesian model validation using the posterior predictive distribution. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the issues discussed in the paper.JRC.F.4-Safety of future nuclear reactor

Mantle to surface degassing of carbon- and sulphur-rich alkaline magma at El Hierro, Canary Islands

Basaltic volcanoes transfer volatiles from the mantle to the surface of the Earth. The quantification of deep volatile fluxes relies heavily on estimates of the volatile content of primitive magmas, the best archive of which is provided by melt inclusions. Available data from volcanoes producing mafic alkaline lavas in a range of tectonic settings suggest high volatile fluxes, but information remains sparse, particularly for intraplate ocean islands. Here we present measurements of volatile and trace element concentrations, as well as sulphur speciation, in olivine-hosted melt inclusions and matrix glasses from quenched basanite lava balloon samples from the 2011–2012 submarine eruption at El Hierro, Canary Islands. […] This late-stage redox change may have triggered sulphide saturation, recorded by globular sulphide inclusions in clinopyroxene and ulvöspinel. The El Hierro basanite thus had a particularly high volatile-carrying capacity and released a minimum of 1.3–2.1 Tg CO2 and 1.8–2.9 Tg S to the environment, causing substantial stress on the local submarine ecosystem. These results highlight the important contribution of alkaline ocean island volcanoes, such as the Canary Islands, to volatile fluxes from the mantle