The role of oxygen in the uptake of deuterium in lithiated graphite

We investigate the mechanism of deuterium retention by lithiated graphite and its relationship to the oxygen concentration through surface sensitive experiments and atomistic simulations. Deposition of lithium on graphite yielded 5%-8% oxygen surface concentration and when subsequently irradiated with D ions at energies between 500 and 1000 eV/amu and fluences over 10(16) cm(-2) the oxygen concentration rose to between 25% and 40%. These enhanced oxygen levels were reached in a few seconds compared to about 300 h when the lithiated graphite was allowed to adsorb oxygen from the ambient environment under equilibrium conditions. Irradiating graphite without lithium deposition, however, resulted in complete removal of oxygen to levels below the detection limit of XPS (e. g.

EURADOS Working Group-12 Studies in Interventional Radiology for Medical Staff Dosimetry

EURADOS (European Radiation Dosimetry Group) Working Group 12 (dosimetry in medical imaging) established a subtask devoted to the dosimetry of the medical staff employed in interventional radiology practices. As it is widely known, such practices are characterized by high doses, with respect the other medical procedures, both for the patient and the radiologist. For interventional cardiology there are several publications concerning medical staff dosimetry, on the contrary, for interventional radiology, data are more limited. For that reason WG-12 decided to study the irradiation scenario, employing simplified anthropomorphic models (MIRD type) with Monte Carlo simulations, reconstructing some specific interventional radiology practices (PTC and TIPS). In these procedures, where the X-ray C-arm is mainly fixed in PA projection and the beam directed to the patient abdomen, the radiologist is next to the patient right side, in correspondence to the liver region. The usage of the ceiling shielding is not very frequent, due to the difficulties in positioning it between the radiation source (the X-ray and the patient as the scattering source) and the operator. The aim of the simulations program is: to evaluate the dose received by the radiologist, in a region simulating the presence of the dosemeter fixed on the lead apron at the breast level ; to estimate the corresponding effective dose ; to make a sensitivity analysis on different parameters affecting the calculated results (as the reciprocal position between the two operators, the beam quality and the X-ray field dimension). Indeed a particular attention is devoted to the eye lens dosimetry, that has become a “critical issue” for personnel dosimetry, after ICRP has reconsidered the radiation sensitivity of the lens of the eye. In the present work the general scheme, the assumptions and the followed methodology are presented with some very preliminary results of the simulations and the measurements

Efficacy of topical cobalt chelate CTC-96 against adenovirus in a cell culture model and against adenovirus keratoconjunctivitis in a rabbit model

BACKGROUND: Adenovirus (Ad), associated with significant morbidity, has no topical treatment. A leading CTC compound (CTC-96), a Co(III )chelate, was found to have potent in vitro and in vivo antiviral efficacy against herpes viruses. In this study CTC-96 is being tested for possible anti-Adenovirus activity. METHODS: The biological anti-adenovirus activity of CTC-96 in concentrations from 5 to 250 ug/ml, was evaluated initially by viral inactivation (viral exposure to CTC-96 followed by dilution and inoculation of cells), virucidal (viral exposure to CTC-96 and inoculation of cells without dilution) and antiviral (effect of CTC-96 on previously adsorbed virus) plaque assays on HeLa (human cervical carcinoma), A549 (human lung carcinoma) and SIRC (rabbit corneal) cells. After verifying the antiviral activity, New Zealand White rabbits were infected with Ad-5 into: 1) the anterior cul-de-sac scarifying the conjunctiva (Group "C+"); 2) the anterior cul-de-sac scarifying the conjunctiva and cornea (Group "CC+"); 3) the stroma (Group "CI+"). Controls were sham-infected ("C-", "CC-", "CI-"). Other rabbits, after "CC", were treated for 21 days with: 1) placebo, 9x/day ("-"); 2) CTC-96, 50 ug/ml, 9x/day ("50/9"); CTC-96, 50 ug/ml, 6x/day ("50/6"); CTC-96, 25 ug/ml, 6x/day ("25/6"). All animals were monitored via examination and plaque assays. RESULTS: In vitro viral inactivation, virucidal and antiviral assays all demonstrated CTC-96 to be effective against Adenvirus type 5 (ad-5). The in vivo model of Ad keratoconjunctivitis most similar to human disease and producing highest viral yield was "CC". All eyes (6/6) developed acute conjunctivitis. "CI" yielded more stromal involvement (1/6) and iritis (5/6), but lower clinical scores (area × severity). Infection via "C" was inconsistent (4/6). Fifty (50) ug/ml was effective against Ad-5 at 6x, 9x dosings while 25 ug/ml (6x) was only marginally effective. CONCLUSION: CTC-96 demonstrated virucidal activity against Ad5 in tissue culture with HeLa, A549 and SIRC cell lines. Animal Model Development: 1) "CC" produced conjunctival infection with occasional keratitis similar to human disease; "CI" yielded primarily stromal involvement; 2) "C" consistently produced neither conjunctivitis nor keratitis. CTC Testing: 1) Conjunctivitis in all eyes; 2) Resolution fastest in "50/9" ("50/9". "50/6" > "25/6" > "-"); 3) Efficacy in "50/6" was not statistically different than "50/9"; 4) Conjunctival severity was lower in treatment groups then controls; 5) Little corneal or intra-ocular changes were noted

Prompt K_short production in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=0.9 TeV

The production of K_short mesons in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 0.9 TeV is studied with the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The luminosity of the analysed sample is determined using a novel technique, involving measurements of the beam currents, sizes and positions, and is found to be 6.8 +/- 1.0 microbarn^-1. The differential prompt K_short production cross-section is measured as a function of the K_short transverse momentum and rapidity in the region 0 < pT < 1.6 GeV/c and 2.5 < y < 4.0. The data are found to be in reasonable agreement with previous measurements and generator expectations.Comment: 6+18 pages, 6 figures, updated author lis

Atomic and molecular physics and data activities for astrophysics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The atomic astrophysics group at ORNL produces, collects, evaluates, and disseminates atomic and molecular data relevant to astrophysics and actively models various astrophysical environments utilizing this information. With the advent of the World Wide Web, these data are also being placed on-line to facilitate their use by end-users. In this brief report, the group`s recent activities in data production and in modeling are highlighted. For example, the authors describe recent calculations of elastic and transport cross sections relevant to ionospheric and heliospheric studies, charge transfer between metal ions and metal atoms and novel supernova nebular spectra modeling, ion-molecule collision data relevant to planetary atmospheres and comets, and data for early universe modeling

A performance comparison of robust adaptive controllers: linear systems

We consider robust adaptive control designs for relative degree one, minimum phase linear systems of known high frequency gain. The designs are based on the dead-zone and projection modifications, and we compare their performance w.r.t. a worst case transient cost functional with a penalty on the L∞ norm of the output, control and control derivative. We establish two qualitative results. If a bound on the L∞ norm of the disturbance is known and the known a priori bound on the uncertainty level is sufficiently conservative, then it is shown that a dead-zone controller outperforms a projection controller. The complementary result shows that the projection controller is superior to the dead-zone controller when the a priori information on the disturbance level is sufficiently conservative

Measurement of sigma (pp -> bbX) at √s=7 TeV in the forward region

Decays of b hadrons into final states containing a D-0 meson and a muon are used to measure the bb; production cross-section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the LHC. In the pseudorapidity interval 2 < eta < 6 and integrated over all transverse momenta we find that the average cross-section to produce b-flavoured or b-flavoured hadrons is (75.3 +/- 5.4 +/- 13.0) mu b