Space Charge Effects in Low Energy Magnetized Electron Beams

Magnetized electron cooling of the ion beam is one of the major approaches towards obtaining the required high luminosity in the proposed Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). To increase the cooling efficiency, a bunched electron beam with a high bunch charge and high repetition rate is required. However, these features can combine to enhance the collective interactions, such as the space charge effect. A magnetized electron beam was successfully generated at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) using a compact, 300 kV DC high voltage photo-gun with an inverted insulator geometry and bi-alkali antimonide photocathode. The beam magnetization was characterized using a modest diagnostic beamline to measure beam sizes, rotation angles, and normalized transverse emittance as a function of magnetic field at the photocathode, laser spot size, and gun high-voltage. Simultaneously, simulations were performed using the A Space Charge Tracking Algorithm (ASTRA) and General Particle Tracer (GPT) programs. Further, sustained high average current magnetized beam up to 28 mA was demonstrated, and the photocathode lifetime for different magnetized electron beam currents was investigated. In the second part of the project, the space charge effect in low-energy magnetized electron beams was studied and compared with GPT simulations. The high bunch charge studies showed evidence of space charge current limitations starting at 0.3 nC and limited the maximum delivered bunch charge to 0.7 nC. To reach the high bunch charge goal of a few nC, the existing DC photo-gun design was modified using CST Studio Suite’s electromagnetic field solver, and a way to cancel the beam deflection exerted by the non-symmetric nature of the inverted insulator photo-gun geometry was discovered. This thesis presents a detailed description of the generation, characterization, and simulation of high current, high bunch charge magnetized electron beams at JLab, as well as the modified photo-gun design. Together with measurements and simulations, the purpose of this thesis is to provide a solid background on the theoretical aspects and the experimental challenges associated with magnetized electron beams for accelerator applications

AffyMAPSDetector: a software tool to characterize Affymetrix GeneChip™ expression arrays with respect to SNPs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Affymetrix gene expression arrays incorporate paired perfect match (PM) and mismatch (MM) probes to distinguish true signals from those arising from cross-hybridization events. A MM signal often shows greater intensity than a PM signal; we propose that one underlying cause is the presence of allelic variants arising from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). To annotate and characterize SNP contributions to anomalous probe binding behavior we have developed a software tool called AffyMAPSDetector.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>AffyMAPSDetector can be used to describe any Affymetrix expression GeneChip™ with respect to SNPs. When AffyMAPSDetector was run on GeneChip™ HG-U95Av2 against dbSNP-build-123, we found 7286 probes (belonging to 2,582 probesets) containing SNPs, out of which 325 probes contained at least one SNP at position 13. Against dbSNP-build-126, 8758 probes (belonging to 3,002 probesets) contained SNPs, of which 409 probes contained at least one SNP at position 13. Therefore, depending on the expressed allele, the MM probe can sometimes be the transcript complement. This information was used to characterize probe measurements reported in a published, well-replicated lung adenocarcinoma study. The total intensity distributions showed that the SNP-containing probes had a larger negative mean intensity difference (PM-MM) and greater range of the difference than did probes without SNPs. In the sample replicates, SNP-containing probes with reproducible intensity ratios were identified, allowing selection of SNP probesets that yielded unique sample signatures. At the gene expression level, use of the (MM-PM) value for SNP-containing probes resulted in different Presence/Absence calls for some genes. Such a change in status of the genes has the clear potential for influencing downstream clustering and classification results.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Output from this tool characterizes SNP-containing probes on GeneChip™ microarrays, thus improving our understanding of factors contributing to expression measurements. The pattern of SNP binding examined so far indicates distinct behavior of the SNP-containing probes and has the potential to help us identify new SNPs. Knowing which probes contain SNPs provides flexibility in determining whether to include or exclude them from gene-expression intensity calculations; selected sets of SNP-containing probes produce sample-unique signatures.</p> <p>AffyMAPSDetector information is available at <url>http://www.binf.gmu.edu/weller/BMC_bioinformatics/AffyMapsDetector/index.html</url></p

Generation and characterization of bioactive peptides from flaxseed ( Linum usitatissimum L.) proteins

The potential of flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) protein to release bioactive peptides upon enzymatic hydrolysis was evaluated. Flaxseed protein released angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitory (ACEI) peptides during in vitro simulated gastrointestinal (GI) digestion in a static (no removal of digested products) and a dynamic model (removal o

Toward Tissue-Like Material Properties: Inducing In Situ Adaptive Behavior in Fibrous Hydrogels

Contains fulltext : 282418.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access

RiPKI: The Tragic Story of RPKI Deployment in the Web Ecosystem

Previous arXiv version of this paper has been published under the title "When BGP Security Meets Content Deployment: Measuring and Analysing RPKI-Protection of Websites", Proc. of Fourteenth ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HotNets), New York:ACM, 2015Previous arXiv version of this paper has been published under the title "When BGP Security Meets Content Deployment: Measuring and Analysing RPKI-Protection of Websites", Proc. of Fourteenth ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HotNets), New York:ACM, 2015Web content delivery is one of the most important services on the Internet. Access to websites is typically secured via TLS. However, this security model does not account for prefix hijacking on the network layer, which may lead to traffic blackholing or transparent interception. Thus, to achieve comprehensive security and service availability, additional protective mechanisms are necessary such as the RPKI, a recently deployed Resource Public Key Infrastructure to prevent hijacking of traffic by networks. This paper argues two positions. First, that modern web hosting practices make route protection challenging due to the propensity to spread servers across many different networks, often with unpredictable client redirection strategies, and, second, that we need a better understanding why protection mechanisms are not deployed. To initiate this, we empirically explore the relationship between web hosting infrastructure and RPKI deployment. Perversely, we find that less popular websites are more likely to be secured than the prominent sites. Worryingly, we find many large-scale CDNs do not support RPKI, thus making their customers vulnerable. This leads us to explore business reasons why operators are hesitant to deploy RPKI, which may help to guide future research on improving Internet security

Prediction of the glyphosate sorption coefficient across two loamy agricultural fields

Sorption is considered one of the most important processes controlling pesticide mobility in agricultural soils. Accurate predictions of sorption coefficients are needed for reliable risk assessments of groundwater contamination from pesticides. In this work, we aim to estimate the glyphosate sorption coefficient, Kd, from easily measurable soil properties in two loamy, agricultural fields in Denmark: Estrup and Silstrup. Forty-five soil samples in Estrup and 65 in Silstrup were collected from the surface in a rectangular grid of 15 × 15-m from each field, and selected soil properties and glyphosate sorption coefficients were determined. Multiple linear regression (MLR) analyses were performed using nine geo-referenced soil properties as variables to identify the parameters related with glyphosate sorption. Scenarios considered in the analyses included: (i) each field separately, (ii) both fields together, and (iii) northern and southern sections of the field in Silstrup. Considering correlations with all possible sets of the same nine geo-referenced properties, a best-four set of parameters was identified for each model scenario. The best-four set for the field in Estrup included clay, oxalate-extractable Fe, Olsen P and pH, while the best-four set for Silstrup included clay, OC, Olsen P and EC. When the field in Silstrup was separated in a northern and southern section, the northern section included EC, and oxalate-extractable Fe, Al and P, whereas the southern part included pH, clay, OC and Olsen P. The best-four set for both fields together included clay, sand, pH and EC. Thus, the most common parameters repeated in the best-four sets included clay and pH as also reported previously in the literature, but in general, the composition of the best-four set differed for each scenario, suggesting that different properties control glyphosate sorption in different locations and at different scales of analysis. Better predictions were obtained for the best-four set for the field in Estrup (R2 = 0.87) and for both fields (R2 = 0.70), while the field in Silstrup showed a lower predictability (R2 = 0.36). Possibly, the low predictability for the field in Silstrup originated from opposing gradients in clay and oxalate-extractable Fe across the field. Also, whereas a lower clay content in Estrup may be the limiting variable for glyphosate sorption, the field in Silstrup has a higher clay content not limiting the sorption, but introducing more variability in Kd due to changes in other soil properties