Polycapillary optics for soft X-ray imaging and tomography

Magnetic plasmas are extended volumetric sources of X-rays, and these emissions could reveal a lot of information about the processes occurring into the plasmas. Unfortunately, the constraints posed by these toroidal devices (high neutron flux, gamma and hard-X background, extremely high radiofrequency powers, high magnetic fields, optical limitations and so on) are very severe and limit strongly the possibility to install X-ray detectors directly into or close to the machine. Soft X-ray diagnostics are meant both as tomography and imaging. We started, therefore, to investigate the feasibility of using polycapillary optics for these purposes, in collaboration between Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)- Frascati, Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente (ENEA)-Frascati and the Commissariat de l’Energie Atomique (CEA)-Cadarache. The first tests were performed in order to characterize the polycapillary lenses (convergence, divergence, efficiency, spectral dispersion, etc.) for distances much larger than the optical focal length of the lenses, both for the detector and for the source. A silicon-based C-MOS imager (Medipix 2) has been used as a detector and the micro focus X-ray tubes as point-like sources. Results of these preliminary tests are presented, and the imaging capabilities of a polycapillary lens as well

Monitoramento sorológico de uma infecção toxoplásmica após transplante de células progenitoras hematopoiéticas

We report a primary response to Toxoplasma gondii following a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in a patient with multiple myeloma. The primary response to T. gondii was supported by IgM, IgG and IgA seroconversion. The patient was promptly treated and there were no complications related to toxoplasmosis in the subsequent months.Esse relato de caso descreve uma resposta primária ao Toxoplasma gondii após transplante de células progenitoras hematopoiéticas em paciente com mieloma múltiplo. A resposta primária para o T. gondii foi evidenciada pela soroconversão observada na resposta de anticorpos IgM, IgG e IgA. O paciente foi prontamente tratado e complicações relacionadas à toxoplasmose não foram observadas nos meses subseqüentes

Serological Monitoring Of A Toxoplasma Infection After Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

We report a primary response to Toxoplasma gondii following a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in a patient with multiple myeloma. The primary response to T. gondii was supported by IgM, IgG and IgA seroconversion. The patient was promptly treated and there were no complications related to toxoplasmosis in the subsequent months.52225-

Developement of real time diagnostics and feedback algorithms for JET in view of the next step

Real time control of many plasma parameters will be an essential aspect in the development of reliable high performance operation of Next Step Tokamaks. The main prerequisites for any feedback scheme are the precise real-time determination of the quantities to be controlled, requiring top quality and highly reliable diagnostics, and the availability of robust control algorithms. A new set of real time diagnostics was recently implemented on JET to prove the feasibility of determining, with high accuracy and time resolution, the most important plasma quantities. With regard to feedback algorithms, new model–based controllers were developed to allow a more robust control of several plasma parameters. Both diagnostics and algorithms were successfully used in several experiments, ranging from H-mode plasmas to configuration with ITBs. Since elaboration of computationally heavy measurements is often required, significant attention was devoted to non-algorithmic methods like Digital or Cellular Neural/Nonlinear Networks. The real time hardware and software adopted architectures are also described with particular attention to their relevance to ITER.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Precise design of environmental data warehouses

People use data warehouses to help them make decisions. For example, public policy decision-makers can improve their decisions by using this technology to analyze the environmental effects of human activity. In production systems, data warehouses provide structures for extracting the knowledge required to optimize systems. Designing data warehouses is a complex task; designers need flexible and precise methods to help them create data warehouses and adapt their analysis criteria to developments in the decision-making process. In this paper, we introduce a flexible method based on UML (Unified Modeling Language). We introduce a UML profile for building multi-dimensional models and for choosing different criteria according to analysis requirements. This profile makes it possible to specify integrity constraints in OCL (Object Constraint Language). We apply our method to the construction of an environmental system for analyzing the use of certain agricultural fertilizers. We integrate various data sources into a multi-dimensional model showing several categories of analysis, and the consistency of data can be checked with OCL constraints

Heating, current drive and energetic particle studies on JET in preparation of ITER operation

This paper summarizes the recent work on JET in the three areas of heating, current drive and energetic particles. The achievements have extended the possibilities of JET, have a direct connection to ITER operation and provide new and interesting physics. Toroidal rotation profiles of plasmas heated far off axis with little or no refuelling or momentum input are hollow with only small differences on whether the power deposition is located on the low field side or on the high field side. With LH current drive the magnetic shear was varied from slightly positive to negative. The improved coupling (through the use of plasma shaping and CD4) allowed up to 3.4 MW of PLH in internal transport barrier (ITB) plasmas with more than 15 MW of combined NBI and ICRF heating. The q-profile with negative magnetic shear and the ITB could be maintained for the duration of the high heating pulse (8 s). Fast ions have been produced in JET with ICRF to simulate alpha particles: by using third harmonic 4He heating, beam injected 4He at 120 kV were accelerated to energies above 2 MeV, taking advantage of the unique capability of JET to use NBI with 4He and to confine MeV class ions. ICRF heating was used to replicate the dynamics of alpha heating and the control of an equivalent Q = 10 `burn' was simulated