Improvements to the Cryogenic Control System on Diii-D

OAK-B135 The cryogenic facility that is part of the DIII-D tokamak system supplies liquid nitrogen and liquid helium to the superconducting magnets used for electron cyclotron heating, the D{sub 2} pellet injection system, cryopumps in the DIII-D vessel, and cryopanels in the neutral beam injection system. The liquid helium is liquefied on site using a Sulzer liquefier that has a 150 l/h liquefaction rate. Control of the cryogenic facility at DIII-D was initially accomplished through the use of three different programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Recently, two of those three PLCs, a Sattcon PLC controlling the Sulzer liquefier and a Westinghouse PLC, were removed and all their control logic was merged into the remaining PLC, a Siemens T1555. This replacement was originally undertaken because the removed PLCs were obsolete and unsupported. However, there have been additional benefits from the replacement. The replacement of the RS-232 serial links between the graphical user interface and the PLCs with a high speed Ethernet link allows for real-time display and historical trending of nearly all the cryosystem's data. this has greatly increased the ability to troubleshoot problems with the system, and has permitted optimization of the cryogenic system's performance because of the increased system integration. To move the control logic of the Sattcon control loops into the T1555, an extensive modification of the basic PID control was required. These modifications allow for better control of the control loops and are now being incorporated in other control loops in the system

Differences in relative abundance and size structure of the sea stars Pisaster ochraceus and Evasterias troschelii among habitat types in Puget Sound, Washington, USA

We surveyed patterns in the relative abundance and size structure of the sea stars Pisaster ochraceus and Evasterias troschelii in five habitat types of varying structural complexity and prey availability (sand/cobble, boulder, and rocky intertidal; pilings; and floating docks) in Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands, Washington. For both species, small sea stars were most abundant in the most structurally complex habitat type (boulder), where they occurred almost exclusively under boulders during low tide. Larger individuals became more abundant as structural complexity decreased, occurring more frequently in open habitat types (rocky shores, pilings, and docks) known to have greater abundances of prey resources. Gull foraging observations and experiments demonstrated that exposed small sea stars of both species were highly vulnerable to predation, suggesting that small sea stars require structural complexity (crevice microhabitat) as a predation refuge. Large sea stars, once attaining a size refuge from predation, appear to migrate to more exposed habitat types with more abundant food resources. These results suggest parallel ontogenetic habitat shifts in two co-occurring consumer species related to a shared predation risk at early life stages and demonstrate how the relative importance of top-down and bottom-up processes may differ with ontogeny