Pulse Reflectometer and Doppler back-scattering diagnostics in the TCV Tokamak

Latest DBS and Pulse reflectometer developments in the TCV tokamak are presente

PLASMA SHAPE AND FUELING DEPENDENCE ON THE SMALL ELMS REGIME IN TCV AND AUG

A series of experiments has been conducted at AUG and TCV to disentangle the role of fueling, plasma triangularity and closeness to a double null (DN) configuration for the onset of the small ELM regime. At AUG, the role of the SOL density has been revisited. Indeed, it turns out that a large density SOL is not a sufficient condition to achieve the type-II (small) ELM regime. This has been demonstrated with a constant gas fueled plasma close to DN which has been progressively shifted down, relaxing therefore the closeness to DN at constant. As the plasma is moved down, Type-I ELMs are progressively restored, finally being the unique ELM regime. It is observed that not only the pedestal top profiles are unchanged, but also the SOL profiles remained unaffected by transition from Type-II to Type-I ELMs. We conclude that the separatrix density is not the unique key parameter and it is hypothesized that the local magnetic shear, modified by the closeness to DN, could play an important role. A small ELM regime with good confinement has been achieved at TCV, a full carbon machine featuring an open divertor. A systematic scan in the fueling rate has been done for both medium and high triangularity shapes. For the latter case, a configuration close to a DN configuration, the stored energy and the pedestal top pressure increase by 5% and 30% respectively compared to the medium triangularity case. For both shapes, as the D2 fueling is increased, the Type-I ELM frequency decreases and small ELMs are observed in between large ones. Finally for the high triangularity, at the maximum fueling rate, the large ELMs are fully suppressed and only the small ELMs remain. As observed in JET and AUG, the pedestal pressure degrades with increasing fueling, up to 40% for the high triangularity scenario, although the stored energy remains almost unchanged. It is also observed that, for both shapes, the density at the separatrix increases with the fueling rate, reaching ne,sep/nG ~0.3 at ne,av/nG~0.75. The small ELM regime at TCV is associated with a coherent mode at about 30 kHz seen by the magnetic probes located at the outboard midplane. The outer target heat loads from IR tomography are reduced by more than a factor of 5 when transiting towards the small ELM regime

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

Study of W boson production in pPb collisions at vsNN = 5.02 TeV

The first study of W boson production in pPb collisions is presented, for bosons decaying to a muon or electron, and a neutrino. The measurements are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.6 nb-1 at a nucleon–nucleon centre-of-mass energy of vsNN = 5.02 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment. The W boson differential cross sections, lepton charge asymmetry, and forward–backward asymmetries are measured for leptons of transverse momentum exceeding 25 GeV/c, and as a function of the lepton pseudorapidity in the |?lab| < 2.4range. Deviations from the expectations based on currently available parton distribution functions are observed, showing the need for including W boson data in nuclear parton distribution global fits

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

V-band nanosecond-scale pulse reflectometer diagnostic in the TCV tokamak

This article describes the realization of a novel approach to short pulse (∼1 ns) reflectometry (SPR) recently implemented in the tokamak configuration variable tokamak. Taking advantage of a fast arbitrary waveform generator and vector-network-analyzer extension modules, the design offers flexibility regarding pulse output frequency, duration, and repetition rate. Such flexibility allows the instrument to overcome traditional SPR spatial sampling limitations while reducing hardware complexity. In order to measure the group-delay of nanosecond-scale pulses, both traditional analog and novel digital sampling techniques have been explored. A group-delay range resolution of 17 ps (2.6 mm) in average over the V-band has been achieved with both timing techniques against a waveguide mirror featuring 10 dB power fluctuations. Direct pulse sampling during L-mode plasmas shows that reflected pulse widths increase only by 4% in average. However, pulse width dispersion does occur in L-mode plasmas and leads to an increase in the group-delay uncertainty up to 40 ps (6 mm). Raw histograms of group-delay data show interesting qualitative changes from the L mode to the H-mode. Frequency spectra of group-delay data allow the identification of macroscopic density fluctuations as well as edge quasicoherent modes during edge-localized mode-free H-modes. Finally, fast changes to the density profile have been measured with microsecond time resolution and subcentimeter spatial resolution in both O and X-mode polarizations