Fluctuation characteristics of the TCV snowflake divertor measured with high speed visible imaging

Tangentially viewing fast camera footage of the low-field side snowflake minus divertor in TCV is analysed across a four point scan in which the proximity of the two X-points is varied systematically. The motion of structures observed in the post- processed movie shows two distinct regions of the camera frame exhibiting differing patterns. One type of motion in the outer scrape-off layer remains present throughout the scan whilst the other, apparent in the inner scrape-off layer between the two nulls, becomes increasingly significant as the X-points contract towards one another. The spatial structure of the fluctuations in both regions is shown to conform to the equilibrium magnetic field. When the X-point gap is wide the fluctuations measured in the region between the X-points show a similar structure to the fluctuations observed above the null region, remaining coherent for multiple toroidal turns of the magnetic field and indicating a physical connectivity of the fluctuations between the upstream and downstream regions. When the X-point gap is small the fluctuations in the inner scrape-off layer between the nulls are decorrelated from fluctuations upstream, indicating local production of filamentary structures. The motion of filaments in the inter-null region differs, with filaments showing a dominantly poloidal motion along magnetic flux surfaces when the X-point gap is large, compared to a dominantly radial motion across flux-surfaces when the gap is small. This demonstrates an enhancement to cross-field tranport between the nulls of the TCV low-field-side snowflake minus when the gap between the nulls is small.Comment: Accepted for publication in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusio

Screening of Aroma-Producing Performance of Anticlostridial Lacticaseibacillus casei Strains

The cheesemaking industry is increasingly interested in using adjunct cultures with potential aromatic and anticlostridial activities. In this study, 34 Lb. paracasei and 2 Lb. rhamnosus strains were isolated from a semi-hard cheese and characterized for their proteolytic, esterase, and anticlostridial activity. Moreover, the strains were inoculated in a curd-based medium and the volatile compounds in the headspace of samples were evaluated by solid-phase microextraction–GC–MS analysis. Proteolytic activity was present in 30 strains, whereas only one Lb. paracasei strain showed esterase activity. All strains inhibited Cl. sporogenes, Cl. beijerinckii, and Cl. butyricum, and 18 isolates inhibited at least one Cl. tyrobutyricum strain. Principal component analysis and clustering analysis based on the volatilome grouped strains into three groups. One of these groups was characterized by high amounts of acids and esters and clustered with control samples inoculated with commercial starter cultures, suggesting similarity in the aroma profile. Strains belonging to this group with inhibitory effects against Cl. tyrobutyricum might be exploited as autochthonous adjunct cultures for the reduction of late-blowing defects in semi-hard cheeses

Heat flux measurements and modelling in the RFX-mod experiment

The knowledge of edge plasma transport parameters and plasma edge phenomena is a key element in the design of the first wall for a magnetically confined fusion experiment. In RFX-mod heat flux measurement and edge transport modelling have been done to improve the understanding of this aspect. Heat flux deposition profiles have been evaluated from infrared temperature measurements of insertable graphite limiters. They were inserted up to 12 mm into the reversed field pinch plasma of ohmically heated discharges with Ip= 0.6÷1.0 MA, ne= 0.5÷3·1019 m−3 (n/nG< 0.7) and total power of about 10÷15 MW. Strong asymmetries in heat flux deposition have been measured in poloidal direction at low density between the electron and the ion drift side and smaller ones in toroidal direction when q(a)≠0. The poloidal asymmetry has been associated to the presence of superthermal electrons [1] while the toroidal one has been less clearly identified as due to the small toroidal extension of the limiters. To account for the 2D deposition nature of heat load on the surface of the employed limiters, a simple 3D code has been developed to evaluate heat flux from temperature data. In this way at the deeper limiter insertions a heat flux decay length of about 2 mm and 2.5 mm has been evaluated in electron and ion drift sides. Modelling of the evaluated heat fluxes has been done using the SOLEDGE2D-EIRENE edge code [2]. This fluid code is well suited for the RFX-mod wall limiter configuration because, thanks to the implemented penalization technique, the computational domain can be extended up to the entire first wall. Edge modelling has shown that measured decay lengths are compatible with energy diffusion coefficients in Scrape Off Layer (SOL) smaller than those commonly evaluated at plasma edge; the cause of the reduced diffusion in the SOL will be discussed in the paper

Effect of different biopolymer-based structured systems on the survival of probiotic strains during storage and in vitro digestion

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the protective effect of different biopolymer systems on the viability of two probiotics (Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Streptococcus thermophilus) during storage and in vitro digestion. Methylcellulose (MC), sodium alginate (SA), and whey protein (WP)-based structures were designed and characterized in terms of pH, rheological properties, and visual appearance. RESULTS: The results highlighted that the WP-system ensured probiotic protection during both storage and in vitro digestion. This result was attributed to a combined effect of the physical barrier offered by the protein gel network and whey proteins as a nutrient for microbes. On the other hand, surprisingly, the viscous methylcellulose-based system was able to guarantee good microbial viability during storage. However, this was not confirmed during in vitro digestion. The opposite results were obtained for sodium alginate beads. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the capacity of a polymeric structure to protect probiotic bacteria is a combination of structural organization and system formulation. \ua9 2020 Society of Chemical Industry

Psychological factors associated with vaccination hesitancy: an observational study of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in a later phase of the pandemic in Italy

Introduction: Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 has been used to reduce the severity of COVID-19 disease and the incidence of new cases. However, a significant proportion of people have shown vaccination hesitancy. Methods: This study explored psychological factors related to vaccination hesitancy in a sample of Italian COVID-19 patients (N = 54), hospitalized during 2021, after vaccines had been made available and while the vaccination campaign was on-going. Consecutive patients, aged 18 or older, admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of COVID-19 were assessed with a set of standardized measures. Results: In our sample, 48.1% was not vaccinated and 7.4% died within 6months after hospitalization, with a preponderance of deaths among non-vaccinated patients. Non-vaccinated participants had higher resilience scores at the CD-RISC-10 scale than vaccinated ones (33.6 ± 5.50 vs 28.6 ± 6.61; t40.2=+ 2.94, p = 0.005). No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups for any other measures. Discussion: Higher levels of resilience among non-vaccinated patients may reflect greater identity worth and self-esteem, in turn resulting in a decrease in vaccination likelihood. This finding may have important public health implications, as it indicates that specific psychological aspects, such as resilience, may result in vaccination hesitancy, with implications for hospitalization rates, and thus healthcare costs, as well as loss of lives

Distributed Computing Grid Experiences in CMS

The CMS experiment is currently developing a computing system capable of serving, processing and archiving the large number of events that will be generated when the CMS detector starts taking data. During 2004 CMS undertook a large scale data challenge to demonstrate the ability of the CMS computing system to cope with a sustained data-taking rate equivalent to 25% of startup rate. Its goals were: to run CMS event reconstruction at CERN for a sustained period at 25 Hz input rate; to distribute the data to several regional centers; and enable data access at those centers for analysis. Grid middleware was utilized to help complete all aspects of the challenge. To continue to provide scalable access from anywhere in the world to the data, CMS is developing a layer of software that uses Grid tools to gain access to data and resources, and that aims to provide physicists with a user friendly interface for submitting their analysis jobs. This paper describes the data challenge experience with Grid infrastructure and the current development of the CMS analysis system

The plasma boundary in Single Helical Axis RFP plasmas

Single Helical Axis (SHAx) states obtained in high current reversed field pinch (RFP) plasmas display, aside from a dominant mode in the m=1 spectrum, also a dominant m=0 mode, with the same toroidal mode number as the m=1 one. The two modes have a fixed phase relationship. The island chain created by the m=0 mode across the reversal surface gives rise, at shallow reversal of the toroidal field, to an X-point structure which separates the last closed flux surface from the first wall, creating a divertor-like configuration. The plasma-wall interaction is found to be related to the connection length of the field lines intercepting the wall, which displays a pattern modulated by the dominant mode toroidal periodicity. This configuration, which occurs only for shallow toroidal field reversal, could be exploited to realize an island divertor in analogy to stellarators.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures Submitted to Nuclear Fusio

Diffractive Dissociation In The Interacting Gluon Model

We have extended the Interacting Gluon Model (IGM) to calculate diffractive mass spectra generated in hadronic collisions. We show that it is possible to treat both diffractive and non-diffractive events on the same footing, in terms of gluon-gluon collisions. A systematic analysis of available data is performed. The energy dependence of diffractive mass spectra is addressed. They show a moderate narrowing at increasing energies. Predictions for LHC energies are presented.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 14 figures (PostScript Files included); accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D (Feb.97

Tracking Performance of the Scintillating Fiber Detector in the K2K Experiment

The K2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment uses a Scintillating Fiber Detector (SciFi) to reconstruct charged particles produced in neutrino interactions in the near detector. We describe the track reconstruction algorithm and the performance of the SciFi after three years of operation.Comment: 24pages,18 figures, and 1 table. Preprint submitted to NI