Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

Decomposition in soil and chemical characteristics of pollen

The input to soils made by pollen and its subsequent mineralization has rarely been investigated from a soil microbiological point of view even though the small but significant quantities of C and N in pollen may make an important contribution to nutrient cycling. The relative resistance to decomposition of pollen exines (outer layers) has led to much of the focus of pollen in soil being on its preservation for archaeological and palaeo-ecological purposes. We have examined aspects of the chemical composition and decomposition of pollen from birch (Betula alba) and maize (Zea mays) in soil. The relatively large N contents, small C-to-N ratios and large water-soluble contents of pollen from both species indicated that they would be readily mineralized in soil. When added to soil and incubated at 16 degrees C an amount of C equivalent to 22-26% of the added pollen C was lost as CO2 within 22 days, with the Z. mays pollen decomposing faster. For B. alba pollen, the water-soluble fraction decomposed faster than the whole pollen and the insoluble fraction decomposed more slowly over 22 days. By contrast, there were no significant differences in the decomposition rates of the different fractions from Z. mays pollen. Solid-state C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) revealed no gross chemical differences between the pollen of these two species, with strong resonances in the alkyl- and methyl-C region (0-45 p.p.m.) indicative of aliphatic compounds, the O-alkyl-C (60-90 p.p.m.) and the acetal- and ketal-C region (90-110 p.p.m.) indicative of polysaccharides, and the carbonyl-C region indicative of peptides and carboxylic acids. In addition, both pollens gave a small but distinct resonance at 55 p.p.m. attributed to N-alkyl-C. The resonances attributed to polysaccharides were lost completely or substantially reduced after decomposition