The role of spatial and temporal radiation deposition in inertial fusion chambers: the case of HiPER¿

The first wall armour for the reactor chamber of HiPER will have to face short energy pulses of 5 to 20 MJ mostly in the form of x-rays and charged particles at a repetition rate of 5–10 Hz. Armour material and chamber dimensions have to be chosen to avoid/minimize damage to the chamber, ensuring the proper functioning of the facility during its planned lifetime. The maximum energy fluence that the armour can withstand without risk of failure, is determined by temporal and spatial deposition of the radiation energy inside the material. In this paper, simulations on the thermal effect of the radiation–armour interaction are carried out with an increasing definition of the temporal and spatial deposition of energy to prove their influence on the final results. These calculations will lead us to present the first values of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the tungsten armour designed for the HiPER project under a shock ignition target of 48 MJ. The results will show that only the crossing of the plasticity limit in the first few micrometres might be a threat after thousands of shots for the survivability of the armour

Physicochemical, traction and tribofilm formation properties of three octanoate-, laurate- and palmitate-anion based ionic liquids

Three new ionic liquids with different anions and the same cation were synthesized from fatty acids through a metathesis reaction.All the ionic liquidswere identified viaNMRand FTIR and several properties (density, viscosity, thermal, and environmental) were measured. Traction tests were performed under different entrainment speeds (10–2000 mm/s), at slide-roll ratio (SRR) of 50% and 30 N-load, and at different temperatures (40, 60, 80 and 100 °C) using a mini-traction machine (MTM). Tribofilm formation tests were also made in the MTM at 50 N-load, 150 mm/s of entrainment speed, at SRR of 50% and temperature of 100 °C, for 60 min. This work showed that the alkyl chain length in the anion affects properties such as viscosity, toxicity, biodegradability and lubrication. Viscosity decreased with increasing alkyl chain length but only below 60 °C, at higher temperatures the viscosity values of the ionic liquids converge. The toxicity increases with the alkyl chain length; whereas, biodegradability shows the opposite behavior. These novel ionic liquids are much better from both toxicity and biodegradability points of view than the [N8881][TFSI] ionic liquid, which contains the same cation and anion not coming from fatty acids. The ionic liquids at low temperature (40 °C) performed under elastohydrodynamic lubrication and changed to mixed lubrication at higher temperatures and decreasing speeds, according to the alkyl chain length of each anion. All ionic liquids adsorbed on the steel surfaces, and the tribofilm thickness and the kinetics of formation were different

Natural hosts of different hantavirus genotypes in south America: who is who?

Gardenal, C.N., Gonzalez-Ittig, R.E., Rivera, P.C., Levis, S., Salazar-Bravo, J., Barquez, R.M

Stopping power dependence of nitrogen sputtering yields in copper nitride films under swift-ion irradiation: Exciton model approach

Nitrogen sputtering yields as high as 104 atoms/ion, are obtained by irradiating N-rich-Cu3N films (N concentration: 33 ± 2 at.%) with Cu ions at energies in the range 10?42 MeV. The kinetics of N sputtering as a function of ion fluence is determined at several energies (stopping powers) for films deposited on both, glass and silicon substrates. The kinetic curves show that the amount of nitrogen release strongly increases with rising irradiation fluence up to reaching a saturation level at a low remaining nitrogen fraction (5?10%), in which no further nitrogen reduction is observed. The sputtering rate for nitrogen depletion is found to be independent of the substrate and to linearly increase with electronic stopping power (Se). A stopping power (Sth) threshold of ?3.5 keV/nm for nitrogen depletion has been estimated from extrapolation of the data. Experimental kinetic data have been analyzed within a bulk molecular recombination model. The microscopic mechanisms of the nitrogen depletion process are discussed in terms of a non-radiative exciton decay model. In particular, the estimated threshold is related to a minimum exciton density which is required to achieve efficient sputtering rates

Helicobacter pylori Membrane Vesicles Stimulate Innate Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Responses and Induce Apoptosis in Jurkat T Cells

Persistent Helicobacter pylori infection induces chronic inflammation in the human gastric mucosa, which is associated with development of peptic ulceration, gastric atrophy, and gastric adenocarcinoma. It has been postulated that secretion of immunomodulatory molecules by H. pylori facilitates bacterial persistence, and membrane vesicles (MV), which have the potential to cross the gastric epithelial barrier, may mediate delivery of these molecules to host immune cells. However, bacterial MV effects on human immune cells remain largely uncharacterized to date. In the present study, we investigated the immunomodulatory effects of H. pylori MV with and without the vacuolating cytotoxin, VacA, which inhibits human T cell activity. We show a high degree of variability in the toxin content of vesicles between two H. pylori strains (SS1 and 60190). Vesicles from the more toxigenic 60190 strain contain more VacA (s1i1 type) than vesicles from the SS1 strain (s2i2 VacA), but engineering the SS1 strain to produce s1i1 VacA did not increase the toxin content of its vesicles. Vesicles from all strains tested, including a 60190 isogenic mutant null for VacA, strongly induced interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL-6 production by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells independently of the infection status of the donor. Finally, we show that H. pylori MV induce T cell apoptosis and that this is enhanced by, but not completely dependent on, the carriage of VacA. Together, these findings suggest a role for H. pylori MV in the stimulation of innate pro- and anti-inflammatory responses and in the suppression of T cell immunity

Electrical compatibility of transmission fluids in electric vehicles

The in electrical vehicles, where the electric motor is inside the transmissielectrical compatibility of the automatic transmission fluids (ATFs) is very important on and in contact with the ATF. This work studies the influence of factors like temperature, time, and air exposition on the oxidation of three ATFs and their changes in electrical conductivity. The results showed that the higher content of additive the lower variations of electrical conductivity with the oxidation; the measurements of electrical conductivity are better than FT-IR ones for monitoring oil thermo-oxidative degradation at initial periods; the conventional ATFs could maintain good electrical compatibility in electrified drivelines, although their materials compatibility and copper corrosion protection of electrical components should be also tested

Microwave-assisted in situ laser dye incorporation into high sensitivity whispering gallery mode microresonators

Optical whispering gallery mode microresonators (WGM-μRs) are powerful sensitive components with many analytical applications. Here, spherical WGM-μRs have been synthesised in a single-step microwave (MW)-assisted heterophase polymerisation. The microresonators are based on poly(styrene) beads into which the organic lasing dye nile red was incorporated as gain medium in situ during the polymerisation. The particle diameter and diameter distribution of the synthesised particles were tuned in the range of around 200 nm up to 50 μm by adjusting the concentration between stabiliser poly-(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) and monomer styrene, and the solvent composition in the dispersion process. Lower water content enabled the synthesis of spherical particles with large size polydispersity, from which WGM-μRs with a variety of diameters were selected. Microspheres with diameters ≳3.5 μm supported WGMs. The WGMs were excited through free space via the fluorescence of the laser dye. Pumping power levels <1 μW were sufficient to excite WGMs. WGM shifts of beads with diameter between ≈5 and 30 μm measured in air and water show a sensitivity up to 54 nm/RIU for the smallest particles. Dye doped WGM-μR in the low μm size range obtained by the MW-assisted polymerisation process with its versatility, low processing times and high yields opens new horizons for the applications of these systems as sensors

Compositional, structural and morphological modifications of N-rich Cu3N films induced by irradiation with Cu at 42 MeV

N-rich Cu3N films were irradiated with Cu at 42 MeV in the fluences range from 4 × 1011 to 1 × 1014 cm−2. The radiation-induced changes in the chemical composition, structural phases, surface morphology and optical properties have been characterized as a function of ion fluence, substrate temperature and angle of incidence of the incoming ion by means of ion-beam analysis (IBA), x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, profilometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy techniques. IBA methods reveal a very efficient sputtering of N whose yield (5 × 103 atom/ion) is almost independent of substrate temperature (RT-300 °C) but slightly depends on the incidence angle of the incoming ion. The Cu content remains essentially constant within the investigated fluence range. All data suggest an electronic mechanism to be responsible for the N depletion. The release of nitrogen and the formation of Cu2O and metallic Cu are discussed on the basis of existing models

Tribological performance of three fatty acid anion-based ionic liquids (FAILs) used as lubricant additive

This paper studies the tribological behavior of three fatty acid anion-based ionic liquids: methyltrioctylammonium octanoate ([N8881][C8:0]), methyltrioctylammonium laurate ([N8881][C12:0]) and methyltrioctylammonium palmitate ([N8881][C16:0]) used as additive at 0.5, 1 and 2 wt% in an ester base oil. The tribological experiments were performed in two different tribometers: a Bruker UMT-3 using a reciprocating “ball-on-disc” configuration for pure sliding tests and a Mini Traction Machine (MTM) for rolling/sliding tests. After sliding tests, the wear scar was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Sliding tests results showed both friction and wear reduction of the mixtures with respect to the ester only at 25 °C. The worse tribological behavior at 100 °C could be attributed to the moderate thermal stability of these ionic liquids. Under rolling/sliding conditions, samples displayed similar antifriction and ECR behavior than the base oil at high speeds, changing to a higher friction and lower ECR at low speeds and increasing temperatures. EDX analysis showed mainly the steel disc elements. The XPS oxygen signal showed higher amount of C[dbnd]O bond on the worn surface after reciprocating tests at 25 °C, which could be attributable to IL-surface interaction and can explain the better wear reduction performance