EUCARD magnet development

The FP7-EuCARD work package 7 (WP7), "HFM: Superconducting High Field Magnets for higher luminosities and energies" is a collaboration between 12 European institutes and firms with the objective of developing high field magnet technology. WP7 foresees to construct a 13 T dipole with a 100 mm aperture, a B = 6 T high temperature superconductor (HTS) dipole insert, a superconducting HTS link and a superconducting helical undulator.Comment: 5 pages, contribution to the EuCARD-AccNet-EuroLumi Workshop: The High-Energy Large Hadron Collider, Malta, 14 -- 16 Oct 2010; CERN Yellow Report CERN-2011-003, pp. 45-4

Contactless angle detection using permalloy

An overview is given of measurements on angle detectors. The detectors consist of a pair of planar-Hall elements opposite to a rotatable magnet. The measurements are performed on a number of planar-Hall elements of different shape and size, and show good agreement with a previously described theoretical mode. To increase the accuracy of the angle detector, three modifications of the original concept of the planar-Hall elements are treated: a ring-shaped element having increased output voltage; an optimized configuration of a pair of planar-Hall elements and a permanent magnet, to cancel out the effects of magnetic anisotropy in the permalloy on the accuracy of the angle detector; and an annealing step at 500 degrees C applied to the permalloy to create a magnetically isotropic film. The results of measurements on planar-Hall elements as suggested in modifications are presented and show good agreement with theory

Dutch agriculture and horticulture with a glance at South Korea : policies and results in the past, present en future

Dit rapport geeft inzicht in de huidige verschillen en overeenkomsten tussen Zuid-Korea en Nederland. Meer specifiek is ingegaan op de ontwikkelingen van de Nederlandse land- en tuinbouw in verleden, heden en toekomst en wat de voorwaarden zijn geweest voor de sterke internationale positie van de Neder landse land- en tuinbouw. Ook de ontwikkelingen in het beleid van de Europese Unie en de Nederlandse Overheid, het gehele agro!complex en het landelijk gebied zijn in deze studie beschouwd. In het rapport is ook een bijlage opgeno men met adressen van de meest belangrijke instanties, instituties en bedrijven rondom de land- en tuinbouwsecto

Modulation equations near the Eckhaus boundary: the KdV equation

We are interested in the description of small modulations in time and space of wave-train solutions to the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation \begin{align*} \partial_T \Psi = (1+ i \alpha) \partial_X^2 \Psi + \Psi - (1+i \beta ) \Psi |\Psi|^2, \end{align*} near the Eckhaus boundary, that is, when the wave train is near the threshold of its first instability. Depending on the parameters $\alpha$, $\beta$ a number of modulation equations can be derived, such as the KdV equation, the Cahn-Hilliard equation, and a family of Ginzburg-Landau based amplitude equations. Here we establish error estimates showing that the KdV approximation makes correct predictions in a certain parameter regime. Our proof is based on energy estimates and exploits the conservation law structure of the critical mode. In order to improve linear damping we work in spaces of analytic functions.Comment: 44 pages, 8 figure

Freshnesss

La filosofía del proyecto cuestiona el proceso de reciclaje como única opción sostenible y la reutilización como una alternativa viable, que conduzca a la sociedad a no producir en exceso.Departamento de Teoría de la Arquitectura y Proyectos ArquitectónicosGrado en Ingeniería en Diseño Industrial y Desarrollo de Product

Evidence of the indirect hormonal activity of prohormones using liver S9 metabolic bioactivation and an androgen bioassay

Prohormones such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) are steroid precursors that do not show hormonal activity by themselves. Abuse of these prohormones in cattle fattening is hard to prove because of strong in vivo metabolism and the difficulty to detect metabolites which are not significantly above endogenous levels. The aim of the present work was to develop an in vitro assay capable of detecting the indirect hormonal activity of prohormones that might be present in feed supplements and injection preparations. Sample extracts were incubated with a bovine liver S9 fraction in order to mimic the in vivo metabolic activation. Subsequently incubated extracts were exposed to a highly androgen-specific yeast bioassay to detect hormonal activity. Metabolic activation of DHEA, 4-androstene-3,17-dione (4-adione) and 5-androstene-3,17-diol (5-adiol) resulted in an increased androgenic activity caused by the formation of the active androgen 17ß-testosterone (17ß-T), as shown by ultra-performance liquid chromatography and time-of-flight mass spectrometry with accurate mass measurement. The developed in vitro system successfully mimics the hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD)- and cytochrome P450-mediated in vivo metabolic transitions, thus allowing assessment of both bioactivity and chemical identification without the use of animal experiments. Screening of unknown supplement samples claimed to contain DHEA resulted in successful bioactivation and positive screening results according to the androgen yeast biosenso

Hormonal effects of prohormones : novel approaches towards effect based screening in veterinary growth promoter control

Within the European Union the use of growth promoting agents in cattle fattening is prohibited according to Council Directive 96/22/EC. Interestingly, there is not a black list of substances, but 96/22/EC states that all substances having thyrostatic, estrogenic, androgenic or gestagenic activity are prohibited. Besides abuse of the “classical” synthetic steroids there is a tendency towards misuse of natural steroids and prohormones. Prohormones are compounds that exhibit limited or no hormonal activity but are direct precursors of bioactive hormones and are intended to be converted to full active hormones via enzymatic processes in the body. However, knowledge about metabolism, the mode of action and excretion profiles in cattle is often unclear, and methods to detect abuse of prohormones in livestock production are lacking. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to get insight into the hormonal action of prohormones and to develop novel in vitro and in vivo screening methods allowing effective surveillance on the illegal use of prohormones in livestock production. Hereby the emphasis was on developing effect based approaches to better meet Council Directive 96/22/EC. The bioactivity of a wide variety of supplements which contained prohormones were tested using a yeast androgen bioassay. For supplements containing solely prohormones the value of this bioactivity based screening appeared to be limited as they require metabolism to become active. Therefore, screening methods for animal feed, supplements and preparations were set-up by using the same yeast androgen bioassay in combination with bovine liver models as well as enzymatic and chemical deconjugation procedures to mimic in vivo metabolic bioactivation. The use of either bovine liver S9, liver slices, pure enzymes or alkaline hydrolysis showed that prohormones could be activated, resulting in a significant increase in bioactivity as determined by the androgen yeast bioassay. For the detection of prohormone abuse at the farm and/or slaughterhouse the usefulness of ‘omics’ based profiling techniques was investigated. Within this scope a comprehensive metabolomics based screening strategy for steroid urine profiling was developed. Comparison of urinary profiles revealed large differences between the profiles of controls and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as well as pregnenolone treated animals. Moreover this steroid urine profiling approach allowed identification of biomarkers for treatment by specific prohormones. This resulted in respectively 7 and 12 specific mass peak loadings which could potentially be used as biomarkers for pregnenolone and DHEA treatment. In addition, the feasibility of a liver gene expression profiling approach was investigated to monitor the effects of DHEA treatment at the transciptome level. It was shown that identification and application of genomic biomarkers for screening of DHEA abuse in cattle is substantially hampered by biological variation. On the other hand, it was demonstrated that comparison of pre-defined gene sets versus the whole genome expression profile of an animal allows to distinguish DHEA treatment effects from variations in gene expression due to inherent biological variation. Altogether the results of this thesis increase the knowledge about the metabolism and bioactivation of prohormones in vitro as well as in vivo. Based on this knowledge, a panel of new effect based concepts and screening methods was developed that complement and improve the current testing programs. These new concepts will facilitate better implementation of the European ban on growth promoters in livestock production as described in Council Directive 96/22/EC. <br/