Processing of YBCO/IBAD YSZ coated conductors on flexible substrates

Continuous coaters capable of producing 1.1 m long x 1 cm wide tapes of YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7{minus}{delta}} (YBCO) on biaxially oriented yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) on flexible Ni-alloy substrates have been developed at this laboratory. Using a 1 {micro}V/cm criterion, the authors have achieved transport critical current (I{sub c}) values of 29 A (75 K, self field) between voltage taps spaced 1 m apart. The corresponding critical current density (J{sub c}) value for this tape is 290 kA/cm{sup 2}. For shorter tapes, (12 cm voltage tap separation) they have attained J{sub c} values of 0.67 MA/cm{sup 2}. Individual 1 x 1 cm sections within these shorter tapes have attained J{sub c} values of 1 MA/cm{sup 2}

Building a Certification and Inspection Data Infrastructure to Promote Transparent Markets

This article reports on data architecture that reduces information asymmetries to support public-private collaboration to govern product certification and inspection for promoting transparent markets and building consumer trust. The data architecture is a proof-of-concept set of data standards called the Certification and Inspection Data Infrastructure Building Block (CIDIBB) for data storage, retrieval, sharing and automated reasoning of data that can be used to respond the question: what constitutes a trustworthy certification and inspection process? CIDIBB consists of three interrelated ontologies, focusing specifically on certified fair-trade coffee that has the potential to become universally applicable to any certification and inspection process for products or services. The evaluation results suggest that CIDIBB is able to test the trustworthiness of certification schemes, providing consistent results. CIDIBB will contribute to support public-private collaboration to solve public problems such as the promotion of sustainable production and fair labor practices

Curative treatment of oesophageal carcinoma: current options and future developments

Since the 1980s major advances in surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy have established multimodal approaches as curative treatment options for oesophageal cancer. In addition the introduction of functional imaging modalities such as PET-CT created new opportunities for a more adequate patient selection and therapy response assessment

Minimally invasive surgery and cancer: controversies part 1

Perhaps there is no more important issue in the care of surgical patients than the appropriate use of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for patients with cancer. Important advances in surgical technique have an impact on early perioperative morbidity, length of hospital stay, pain management, and quality of life issues, as clearly proved with MIS. However, for oncology patients, historically, the most important clinical questions have been answered in the context of prospective randomized trials. Important considerations for MIS and cancer have been addressed, such as what are the important immunologic consequences of MIS versus open surgery and what is the role of laparoscopy in the staging of gastrointestinal cancers? This review article discusses many of the key controversies in the minimally invasive treatment of cancer using the pro–con debate format