Next Step Spherical Torus Design Studies

Studies are underway to identify and characterize a design point for a Next Step Spherical Torus (NSST) experiment. This would be a ''Proof of Performance'' device which would follow and build upon the successes of the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) a ''Proof of Principle'' device which has operated at PPPL since 1999. With the Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) nearly completed, the TFTR test cell and facility will soon be available for a device such as NSST. By utilizing the TFTR test cell, NSST can be constructed for a relatively low cost on a short time scale. In addition, while furthering spherical torus (ST) research, this device could achieve modest fusion power gain for short-pulse lengths, a significant step toward future large burning plasma devices now under discussion in the fusion community. The selected design point is Q=2 at HH=1.4, P subscript ''fusion''=60 MW, 5 second pulse, with R subscript ''0''=1.5 m, A=1.6, I subscript ''p''=10vMA, B subscript ''t''=2.6 T, CS flux=16 weber. Most of the research would be conducted in D-D, with a limited D-T campaign during the last years of the program

Spherical Torus Center Stack Design

The low aspect ratio spherical torus (ST) configuration requires that the center stack design be optimized within a limited available space, using materials within their established allowables. This paper presents center stack design methods developed by the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) Project Team during the initial design of NSTX, and more recently for studies of a possible next-step ST (NSST) device

Ross River virus disease in two Dutch travellers returning from Australia, February to April 2015

We report two cases of Ross River virus (RRV) infection in Dutch travellers who visited Australia during February to April 2015. These cases coincided with the largest recorded outbreak of RRV disease in Australia since 1996. This report serves to create awareness among physicians to consider travel-related RRV disease in differential diagnosis of patients with fever, arthralgia and/or rash returning from the South Pacific area, and to promote awareness among professionals advising travellers to this region

Common European Sales Law (CESL) and Private International Law: Some Critical Remarks

This article is an updated and revised version of the contribution published by the author in XI Anuario Español de Derecho Internacional Privado, 2011, 25-61, under the title: “La Propuesta de Reglamento relativo a una normativa común de compraventa europea y el Derecho internacional privado”.La Propuesta de Reglamento del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo relativo a una normativa común de compraventa europea de 11 de octubre de 2011 (PCESL) introduce una reglamentación material para algunas compraventas transfronterizas que no desplaza la aplicación de las normas de conflicto (en particular de las contenidas de los Reglamentos “Roma I” y “Roma II”). Al contrario, el instrumento opcional contenido en la Propuesta de Reglamento (CESL) presupone la aplicación de la ley de un Estado miembro, como lex contractus. Una vez escogida por las partes, la CESL desplaza a las normas internas cobre compraventa de la ley del Estado miembro. Esta opción del legislador comunitario plantea numerosos problemas e interrogantes acerca de las relaciones entre la CESL y las normas de Derecho internacional privado y en torno a su coexistencia con otros convenios internacionales y el propio acervo comunitario. El análisis de estas relaciones es el objeto del presente estudio, que permite concluir con una valoración negativa de la competitividad internacional de este nuevo instrumento comunitario.The Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Common European Sales Law of 11 October 2011 (PCESL) introduces a substantive regulation for some cross-border sales contracts that does not displace the application of conflict-of-laws rules (especially those included in “Rome I” and “Rome II” Regulations). On the contrary, the optional instrument included in the Proposal (CESL) presupposes the application of the law of a Member State as lex contractus. Once the parties have chosen the CESL, this regime prevails over the internal rules on sales contracts of the law of that Member State. The formula used by the European legislator gives rise to many concerns and questions about the relationships between the CESL and the conflict-of-laws rules and about its cohabitation with other international conventions and the European acquis itself. The analysis of these relationships is the subject of this article, which concludes with a negative assessment on the international competitiveness of the new European instrument

Photoionising feedback and the star formation rates in galaxies

J. M. MacLachlan, I. A. Bonnell, K. Wood, and J. E. Dale, “Photoionising feedback and the star formation rates in galaxies”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 573, January 2015. This version of record is available online at: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2015/01/aa22250-13/aa22250-13.html Reproduced with Permission from Astronomy and Astrophysics, © ESO 2015.Aims. We investigate the effects of ionising photons on accretion and stellar mass growth in a young star forming region, using a Monte Carlo radiation transfer code coupled to a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation. Methods. We introduce the framework with which we correct stellar cluster masses for the effects of photoionising (PI) feedback and compare to the results of a full ionisation hydrodynamics code. Results. We present results of our simulations of star formation in the spiral arm of a disk galaxy, including the effects of photoionising radiation from high mass stars. We find that PI feedback reduces the total mass accreted onto stellar clusters by ≈23% over the course of the simulation and reduces the number of high mass clusters, as well as the maximum mass attained by a stellar cluster. Mean star formation rates (SFRs) drop from SFRcontrol = 4.2 × 10-2 M⊙ yr-1 to SFRMCPI = 3.2 × 10-2 M⊙ yr-1 after the inclusion of PI feedback with a final instantaneous SFR reduction of 62%. The overall cluster mass distribution appears to be affected little by PI feedback. Conclusions. We compare our results to the observed extra-galactic Schmidt-Kennicutt relation and the observed properties of local star forming regions in the Milky Way and find that internal photoionising (PI) feedback is unlikely to reduce SFRs by more than a factor of ≈2 and thus may play only a minor role in regulating star formation.Peer reviewe

Star formation in bright-rimmed clouds and cluster associated with W5 E H{\sc ii} region

The aim of this paper is to present the results of photometric investigations of the central cluster of the W5 E region as well as a follow-up study of the triggered star formation in and around bright-rimmed clouds (BRCs). We have carried out wide field $UBVI_c$ and deep $VI_c$ photometry of the W5 E H{\sc ii} region. A distance of $\sim$2.1 kpc and a mean age of $\sim$1.3 Myr have been obtained for the central cluster. The young stellar objects (YSOs) associated with the region are identified on the basis of near-infrared and mid-infrared observations. We confirmed our earlier results that the average age of the YSOs lying on/inside the rim are younger than those lying outside the rim. The global distribution of the YSOs shows an aligned distribution from the ionising source to the BRCs. These facts indicate that a series of radiation driven implosion processes proceeded from near the central ionising source towards the periphery of the W5 E H{\sc ii} region. We found that, in general, the age distributions of the Class II and Class III sources are the same. This result is apparently in contradiction with the conclusion by Bertout, Siess & Cabrit (2007) and Chauhan et al. (2009) that classical T Tauri stars evolve to weak-line T Tauri stars. The initial mass function of the central cluster region in the mass range $0.4 \le M/M_\odot \le 30$ can be represented by $\Gamma = -1.29 \pm 0.03$. The cumulative mass functions indicate that in the mass range $0.2 \le M/M_\odot \le 0.8$, the cluster region and BRC NW have more low mass YSOs in comparison to BRCs 13 and 14.Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin