Nanostructured Immunosensors. Application to the detection of Progesterone

Nanostructured electrodes. Immunosensor. ProgesteroneA novel nanostructured electrochemical immunsensor for the determination of progesterone is reported. The approach combines the properties of gold nanoparticles with the use of a graphite-Teflon composite electrode matrix, into which gold nanoparticles are incorporated by simple physical inclusion. The antibody anti-progesterone was directly attached to the electrode surface. The immunosensor functioning is based on competitive assay between progesterone and alkaline phosphatase-labelled progesterone. Monitoring of the affinity reaction was accomplished by the electrochemical oxidation of 1-naphtol. Modification of the graphite -Teflon electrode matrix with gold nanoparticles improves substantially the electrooxidation response of 1-naphtol. Using a detection potential of +0.3V, a detection limit for progesterone of 0.84 ng ml-1 was obtained. Analysis of seven milk samples spiked at a 3.5 ng ml-1 progesterone concentration level yielded a mean recovery of 101+6%. Detection of the antigen-antibody reaction with a graphite - Teflon - colloidal - gold - Tyrosinase electrode, using phenylphosphate as alkaline phosphatase substrate to generate phenol, which is subsequently reduced at -0.1 V at the composite electrode, produced a high improvement in the sensitivity for progesterone detectio

Fast simulations for large aspect ratio stellarators with the neoclassical code KNOSOS

In this work, a new version of KNOSOS is presented. KNOSOS is a low-collisionality radially-local, bounce-averaged neoclassical code that is extremely fast, and at the same time, includes physical effects often neglected by more standard codes: the component of the magnetic drift that is tangent to the flux-surface and the variation of the electrostatic potential on the flux-surface. An earlier version of the code could only describe configurations that were sufficiently optimized with respect to neoclassical transport. KNOSOS can now be applied to any large aspect ratio stellarator, and its performance is demonstrated by means of detailed simulations in the configuration space of Wendelstein 7-X.Comment: IAEA paper, submitted to Nuclear Fusio

Scrape-off Layer Transport and Filament Characteristics in High-density Tokamak Regimes

A detailed cross-device investigation on the role of filamentary dynamics in high-density regimes has been performed within the EUROfusion framework, comparing the ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) and TCV tokamaks. Both devices run density ramp experiments at different levels of plasma current, keeping the toroidal field or q 95 constant in order to disentangle the role of the parallel connection length and the current. During the scan at a constant toroidal field, in both devices the scrape-off layer (SOL) profiles tend to develop a clear SOL density shoulder at a lower edge density whenever the current is reduced. Different current behaviour is substantially reconciled in terms of the edge density normalized to the Greenwald fraction. During the scan at constant q 95 AUG exhibits similar behaviour, whereas in TCV no upstream profile modification signature has been observed at lower current levels. The latter behaviour has been ascribed to the lack of target density rollover. The relation between the upstream density profile modification and detachment condition has been investigated. For both devices the relation between blob size and the SOL density e-folding length is found independent of the plasma current, with the observation of a clear increase in blob size and the edge density normalized to a Greenwald fraction. ASDEX Upgrade has also explored filamentary behaviour in the H-mode. The experiments in AUG have focused on the role of neutrals, performing discharges with and without cryogenic pumps, highlighting how high neutral pressure, not only in the divertor but also at the midplane, is needed in order to develop an H-mode SOL profile shoulder in AUG.Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 633053Euratom research and training programme 2019-2020 633053Swiss National Science Foundation AT-0063United States Department of Energy DE-SC001052

First escaping fast ion mesurements in ITER-like geometry using an activation probe

More research is needed to develop suitable diagnostics for measuring alpha particle confinement in ITER and techniques relevant for fusion reactor conditions need further development. Based on nuclear reactions, the activation probe is a novel concept first tested in JET. It may offer a more robust solution for performing alpha particle measurements in ITER. This paper describes the first escaping fast ion measurements performed at ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamak using an activation probe. A detailed analysis, outside the scope of this contribution, will be published in a journal paper.JRC.D.4-Standards for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguard

Scrape Off Layer (SOL) transport and filamentary characteristics in high density tokamak regimes

A detailed cross-device investigation on the role of filamentary dynamics in high density regimes has been performed within the EUROfusion framework comparing ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) and TCV tokamaks. Both devices have run density ramp experiments at different levels of plasma current, keeping toroidal field or q95 constant in order to disentangle the role of parallel connection length and the current. During the scan at constant toroidal field, in both devices SOL profiles tend to develop a clear Scrape Off Layer (SOL) density shoulder at lower edge density whenever current is reduced. The different current behavior is substantially reconciled in terms of edge density normalized to Greenwald fraction. During the scan at constant q95 AUG exhibits a similar behaviour whereas in TCV no signature of upstream profile modification has been observed at lower level of currents. The latter behaviour has been ascribed to the lack of target density roll-over. The relation between upstream density profile modification and detachment condition has been investigated. For both devices the relation between blob-size and SOL density e-folding length is found independent of the plasma current, with a clear increase of blob-size with edge density normalized to Greenwald fraction observed. ASDEX Upgrade has also explored the filamentary behaviour in H-Mode. The experiments on AUG focused on the role of neutrals, performing discharges with and without the cryogenic pumps, highlighting how large neutral pressure not only in the divertor but at the midplane is needed in order to develop a H-Mode SOL profile shoulder in AUG

Improving the Timing of Insulin Administration in Adult Acute Care Patients

Background: The correct timing of insulin administration in diabetic patients admitted to the hospital is important for the prevention of transient and serious glycemic deviations that could lead to negative patient outcomes. In November 2021, a South Florida Hospital identified an area of opportunity for quality improvement related to the process of subcutaneous insulin administration. In addition to bar code scanning, manual verification of the insulin dose by the primary nurse and another nurse was required prior to administration. Patients were experiencing delays in the timing of their insulin dose and nurses were reporting frustration with the process. Methods: The project followed the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle for performance improvement. Results: The change in medication administration workflow resulted in achievement of administering insulin within 30 minutes of the scheduled time. Ninety percent of the nurses surveyed reported improvement in their workflow when giving subcutaneous insulin to their patients (n=112). Conclusion: Interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation in education of the nursing staff, monitoring adherence to the process, and sustaining engagement among stakeholders contributed to the success of this initiative, resulting in improved workflow in subcutaneous insulin administration. Keywords: Bar code medication administration, insulin, safety, quality improvemen

Modification of SOL profiles and fluctuations with line-average density and divertor flux expansion in TCV

A set of Ohmic density ramp experiments addressing the role of parallel connection length in modifying scrape off layer (SOL) properties has been performed on the TCV tokamak. The parallel connection length has been modified by varying the poloidal flux expansion f x . It will be shown that this modification does not influence neither the detachment density threshold, nor the development of a flat SOL density profile which instead depends strongly on the increase of the core line average density. The modification of the SOL upstream profile, with the appearance of what is generally called a density shoulder , has been related to the properties of filamentary blobs. Blob size increases with density, without any dependence on the parallel connection length both in the near and far SOL. The increase of the density decay length, corresponding to a profile flattening, has been related to the variation of the divertor normalized collisionality ##IMG## [http://ej.iop.org/images/0029-5515/57/11/116014/nfaa7db3ieqn001.gif] {$\Lambda_{\rm div}$} (Myra et al 2006 Phys. Plasmas 13 112502, Carralero et al , ASDEX Upgrade Team, JET Contributors and EUROfusion MST1 Team 2015 Phys. Rev. Let . 115 215002), showing that in TCV the increase of ##IMG## [http://ej.iop.org/images/0029-5515/57/11/116014/nfaa7db3ieqn002.gif] {$\Lambda_{\rm div}$} is not sufficient to guarantee the SOL upstream profile flattening