Interaction between current imbalance and magnetization in LHC cables

The quality of the magnetic field in superconducting accelerator magnets is associated with the properties of the superconducting cable. Current imbalances due to coupling currents ¿I, as large as 100 A, are induced by spatial variations of the field sweep rate and contact resistances. During injection at a constant field all magnetic field components show a decay behavior. The decay is caused by a diffusion of coupling currents into the whole magnet. This results in a redistribution of the transport current among the strands and causes a demagnetization of the superconducting cable. As soon as the field is ramped up again after the end of injection, the magnetization rapidly recovers from the decay and follows the course of the original hysteresis curve. In order to clarify the interactions between the changes in current and magnetization during injection the authors performed a number of experiments. A magnetic field with a spatially periodic pattern was applied to a superconducting wire in order to simulate the coupling behavior in a magnet. This model system was placed into a stand for magnetization measurements and the influence of different powering conditions was analyze

Max and the knight: how a therapeutic story provided a connection point for child, family, school, human service agencies and community

OBJECTIVES: We developed an outcome indicator based on the finding that complications often prolong the patient's hospital stay. A higher percentage of patients with an unexpectedly long length of stay (UL-LOS) compared to the national average may indicate shortcomings in patient safety. We explored the utility of the UL-LOS indicator. SETTING: We used data of 61 Dutch hospitals. In total these hospitals had 1 400 000 clinical discharges in 2011. PARTICIPANTS: The indicator is based on the percentage of patients with a prolonged length of stay of more than 50% of the expected length of stay and calculated among survivors. INTERVENTIONS: No interventions were made. OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome measures were the variability of the indicator across hospitals, the stability over time, the correlation between the UL-LOS and standardised mortality and the influence on the indicator of hospitals that did have problems discharging their patients to other health services such as nursing homes. RESULTS: In order to compare hospitals properly the expected length of stay was computed based on comparison with benchmark populations. The standardisation was based on patients' age, primary diagnosis and main procedure. The UL-LOS indicator showed considerable variability between the Dutch hospitals: from 8.6% to 20.1% in 2011. The outcomes had relatively small CIs since they were based on large numbers of patients. The stability of the indicator over time was quite high. The indicator had a significant positive correlation with the standardised mortality (r=0.44 (p0.05)). CONCLUSIONS: The UL-LOS indicator is a useful addition to other patient safety indicators by revealing variation between hospitals and areas of possible patient safety improvement

Groei en productie van grove den in Nederland

In the Netherlands, growth and yield research on Scots pine was done from 1949 to 2002. This includes studies by Becking and by the Dorschkamp/IBN research institute. Together with the permanent sample plots from the timber prognosis system HOSP, all this comprises a dataset of 94 plots with 348 recordings. For the development of top height htop with age (t), Cieszewski’s model with site index h70 and 3 additional parameters fitted best. The diameter development up to stand height of 7 m was best described with the model by Jansen et al. based on htop and initial density N0. From a stand height of 7 m and up, the basal area increment iG was best described by a power func-tion based on htop, calendar year (yor), h50 and the stand density index of Hart (S%). For S % > 20.6 the basal area increment drops strongly with increasing S %. The effect of thinning on diameter after thinning was modelled with a modified La Bastide-Faber model. With all models together, a stand projection model was constructed, which follows the measured stand development reasonably well. The model was used to construct yield tables with five site classes and four thinning intensities

Spontaneous abortion rate and advanced maternal age: Consequences for prenatal diagnosis

Abstract Maternal age related and procedure-related fetal abortion rates were studied in 384 women aged 36 and over scheduled for transabdominal chorionic villus sampling (TA-CVS) at 12-14 weeks of gestation. The pre-TA-CVS abortion rate within 30 days of intake (at 6-10 weeks of gestation) rose from 1·9% at age 35-36 years to 10·9% at 40 years and older. Women entering in the 6th week of gestation had a greater probability of aborting before TA-CVS than women entering after day 48. 26 women aborted spontaneously before TA-CVS, the majority of abortions occuring at 10-12 weeks. TA-CVS was done in 346 women. 11 pregnancies were terminated because of genetic anomalies, and 8 women had spontaneous fetal loss. These findings justify delaying prenatal diagnosis in older pregnant women until 12 weeks of gestation

Groei en productie van beuk in Nederland

In the Netherlands growth and yield research on common beech was done from 1960 to 1992 at very small scale. This includes studies by Becking and by the Dorschkamp/IBN research insti-tute. Together with the permanent sample plots from the timber prognosis system HOSP, all this comprises a dataset of 47 plots with 169 recordings. For the development of top height (htop) with age (t) Cieszewski’s model with site index h70 and three additional parameters fitted best. The diame-ter development up to stand height of 7 m was described with the model by Jansen et al. based on htop and initial density (N0). From a stand height of 7 m and up, the basal area increment (iG) was also described by a model from Jansen et al., based on a power function with htop, t, year of recording (yor), and the stand density of Hart (S %). For S % > 17.6 the basal area increment drops strongly with increasing S %. The model contains a correction factor for yor, which unfortunately could not be esti-mated from the plot data. The effect of thinning on the diameter after thinning was modelled with a modified La Bastide-Faber model. With all models together, a stand projection model was con-structed, which describes the measured stand development moderately well. The model was used to construct yield tables for with five site classes and six thinning intensitie

Nb3_3Sn conductor development and characterization for NED

The main purpose of Next European Dipole (NED) project is to design and to build an Nb$_{3}$Sn ~ 15 T dipole magnet. Due to budget constraints, NED is mainly focused on superconducting cable development and production. In this work, an update is given on the NED conductor development by Alstom-MSA and SMI, which uses, respectively, Internal-Tin-Diffusion and Powder-In-Tube methods, with the aim of reaching a non-copper critical current density of ~ 3000 A/mm2 at 12 T and 4.2 K. Characterization results, including critical current and magnetization data, are presented and discussed, as well, for conductors already developed by both companies for this project. SMI succeeded to produce a strand with 50 µm diameter filaments and with a critical current of ~ 1400 A at 4.2 K and 12 T, corresponding to a non-copper critical current density of ~ 2500 A/mm2. Cabling trials with this strand were successfully carried out at LBNL

Nonstimulated early visual areas carry information about surrounding context

Even within the early sensory areas, the majority of the input to any given cortical neuron comes from other cortical neurons. To extend our knowledge of the contextual information that is transmitted by such lateral and feedback connections, we investigated how visually nonstimulated regions in primary visual cortex (V1) and visual area V2 are influenced by the surrounding context. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and pattern-classification methods to show that the cortical representation of a nonstimulated quarter-field carries information that can discriminate the surrounding visual context. We show further that the activity patterns in these regions are significantly related to those observed with feed-forward stimulation and that these effects are driven primarily by V1. These results thus demonstrate that visual context strongly influences early visual areas even in the absence of differential feed-forward thalamic stimulation