Reconstruction of Zeff profiles at TEXTOR through Bayasian source separation

The understanding of the behaviour of impurities is a critical issue in tokamak physics. The ion effective charge Zeff provides a measure for impurity concentration. On the TEXTOR tokamak (Julich, Germany), we run a diagnostic to determine Zeff from the bremsstrahlung emissivity E. From radial profiles of E, electron density ne and temperature Te, profiles for Zeff can be reconstructed. However, their interpretation is difficult outside the plasma centre, because of various uncertainties in E, ne and Te at the edge, which render the radial matching of the different profiles problematic. Conversely, if it were possible to obtain a set of line-integrated values for Zeff directly from the line-integrated measurements of E, ne and Te, then these problems would be avoided. Now, recent advances in the field of statistical signal processing allow the extraction of an unknown signal from a signal mixture. In particular, we describe a procedure for the single-channel Bayesian source separation of a line-integrated Zeff signal from a line-integrated emissivity source, using as a forward model a linearized version of the known functional dependence of Zeff on E, ne and Te. Here, a line-integral over a traditionally obtained Zeff profile may serve as a prior for the line-integrated Zeff signal. In this way, precise information on the electron density and temperature may even become superfluous for the determination of Zeff.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Investigation of a 1-D Fluid Probe Model for Mach Probe Measurements

In this paper we show how a two dimensional fluid model can be used to interpret data obtained from an inclined Mach-probe or a Gundestrup probe. We use an analytical approximation of the solution of the differential equations describing the relation between the plasma flow and the measured ion saturation currents at the probe's surface. The parameters of this analytical solution are determined by comparison with the exact numerical solution of the equations. In this way we are able to measure the parallel as well as the perpendicular Mach numbers over the whole parameter range with a minimum accuracy of 90%.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Asymmetric syntactic patterns in German-Dutch translation : a corpus-based study of the interaction between normalisation and shining through

The present study investigates how opposing translation universals (explanatory devices) as normalisation and shining through interact with each other. More particularly, we want to find out whether it is more likely to observe instantiations of shining through or (over-)normalisation in translations of contemporary literary fiction and whether the likelihood of these three explanatory devices varies according to translation direction. On the basis of a bidirectional comparable corpus of Dutch and German literary fictional texts (1975-2010), we investigated a case of syntactic variation that exists in both languages, viz. prepositional phrase (PP) placement. In both languages, a PP can be placed either in the middle field or in the postfield, but German presents a more outspoken preference for the middle field, thus making PP placement ideal for an investigation of the interaction between shining through and (over)normalisation. The results of the analyses show that (i) there is a strong form of shining through present in Dutch texts translated from German and (ii) a strong form of normalisation in German texts translated from Dutch. These results confirm Toury’s hypothesis that a less prestigious language such as Dutch is more tolerant towards higher frequencies of linguistic features which are typical of highly prestigious source languages as German than the other way around

A study into students' interests in industrial design engineering using a gender pattern analysis

This paper describes first year students’ interest and motivation towards the field of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) at the University of Twente during three years (2002-2004). Data was gathered systematically based on students’ interest to aspects of IDE: technology, styling, ergonomics and marketing. Students’ arguments were analysed with help of a theoretical framework, based on: 1. a basic phase model of product development (I/design-product-use/market) and 2. value patterns (virtuosity, economic, and user/need values). Results show varied and gender patterned interest in the mentioned four aspects of IDE. Significant gender differences were also found in type of arguments students used to motivate their rate of interest. Results of this paper can be used for a didactical educational review. They too may be relevant to enhance insight into the differentiating values of people in design practices

Study of alpha mangostin as a chemoprotective agent for breast cancer via activation of the p53 pathway

Breast carcinoma is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women and causes over 400,000 deaths yearly worldwide. Current treatments such as chemotherapy are not selective for cancerous tissues but are destructive to normal tissues as well. This causes a range of side effects including pain, nausea, hair loss, weakness, and more. Inactivation of p53 is an almost universal mutation within human cancer cells. The ability to activate the p53 pathway which protects cells from tumor formation is lost in 50% of cancers. Due to the prevalence of this mutation, p53 is a uniquely valuable target for applied research. Alpha mangostin has potential to be an effective p53 activator in which the small molecule disrupts the binding of p53 to MDMD, a negative regulator, causing the p53 cascade which results in cell cycle arrest for low level stressors. This protects the cells from Paclitaxel, a chemotherapy that only kills actively dividing cells. When MCF10A wild type cells were cotreated with alpha mangostin and paclitaxel, they exhibited a protective effect. When MCF10A P53 knockout cells were treated with alpha mangostin, they appeared to decrease cell viability. Therefore, this treatment stands as a potential chemoprotectant that warrants further study