Radiation damage to DNA: the importance of track structure

A wide variety of biological effects are induced by ionizing radiation, from cell death to mutations and carcinogenesis. The biological effectiveness is found to vary not only with the absorbed dose but also with the type of radiation and its energy, i.e., with the nature of radiation tracks. An overview is presented of some of the biological experiments using different qualities of radiation, which when compared with Monte Carlo track structure studies, have highlighted the importance of the localized spatial properties of stochastic energy deposition on the nanometer scale at or near DNA. The track structure leads to clustering of damage which may include DNA breaks, base damage etc., the complexity of the cluster and therefore its biological repairability varying with radiation type.

The ability of individual tracks to produce clustered damage, and the subsequent biological response are important in the assessment of the risk associated with low-level human exposure. Recent experiments have also shown that biological response to radiation is not always restricted to the ‘hit’ cell but can sometimes be induced in ‘un-hit’ cells near by.     

Fibre optics for industrial applications

Although this technology may still seem esoteric to potential users, fibre optics can already provide, in the area of data transmission, a complete ‘black box’ solution which may be implemented simply and without sophisticated knowledge or equipment.     

Comparison of ‘blue’ and ‘infrared’ emission bands in thermoluminescence of alkali feldspars

Dating quaternary sediments by thermoluminescence (TL) or optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) calls for a detailed knowledge of the luminescence of feldspars. TL of the various alkali feldspars ((K, Na) Si₃AlO₈) display many common features, and some of these cause great difficulties for dating. After long storage following ionizing irradiation, the TL of most alkali feldspars is known to fade away by “anomalous fading”, which is incompatible with dating. This effect had been attributed to tunnel recombination. Following irradiation, a very intense tunnelling afterglow is observed at temperatures down to liquid nitrogen, in accordance with the observed rate of fading. This emission has a Gaussian spectrum entirely in the infrared (IR) with a maximum at 1.7 eV. It displays an important thermal quenching from 77 to 300 K. Its intensity is related with the ‘disorder’ of the crystal lattice. At higher temperatures, in TL proper, two emission bands can be separated. One is the well-studied complex visible emission, distributed over the spectral region from UV to orange, but mostly ‘blue’. The other is the ‘infrared’ band already observed at lower temperatures, which is attributed to Fe³⁺ ions. These two bands are clearly separated, with the spectral maxima, respectively, below and above 600 nm. They have also different kinetics, the glow peaks temperatures are different. But these two different bands are also coupled in many ways, they have parallel growth and fading. With ‘disordered’ feldspars, the ‘blue’ emission displays anomalous fading, which is stronger than that of the ‘infrared’. The infrared emission is more stable, which may be interesting for the purpose of dating.     

Measurement of apex angle of the prism using total internal reflection

Total internal reflection technique is examined critically for the measurement of apex angle of the prism. Recognition of the critical boundary completely specifies the apex angle ‘A’ of the prism by keeping constant the ratio of refractive index of sample fluid (n₁=1.4) to that of glass (n₂=1.7). Recording of observations in the laboratory is dependent upon whether the apex angle ‘A’ of prism is greater than or less than or equal to critical angle ‘r_c’. The minimum value of error function ‘χ’ in the proximity of Abbe angle explain the choice of Abbe type instruments and shown invariant by relating positive ‘₊’ and the negative angle of emergence ‘₋’. Using ray-tracing technique, an expression for the length of the critical boundary ‘l’ is derived and is shown as a measure of the apex angle ‘A’ of the prism.

The choice of the realistic grazing condition leads us to two turning points for which error function ‘χ’ is minimal and yields appropriate option of the measurement of apex angle ‘A’ of the prism. It is further shown that the small error ‘ζ’ crept in the apex angle ‘A’ of the prism can lead to a significant error in the design of Pulfrich type instruments.

Experimental measurements are in-line with the predictions made.     

Constructing ‘hair’ for the three charge hole

It has been found that the states of the 2-charge extremal D1–D5 system are given by smooth geometries that have no singularity and no horizon individually, but a ‘horizon’ does arise after ‘coarse-graining’. To see how this concept extends to the 3-charge extremal system, we construct a perturbation on the D1–D5 geometry that carries one unit of momentum charge P. The perturbation is found to be regular everywhere and normalizable, so we conclude that at least this state of the 3-charge system behaves like the 2-charge states. The solution is constructed by matching (to several orders) solutions in the inner and outer regions of the geometry. We conjecture the general form of ‘hair’ expected for the 3-charge system, and the nature of the interior of black holes in general.     

Marine vehicles and offshore installations: Laser diagnostics of machinery health

For reasons of both safety and economy it is desirable to avoid the breakdown at sea of heavy machinery in marine transport and offshore installations. Unscheduled loss of production or power during ‘downtime’ enhances vulnerability and often carries severe financial penalties. This has led to an increasing interest in the concept of monitoring machinery health to detect impending failure. This paper demonstrates how applied optics and laser technology can be used to address the problem of diagnosing failure in viscous shear torsional dampers which are normally fitted to the crankshaft of large marine propulsion diesels and generator sets. The method allows condition diagnosis to be achieved while the engine is running and avoids the need for ‘downtime’ associated with traditional fluid sampling methods.     

Colour, design and virtual reality at JET

Joint European torus (JET) is the world's largest nuclear fusion research facility investigating the use of nuclear fusion, the process that powers the stars, as a source of clean, limitless electrical energy.The JET machine undergoes an on-going program of upgrades and modifications facilitating a broad scientific program of experimentation. Maintenance of the JET machine is carried out remotely using telemanipulators mounted on a robotic Boom, employing a ‘man in the loop’ approach. The system relies on the use of real time 3D computer graphic models in a ‘virtual reality’ environment for preparation and support of remote-handling operations. Colour is used in this virtual environment to emphasise robots from the vessel environment and to highlight materials, components and systems requiring special care.     

On the control of complex dynamic systems

A method is described for the limited control of the dynamics of systems which generally have several dynamic attractors. associated either with maps or first order ordinary differential equations (ODE) in ⁿ. The control is based on the existence of ‘convergent’ regions, C_C(k = 1,2,…), in the phase space of such systems, where there is ‘local convergence’ of all nearby orbits. The character of the control involves the ‘entrainment’ and subsequent possible ‘migration’ of the experimental system from one attractor to another. Entrainment means that lim_{t > → ∞} |x(t) − g(t)| = 0, where is the system's controlled dynamics, and the goal-dynamics, g(t) ε G_k, has any topological form but is limited dynamically and to regions of phase space, G_k, contained in some C_k, G_k C_k. The control process is initiated only when the system enters a ‘basin of entrainment’, BE_k G_k, associated with the goal-region G_k. Aside from this ‘macroscopic’ initial-state information about the system, no further feedback of dynamic information concerning the response of the system is required. The experimental reliability of the control requires that the regions, BE_k, be convex regions in the phase space, which can apparently be assured if G_k C_k. Simple illustrations of these concepts are given, using a general linear and a piecewise-linear ODE in . In addition to these entrainment-goals, ‘migration-goal’ dynamics is introduced, which intersects two convergent regions G ∩ C_j ≠ , G ∩ C_j ≠ (i ≠ j), and permits transferring the dynamics of a system from one attractor to another, or from one convergent region to another. In the present study these concepts are illustrated with various one-dimensional maps involving one or more attractors and convergent regions. Several theorems concerning entrainment are derived for very general, continuous one-dimensional maps. Sufficient conditions are also established which ensure ‘near-entrainment’ for a system, when the dynamic model of the system is not exactly known. The applications of these concepts to higher dimensional maps and flows will be presented in subsequent studies.     

Extrinsic fibre-optic sensors for remote measurement: Part two

The impact of incorporating fibre optic components into well established optical techniques such as laser Doppler velocimetry, non-contact vibration measurement, holography and light scattering, is discussed in the two sections of this paper. The possibilities range from simply including a fibre ‘optic link’ in a conventional system to facilitate measurements in difficult or remote areas, to the realization of entirely new optical configurations in which virtually all of the conventional optical components have been replaced by their fibre-optic equivalents. In part two laser velocimetry, vibration measurement, holography and scattering are discussed.     

Stimulated Brillouin scattering of Q-switched laser pulses in large-core optical fibres

Q-switched Nd : glass laser pulses of 60 ns duration are transmitted through multimode fused-silica fibres of 0.4–1 mm core diam and lengths of up to 20 m. For laser radiation with narrow spectral width, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is observed for energies well below the threshold energy of fibre damage. The SBS threshold is shifted beyond the threshold of fibre damage through increasing the spectral width of the laser radiation. The SBS threshold energies of step-index and gradient-index fibres are measured for various fibre and laser parameters.     

Exploring the need for localization in ensemble data assimilation using a hierarchical ensemble filter

Good performance with small ensemble filters applied to models with many state variables may require ‘localizing’ the impact of an observation to state variables that are ‘close’ to the observation. As a step in developing nearly generic ensemble filter assimilation systems, a method to estimate ‘localization’ functions is presented. Localization is viewed as a means to ameliorate sampling error when small ensembles are used to sample the statistical relation between an observation and a state variable. The impact of spurious sample correlations between an observation and model state variables is estimated using a ‘hierarchical ensemble filter’, where an ensemble of ensemble filters is used to detect sampling error. Hierarchical filters can adapt to a wide array of ensemble sizes and observational error characteristics with only limited heuristic tuning. Hierarchical filters can allow observations to efficiently impact state variables, even when the notion of ‘distance’ between the observation and the state variables cannot be easily defined. For instance, defining the distance between an observation of radar reflectivity from a particular radar and beam angle taken at 1133 GMT and a model temperature variable at 700 hPa 60 km north of the radar beam at 1200 GMT is challenging. The hierarchical filter estimates sampling error from a ‘group’ of ensembles and computes a factor between 0 and 1 to minimize sampling error. An a priori notion of distance is not required. Results are shown in both a low-order model and a simple atmospheric GCM. For low-order models, the hierarchical filter produces ‘localization’ functions that are very similar to those already described in the literature. When observations are more complex or taken at different times from the state specification (in ensemble smoothers for instance), the localization functions become increasingly distinct from those used previously. In the GCM, this complexity reaches a level that suggests that it would be difficult to define efficient localization functions a priori. There is a cost trade-off between running hierarchical filters or running a traditional filter with larger ensemble size. Hierarchical filters can be run for short training periods to develop localization statistics that can be used in a traditional ensemble filter to produce high quality assimilations at reasonable cost, even when the relation between observations and state variables is not well-known a priori. Additional research is needed to determine if it is ever cost-efficient to run hierarchical filters for large data assimilation problems instead of traditional filters with the corresponding total number of ensemble members.     

Atomic spectroscopy and quantum optics in hollow‐core waveguides

Atomic spectroscopy is a well‐established, integral part of the physicist's toolbox with an extremely broad range of applications ranging from astronomy to single atom quantum optics. While highly desirable, miniaturization of atomic spectroscopy techniques on the chip scale was hampered by the apparent incompatibility of conventional solid‐state integrated optics and gaseous media. Here, the state of the art of atomic spectroscopy in hollow‐core optical waveguides is reviewed The two main approaches to confining light in low index atomic vapors are described: hollow‐core photonic crystal fiber (HC‐PCF) and planar antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides (ARROWs). Waveguide design, fabrication, and characterization are reviewed along with the current performance as compact atomic spectroscopy devices. The article specifically focuses on the realization of quantum interference effects in alkali atoms which may enable radically new optical devices based on low‐level nonlinear interactions on the single photon level for frequency standards and quantum communication systems.     

Optical focus control system for laser welding and direct casting

A non-intrusive optical sensor system has been developed for focus control of laser welding. This detects the light generated by the process through the laser delivery optics, and exploits the chromatic aberrations of these optics to detect any laser focal error at the workpiece. This system works for a wide range of materials and welding parameters, and example results are presented. The sensor has also been applied to laser ‘direct casting’, a process in which 3-D structures are built by flowing metal powder into a focused laser beam. In this case, melt pool temperature is also important, and so additional optics are incorporated into the sensor to provide a pyrometric temperature measurement which is used to control the laser power.     

Evaluation of a metaphase chromosome finder: Potential application to chromosome-based radiation dosimetry

An automated metaphase chromosome finder is described which combines a microscope, state-of-the-art computer technology and a simple decision-making algorithm. A microscope slide is systematically scanned under computer control and the location of each positive ‘signal’ placed into memory for later recall and review by a human operator. The software identifies two events, positives (the presence of a ‘signal’) and negatives (the absence of a ‘signal’). The performance of the metaphase finder was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. At the optimum decision threshold, the detection rates for true positives (metaphase spreads) was about 74%, false positives (type I error) about 6%, and false negatives (type II error) about 26%. The overall accuracy, which accounts for differences in the sensitivity of the detector to positive and negative events, was 89.4% (±0.01%; standard error of the mean, n = 8). Potential applications to radiation dosimetry are discussed.     

Optical waveguide modelling and design for evanescent field chemical sensors

Abstact Analytical and numerical techniques are presented for determining the sensitivity of optical waveguides as evanescent wave absorption sensors. Analytical expressions based on a ray optics approach are derived for planar and multimode fibre sensors. The matrix method is used for multilayer structures to determine both the sensitivity and the effect of intrinsic waveguide losses. It is shown how more complex waveguide geometries such as fibres with a D-shaped cross-section may be assessed by the finite-difference method combined with perturbation analysis. Some examples are given demonstrating how the results enable the design of sensors with optimum sensitivity.     

Application of the P.E.M. theory to solid electrolyte pressed powder pellets: Electrically isotropic solid electrolyte particles

The a.c. electrical response of an electrically isotropic solid electrolyte pressed powder pellet, has been calculated using the Percolation Effective Medium Theory (P.E.M.T.) approximation. The pressed powder pellet is represented by a mixture of a conducting phase (solid electrolyte) and an isolation one (air). The physical meaning of the derived results is discussed in reference to a real solid electrolyte pellet response. The pellet response calculated by the P.E.M.T. equation should correspond to the usual ‘bulk’ one. The influence of the microstructure on the pellet response, derived from the model, can be used to improve the ‘bulk’ ionic conductivity, in pressed powder pellets of solid electrolytes with isotropic conductivity, and to obtain its real electrical characteristics.     

Liquid-helium cooled scanning far-infrared Fabry-Perot interferometer for astronomical observations with a balloon-borne telescope

We have developed a new liquid-helium cooled far-infrared Fabry-Perot interferometer (SFP) with high spectral resolution which will be incorporated and flown with our balloon-borne far-infrared 60 cm φ telescope FIT-FIT. This telescope has been built and already flown with other radiometric equipment in collaboration with the Geneva Observatory. The new spectrometer is designed to measure astronomical emission lines between 140 and 220 μm wavelength. Of special interest are the [NII]-line at 205 μm as well as the [CII]-line at 158 μm. In order to achieve high sensitivity we had to minimize the thermal radiation from the interferometer and its optics. For this reason all optics, including the scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer SFP, are liquid-helium cooled. This paper describes special new features of the design, operation, and test of its performance at liquid-helium temperature with optically pumped far-infrared gas lasers.     

Design and fabrication of AlGaAs/GaAs phase couplers for optical integrated-circuit applications

As integrated electronic circuits based on GaAs are getting faster and more complex and the relatively new fiber optic communication industry is expanding into new markets, such as shipboard communication links, the need for high-speed optical signal processing in a GaAs-based system has become increasingly evident. The economy and flexibility of fabricating both electronic and optical circuits on the same wafer promises significant increases in the computing power and speed of large distributed systems (those involving more than a few medium-density chips). The obvious medium for integration of optics with electronics is GaAs. High-speed ICs utilizing GaAs MESFETS are already in the marketplace, as are GaAs/AlGaAs laser diodes and detectors. Thus the two building blocks exist and only wait to be stacked together in a useful manner. What must hold these together is any combination of passive waveguides, modulators, switches, or optical fibers which will provide high-speed links between several electronic systems. It does not matter that these systems may be miles apart or on the same wafer: the interconnecting optical circuits are the same except for the possible insertion of an optical fiber.     

Design and fabrication of AlGaAs/GaAs phase couplers for optical integrated-circuit applications

As integrated electronic circuits based on GaAs are getting faster and more complex and the relatively new fiber optic communication industry is expanding into new markets, such as shipboard communication links, the need for high-speed optical signal processing in a GaAs-based system has become increasingly evident. The economy and flexibility of fabricating both electronic and optical circuits on the same wafer promises significant increases in the computing power and speed of large distributed systems (those involving more than a few medium-density chips). The obvious medium for integration of optics with electronics is GaAs. High-speed ICs utilizing GaAs MESFETS are already in the marketplace, as are GaAs/AlGaAs laser diodes and detectors. Thus the two building blocks exist and only wait to be stacked together in a useful manner. What must hold these together is any combination of passive waveguides, modulators, switches, or optical fibers which will provide high-speed links between several electronic systems. It does not matter that these systems may be miles apart or on the same wafer: the interconnecting optical circuits are the same except for the possible insertion of an optical fiber.