VITESS polarized neutron suite: allows for the simulation of performance of any existing polarized neutron scattering instrument

As neutron simulations packages are used for analysis of the expected performance for practically all newly built neutron instruments, possibilities for simulations with polarized neutrons have been relatively underdeveloped.During the last years we developed a new approach for the representation of time-dependent magnetic fields (both in magnitude and direction) for the VITESS simulation package. This allowed us to simulate the neutron spin dynamics in practically all polarized neutron devices (RF neutron flipper, adiabatic gradient RF flipper, the Drabkin resonator, etc.). In this article the above-mentioned VITESS instrument components (modules) will be presented and the simulated performance of a number of polarized neutron scattering instruments (NRSE, MIEZE, SESANS, etc.) will be demonstrated.Thus, we practically complete the polarized neutron suite of the VITESS, which seems sufficient for the simulation of performance of any existing polarized neutron scattering instrument. Future work will be concentrated on developments of dedicated sample modules (kernels) to allow for virtual experiments with VITESS.     

A study of OH radicals in an atmospheric AC discharge plasma using near infrared diode laser cavity ringdown spectroscopy combined with optical emission spectroscopy

Simultaneous measurements of absolute concentrations of H₂O and OH radicals in an atmospheric AC discharge using continuous wave cavity ringdown spectroscopy (cw-CRDS) are reported. Formation of OH radicals and plasma temperatures are characterized by optical emission spectroscopy. The concentration of OH radical at the edge of the discharge plume at 380 K is measured by the cw-CRDS technique to be 1.1 ×10¹⁵ molecule cm^-3. Ringdown measurements of the H₂O (120-000) band and the OH first overtone around 1515 nm enable us to determine an OH generation yield, , to be 4.8 ×10^-3, where N_OH and are the number densities of OH and H₂O, respectively. The minimum detectable absorption coefficient of the cw-CRDS system is 8.9 ×10^-9  cm^-1, which corresponds to a 1σ detection limit of OH number density of 1.2 ×10¹³ molecule cm^-3 in the discharge. This experimental approach is demonstrated for the first time ever in an AC discharge, and can be applied in general to a variety of atmospheric plasmas to help study OH formation mechanisms and OH-related plasma applications.     

Recent advances in exotic nuclear beams

Not intended to be a review of the field, the present paper is the written version of a talk given at the APAC 1999 conference. It only aims at an outline of the important effort nowadays made for experiments with exotic beams. A comparatively long list of references is given where more complete information can be found. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Coronary disease identification using the discriminant analysis

Summary This paper presents a method for identification of coronary disease using the discriminant analysis. The set of discriminant variables used is composed by the general characteristics of the patient, the lipemic values, collected by a blood analysis, and some results of a cardiac catheterism. By using all the variables a total level of classification of about 89.9% is reached, separating the healthy patients from the sick patients affected by a coronary disease. The discriminant analysis is also performed using the general characteristics of the patient and the lipemic values only (i.e. noninvasive medical examinations), and general characteristics and some results of a cardiac catheterism only. In conclusion, the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, obtained by discriminant analysis of noninvasive data, seems to be good enough to discriminate sick from healthy people and to assign patients to a further protocol.     

Development of the SRAO 1024-Channel Digital Auto-Correlator

We developed a 1024-channel digital auto-correlation spectrometer for the Seoul Radio Astronomy Observatory (hereafter the SRAO-1KACS). The SRAO-1KACS has two main modules: the IF-to-baseband converter (IFBC) module and the 1024-channel auto-correlator (1KACR) module. The input frequency range of the IFBC module is from 1.5 to 1.55 GHz with a dynamic range of –4 +3 dBm. The 1KACR module performs calculations of auto-correlation coefficients by the accumulation and modulo-2-counting method in 3-level configuration. The system is controlled by a Linux-based personal computer. The SRAO-1KACS provides 3 different observational modes: 50, 25, and 12.5 MHz bandwidth modes. The channel losses are 20%, 12%, and 8% for each bandwidth mode, respectively. Various tests were executed including lab tests and astronomical tests. Lab tests were performed for a 1.5625MHz sinusoidal wave input and for a white noise source. We also executed astronomical tests in 12CO J=1–0 emission line at 115.2712 GHz, which showed that SRAO-1KACS can be used at astronomical observatories.