Scale size of magnetic turbulence in tokamaks probed with 30-MeV electrons

Measurements of synchrotron radiation emitted by 30-MeV runaway electrons in the TEXTOR-94 tokamak show that the runaway population decays after switching on neutral beam injection (NBI). The decay starts only with a significant delay, which decreases with increasing NBI heating power. This delay provides direct evidence of the energy dependence of runaway confinement, which is expected if magnetic modes govern the loss of runaways. Application of the theory by Mynick and Strachan [Phys. Fluids 24, 695 (1981)] yields estimates for the "mode width" (delta) of magnetic perturbations: delta<0.5 cm in Ohmic discharges, increasing to delta = 4.4 cm for 0. 6 MW NBI.     

Rapid catalytic oxidation of CO to CO(2) - On the development of a new approach to on-line oxygen isotope analysis of organic matter

A new approach to on-line oxygen isotope analysis has been developed which utilises existing elemental analyser and mass spectrometry technology to produce a sample of carbon dioxide gas for oxygen isotople analysis. The method relies on on-line high temperature pyrolysis of the sample over a carbon source followed by a rapid, non-contributive partial catalytic oxidation over nickel powder at between 550 and 600 degrees C. Initial results demonstrate both good precision (better than 0.2 per thousand) and accuracy for both cellulose and silver nitrate samples. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bifunctional compounds for controlling metal-mediated aggregation of the aβ42 peptide

Abnormal interactions of Cu and Zn ions with the amyloid β (Aβ) peptide are proposed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Disruption of these metal-peptide interactions using chemical agents holds considerable promise as a therapeutic strategy to combat this incurable disease. Reported herein are two bifunctional compounds (BFCs) L1 and L2 that contain both amyloid-binding and metal-chelating molecular motifs. Both L1 and L2 exhibit high stability constants for Cu(2+) and Zn(2+) and thus are good chelators for these metal ions. In addition, L1 and L2 show strong affinity toward Aβ species. Both compounds are efficient inhibitors of the metal-mediated aggregation of the Aβ(42) peptide and promote disaggregation of amyloid fibrils, as observed by ThT fluorescence, native gel electrophoresis/Western blotting, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Interestingly, the formation of soluble Aβ(42) oligomers in the presence of metal ions and BFCs leads to an increased cellular toxicity. These results suggest that for the Aβ(42) peptide-in contrast to the Aβ(40) peptide-the previously employed strategy of inhibiting Aβ aggregation and promoting amyloid fibril dissagregation may not be optimal for the development of potential AD therapeutics, due to formation of neurotoxic soluble Aβ(42) oligomers.     

Editorial for Focus Issue on Enabling Science and Technology for High-Speed Optical Communications

<正>Fiber optics underpins the communications infrastructure for the information society today. Cables consisting of hair-like fibers speed data around the globe in the form of rapid pulses of light. Modern telecom     

Nonlinear polarization effects and mitigation in polarization-division-multiplexed coherent transmission systems

Using numerical simulations, the nonlinear transmission performance of polarization-division-multiplexed quadrature-phase-shift-keying （PDM-QPSK） coherent systems is studied. It is found that inter-channel cross-polarization modulation （XPolM） induced nonlinear polarization scattering can significantly degrade the transmission performance of PDM-QPSK coherent systems and change the perspective of dispersion management in optical coherent transmission systems. Some techniques to mitigate nonlinear polarization scattering in dispersion-managed PDM coherent transmission systems are discussed, including the use of time-interleaved return-to-zero （RZ） PDM formats, the use of periodic-group-delay PGD dispersion compensators, and the judicious addition of some polarization-mode-dispersion （PMD） in the transmission link. It is shown that if nonlinear polarization scattering can be well mitigated, a polarization multiplexed optical coherent transmission system with dispersion management could perform better than that without it.     

Heat convection and transport barriers in low-magnetic-shear rijnhuizen tokamak project plasmas

Layers of reduced electron heat transport ("transport barriers") have been observed in the Rijnhuizen Tokamak Project when the plasma is dominantly heated by electron cyclotron heating (ECH). Experiments into the properties of the transport barriers are reported. Modulation of the ECH power was used to probe electron heat transport in the barriers by means of propagating electron temperature perturbations. The observed propagation shows that transport inside the barriers is dominated by heat convection. This convection is inward, i.e., up the temperature gradient.