Extremely low vertical-emittance beam in the accelerator test facility at KEK

Electron beams with the lowest, normalized transverse emittance recorded so far were produced and confirmed in single-bunch-mode operation of the Accelerator Test Facility at KEK. We established a tuning method of the damping ring which achieves a small vertical dispersion and small x-y orbit coupling. The vertical emittance was less than 1% of the horizontal emittance. At the zero-intensity limit, the vertical normalized emittance was less than 2.8 x 10(-8) rad m at beam energy 1.3 GeV. At high intensity, strong effects of intrabeam scattering were observed, which had been expected in view of the extremely high particle density due to the small transverse emittance.     

Wire number doubling in high-wire-number regime increasesZ-accelerator X-ray power

Doubling the number of tungsten wires from 120 to 240, keeping the mass fixed, increased the radiated X-ray power relative to the electrical power at the insulator stack of the Z accelerator by (35±15)% for 8.75- and 20-mm radii Z-pinch wire arrays. One-dimensional radiation magneto hydrodynamic calculations suggest that the arrays were operating in a quasi “plasma-shed” regime, where the plasma generated by the individual wires partially merge prior to the inward implosion of the entire array     

Comparison of Flow and Transport Experiments on 3D Printed Micromodels with Direct Numerical Simulations

Understanding pore-scale flow and transport processes is important for understanding flow and transport within rocks on a larger scale. Flow experiments on small-scale micromodels can be used to experimentally investigate pore-scale flow. Current manufacturing methods of micromodels are costly and time consuming. 3D printing is an alternative method for the production of micromodels. We have been able to visualise small-scale, single-phase flow and transport processes within a 3D printed micromodel using a custom-built visualisation cell. Results have been compared with the same experiments run on a micromodel with the same geometry made from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA, also known as Perspex). Numerical simulations of the experiments indicate that differences in experimental results between the 3D printed micromodel and the Perspex micromodel may be due to variability in print geometry and surface properties between the samples. 3D printing technology looks promising as a micromodel manufacturing method; however, further work is needed to improve the accuracy and quality of 3D printed models in terms of geometry and surface roughness.

     

Chelating Rotaxane Ligands as Fluorescent Sensors for Metal Ions

Although metal‐ion‐binding interlocked molecules have been under intense investigation for over three decades, their application as scaffolds for the development of sensors for metal ions remains underexplored. In this work, we demonstrate the potential of simple rotaxanes as metal‐ion‐responsive ligand scaffolds through the development of a proof‐of‐concept selective sensor for Zn²⁺.     

A Non-Invasive Hair Test to Determine Vitamin D3 Levels

Vitamin D deficiency is being recognized as a global issue and has been implicated in many health issues. Hence, there is an increased interest in developing sensitive, reproducible, and non-invasive assays to measure Vitamin D levels. This study aimed to apply a sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric assay to hair samples to develop and validate a clinical assay to provide a quarterly average level of vitamin D in one test. Hair samples were collected from 70 male university students/young adults and pulverized/sonicated in methanol/water for 2 h to extract Vitamin D metabolites. A sensitive liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric assay was employed to quantitate vitamin D and metabolites. Of the eight Vitamin D and metabolites screened, only the primary, clinically significant form of vitamin D (25OHD₃) was detected and quantified in hair samples in the range of 17–1541 pg/mg. One-third of the hair samples (21 out of 70) had Vitamin D levels below the LLOD of the assay (10 pg/mg). The mean and standard deviation values for hair (25OHD₃) were 276.7 ± 329.9, respectively. This pilot study reveals the potential of the vitamin D hair test in clinical assays as a complementary test to a vitamin D blood test, which would provide a quarterly average.     

Modular 'click' sensors for zinc and their application in vivo

Although the central role that zinc plays in many biological processes and important disease states is now well-established, there remains a pressing need to develop an absolute understanding of the underlying biology of zinc trafficking in terms of its dynamic and quantitative processing in specific organelles. Here we describe the modular synthesis of zinc sensors using a 'click' approach and demonstrate the applicability of our new sensors in vivo using a zebrafish model.