An assessment of the evaporation and condensation phenomena of lithium during the operation of a Li(d,xn) fusion relevant neutron source

The flowing lithium target of a Li(d,xn) fusion relevant neutron source must evacuate the deuteron beam power and generate in a stable manner a flux of neutrons with a broad peak at 14 MeV capable to cause similar phenomena as would undergo the structural materials of plasma facing components of a DEMO like reactors. Whereas the physics of the beam-target interaction are understood and the stability of the lithium screen flowing at the nominal conditions of IFMIF (25 mm thick screen with +/-1 mm surface amplitudes flowing at 15 m/s and 523 K) has been demonstrated, a conclusive assessment of the evaporation and condensation of lithium during operation was missing. First attempts to determine evaporation rates started by Hertz in 1882 and have since been subject of continuous efforts driven by its practical importance; however intense surface evaporation is essentially a non-equilibrium process with its inherent theoretical difficulties. Hertz-Knudsen-Langmuir (HKL) equation with Schrage's 'accommodation factor' η = 1.66 provide excellent agreement with experiments for weak evaporation under certain conditions, which are present during a Li(d,xn) facility operation. An assessment of the impact under the known operational conditions for IFMIF (574 K and 10-3Pa on the free surface), with the sticking probability of 1 inherent to a hot lithium gas contained in room temperature steel walls, is carried out. An explanation of the main physical concepts to adequately place needed assumptions is included.

Measurement of Coherent π^{+} Production in Low Energy Neutrino-Carbon Scattering

We report the first measurement of the flux-averaged cross section for charged current coherent π^{+} production on carbon for neutrino energies less than 1.5 GeV, and with a restriction on the final state phase space volume in the T2K near detector, ND280. Comparisons are made with predictions from the Rein-Sehgal coherent production model and the model by Alvarez-Ruso et al., the latter representing the first implementation of an instance of the new class of microscopic coherent models in a neutrino interaction Monte Carlo event generator. We observe a clear event excess above background, disagreeing with the null results reported by K2K and SciBooNE in a similar neutrino energy region. The measured flux-averaged cross sections are below those predicted by both the Rein-Sehgal and Alvarez-Ruso et al.

Immunocytochemistry for Claudin-18 and Maspin in biliary brushing cytology increases the accuracy of diagnosing pancreatobiliary malignancies

OBJECTIVE

Biliary brush cytology is an important diagnostic tool in the evaluation of pancreatobiliary malignancies. However, it is difficult to distinguish between malignant and benign cells. The present study evaluated the utility of immunocytochemical expression of Claudin-18 and Maspin in brushing cytology specimens of pancreatobiliary lesions in the diagnosis of pancreatobiliary malignancies.

METHODS

The study retrospectively assessed biliary and pancreatic duct brushing cytology specimens of 43 patients whose pancreatobiliary lesions were histologically diagnosed at the University of Miyazaki Hospital. Scanty cellularity slides and cases with no histological confirmation were excluded. Alcohol-fixed and Papanicolaou-stained slides were immunostained with monoclonal antibodies to Claudin-18 and Maspin.

RESULTS

Of the 43 patients, 35 (81.4%) were finally histologically diagnosed with invasive adenocarcinomas. The sensitivity of routine cytology for the detection of malignancy was 63%, and the specificity was 100%. The sensitivity of cytology in combination with immunocytochemical expression of Claudin-18 (89%) or Claudin-18 and/or Maspin (97%) was significantly higher than that of cytology alone (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

Immunocytochemical staining for Claudin-18 and Maspin improved the diagnostic sensitivity for pancreatobiliary adenocarcinomas.

Measurement of Muon Antineutrino Oscillations with an Accelerator-Produced Off-Axis Beam

T2K reports its first measurements of the parameters governing the disappearance of ν[over ¯]_{μ} in an off-axis beam due to flavor change induced by neutrino oscillations. The quasimonochromatic ν[over ¯]_{μ} beam, produced with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV at J-PARC, is observed at the far detector Super-Kamiokande, 295 km away, where the ν[over ¯]_{μ} survival probability is expected to be minimal. Using a data set corresponding to 4.01×10^{20} protons on target, 34 fully contained μ-like events were observed. The best-fit oscillation parameters are sin^{2}(θ[over ¯]_{23})=0.45 and |Δm[over ¯]_{32}^{2}|=2.51×10^{-3}  eV^{2} with 68% confidence intervals of 0.38-0.64 and 2.26-2.80×10^{-3}  eV^{2}, respectively. These results are in agreement with existing antineutrino parameter measurements and also with the ν_{μ} disappearance parameters measured by T2K.

Operation and commissioning of IFMIF (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility) LIPAc injector

The objective of linear IFMIF prototype accelerator is to demonstrate 125 mA/CW deuterium ion beam acceleration up to 9 MeV. The injector has been developed in CEA Saclay and already demonstrated 140 mA/100 keV deuterium beam [R. Gobin et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 02A918 (2014)]. The injector was disassembled and delivered to the International Fusion Energy Research Center in Rokkasho, Japan. After reassembling the injector, commissioning has started in 2014. Up to now, 100 keV/120 mA/CW hydrogen and 100 keV/90 mA/CW deuterium ion beams have been produced stably from a 10 mm diameter extraction aperture with a low beam emittance of 0.21 π mm mrad (rms, normalized). Neutron production by D-D reaction up to 2.4 × 10(9) n/s has been observed in the deuterium operation.

Measurement of ion species in high current ECR H⁺/D⁺ ion source for IFMIF (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility)

Ion species ratio of high current positive hydrogen/deuterium ion beams extracted from an electron-cyclotron-resonance ion source for International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility accelerator was measured by the Doppler shift Balmer-α line spectroscopy. The proton (H(+)) ratio at the middle of the low energy beam transport reached 80% at the hydrogen ion beam extraction of 100 keV/160 mA and the deuteron (D(+)) ratio reached 75% at the deuterium ion beam extraction of 100 keV/113 mA. It is found that the H(+) ratio measured by the spectroscopy gives lower than that derived from the phase-space diagram measured by an Allison scanner type emittance monitor. The H(+)/D(+) ratio estimated by the emittance monitor was more than 90% at those extraction currents.

Tevatron Combination of Single-Top-Quark Cross Sections and Determination of the Magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa Matrix Element V_{tb}

We present the final combination of CDF and D0 measurements of cross sections for single-top-quark production in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data correspond to total integrated luminosities of up to 9.7 fb^{-1} per experiment. The t-channel cross section is measured to be σ_{t}=2.25_{-0.31}^{+0.29} pb. We also present the combinations of the two-dimensional measurements of the s- vs t-channel cross section. In addition, we give the combination of the s+t channel cross section measurement resulting in σ_{s+t}=3.30_{-0.40}^{+0.52} pb, without assuming the standard model value for the ratio σ_{s}/σ_{t}. The resulting value of the magnitude of the top-to-bottom quark coupling is |V_{tb}|=1.02_{-0.05}^{+0.06}, corresponding to |V_{tb}|>0.92 at the 95% C.L.

Randomized phase III trial of treatment duration for oral uracil and tegafur plus leucovorin as adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with stage IIB/III colon cancer: final results of JFMC33-0502

While adjuvant chemotherapy is preferable for colon cancer, treatment duration is controversial. This phase III trial is investigated optimal duration of adjuvant chemotherapy for Stage IIB/III colon cancer. Eighteen-month treatment with UFT/LV did not improve DFS compared with 6-month UFT/LV treatment. This study suggests that 6 months treatment duration is enough for Stage IIB/III colon cancer.

Background

While adjuvant chemotherapy is preferable for high-risk colon cancer, treatment duration is controversial. Oral uracil and tegafur (UFT)/leucovorin (LV) is widely used as a standard adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer in Japan. We conducted a phase III trial to investigate the optimal duration of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage IIB/III colon cancer.

Patients and methods

Patients with curatively resected stage IIB/III colon cancer were eligible for enrollment in this trial. Patients were registered within 6 weeks after surgery and were randomly assigned to receive UFT/LV for 28 of 35 days for 6 months in the control group or for 5 consecutive days per week for 18 months in the study group. The primary end point was the disease-free survival (DFS), and the secondary end points were overall survival (OS) and safety.

Result

A total of 1071 patients were registered from 233 centers. A statistically significant difference in DFS was not observed between the study group and the control group; the 5-year DFS was 69% in the study group and 69% in the control group. The 5-year OS was 85% in the study group and 85% in the control group.

Conclusion

Eighteen-month treatment with UFT/LV did not improve DFS or OS compared with 6-month UFT/LV treatment in patients with stage IIB/III colon cancer. The important finding from this study is that not 18 months but 6 months of treatment is enough for postoperative UFT/LV for stage IIB/III colon cancer.

Clinical trial number

UMIN-CTR C000000245.

Nonlinear increase of X-ray intensities from thin foils irradiated with a 200 TW femtosecond laser

We report, for the first time, that the energy of femtosecond optical laser pulses, E, with relativistic intensities I > 10(21)  W/cm(2) is efficiently converted to X-ray radiation, which is emitted by "hot" electron component in collision-less processes and heats the solid density plasma periphery. As shown by direct high-resolution spectroscopic measurements X-ray radiation from plasma periphery exhibits unusual non-linear growth ~E(4-5) of its power. The non-linear power growth occurs far earlier than the known regime when the radiation reaction dominates particle motion (RDR). Nevertheless, the radiation is shown to dominate the kinetics of the plasma periphery, changing in this regime (now labeled RDKR) the physical picture of the laser plasma interaction. Although in the experiments reported here we demonstrated by observation of KK hollow ions that X-ray intensities in the keV range exceeds ~10(17)  W/cm(2), there is no theoretical limit of the radiation power. Therefore, such powerful X-ray sources can produce and probe exotic material states with high densities and multiple inner-shell electron excitations even for higher Z elements. Femtosecond laser-produced plasmas may thus provide unique ultra-bright X-ray sources, for future studies of matter in extreme conditions, material science studies, and radiography of biological systems.