International Facility Research Articles

Geo-information Science for Sustainable Development of Mount Stong F.R., Kelantan, Malaysia

The state of Kelantan covers an area of 1.5 million hectares of which about 894,271 hectares or 60% is under forest cover. It is still very much endowed with a rich and diverse biodiversity, such as in the dipterocarp forests of the reserves, in the National Park, limestone hills of Gua Musang, mountain forests of the Main Range, and Virgin Jungle Reserves. It is fortunate in that it has vast areas of lowlands, high rolling mountains and hills, with a rich and unique biodiversity associated with those ecosystems. A scientific expedition to the Mount Stong Tengah Forest Reserve in 2003 discovered that the area has a unique and diverse ecosystem, rich in bio-diversity and many endemic species. These findings prompted the State of Kelantan to gazette the entire central Mt. Stong Permanent Forest Reserve, one of its prime production forests, totaling 21,950 hectares, into a state forest park. Consequently, the State Forestry Department of Kelantan planned to turn these mountain forest resources into the best managed and successful state forest park and to achieve this, an integrated and multi functional approach has to be adopted. Initially, a thorough study of the mountain forest park resources involving Universiti Putra Malaysia-Aeroscan Precision (M) Sdn Bhd’s airborne hyperspectral imaging technology system has been undertaken. Preliminary results indicated that airborne hyperspectral sensing can easily identify individual timber species, estimate their timber volume, locate and map cultural, historical, mountain peaks, caves, waterfalls, picnic and camping sites potential and suitable for forest eco-tourism and recreational activities in Mt. Stong to be developed as a state forest park. Once completed, a 100 Year Management Plan will be formulated to assist the state government to undertake the best strategies towards implementing programs such as forest eco-tourism, publicity, local or international events, research facilities, and infrastructure, appropriate for a best managed and successful mountain state forest park.

BEAM DYNAMICS OF THE HIGH-ENERGY STORAGE RING (HESR) FOR FAIR

The High-Energy Storage Ring (HESR) of the future International Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI in Darmstadt is planned as an antiproton storage ring in the momentum range from 1.5 to 15 GeV/c.1,2 The HESR is being designed and built by a consortium consisting of IKP at Forschungszentrum Jülich, TSL at Uppsala University, and GSI Darmstadt. An important feature of this new facility is the combination of phase-space cooled beams and thick internal targets (e.g. pellet targets) which results in demanding beam parameter requirements for two operation modes: high luminosity mode with peak luminosities of up to 2 · 1032 cm -2 s -1 and high resolution mode with a relative momentum spread in the order of a few times 10-5. To reach these beam parameters one needs a very powerful phase-space cooling utilizing high-energy electron cooling and high-bandwidth stochastic cooling. In this paper different beam dynamics issues like closed orbit correction, performance of cooled beams interacting with internal targets and luminosity considerations are discussed.

The importance of brain banks for molecular neuropathological research: The New South Wales Tissue Resource Centre experience.

New developments in molecular neuropathology have evoked increased demands for postmortem human brain tissue. The New South Wales Tissue Resource Centre (TRC) at The University of Sydney has grown from a small tissue collection into one of the leading international brain banking facilities, which operates with best practice and quality control protocols. The focus of this tissue collection is on schizophrenia and allied disorders, alcohol use disorders and controls. This review highlights changes in TRC operational procedures dictated by modern neuroscience, and provides examples of applications of modern molecular techniques to study the neuropathogenesis of many different brain disorders.

Strangeness at the international Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research

The project of the international Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), co-located to the GSI facility in Darmstadt, was officially started on November 7, 2007. An investment of about 1 billion euro will permit new physics programs in the areas of low and medium energy antiproton research, heavy ion physics complementary to LHC, as well as in nuclear structure and astrophysics. The facility will comprise about a dozen accelerators and storage rings, which will enable simultaneous operations of up to four different beams.

Experimental system to evaluate the effective diffusion coefficient of radon

The effective diffusion coefficient of radon is a very important factor in estimating the rate of radon exhalation from the ground surface. In this study, we developed an experimental system that overcomes technical problems in previous studies to accurately evaluate the effective diffusion coefficient. The radon source used for this system was the National Institute of Radiological Sciences radon chamber. This chamber is a calibrated international standard facility that can produce stable radon concentrations for long periods of time. Our tests showed that leakage of radon from the system was negligible. After the leakage test, we evaluated the effective diffusion coefficient in free-space and in dry porous materials at porosities of 35% and 45%. To ensure that the porous material in the column was as homogeneous as possible, we filled the column with an artificial soil with controlled grain size and grain composition. The measured values and theoretical calculations agreed well, which indicate that the proposed system can be used to accurately and quickly evaluate the effective diffusion coefficient.

Progress Towards Burning Plasmas

The next frontier for fusion science is the study of burning plasmas. The international ITER facility will advance research efforts into this new regime. In this paper we will first define burning plasmas and describe their distinctive features. One such feature is dominant self-heating (exothermic) by a large population of alpha particles, created from thermonuclear reactions. Next, we will briefly review how previous experiments on JET and TFTR to attain breakeven have laid the foundation for taking the present step to ITER. Then, we will describe various physics and technology issues that need to be addressed for burning plasmas. In addition to the scientific opportunities, we will also describe how ITER, being operated as a large-scale international project, is making progress in terms of organization, mission, funding, and programmatic coordination worldwide.

A Systematic Review of Evidence on Determining the Impact of Magnet Designation on Nursing and Patient Outcomes. Is the Investment Worth It?

A Systematic Review of Evidence on Determining the Impact of Magnet Designation on Nursing and Patient Outcomes. Is the Investment Worth It?

SNOLAB: A New International Facility for AstroParticle-Physics Research

SNOLAB is a new international facility for Underground Physics that has just begun operations in Sudbury, Canada. In the following we present the current status of the facility construction and operational readiness. We also describe the experimental program and the infrastructure available to support the program, with a focus on the direct dark matter search experiments.

A fractional programming model for international facility location

This paper presents a new mixed integer non-linear fractionalprogramming model for multi-commodity, multi-period, budgetconstrained and capacitated global supply chain design problem. Ourmodel simultaneously optimizes the facility location, capacityacquisition, and production-distribution decisions so as to maximizethe profitability of the total investment over a planning horizon.The model is also compared with the profit-maximization model andthe cost-minimization model. A branch-and-bound method and arounding heuristic algorithm are developed to tackle the problem athand. The computational results of solving 30 instances generatedrandomly show that our proposed model differs fundamentally from theother models and the rounding heuristic algorithm provides anefficient solution.

The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory at Homestake

The National Science Foundation and the international underground science community are well into establishing a world-class, multidisciplinary Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) at the former Homestake mine in Lead South Dakota. The NSF's review committee, following the first two NSF solicitations, selected the Homestake Proposal and site as the prime location to be developed into an international research facility. Homestake DUSEL will provide much needed underground research space to help relieve the worldwide shortage, particularly at great depth, and will develop research campuses at several different depths to satisfy the research requirements for the coming decades. The State of South Dakota has demonstrated remarkable support for the project and has secured the site with the transfer from the Homestake Mining Corp. The State, through its Science and Technology Authority with state funds and those of a philanthropic donor has initiated rehabilitation of the surface and underground infrastructure including the Ross and Yates hoists accessing the 4850 Level (feet below ground, 4100 to 4200 mwe). The scientific case for DUSEL and the progress in establishing the preliminary design of the facility and the associated suite of experiments to be funded along with the facility by the NSF are presented.

SNOLAB: A new international facility for Underground Astroparticle Physics

SNOLAB is a new international facility for Underground Physics currently nearing completion in Sudbury, Canada. In the following we present the status of both the construction project and the basic infrastructure available in support of the experiments. The status of the scientific programme, focused on dark matter searches, neutrinoless double beta decay, neutrinos and supernovae monitoring is also described.

Linguamón 𡀓 House of Languages: A Museum for the World’s Living Languages

Catalonia has responding to the United Nations’ call for development and peaceful coexistence with a groundbreaking undertaking. An international facility for raising awareness of the world’s 6,500 tongues, the House of Languages is set to open in 2010, in the hub of technological innovation and cultural creativity in Barcelona.

The central tracker of the [formula omitted]ANDA detector

One of the main components of the new international research facility called FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) [Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research. http://www.gsi.de/fair/index e.html], to be constructed in Darmstadt, Germany, is a storage ring for phase-space-cooled antiprotons—High Energy Storage Ring ( HESR). The P ¯ ANDA ( P ¯ (antiproton) ANnihilation in DArmstadt) [Strong Interaction Studies with Antiprotons, Technical Progress Report for P ¯ ANDA. http://www-panda.gsi.de/archive/public/panda_tpr.pdf] experiment is a state-of-the-art detector at HESR covering almost the complete solid angle with an internal target. This experiment will investigate QCD in the charmonium mass region. The central tracker is the essential part of the P ¯ ANDA detector, providing information about primary and secondary decay vertices, momenta of charged particles and particle identification.

PANDA electromagnetic calorimeters

PANDA is a challenging experimental setup to be implemented at the high-energy storage ring (HESR) at the international facility FAIR, GSI (Germany). PANDA physics program relies heavily on the capability to measure photons with excellent energy, position and timing resolution. For this purpose PANDA proposed to employ electromagnetic calorimeters using two different technologies: compact crystal calorimeter cooled to - 25 ∘ C around target and lead–scintillator sandwich calorimeter with optical fibers light collection (so-called shashlyk calorimeter) in the forward region. Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEP) PANDA group reports on two types of measurements performed at IHEP, Protvino: radiation hardness of the PWO crystals at - 25 ∘ C and testbeam studies of the energy and position resolution of the shashlyk calorimeter prototype in the energy range up to 19 GeV.

The US National Science Foundation's deep underground laboratory at Homestake- DUSEL

The US National Science Foundation has launched a program to establish a world-class, multi-disciplinary deep underground science and engineering laboratory - DUSEL. The NSF has selected as the prime site to be developed for an international world-class research facility. Recently there has been increasing interest in underground physics, astrophysics and other fields of science that require deep underground laboratory and research facilities. I will review the scientific case for DUSEL and the near-term experiments anticipated in Homestake, as well as presenting the efforts to create the Sanford Laboratory at Homestake in advance of DUSEL.

Layout of the Super-FRS target hall

The fragment separator Super-FRS is an important part of the planned international facility for antiproton and ion research (FAIR). The high intensity heavy ion beams with a beam power of up to 40kW for uranium require strong shielding of the area and safe handling of the components in the beamline. As the primary beam may be dumped at many positions along the separator the whole first part of the Super-FRS will be located in a dedicated target hall. The layout of this target hall is presented in this paper. The combination of iron and concrete for the biological shielding is determined by dose rate calculations with a radiation transport code (FLUKA) which can also treat heavy ions and predict dose rates after activation. The resulting layout foresees a compact iron shielding surrounded by many meters of concrete shielding. A plug system is used to insert devices into the beamline. A crane can transport these plugs to a nearby hot cell. The thickness of the inner shielding was adjusted to reduce the calculated dose rate on a working platform after a short waiting time to enable hands-on maintenance. Very important for the handling concept is the predicted activation of the devices inserted into the beam and of the shielding material itself.

Zero-Point Energy: The Case of the Leiden Low-Temperature Laboratory of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

Summary In this paper we examine the reaction of the Leiden low-temperature laboratory of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes to new ideas in quantum theory. Especially the contributions of Albert Einstein (1906) and Peter Debye (1912) to the theory of specific heat, and the concept of zero-point energy formulated by Max Planck in 1911, gave a boost to solid state research to test these theories. In the case of specific heat measurements, Kamerlingh Onnes's laboratory faced stiff competition from Walter Nernst's Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin. In fact, Berlin got the better of it because Leiden lacked focus. After the liquefaction of helium in 1908, Kamerlingh Onnes transformed his laboratory into an international facility for low temperature research, and for this reason it was impossible to make headway with the specific heat measurements. In the case of zero-point energy, Leiden developed a magnetic research programme to test the concept. Initially the balance of evidence seemed to be tipping in favour of zero-point energy. After 1914, however, Leiden would desert the theory in fovour, of a concept from calssical physics. A curious move that illustrates Kamerlingh Onnes's discomfort with the new quantum theory.

The status of the Super-FRS in-flight facility at FAIR

The future international facility FAIR (Facility for Antiprotons and Ion Research) will deliver beams of all ions up to uranium with intensities of up to 1012 ions/s. At FAIR it will be possible to perform experiments in different fields of physics. A wide range of ions with energies up to 1.5AGeV will be used for the production of fragments by projectile fragmentation/fission at the in-flight fragment separator, Super-FRS. Rare isotopes of all elements up to uranium will be produced and spatially separated within a few hundred nanoseconds, enabling the study of very short-lived nuclei.The Super-FRS is a large-acceptance device utilizing large-aperture superconducting magnets and employing multiple degrader stages to provide monoisotopic nuclear beams. It serves different experimental branches including a new storage-cooler ring system. Because of high primary beam intensity a challenging design of the target area and the components used in the first dipole stage of the Super-FRS is necessary. These efforts include high-power production targets, beam dumps to catch the remaining primary beam and radiation resistant magnets. In this contribution we present the status of the project.

Accelerator vacuum systems at DESY

The research center DESY in Germany is one of the leading accelerator centers worldwide. At the facilities located in Hamburg more than 3000 scientists from all over the world do research with photons and in the field of particle physics. Since 1992 the 6-km-long HERA storage ring was used for high energy collisions of electrons/positrons and protons. It consists of two rings. The one for the 27.5 GeV electrons/positrons uses normal conducting magnets. The other one bends the up to 920 GeV protons with superconducting magnets. Data taking at HERA has been terminated only recently. Synchrotron light for 36 experimental stations is generated by the 4.5 GeV storage ring DORIS. The 2.3 km long storage ring PETRA is presently rebuilt into PETRA III, one of the most brilliant X-ray sources worldwide, to start user operation in 2009. Therefore the vacuum system is completely replaced. The construction of the European X-ray Free Electron Laser XFEL, a new international research facility, just has started next to DESY. Its extremely intense X-ray laser flashes with tunable wavelengths down to 0.1 nm will open up completely new experimental possibilities for nearly all fields of natural sciences. The basic process adopted to generate the X-ray pulses is SASE (Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission). Therefore electron bunches are brought to high energy of about 20 GeV through a superconducting linear accelerator, and conveyed to up to 250 m long undulators where the X-rays are generated. The beam vacuum system of this 3.4 km long straight facility contains sections operated at room temperature as well as at 2 K in the areas of the superconducting accelerating structures. In addition to standard UHV requirements the vacuum system needs to preserve the particle cleanliness of the superconducting cavity surfaces. Further challenges are the undulator vacuum chambers filling more than 750 m with extreme requirements to the surface quality. Unique research opportunities worldwide are offered already now by the 250 m long free-electron laser FLASH, the prototype for the XFEL, which is under operation since several years as a user facility. The vacuum systems of the various DESY accelerator facilities will be discussed in this paper in more detail.

The vacuum system of the European X-ray free electron laser XFEL

The European X-ray Free Electron Laser XFEL, a new international research facility, will be built at DESY/Hamburg. The XFEL will generate extremely brilliant and ultra short pulses of spatially coherent X-rays with tuneable wavelengths down to 0.1 nm, and exploit them for revolutionary scientific experiments at various disciplines. The basic process adopted to produce the X-ray pulses is SASE (Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission). Therefore electron bunches are produced in a high-brightness gun, brought to high energy of about 20 GeV through a superconducting linear accelerator, and transported to up to 250 m long undulators, where the X-rays are generated. The beam vacuum system of the accelerator contains sections operated at room temperature as well as at 2 K in the areas of the superconducting accelerating structures, thus requiring an insulating vacuum system. In addition to standard UHV requirements, the vacuum system for this facility needs to preserve the cleanliness of the superconducting cavity surfaces. Therefore the preparation of all vacuum components for the 1.6 km long main linac includes cleaning of the components in a clean room to remove particles, installation into the accelerator in local clean rooms, and special procedures for pump down and venting. Further challenges are the undulator vacuum chambers filling more than 700 m, where a high surface quality with respect to surface roughness and thickness of oxide layers is mandatory to reduce wake field effects, and the vacuum systems for the various beam dumps, where exit windows acting as vacuum barriers of sufficient reliability need to be developed. In addition, a large amount of about 1.7 km of transport beam lines is required. The layout of the various vacuum sections as well as experience with prototype components will be described.