Neutral Transport Research Articles

Synthetic plasma edge diagnostics for EMC3-EIRENE, highlighted for Wendelstein 7-X.

Interpretation of spectroscopic measurements in the edge region of high-temperature plasmas can be a challenge since line of sight integration effects make direct interpretation in terms of quantitative, local emission strengths often impossible. The EMC3-EIRENE code-a 3D fluid edge plasma and kinetic neutral gas transport code-is a suitable tool for full 3D reconstruction of such signals. A versatile synthetic diagnostic module has been developed recently which allows the realistic 3D setup of various plasma edge diagnostics to be captured. We highlight these capabilities with two examples for Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X): a visible camera for the analysis of recycling, and a coherent-imaging system for velocity measurements.

Protein Restriction with Amino Acid-Balanced Diets Shrinks Circulating Pool Size of Amino Acid by Decreasing Expression of Specific Transporters in the Small Intestine.

Dietary protein restriction is not only beneficial to health and longevity in humans, but also protects against air pollution and minimizes feeding cost in livestock production. However, its impact on amino acid (AA) absorption and metabolism is not quite understood. Therefore, the study aimed to explore the effect of protein restriction on nitrogen balance, circulating AA pool size, and AA absorption using a pig model. In Exp.1, 72 gilts weighting 29.9 ± 1.5 kg were allocated to 1 of the 3 diets containing 14, 16, or 18% CP for a 28-d trial. Growth (n = 24), nitrogen balance (n = 6), and the expression of small intestinal AA and peptide transporters (n = 6) were evaluated. In Exp.2, 12 barrows weighting 22.7 ± 1.3 kg were surgically fitted with catheters in the portal and jejunal veins as well as the carotid artery and assigned to a diet containing 14 or 18% CP. A series of blood samples were collected before and after feeding for determining the pool size of circulating AA and AA absorption in the portal vein, respectively. Protein restriction did not sacrifice body weight gain and protein retention, since nitrogen digestibility was increased as dietary protein content reduced. However, the pool size of circulating AA except for lysine and threonine, and most AA flux through the portal vein were reduced in pigs fed the low protein diet. Meanwhile, the expression of peptide transporter 1 (PepT-1) was stimulated, but the expression of the neutral and cationic AA transporter systems was depressed. These results evidenced that protein restriction with essential AA-balanced diets, decreased AA absorption and reduced circulating AA pool size. Increased expression of small intestinal peptide transporter PepT-1 could not compensate for the depressed expression of jejunal AA transporters for AA absorption.

Variability and predictability of the space environment as related to lower atmosphere forcing

AbstractThe Earth's thermosphere and ionosphere (TI) are characterized by perpetual variability as integral parts of the atmosphere system, with intermittent disturbances from solar and geomagnetic forcing. This review examines how the TI variability is affected by processes originating from the lower atmosphere and implications for quantifying and forecasting the TI. This aspect of the TI variability has been increasingly appreciated in recent years from both observational and numerical studies, especially during the last extended solar minimum. This review focuses on the role of atmospheric waves, including tides, planetary waves, gravity waves, and acoustic waves, which become increasingly significant as they propagate from their source region to the upper atmosphere. Recent studies have led to better understanding of how these waves directly or indirectly affect TI wind, temperature, and compositional structures; the circulation pattern; neutral and ion species transport; and ionospheric wind dynamo. The variability of these waves on daily to interannual scales has been found to significantly impact the TI variability. Several outstanding questions and challenges have been highlighted: (i) large, seemingly stochastic, day‐to‐day variability of tides in the TI; (ii) control of model error in the TI region by the lower atmosphere; and (iii) the increasing importance of processes with shorter spatial and temporal scales at higher altitudes. Addressing these challenges requires model capabilities to assimilate observations of both lower and upper atmosphere and higher model resolution to capture complex interactions among processes over a broad range of scales and extended altitudes.

Ion chemistry in the coma of comet 67P near perihelion

The coma and the comet-solar wind interaction of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko changed dramatically from the initial Rosetta spacecraft encounter in August 2014 through perihelion in August 2015. Just before equinox (at 1.6 AU from the Sun), the solar wind signal disappeared and two regions of different cometary ion characteristics were observed. These “outer” and “inner” regions have cometary ion characteristics similar to outside and inside the ion pileup region observed during the Giotto approach to comet 1P/Halley. Rosetta/DFMS ion mass spectrometer observations are used here to investigate the H3O+/H2O+ ratio in the outer and inner regions at 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The H3O+/H2O+ ratio and the H3O+ signal are observed to increase in the transition from the outer to the inner region and the H3O+ signal appears to be weakly correlated with cometary ion energy. These ion composition changes are similar to the ones observed during the 1P/Halley flyby. Modeling is used to determine the importance of neutral composition and transport of neutrals and ions away from the nucleus. This modeling demonstrates that changes in the H3O+/H2O+ ratio appear to be driven largely by transport properties and only weakly by neutral composition in the coma.

Radial transport dynamics studies of SMBI with a newly developed TPSMBI code**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11575055, 11375053, and 11475219) and the National Magnetic Confinement Fusion Science Program of China (Grant Nos. 2013GB111005, 2014GB108004, and 2015GB110001).

In tokamak plasma fueling, supersonic molecule beam injection (SMBI) with a higher fueling efficiency and a deeper penetration depth than the traditional gas puffing method has been developed and widely applied to many tokamak devices. It is crucial to study the transport dynamics of SMBI to improve its fueling efficiency, especially in the high confinement regime. A new one-dimensional (1D) code of TPSMBI has also been developed recently based on a six-field SMBI model in cylindrical coordinate. It couples plasma density and heat radial transport equations together with neutral density transport equations for both molecules and atoms and momentum radial transport equations for molecules. The dominant particle collisional interactions between plasmas and neutrals, such as molecule dissociation, atom ionization and charge-exchange effects, are included in the model. The code is verified to be correct with analytical solutions and also benchmarked well with the trans-neut module of BOUT++ code. Time-dependent radial transport dynamics and mean profile evolution are studied during SMBI with the TPSMBI code in both slab and cylindrical coordinates. Along the SMBI path, plasma density increases due to particle fuelling, while plasma temperature decreases due to heat cooling. Being different from slab coordinate, the curvature effect leads to larger front densities of molecule and atom during SMBI in cylindrical coordinate simulation.

Engineering estimates of impurity fluxes on the ITER port plugs

Predictions of impurity fluxes are required for design analysis of the ITER optical diagnostics. In the present paper a simplified model is proposed for calculation of the neutral impurity fluxes on the recessed surfaces which are not in direct contact with plasma. The method is based on the Monte-Carlo simulation of the neutral particles transport in prescribed and fixed plasma background. The plasma parameters are projected from experimental observations, scalings and ITER modelling results. Blobs are approximated as stationary hot species. Results of 2D simulations with toroidally uniform wall and of the ‘2.5D model’ are presented. In this latter the 3D geometry of ports is implemented, but details of the incident ion flux distribution on the first wall panels are neglected. The calculated worst case gross deposition rate of Be in the middle of the port plug faces reaches almost 0.1 nm s−1. At the same time, the obtained Be erosion to deposition ratio at those locations is always larger than 5, indicating high probability of net erosion conditions there.

Abstract 4137: Loss of LKB1 mediates an immune inert phenotype in human lung adenocarcinoma

Abstract Background: We recently have reported that co-mutations within KRAS-mutated lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) define a distinct biological phenotype and may offer insights into therapeutic targeting using this classification system. The analysis revealed striking differences in checkpoint ligand expression and T cell infiltration between TP53 and STK11 (LKB1) co-mutated KRAS LUAD. We, therefore, hypothesized that loss of LKB1promotes an immune-suppressed phenotype in KRAS LUAD. To test this, we analyzed 100 immune-related genes from The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets, as well as three other sets of resected tumors from NSLC patients from MD Anderson Cancer Center. Results: Our results revealed that tumors lacking LKB1 (LKB1-loss), as defined by mutation or gene-expression signature, resulted in a down regulation of: tumor associated immunosuppressive ligands, PD-L1, PD-L2, B7-H3, B7-H4, HVEM; T cell associated immunosuppressive ligands PD-1, CTLA-4, BTLA; co-stimulation ligands such as CD80, -86, -40L, and -40. We further examined if this loss of immunosuppression and co-stimulation resulted in changes in markers of T cell phenotypes. Indeed, tumors lacking LKB1-loss tumors demonstrated a distinct lack absence of several T cell markers including CD3, -4, & -8, but also RORC, T-bet, GATA-3, and FoxP3. To determine if myeloid cell populations, known mediators of immune suppression, were also diminished in LKB1-loss tumors, we analyzed expression of CD11c, -103, -11b, -68, and CD33. Consistent with T cell makers and suppressive ligand markers, myeloid markers were down regulated in LKB1-loss tumors. Because common immune suppression markers were lost, we then examined the expression of antigen presentation (HLA-I, HLA-II) and amino acid transporters as possible alternative methods for immune suppression. In LKB1-loss tumors, both HLA-I and HLA-II markers were down regulated, compared to tumors with intact LKB1 expression. Furthermore, genes associated with the antigen presentation complex, LMP2, TAP1&2, and B2M were also down regulated. In contrast to the immune markers described above, cationic transporters (SLC7A2), anionic transporters (SLC7A11), and neutral transporters (SLC3A2) were universally upregulated in LKB1-loss tumors. Conclusions: LKB1 loss is associated with an inert immune phenotype. Our data suggests that reduced antigen presentation and amino acid depletion, but not checkpoint factors or MDSCs, are likely mediator of this phenotype. Citation Format: Warren L. Denning, Ferdinandos Skoulidis, Li Shen, Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulou, Lixia Diao, Yanyan Lou, Lauren A. Byers, Jing Wang, Jaime R. Canales, Ignacio I. Wistuba, John Weinstein, Don L. Gibbons, John V. Heymach. Loss of LKB1 mediates an immune inert phenotype in human lung adenocarcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4137.

Improved kinetic neoclassical transport calculation for a low-collisionality QH-mode pedestal

The role of neoclassical, anomalous and neutral transport to the overall H-mode pedestal and scrape-off layer (SOL) structure in an ELM-free QH-mode discharge on DIII-D is explored using XGC0, a 5D full-f multi-species particle-in-cell drift-kinetic solver with self-consistent neutral recycling and sheath potentials. The work in this paper builds on previous work aimed at achieving quantitative agreement between the flux-driven simulation and the experimental electron density, impurity density and orthogonal measurements of impurity temperature and flow profiles. Improved quantitative agreement is achieved by performing the calculations with a more realistic electron mass, larger neutral density and including finite-Larmor-radius corrections self-consistently in the drift-kinetic motion of the particles. Consequently, the simulations provide stronger evidence that the radial electric field () in the pedestal is primarily established by the required balance between the loss of high-energy tail main ions against a pinch of colder main ions and impurities. The kinetic loss of a small population of ions carrying a large proportion of energy and momentum leads to a separation of the particle and energy transport rates and introduces a source of intrinsic edge torque. Ion orbit loss and finite orbit width effects drive the energy distributions away from Maxwellian, and describe the anisotropy, poloidal asymmetry and local minimum near the separatrix observed in the profile.

Hybrid Formulation of Radiation Transport in Optically Thick Divertor Plasmas

AbstractKinetic Monte Carlo simulations of coupled atom‐radiation transport in optically thick divertor plasmas can be computationally very demanding, in particular in ITER relevant conditions or even larger devices, e.g. for power plant divertor studies. At high (∼ 1015 cm–3) atomic densities, it can be shown that sufficiently large divertors behave in certain areas like a black body near the first resonance line of hydrogen (Lyman α). This suggests that, at least in part, the use of continuum model (radiation hydrodynamics) can be sufficiently accurate, while being less time consuming. In this work, we report on the development of a hybrid model devoted to switch automatically between a kinetic and a continuum description according to the plasma conditions. Calculations of the photo‐excitation rate in a homogeneous slab are performed as an illustration. The outlined hybrid concept might be also applicable to neutral atom transport, due to mathematical analogy of transport equations for neutrals and radiation.

Accuracy and convergence of coupled finite-volume/Monte Carlo codes for plasma edge simulations of nuclear fusion reactors

The plasma and neutral transport in the plasma edge of a nuclear fusion reactor is usually simulated using coupled finite volume (FV)/Monte Carlo (MC) codes. However, under conditions of future reactors like ITER and DEMO, convergence issues become apparent. This paper examines the convergence behaviour and the numerical error contributions with a simplified FV/MC model for three coupling techniques: Correlated Sampling, Random Noise and Robbins Monro. Also, practical procedures to estimate the errors in complex codes are proposed. Moreover, first results with more complex models show that an order of magnitude speedup can be achieved without any loss in accuracy by making use of averaging in the Random Noise coupling technique.

Three-dimensional scrape off layer transport in the helically symmetric experiment HSX

The edge topology of helically symmetric experiment (HSX) in the quasi-helically symmetric configuration is characterized by an 8/7 magnetic island remnant embedded in a short connection length scrape-off layer (SOL) domain. A 2D mapping of edge plasma profiles within this heterogeneous SOL has been constructed using a movable, multi-pin Langmuir probe. Comparisons of these measurements to edge simulations using the EMC3-EIRENE 3D plasma fluid and kinetic neutral gas transport model have been performed. The measurements provide strong evidence that particle transport is diffusive within the island region and dominantly convective in the SOL region. Measurements indicate that phenomenological cross-field diffusion coefficients are low in the SOL region between the last closed flux surface and edge island (i.e. m2 s−1). This level of transport was found to increase by a factor of two when a limiter is inserted almost completely into the magnetic island. A reduction in gradients of the edge electrostatic plasma potential was also measured in this configuration, suggesting that the reduced electric field may be linked to the increased cross-field transport observed.

Three-dimensional modeling of plasma edge transport and divertor fluxes during application of resonant magnetic perturbations on ITER

Results from three-dimensional modeling of plasma edge transport and plasma–wall interactions during application of resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) fields for control of edge-localized modes in the ITER standard 15 MA Q = 10 H-mode are presented. The full 3D plasma fluid and kinetic neutral transport code EMC3-EIRENE is used for the modeling. Four characteristic perturbed magnetic topologies are considered and discussed with reference to the axisymmetric case without RMP fields. Two perturbation field amplitudes at full and half of the ITER ELM control coil current capability using the vacuum approximation are compared to a case including a strongly screening plasma response. In addition, a vacuum field case at high q95 = 4.2 featuring increased magnetic shear has been modeled.Formation of a three-dimensional plasma boundary is seen for all four perturbed magnetic topologies. The resonant field amplitudes and the effective radial magnetic field at the separatrix define the shape and extension of the 3D plasma boundary. Opening of the magnetic field lines from inside the separatrix establishes scrape-off layer-like channels of direct parallel particle and heat flux towards the divertor yielding a reduction of the main plasma thermal and particle confinement. This impact on confinement is most accentuated at full RMP current and is strongly reduced when screened RMP fields are considered, as well as for the reduced coil current cases.The divertor fluxes are redirected into a three-dimensional pattern of helical magnetic footprints on the divertor target tiles. At maximum perturbation strength, these fingers stretch out as far as 60 cm across the divertor targets, yielding heat flux spreading and the reduction of peak heat fluxes by 30%. However, at the same time substantial and highly localized heat fluxes reach divertor areas well outside of the axisymmetric heat flux decay profile. Reduced RMP amplitudes due to screening or reduced RMP coil current yield a reduction of the width of the divertor flux spreading to about 20–25 cm and cause increased peak heat fluxes back to values similar to those in the axisymmetric case. The dependencies of these features on the divertor recycling regime and the perpendicular transport assumptions, as well as toroidal averaged effects mimicking rotation of the RMP field, are discussed in the paper.

Amino acids, independent of insulin, attenuate skeletal muscle autophagy in neonatal pigs during endotoxemia.

BACKGROUNDSepsis induces loss of skeletal muscle mass by activating the ubiquitin proteasome (UPS) and autophagy systems. Although muscle protein synthesis in healthy neonatal piglets is responsive to amino acid (AA) stimulation, it is not known if amino acids (AA) can prevent the activation of muscle protein degradation induced by sepsis. We hypothesize that AA attenuate the sepsis-induced activation of UPS and autophagy in neonates.METHODSNewborn pigs were infused for 8 h with liposaccharide (LPS) (0 and 10 µg·kg−1·h−1), while circulating glucose and insulin were maintained at fasting levels; circulating AA were clamped at fasting or fed levels. Markers of protein degradation and AA transporters in longissimus dorsi (LD) were examined.RESULTSFasting AA increased muscle microtubule-associated protein light 1 chain 3 II (LC3-II) abundance in LPS compared to control, while fed AA levels decreased LC3-II abundance in both LPS and controls. There was no effect of AA supplementation on AMP-activated protein kinase, forkhead box O1 and O4 phosphorylation, nor on sodium-coupled neutral AA transporter 2 and light chain AA transporter 1, muscle RING-finger protein-1 and muscle Atrophy F-Box/Atrogin-1 abundance.CONCLUSIONSThese findings suggest that supplementation of AA antagonize autophagy signal activation in skeletal muscle of neonates during endotoxemia.

Long‐term Leucine and BCAA Inclusion in a 30% Protein and Energy Restricted Diet Increases mTORC1 Signaling in Skeletal Muscle of Neonatal Pigs

Suboptimal nutrient intake during the shift from parenteral to oral feeding represents a limiting factor for growth of low‐birth weight infants. Leucine has been shown to have anabolic properties in skeletal muscle and can promote lean gain when supplemented to neonatal pigs fed a milk replacement formula. The objective of this study was to test if enteral leucine supplementation alone, or in combination with isoleucine and valine, can increase muscle protein synthesis in neonate pigs who consume 30% less crude protein (CP) and metabolizable energy than their requirements, and whether this effect is mediated through changes in muscle protein synthesis and degradation pathways, and amino acid (AA) transporter expression. Piglets (4‐d‐old) were fed by gastric tube 1 of 4 diets providing (kg BW/d) 15 g CP and 215 kcal (CON), 10.5 g CP and 156 kcal (R), 10.5 g CP + 1.19 g leucine and 156 kcal (RL), or 10.5 g CP + 1.67 g branched‐chain amino acids and 156 kcal (RBCAA) at 4‐h intervals for 9 d (n = 24). Body weights (BW) were recorded on d 0, 3, 6, and 9. On d 9, plasma AA and insulin concentrations and muscle protein synthesis rate, abundance of Na+‐coupled neutral AA transporter (SNAT2) and L‐type AA transporter (LAT1), and phosphorylation and/or abundance of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS‐1, Ser1101), protein kinase B (PKB), S6 kinase (S6K1), 4E‐binding protein (4EBP1), eukaryotic initiation factor 4 complex (eIF4E·eIF4G), forkhead box O (FOXO1, Ser256), atrophy F‐Box/Atrogin‐1 and muscle RING‐finger protein (MuRF1) were determined post‐feeding. Plasma leucine levels were greater in RL and RBCAA compared to CON (P ≤ 0.01). BW gain and muscle protein synthesis rate, phosphorylation of S6K1 and 4EBP1, and formation of eIF4E·eIF4G were lower in R, RL, and RBCAA than CON (P < 0.01). RBCAA and RL upregulated (P ≤ 0.01) S6K1 and 4EBP1 phosphorylation and eIF4E·eIF4G formation compared to R. Phosphorylation of FOXO1 was lower in R compared to CON (P ≤ 0.05). There were no differences in phosphorylation and/or abundance of IRS‐1, PKB, SNAT2, LAT1, atrogin‐1 and MURF1 among diets. In conclusion, when protein and energy intakes are restricted, leucine or BCAA supplementation for 9 d increases the activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin pathway, but does not enhance skeletal muscle protein synthesis or promote body weight gain in neonatal pigs. Furthermore, protein degradation signaling, AA transporter abundance, and insulin signaling are unaffected by leucine or BCAA supplementation of a protein and energy restricted diet suggesting that when both dietary protein and/or energy supplies are deficient, the anabolic effect of leucine or BCAA supplementation on muscle protein accretion is limited.Support or Funding InformationNIH AR444474, NIH HD072891, NIH AR46308, USDA NIFA 2013‐67015‐20438, and USDA/ARS 6250‐51000‐055

Constructing higher-order hydrodynamics: The third order

Hydrodynamics can be formulated as the gradient expansion of conserved currents in terms of the fundamental fields describing the near-equilibrium fluid flow. In the relativistic case, the Navier-Stokes equations follow from the conservation of the stress-energy tensor to first order in derivatives. In this paper, we go beyond the presently understood second-order hydrodynamics and discuss the systematisation of obtaining the hydrodynamic expansion to an arbitrarily high order. As an example of the algorithm that we present, we fully classify the gradient expansion at third order for neutral fluids in four dimensions, thus finding the most general next-to-leading-order corrections to the relativistic Navier-Stokes equations in curved space-time. In doing so, we list $20$ new transport coefficient candidates in the conformal and $68$ in the non-conformal case. As we do not consider any constraints that could potentially arise from the local entropy current analysis, this is the maximal possible set of neutral third-order transport coefficients. To investigate the physical implications of these new transport coefficients, we obtain the third-order corrections to the linear dispersion relations that describe the propagation of diffusion and sound waves in relativistic fluids. We also compute the corrections to the scalar (spin-$2$) two-point correlation function of the third-order stress-energy tensor. Furthermore, as an example of a non-linear hydrodynamic flow, we calculate the third-order corrections to the energy density of a boost-invariant Bjorken flow. Finally, we apply our field theoretic results to the $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills fluid at infinite 't Hooft coupling and infinite number of colours to find the values of five new linear combinations of the conformal transport coefficients.

A solution of the monoenergetic neutral particle transport equation for adjacent half-spaces with anisotropic scattering

We present highly accurate solutions to the neutral particle transport equation in a half-space. While our initial motivation was in response to a recently published solution based on Chandrasekhar's H-function, the presentation to follow has taken on a more comprehensive tone. The solution by H-functions certainly did achieved high accuracy but was limited to isotropic scattering and emission from spatially uniform and linear sources. Moreover, the overly complicated nature of the H-function approach strongly suggests that its extension to anisotropic scattering and general sources is not at all practical. For this reason, an all encompassing theory for the determination of highly precise benchmarks, including anisotropic scattering for a variety of spatial source distributions, is presented for particle transport in a half-space. We illustrate the approach via a collection of cases including tables of 7-place flux benchmarks to guide transport methods developers. The solution presented can be applied to a considerable number of one and two half-space transport problems with variable sources and represents a state-of-the-art benchmark solution.

Numerical study of potential heat flux mitigation effects in the TCV snowflake divertor

We report on EMC3-Eirene simulations of the plasma and neutral particle transport the TCV boundary layer of a series of snowflake (SF) equilibria characterized by the normalized poloidal flux coordinate of the secondary X-point x2. We refer to a snowflake plus (SF+) for , a snowflake minus (SF−) for and a single-null (SN) for . Four effects are identified that have the potential to mitigate the heat flux density at the outer strike point in a LFS SF−where x2 is located on the low field side of the primary X-point x1: (1) a scrape-off layer heat flux splitting, (2) an impurity radiation cloud forming at x2 (3) the increased connection length to the outer target and (4) increased transport between x1 and x2. The LFS SF− is thus expected to tolerate a larger power flux over the separatrix than a comparable SN configuration.

Potential of Algae for Biofuel Production

A non-renewable fuel like petroleum has been used from centuries and its usage has kept on increasing day by day. This also contributes to increased production of greenhouse gases contributing towards global issues like global warming. In order to meet environmental and economic sustainability, renewable, carbon neutral transport fuels are necessary. To meet these demands microalgae are one of the key sources for the production of biodiesel. These green microalgae synthesise lipids by using sunlight like plants do but in a much more efficient manner. Biodiesel provides more environmental benefits, and being a renewable resource it has gained lot of attraction. However, the main obstacle for commercialization of biodiesel is its cost and feasibility. Biodiesel is usually used by blending with petro diesel, but it can also be used in pure form. Biodiesel is a sustainable fuel, as it is available throughout the year and can run any engine. It will satisfy the needs of the future generation to come. It will meet the demands of the future generation to come.

Modeling and measuring the transport and scattering of energetic debris in an extreme ultraviolet plasma source

A theoretical model for describing the propagation and scattering of energetic species in an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light lithography source is presented. An EUV light emitting XTREME XTS 13-35 Z-pinch plasma source is modeled with a focus on the effect of chamber pressure and buffer gas mass on energetic ion and neutral debris transport. The interactions of the energetic debris species, which is generated by the EUV light emitting plasma, with the buffer gas and chamber walls are considered as scattering events in the model, and the trajectories of the individual atomic species involved are traced using a Monte Carlo algorithm. This study aims to establish the means by which debris is transported to the intermediate focus with the intent to verify the various mitigation techniques currently employed to increase EUV lithography efficiency. The modeling is compared with an experimental investigation. © 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) (DOI: 10.1117/1. JMM.15.1.013503)

‘However illegal, extraordinary or almost incredible such conduct might be’: Americans and neutrality issues in the Mediterranean during the French Wars

This article examines the conditions under which American ships sailed into the Mediterranean during the French Wars (1793–1815), particularly in the late 1790s after the signature of peace treaties with the Barbary States. Theoretically, such treaties should have enabled Americans to take advantage of two factors: the increasing demand for neutral transport in this area, and the reorganization of international trade flows precipitated by European warfare. In fact, American ships in the Mediterranean still faced major difficulties, especially with French and Spanish privateering, against which United States’ agents and consuls tried to protect them. They not only struggled with the contradictory principles of neutrality applied by different states, but also with the private interests of belligerent privateers, consuls and judges. At the same time, American merchants and captains were tempted to cover trades which belligerents might consider illegal. Commercial realities blurred traditional concepts of national allegiance and affiliation. Based on primary sources, this article argues that neutrality should be conceived within an evolving system of relations in a given region, rather than as a clear-cut, objective legal determination of the status of neutral shipping and the maritime trading rights of a given flag.