X-ray spectroscopy of highly ionised atoms of Ti through Zn in a dense plasma

X-ray spectra for several elements have been observed from a high-temperature plasma produced in a vacuum spark using a curved-crystal spectrometer. The transition wavelengths of the He-like resonance lines for Ti through Zn are determined for the first time under careful experimental treatments. The result is compared with theoretical predictions. The transition wavelengths of the Fe He-like resonance series lines up to 1s6p–1s² and the Kβ transition energies of Ti partially M-shell-ionised ions (Ti VI–XIII) are also determined. As a result, several satellite lines are found.     

Consideration of allowable flaw size for pressurized pipes

Failure strength for circumferentially and axially cracked Type 304 stainless steel pipes is evaluated based on the net-stress approach. Using this approach, allowable flaw sizes for pipes containing circumferential or axial cracks are considered from the leakage and breakage viewpoint.     

Highly hydrogenated dietary soybean oil modifies the responses to polychlorinated biphenyls in rats

The effects of dietary highly hydrogenated soybean oil (HSO) upon the changes caused by dietary polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were examined in rats. Six groups of rats were fed the following diets for 30 d: a 20% soybean oil-containing diet (control diet), a diet in which a half of soybean oil was substituted with HSO (HSO-A diet), a diet in which cellulose powder was replaced with HSO (HSO-B diet) and these diets supplemented with 100 ppm PCBs (control+PCBs, HSO-A+PCBs and HSO-B+PCBs diets). Hepatic concentration of PCBs and relative liver weight were markedly decreased in rats fed with the HSO-A+PCBs diet compared with those fed with the other diets containing PCBs. Liver lipids and liver cholesterol were considerably decreased with a reciprocal increase in fecal sterol excretion by rats fed the HSO-A+PCBs and the HSO-B+PCBs diets compared with those fed with the control+PCBs diet. The fatty acid composition in hepatic phospholipids showed an independent increase of the saturated fatty acid content induced by dietary HSO and PCBs. Dietary PCBs also caused decreases in the amounts of monounsaturated and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. These results suggest that dietary HSO prevents accumulation of PCBs in the liver and promotes the excretion of lipids stimulated by PCBs, accompanied by a change in fatty acid metabolism.     

Simplified stable crack growth analyses of welded CT specimens—comparison study of GE/EPRI, reference stress and R6 methods

This paper describes some simplified stable crack growth analyses of two kinds of inhomogeneous CT specimens. The one is machined from a submerged are welded plate of a nuclear pressure vessel A533B Class 1 steel, while the other is machined from an electron-beam welded plate of the A533B Class 1 steel and a high strength HT80 steel. In both specimens, initial cracks are placed to be normal to the fusion line. The ratio of yield stresses of the weld metal and the base metal of the A533B Class 1 steel is about 1·15, while that of the HT80 and the A533B Class 1 steels is about 1·4.

The generation phase crack growth analyses using the GE/EPRI and the reference stress methods are performed, calculating an applied load (P) and the J-value, while the application phase analyses of analyses using the R6 method are performed to calculate the maximum value of the applied load (P_max). Finally, some modification procedures of the three simplified estimation schemes are discussed in order to apply them to inhomogeneous material regimes.     

Failure-analysis-based test chip design for quick yield improvement

A new design approach for a test chip developed to shorten the debugging cycle time in fabrication is described. This approach meets the requirements for failure analysis as well as parametric and statistical analyses. Particular attention is devoted to accurate defect density estimation and to locating individual defects. This is done by designing test structures suitable for both electrical measurements and failure analysis. A specially designed test chip, named YTEG, is used to evaluate 0.5-μm CMOS process technologies, and confirms the effectiveness of the chip.     

Post-irradiation studies on knock-out and pseudo-recoil releases of fission products from fissioning UO2

By using post-irradiation techniques, in-pile releases of ¹³³Xe, ^85mKr, ⁸⁸Kr, ⁸⁷Kr and ¹³⁸Xe from UO₂ fissioning at low temperatures below about 200° C are studied: these are analyzed into a time-dependent knock-out and time-independent pseudo-recoil releases. For the latter, a “self knock-out” mechanism is proposed: when a fission fragment loses thoroughly its energy near the UO₂ surface and stops there, it will knock out the surface substances and accordingly the fragment (i.e. the fission product) will be released. The effective thickness of the layer where the self knock-out occurs is found to be ~7Å. As for the knock-out release, the following is estimated from its dependence on various factors: the knock-out release of fission products occurs from the surface layer with the effective thickness of ~20Å: the shape of UO₂ matrix knocked out by one fission fragment passing through the surface is equivalent to a cylinder ~32Å diameter by ~27Å thick, (i.e. the knock-out coefficient for UO₂ is ~660 uranium atoms per knock-out event). On the basis of the above estimations, the conclusions derived from the past in-pile studies of fission gas releases are evaluated.     

s-Shaped Software Reliability Growth Models and Their Applications

The s-shaped growth curves of detected software errors can be observed in software testing. The delayed s-shaped and inflection s-shaped software reliability growth models based on a nonhomogeneous Poisson process are discussed. The software reliability growth types of the models are investigated in terms of the error detection rate per error. In addition, a viable method for the software quality assessment, which integrates the capture-recapture method and the models above, is discussed, and its application to actual test data is illustrated.     

Vacuum-deposited amorphous phthalein films

Vacuum-deposited phthalein films in the amorphous state were studied. These films are transparent in the visible region and stable at room temperature. The crystallization energy for the deposited film, determined with a differential scanning calorimeter, is about 1.5 eV. The amorphous states of these deposited phthalein films were preserved by high energy barriers for crystallization. The lifetimes of the amorphous states of the deposited phthalein films are estimated to be several years at room temperature. These amorphous organic films are expected to have an optical use, because of their good optical transparencies and stabilities.     

Probabilistic distributions of pin gaps within a wire-spaced fuel subassembly and sensitivities of the related uncertainties to pin gap

Probabilistic fuel pin gap distributions within a wire-spaced fuel subassembly and sensitivities of the related uncertainties to fuel pin gaps are discussed. The analyses consist mainly of expressing a local fuel pin gap in terms of sensitivity functions of the related uncertainties and calculating the corresponding probabilistic distribution through taking all the possible combinations of the distribution of uncertainties. The results of illustrative calculations show that with the reliability level of 0.9987, the maximum deviation of the pin gap at the cladding hot spot of a center fuel subassembly is 8.05% from its nominal value and the corresponding probabilistic pin gap distribution is shifted to the narrower side due to the external confinement of a pin bundle with a wrapper tube.     

Permeability of the nuclear envelope at isolated Xenopus oocyte nuclei studied by scanning electrochemical microscopy

In interphase eukaryotic cells, molecular transport between the cytoplasm and the nucleus is mediated by the nuclear pore complex (NPC), which perforates the double-membraned nuclear envelope (NE). Local permeability of the NE at large intact nuclei (approximately 400 microm in diameter) isolated from Xenopus laevis oocytes was studied by scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). Steady-state tip current versus tip-nucleus distance curves (approach curves) were measured with 10- and 2-microm-diameter Pt disk microelectrodes at the nuclei in isotonic buffer solutions containing redox-active molecules. The approach curves in the normalized form are independent of the tip diameter, indicating diffusion-limited membrane transport of the redox molecules. SECM chronoamperometry demonstrated that a decrease in the steady-state tip current at short tip-nucleus distances is due to smaller diffusion coefficients and concentrations of the redox molecules in the nucleus than those in the buffer solution. The experimental approach curves fit very well with theoretical ones for freely permeable membranes, yielding the NE permeability to the molecules that is at least 2 orders of magnitude larger than permeability of bilayer lipid membranes and cell membranes. This result indicates that passive transport of the redox molecules across the NE is facilitated by open NPC pores. The flux of the redox molecules sustainable by a single NPC channel (>9.8 x 10(6) molecules per NPC per second) and the diameter of the channel pore (>15 nm) were estimated from the SECM data by assuming the NE as an array of nanometer-sized NPC pores. The effects of the redox molecules on the nucleus and the NPC function were examined by studying signal-mediated nuclear import of rhodamine-labeled bovine serum albumin with and without nuclear localization signals by fluorescence microscopy.