Estimating the neutron yield in a deuterium plasma with the JET neutron camera.

The JET neutron camera is a well-established detector system at JET, which has 19 sightlines each equipped with a liquid scintillator. The system measures a 2D profile of the neutron emission from the plasma. A first principle physics method is used to estimate the DD neutron yield that is based on JET neutron camera measurements and is independent of other neutron measurements. This paper details the data reduction techniques, models of the neutron camera, simulations of neutron transport, and detector responses used to this end. The estimate uses a simple parameterized model of the neutron emission profile. The method makes use of the JET neutron camera's upgraded data acquisition system. It also accounts for neutron scattering near the detectors and transmission through the collimator. These components together contribute to 9% of the detected neutron rate above a 0.5 MeVee energy threshold. Despite the simplicity of the neutron emission profile model, the DD neutron yield estimate falls on average within 10% agreement with a corresponding estimate from the JET fission chambers. The method can be improved by considering more advanced neutron emission profiles. It can also be expanded to estimate the DT neutron yield with the same methodology.

Inviwo - A Visualization System with Usage Abstraction Levels.

The complexity of today's visualization applications demands specific visualization systems tailored for the development of these applications. Frequently, such systems utilize levels of abstraction to improve the application development process, for instance by providing a data flow network editor. Unfortunately, these abstractions result in several issues, which need to be circumvented through an abstraction-centered system design. Often, a high level of abstraction hides low level details, which makes it difficult to directly access the underlying computing platform, which would be important to achieve an optimal performance. Therefore, we propose a layer structure developed for modern and sustainable visualization systems allowing developers to interact with all contained abstraction levels. We refer to this interaction capabilities as usage abstraction levels, since we target application developers with various levels of experience. We formulate the requirements for such a system, derive the desired architecture, and present how the concepts have been exemplary realized within the Inviwo visualization system. Furthermore, we address several specific challenges that arise during the realization of such a layered architecture, such as communication between different computing platforms, performance centered encapsulation, as well as layer-independent development by supporting cross layer documentation and debugging capabilities.

Image plane sweep volume illumination.

In recent years, many volumetric illumination models have been proposed, which have the potential to simulate advanced lighting effects and thus support improved image comprehension. Although volume ray-casting is widely accepted as the volume rendering technique which achieves the highest image quality, so far no volumetric illumination algorithm has been designed to be directly incorporated into the ray-casting process. In this paper we propose image plane sweep volume illumination (IPSVI), which allows the integration of advanced illumination effects into a GPU-based volume ray-caster by exploiting the plane sweep paradigm. Thus, we are able to reduce the problem complexity and achieve interactive frame rates, while supporting scattering as well as shadowing. Since all illumination computations are performed directly within a single rendering pass, IPSVI does not require any preprocessing nor does it need to store intermediate results within an illumination volume. It therefore has a significantly lower memory footprint than other techniques. This makes IPSVI directly applicable to large data sets. Furthermore, the integration into a GPU-based ray-caster allows for high image quality as well as improved rendering performance by exploiting early ray termination. This paper discusses the theory behind IPSVI, describes its implementation, demonstrates its visual results and provides performance measurements.

Neutron spectrometer for ITER using silicon detectors.

High resolution neutron spectrometers provide information about plasma parameters at existing fusion experiments. Such a system may also be employed at ITER. Proton recoil telescopes have classically been used to detect neutrons with good energy resolution but poor efficiency. Using annular silicon detectors, it is possible to greatly increase the solid angle coverage and hence improve efficiency. Based on a simulation (MCNPX) study, the scaling of energy resolution, efficiency, and time to determine an ion temperature to 10% accuracy on foil thickness and detector location is shown. The latter quantity is used to determine the optimum foil thickness and detector geometry for specific plasma temperatures. For a 20 keV deuterium-tritium (DT) plasma, 5.3% resolution with efficiency of 2.9x10(-4) n cm(2) is attainable using the available detectors. This gives a temperature measurement with 10% accuracy in 1.1 ms for a neutron flux of 2x10(9) n cm(-2). Multiple detectors can be used to further increase the efficiency if needed. A system of this kind could be tested in a future DT campaign at, for example, JET.

Polymer cell culture substrates with micropatterned carbon nanotubes.

This article presents study of the interactions between cells and micropatterned carbon nanotubes on a polymer cell culture substrate. The polymer substrates with patterned carbon nanotubes were fabricated using an imprint process, whereby the nanotubes were pressed into a polymer layer at high temperature. The patterned substrates featured 28 different nanotube patterns of microscale lanes and circles, where the feature sizes ranged from 9 to 76 microm. Osteoblast-like cells were seeded on the substrates and cell alignment was quantified via fluorescent and electron microscopy. Many patterns were fabricated on each polymer substrate, allowing 28 different experiments on each cell culture substrate, which were tested over 10,000 cells. The cell response to the patterned nanotubes showed a maximum alignment to the microlane patterns of 55 +/- 6% and no significant alignment to microcircle patterns. This work enables the study of cell response to a wider range of patterns featuring both the micro and nano length scales.