No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Medicine, 2002? / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-225).

The sites of biosynthesis and incorporation of the abundant CNS myelin proteins 2' , 3' -cyclic nucleotide-3'-phosphodiesterase (CNPase) and P2 protein into the growing myelin membrane were investigated. Cell-free translation systems programmed with mRNA from rat brain, rabbit spinal cord, free and bound polysomes and purified myelin demonstrated conclusively that both CNPase and P2 are synthesized on free polysomes like the myelin basic proteins (MBPs) but unlike the proteolipid protein (PLP), the major intrinsic membrane protein of CNS myelin, which is known to be synthesized at the oligodendrocyte endoplasmic reticulum on bound polysomes (Colman et al., 1982) . These observations were supported by labelling studies on rats in vivo during the period of maximal myelin deposition. Newly synthesized CNPase associated with the myelin membrane very rapidly after labelling (~2 minutes) and this is consistent with the view that there is only a brief delay between synthesis and incorporation into their target membrane for extrinsic-type plasma membrane proteins. An RNA fraction isolated from purified CNS myelin was not enriched in mRNAs coding for CNPase and P2 but a considerable enrichment of mRNAs coding for MBPs was observed. This phenomenon has important implications for the cell biology of myelination since it suggests that although MBPs, CNPase and P2 are all basic extrinsic membrane proteins, and synthesized on free polysomes, different mechanisms for their transport to the myelin membrane exist. The addition of dog pancreatic microsomes (DPM) during translation showed no membrane association for CNPase however, at least 50% of MBPs were observed to non-specifically associate with these membranes. When newly synthesized MBP and P2 were incubated post-translationally with DPM or rabbit spinal cord myelin P2 only associated with myelin whereas MBP showed an equal affinity for both types of membranes. The segregation of MBP free polysomes at the myelin membrane during synthesis ensures that the nascent MBP polypeptides associate with the correct membrane. Recent evidence has shown that the free polysome-mRNA complex is bound to the cytoskeleton during protein synthesis. After extensive characterization of the purified rat brain oligodendrocyte and myelin-associated cytoskeletons it was shown that the synthesis of MBPs and CNPase only occurs from mRNA that is associated with the cytoskeleton and not when it is part of the cytoplasmic mRNA pool. Lipid analysis of the purified rat brain myelin-associated cytoskeleton revealed the presence of tightly bound lipid with a considerable enrichment of cerebroside and sphingomyelin (the latter at the expense of phosphatidylethanolamine). These studies on the cytoskeletal involvement in myelinogenesis suggest that extrinsic CNS myelin proteins are synthesized on the cytoskeleton and that post-translational cytoskeletal transport of these proteins to the growing myelin membrane may take place.

In this study, the unsteady velocity function of the ions and electrons in the collisional presheath and collisionless sheath of a plasma near a completely absorbing wall are determined from a kinetic analysis. The collisions in the presheath are modeled by a relaxtion time approximation (namely BGK model¡ABhatnagar-Gross-Krook ). The model and analysis from Emmert et al. are used to find the variation in electrostatic potential with position. Distribution functions of the ions and electrons in a collisionless presheath and sheath can be exactly obtained. Velocities of the ions in the presheath and sheath are highly non-Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions. The electrons in the presheath are close to Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions, but those in the sheath are non-Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions. The computed distribution functions for a completely absorbing surface agree with theoretical results provided in the literature.

No description available.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-225) A new method is described that enables longitudinal and cross sections of an individual nerve fibre to be cut at multiple specified sites along the fibre by use of an unique marker system. The method is particularly useful for the correlative study of myelin-axon relationships

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-225) / ix, 225, vii leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / A new method is described that enables longitudinal and cross sections of an individual nerve fibre to be cut at multiple specified sites along the fibre by use of an unique marker system. The method is particularly useful for the correlative study of myelin-axon relationships / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Medicine, 2002?

SuperCritical Water-cooled Reactors (SCWRs) are one of the six nuclear-reactor concepts currently being developed under the Generation-IV International Forum (GIF). A main advantage of SCW Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) is that they offer higher thermal efficiencies compared to those of current conventional NPPs. Unlike today’s conventional NPPs, which have thermal efficiencies between 30 ‒ 35%, SCW NPPs will have thermal efficiencies within a range of 45 ‒ 50%, owing to high operating temperatures and pressures (i.e., coolant temperatures as high as 625°C at 25 MPa pressure). The use of current fuel bundles with UO2 fuel at the high operating parameters of SCWRs may cause high fuel centerline temperatures, which could lead to fuel failure and fission gas release. Studies have shown that when the Variant-20 (43-element) fuel bundle was examined at SCW conditions, the fuel centerline temperature industry limit of 1850°C for UO2 and the sheath temperature design limit of 850°C might be exceeded. Therefore, new fuel-bundle designs, which comply with the design requirements, are required for future use in SCWRs. The main objective of this study to conduct a sensitivity analysis in order to identify the main factors that leads to fuel centerline temperature reduction. Therefore, a 54-element fuel bundle with smaller diameter of fuel elements compared to that of the 43-element bundle was designed and various nuclear fuels are examined for future use in a generic Pressure Tube (PT) SCWR. The 54-element bundle consists of 53 heated fuel elements with an outer diameter of 9.5 mm and one central unheated element of 20-mm outer diameter which contains burnable poison. The 54-element fuel bundle has an outer diameter of 103.45 mm, which is the same as the outer diameter of the 43-element fuel bundle. After developing the 54-element fuel bundle, one-dimensional heat-transfer analysis was conducted using MATLAB and NIST REFPROP programs. As a ii result, the Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC), bulk-fluid, sheath and fuel centerline temperature profiles were generated along the heated length of 5.772 m for a generic fuel channel. The fuel centerline and sheath temperature profiles have been determined at four Axial Heat Flux Profiles (AHFPs) using an average thermal power per channel of 8.5 MWth. The four examined AHFPs are the uniform, cosine, upstream-skewed and downstream-skewed profiles. Additionally, this study focuses on investigating a possibility of using low, enhanced and high thermal-conductivity fuels. The low thermal-conductivity fuels, which have been examined in this study, are uranium dioxide (UO2), Mixed Oxide (MOX) and Thoria (ThO2) fuels. The examined enhanced thermal-conductivity fuels are uranium dioxide – silicon carbide (UO2 - SiC) and uranium dioxide - beryllium oxide (UO2 - BeO). Lastly, uranium carbide (UC), uranium dicarbide (UC2) and uranium nitride (UN) are the selected high thermal-conductivity fuels, which have been proposed for use in SCWRs. A comparison has been made between the low, enhanced and high thermal-conductivity fuels in order to identify the fuel centerline temperature behaviour when different nuclear fuels are used. Also, in the process of conducting the sensitivity analysis, the HTC was calculated using the Mokry et al. correlation, which is the most accurate supercritical water heat-transfer correlation so far. The sheath and the fuel centerline temperature profiles were determined for two cases. In Case 1, the HTC was calculated based on the Mokry et al. correlation, while in Case 2, the HTC values calculated for Case 1 were multiplied by a factor of 2. This factor was used in order to identify the amount of decrease in temperatures if the heat transfer is enhanced with appendages. Results of this analysis indicate that the use of the newly developed 54-element fuel bundle along with the proposed fuels is promising when compared with the iii Variant-20 (43-element) fuel bundle. Overall, the fuel centerline and sheath temperatures were below the industry and design limits when most of the proposed fuels were examined in the 54-element fuel bundle, however, the fuel centerline temperature limit was exceeded while MOX fuel was examined. / UOIT

In March 2007 five satellites were launched as part of the NASA mission THEMIS. The aim of the mission is to answer the unknown questions regarding the onset of substorms. THEMIS data has also been used within other research fields. Today many scientists aim to investigate wave phenomena, such as whistler waves, wave interactions in the radiation belts and general turbulence in the magnetosphere and the solar wind. These processes occur at intermediate frequencies (a few hundreds of Hertz). Correct and reliable results require good knowledge of the frequency response,  the so called transfer function, for the electric field instrument (EFI). Post-launch calibrations have given good knowledge of the instrument's response at high and low frequencies. However, at intermediate frequencies (50-3000 Hz) the transfer function has only been determined via calculations/simulations and not yet obtained from data collected in space. Moreover, the transfer function changes substantially in this range, as the instrument transitions from a resistive low-frequency coupling to a capacitive high-frequency coupling. The transition is known as the RC roll-off. In this thesis, data from different regions and with different electrical settings have been analyzed to estimate the EFI sensors' sheath impedance and transfer function. Data have been collected during July 2009 and March 2011. From the first period, I-V curves where extracted for four different regions (i.e. with different plasma conditions) and their associated sheath impedance calculated. I-V curves are graphical representations of how the voltage differs with the changed bias current. From the sheath impedance and the measured free-space capacitance the RC roll-off can been directly calculated. An experiment was also conducted in March 2011 where the instrument was run in a special mode designed to measure the relative transfer function with the probes run at different bias setting, yielding different sheath impedances. The analysis of the I-V curves and relative transfer function show similar results, which clearly differ from the earlier believed values. Values for the sheath impedance are lower (4-6 MΩ) than the expected (30 MΩ) and depend on the usher setting. The usher is an electronic device which should shield the sensor from the photoelectron produced by illumination of the preamplifier. This lower sheath resistance implies higher than expected RC roll-off frequency, a result which is confirmed by the results from the relative transfer function. The roll-off is between 2-3 kHz, compared to the 400-500 Hz assumed prior to this study based on the assumption of a sheath impedance of around 30 MΩ.

This study uses an magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model to simulate unsteady one-dimensional transport variables in argon plasma, under low pressure and weak ionization between two planar electrodes suddenly biased by a negative voltage or electric field. Plasma has been widely used in etching, ion implantation, light source, and nuclear fusion, etc. Studying transport processes of plasmas therefore is important. Ignoring magnetic field, collisions between ions and electrons, the computed results in this work shows density, velocity, voltage, electric field, energy and temperature transport phenomenon in different cases. The results give insight by theory and simulation the surfaces behavior in plasma. Keywords: magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), transport variables in sheath,space charge