The roles of energy and material efficiency in meeting steel industry CO2 targets.

Identifying strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from steel production requires a comprehensive model of the sector but previous work has either failed to consider the whole supply chain or considered only a subset of possible abatement options. In this work, a global mass flow analysis is combined with process emissions intensities to allow forecasts of future steel sector emissions under all abatement options. Scenario analysis shows that global capacity for primary steel production is already near to a peak and that if sectoral emissions are to be reduced by 50% by 2050, the last required blast furnace will be built by 2020. Emissions reduction targets cannot be met by energy and emissions efficiency alone, but deploying material efficiency provides sufficient extra abatement potential.

Assessment of homogeneous thorium/uranium fuel for pressurized water reactors

The homogeneous ThO2-UO2 fuel cycle option for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) of current technology is investigated. The fuel cycle assessment was carried out by calculating the main performance parameters: natural uranium and separative work requirements, fuel cycle cost, and proliferation potential of the spent fuel. These performance parameters were compared with a corresponding slightly enriched (all-U) fuel cycle applied to a PWR of current technology. The main conclusion derived from this comparison is that fuel cycle requirements and fuel cycle cost for the mixed Th/U fuel are higher in comparison with those of the all-U fuel. A comparison and analysis of the quantity and isotopic composition of discharged Pu indicate that the Th/U fuel cycle provides only a moderate improvement of the proliferation resistance. Thus, the overall conclusion of the investigation is that there is no economic justification to introduce Th into a light water reactor fuel cycle as a homogeneous ThO2-UO2 mixture.

Androgen receptor targets NFKB and TSPI to suppress prostate tumor growth in vivo

The androgen role in the maintenance of prostate epithelium is subject to conflicting opinions. While androgen ablation drives the regression of normal and cancerous prostate, testosterone may cause both proliferation and apoptosis. Several investigators note decreased proliferation and stronger response to chemotherapy of the prostate cancer cells stably expressing androgen receptor (AR), however no mechanistic explanation was offered. In this paper we demonstrate in vivo anti-tumor effect of the AR on prostate cancer growth and identify its molecular mediators. We analyzed the effect of AR on the tumorigenicity of prostate cancer cells. Unexpectedly, the AR-expressing cells formed tumors in male mice at a much lower rate than the AR-negative controls. Moreover, the AR-expressing tumors showed decreased vascularity and massive apoptosis. AR expression lowered the angiogenic potential of cancer cells, by increasing secretion of an anti-angiogenic protein, thrombospondin-1. AR activation caused a decrease in RelA, a subunit of the pro-survival transcription factor NF kappa B, reduced its nuclear localization and transcriptional activity. This, in turn, diminished the expression of its anti-apoptotic targets, Bcl-2 and IL-6. Increased apoptosis within AR-expressing tumors was likely due to the NF kappa B suppression, since it was restricted to the cells lacking nuclear (active) NF kappa B. Thus we for the first time identified combined decrease of NF kappa B and increased TSP1 as molecular events underlying the AR anti-tumor activity in vivo. Our data indicate that intermittent androgen ablation is preferable to continuous withdrawal, a standard treatment for early-stage prostate cancer. (C) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Electronic structures and mechanical properties of uranium monocarbide from first-principles LDA plus U and GGA plus U calculations

The electronic structure, elastic constants, Poisson's ratio, and phonon dispersion curves of UC have been systematically investigated from the first-principles calculations by the projector-augmented-wave (PAW) method. In order to describe precisely the strong on-site Coulomb repulsion among the localized U 5f electrons, we adopt the local density approximation (LDA) + U and generalized gradient approximation (GGA) + U formalisms for the exchange correlation term. We systematically study how the electronic properties and elastic constants of UC are affected by the different choice of U as well as the exchange-correlation potential. We show that by choosing an appropriate Hubbard U parameter within the GGA + U approach, most of our calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Therefore. the results obtained by the GGA + U with effective Hubbard parameter U chosen around 3 eV for UC are considered to be reasonable. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Production of new superheavy Z=108-114 nuclei with U-238, Pu-244, and Cm-248,Cm-250 targets

Within the framework of the dinuclear system (DNS) model, production cross sections of new superheavy nuclei with charged numbers Z=108-114 are analyzed systematically. Possible combinations based on the actinide nuclides U-238, Pu-244, and Cm-248,Cm-250 with the optimal excitation energies and evaporation channels are pointed out to synthesize new isotopes that lie between the nuclides produced in the cold fusion reactions and the Ca-48-induced fusion reactions experimentally, which are feasible to be constructed experimentally. It is found that the production cross sections of superheavy nuclei decrease drastically with the charged numbers of compound nuclei. Larger mass asymmetries of the entrance channels enhance the cross sections in 2n-5n channels.

Low conductance injection tubes for storage cell targets

The effect of adding internal fins to the injection tube of a storage cell target filled with a polarized atomic beam source has been studied. The tube conductance and the atomic beam intensity at the exit of the injection tube have been measured, observing an unexpectedly large beam loss. Simulations of the atomic beam reproduce the observed attenuation only when the non-zero azimuthal component of the atom's velocity is taken into account.

Production cross section of Th-236 in the interaction of U-238 with 60 MeV/u O-18 ions

The neutron-rich target-like isotope Th-236 has been produced in the U-238-2p multinucleon transfer reaction between a 60 MeV/u O-18 beam and natural U-238 targets. The activities of thorium were determined after radiochemical separation of Th from the mixture of uranium and reaction products. The Th-236 isotope was identified by the characteristic gamma-rays of 642.2, 687.6 and 229.6 keV. The production cross section of Th-236 was determined to be 250 +/- 50 mu b.

Production cross-section of Th-236 in the interaction of U-238 with 60MeV/u O-18 Ions

The neutron-rich target-like isotope Th-236 was produced in U-238-2p multinucleon transfer reaction between a 60MeV/u O-18 beam and nature U-238 targets. The thorium activities were radiochemically separated from the mixture of uranium and reaction products. The isotope Th-236 was identified by 642.2keV, 687.6keV and 229.6keV characteristic gamma-rays. The production cross section of Th-236 has been determined to be 250 +/- 50 mu b.