A new multijunction grill-type launcher has been tested on the Petula-B tokamak. In this new launcher, the RF power is divided by means of an E-plane junction, and the phase between each resultant wave is obtained by a suitable reduction in the height of the waveguides. Data obtained on Petula-B indicate that both the heating efficiency (4.5 eV × 1013 cm−3·kW−1) and the parametric dependences of the reflection coefficient are very similar to those of a conventional grill. Therefore, such a multijunction grill may greatly simplify the construction of grills considered for use in future large-scale tokamaks.

V-shaped squaraine dyes with carbazole cores in the center and indolenine groups at the end were designed to broaden the light-harvesting range of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by taking advantage of intramolecular exciton coupling. V-shaped squaraines containing carboxy group on the indolenine moiety and 4-phenyl-2-cyanoacrylic acid groups on the carbazole cores as anchoring groups for chemical adsorption onto TiO2 were synthesized by the utilization of Stille cross-coupling as a key reaction. Although conventional squaraine dyes show typically narrow absorption bands, V-shaped squaraine dyes exhibited split absorption bands due to the intramolecular exciton coupling and thereby enabled the absorption of a broad range of light. The exciton coupling between squaraine chromophores obliquely installed in the molecule was theoretically supported by the Kasha exciton coupling model, in which the coupling energy was well-fitted with the experimental absorption spectra. As the result of intramolecular exciton coupling, the DSSCs based on exciton-coupled squaraine dyes exhibited a spectral response in a much wider range compared to that of a conventional linear counterpart, giving the higher energy conversion efficiency in comparison to that of the single chromophoric counterpart.

This article emphasizes a confinement model for electrons and ions in an ECR source for multicharged ions, on the basis of specific measurements performed on the 16.6 GHz MINIMAFIOS and 10 GHz CAPRICE facilities. The conclusions partially support the above model.

Shp1, encoded by the gene Ptpn6 , is a protein tyrosine phosphatase that transduces inhibitory signals downstream of immunoreceptors in many immune cell types. Blocking Shp1 activity represents an exciting potential immunotherapeutic strategy for the treatment of cancer, as Shp1 inhibition would be predicted to unleash both innate and adaptive immunity against tumor cells. Antibodies blocking the interaction between CD47 on tumor cells and SIRPα on macrophages enhance macrophage phagocytosis, show efficacy in preclinical tumor models, and are being evaluated in the clinic. Here we found that Shp1 bound to phosphorylated peptide sequences derived from SIRPα and transduced the anti-phagocytic signal, as Shp1 loss in mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages increased phagocytosis of tumor cells in vitro . We also generated a novel mouse model to evaluate the impact of global, inducible Ptpn6 deletion on anti-tumor immunity. We found that inducible Shp1 loss drove an inflammatory disease in mice that was phenotypically similar to that seen when Ptpn6 is knocked out from birth. This indicates that acute perturbation of Shp1 in vivo could drive hyperactivation of immune cells, which could be therapeutically beneficial, though at the risk of potential toxicity. In this model, we found that Shp1 loss led to robust anti-tumor immunity against two immune-rich syngeneic tumor models that are moderately inflamed though not responsive to checkpoint inhibitors, MC38 and E0771. Shp1 loss did not promote anti-tumor activity in the non-inflamed B16F10 model. The observed activity in MC38 and E0771 tumors was likely due to effects of both innate and adaptive immune cells. Following Shp1 deletion, we observed increases in intratumoral myeloid cells in both models, which was more striking in E0771 tumors. E0771 tumors also contained an increased ratio of effector to regulatory T cells following Shp1 loss. This was not observed for MC38 tumors, though we did find increased levels of IFNγ, a cytokine produced by effector T cells, in these tumors. Overall, our preclinical data suggested that targeting Shp1 may be an attractive therapeutic strategy for boosting the immune response to cancer via a mechanism involving both innate and adaptive leukocytes.

Previously obtained data on the Wega tokamak by lower hybrid heating (f = 500 MHz; PHF = 130 kW) are re-visited in the light of recent theories on ion stochastic heating and quasi-linear electron Landau damping. It is possible, with the help of these theories, to correctly estimate the fast-ion mean energy, the HF power density coupled to the ions and that coupled to the electrons. The values of the parallel index of refraction, N‖, which are necessary to obtain a good quantitative agreement between experiment and theoretical estimates, are the same for ions and electrons, although higher than expected.