Search results for "breed"
showing 10 items of 697 documents
Status of ceramic breeder pebble bed thermo-mechanics R&D and impact on breeder material mechanical strength
2012
Abstract Among the international fusion solid breeder blanket community, there exists steady progress on the experimental, phenomenological, and numerical characterizations of the pebble bed effective thermo physical and mechanical properties, and of thermomechanic state of the bed under prototypical operating conditions. This paper summarizes recent achievements in pebble bed thermomechanics that were carried out by members of the IEA Fusion Nuclear Technology Subtask I Solid Breeding Blanket. A major goal is on developing predictive capability while identifying a pre-conditioned equilibrium stress state that would warrant pebble bed integrity during operations. The paper reviews and synth…
Status of the EU DEMO HCLL breeding blanket design development
2018
International audience; In the framework of the European “HORIZON 2020” innovation and research programme, the EUROfusion Consortium develops a design of a fusion power demonstrator (DEMO). One of the key components in the fusion reactor is the Breeding Blanket (BB) surrounding the plasma, ensuring tritium self-sufficiency, heat removal for conversion into electricity, and neutron shielding. CEA-Saclay, with the support of Wigner-RCP and Centrum výzkumu Řež, is in charge of the development of one of the four BB concepts investigated in Europe for DEMO: the Helium Cooled Lithium Lead (HCLL) BB. The rationales of the HCLL are the use of Eurofer as structural material, eutectic liquid lithium-…
Genetic structure of wildcat (Felis silvestris) populations in Italy
2013
Severe climatic changes during the Pleistocene shaped the distributions of temperate-adapted species. These species survived glaciations in classical southern refuges with more temperate climates, as well as in western and eastern peripheral Alpine temperate areas. We hypothesized that the European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) populations currently distributed in Italy differentiated in, and expanded from two distinct glacial refuges, located in the southern Apennines and at the periphery of the eastern Alps. This hypothesis was tested by genotyping 235 presumed European wildcats using a panel of 35 domestic cat-derived microsatellites. To provide support and controls for the analy…
Forest management is associated with physiological stress in an old–growth forest passerine
2003
We investigated how physiological stress in an area-sensitive old-growth forest passerine, the Eurasian treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), is associated with forest fragmentation and forest structure. We found evidence that the concentrations of plasma corticosterone in chicks were higher under poor food supply in dense, young forests than in sparse, old forests. In addition, nestlings in large forest patches had lower corticosterone levels and a better body condition than in small forest patches. In general, corticosterone levels were negatively related to body condition and survival. We also found a decrease in corticosterone levels within the breeding season, which may have been a result …
Decreased sexual signalling reveals reduced viability in small populations of the drumming wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata.
2004
One of the important goals in conservation biology is to determine reliable indicators of population viability. Sexual traits have been suggested to indicate population extinction risk, because they may be related to viability through condition dependence. Moreover, condition-dependent sexual traits may be more sensitive indicators of population viability than early life-history traits, because deleterious fitness effects of inbreeding tend to be expressed mainly at the end of the species' life history. However, empirical evidence of the significance of sexual behaviour for population viability is missing. In this study, we examined two male sexual traits and survival in 39 different-sized …
Utility of island populations in re-introduction programmes--relationships between Arabian gazelles (Gazella arabica) from the Farasan Archipelago an…
2014
Understanding local adaptation and population differentiation is vital to the success of re-introduction initiatives. As other mammals living on islands, Arabian gazelles (G. arabica) show reduced body size on the Farasan archipelago, which we corroborated in this study through morphometric analyses of skulls. In the light of the steep population decline on the Arabian Peninsula – but stable population development on the archipelago – we tested the potential suitability of Farasan gazelles as a source for re-introductions on the mainland. We therefore investigated genetic differentiation between Farasan and mainland populations using eleven nuclear microsatellite loci and detected a distinc…
Preliminary CAD implementation of EU-DEMO primary heat transfer systems for HCPB breeding blanket option
2019
Abstract This paper focuses on the 3D CAD implementation of the pipework and the main equipment of the Primary Heat Transfer System of EU-DEMO fusion power plant. In particular, the systems related to the Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed Breeding Blanket option are considered here. During the pulse operation, the breeding blanket modules will be the main thermal power source; Divertor and the Vacuum Vessel will contribute in the definition of the total reactor power. All the In-Vessel generated power is rejected to the Power Conversion System through a molten salt Intermediate Heat Transport System. The latter is equipped with an Energy Storage System to allow for continuous operation also during t…
On the impact of the heat transfer modelling approach on the prediction of EU-DEMO WCLL breeding blanket thermal performances
2020
Abstract The Water-Cooled Lithium-Lead Breeding Blanket is a key component of a fusion power plant, in charge of ensure Tritium production, shield Vacuum Vessel and magnets and remove the heat power deposited by radiation and particles arising from plasma. The last function is fulfilled by First Wall and Breeding Zone independent cooling systems. Several layouts of BZ coolant system have been investigated in the last years to identify a configuration that might guarantee EUROFER temperature below the limit (550 °C) and good thermal-hydraulic performances (i.e. water outlet temperature of 328 °C). A research activity is conducted to study and compare different modelling approaches to simulat…
High-Density Genomic Characterization of Native Croatian Sheep Breeds
2022
A recent comprehensive genomic analysis based on 50K SNP profiles has shown that the regional Balkan sheep populations have considerable genetic overlap but are distinctly different from surrounding breeds. All eight Croatian sheep breeds were represented by a small number of individuals per breed. Here, we genotyped 220 individuals representing the native Croatian sheep breeds (Istrian Sheep, Krk Island Sheep, Cres Island Sheep, Rab Island Sheep, Lika Pramenka, Pag Island Sheep, Dalmatian Pramenka, Dubrovnik Sheep) and mouflon using the Ovine Infinium® HD SNP BeadChip (606,006 SNPs). In addition, we included publicly available Balkan Pramenka and other Mediterranean sheep breeds. Our analy…
High-density genomic characterization of native Croatian sheep breeds
2022
A recent comprehensive genomic analysis based on 50K SNP profiles has shown that the regional Balkan sheep populations have considerable genetic overlap but are distinctly different from surrounding breeds. All eight Croatian sheep breeds were represented by a small number of individuals per breed. Here, we genotyped 220 individuals representing the native Croatian sheep breeds (Istrian Sheep, Krk Island Sheep, Cres Island Sheep, Rab Island Sheep, Lika Pramenka, Pag Island Sheep, Dalmatian Pramenka, Dubrovnik Sheep) and mouflon using the Ovine Infinium® HD SNP BeadChip (606, 006 SNPs). In addition, we included publicly available Balkan Pramenka and other Mediterranean sheep breeds. Our anal…