Recent experiments on EAST have achieved the first long pulse H-mode (61 s) with zero loop voltage and an ITER-like tungsten divertor, and have demonstrated access to broad plasma current profiles by increasing the density in fully-noninductive lower hybrid current-driven discharges. These long pulse discharges reach wall thermal and particle balance, exhibit stationary good confinement (H 98y2 ~ 1.1) with low core electron transport, and are only possible with optimal active cooling of the tungsten armors. In separate experiments, the electron density was systematically varied in order to study its effect on the deposition profile of the external lower hybrid current drive (LHCD), while keeping the plasma in fully-noninductive conditions and with divertor strike points on the tungsten divertor. A broadening of the current profile is found, as indicated by lower values of the internal inductance at higher density. A broad current profile is attractive because, among other reasons, it enables internal transport barriers at large minor radius, leading to improved confinement as shown in companion DIII-D experiments. These experiments strengthen the physics basis for achieving high performance, steady state discharges in future burning plasmas.

To improve the performance of the krill herd (KH) algorithm, in this paper, a Lévy-flight krill herd (LKH) algorithm is proposed for solving optimization tasks within limited computing time. The improvement includes the addition of a new local Lévy-flight (LLF) operator during the process when updating krill in order to improve its efficiency and reliability coping with global numerical optimization problems. The LLF operator encourages the exploitation and makes the krill individuals search the space carefully at the end of the search. The elitism scheme is also applied to keep the best krill during the process when updating the krill. Fourteen standard benchmark functions are used to verify the effects of these improvements and it is illustrated that, in most cases, the performance of this novel metaheuristic LKH method is superior to, or at least highly competitive with, the standard KH and other population-based optimization methods. Especially, this new method can accelerate the global convergence speed to the true global optimum while preserving the main feature of the basic KH.

In order to withstand rapid increase in particle and power impact onto the divertor and demonstrate the feasibility of the ITER design under long pulse operation, the upper divertor of the EAST tokamak has been upgraded to actively water-cooled, ITER-like tungsten mono-block structure since the 2014 campaign, which is the first attempt for ITER on the tokamak devices. Therefore, a new divertor Langmuir probe diagnostic system (DivLP) was designed and successfully upgraded on the tungsten divertor to obtain the plasma parameters in the divertor region such as electron temperature, electron density, particle and heat fluxes. More specifically, two identical triple probe arrays have been installed at two ports of different toroidal positions (112.5-deg separated toroidally), which can provide fundamental data to study the toroidal asymmetry of divertor power deposition and related 3-dimension (3D) physics, as induced by resonant magnetic perturbations, lower hybrid wave, and so on. The shape of graphite tip and fixed structure of the probe are designed according to the structure of the upper tungsten divertor. The ceramic support, small graphite tip, and proper connector installed make it possible to be successfully installed in the very narrow interval between the cassette body and tungsten mono-block, i.e., 13.5 mm. It was demonstrated during the 2014 and 2015 commissioning campaigns that the newly upgraded divertor Langmuir probe diagnostic system is successful. Representative experimental data are given and discussed for the DivLP measurements, then proving its availability and reliability.

Polyimide-based composite electrode exhibited excellent battery performance because of the improved conductivity and superlithiation.

2 H NMR analysis of purified glycogen revealed that hepatocytes with overexpressed GK synthesized a larger portion of their glycogen from triose phosphates and a smaller portion from tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates than cells with overexpressed glycogen-targeting subunits. Additional evidence for activation of distinct pathways of glycogen synthesis by GK and targeting subunits is provided by the additive effect of co-overexpression of the two types of proteins upon glycogen synthesis and a much larger stimulation of glucose utilization, glucose transport, and lactate production elicited by GK. We conclude that overexpression of the novel targeting subunit G M ⌬C confers unique regulation of glycogen metabolism. Furthermore, targeting subunits and GK stimulate glycogen synthesis by distinct pathways.

A new lower tungsten divertor has been developed and installed in the EAST superconducting tokamak to replace the previous graphite divertor with power handling capability increasing from <2 MW m−2 to ∼10 MW m−2, aiming at achieving long-pulse H-mode operations in a full metal wall environment with the steady-state divertor heat flux of ∼10 MW m−2. A new divertor concept, ‘corner slot’ (CS) divertor, has been employed. By using the ‘corner effect’, a strongly dissipative divertor with the local buildup of high neutral pressure near the corner can be achieved, so that stable detachment can be maintained across the entire outer target plate with a relatively lower impurity seeding rate, at a separatrix density compatible with advanced steady-state core scenarios. These are essential for achieving efficient current drive with low-hybrid waves, a low core impurity concentration and thus a low loop voltage for fully non-inductive long-pulse operations. Compared with the highly closed small-angle-slot divertor in DIII-D, the new divertor in EAST exhibits the following merits: (1) a much simpler geometry with integral cassette body structure, combining vertical and horizontal target plates, which are more suitable for actively water-cooled W/Cu plasma facing components, facilitating installation precision control for minimizing surface misalignment, achieving high engineering reliability and lowering the capital cost as well; (2) it has much greater flexibility in magnetic configurations, allowing for the position of the outer strike point on either vertical or horizontal target plates to accommodate a relatively wide triangularity range, δ l = 0.4–0.6, thus enabling to explore various advanced scenarios. A water-cooled copper in-vessel coil has been installed under the dome. Five supersonic molecular beam injection systems have been mounted in the divertor to achieve faster and more precise feedback control of the gas injection rate. Furthermore, this new divertor allows for double null divertor operation and slowly sweeping the outer strike point across the horizontal and vertical target plates to spread the heat flux for long-pulse operations. Preliminary experimental results demonstrate the ‘corner effect’ and are in good agreement with simulations using SOLPS-ITER code including drifts. The EAST new divertor provides a test-bed for the closed divertor concept to achieve steady-state detachment operation at high power. Next step, a more closed divertor, ‘sharp-cornered slot’ divertor, building upon the current CS divertor concept, has been proposed as a candidate for the EAST upper divertor upgrade.

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