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Introduction. An on-going coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a challenge all over the world. Since an endoscopy unit and its staff are at potentially high risk for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, we conducted a survey for the management of the gastrointestinal endoscopic practice, personal protective equipment (PPE), and risk assessment for COVID-19 during the pandemic at multiple facilities.

We study singularities of smooth mappings F̄ of ℝ2n into symplectic space (ℝ2n , ω̇) by their isotropic liftings to the corresponding symplectic tangent bundle (Tℝ2n,w). Using the notion of local solvability of lifting as a generalized Hamiltonian system, we introduce new symplectic invariants and explain their geometric meaning. We prove that a basic local algebra of singularity is a space of generating functions of solvable isotropic mappings over F̄ endowed with a natural Poisson structure. The global properties of this Poisson algebra of the singularity among the space of all generating functions of isotropic liftings are investigated. The solvability criterion of generalized Hamiltonian systems is a strong method for various geometric and algebraic investigations in a symplectic space. We illustrate this by explicit classification of solvable systems in codimension one.

The Nuclear Reaction Data Centres (NRDC) collaborate on worldwide compilation and dissemination of experimental nuclear reaction data by developing and maintaining the EXFOR database. With the growing interests in the fission product yields of various projectiles and a wide range of energies, several evaluation activities are ongoing. In line with these activities, the IAEA conducted completeness check of fission product yield data in EXFOR against two experimental datasets developed by the ENDF and UKFY library evaluators. The present status and statistics of these datasets as well as the result of the EXFOR completeness review are presented.

The cold cap floating on top of the molten glass pool in liquid fed joule-heated ceramic melter plays an important role for operation of the vitrification process. A series of such phenomena as evaporation, melting and thermal decomposition of HLLW (high-level liquid waste) takes place within the cold-cap. An understanding of the varied thermal decomposition behavior of various nitrates constituting HLLW is necessary to elucidate a series of phenomena occurring within the cold-cap. In this study, reaction rates of the thermal decomposition reaction of 13 kinds of nitrates, which are main constituents of simulated HLLW (sHLLW), were investigated using thermogravimetrical instrument in a range of room temperature to 1000 °C. The reaction rates of the thermal decompositions of 13 kinds of nitrates were depicted according to composition ratio (wt%) of each nitrate in sHLLW. It was found that the thermal decomposition of sHLLW could be predicted by the reaction rates and reaction temperatures of individual nitrates. The thermal decomposition of sHLLW with borosilicate glass system was also investigated. The above mentioned results will be able to provide a useful knowledge for understanding the phenomena occurring within the cold-cap.

Various kinds of stainless steels have been widely utilized as a die for mold- and direct-stamping processes of optical oxide glasses. Since they suffered from high temperature transients and thermal cycles in practice, they must be surface-treated by dry and wet coatings, or, by plasma nitriding. Martensitic stainless steel mold was first wet plated by the nickel phosphate (NiP), which was unstable at the high temperature stamping condition; and, was easy to crystalize or to fracture by itself. This issue of nuisance significantly lowered the productivity in fabrication of optical oxide-glass elements. In the present paper, the stainless steel mold was surface-treated by the low-temperature plasma nitriding. The nitrided layer by this surface modification had higher nitrogen solute content than 4 mass%; the maximum solid-solubility of nitrogen is usually 0.1 mass% in the equilibrium phase diagram. Owing to this solid-solution with high nitrogen concentration, the nitrided layer had high hardness over 1400 HV within its thickness of 50 μm without any formation of nitrides after plasma nitriding at 693 K for 14.4 ks. This plasma-nitrided mold was utilized for mold-stamping of two colored oxide glass plates at 833 K; these plates were successfully deformed and joined into a single glass plate by this stamping without adhesion or galling of oxide glasses onto the nitrided mold surface.