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Meer inzicht in ontstaan virale ziekten van het centrale zenuwstelsel Over het ontstaan van ernstige neurologische ziekten zoals de ziekte van Alzheimer, Multiple Sclerose (MS) en de ziekte van Parkinson, is nog veel onduidelijk. Wel vermoeden wetenschappers dat er een verband zou kunnen bestaan tussen virale infecties en de ontwikkeling van deze chronische neurologische ziekten. George Sips onderzocht in zijn proefschrift de oorzaken, mechanismen en mogelijke gevolgen van virale infecties van het centrale zenuwstelsel. Deze inzichten kunnen in de toekomst helpen om behandelingen ‘op maat’ te ontwikkelen., The origin and pathogenesis of severe neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease remain largely unclear. Scientists suspect that there may be causal associations between viral infections and the development of these chronic neurological disorders. George Sips, in his thesis, examined the causes, mechanisms and potential consequences of viral infections of the central nervous system. These insights may aid the future development of “personalized” treatments.

Combined ICRF and NBI heating played a key role in achieving the world-record fusion yield in the first deuterium-tritium campaign at the JET tokamak in 1997. The current plans for JET include new experiments with deuterium-tritium (D-T) plasmas with more ITER-like conditions given the recently installed ITER-like wall (ILW). In the 2015-2016 campaigns, significant efforts have been devoted to the development of high-performance plasma scenarios compatible with ILW in preparation of the forthcoming D-T campaign. Good progress was made in both the inductive (baseline) and the hybrid scenario: a new record JET ILW fusion yield with a significantly extended duration of the high-performance phase was achieved. This paper reports on the progress with the hybrid scenario which is a candidate for ITER longpulse operation (∼1000 s) thanks to its improved normalized confinement, reduced plasma current and higher plasma beta with respect to the ITER reference baseline scenario. The combined NBI+ICRF power in the hybrid scenario was increased to 33 MW and the record fusion yield, averaged over 100 ms, to 2.9x1016 neutrons/s from the 2014 ILW fusion record of 2.3x1016 neutrons/s. Impurity control with ICRF waves was one of the key means for extending the duration of the high-performance phase. The main results are reviewed covering both key core and edge plasma issues., This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

During the 2015-2016 JET campaigns many efforts have been devoted to the exploration of high performance plasma scenarios envisaged for ITER operation. In this paper we model the combined ICRF+NBI heating in selected key hybrid discharges using PION. The antenna frequency was tuned to match the cyclotron frequency of minority hydrogen (H) at the center of the tokamak coinciding with the second harmonic cyclotron resonance of deuterium. The modelling takes into account the synergy between ICRF and NBI heating through the second harmonic cyclotron resonance of deuterium beam ions which allows us to assess its impact on the neutron rate RNT. We evaluate the influence of H concentration which was varied in different discharges in order to test their role in the heating performance. According to our modelling, the ICRF enhancement of RNT increases by decreasing the H concentration which increases the ICRF power absorbed by deuterons. We find that in the recent hybrid discharges this ICRF enhancement was in the range of 10-25%. Finally, we extrapolate the results to D-T and find that the best performing hybrid discharges correspond to an equivalent fusion power of ∼7.0 MW in D-T., This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. Dani Gallart would like to thank “La Caixa” for support of his PhD studies., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)