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Over the last 30 years, genetically engineered DNA has been tested as novel vaccination strategy against various diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B, several parasites, and cancers. However, the clinical breakthrough of the technique is confined by the low transfection efficacy and immunogenicity of the employed vaccines. Therefore, carrier materials were designed to prevent the rapid degradation and systemic clearance of DNA in the body. In this context, biopolymers are a particularly promising DNA vaccine carrier platform due to their beneficial biochemical and physical characteristics, including biocompatibility, stability, and low toxicity. This article reviews the applications, fabrication, and modification of biopolymers as carrier medium for genetic vaccines.

An in-situ plasma processing technique has been developed at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) to improve the performance of the superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities in operation. The technique uses a low-density reactive neon-oxygen plasma at room-temperature to improve the surface work function, to help removing adsorbed gases on the RF surface and to reduce its secondary emission yield. Recently, the plasma processing technique has been applied to one offline cryomodule and to two cryomodules in the linac tunnel. Improvement of the accelerating gradient has been observed in all three cryomodules., Proceedings of the 28th Linear Accelerator Conf., LINAC2016, East Lansing, MI, USA

Graphene has many excellent properties, such as high electron carrier mobility, good thermal conductivity and transparency etc. The secondary electron yield (SEY) of graphene with copper substrate had been studied in National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) of China. The results show that the maximum SEY ('max) of 6~8 layers graphene film with copper substrates is about 1.25. Further studies indicate that many factors can affect the SEY test results. The recent SEY tests of graphene films with copper substrates in Daresbury Laboratory (DL) of UK gave the maximum SEY of as-received copper, graphene samples with copper substrates are 1.89, 1.83, and 1.68, respectively, under the incident charge per unit surface (Q) of 7.6×10⁻⁸ C 'mm-2. Meanwhile, the SEY test parameters and measurement results of graphene in both laboratories are compared and analysed. The effect of defects on the SEY results of graphene films with copper substrate is also discussed., Proceedings of the 8th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2017, Copenhagen, Denmark

Many of the SRF activities involve interactions to cavities which presents risk for particulate contamination to RF surfaces. In order to understand and reduce contamination in cavities during cleaning, vacuum pumping and purging, and in-situ cryomodule repairs, a Quality Assurance (QA) studies were initiated to evaluate these activities and improve them where possible. This paper covers the results of investigations on the effectiveness of the SNS ultrasonic cleaning systems, particulate control during pumping and purging, procedure development for in-situ cryomodule repairs, the application of these studies to the repair of a linac cryomodule, and discussion of further improvement in these areas., Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on RF Superconductivity, SRF2015, Whistler, BC, Canada

Contaminants present at top surface of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities can act as field emitters and restrict the cavity accelerating gradient. A room temperature in-situ plasma processing technology for SRF cavities aiming to clean hydrocarbons from inner surface of cavities has been recently developed at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). Surface studies of the plasma processed Nb samples by Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and Scanning Kelvin Probe (SKP) showed that the NeO2 plasma processing is very effective to remove carbonaceous contaminants from top surface and improves the surface work function by 0.5 to 1.0 eV., Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on RF Superconductivity, SRF2015, Whistler, BC, Canada

We have constructed an Electro-polishing (EP) Facility in the Superconducting RF Test Facility (STF) at KEK in 2008. The EP facility has been used for the EP process of Superconducting RF (SRF) 9-cell cavities for more than one year. In the EP facility, the capacity of the EP-electrolyte reservoir tank is 2,000 L. This size is relatively large if compared with EP facilities in other laboratories. It means that the quality control of EP electrolyte is more difficult because the status of EP-electrolyte changes as the aging of EP-electrolyte proceeds. In the real EP-process operations, we circulated the EP electrolyte of 1,100 L which was firstly delivered into the tank in January 2008 and was disposed in May 2009. During this period, we performed the EP processes 40 times and periodically measured the concentration of Nb ,Al ,HF in the EP electrolyte. In this article, we report the detailed results of the EP-electrolyte monitoring as well as the observation of changing electronic current oscillation in the EP processes during this period in the EP facility at STF/KEK., Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

In development of superconducting radio-frequency niobium cavities, there are problems in low performances of electro-polished (EP) cavities with a fresh EP solution due to stains on the surfaces with discoloration. Although the stain problems have been known from the past researches, the detailed study with surface analysis has not been carried out. In this study, the stains on the niobium surfaces were observed with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope. According to results of XPS, there are some differences in atomic components at the stained and non-stained surfaces, ex, a little amount of fluorine and no metal oxide were found only at the stained surface. In this article, we will describe the detail of the XPS results., Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

Buffered chemical polishing (BCP) has been widely used as a final recipe of the surface treatment for niobium cavities and there is still much room to improve this technology since it is environment friendly, cheaper and simpler than electro-polishing. To examine BCPed surface in detail, we carried out BCP experiment followed by various rinsing methods on a series of niobium samples at KEK. As a result of the BCP process some contaminants like fluorine, carbon, etc. have been detected at the surfaces which may be the prominent cause of limiting the performance of SRF cavities. To remove these contaminants, various rinsing processes such as ultra pure water rinse, ultrasonic pure water rinse, alcoholic rinse, detergent rinse, high pressure water rinse (HPR) had been tested after the BCP. The preliminary results show that, only HPR had potential to mitigate these contaminants. In this article, we describe the surface analysis results using X-ray photo electron spectroscopy etc and a comparative study of niobium BCPed samples followed by above mentioned rinsing processes., Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

Niobium electropolishing for SRF cavities are generally considered to be the best technology today. However, hydrofluoric and sulphuric acid mixture usually used in the EP process is harmful and requires us carefully controlled handling of it and the many additional facilities. In this article, we propose a new application of electrochemical buffing onto niobium SRF cavity. In the method of electrochemical buffing, a rotating disk with abrasive fine particles where electrolyte is supplied is pressed against the workpiece. The disk and the work function as a cathode and an anode, respectively and an aqueous solution of sodium nitrate is used for the electrolyte. This technique brings us a couple of advantages like high etching rate, ultra small surface roughness, cost-effective and environment-compatible polishing., Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan