First operation in SPIDER and the path to complete MITICA.

The requirements of ITER neutral beam injectors (1 MeV, 40 A negative deuterium ion current for 1 h) have never been simultaneously attained; therefore, a dedicated Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) was set up at Consorzio RFX (Padova, Italy). The NBTF includes two experiments: SPIDER (Source for the Production of Ions of Deuterium Extracted from Rf plasma), the full-scale prototype of the source of ITER injectors, with a 100 keV accelerator, to investigate and optimize the properties of the ion source; and MITICA, the full-scale prototype of the entire injector, devoted to the issues related to the accelerator, including voltage holding at low gas pressure. The present paper gives an account of the status of the procurements, of the timeline, and of the voltage holding tests and experiments for MITICA.

Overview of the negative ion based neutral beam injectors for ITER.

The ITER baseline foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beams (HNB's) based on 1 MeV 40 A D(-) negative ion accelerators, each capable of delivering 16.7 MW of deuterium atoms to the DT plasma, with an optional 3rd HNB injector foreseen as a possible upgrade. In addition, a dedicated diagnostic neutral beam will be injecting ≈22 A of H(0) at 100 keV as the probe beam for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy.

River networks as biodiversity hotlines.

For several years, measures to insure healthy river functions and to protect biodiversity have focused on management at the scale of drainage basins. Indeed, rivers bear witness to the health of their drainage basins, which justifies integrated basin management. However, this vision should not mask two other aspects of the protection of aquatic and riparian biodiversity as well as services provided by rivers.

River Margins and Environmental Change.

The paper discusses how variability of river margins interacts with riparian function at the landscape level, in order to develop inferences about the future of this interaction with respect to potential effects of a global climatic change. A riparian approach to the ecology of river landscapes should be useful in that it offers an opportunity to improve our understanding and management of the effects of environmental change at the ecosystem level.

The Role of Riparian Corridors in Maintaining Regional Biodiversity.

Riparian corridors possess an unusually diverse array of species and environmental processes. This "ecological" diversity is related to variable flood regimes, geomorphic channel processes, altitudinal climate shifts, and upland influences on the fluvial corridor. This dynamic environment results in a variety of life history strategies, and a diversity of biogeochemical cycles and rates, as organisms adapt to disturbance regimes over broad spatio-temporal scales.

[Ecology of intestinal schistosomiasis in Guadeloupe. Epidemiological analysis and data for a model study (author's transl)].

In Guadeloupe, during a general survey on intestinal schistosomiasis, the authors made a structural analysis of a limited focus of infection. The focus is formed by a river basin on the Carribean coast of Basse-Terre island. Sampling of the various elements of the parasitic cycle was done in spatial units defined by ecological and epidemiological criteria.