Instructions for authors
Please provide a short abstract of 100 to 250 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.
Genes and Aging
Genes may be regarded in at least two quite distinct ways in relation to processes of aging. They are units of genetic transmission from parent to offspring and, also, intracellular agents whose products interact with environmental forces to control development, differentiation, metabolism, and degeneration. Much of this chapter will deal with the results of genetic transmission, that is, with genetic similarities and differences between individuals, present throughout their life-spans. I will attempt to demonstrate that the patterns of the aging of individuals carrying an identical array of genes will show greater similarity than will the patterns of the aging of individuals carrying different assortments of genes. To do this, I will have to deal mostly with genetically controlled animals, and I will try to bring home to you why and how these animals with specific genotypes have become important in research on the biology of aging.
Impact of Nuclear Data Uncertainties on Transmutation of Actinides in Accelerator-Driven Assemblies
Abstract The potential impact of nuclear data uncertainties on a large number of performance parameters of reactor cores dedicated to the transmutation of radioactive wastes is discussed. An uncertainty analysis has been performed based on sensitivity theory, which underlines the cross sections, the energy range, and the isotopes that are responsible for the most significant uncertainties. To provide guidelines on priorities for new evaluations or validation experiments, required accuracies on specific nuclear data have been derived, accounting for target accuracies on major design parameters. The required accuracies (mostly in the energy region below 20 MeV), in particular for minor actinide data, are of the same order of magnitude of the achieved accuracies on major actinides. Specific requirements also concern the improvement of minor actinide data related to decay heat and effective delayed-neutron fraction assessment.