text: OSHA Regulation Part Number: 1910 • Part Title: Occupational Safety and Health Standards • Subpart: N • Subpart Title: Materials Handling and Storage • Standard Number: 1910.178 • Title: Powered industrial trucks. • Appendix: A 1910.178(a) General requirements. 1910.178(a)(1) This section contains safety requirements relating to fire protection, design, maintenance, and use of fork trucks, tractors, platform lift trucks, motorized hand trucks, and other specialized industrial trucks powered by electric motors or internal combustion engines. This section does not apply to compressed air or nonflammable compressed gas-operated industrial trucks, nor to farm vehicles, nor to vehicles intended primarily for earth moving or over-the-road hauling. 1910.178(a)(2) All new powered industrial trucks acquired and used by an employer shall meet the design and construction requirements for powered industrial trucks established in the "American National Standard for Powered Industrial Trucks, Part II, ANSI B56.1-1969", which is incorporated by reference as specified in § 1910.6, except for vehicles intended primarily for earth moving or over-the-road hauling. 1910.178(a)(3) Approved trucks shall bear a label or some other identifying mark indicating approval by the testing laboratory. See paragraph (a)(7) of this section and paragraph 405 of "American National Standard for Powered Industrial Trucks, Part II, ANSI B56.1-1969", which is incorporated by reference in paragraph (a)(2) of this section and which provides that if the powered industrial truck is accepted by a nationally recognized testing laboratory it should be so marked. 1910.178(a)(4) Modifications and additions which affect capacity and safe operation shall not be performed by the customer or user without manufacturers prior written approval. Capacity, operation, and maintenance instruction plates, tags, or decals shall be changed accordingly. 1910.178(a)(5) If the truck is equipped with front-end attachments other than factory installed attachments, the user shall request that the truck be marked to identify the attachments and show the approximate weight of the truck and attachment combination at maximum elevation with load laterally centered. 1910.178(a)(6) The user shall see that all nameplates and markings are in place and are maintained in a legible condition. 1910.178(a)(7) As used in this section, the term, "approved truck" or "approved industrial truck" means a truck that is listed or approved for fire safety purposes for the intended use by a nationally recognized testing laboratory, using nationally recognized testing standards. Refer to 1910.155(c)(3)(iv)(A) for definition of nationally recognized testing laboratory. 1910.178(b) Designations. For the purpose of this standard there are eleven different designations of industrial trucks or tractors as follows: D, DS, DY, E, ES, EE, EX, G, GS, LP, and LPS. 1910.178(b)(1) The D designated units are units similar to the G units except that they are diesel engine powered instead of gasoline engine powered. 1910.178(b)(2) The DS designated units are diesel powered units that are provided with additional safeguards to the exhaust, fuel and electrical systems. They may be used in some locations where a D unit may not be considered suitable. 1910.178(b)(3) The DY designated units are diesel powered units that have all the safeguards of the DS units and in addition do not have any electrical equipment including the ignition and are equipped with temperature limitation features. 1910.178(b)(4) The E designated units are electrically powered units that have minimum acceptable safeguards against inherent fire hazards. 1910.178(b)(5) The ES designated units are electrically powered units that, in addition to all of the requirements for the E units, are provided with additional safeguards to the electrical system to prevent emission of hazardous sparks and to limit surface temperatures. They may be used in some locations where the use of an E unit may not be considered suitable. 1910.178(b)(6) The EE designated units are electrically powered units that have, in addition to all of the requirements for the E and ES units, the electric motors and all other electrical equipment completely enclosed. In certain locations the EE unit may be used where the use of an E and ES unit may not be considered suitable. 1910.178(b)(7) The EX designated units are electrically powered units that differ from the E, ES, or EE units in that the electrical fittings and equipment are so designed, constructed and assembled that the units may be used in certain atmospheres containing flammable vapors or dusts. 1910.178(b)(8) The G designated units are gasoline powered units having minimum acceptable safeguards against inherent fire hazards. 1910.178(b)(9) The GS designated units are gasoline powered units that are provided with additional safeguards to the exhaust, fuel, and electrical systems. They may be used in some locations where the use of a G unit may not be considered suitable. 1910.178(b)(10) The LP designated unit is similar to the G unit except that liquefied petroleum gas is used for fuel instead of gasoline. 1910.178(b)(11) The LPS designated units are liquefied petroleum gas powered units that are provided with additional safeguards to the exhaust, fuel, and electrical systems. They may be used in some locations where the use of an LP unit may not be considered suitable. 1910.178(b)(12) The atmosphere or location shall have been classified as to whether it is hazardous or nonhazardous prior to the consideration of industrial trucks being used therein and the type of industrial truck required shall be as provided in paragraph (d) of this section for such location. 1910.178(c) Designated locations. 1910.178(c)(1) The industrial trucks specified under subparagraph (2) of this paragraph are the minimum types required but industrial trucks having greater safeguards may be used if desired. 1910.178(c)(2) For specific areas of use see Table N-1 which tabulates the information contained in this section. References are to the corresponding classification as used in subpart S of this part. 1910.178(c)(2)(i) Power-operated industrial trucks shall not be used in atmospheres containing hazardous concentration of acetylene, butadiene, ethylene oxide, hydrogen (or gases or vapors equivalent in hazard to hydrogen, such as manufactured gas), propylene oxide, acetaldehyde, cyclopropane, diethyl ether, ethylene, isoprene, or unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine (UDMH). 1910.178(c)(2)(ii) – 1910.178(c)(2)(ii)(a) Power-operated industrial trucks shall not be used in atmospheres containing hazardous concentrations of metal dust, including aluminum, magnesium, and their commercial alloys, other metals of similarly hazardous characteristics, or in atmospheres containing carbon black, coal or coke dust except approved power-operated industrial trucks designated as EX may be used in such atmospheres. 1910.178(c)(2)(ii)(b) In atmospheres where dust of magnesium, aluminum or aluminum bronze may be present, fuses, switches, motor controllers, and circuit breakers of trucks shall have enclosures specifically approved for such locations. 1910.178(c)(2)(iii) Only approved power-operated industrial trucks designated as EX may be used in atmospheres containing acetone, acrylonitrile, alcohol, ammonia, benzine, benzol, butane, ethylene dichloride, gasoline, hexane, lacquer solvent vapors, naphtha, natural gas, propane, propylene, styrene, vinyl acetate, vinyl chloride, or xylenes in quantities sufficient to produce explosive or ignitable mixtures and where such concentrations of these gases or vapors exist continuously, intermittently or periodically under normal operating conditions or may exist frequently because of repair, maintenance operations, leakage, breakdown or faulty operation of equipment. 1910.178(c)(2)(iv) Power-operated industrial trucks designated as DY, EE, or EX may be used in locations where volatile flammable liquids or flammable gases are handled, processed or used, but in which the hazardous liquids, vapors or gases will normally be confined within closed containers or closed systems from which they can escape only in case of accidental rupture or breakdown of such containers or systems, or in the case of abnormal operation of equipment; also in locations in which hazardous concentrations of gases or vapors are normally prevented by positive mechanical ventilation but which might become hazardous through failure or abnormal operation of the ventilating equipment; or in locations which are adjacent to Class I, Division 1 locations, and to which hazardous concentrations of gases or vapors might occasionally be communicated unless such communication is prevented by adequate positive-pressure ventilation from a source of clear air, and effective safeguards against ventilation failure are provided. TABLE N-1. -- SUMMARY TABLE ON USE OF INDUSTRIAL TRUCKS IN VARIOUS LOCATIONS ______________________________________________________________________ Classes Unclassified Class I Class II Class III locations locations locations ______________________________________________________________________ Description Locations Locations Locations Locations of classes. not possessing in which which are where atmospheres as flammable hazardous easily described in gases or because ignitable other columns. vapors of the fibers or are, or presence flyings may be, of are present present combustible but not in the dust. likely to air in be in quantities suspension sufficient in to produce quantities explosive sufficient or ignitable to mixtures. produce ignitable mixtures. ______________________________________________________________________ Groups in None A B C D classes ______________________________________________________________________ Examples Piers and Acetylene Hydrogen Ethyl Gasoline of wharves ether Naphtha locations inside Alcohols or and Acetone atmospheres outside Lacquer in classes general solvent and groups. storage, Benzene general industrial or commercial properties. ______________________________________________________________________ (Continued) ______________________________________________________________________ E F G None ______________________________________________________________________ Metal dust Carbon Grain dust, Baled waste, black coal dust, flour dust, cocoa fiber, coke dust starch dust, cotton, organic dust. excelsior, hemp, istle, jute, kapok, oakum, sisal, Spanish moss, synthetic fibers, tow. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 1 2 ______________________________________________________________________ Divisions None Above Above (nature of condition condition hazardous exists may occur conditions) continuously, accidentally intermittently, as due to a or periodically puncture of under normal a storage operating drum. conditions. ______________________________________________________________________ (Continued) ______________________________________________________________________ 1 2 1 2 ______________________________________________________________________ Explosive Explosive Locations in Locations in mixture may mixture not which easily which easily be present normally ignitable ignitable under normal present, fibers or fibers are operating but where materials stored or conditions, deposits of producing handled or where dust may combustible (except in failure of cause heat flyings the process equipment rise in are of may cause electrical handled, manufacture). the condition equipment, manufactured, to exist or where or used. simultaneously such with arcing or deposits sparking of may be electrical ignited by equipment, or arcs or where dusts sparks from of an electrical electrically equipment. conducting nature may be present. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Authorized uses of trucks by types in groups of classes and divisions ______________________________________________________________________ Groups in None A B C D A B C classes ______________________________________________________________________ Type of truck authorized: Diesel: Type D ........ D** ... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type DS ........ ....... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type DY ........ ....... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Electric: Type E ........ E** ... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type ES ........ ....... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type EE ........ ....... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type EX ........ ....... .... .... .... EX . .... .... .... Gasoline: Type G ........ G** ... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type GS ........ ....... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... LP-Gas: Type LP ........ LP** .. .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type LPS ....... ....... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Paragraph 210.211 201 203 209 Ref. in (a) (a) (a) No. 505. ______________________________________________________________________ (Continued) ______________________________________________________________________ Authorized uses of trucks by types in groups of classes and divisions ______________________________________________________________________ Groups in D E F G E F G None None classes ______________________________________________________________________ Type of truck authorized: Diesel: Type D ..... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type DS ..... DS . .... .... .... .... .... DS . .... DS Type DY ..... DY . .... .... .... .... .... DY . DY . DY Electric: Type E ..... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... E Type ES ..... ES . .... .... .... .... .... ES . .... ES Type EE ..... EE . .... .... .... .... .... EE . EE . EE Type EX ..... EX . .... EX . EX . .... .... EX . EX . EX Gasoline: Type G ..... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type GS ..... GS . .... .... .... .... .... GS . .... GS LP-Gas: Type LP ..... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Type LPS .... LPS. .... .... .... .... .... LPS. .... LPS Paragraph 204 202 205 209 206 207 208 Ref. in (a), (a) (a) (a) (a), (a) (a) No. 505. (b) (b) ______________________________________________________________________ ** Trucks conforming to these types may also be used -- see subdivision (c)(2)(x) and (c)(2)(xii) of this section. 1910.178(c)(2)(v) In locations used for the storage of hazardous liquids in sealed containers or liquified or compressed gases in containers, approved power-operated industrial trucks designated as DS, ES, GS, or LPS may be used. This classification includes locations where volatile flammable liquids or flammable gases or vapors are used, but which, would become hazardous only in case of an accident or of some unusual operating condition. The quantity of hazardous material that might escape in case of accident, the adequacy of ventilating equipment, thetotal area involved, and the record of the industry or business with respect to explosions or fires are all factors that should receive consideration in determining whether or not the DS or DY, ES, EE, GS, LPS designated truck possesses sufficient safeguards for the location. Piping without valves, checks, meters and similar devices would not ordinarily be deemed to introduce a hazardous condition even though used for hazardous liquids or gases. Locations used for the storage of hazardous liquids or of liquified or compressed gases in sealed containers would not normally be considered hazardous unless subject to other hazardous conditions also. 1910.178(c)(2)(vi) – 1910.178(c)(2)(vi)(a) Only approved power operated industrial trucks designated as EX shall be used in atmospheres in which combustible dust is or may be in suspension continuously, intermittently, or periodically under normal operating conditions, in quantities sufficient to produce explosive or ignitable mixtures, or where mechanical failure or abnormal operation of machinery or equipment might cause such mixtures to be produced. 1910.178(c)(2)(vi)(b) The EX classification usually includes the working areas of grain handling and storage plants, room containing grinders or pulverizers, cleaners, graders, scalpers, open conveyors or spouts, open bins or hoppers, mixers, or blenders, automatic or hopper scales, packing machinery, elevator heads and boots, stock distributors, dust and stock collectors (except all-metal collectors vented to the outside), and all similar dust producing machinery and equipment in grain processing plants, starch plants, sugar pulverizing plants, malting plants, hay grinding plants, and other occupancies of similar nature; coal pulverizing plants (except where the pulverizing equipment is essentially dust tight); all working areas where metal dusts and powders are produced, processed, handled, packed, or stored (except in tight containers); and other similar locations where combustible dust may, under normal operating conditions, be present in the air in quantities sufficient to produce explosive or ignitable mixtures. 1910.178(c)(2)(vii) Only approved power-operated industrial trucks designated as DY, EE, or EX shall be used in atmospheres in which combustible dust will not normally be in suspension in the air or will not be likely to be thrown into suspension by the normal operation of equipment or apparatus in quantities sufficient to produce explosive or ignitable mixtures but where deposits or accumulations of such dust may be ignited by arcs or sparks originating in the truck. 1910.178(c)(2)(viii) Only approved power-operated industrial trucks designated as DY, EE, or EX shall be used in locations which are hazardous because of the presence of easily ignitable fibers or flyings but in which such fibers or flyings are not likely to be in suspension in the air in quantities sufficient to produce ignitable mixtures. 1910.178(c)(2)(ix) Only approved power-operated industrial trucks designated as DS, DY, ES, EE, EX, GS, or LPS shall be used in locations where easily ignitable fibers are stored or handled, including outside storage, but are not being processed or manufactured. Industrial trucks designated as E, which have been previously used in these locations may be continued in use. 1910.178(c)(2)(x) On piers and wharves handling general cargo, any approved power-operated industrial truck designated as Type D, E, G, or LP may be used, or trucks which conform to the requirements for these types may be used. 1910.178(c)(2)(xi) If storage warehouses and outside storage locations are hazardous only the approved power-operated industrial truck specified for such locations in this paragraph (c) (2) shall be used. If not classified as hazardous, any approved power-operated industrial truck designated as Type D, E, G, or LP may be used, or trucks which conform to the requirements for these types may be used. 1910.178(c)(2)(xii) If general industrial or commercial properties are hazardous, only approved power-operated industrial trucks specified for such locations in this paragraph (c) (2) shall be used. If not classified as hazardous, any approved power-operated industrial truck designated as Type D, E, G, or LP may be used, or trucks which conform to the requirements of these types may be used. 1910.178(d) Converted industrial trucks. Power-operated industrial trucks that have been originally approved for the use of gasoline for fuel, when converted to the use of liquefied petroleum gas fuel in accordance with paragraph (q) of this section, may be used in those locations where G, GS or LP, and LPS designated trucks have been specified in the preceding paragraphs. 1910.178(e) Safety guards. 1910.178(e)(1) High Lift Rider trucks shall be fitted with an overhead guard manufactured in accordance with paragraph (a) (2) of this section, unless operating conditions do not permit. 1910.178(e)(2) If the type of load presents a hazard, the user shall equip fork trucks with a vertical load backrest extension manufactured in accordance with paragraph (a) (2) of this section. 1910.178(f) Fuel handling and storage. 1910.178(f)(1) The storage and handling of liquid fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel shall be in accordance with NFPA Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code (NFPA No. 30-1969), which is incorporated by reference as specified in Sec. 1910.6. 1910.178(f)(2) The storage and handling of liquefied petroleum gas fuel shall be in accordance with NFPA Storage and Handling of Liquefied Petroleum Gases (NFPA No. 58-1969), which is incorporated by reference as specified in Sec. 1910.6. 1910.178(g) Changing and charging storage batteries. 1910.178(g)(1) Battery charging installations shall be located in areas designated for that purpose. 1910.178(g)(2) Facilities shall be provided for flushing and neutralizing spilled electrolyte, for fire protection, for protecting charging apparatus from damage by trucks, and for adequate ventilation for dispersal of fumes from gassing batteries. 1910.178(g)(3) [Reserved] 1910.178(g)(4) A conveyor, overhead hoist, or equivalent material handling equipment shall be provided for handling batteries. 1910.178(g)(5) Reinstalled batteries shall be properly positioned and secured in the truck. 1910.178(g)(6) A carboy tilter or siphon shall be provided for handling electrolyte. 1910.178(g)(7) When charging batteries, acid shall be poured into water; water shall not be poured into acid. 1910.178(g)(8) Trucks shall be properly positioned and brake applied before attempting to change or charge batteries. 1910.178(g)(9) Care shall be taken to assure that vent caps are functioning. The battery (or compartment) cover(s) shall be open to dissipate heat. 1910.178(g)(10) Smoking shall be prohibited in the charging area. 1910.178(g)(11) Precautions shall be taken to prevent open flames, sparks, or electric arcs in battery charging areas. 1910.178(g)(12) Tools and other metallic objects shall be kept away from the top of uncovered batteries. 1910.178(h) Lighting for operating areas. 1910.178(h)(1) [Reserved] 1910.178(h)(2) Where general lighting is less than 2 lumens per square foot, auxiliary directional lighting shall be provided on the truck. 1910.178(i) Control of noxious gases and fumes. 1910.178(i)(1) Concentration levels of carbon monoxide gas created by powered industrial truck operations shall not exceed the levels specified in 1910.1000. 1910.178(j) Dockboards (bridge plates). See 1910.30(a). 1910.178(k) Trucks and railroad cars. 1910.178(k)(1) The brakes of highway trucks shall be set and wheel chocks placed under the rear wheels to prevent the trucks from rolling while they are boarded with powered industrial trucks. 1910.178(k)(2) Wheel stops or other recognized positive protection shall be provided to prevent railroad cars from moving during loading or unloading operations. 1910.178(k)(3) Fixed jacks may be necessary to support a semitrailer and prevent upending during the loading or unloading when the trailer is not coupled to a tractor. 1910.178(k)(4) Positive protection shall be provided to prevent railroad cars from being moved while dockboards or bridge plates are in position. 1910.178(l) Operator training. 1910.178(l)(1) Safe operation. 1910.178(l)(1)(i) The employer shall ensure that each powered industrial truck operator is competent to operate a powered industrial truck safely, as demonstrated by the successful completion of the training and evaluation specified in this paragraph (l). 1910.178(l)(1)(ii) Prior to permitting an employee to operate a powered industrial truck (except for training purposes), the employer shall ensure that each operator has successfully completed the training required by this paragraph (l), except as permitted by paragraph (l)(5). 1910.178(l)(2) Training program implementation. 1910.178(l)(2)(i) Trainees may operate a powered industrial truck only: 1910.178(l)(2)(i)(A) Under the direct supervision of persons who have the knowledge, training, and experience to train operators and evaluate their competence; and 1910.178(l)(2)(i)(B) Where such operation does not endanger the trainee or other employees. 1910.178(l)(2)(ii) Training shall consist of a combination of formal instruction (e.g., lecture, discussion, interactive computer learning, video tape, written material), practical training (demonstrations performed by the trainer and practical exercises performed by the trainee), and evaluation of the operator's performance in the workplace. 1910.178(l)(2)(iii) All operator training and evaluation shall be conducted by persons who have the knowledge, training, and experience to train powered industrial truck operators and evaluate their competence. 1910.178(l)(3) Training program content. Powered industrial truck operators shall receive initial training in the following topics, except in topics which the employer can demonstrate are not applicable to safe operation of the truck in the employer's workplace. 1910.178(l)(3)(i) Truck-related topics: 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(A) Operating instructions, warnings, and precautions for the types of truck the operator will be authorized to operate; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(B) Differences between the truck and the automobile; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(C) Truck controls and instrumentation: where they are located, what they do, and how they work; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(D) Engine or motor operation; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(E) Steering and maneuvering; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(F) Visibility (including restrictions due to loading); 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(G) Fork and attachment adaptation, operation, and use limitations; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(H) Vehicle capacity; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(I) Vehicle stability; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(J) Any vehicle inspection and maintenance that the operator will be required to perform; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(K) Refueling and/or charging and recharging of batteries; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(L) Operating limitations; 1910.178(l)(3)(i)(M) Any other operating instructions, warnings, or precautions listed in the operator's manual for the types of vehicle that the employee is being trained to operate. 1910.178(l)(3)(ii) Workplace-related topics: 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(A) Surface conditions where the vehicle will be operated; 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(B) Composition of loads to be carried and load stability; 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(C) Load manipulation, stacking, and unstacking; 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(D) Pedestrian traffic in areas where the vehicle will be operated; 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(E) Narrow aisles and other restricted places where the vehicle will be operated; 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(F) Hazardous (classified) locations where the vehicle will be operated; 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(G) Ramps and other sloped surfaces that could affect the vehicle's stability; 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(H) Closed environments and other areas where insufficient ventilation or poor vehicle maintenance could cause a buildup of carbon monoxide or diesel exhaust; 1910.178(l)(3)(ii)(I) Other unique or potentially hazardous environmental conditions in the workplace that could affect safe operation. 1910.178(l)(3)(iii) The requirements of this section. 1910.178(l)(4) Refresher training and evaluation. 1910.178(l)(4)(i) Refresher training, including an evaluation of the effectiveness of that training, shall be conducted as required by paragraph (l)(4)(ii) to ensure that the operator has the knowledge and skills needed to operate the powered industrial truck safely. 1910.178(l)(4)(ii) Refresher training in relevant topics shall be provided to the operator when: 1910.178(l)(4)(ii)(A) The operator has been observed to operate the vehicle in an unsafe manner; 1910.178(l)(4)(ii)(B) The operator has been involved in an accident or near-miss incident; 1910.178(l)(4)(ii)(C) The operator has received an evaluation that reveals that the operator is not operating the truck safely; 1910.178(l)(4)(ii)(D) The operator is assigned to drive a different type of truck; or 1910.178(l)(4)(ii)(E) A condition in the workplace changes in a manner that could affect safe operation of the truck. 1910.178(l)(4)(iii) An evaluation of each powered industrial truck operator's performance shall be conducted at least once every three years. 1910.178(l)(5) Avoidance of duplicative training. If an operator has previously received training in a topic specified in paragraph (l)(3) of this section, and such training is appropriate to the truck and working conditions encountered, additional training in that topic is not required if the operator has been evaluated and found competent to operate the truck safely. 1910.178(l)(6) Certification. The employer shall certify that each operator has been trained and evaluated as required by this paragraph (l). The certification shall include the name of the operator, the date of the training, the date of the evaluation, and the identity of the person(s) performing the training or evaluation. 1910.178(l)(7) Dates. The employer shall ensure that operators of powered industrial trucks are trained, as appropriate, by the dates shown in the following table. ____________________________________________________________________________ | If the employee was hired: | The intial training and evaluation of that | must be completed: ____________________________|_______________________________________________ | Before December 1, 1999 ... | By December 1, 1999. After December 1, 1999 .... | Before the employee is assigned to operate a | powered industrial truck. ____________________________|_______________________________________________ 1910.178(l)(8) Appendix A to this section provides non-mandatory guidance to assist employers in implementing this paragraph (l). This appendix does not add to, alter, or reduce the requirements of this section. 1910.178(m) Truck operations. 1910.178(m)(1) Trucks shall not be driven up to anyone standing in front of a bench or other fixed object. 1910.178(m)(2) No person shall be allowed to stand or pass under the elevated portion of any truck, whether loaded or empty. 1910.178(m)(3) Unauthorized personnel shall not be permitted to ride on powered industrial trucks. A safe place to ride shall be provided where riding of trucks is authorized. 1910.178(m)(4) The employer shall prohibit arms or legs from being placed between the uprights of the mast or outside the running lines of the truck. 1910.178(m)(5) – 1910.178(m)(5)(i) When a powered industrial truck is left unattended, load engaging means shall be fully lowered, controls shall be neutralized, power shall be shut off, and brakes set. Wheels shall be blocked if the truck is parked on an incline. 1910.178(m)(5)(ii) A powered industrial truck is unattended when the operator is 25 ft. or more away from the vehicle which remains in his view, or whenever the operator leaves the vehicle and it is not in his view. 1910.178(m)(5)(iii) When the operator of an industrial truck is dismounted and within 25 ft. of the truck still in his view, the load engaging means shall be fully lowered, controls neutralized, and the brakes set to prevent movement. 1910.178(m)(6) A safe distance shall be maintained from the edge of ramps or platforms while on any elevated dock, or platform or freight car. Trucks shall not be used for opening or closing freight doors. 1910.178(m)(7) Brakes shall be set and wheel blocks shall be in place to prevent movement of trucks, trailers, or railroad cars while loading or unloading. Fixed jacks may be necessary to support a semitrailer during loading or unloading when the trailer is not coupled to a tractor. The flooring of trucks, trailers, and railroad cars shall be checked for breaks and weakness before they are driven onto. 1910.178(m)(8) There shall be sufficient headroom under overhead installations, lights, pipes, sprinkler system, etc. 1910.178(m)(9) An overhead guard shall be used as protection against falling objects. It should be noted that an overhead guard is intended to offer protection from the impact of small packages, boxes, bagged material, etc., representative of the job application, but not to withstand the impact of a falling capacity load. 1910.178(m)(10) A load backrest extension shall be used whenever necessary to minimize the possibility of the load or part of it from falling rearward. 1910.178(m)(11) Only approved industrial trucks shall be used in hazardous locations. 1910.178(m)(12) [Removed and Reserved] 1910.178(m)(13) [Reserved] 1910.178(m)(14) Fire aisles, access to stairways, and fire equipment shall be kept clear. 1910.178(n) Traveling. 1910.178(n)(1) All traffic regulations shall be observed, including authorized plant speed limits. A safe distance shall be maintained approximately three truck lengths from the truck ahead, and the truck shall be kept under control at all times. 1910.178(n)(2) The right of way shall be yielded to ambulances, fire trucks, or other vehicles in emergency situations. 1910.178(n)(3) Other trucks traveling in the same direction at intersections, blind spots, or other dangerous locations shall not be passed. 1910.178(n)(4) The driver shall be required to slow down and sound the horn at cross aisles and other locations where vision is obstructed. If the load being carried obstructs forward view, the driver shall be required to travel with the load trailing. 1910.178(n)(5) Railroad tracks shall be crossed diagonally wherever possible. Parking closer than 8 feet from the center of railroad tracks is prohibited. 1910.178(n)(6) The driver shall be required to look in the direction of, and keep a clear view of the path of travel. 1910.178(n)(7) Grades shall be ascended or descended slowly. 1910.178(n)(7)(i) When ascending or descending grades in excess of 10 percent, loaded trucks shall be driven with the load upgrade. 1910.178(n)(7)(ii) [Reserved] 1910.178(n)(7)(iii) On all grades the load and load engaging means shall be tilted back if applicable, and raised only as far as necessary to clear the road surface. 1910.178(n)(8) Under all travel conditions the truck shall be operated at a speed that will permit it to be brought to a stop in a safe manner. 1910.178(n)(9) Stunt driving and horseplay shall not be permitted. 1910.178(n)(10) The driver shall be required to slow down for wet and slippery floors. 1910.178(n)(11) Dockboard or bridgeplates, shall be properly secured before they are driven over. Dockboard or bridgeplates shall be driven over carefully and slowly and their rated capacity never exceeded. 1910.178(n)(12) Elevators shall be approached slowly, and then entered squarely after the elevator car is properly leveled. Once on the elevator, the controls shall be neutralized, power shut off, and the brakes set. 1910.178(n)(13) Motorized hand trucks must enter elevator or other confined areas with load end forward. 1910.178(n)(14) Running over loose objects on the roadway surface shall be avoided. 1910.178(n)(15) While negotiating turns, speed shall be reduced to a safe level by means of turning the hand steering wheel in a smooth, sweeping motion. Except when maneuvering at a very low speed, the hand steering wheel shall be turned at a moderate, even rate. 1910.178(o) Loading. 1910.178(o)(1) Only stable or safely arranged loads shall be handled. Caution shall be exercised when handling off-center loads which cannot be centered. 1910.178(o)(2) Only loads within the rated capacity of the truck shall be handled. 1910.178(o)(3) The long or high (including multiple-tiered) loads which may affect capacity shall be adjusted. 1910.178(o)(4) Trucks equipped with attachments shall be operated as partially loaded trucks when not handling a load. 1910.178(o)(5) A load engaging means shall be placed under the load as far as possible; the mast shall be carefully tilted backward to stabilize the load. 1910.178(o)(6) Extreme care shall be used when tilting the load forward or backward, particularly when high tiering. Tilting forward with load engaging means elevated shall be prohibited except to pick up a load. An elevated load shall not be tilted forward except when the load is in a deposit position over a rack or stack. When stacking or tiering, only enough backward tilt to stabilize the load shall be used. 1910.178(p) Operation of the truck. 1910.178(p)(1) If at any time a powered industrial truck is found to be in need of repair, defective, or in any way unsafe, the truck shall be taken out of service until it has been restored to safe operating condition. 1910.178(p)(2) Fuel tanks shall not be filled while the engine is running. Spillage shall be avoided. 1910.178(p)(3) Spillage of oil or fuel shall be carefully washed away or completely evaporated and the fuel tank cap replaced before restarting engine. 1910.178(p)(4) No truck shall be operated with a leak in the fuel system until the leak has been corrected. 1910.178(p)(5) Open flames shall not be used for checking electrolyte level in storage batteries or gasoline level in fuel tanks. 1910.178(q) Maintenance of industrial trucks. 1910.178(q)(1) Any power-operated industrial truck not in safe operating condition shall be removed from service. All repairs shall be made by authorized personnel. 1910.178(q)(2) No repairs shall be made in Class I, II, and III locations. 1910.178(q)(3) Those repairs to the fuel and ignition systems of industrial trucks which involve fire hazards shall be conducted only in locations designated for such repairs. 1910.178(q)(4) Trucks in need of repairs to the electrical system shall have the battery disconnected prior to such repairs. 1910.178(q)(5) All parts of any such industrial truck requiring replacement shall be replaced only by parts equivalent as to safety with those used in the original design. 1910.178(q)(6) Industrial trucks shall not be altered so that the relative positions of the various parts are different from what they were when originally received from the manufacturer, nor shall they be altered either by the addition of extra parts not provided by the manufacturer or by the elimination of any parts, except as provided in paragraph (q)(12) of this section. Additional counterweighting of fork trucks shall not be done unless approved by the truck manufacturer. 1910.178(q)(7) Industrial trucks shall be examined before being placed in service, and shall not be placed in service if the examination shows any condition adversely affecting the safety of the vehicle. Such examination shall be made at least daily. Where industrial trucks are used on a round-the-clock basis, they shall be examined after each shift. Defects when found shall be immediately reported and corrected. 1910.178(q)(8) Water mufflers shall be filled daily or as frequently as is necessary to prevent depletion of the supply of water below 75 percent of the filled capacity. Vehicles with mufflers having screens or other parts that may become clogged shall not be operated while such screens or parts are clogged. Any vehicle that emits hazardous sparks or flames from the exhaust system shall immediately be removed from service, and not returned to service until the cause for the emission of such sparks and flames has been eliminated. 1910.178(q)(9) When the temperature of any part of any truck is found to be in excess of its normal operating temperature, thus creating a hazardous condition, the vehicle shall be removed from service and not returned to service until the cause for such overheating has been eliminated. 1910.178(q)(10) Industrial trucks shall be kept in a clean condition, free of lint, excess oil, and grease. Noncombustible agents should be used for cleaning trucks. Low flash point (below 100 deg. F.) solvents shall not be used. High flash point (at or above 100 deg. F.) solvents may be used. Precautions regarding toxicity, ventilation, and fire hazard shall be consonant with the agent or solvent used. 1910.178(q)(11) [Reserved] 1910.178(q)(12) Industrial trucks originally approved for the use of gasoline for fuel may be converted to liquefied petroleum gas fuel provided the complete conversion results in a truck which embodies the features specified for LP or LPS designated trucks. Such conversion equipment shall be approved. The description of the component parts of this conversion system and the recommended method of installation on specific trucks are contained in the "Listed by Report." [39 FR 23502, June 27, 1974, as amended at 40 FR 23073, May 28, 1975; 43 FR 49749, Oct. 24, 1978; 49 FR 5322, Feb. 10, 1984; 53 FR 12122, Apr. 12, 1988; 55 FR 32015, Aug. 6, 1990; 61 FR 9227, March 7, 1996; 63 FR 66270, Dec. 1, 1998; 68 FR 32368, June 2, 2003; 71 FR 16672, April 3, 2006]


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Indian gang-rape victim dies in Singapore hospital
CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Friday, December 28, 2012 6:58AM EST
Last Updated Friday, December 28, 2012 10:48PM EST
The victim of a violent gang-rape in New Delhi has died in a Singapore hospital more than two weeks after the brutal attack.
Singapore's Mount Elizabeth hospital released a statement saying the 23-year-old student had died "peacefully" early Saturday local time.
The hospital's chief executive, Dr. Kevin Loh, said the victim died surrounded by her family and officials from the Indian embassy.
Loh said she suffered from severe organ failure, following injuries to her body and brain.
"She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome," he said.
The victim was transported to Singapore for treatment on Thursday, after suffering severe internal injuries, a lung infection, a heart attack and brain damage.
Indian High Commissioner, T.C.A. Raghanvan told reporters that arrangements are being made to have the victim's body returned to India.
The case has sparked outrage in India and has prompted near-daily demonstrations in New Delhi and across the country.
Angry protesters are demanding greater protections from violent sexual acts, from groping to rape, that affect thousands of women across the country but often go unreported.
Police in New Delhi took strides to contain and end the protests, shutting down roads and using tear gas and water cannons on the protesters.
The government appealed for calm and promised to fast-track the case. It also said it would look at new measures to prevent crimes against women.
Earlier this week Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told protesters the government would "make all possible efforts to ensure security and safety of women in this country."
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he would consider the demands that all arrested suspects in the case face the death penalty.
Other Indian officials, however, have been slammed for comments that insulted the protesters and downplayed the nature of the crime.
National lawmaker and son of India's president, Abhijit Mukherjee, apologized on Friday for calling the protesters "highly dented and painted" women, who go from discos and nightclubs to demonstrations.
The victim and a male friend were on a public bus on Dec. 16 when they were attacked by six men who took turns raping her after beating both of them. The attacks continued while the bus made its way through the city, even passing through police checkpoints.
The men are accused of inserting a rod into her body. The victim and her friend were eventually stripped naked and dumped on the side of a road.
The horrific crime has brought the reality of violence against women in India to the international stage.
Sexually assaulted women are often blamed for the crime, which causes them to keep quiet and refrain from reporting it to police for fear of shaming their families. Also, police often refuse to accept complaints from those who do report rape and cases that do reach the court drag on for years.
There are more than 40,000 rape cases before the Indian courts.
With files from The Associated Press

subset: commoncrawl


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South African Journal of Science
versão On-line ISSN 1996-7489
versão impressa ISSN 0038-2353
S. Afr. j. sci. vol.104 no.7-8 Pretoria Set./Ago. 2008
Particle acceleration with lasers
Heinrich Schwoerer
Laser Research Institute, Department of Physics, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa. E-mail: email@example.com
Within less than a decade, scientists have learned how to use high-intensity lasers to accelerate electrons within a few millimetres to 1 GeV and how to produce ultrashort pulsed proton beams with extremely small emittances. Laser science has touched upon applications in accelerator and synchrotron physics, in hot dense matter and nuclear physics, and one has started to speculate on the feasibility of hitherto experimentally inaccessible nonlinear quantum electrodynamical effects like, for example, photonphoton scattering. Today's acceleration of charged particles by lasers has evolved from the large programmes on inertial confinement fusion that have long been conducted in France and the United States. As fusion laser installations have grown to the size of several soccer fields, however, they place limits on the flexibility of systematic fundamental research. But with the advent of compact, ultra-intense and ultrashort pulsed laser systems, the field of relativistic laser plasma physics has exploded in recent years.
Fields and intensities
The strength of the electric field in the focus of today's most powerful lasers exceeds 1013 V/m, almost a thousand times greater than the field which binds the electron to the proton in the hydrogen atom. The corresponding light intensity allows for an astonishing analogy: if all the sunlight incident on Earth was focused by means of a huge lens onto the tip of a pencil, the intensity would be more than 1020 W/cm2, which is what today's best lasers can achieve (Fig. A in supplementary material online). From this analogy, however, one immediately sees that for simple energy reasons this intensity cannot be sustained for long, not even over an area the size of a pencil tip. It is generated for a typical duration of 1013 s onto an area of less than 100 µm2. The pressure of the light on a solid target thereby exceeds many gigabars and matter is heated to millions of degrees. In these laser-generated plasmas, currents are driven to densities of 1012 A/cm2 and magnetic fields of thousands of tesla are generated. Conditions and fields of that magnitude exist in the interior of stars, at the edge of black holes or in galactic jets. The primary process in the interaction of such a light field with matter is the acceleration of electrons. It is this behaviour, together with its implications for science, that I wish to outline in this review.
I will begin with a short account of the technology involved in order to provide an appreciation for the size and nature of a high-intensity laser laboratory. I then introduce some basic theoretical concepts, illustrate the state of the art of laser electron accelerators, and close with reference to the emerging applications involving synchrotrons, ion accelerators and particle colliders.
High-intensity lasers
There are two classes of laser systems capable of generating intensities of 1020 W/cm2 and higher. Historically, the first were high-energy lasers developed around inertial confinement fusion physics. These installations are the size of a small facility, based on flash lamp pumped glass laser technology. Their petawatt versions deliver about a kilojoule of pulse energy within a pulse duration of one picosecond. They can be fired a few times per hour and achieve a reasonable beam quality that can be focused at a maximum intensity of 1021 W/cm2. The only system of this type currently operating is the Vulcan PetaWatt laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the U.K.1
The second class are ultrashort-pulse lasers, which were derived from ultrafast spectroscopy. They fit on a few optical tables (and so are called table-top lasers), generate only a few joules of pulse energy, within less than 100 femtoseconds in perfectly focusable beams, and they can be fired at least 10 times a second.2 With the advent of these compact, medium-cost, high-intensity lasers about ten years ago, the field of acceleration of particles by laser has gained momentum. Today, some ten laboratories worldwide, most of them in Europe and the U.S., actively contribute to and compete in the exploration of what is now called relativistic laser plasma physics.
All high-intensity lasers rely on the technology of chirped pulse amplification, a concept that was adopted by lasers from microwave technology in the 1980s.3 To begin with, a mode-locked laser resonator generates ultrashort laser pulses (<1013 s) with low energy (109 J) and a high repetition rate (108 Hz). Some of these pulses are then amplified by a factor of about one billion or more and finally focused onto the smallest possible area. However, the amplified ultrashort pulses inevitably deliver very high intensities onto all adjacent optical surfaces as well as into all materials through which they are transmitted. In order to control optical non-linear processes and avoid damage to the components, the intensity has to be reduced prior to amplification by increasing beam diameter and pulse duration in a well-controlled manner. Temporal stretching and compression occurs in simple passive optical setups. These consist of reflection gratings and telescopes, in which the different spectral components of the ultrashort pulses travel different optical pathlengths, as depicted in Fig. 1.
The amplification mechanism established between stretching and compression is stimulated emission in a laser-active medium, which is typically either a glass, doped with rare earth ions, or a sapphire crystal doped with Ti3+ ions. In the case of Ti:sapphire lasers, the population inversion of the laser-active medium is typically generated by means of frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers. Because of the large spectral bandwidth of the laser transition in Ti:sapphire and the high damage threshold upon optical irradiation, these crystals are excellent for the generation of ultrashort laser pulses as well as for their amplification. The first amplification stage typically makes use of a regenerative amplifier, which is itself a Ti:sapphire laser cavity. The pulse to be amplified is seeded into the cavity by means of a fast Pockels cell and a polarizer. It undergoes several round trips until the amplification is saturated and is then switched out again. Within the regenerative amplifier the first six orders of magnitude in amplification is achieved, from nanojoule to millijoule per pulse. Despite the large amplification factor, the spatial mode profile stays almost ideal owing to the geometry of the resonator geometry. The amplifiers employed subsequently are multi-pass Ti:sapphire setups (see Fig. 1). The pulse energy can increase to several joules. Finally, the pulses are compressed down to almost their original duration in the vacuum compressor. Typical parameters are pulse energies of several joules and pulse duration between 30 and 100 fscorresponding to peak powers of several tens of terawattsa central wavelength of 800 nm and a shot repetition rate of 10 Hz. The laser pulse now is a disk of light with a diameter of about 50 mm, but only 20 µm thin, even thinner than the paper you hold in your hand.
The intensity in the compressed pulse is already so high that the nonlinear dispersion of the air will destroy its spectrum and its wave front. The laser pulse therefore has to propagate in vacuum, starting with the input of the compressor. The final focusing has to be done with parabolic mirrors as they have neither chromatic nor spherical aberrations. Today's table-top Ti:sapphire lasers generate intensities of up to 1020 W/cm2 averaged over the area of the focal spot. These lasers fit on an area of about 10 m2, require electrical power of the order of 20 kW and are relatively simple to operate. They can be used as work horses in day-to-day experiments and can be run by a competent Ph.D. student in addition to his or her own experiments.
Interaction between laser and matter at relativistic intensities
In the electromagnetic field of the laser, the energy gain of an electron within one atomic diameter exceeds the binding energy of the outer electron shells. The dominant ionization mechanism is therefore field ionization. To a very good approximation, we start with the interaction of these strong laser pulses with free electrons within a plasma. We then proceed in three steps: first, the interaction of an electron with a plane wave, subsequently we introduce the spatial confinement of the focused laser beam, and finally we transfer the process into a plasma.4
We start with the free electron in a weak and plane electromagnetic wave. Its duration is long compared with its period, ensuring that the phase of the carrier wave underneath the envelope can be neglected (the slowly varying envelope approximation). The electron experiences the Lorentz force L = e( + × , with e being the charge on the electron and ν its velocity, and and the electric and magnetic fields, respectively. The electron oscillates along the direction of the electric field with velocity ν = eE / mωcosωt, with m being the electron mass and ω the laser frequency of about 2π·4·1014 Hz. Once the laser pulse has passed the electron, it is at rest again.5
With increasing electric field strength, the electron's velocity approaches the speed of light c. Now the magnetic part of the Lorentz force × becomes important: electrons are also accelerated in the direction of laser propagation as determined by the cross product. The solution of the relativistic equation of motion results in an additional longitudinal momentum, which oscillates with the doubled laser frequency. The motion of free electrons in a strong field is therefore zig-zag shaped, as seen in Fig. 3a. As the motion is anharmonic, electrons emit radiation at multiples of the laser frequency, a phenomenon called nonlinear Thomson scattering. For our simplified plane wave situation, however, the electron comes to rest after the laser pulse has passed over it. It was translated only a little in the direction of laser propagation and has not gained energy irreversibly.
The ponderomotive force
To accelerate the electron irreversibly, we have to leave the symmetry of the plane wave and we do that by considering the real case of a focused laser beam (see Fig. 3b). Solving the same equations of motion for a spatially confined electric fieldsuch as a focused Gaussian beamresults in the so-called ponderomotive force, pond ∝ I ∙ λ2, which is proportional to the negative gradient of the intensity.6 Electrons are displaced radially from the laser beam. Imagine an electron starting on the optical axis: it will be accelerated outwards in the first half of the wave. At its turning point, however, the field is weaker and it will not reach its starting point again, but is again displaced outwards during the next cycle, and so on. Eventually, it leaves the laser beam with high velocity. For I = 1020 W/cm2, an electron initially resting in the centre of the beam achieves a final kinetic energy of about 5 MeV. Owing to the relatively broad distribution of the initial positions, however, the overall electron energy spectrum will be very broad.
The mechanisms described work best at the highest intensity, which is at the focus of the laser beam. As a result of the fundamental diffraction of light, however, the numerical aperture of the focusing limits the focal volume: the shorter the transverse focal area, corresponding to high intensity, the shorter also the focal length (Rayleigh length), and therefore the acceleration distance. An elegant way of increasing the focal length is self-focusing in a homogeneous plasma by the ponderomotive force. It displaces the electrons radially along the optical axis and generates a channel of low electron density. Owing to the density dependence of the refractive index of a plasma, this channel acts like a positive lens on the laser beam. In combination with further ionization and diffraction, this can lead to filamentation of the beam over long distances and therefore a long acceleration length.
Wake field acceleration
With our knowledge of free electrons, we now consider a strong laser pulse propagating through a plasma. At first, the ponderomotive force pushes electrons forward until the laser pulse overtakes them and pushes them backwards. Because the ions are relatively inert due to their higher mass, this introduces a longitudinal variation in charge density, which can be resonantly driven if the laser pulse duration is just half of the period of the plasma oscillation at the given plasma density. In total, a longitudinal plasma wave develops whose phase travels with the group velocity of the laser pulse behind the laser pulse (Fig. 3c). Electrons can be accelerated in the density wave. As the situation is similar to the wake behind a boat moving through water, this process is called wake field acceleration. Ideally, electrons are injected into the front flank of the wave with high forward velocity and leave before the wave overtakes them.6
If the laser-produced resonant plasma wave is strongly driven, the energy distribution of accelerated electrons can be very narrow, a process which has an analogy with water waves: in a low-amplitude water wave, only the phase of the wave propagates forward, whereas the water molecules simply cycle around their position. However, if the contrast of the wave is high and if it finally breaks, some of the water molecules are captured by the rolling wave front and dragged along until they finally run out of phase and are stopped again. Similarly, if the plasma wave is strongly driven, an electron void develops on the front flank. Some electrons stream into this 'bubble' from behind and are all accelerated to the same kinetic energy. This mechanism, which is sometimes called bubble acceleration, was first predicted by numerical simulation in 20027 and later demonstrated experimentally by three groups in the U.K., France and the U.S. in 2004.8
Experimental results
Electron beams
Today's energy record of an electron beam of more than 1 GeV is held by a group in Berkeley, California.9 As the acceleration length is only a few millimetres, the acceleration amounts to several 100 GeV/m. This is higher than in a conventional radiofrequency (RF) accelerator by more than three orders of magnitude. Whereas RF accelerators are limited by material breakdown, leading to ionization, the plasma acceleration described requires ionization and therefore the electric fields can be much higher. The relative spectral width is in the order of a per cent, the beam divergence around one mrad. The duration of the electron pulse is shorter than 100 fs and can contain up to 109 particles.
Interesting applications of these laser-accelerated electrons can arise in X-ray and nuclear physics. If the electrons are stopped in a high-Z material like tungsten or tantalum, ultrashort pulses of hard X-rays and γ-rays are produced within a very small volume. In recent years all elementary nuclear reactions as well as cross-section measurements with these ultrashort pulses of high-energy radiation were successfully demonstrated, including (γ, n)-, (γ, p)- and fusion reactions.10
At present the acceleration length is limited to a few millimetres. Because the fundamental electron acceleration process is well understood, however, it seems to be feasible to increase the electron energy much more in the future by staging several accelerations. By that means laser acceleration experiments gradually approach typical accelerator applications such as the generation of synchrotron radiation, free electron lasers and collision experiments.
Synchrotron radiation
One of the best-established scientific applications of RF electron accelerators is the generation of narrowband and tunable synchrotron radiation in the ultraviolet to soft X-ray spectral range. X-ray structural analysis by diffraction of synchrotron radiation, for example, is an extremely powerful method in physics, chemistry, biology and materials science. However, the method is limited to stationary, time-independent structures or slow kinetics because the duration of the synchrotron pulse is not shorter than about 100 ps. In contrast, femtosecond lasers deliver light pulses in the temporal range of intramolecular dynamics, but at visible wavelengths and therefore cannot support the microscopic spatial resolution of the synchrotron light source.
An obvious way of combining the two requirements for temporal and spatial resolution at a molecular level is now opened up by laser-accelerated relativistic electrons propagating through a conventional undulator. A first proof of principle experiment was recently performed in a cooperative venture between the Jena group in Germany, the Laser Research Institute in Stellenbosch and the University of Strathclyde in the U.K., where 60-MeV electrons were sent through an undulator and synchrotron light could be successfully detected (see Fig. 5).11 Scaling the results to today's best laser-accelerated electron pulses, synchrotron light in the nanometre range will be generated with a pulse duration of less than 100 fs. As with conventional accelerator facilities, the next step is the generation of coherent undulator radiation through a free-electron laser. This requires electron bunch durations shorter than the period of the radiation generated, which can be accomplished by so-called self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE): by interaction with the light generated, the initially longer electron pulses decay into a regular series of ultrashort pulses of exactly the required duration. SASE facilitates free electron lasing at the Free Electron Laser (FEL) facilities of DESY in Hamburg, Germany, and ALS in Berkeley, California, and it might also be applicable to accelerators based on laser plasmas.
An application of that novel light source to time-resolved structural analysis still requires improvement in the spatial and spectral stability of the electron beams. However, given the dynamics of the evolution of the field in the last five years and the progress made, I have no doubt that purely laser-driven or all-optical FEL sources will eventually produce tunable short-wavelength, coherent, ultrashort and polarizedin short, brilliantlight pulses for a wealth of applications.
Counter-propagating beams, the photon collider
In the experiments mentioned so far, the laser beam and particle beams were directed towards an analysing detector or a target. However, since a laser beam can easily be split and deflected in any ratio and in any direction by means of beamsplitters and mirrors, two laser pulses can be counter-propagated and collided.12 The so-called photon collider was recently developed at the University of Jena to collide two ultrashort and ultra-intense laser pulses (see Fig. 6). Depending on the positions of the two foci and the matter involved, one can collide the laser photons with photons or with laser-accelerated electrons. Even electronelectron collisions can be considered. For the short time of the collision, the fluxes are extremely high: each laser pulse delivers 1018 photons of 1.5 eV in 1013 s onto an area of less than 10 µm2 (c. 1038 photons s1 cm2), each electron pulse carries up to 109 electrons within the same duration and area (1029 electrons s1 cm2).
In the electronphoton collision, the laser-accelerated electrons undulate in the counter-propagating light field. The 'undulator period' is now the wavelength of the light, which is, however, Lorentz contracted from the point of view of the relativistic electron. The energy of scattered light depends on the angle of emission and is highest in the backscattered direction. For 10-MeV electrons, corresponding to a Lorentz factor of γ = 20, easily produced in the photon collider, the backscattered relativistic Thomson radiation is already in the form of hard X-rays with ETh = 4γ2 EL = 2.4 keV. This X-ray pulse is as short as the laser pulse as it can be generated only once the laser pulse and laser-generated electron pulse penetrate each other. Moreover, the relativistic Thomson radiation is a subtle time-resolved diagnostic of the electron acceleration itself, because only once electrons have been accelerated can laser photons scatter off them.13
If both beams accelerate electrons, pairs of electrons and positrons should be generated by electronelectron collisions. With even faster electrons, pairs of heavier and short-lived particles also could be generated and immediately accelerated in the laser field to relativistic energies to extend their life time in the laboratory.
If matter is completely removed from the foci, one can start to speculate about the possibility of polarizing the vacuum.14 Absorption of the electromagnetic energy by the vacuum and emission of an electronpositron pair happens only above the so-called Schwinger field of 1.3 × 1016 V/cm, corresponding to 4.4 × 1029 W/cm2, which is not accessible in the foreseeable future.15 However, dispersive effects like birefringence of the vacuum16 or photonphoton scattering17 could become reality, a regime of nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED) at high fields and low energies, which was never experimentally accessible before. The unsuccessful PVLAS experiment in Italy, in which a magnetic field was supposed to change the polarization of light, has demonstrated the great theoretical interest in the topic.18
Finally, laser acceleration of electrons is also the primary process in the present-day laser acceleration of ions, as discussed below.
Ions and protons
With today's laser systems, the ponderomotive force, which is responsible for electron acceleration as described above, is too weak to accelerate protons or heavier plasma ions to relativistic energies. Intensities in the range of 1023 W/cm2 and higher are required. However, if the spatial region of laser plasma interaction and electron acceleration is separated from the region of the charge separation, a remarkable ion acceleration mechanism can be enforced. For that purpose the laser pulse is focused onto a thin metal foil (Fig. 7). In the pre-plasma region in front of the foil, electrons are accelerated, the fastest once again in a forward direction into the metal foil as we have learnt above. On the one hand, the foil must be thin enough to cause insignificant energy loss of the electrons. The fast electrons exit the far side of the foil and build up a sheath of hot electrons. If, on the other hand, the foil is thick enough still to be macroscopically intact once the electrons exit at the rear side, the field between the sheath and the remaining positively charged foil is orientated normal to the foil. Appropriate foil thicknesses lie in the order of a few micrometres. The field can be as high as 100 GV/m or more and it lasts for slightly longer than the delivery of fast electrons, in other words, the duration of the laser pulse. Ions from the rear surface of the foil are accelerated into the vacuum. Because of its geometry, the process is called 'target normal sheath acceleration' (TNSA).19 Ions with the largest charge to mass ratio are accelerated the most. These are usually protons and highly charged carbon ions from surface contaminants. The process generates extremely low transverse emittance ion beams due to the small source size (10 µm diameter), the negligible kinetic energy prior to acceleration, the ultrashort acceleration time (100 fs) and the charge neutrality of the beam. This means that the ion beam is extremely laminar.20
The radial inhomogeneity of the TNSA field causes the photons to display a broad energy spectrum, with a high energy cut-off determined by the laser pulse energy and intensity, and typical values around 5 MeV for table-top laser systems. If one restricts the abundance of protons at the back of the foil to the centre of the TNSA field, however, where it is essentially homogeneous (see Fig. 7), and if these are not too numerous, then all of them experience the same field and potential and their energy spectrum narrows. As for the acceleration of the narrow-band electrons, this effect was suggested theoretically,21 realized experimentally22 and, from the experiments, the theory was refined.23
The excellent beam properties of laser-accelerated ions allows one to think of a variety of applications such as injections into conventional accelerators,24 or the time-resolved probing of hot and dense matter.25 The combination of laser-accelerated protons and the high fields of the laser itself opens up the prospect of investigating nuclear reactions and decay in extreme external fields and high temperature, which are of fundamental interest to astrophysicists. Finally, one may think of the generation of short-lived isotopes using lasers instead of accelerators,26 or even the irradiation of biologically interesting targets with laser-accelerated ions.
High-intensity laser research in South Africa
About four years ago, the vision of a South African High Intensity Laser Facility was conceived at the Laser Research Institute in Stellenbosch. This ambition was introduced to the scientific community through the South African Institute of Physics and immediately attracted the interest of the National Laser Centre and also of the National Research Foundation's iThemba Labs. With the appointment of the author as a South African research professor, the expertise to install and operate such a facility and to contribute to scientific progress in the field is now available in this country. It was therefore decided to follow up the vision within the Photonics Initiative of South Africa (PISA). With this as background, a four-day summer school will be organized in Stellenbosch in January 2009 to introduce the scientific community to the state of high-intensity laser research and to invite interested parties to participate in the project.
We have seen how the ponderomotive force of a strong light field, which is nothing other than the light pressure, impels electrons to highly relativistic energies in well-defined beams and ultrashort pulses. We have also seen how these laser-accelerated electrons can be used to produce ion beams with exceptional qualities. The main message of this review is that the dynamic young field of relativistic laser plasma physics is evolving towards accelerator and nuclear physics, where it will find niche areas through the unique properties of laser-accelerated pulses of particles and radiation as well as benefiting from the compactness of the equipment. There is just a small number of research groups involved, so that many of the interesting applications are typically only touched upon and then abandoned in favour of the next exciting topic. These developments certainly expand the mind and are bearing fruit, but some of the visions and promises will be possible only with the availability of beam time on 50-TW class lasers. The future will also bring even more powerful laser systems, able to push ions to relativistic energies and to approach experimentally some of the nonlinear QED proposals. From the success of today's table-top lasers, however, we have learned that scientific benefits are achieved by the most flexible and creative experimental approach rather than the most powerful laser.
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12. Liesfeld B., Bernhardt J., Amthor K., Schwoerer H. and Sauerbrey R. (2005). Single-shot autocorrelation at relativistic intensity. Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 161107 13. [ Links ]
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14. Marklund M. and Shukla P. (2006). Nonlinear collective effects in photonphoton and photonplasma interactions. Rev. Mod. Phys. 78, 591640. [ Links ]
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18. Zavattini E., Zavattini G., Ruoso G., Polacco E., Milotti E., Karuza M., Gastaldi U., Di Domenico G., Della Valle F., Cimino R., Carusotto S., Cantatore G. and Bregant M. (2006). Experimental observation of optical rotation generated in vacuum by a magnetic field. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 110406, 14; and same authors, Editorial Note: Experimental observation of optical rotation generated in vacuum by a magnetic field [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 110406 (2006)]. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 129901 (2007). [ Links ]
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20. Borghesi M., Mackinnon A., Campbell D., Hicks D., Kar S., Patel P., Price D., Romagnani L., Schiavi A. and Willi O. (2004). Multi-MeV proton source investigations in ultraintense laserfoil interactions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (5), 055003 14; and Cowan T.E., Fuchs J., Ruhl H., Kemp A., Audebert P., Roth M., Stephens R., Barton I., Blazevic A., Brambrink E., Cobble J., Fernandez J., Gauthier J., Geissel M., Hegelich M., Kaae J., Karsch S., Sage G.P.L., Letzring S., Manclossi M., Meyroneinc S., Newkirk A., Pepin H. and LeGalloudec N.R. (2004). Ultralow emittance, multi-MeV proton beams from a laser virtual-cathode plasma accelerator. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 204801 14. [ Links ]
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Received 11 December 2007. Accepted 4 July 2008.
This article is accompanied by a supplementary figure online at www.sajs.co.za
Schwoerer H. (2008). Particle acceleration with lasers. S. Afr. J. Sci. 104, 299-304.


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NetApp upgraded to outperform by Raymond James > > SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- NetApp Inc. NTAP, -0.81% jumped 11.7% in premarket trades on Thursday. The company drew an upgrade to an outperform, or buy, rating by Raymond James, after the provider of data storage technology reported better-than-expected earnings for the October quarter. In a note to clients, analyst Brian Alexander cited "increased optimism that product refreshes, tighter integration of flash, and expanding partnerships with leading technology players should improve revenue momentum." He also predicted "gross margin expansion beginning in the January quarter," setting a $35 price target on the stock. NetApp's results were issued after Wednesday's closing bell.
NetApp upgraded to outperform by Raymond James
Quote References
-0.38 -0.81%


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Download of the Day: ClamWin 0.96.1
Our Download of the Day today is ClamWin 0.96.1.
ClamWin is a Free Antivirus program for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 and Vista. ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code. You may download and use it absolutely free of charge. It features:
High detection rates for viruses and spyware;
Scanning Scheduler;
Automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus Database;
Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer;
Addin to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically.
Please note that ClamWin Free Antivirus does not include an on-access real-time scanner. You need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware.
The latest version includes the following changes:
Changes in Version 0.96.1
# This release updates ClamAV scanning engine and brings the following improvements:
* Better and faster loading of the virus signature database
* Improvements in 7zip archive scanning
* Improvements in bytecode signatures


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Celebrating illustration, design, cartoon and comic art of the mid-20th century.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
NC Wyeth's "King Arthur", conclusion
I won't comment on all the following illustrations except to say Wyeth never let the reader down. Each is a marvel of composition, draftsmanship and drama... and each offers the readers renewed interest and a glimpse of the times and mood of the story.
The next to last image was a page loved and quoted by my friend Ken Alexander. 'He rode his way with the queen unto Joyous Gard'... Poetic, and dramatized so beautifully.
By the way, all of Wyeth's horse subjects add hugely to the drama of the event. Can't think of another illustrator who came even close in that regard.
Last, the final illustration the death scene.
Just an amazing group of illustrations... so old... and yet so new to today's viewers and readers! N.C. Wyeth was a true giant in our illustrative history.
* Tomorrow, Charlie shares some scans from NC Wyeth's "Treasure Island".
* If you are new to Today's Inspiration and never read Charlie Allen's blog, this is your chance to get to know our guest author better. Drop by there and peruse Charlie's archives for some great stories and some truly amazing artwork!
5 comments:
Charlie, by chance you have included one of the few paintings by Wyeth that hits an "off" note for me. It's the picture of the dwarf.ReplyDelete
Wyeth did 4 or 5 paintings I know of where he included a very cartoonish figure that seems inconsistent with the rest of the picture, and frankly-- not very good. The man was such a genius I keep looking for a reason why the mistake is mine-- there must be something I am overlooking. He couldn't possibly have improvised a childish looking character because he had no model and was on a short deadline, could he?
Thanks,Charlie,for scanning these pages.I haven't seen a lot of these images before.I'm sure Frazetta was influenced by Wyeth.They both had a flair for action.ReplyDelete
very nice, NC Wyeth is my hero. Two weeks ago I found a first edition of this book at a garage sale. I really regret not buying it.ReplyDelete
- Charlie Allen1:51 PM
DAVID.....Thanks for the comment. You always seem to get to the point and to strange inconsistencies. Totally agree. That figure is odd, weird, inconsistent with his other characters, and even with the odd characters he depicted in his 'Treasure Island' series. We can only wonder!ReplyDelete
Fantastic post, Charlie. Great images. In regards to another illustrator whose "horse subjects add hugely to the drama of the event", the only one I can think of in his league is Frederic Remmington.ReplyDelete


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West Coast American style meets Hamilton Gardens' American Modernist Garden
Come explore an international phenomenon of modernist gardens which focused on relaxed outdoor living at Hamilton Gardens.
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Not just a 20th century American tradition, modernist gardens were an international phenomenon. Focused on relaxed outdoor living, a perfect match to sun soaked, upwardly mobile California. Sunny yellow outdoor chairs, raised deck-like forms, water features and popular culture murals set the scene at Hamilton Gardens.
Modernist garden design has become recognised as a single 20th century phenomenon with some clearly defined characteristics. While its roots can be traced back to the 19th century it became a very significant movement on the US western seaboard and in northern Europe, particularly France, Germany and Scandinavia in the 1930s.
Before that time, Western gardens usually followed two basic patterns, either formal / geometric or irregular. A fixed vocabulary of these forms was applied to different problems and different sites. Modernism reversed that thinking and recognised that form could actually grow from an analysis of the site, the architecture and functional requirements. Design of modernist gardens is usually related to the use of the garden and they are often dominated by elements like swimming pools, barbecue and outdoor eating areas.
There is usually a strong visual and practical relationship between house and garden. The wall and window in this garden represent the edge of the house. Generally there is little ornamentation in true Modernist gardens, detailing is simple and there is a lack of formality or any central axis.
Earlier Modernist designs like this one favored a looseness, flexibility and spontaneity to the layout and a minimalist lack of detail. The central synthesis of this garden is between the sharply linear concrete and decking grid pattern and the curving lines of the garden edges and kidney shaped pool with an abstract island sculpture.
Kidney shapes were very popular in America during the 1940's and were found in everything from the biomorphic imagery of Surrealist painters to coffee tables. The space, form, manipulation of views and the overlapping planes of this garden originate from the Cubist idea that a scene may be seen simultaneously from a number of viewpoints.
Hamilton Gardens
Hamilton Gardens is a conceptual garden based in the Waikato that explores the context, history and meaning of gardens through time, and from around the world. It is internationally recognised for its unique concept and is the Waikato region's most popular tourist destination.
Only five minutes drive from Hamilton's CBD, the Gardens is open 7 days a week during daylight hours and entry and parking is free. Access is off SH1, alongside Cobham Drive on the southern side of Hamilton. Mobility scooters, wheelchairs and pushchairs are available to hire and guided tours are available.


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Alexza's Technology Foundation
The heart of the hand-held Staccato® system is a heat package with a stainless steel substrate, onto which a thin film of unformulated drug is coated. When the patient draws a normal breath through the Staccato system, the substrate surface instantaneously heats to create a condensation aerosol. The patient inhales perfectly sized particles of pure drug down into the narrower, more vascularized tissue of the deep lung, allowing fast and more complete absorption into the bloodstream.
The Staccato system matches delivery characteristics and product attributes to patient needs for acute and intermittent conditions, with the following advantages:
Rapid Onset
The aerosol produced with the Staccato system is designed to be rapidly absorbed through the deep lung with a speed of therapeutic onset comparable to an IV injection, generally achieving peak plasma levels of drug in two to five minutes.
Ease of Use
The Staccato system is breath actuated, and a patient simply inhales to administer the drug dose. Unlike injections, the Staccato system is noninvasive and may not require caregiver assistance. The aerosol produced with the Staccato system is relatively insensitive to patient inhalation rates. Unlike many other inhalation technologies, the patient does not need to learn a special breathing pattern. In addition, the Staccato device is small and easily portable.
Consistent Particle Size and Dose
The Staccato system uses rapid heating of the drug film to create consistent and appropriate particle sizes for deep lung inhalation and absorption into the bloodstream. The Staccato system also produces a consistent high emitted dose, regardless of the patient's breathing pattern.
Broad Applicability
We have screened over 400 drugs, and approximately 200 have exhibited initial vaporization feasibility using our Staccato system. The Staccato system can deliver both water-soluble and water-insoluble drugs and eliminates the need for excipients and additives such as detergents, stabilizers and solvents, avoiding the side effects that may be associated with the excipients or additives.
Design Flexibility
The Staccato system can incorporate multiple features, including lockout to potentially enhance safety, the convenience of patient titration and a variety of dose administration regimens.


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Sonic Solutions announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it will support the forthcoming Blu-ray data recording standard in its line of Sonic- and Roxio-branded consumer applications, as well as in its AuthorScript Software Development Kit for CD and DVD creation.
Working closely with the leading drive manufacturers implementing the Blu-ray format, Sonic is leveraging its advanced DVD recording technology, deployed on hundreds of millions of PCs worldwide, to deliver the industry's first, next generation BD- RE and BD-R data recording applications when the first drives ship in the summer of 2005. Blu-ray recordable media can hold 25 gigabytes of data on a single-layer disc, providing the high capacity required for digital media archival of home movies, recorded TV shows, music collections, and digital photos. As the Blu-ray Disc video formats are finalized, Sonic will release a complete line of professional and consumer Blu-ray Disc applications for creation and playback of high- definition interactive content.
Sonic also announced that it is partnering with Panasonic to develop authoring systems for Blu-ray Disc (BD)-ROM for professional use. Under the agreement, the two companies will contribute technology and engineering toward the development of BD authoring systems. By combining Panasonic's BD technology with Sonic's expertise in creating highly interactive professional authoring environments, worldwide distribution channel, and vast installed user-base, the companies expect to establish the infrastructure required for professionals to gain access to the authoring technology in order to jump-start BD-ROM title creation.
Finally, Sonic announced that it will deliver systems for professional HD DVD production in the summer of 2005; this will enable the studios to have movies and video content available with the expected release of HD DVD players in late 2005. The next generation format from the DVD Forum, HD DVD combines high- definition video and audio content with advanced interactivity and internet connectivity. In addition to providing professional HD DVD authoring systems, Sonic plans to add HD DVD support to its Sonic- and Roxio-branded desktop and consumer software applications as HD DVD-ROM readers and HD DVD burners become available.


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Check out this the Arctic and Earth SIGNs video to explore how climate models are used in climate change research.
Check out this the Arctic and Earth SIGNs video to explore how climate models are used in climate change research.
NASA visualizers take data – numbers, codes – and turn them into animations people can see and quickly understand. You can become a data visualizer by creating your own flipbook animations using maps of science variables that NASA scientists commonly study to better understand the Earth System.
Analyzing monthly environmental data from the North Atlantic Ocean will help you to learn more about how the water cycle affects sea surface salinity. Your challenge is to find the data set that most closely corresponds to sea surface salinity patterns.
Students review Earth System phenomena that are affected by soil moisture. They analyze and evaluate maps of seasonal global surface air temperature and soil moisture data from NASA satellites.
Examine surface temperature and solar radiation received at locations found near similar latitudes using NASA Data.
Students move through a series of short activities to explore and evaluate global solar radiation data from NASA satellites. In this process, students make qualitative and quantitative observations about seasonal variations in net energy input to the Earth system.
The processes comprising the Earth's environment are interconnected.
Students will analyze surface temperature and solar radiation data to construct explanations about the relationship of seasons and temperature to the amount of solar energy received on Earth's surface.
This activity is one of a series in the collection, The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change activities.


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Like the coaches and players we try to follow, we also want to improve with each game.
We, too, want to make your sports section the absoulte best it can be from week to week.
This is why readers will begin noticing changes throughout the B section, beginning largely with this week's new elements such as the player feature on Chiefland's own Halie Hammond or the "Who Knows Best?" section at the bottom of the page.
The goal is to include at least one feature, a column and the "Who Knows Best?" segment in every copy of the paper moving forward. This includes the summer months, when we'll follow summer teams, non-traditional sports and even our local football players as they prepare for the fall.
Unlike the players and teams we highlight, our games are only played once a week, and if we have an off-game, it can be a long following week for sure.
We'll make mistakes, and already have. We'll likely make more.
Bear with us and give us feedback every single time we spell a kid's name wrong or whatever, so we don't do it again the following week.
We will highlight Levy County's student-athletes in a positive manner, and we always appreciate ideas for future stories.
Hundreds already have found us on Facebook (@Chiefland Citizen-Sports) and have enjoyed the information, photos and videos we'll continue to post daily.
We also welcome submitted photos from area teams and will always make a point to find a home for those shots somehwere in this section.
Just to note, we'll still capture all the surroundings of game nights, with game stories and action photos.
We're just adding a few new wrinkles.
Let us know what you think of the changes. Questions, comments and suggestions can be sent to email@example.com.
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