154 research outputs found
Influence of the ice structure on the soft UV photochemistry of PAHs embedded in solid water
The UV photoreactivity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in porous
amorphous solid water has long been known to form both oxygenated photoproducts
and photofragments. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of the
ice structure upon reactivity under soft UV irradiation conditions. Mixtures of
PAHs with amorphous solid water (porous and compact) and crystalline (cubic and
hexagonal) ices were prepared in a high vacuum chamber and irradiated using a
mercury lamp for up to 2.5 hours. The results show that the production of
oxygenated PAHs is efficient only in amorphous water ice, while fragmentation
can occur in both amorphous and crystalline ices. We conclude that the
reactivity is driven by PAH-water interactions in favourable geometries,
notably where dangling bonds are available at the surface of pores. These
results suggest that the formation of oxygenated PAH molecules is most likely
to occur in interstellar environments with porous (or compact) amorphous solid
water and that this reactivity could considerably influence the inventory of
aromatics in meteorites.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Hemodynamic ventilatory and metabolic effects of isometric handgrip exercise in patients with chronic heart failure
A new look at the cosmic ray positron fraction
The positron fraction in cosmic rays was found to be a steadily increasing in
function of energy, above 10 GeV. This behaviour contradicts standard
astrophysical mechanisms, in which positrons are secondary particles, produced
in the interactions of primary cosmic rays during the propagation in the
interstellar medium. The observed anomaly in the positron fraction triggered a
lot of excitement, as it could be interpreted as an indirect signature of the
presence of dark matter species in the Galaxy. Alternatively, it could be
produced by nearby astrophysical sources, such as pulsars. Both hypotheses are
probed in this work in light of the latest AMS-02 positron fraction
measurements. The transport of the primary and secondary positrons in the
Galaxy is described using a semi-analytic two-zone model. MicrOMEGAs is used to
model the positron flux generated by dark matter species. The description of
the positron fraction from astrophysical sources is based on the pulsar
observations included in the ATNF catalogue. We find that the mass of the
favoured dark matter candidates is always larger than 500 GeV. The only dark
matter species that fulfils the numerous gamma ray and cosmic microwave
background bounds is a particle annihilating into four leptons through a light
scalar or vector mediator, with a mixture of tau (75%) and electron (25%)
channels, and a mass between 0.5 and 1 TeV. The positron anomaly can also be
explained by a single astrophysical source and a list of five pulsars from the
ATNF catalogue is given. Those results are obtained with the cosmic ray
transport parameters that best fit the B/C ratio. Uncertainties in the
propagation parameters turn out to be very significant. In the WIMP
annihilation cross section to mass plane for instance, they overshadow the
error contours derived from the positron data.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in A&A, corresponds to
published versio
Variety of idempotents in nonassociative algebras
In this paper, we study the variety of all nonassociative (NA) algebras from
the idempotent point of view. We are interested, in particular, in the spectral
properties of idempotents when algebra is generic, i.e. idempotents are in
general position. Our main result states that in this case, there exist at
least nontrivial obstructions (syzygies) on the Peirce spectrum of a
generic NA algebra of dimension . We also discuss the exceptionality of the
eigenvalue which appears in the spectrum of idempotents in
many classical examples of NA algebras and characterize its extremal properties
in metrised algebras.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure, submitte
A local-global principle for linear dependence of noncommutative polynomials
A set of polynomials in noncommuting variables is called locally linearly
dependent if their evaluations at tuples of matrices are always linearly
dependent. By a theorem of Camino, Helton, Skelton and Ye, a finite locally
linearly dependent set of polynomials is linearly dependent. In this short note
an alternative proof based on the theory of polynomial identities is given. The
method of the proof yields generalizations to directional local linear
dependence and evaluations in general algebras over fields of arbitrary
characteristic. A main feature of the proof is that it makes it possible to
deduce bounds on the size of the matrices where the (directional) local linear
dependence needs to be tested in order to establish linear dependence.Comment: 8 page
Subcarrier index-power modulated optical OFDM with dual superposition multiplexing for IMDD PON systems
International audienc
Annulation d'interférence dans les systèmes optiques à accès multiple par répartition de codes (O-CDMA)
- Dans cet article, nous présentons l'étude d'un récepteur à annulation parallèle d'interférence précédé d'un limiteur optique, pour un système DS-CDMA optique. Le but de ce récepteur est de réduire l'Interférence d'Accès Multiple (IAM) due aux codes optiques unipolaires. Nous montrons que l'utilisation du récepteur présenté permet d'améliorer le système, au niveau de la longueur des codes utilisés, ou au niveau de la gestion des séquences allouées aux utilisateurs actifs
β blockers and mortality after myocardial infarction in patients without heart failure: multicentre prospective cohort study
Objective: To assess the association between early and prolonged β blocker treatment and mortality after acute myocardial infarction. Design: Multicentre prospective cohort study. Setting: Nationwide French registry of Acute ST- and non-ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction (FAST-MI) (at 223 centres) at the end of 2005. Participants: 2679 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction and without heart failure or left ventricular dysfunction. Main outcome measures: Mortality was assessed at 30 days in relation to early use of β blockers (≤48 hours of admission), at one year in relation to discharge prescription, and at five years in relation to one year use. Results: β blockers were used early in 77% (2050/2679) of patients, were prescribed at discharge in 80% (1783/2217), and were still being used in 89% (1230/1383) of those alive at one year. Thirty day mortality was lower in patients taking early β blockers (adjusted hazard ratio 0.46, 95% confidence interval 0.26 to 0.82), whereas the hazard ratio for one year mortality associated with β blockers at discharge was 0.77 (0.46 to 1.30). Persistence of β blockers at one year was not associated with lower five year mortality (hazard ratio 1.19, 0.65 to 2.18). In contrast, five year mortality was lower in patients continuing statins at one year (hazard ratio 0.42, 0.25 to 0.72) compared with those discontinuing statins. Propensity score and sensitivity analyses showed consistent results. Conclusions: Early β blocker use was associated with reduced 30 day mortality in patients with acute myocardial infarction, and discontinuation of β blockers at one year was not associated with higher five year mortality. These findings question the utility of prolonged β blocker treatment after acute myocardial infarction in patients without heart failure or left ventricular dysfunction. Trial registration: Clinical trials NCT00673036
Increased frequency of the immunoglobulin enhancer HS1,2 allele 2 in coeliac disease
Background: Coeliac disease ( CD) is characterized by increased immunological responsiveness to ingested gliadin in genetically predisposed individuals. This genetic predisposition is not completely defined. A dysregulation of immunoglobulins (Ig) is present in CD: since antiendomysium antibodies (anti-EMA) are of the IgA class. One polymorphic enhancer within the locus control region (LCR) of the immunoglobulin heavy chain cluster at the 3' of the C alpha-1 gene was investigated. The correlation of the penetrance of the four different alleles of the HS1,2-A enhancer of the LCR-1 3' to C alpha-1 in CD patients compared to a control population was analysed. Methods: A total of 115 consecutive CD outpatients, on a gluten-free diet, and 248 healthy donors, age- and sex-matched, from the same geographical area were enrolled in the study. HS1,2-A allele frequencies were investigated by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The frequency of allele 2 of the enhancer HS1,2-A gene was increased by 30.8% as compared to the control frequency. The frequency of homozygosity for allele 2 was significantly increased in CD patients. Crude odds ratio ( OR) showed that those with 2/2 and 2/4 ( OR 2.63, P < 0.001 and OR 2.01, P = 0.03) have a significantly higher risk of developing the disease. In contrast, allele 1/2 may represent a protective genetic factor against CD ( OR 0.52, P = 0.01). Conclusions: These data provide further evidence of a genetic predisposition in CD. Because of the Ig dysregulation in CD, the enhancer HS1,2-A may be involved in the pathogenesis
β-admissibility of observation operators for hypercontractive semigroups
We prove a Weiss conjecture on β -admissibility of observation operators for discrete and continuous γ -hypercontractive semigroups of operators, by representing them in terms of shifts on weighted Bergman spaces and using a reproducing kernel thesis for Hankel operators. Particular attention is paid to the case γ=2 , which corresponds to the unweighted Bergman shift
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