2,571 research outputs found
A 16-channel Digital TDC Chip with internal buffering and selective readout for the DIRC Cherenkov counter of the BABAR experiment
A 16-channel digital TDC chip has been built for the DIRC Cherenkov counter
of the BaBar experiment at the SLAC B-factory (Stanford, USA). The binning is
0.5 ns, the conversion time 32 ns and the full-scale 32 mus. The data driven
architecture integrates channel buffering and selective readout of data falling
within a programmable time window. The time measuring scale is constantly
locked to the phase of the (external) clock. The linearity is better than 80 ps
rms. The dead time loss is less than 0.1% for incoherent random input at a rate
of 100 khz on each channel. At such a rate the power dissipation is less than
100 mw. The die size is 36 mm2.Comment: Latex, 18 pages, 13 figures (14 .eps files), submitted to NIM
The BMV project: Search for photon oscillations into massive particles
In this contribution to PSAS08 we report on the research activities developed
in our Toulouse group, in the framework of the BMV project, concerning the
search for photon oscillations into massive particles, such as axion-like
particles in the presence of a strong transverse magnetic field. We recall our
main result obtained in collaboration with LULI at \'Ecole Polytechnique
(Palaiseau, France). We also present the very preliminary results obtained with
the BMV experiment which is set up at LNCMP (Toulouse, France).Comment: Proceedings of PSAS'08, to be published in Can. J. Phy
A Tenon's capsule/bulbar conjunctiva interface biomimetic to model fibrosis and local drug delivery
Glaucoma filtration surgery is one of the most effective methods for lowering intraocular pressure in glaucoma. The surgery efficiently reduces intra-ocular pressure but the most common cause of failure is scarring at the incision site. This occurs in the conjunctiva/Tenon's capsule layer overlying the scleral coat of the eye. Currently used antimetabolite treatments to prevent post-surgical scarring are non-selective and are associated with potentially blinding side effects. Developing new treatments to target scarring requires both a better understanding of wound healing and scarring in the conjunctiva, and new means of delivering anti-scarring drugs locally and sustainably. By combining plastic compression of collagen gels with a soft collagen-based layer, we have developed a physiologically relevant model of the sub-epithelial bulbar conjunctiva/Tenon's capsule interface, which allows a more holistic approach to the understanding of subconjunctival tissue behaviour and local drug delivery. The biomimetic tissue hosts both primary human conjunctival fibroblasts and an immune component in the form of macrophages, morphologically and structurally mimicking the mechanical proprieties and contraction kinetics of ex vivo porcine conjunctiva. We show that our model is suitable for the screening of drugs targeting scarring and/or inflammation, and amenable to the study of local drug delivery devices that can be inserted in between the two layers of the biomimetic. We propose that this multicellular-bilayer engineered tissue will be useful to study complex biological aspects of scarring and fibrosis, including the role of inflammation, with potentially significant implications for the management of scarring following glaucoma filtration surgery and other anterior ocular segment scarring conditions. Crucially, it uniquely allows the evaluation of new means of local drug delivery within a physiologically relevant tissue mimetic, mimicking intraoperative drug delivery in vivo
Analytic curves in algebraic varieties over number fields
We establish algebraicity criteria for formal germs of curves in algebraic
varieties over number fields and apply them to derive a rationality criterion
for formal germs of functions, which extends the classical rationality theorems
of Borel-Dwork and P\'olya-Bertrandias valid over the projective line to
arbitrary algebraic curves over a number field.
The formulation and the proof of these criteria involve some basic notions in
Arakelov geometry, combined with complex and rigid analytic geometry (notably,
potential theory over complex and -adic curves). We also discuss geometric
analogues, pertaining to the algebraic geometry of projective surfaces, of
these arithmetic criteria.Comment: 55 pages. To appear in "Algebra, Arithmetic, and Geometry: In Honor
of Y.i. Manin", Y. Tschinkel & Yu. Manin editors, Birkh\"auser, 200
A weighted superposition of functional contours model for modelling contextual prominence of elementary prosodic contours
The way speech prosody encodes linguistic, paralinguistic and non-linguistic information via multiparametric representations of the speech signals is still an open issue. The Superposition of Functional Contours (SFC) model proposes to decompose prosody into elementary multiparametric functional contours through the iterative training of neural network contour generators using analysis-by-synthesis. Each generator is responsible for computing multiparametric contours that encode one given linguistic, paralinguistic and non-linguistic information on a variable scope of rhythmic units. The contributions of all generators' outputs are then overlapped and added to produce the prosody of the utterance. We propose an extension of the contour generators that allows them to model the prominence of the elementary contours based on contextual information. WSFC jointly learns the patterns of the elementary multiparametric functional contours and their weights dependent on the contours' contexts. The experimental results show that the proposed weighted SFC (WSFC) model can successfully capture contour prominence and thus improve SFC modelling performance. The WSFC is also shown to be effective at modelling the impact of attitudes on the prominence of functional contours cuing syntactic relations in French, and that of emphasis on the prominence of tone contours in Chinese
New determinations of gamma-ray line intensities of the Ep = 550 keV and Ep = 1747 keV resonances of the 13-C(p,gamma)14-N reaction
Gamma-ray angular distributions for the resonances at Ep = 550 keV and 1747
keV of the radiative capture reaction 13-C(p,g)14-N have been measured, using
intense proton beams on isotopically pure 13-C targets. Relative intensities
for the strongest transitions were extracted with an accuracy of typically five
per cent, making these resonances new useful gamma-ray standards for efficiency
calibration in the energy range Egamma = 1.6 to 9 MeV.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Sec. A,
accepte
Ătude exploratoire des caractĂ©ristiques professionnelles d'un Ă©chantillon de suicidants hospitalisĂ©s
Cette Ă©tude a pour objectif de dĂ©crire les caractĂ©ristiques professionnelles dâun Ă©chantillon de suicidants. Un enquĂȘteur a interrogĂ© les suicidants ĂągĂ©s de 18 Ă 65 ans, hospitalisĂ©s consĂ©cutivement dans une unitĂ© spĂ©cialisĂ©e du CHU dâAngers sur une durĂ©e de 6 mois et demi. Au total, 87 suicidants actifs avec un emploi ont Ă©tĂ© interrogĂ©s. Ils ont souvent Ă©tĂ© confrontĂ©s Ă des contraintes organisationnelles dĂ©crites dans la littĂ©rature comme responsables de souffrance mentale liĂ©e au travail. Cela concerne globalement autant les hommes que les femmes. En comparaison aux enquĂȘtes de santĂ© au travail (Sumer, SamotraceâŠ), les suicidants sont plus nombreux Ă ressentir entre autres un stress intense au travail, une conscience professionnelle heurtĂ©e et Ă ĂȘtre en situation tendue selon le modĂšle de Karasek. Cela pourrait ĂȘtre en faveur dâun lien entre les tentatives de suicide et certains facteurs de pĂ©nibilitĂ© mentale au travail. Les rĂ©sultats de cette Ă©tude sont Ă interprĂ©ter avec prudence du fait des phĂ©nomĂšnes de circularitĂ© des donnĂ©es et de la faiblesse de lâĂ©chantillon
Impact of the storm Alex on water exchanges between the Roya River and its alluvial aquifer
The alluvial aquifer of the transnational Roya River watershed is an important water resource for drinking water supply. Through successive European projects, a monitoring network has been implemented over the alluvial plain to improve the understanding of the functioning of this aquifer. For instance, studies highlighted the predominant role of surface water in the recharge of the aquifer. Following the storm Alex and the resulting exceptional flood event in the Roya valley in October 2020, a general decrease of the piezometric levels was observed in the alluvial aquifer. Changes in the river morphology and in the granulometry of the hyporheic zone have impacted surface water â groundwater exchanges and reduced the aquifer recharge.</p
- âŠ