Reconstruction of the cosmic microwave background lensing for Planck

Aims. We prepare real-life cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing extraction with the forthcoming Planck satellite data by studying two systematic effects related to the foreground contamination: the impact of foreground residuals after a component separation on the lensed CMB map, and the impact of removing a large contaminated region of the sky. Methods. We first use the generalized morphological component analysis (GMCA) method to perform a component separation within a simplified framework, which allows a high statistics Monte-Carlo study. For the second systematic, we apply a realistic mask on the temperature maps and then restore them with a recently developed inpainting technique on the sphere. We investigate the reconstruction of the CMB lensing from the resultant maps using a quadratic estimator in the flat sky limit and on the full sphere. Results. We find that the foreground residuals from the GMCA method does not significantly alter the lensed signal, which is also true for the mask corrected with the inpainting method, even in the presence of point source residuals

(R1997) Distance Measures of Complex Fermatean Fuzzy Number and Their Application to Multi-criteria Decision-making Problem

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is the most widely used decision-making method to solve many complex problems. However, classical MCDM approaches tend to make decisions when the parameters are imprecise or uncertain. The concept of a complex fuzzy set is new in the field of fuzzy set theory. It is a set that can collect and interpret the membership grades from the unit circle in a plane instead of the interval [0,1]. CFS cannot deal with membership and non-membership grades, while complex intuitionistic fuzzy set and complex Pythagorean fuzzy set works only for a limited range of values. The concept of a complex Fermatean fuzzy set (CFFS) is proposed to deal with these problems. This paper presents the main ideas of CFFN and its properties are studied. The proposed new distance measures for real-world problems are also discussed. A comparative study of the proposed new work is also conducted

A modern Fizeau experiment for education and outreach purposes

On the occasion of the laser's 50th anniversary, we performed a modern Fizeau experiment, measuring the speed of light with a laser beam passing over the city centre of Marseille. For a round trip distance of almost five kilometers, the measurement has reached an uncertainty of about 10$^{-4}$, mainly due to atmospheric fluctuations. We present the experimental and pedagogical challenges of this brilliant outreach experiment.Comment: accepted by Eur J Phys in november 201

Reconstruction of the CMB lensing for Planck

We prepare real-life Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lensing extraction with the forthcoming Planck satellite data, by studying two systematic effects related to the foregrounds contamination: the impact of foreground residuals after a component separation on the lensed CMB map, and of removing a large contaminated region of the sky. We first use the Generalized Morphological Component Analysis (GMCA) method to perform a component separation within a simplified framework which allows a high statistics Monte-Carlo study. For the second systematic, we apply a realistic mask on the temperature maps and then, restore them using a recent inpainting technique on the sphere. We investigate the reconstruction of the CMB lensing from the resultant maps using a quadratic estimator in the flat sky limit and on the full sphere. We find that the foreground residuals from the GMCA method does not alter significantly the lensed signal, nor does the mask corrected with the inpainting method, even in the presence of point sources residuals.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, major update to account for the impact of the point sources emissio

Scintillating double beta decay bolometers

We present the results obtained in the development of scintillating Double Beta Decay bolometers. Several Mo and Cd based crystals were tested with the bolometric technique. The scintillation light was measured through a second independent bolometer. A 140 g CdWO_4 crystal was run in a 417 h live time measurement. Thanks to the scintillation light, the alpha background is easily discriminated resulting in zero counts above the 2615 keV gamma line of Thallium 208. These results, combined with an extremely easy light detector operation, represent the first tangible proof demonstrating the feasibility of this kind of technique.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

WMAP 9-year CMB estimation using sparsity

Recovering the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from WMAP data requires galactic foreground emissions to be accurately separated out. Most component separation techniques rely on second order statistics such as Internal Linear Combination (ILC) techniques. In this paper, we present a new WMAP 9-year CMB map, with 15 arcmin resolution, which is reconstructed using a recently introduced sparse component separation technique, coined Local Generalized Morphological Component Analysis (LGMCA). LGMCA emphasizes on the sparsity of the components to be retrieved in the wavelet domain. We show that although derived from a radically different separation criterion ({i.e. sparsity), the LGMCA-WMAP 9 map and its power spectrum are fully consistent with their more recent estimates from WMAP 9.Comment: Submitted to A&A (revised

Polysorbate 80 Inhibition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Formation and Its Cleavage by the Secreted Lipase LipA

Surface-associated bacterial communities known as biofilms are an important source of nosocomial infections. Microorganisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa can colonize the abiotic surfaces of medical implants, leading to chronic infections that are difficult to eradicate. Our study demonstrates that polysorbate 80 (PS80), a surfactant commonly added to food and medicines, is able to inhibit biofilm formation by P. aeruginosa on a variety of surfaces, including contact lenses

Super-long Anabiosis of Ancient Microorganisms in Ice and Terrestrial Models for Development of Methods to Search for Life on Mars, Europa and other Planetary Bodies

Successful missions to Mars, Europe and other bodies of the Solar system have created a prerequisite to search for extraterrestrial life. The first attempts of microbial life detection on the Martian surface by the Viking landed missions gave no biological results. Microbiological investigations of the Martian subsurface ground ice layers seem to be more promising. It is well substantiated to consider the Antarctic ice sheet and the Antarctic and Arctic permafrost as terrestrial analogues of Martian habitats. The results of our long-standing microbiological studies of the Antarctic ice would provide the basis for detection of viable microbial cells on Mars. Our microbiological investigations of the deepest and thus most ancient strata of the Antarctic ice sheet for the first time gave evidence for the natural phenomenon of long-term anabiosis (preservation of viability and vitality for millennia years). A combination of classical microbiological methods, epifluorescence microscopy, SEM, TEM, molecular diagnostics, radioisotope labeling and other techniques made it possible for us to obtain convincing proof of the presence of pro- and eukaryotes in the Antarctic ice sheet. In this communication, we will review and discuss some critical issues related to the detection of viable microorganisms in cold terrestrial environments with regard to future searches for microbial life and/or its biological signatures on extraterrestrial objects