Intrusion and extrusion of water in hydrophobic mesopores

We present experimental and theoretical results on intrusion-extrusion cycles of water in hydrophobic mesoporous materials, characterized by independent cylindrical pores. The intrusion, which takes place above the bulk saturation pressure, can be well described using a macroscopic capillary model. Once the material is saturated with water, extrusion takes place upon reduction of the externally applied pressure; Our results for the extrusion pressure can only be understood by assuming that the limiting extrusion mechanism is the nucleation of a vapour bubble inside the pores. A comparison of calculated and experimental nucleation pressures shows that a proper inclusion of line tension effects is necessary to account for the observed values of nucleation barriers. Negative line tensions of order $10^{-11} \mathrm{J.m}^{-1}$ are found for our system, in reasonable agreement with other experimental estimates of this quantity

Impact of an L5 magnetograph on nonpotential solar global magnetic field modeling

We present the first theoretical study to consider what improvement could be obtained in global nonpotential modeling of the solar corona if magnetograph data were available from the L5 Lagrange point, in addition to from the direction of Earth. To consider this, we first carry out a "reference Sun" simulation over two solar cycles. An important property of this simulation is that random bipole emergences are allowed across the entire solar surface at any given time (such as can occur on the Sun). Next we construct two "limited data" simulations, where bipoles are only included when they could be seen from (i) an Earth-based magnetograph and (ii) either Earth- or L5 based magnetographs. The improvement in reproducing the reference Sun simulation when an L5 view is available is quantified through considering global quantities in the limited data simulations. These include surface and polar flux, total magnetic energy, volume electric current, open flux and the number of flux ropes. Results show that when an L5 observational viewpoint is included, the accuracy of the global quantities in the limited data simulations can increase by 26-40%. This clearly shows that a magnetograph at the L5 point could significantly increase the accuracy of global nonpotential modeling and with this the accuracy of future space weather forecasts.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Antibiotics for acute pyelonephritis in children

Background Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common bacterial infections in infants. The most severe form of UTI is acute pyelonephritis, which results in significant acute morbidity and may cause permanent kidney damage. There remains uncertainty regarding the optimum antibiotic regimen, route of administration and duration of treatment. This is an update of a review that was first published in 2003 and updated in 2005 and 2007. Objectives To evaluate the benefits and harms of antibiotics used to treat children with acute pyelonephritis. The aspects of therapy considered were 1) different antibiotics, 2) different dosing regimens of the same antibiotic, 3) different duration of treatment, and 4) different routes of administration. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Renal Group's Specialised Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, reference lists of articles and conference proceedings without language restriction to 10 April 2014. Selection criteria Randomised and quasi‐randomised controlled trials comparing different antibiotic agents, routes, frequencies or durations of therapy in children aged 0 to 18 years with proven UTI and acute pyelonephritis were selected. Data collection and analysis Four authors independently assessed study quality and extracted data. Statistical analyses were performed using the random‐effects model and the results expressed as risk ratio (RR) for dichotomous outcomes or mean difference (MD) for continuous data with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Main results This updated review included 27 studies (4452 children). This update included evidence from three new studies, and following re‐evaluation, a previously excluded study was included because it now met our inclusion criteria. Risk of bias was assessed as low for sequence generation (12 studies), allocation concealment (six studies), blinding of outcome assessors (17 studies), incomplete outcome reporting (19 studies) and selective outcome reporting (13 studies). No study was blinded for participants or investigators. The 27 included studies evaluated 12 different comparisons. No significant differences were found in duration of fever (2 studies, 808 children: MD 2.05 hours, 95% CI ‐0.84 to 4.94), persistent UTI at 72 hours after commencing therapy (2 studies, 542 children: RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.07 to 17.41) or persistent kidney damage at six to 12 months (4 studies, 943 children: RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.12) between oral antibiotic therapy (10 to 14 days) and intravenous (IV) therapy (3 days) followed by oral therapy (10 days). Similarly, no significant differences in persistent bacteriuria at the end of treatment (4 studies, 305 children: RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.24 to 2.55) or persistent kidney damage (4 studies, 726 children: RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.29) were found between IV therapy (three to four days) followed by oral therapy and IV therapy (seven to 14 days). No significant differences in efficacy were found between daily and thrice daily administration of aminoglycosides (1 study, 179 children, persistent clinical symptoms at three days: RR 1.98, 95% CI 0.37 to 10.53). Adverse events were mild and uncommon and rarely resulted in discontinuation of treatment. Authors' conclusions This updated review increases the body of evidence that oral antibiotics alone are as effective as a short course (three to four days) of IV antibiotics followed by oral therapy for a total treatment duration of 10 to 14 days for the treatment of acute pyelonephritis in children. When IV antibiotics are given, a short course (two to four days) of IV therapy followed by oral therapy is as effective as a longer course (seven to 10 days) of IV therapy. If IV therapy with aminoglycosides is chosen, single daily dosing is safe and effective. Insufficient data are available to extrapolate these findings to children aged less than one month of age or to children with dilating vesicoureteric reflux (grades III‐V). Further studies are required to determine the optimal total duration of antibiotic therapy required for acute pyelonephritis

Snowmass 2021 CMB-S4 White Paper

This Snowmass 2021 White Paper describes the Cosmic Microwave Background Stage 4 project CMB-S4, which is designed to cross critical thresholds in our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe, from the highest energies at the dawn of time through the growth of structure to the present day. We provide an overview of the science case, the technical design, and project plan

Du fullerène au graphène : études spectroscopiques de l'interaction de systèmes pi-conjugués avec des surfaces solides

Nous étudions l'adsorption de molécules de C60 sur deux reconstructions riches en silicium du 6H-SiC(0001) par IPES, UPS et XPS. Nous mettons en évidence que l'adsorption de C60 sur (3*3) est singulière et définit un nouveau type de liaison entre C60 et substrat : liaison covalente forte avec désorption par recuit à haute température et récupération de la reconstruction de surface. Ces expériences illustrent la complexité de la liaison Si-C60 et permettent une nouvelle mise en perspective.En combinant ARPES à basse énergie de photon et DFT sur une monocouche de ZnPc sur Ag(110), nous prouvons que l'effet de "Umklapp de surface" est effectif pour un réseau de molécules organiques organisé à grande distance. C'est à dire que les conditions de sortie des photoélectrons de volume sont modifiées par la présence du réseau.Nous démontrons aussi que l'HREELS est une technique de choix pour l'étude de l'adsorption d'hydrogène sur graphène, et l'étude de l'interaction d'un plan de graphène sur un substrat, ici le SiC. En effet l'adsorption (réversible) d'atomes d'hydrogène sur du graphène permet à l'HREELS d'être sensible sous le plan de graphène.We study by IPES, UPS and XPS the adsorption of fullerene on two silicon-rich reconstructions of 6H-SiC(0001). We show that adsorption of C60 on the (3*3) is singular and defines a new bonding type between C60 and a substrate: covalent bond accompanied by the desorption of molecules and the reconstruction's recovery. Our experiments shed a new light on the Si-C60 bounding complexity and provide new insights.By combining low photon energy ARPES and DFT on a monolayer of ZnPc on Ag(110), we provide a direct evidence that the "surface Umklapp'" effect is effective for long-range ordered organic films. Namely, the photoelectrons escape conditions are modified by the bare presence of the molecular lattice.We show that HREELS is a convenient tool to investigate the adsorption of hydrogen on graphene and the interaction of graphene with a substrate, SiC in our study. Indeed, the reversible adsorption of hydrogen on graphene permits the HREELS to gain sensitivity below the graphene layer

Investigations of current build up in topologically simple magnetic fields

The solar corona is a highly conductive plasma which is dominated by the coronal magnetic field. Observations show that important solar phenomena like flares or the heating of the corona are driven by magnetic energy, probably through the process of magnetic reconnection. The release of magnetic energy by reconnection requires that non-ideal processes take place in contradiction to the high conductivity of the corona. One possibility to overcome this problem is to generate strong electrical currents in strongly localised regions. In this thesis we investigate how such localised currents can be formed by slow ideal evolution of topologically simple magnetic fields. To this purpose numerical simulations are carried out using an Eulerian and a Lagrangian MHD relaxation code. We first use a simple example (twisting of a uniform field) to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of both codes and to discover possible limitations for their application. We show that for the problems addressed in this thesis the Lagrangian code is more suited because it can resolve the localised current densities much better than the Eulerian code. We then focus in particular on magnetic fields containing a so-called Hyperbolic Flux Tube (HPT). A recently proposed analytical theory predicts that HFT’s are sites where under certain conditions strong current build-up can be expected. We use our code to carry out a systematic parametric study of the dependence of current growth for a typical HFT configuration. We have also developed a completely new version of the analytical theory which is directly based on the set-up of our numerical simulations. We find that the simulations agree with the analytical prediction in a quantitative way but that the analytical theory underestimates the current growth quite substantially, probably by not taking into account the non-linear character of the full problem