Far-Infrared Conductivity Measurements of Pair Breaking in Superconducting Nb0.5_{0.5}Ti0.5_{0.5}N Thin Films Induced by an External Magnetic Field

We report the complex optical conductivity of a superconducting thin-film of Nb$_{0.5}$Ti$_{0.5}$N in an external magnetic field. The field was applied parallel to the film surface and the conductivity extracted from far-infrared transmission and reflection measurements. The real part shows the superconducting gap, which we observe to be suppressed by the applied magnetic field. We compare our results with the pair-breaking theory of Abrikosov and Gor'kov and confirm directly the theory's validity for the optical conductivity.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

SPIRAL2 cryomodule production result and analyses

THIOB02International audienceThe production and qualification of the SPIRAL2 cryomodules are close to the end. Their performances arenow well established. This paper will explain the path followed to the good achievements, and show somestatistical analyses to be used for future projects. How far can we push the performances? What cryogenicsconsumption shall we take as design values

Metallurgical analysis and RF losses in superconducting niobium thin film cavities

Copper cavities with a thin niobium film as used in the large electron positron collider LEP would be also attractive for future linear colliders, provided the decrease of the Q-value with the accelerating gradient can be reduced. We aim at extracting the important parameters that govern this decrease. The dependence on the RF frequency is studied by exciting 500 MHz and 1500 MHz cavities in different modes. In addition we combined RF measurements for two 1500 MHz cavities of different RF performance with microscopic tests (AFM, TEM) on samples cut out of the same cavities. Their micro-structural characterisation in plan-view allows to extract the grain size and the defect densities

The common parasite Toxoplasma gondii induces prostatic inflammation and microglandular hyperplasia in a mouse model

BACKGROUND: Inflammation is the most prevalent and widespread histological finding in the human prostate, and associates with the development and progression of benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer. Several factors have been hypothesized to cause inflammation, yet the role each may play in the etiology of prostatic inflammation remains unclear. This study examined the possibility that the common protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii induces prostatic inflammation and reactive hyperplasia in a mouse model. METHODS: Male mice were infected systemically with T. gondii parasites and prostatic inflammation was scored based on severity and focality of infiltrating leukocytes and epithelial hyperplasia. We characterized inflammatory cells with flow cytometry and the resulting epithelial proliferation with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation. RESULTS: We found that T. gondii infects the mouse prostate within the first 14 days of infection and can establish parasite cysts that persist for at least 60 days. T. gondii infection induces a substantial and chronic inflammatory reaction in the mouse prostate characterized by monocytic and lymphocytic inflammatory infiltrate. T. gondii-induced inflammation results in reactive hyperplasia, involving basal and luminal epithelial proliferation, and the exhibition of proliferative inflammatory microglandular hyperplasia in inflamed mouse prostates. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies the common parasite T. gondii as a new trigger of prostatic inflammation, which we used to develop a novel mouse model of prostatic inflammation. This is the first report that T. gondii chronically encysts and induces chronic inflammation within the prostate of any species. Furthermore, T. gondii-induced prostatic inflammation persists and progresses without genetic manipulation in mice, offering a powerful new mouse model for the study of chronic prostatic inflammation and microglandular hyperplasia

Boundary value problems for second order linear difference equations: application to the computation of the inverse of generalized Jacobi matrices

We have named generalized Jacobi matrices to those that are practically tridiagonal, except for the two final entries and the two first entries of its first andits last row respectively. This class of matrices encompasses both standard Jacobiand periodic Jacobi matrices that appear in many contexts in pure and appliedmathematics. Therefore, the study of the inverse of these matrices becomes ofspecific interest. However, explicit formulas for inverses are known only in a fewcases, in particular when the coefficients of the diagonal entries are subjected tosome restrictions.We will show that the inverse of generalized Jacobi matrices can be raisedin terms of the resolution of a boundary value problem associated with a secondorder linear difference equation. In fact, recent advances in the study of lineardifference equations, allow us to compute the solution of this kind of boundaryvalue problems. So, the conditions that ensure the uniqueness of the solution ofthe boundary value problem leads to the invertibility conditions for the matrix,whereas that solutions for suitable problems provide explicitly the entries of theinverse matrix.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Status of the low beta 0.07 cryomodules for SPIRAL2

International audienceThe status of the low beta cryomodules for SPIRAL2, supplied by the Irfu institute of CEA Saclay, is reported in this paper. We summarise in three parts the RF tests performed on the cavities in vertical cryostat, the RF power tests of the qualifying cryomodule performed in 2010 and the RF power tests performed in 2011 on the first cryomodule of the serie

Cellular basis of urothelial squamous metaplasia: roles of lineage heterogeneity and cell replacement

Although the epithelial lining of much of the mammalian urinary tract is known simply as the urothelium, this epithelium can be divided into at least three lineages of renal pelvis/ureter, bladder/trigone, and proximal urethra based on their embryonic origin, uroplakin content, keratin expression pattern, in vitro growth potential, and propensity to keratinize during vitamin A deficiency. Moreover, these cells remain phenotypically distinct even after they have been serially passaged under identical culture conditions, thus ruling out local mesenchymal influence as the sole cause of their in vivo differences. During vitamin A deficiency, mouse urothelium form multiple keratinized foci in proximal urethra probably originating from scattered K14-positive basal cells, and the keratinized epithelium expands horizontally to replace the surrounding normal urothelium. These data suggest that the urothelium consists of multiple cell lineages, that trigone urothelium is closely related to the urothelium covering the rest of the bladder, and that lineage heterogeneity coupled with cell migration/replacement form the cellular basis for urothelial squamous metaplasia