Cluster Agglomeration Induced by Dust-Density Waves in Complex Plasmas

International audienc

Competing risk of death and end-stage renal disease in incident chronic kidney disease (stages 3 to 5): the epiran community-based study

International audienceAlthough chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects a growing number of people, epidemiologic data on incident CKD in the general population are scarce. Screening strategies to increase early CKD detection have been developed.From a community-based sample of 4,409 individuals residing in a well-defined geographical area, we determined the number of patients having a first serum creatinine value ≥1.7 mg/dL and present for at least 3 months that allowed us to calculate an annual incidence rate of CKD (stages 3 to 5). CKD (stages 3 to 5) was defined by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60 mL/min/1.73 m2A total of 631 incident CKD patients (stages 3 to 5) were followed-up until the occurrence of death and dialysis initiation for more than 3 years. The annual incidence rate of CKD (stages 3 to 5) was estimated at 977.7 per million inhabitants. Analyses were performed on 514 patients with available medical data. During the study, 155 patients (30.2 %) were referred to a nephrologist, 193 (37.5 %) died and 58 (11.3 %) reached end-stage renal disease and initiated dialysis. A total of 139 patients (27.6 %) had a fast decline of their renal function, 92 (18.3 %) a moderate decline and the 272 remaining patients had a physiological decline (21.1 %) or a small improvement of their renal function (33.0 %). Predictors of death found in both Cox and Fine-Gray multivariable regression models included age at diagnosis, anemia, active neoplasia and chronic heart failure, but not a low glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Age at diagnosis, anemia and a low GFR were independently associated with dialysis initiation in Cox model, but anemia was not found to be a risk factor for dialysis initiation in Fine-Gray model.This large cohort study provided useful epidemiological data on incident CKD (stages 3 to 5) and stressed the need to improve the hands-on implementation of clinical practice guidelines for the evaluation and the management of CKD in primary care

Agglomeration processes sustained by dust density waves in Ar/C2H2 plasma: From C2H2 injection to the formation of an organized structure

International audienceIn this paper, an experimental investigation of dust particle agglomeration in a capacitively coupled RF discharge is reported. Carbonaceous particles are produced in an argon plasma using acetylene. As soon as the particle density becomes sufficient, dust density waves (DDWs) are spontaneously excited within the cathode sheath. Recently, it was proven that DDWs can significantly enhance the agglomeration rate between particles by transferring them a significant kinetic energy. Thus, it helps them to overcome Coulomb repulsion. The influence of this mechanism is studied from acetylene injection to the formation of very large agglomerates forming an organized structure after a few dozens of seconds. For this purpose, three diagnostic tools are used: extinction measurements to probe nanometer-sized particles, fast imaging for large agglomerates and a dust extraction technique developed for ex-situ analysis. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4796047

Agglomeration processes sustained by dust density waves in plasma: From injection to the formation of an organized structure

International audienceIn this paper, an experimental investigation of dust particle agglomeration in a capacitively coupled RF discharge is reported. Carbonaceous particles are produced in an argon plasma using acetylene. As soon as the particle density becomes sufficient, dust density waves (DDWs) arespontaneously excited within the cathode sheath. Recently, it was proven that DDWs can significantly enhance the agglomeration rate between particles by transferring them a significant kinetic energy. Thus, it helps them to overcome Coulomb repulsion. The influence of this mechanism is studied from acetylene injection to the formation of very large agglomerates forming an organized structure after a few dozens of seconds. For this purpose, three diagnostic tools are used: extinction measurements to probe nanometer-sized particles, fast imaging for large agglomerates and a dust extraction technique developed for ex-situ analysis

Fluoride salts are no better at preventing new vertebral fractures than calcium-vitamin D in postmenopausal osteoporosis: The FAVOStudy

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

3D trajectories re-construction of droplets ejected in controlled tungsten melting studies in ASDEX Upgrade

20th International Conference on Plasma-Surface Interactions in Controlled Fusion Devices (PSI), Forschungszentrum Julich, Aachen, GERMANY, MAY 21-25, 2012International audienceTwo fast visible range camera systems with vertically and tangentially oriented crossed viewing fields in the divertor region of ASDEX Upgrade were used to observe tungsten (W) droplets ejected from a melting W-pin into the divertor plasma. To obtain the spatial (3D) trajectories of the tungsten droplets, the trajectory of a given droplet in the (2D) camera image coordinate system was derived for each view separately. From these data, the 3D droplet position was derived by computing the shortest line segment connecting crossed viewing chords to a given droplet taking the centre coordinate of the line segment as actual coordinate. The experimental error of the derived position was estimated from the length of the connecting line segment. In the toroidal direction, the computed trajectories can be described by an analytical transport model for the droplets assuming an initial droplet diameter in the range of 60100 mu m. In the vertical direction the vertical distance droplets travelled when reaching the edge of the viewing field also agrees with the model predictions. However, discrepancies are found with respect to the time point whence a droplet reverts its initial downwards motion due to centrifugal forces exceeding gravity and plasma generated force components

The impact of valve surgery on short- and long-term mortality in left-sided infective endocarditis: do differences in methodological approaches explain previous conflicting results?

International audienceAims The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of valve surgery (VS) in infective endocarditis (IE) on 5-year mortality and to evaluate whether conflicting results reported by previous studies could be due to differences in their methodological approaches. Methods and results Four hundred and forty-nine patients with a definite left-sided IE were selected from a prospective, population-based study. Association between VS and 5-year mortality was examined with a Cox model. To determine the impact of different methodological approaches, we also analysed the relationship between VS and mortality in our database, according to each method used in the five previous studies. Valve surgery was performed in 240 patients (53%). It was associated with an increase in short-term mortality [within the first 14 post-operative days; adjusted hazard ratio (HR), 3.69; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.17-6.25; P < 0.0001] and a decrease in long-term mortality (adjusted HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.35-0.87; P = 0.01). At least 188 days of follow-up were required for VS to provide an overall survival advantage. When applying each study's method to our database, we obtained results similar to those reported. Conclusion Previous conflicting results appear to be related to differences in statistical methods. When using appropriate models, we found that VS was significantly associated with reduced long-term mortality