Modelling of a CCP-RF discharge used for the simulation of Titan’s chemistry

This paper reports the modelling of CCP-RF discharges (13.56 MHz) in pure nitrogen, produced within a cylindrical parallel-plate reactor, similar to a GEC reference cell surrounded by a lateral grounded grid, at 0.1-2 mbar pressures and 10-50 W coupled powers. This study is a first step in simulating Titan’s chemistry at laboratory scale, using the PAMPRE experiment. Modelling results are compared with experimental measurements of the average electrondensity, and the self-bias potential at the polarized electrode

Nodal collocation method for the multidimensional PL equations applied to neutron transport source problems

A PL spherical harmonics-nodal collocation method is applied to the solution of the multidimensional neutron source transport equation. Vacuum boundary conditions are approximated by setting Marshak's conditions. The method is applied to several 1D, 2D and 3D problems with isotropic fixed source and with isotropic and anisotropic scattering. These problems are chosen to test this method in limit conditions, showing that in some cases a high order $P_L$ approximation is required to obtain accurate results and convergence. Results are also compared with the ones provided by several reference codes showing good agreement. It is also shown that Marshak's approximation to vacuum boundary conditions gives the same results that simulating vacuum with a purely absorbing medium and setting zero flux boundary conditions.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under project ENE2011-22823, and the Generalitat Valenciana under project PROMETEO11/2014/008.Capilla Romá, MT.; Talavera Usano, CF.; Ginestar Peiro, D.; Verdú Martín, GJ. (2016). Nodal collocation method for the multidimensional PL equations applied to neutron transport source problems. Annals of Nuclear Energy. 87:89-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.07.040S891008

N2-H2 capacitively coupled radio-frequency discharges at low pressure. Part I. Experimental results: Effect of the H2 amount on electrons, positive ions and ammonia formation

The mixing of N2 with H2 leads to very different plasmas from pure N2 and H2 plasma discharges. Numerous issues are therefore raised involving the processes leading to ammonia (NH3) formation. The aim of this work is to better characterize capacitively-coupled radiofrequency plasma discharges in N2 with few percents of H2 (up to 5%), at low pressure (0.3-1 mbar) and low coupled power (3-13 W). Both experimental measurements and numerical simulations are performed. For clarity, we separated the results in two complementary parts. The actual one (first part), presents the details on the experimental measurements, while the second focuses on the simulation, a hybrid model combining a 2D fluid module and a 0D kinetic module. Electron density is measured by a resonant cavity method. It varies from 0.4 to 5 109 cm-3, corresponding to ionization degrees from 2 10-8 to 4 10-7. Ammonia density is quantified by combining IR absorption and mass spectrometry. It increases linearly with the amount of H2 (up to 3 1013 cm-3 at 5% H2). On the contrary, it is constant with pressure, which suggests the dominance of surface processes on the formation of ammonia. Positive ions are measured by mass spectrometry. Nitrogen-bearing ions are hydrogenated by the injection of H2, N2H+ being the major ion as soon as the amount of H2 is >1%. The increase of pressure leads to an increase of secondary ions formed by ion/radical-neutral collisions (ex: N2H+, NH4 +, H3 +), while an increase of the coupled power favours ions formed by direct ionization (ex: N2 +, NH3 +, H2 +).N. Carrasco acknowledges the financial support of the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant PRIMCHEM, Grant agreement no. 636829). A. Chatain acknowledges ENS Paris-Saclay Doctoral Program. A. Chatain is grateful to Gilles Cartry and Thomas Gautier for fruitful discussions on the MS calibration. L.L. Alves acknowledges the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the project UID/FIS/50010/2019. L. Marques and M. J. Redondo acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/04650/2019

Targeting of T/Tn Antigens with a Plant Lectin to Kill Human Leukemia Cells by Photochemotherapy

Photochemotherapy is used both for solid tumors and in extracorporeal treatment of various hematologic disorders. Nevertheless, its development in oncology remains limited, because of the low selectivity of photosensitizers (PS) towards human tumor cells. To enhance PS efficiency, we recently covalently linked a porphyrin (TrMPyP) to a plant lectin (Morniga G), known to recognize with high affinity tumor-associated T and Tn antigens. The conjugation allowed a quick uptake of PS by Tn-positive Jurkat leukemia cells and efficient PS-induced phototoxicity. The present study was performed: (i) to evaluate the targeting potential of the conjugate towards tumor and normal cells and its phototoxicity on various leukemia cells, (ii) to investigate the mechanism of conjugate-mediated cell death. The conjugate: (i) strongly increased (×1000) the PS phototoxicity towards leukemic Jurkat T cells through an O-glycan-dependent process; (ii) specifically purged tumor cells from a 1∶1 mixture of Jurkat leukemia (Tn-positive) and healthy (Tn-negative) lymphocytes, preserving the activation potential of healthy lymphocytes; (iii) was effective against various leukemic cell lines with distinct phenotypes, as well as fresh human primary acute and chronic lymphoid leukemia cells; (iv) induced mostly a caspase-independent cell death, which might be an advantage as tumor cells often resist caspase-dependent cell death. Altogether, the present observations suggest that conjugation with plant lectins can allow targeting of photosensitizers towards aberrant glycosylation of tumor cells, e.g. to purge leukemia cells from blood and to preserve the normal leukocytes in extracorporeal photochemotherapy

Real-Space Mesh Techniques in Density Functional Theory

This review discusses progress in efficient solvers which have as their foundation a representation in real space, either through finite-difference or finite-element formulations. The relationship of real-space approaches to linear-scaling electrostatics and electronic structure methods is first discussed. Then the basic aspects of real-space representations are presented. Multigrid techniques for solving the discretized problems are covered; these numerical schemes allow for highly efficient solution of the grid-based equations. Applications to problems in electrostatics are discussed, in particular numerical solutions of Poisson and Poisson-Boltzmann equations. Next, methods for solving self-consistent eigenvalue problems in real space are presented; these techniques have been extensively applied to solutions of the Hartree-Fock and Kohn-Sham equations of electronic structure, and to eigenvalue problems arising in semiconductor and polymer physics. Finally, real-space methods have found recent application in computations of optical response and excited states in time-dependent density functional theory, and these computational developments are summarized. Multiscale solvers are competitive with the most efficient available plane-wave techniques in terms of the number of self-consistency steps required to reach the ground state, and they require less work in each self-consistency update on a uniform grid. Besides excellent efficiencies, the decided advantages of the real-space multiscale approach are 1) the near-locality of each function update, 2) the ability to handle global eigenfunction constraints and potential updates on coarse levels, and 3) the ability to incorporate adaptive local mesh refinements without loss of optimal multigrid efficiencies.Comment: 70 pages, 11 figures. To be published in Reviews of Modern Physic

Les grandes etapes de la previsions economique.

previsions economiques ; cycles economiques

Irradiation de l'antimoine dans un microscope électronique à haute tension et observation de boucles de défauts ponctuels

We present the first results of the effects of electron irradiation in (111) thin foils of antimony single crystals (A7 structure) in a high voltage microscope. The voltage which separates the subthreshold events from the bulk radiation damage regime is estimated to be about 725 ± 20 kV. This threshold voltage corresponds to a maximum transferred energy T m of 22.6 eV, and thus to a threshold displacement energy E d of 15.7 or 8.2 eV for the assumed ejection directions or respectively. We have also observed the climbing of dislocations and the agglomeration of point defects into dislocation loops.Nous présentons les premiers résultats concernant l'irradiation électronique de lames monocristallines d'antimoine (structure A7) de plan moyen (111), dans un microscope à haute tension. Nous estimons à 725 ± 20 kV la tension qui sépare le régime d'irradiation sous le seuil du régime d'irradiation proprement dit. Cette tension seuil correspond à une énergie maximale Tm cédée lors d'un choc frontal égale à 22,6 eV, et donc à une énergie seuil de déplacement E d égale respectivement à 15,7 ou 8,2 eV selon que l'on admet que les atomes sont éjectés dans les directions ou . Nous avons également observé la montée des dislocations et la formation de boucles de défauts ponctuels

Irradiation de l'antimoine dans un microscope électronique à haute tension et observation de boucles de défauts ponctuels

Nous présentons les premiers résultats concernant l'irradiation électronique de lames monocristallines d'antimoine (structure A7) de plan moyen (111), dans un microscope à haute tension. Nous estimons à 725 ± 20 kV la tension qui sépare le régime d'irradiation sous le seuil du régime d'irradiation proprement dit. Cette tension seuil correspond à une énergie maximale Tm cédée lors d'un choc frontal égale à 22,6 eV, et donc à une énergie seuil de déplacement E d égale respectivement à 15,7 ou 8,2 eV selon que l'on admet que les atomes sont éjectés dans les directions ou . Nous avons également observé la montée des dislocations et la formation de boucles de défauts ponctuels