I.B.S. coatings on large substrates: Towards an improvement of the mechanical and optical performances

présenté par A. RemillieuxLarge mirrors (350 mm), having extremely low optical loss (absorption, scattering, wavefront) were coated for the VIRGO interferometer. The new mirror generation needs better wavefront and lower mechanical loss. The first results are discussed

Original optical metrologies of large components

présentée par A. RemillieuxThe coating deposition on large optical components (diameter 350 mm) has required the development of new metrology tools at 1064 nm. To give realistic values of the optical performances, the whole surface of the component needs to be scanned. Our scatterometer (commercial system) has been upgraded to support large and heavy samples. The other metrology tools are prototypes we have developed. We can mention the absorption (photothermal effect) and birefringence bench, a control interferometer equipped with an original stitching option, the optical profilometer (RMS roughness and small defect measurements). A detailed description of these metrology benches will be exposed. Their sensitivity, accuracy and capability to map the optical properties of substrates or mirrors will be discussed. We will describe the recent developments: the stitching option adapted to the Micromap profilometer to measure the RMS roughness on larger area (exploration of a new spatial frequency domain), the accurate bulk absorption calibration

Ground state hyperfine structures of 43K and 44K measured by atomic beam magnetic resonance coupled with laser optical pumping

The ground state hyperfine structures of 43 K and 44K have been measured by an atomic beam magnetic resonance method in which the atoms are spin-polarized by laser optical pumping. The spectroscopic results are : Δv43( 2S1/2) = 192.648 4 (30) MHz and Δν44( 2S1/2) = - 946.718 (3) MHz. The sensitivity of our method is compared to the one achieved in classical ABMR apparatus

Creatine and guanidinoacetate reference values in a French population

Creatine and guanidinoacetate are biomarkers of creatine metabolism. Their assays in body fluids may be used for detecting patients with primary creatine deficiency disorders (PCDD), a class of inherited diseases. Their laboratory values in blood and urine may vary with age, requiring that reference normal values are given within the age range. Despite the long known role of creatine for muscle physiology, muscle signs are not necessarily the major complaint expressed by PCDD patients. These disorders drastically affect brain function inducing, in patients, intellectual disability, autistic behavior and other neurological signs (delays in speech and language, epilepsy, ataxia, dystonia and choreoathetosis), being a common feature the drop in brain creatine content. For this reason, screening of PCDD patients has been repeatedly carried out in populations with neurological signs. This report is aimed at providing reference laboratory values and related age ranges found for a large scale population of patients with neurological signs (more than 6 thousand patients) previously serving as a background population for screening French patients with PCDD. These reference laboratory values and age ranges compare rather favorably with literature values for healthy populations. Some differences are also observed, and female participants are discriminated from male participants as regards to urine but not blood values including creatine on creatinine ratio and guanidinoacetate on creatinine ratio values. Such gender differences were previously observed in healthy populations; they might be explained by literature differential effects of testosterone and estrogen in adolescents and adults, and by estrogen effects in prepubertal age on SLC6A8 function. Finally, though they were acquired on a population with neurological signs, the present data might reasonably serve as reference laboratory values in any future medical study exploring abnormalities of creatine metabolism and transport

Catalytic abatement of trichloroethylene over Mo and/or W-based bronzes

[EN] In this paper we present the results of the synthesis, characterization and catalytic behaviour of Mo(W)¿Nb¿V¿O mixed metal oxides bronzes for the catalytic oxidation of trichloroethylene. The catalysts were prepared hydrothermally with different Mo/W/Nb/V/P atomic ratio and heat-treated at 500 and 700 °C. They were characterized by several techniques as N2-adsorption, X-ray diffraction, FTIR, SEM-EDS, temperature programmed desorption, temperature programmed reduction, UV¿vis, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy of adsorbed pyridine and 18O/16O isotope exchange. X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) of samples heat-treated at 500 °C suggest the presence of a semi-crystalline material with a diffraction peak at ca. 2¿ = 22.2°, while XRD patterns of samples heat-treated at 700 °C show the formation of a tetragonal tungsten bronze (TTB) structure. The activity for the catalytic abatement of trichloroethylene strongly depends on the heat-treatment temperature and the catalyst composition. Thus, samples with W/(Mo + W) atomic ratios of 0.25-0.75 and heat-treated at 500 °C are the most active ones. The enhanced activity has been related to the remarkable higher surface area of the catalyst and to the catalyst composition which influences the acid characteristics as well as the reducibility and reoxidation of the catalysts. The importance of the oxygen dissociation on the catalyst surface and the diffusion of oxygen species through the catalyst are also discussed.The authors wish to thank DGICYT in Spain (Project CTQ2009-14495 and CSD2009-00050-CONSOLIDER/INGENIO 2010) and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for the financial support. N.B.R. acknowledges Catedra Cemex Sostenibilidad (UPV) for a fellowship. M.D.S. acknowledges Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for a fellowship.Blanch Raga, N.; Soriano Rodríguez, MD.; Palomares Gimeno, AE.; Concepción Heydorn, P.; Martínez Triguero, LJ.; López Nieto, JM. (2013). Catalytic abatement of trichloroethylene over Mo and/or W-based bronzes. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental. 130-131:36-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2012.10.016S3643130-13

The Virgo data acquisition system

International audienc

The gravitational wave detector VIRGO

International audienc

Search for non-Gaussian events in the data of the VIRGO E4 engineering run

International audienc