Le niveau de compréhension de l’anglais des étudiants en médecine peut être amélioré. Résultats d’une stratégie d’évaluation systématique

Objectives To describe the level of English of a population of medical students and the improvement after the implementation of systematic assessment that all students achieve a minimal level. Population and methods For the past 5 years, all medical students in our medical school have been taking the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). The baseline population (students entering second year in 2004) had no specific obligation. After 2004, a score above 600 was mandatory for graduation. Teaching was oriented towards training for the TOEIC and the number of hours was more important for low-level students. Results The mean score has increased from 618 ± 146 in 2004, to 687 ± 94, 717 ± 97, 733 ± 96 and 731 ± 104 for the next four years. The proportion of students who do not achieve a score of 550 (B1 level of the European framework) has decreased from 30 to 0%. Discussion Improving the level of English of French medical students is possible, if this is made a priority. The objective, as set in engineering studies, that all medical students reach a B2 level would require national guidelines

Hidden Symmetries and Integrable Hierarchy of the N=4 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Equations

We describe an infinite-dimensional algebra of hidden symmetries of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory. Our derivation is based on a generalization of the supertwistor correspondence. Using the latter, we construct an infinite sequence of flows on the solution space of the N=4 SYM equations. The dependence of the SYM fields on the parameters along the flows can be recovered by solving the equations of the hierarchy. We embed the N=4 SYM equations in the infinite system of the hierarchy equations and show that this SYM hierarchy is associated with an infinite set of graded symmetries recursively generated from supertranslations. Presumably, the existence of such nonlocal symmetries underlies the observed integrable structures in quantum N=4 SYM theory.Comment: 24 page

Temperatures of Fragment Kinetic Energy Spectra

Multifragmentation reactions without large compression in the initial state (proton-induced reactions, reverse-kinematics, projectile fragmentation) are examined, and it is verified quantitatively that the high temperatures obtained from fragment kinetic energy spectra and lower temperatures obtained from observables such as level population or isotope ratios can be understood in a common framework.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, 2 figures available from autho

Membrane Instantons and de Sitter Vacua

We investigate membrane instanton effects in type IIA strings compactified on rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds. These effects contribute to the low-energy effective action of the universal hypermultiplet. In the absence of additional fivebrane instantons, the quaternionic geometry of this hypermultiplet is determined by solutions of the three-dimensional Toda equation. We construct solutions describing membrane instantons, and find perfect agreement with the string theory prediction. In the context of flux compactifications we discuss how membrane instantons contribute to the scalar potential and the stabilization of moduli. Finally, we demonstrate the existence of meta-stable de Sitter vacua.Comment: v3: minor clarifications, JHEP version, 38 page

The first multi-wavelength campaign of AXP 4U 0142+61 from radio to hard X-rays

For the first time a quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength campaign has been performed on an Anomalous X-ray Pulsar from the radio to the hard X-ray band. 4U 0142+61 was an INTEGRAL target for 1 Ms in July 2005. During these observations it was also observed in the X-ray band with Swift and RXTE, in the optical and NIR with Gemini North and in the radio with the WSRT. In this paper we present the source-energy distribution. The spectral results obtained in the individual wave bands do not connect smoothly; apparently components of different origin contribute to the total spectrum. Remarkable is that the INTEGRAL hard X-ray spectrum (power-law index 0.79 +/- 0.10) is now measured up to an energy of ~230 keV with no indication of a spectral break. Extrapolation of the INTEGRAL power-law spectrum to lower energies passes orders of magnitude underneath the NIR and optical fluxes, as well as the low ~30 microJy (2 sigma) upper limit in the radio band.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. To be published in the proceedings of the conference "Isolated Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface" (April 24-28, 2006, London, UK), eds. S. Zane, R. Turolla and D. Pag

Seismic structure and activity of the north-central Lesser Antilles subduction zone from an integrated approach: similarities with the Tohoku forearc

The 300 km long north-central segment of the Lesser Antilles subduction zone, including Martinique and Guadeloupe islands has been the target of a specific approach to the seismic structure and activity by a cluster of active and passive offshore-onshore seismic experiments coordinated within the ¿Thales was right¿ proposal to the European Union action (Laigle et al., Tectonophys., in rev.) The top of the subducting plate can be followed under the wide accretionary wedge by a dense grid of dip- and strike-lines of multichannel reflection seismics. This reveals the hidden updip limit of the contact of the upper plate crustal backstop thrust onto the slab. Two OBS refraction seismic profiles constrained a 26 km large crustal thickness from the volcanic arc throughout the forearc domain (Kopp et al., EPSL, 2011). These new observations imply a three times larger width of the potential interplate seismogenic zone under the marine domain of the Caribbean plate with respect to a regular intra-oceanic subduction zone, in the common assumption that the upper plate Moho contact on the slab is a proxy of its downdip limit. Towards larger depth under the mantle corner, the top of the slab imaged from the conversions of teleseismic body-waves and the locations of earthquakes from the dense temporary array of 80 OBS and land seismometers appears with kinks which increase the dip from 10-20° under the forearc domain, to 60° on the segment from 70 km depth down to under the volcanic arc. There, at 140 km depth just north of Martinique the 2007 M 7.4 earthquake, largest for half a century, was accompanied by an increased seismic activity over the whole depth range, which provides a new focused image thanks to the OBS and land deployments. A double-planed dipping slab seismicity is thus now resolved, as originally discovered in Tohoku ( NE Japan) and since in some other subduction zones. Other types of seismic activity uniquely observed in Tohoku, are resolved now here, such as ¿supraslab¿ earthquakes with normal-faulting focal mechanisms reliably located in the mantle corner and ¿deep flat-thrust¿ earthquakes at 45 km depth on the interplate fault under the Caribbean plate forearc mantle. None such types of seismicity should occur under the paradigm of a regular peridotitic mantle of the upper plate which is serpentinized by the fluids provided from the dehydrating slab beneath, and which is commonly considered as limiting the downward extent of the interplate seismic coupling. If the upper plate here comprised lithospheric segments related to the earlier formation of the Caribbean oceanic plateau by the material advection from a mantle plume, it could then be underlain by a correspondingly modified, heterogeneous mantle, which may impose regions of stick-slip behaviour on the interplate under the mantle corner among stable-gliding areas. The Tohoku 2011 M9 earthquake was unexpected not only in its slip reaching to the trench, but also in its slip reaching far under the mantle corner against the serpentinization decoupling paradigm, and its structural setting may be revisited for resolving corresponding structural heterogeneityPeer Reviewe

Evidence for a narrow dip structure at 1.9 GeV/c2^2 in 3π+3π−3\pi^+ 3\pi^- diffractive photoproduction

A narrow dip structure has been observed at 1.9 GeV/c$^2$ in a study of diffractive photoproduction of the $~3\pi^+3\pi^-$ final state performed by the Fermilab experiment E687.Comment: The data of Figure 6 can be obtained by downloading the raw data file e687_6pi.txt. v5 (2nov2018): added Fig. 7, the 6 pion energy distribution as requested by a reade

Anisotropy studies around the galactic centre at EeV energies with the Auger Observatory

Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory are analyzed to search for anisotropies near the direction of the Galactic Centre at EeV energies. The exposure of the surface array in this part of the sky is already significantly larger than that of the fore-runner experiments. Our results do not support previous findings of localized excesses in the AGASA and SUGAR data. We set an upper bound on a point-like flux of cosmic rays arriving from the Galactic Centre which excludes several scenarios predicting sources of EeV neutrons from Sagittarius $A$. Also the events detected simultaneously by the surface and fluorescence detectors (the `hybrid' data set), which have better pointing accuracy but are less numerous than those of the surface array alone, do not show any significant localized excess from this direction.Comment: Matches published versio

Measurement of W Polarisation at LEP

The three different helicity states of W bosons produced in the reaction e+ e- -> W+ W- -> l nu q q~ at LEP are studied using leptonic and hadronic W decays. Data at centre-of-mass energies \sqrt s = 183-209 GeV are used to measure the polarisation of W bosons, and its dependence on the W boson production angle. The fraction of longitudinally polarised W bosons is measured to be 0.218 \pm 0.027 \pm 0.016 where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation