712 research outputs found
Imaging spontaneous imbibition in full Darcy‐scale samples at pore‐scale resolution by fast X‐ray tomography
Spontaneous imbibition is a process occurring in a porous medium which describes wetting phase replacing nonwetting phase spontaneously due to capillary forces. This process is conventionally investigated by standardized, well-established spontaneous imbibition tests. In these tests, for instance, a rock sample is surrounded by wetting fluid. The following cumulative production of nonwetting phase versus time is used as a qualitative measure for wettability. However, these test results are difficult to interpret, because many rocks do not show a homogeneous but a mixed wettability in which the wetting preference of a rock varies from location to location. Moreover, during the test the flow regime typically changes from countercurrent to cocurrent flow and no phase pressure or pressure drop can be recorded. To help interpretation, we complement Darcy-scale production curves with X-ray imaging to describe the differences in imbibition processes between water-wet and mixed-wet systems. We found that the formation of a spontaneous imbibition front occurs only for water-wet systems; mixed-wet systems show localized imbibition events only. The asymmetry of the front depends on the occurrence of preferred production sites, which influences interpretation. Fluid layers on the outside of mixed-wet samples increase connectivity of the drained phase and the effect of buoyancy on spontaneous imbibition. The wider implication of our study is the demonstration of the capability of benchtop laboratory equipment to image a full Darcy-scale experiment while at the same time obtaining pore-scale information, resolving the natural length and time scale of the underlying processes
Treatment as required versus regular monthly treatment in the management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Background: To investigate whether treatment as required ‘pro re nata’ (PRN) versus regular monthly treatment regimens lead to differences in outcomes in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). Regular monthly administration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors is an established gold standard treatment, but this approach is costly. Replacement of monthly by PRN treatment can only be justified if there is no difference in patient relevant outcomes. Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis. The intervention was PRN treatment and the comparator was monthly treatment with VEGF-inhibitors. Four bibliographic databases were searched for randomised controlled trials comparing both treatment regimens directly (head-to-head studies). The last literature search was conducted in December 2014. Risk of bias assessment was performed after the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Findings: We included 3 head-to-head studies (6 reports) involving more than 2000 patients. After 2 years, the weighted mean difference in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 1.9 (95% CI 0.5 to 3.3) ETDRS letters in favour of monthly treatment. Systemic adverse events were higher in PRN treated patients, but these differences were not statistically significant. After 2 years, the total number of intravitreal injections required by the patients in the PRN arms were 8.4 (95% CI 7.9 to 8.9) fewer than those having monthly treatment. The studies were considered to have a moderate risk of bias. Conclusions: PRN treatment resulted in minor but statistically significant decrease in mean BCVA which may not be clinically meaningful. There is a small increase in risk of systemic adverse events for PRN treated patients. Overall, the results indicate that an individualized treatment approach with anti-VEGF using visual acuity and OCT-guided re-treatment criteria may be appropriate for most patients with nAMD
Test beam measurement of the first prototype of the fast silicon pixel monolithic detector for the TT-PET project
The TT-PET collaboration is developing a PET scanner for small animals with
30 ps time-of-flight resolution and sub-millimetre 3D detection granularity.
The sensitive element of the scanner is a monolithic silicon pixel detector
based on state-of-the-art SiGe BiCMOS technology. The first ASIC prototype for
the TT-PET was produced and tested in the laboratory and with minimum ionizing
particles. The electronics exhibit an equivalent noise charge below 600 e- RMS
and a pulse rise time of less than 2 ns, in accordance with the simulations.
The pixels with a capacitance of 0.8 pF were measured to have a detection
efficiency greater than 99% and, although in the absence of the
post-processing, a time resolution of approximately 200 ps
The effects of a magnetic barrier and a nonmagnetic spacer in tunnel structures
The spin-polarized transport is investigated in a new type of magnetic tunnel
junction which consists of two ferromagnetic electrodes separated by a magnetic
barrier and a nonmagnetic metallic spacer. Based on the transfer matrix method
and the nearly-free-electron-approximation the dependence of the tunnel
magnetoresistance (TMR) and electron-spin polarization on the nonmagnetic layer
thickness and the applied bias voltage are studied theoretically. The TMR and
spin polarization show an oscillatory behavior as a function of the spacer
thickness and the bias voltage. The oscillations originate from the quantum
well states in the spacer, while the existence of the magnetic barrier gives
rise to a strong spin polarization and high values of the TMR. Our results may
be useful for the development of spin electronic devices based on coherent
transport.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
A Tri-National program for estimating the link between snow resources and hydrological droughts
To evaluate how summer low flows and droughts are affected by the winter
snowpack, a Tri-National effort will analyse data from three catchments:
Alpbach (Prealps, central Switzerland), Gudjaretis-Tskali (Little Caucasus,
central Georgia), and Kamenice (Jizera Mountains, northern Czech Republic).
Two GIS-based rainfall-runoff models will simulate over 10 years of runoff in
streams based on rain and snowfall measurements, and further meteorological
variables. The models use information on the geographical settings of the
catchments together with knowledge of the hydrological processes of runoff
generation from rainfall, looking particularly at the relationship between
spring snowmelt and summer droughts. These processes include snow
accumulation and melt, evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge in spring
that contributes to (the) summer runoff, and will be studied by means of the
environmental isotopes 18O and 2H. Knowledge about the isotopic
composition of the different water sources will allow to identify the flow
paths and estimate the residence time of snow meltwater in the subsurface and
its contribution to the stream. The application of the models in different
nested or neighbouring catchments will explore their potential for further
development and allow a better early prediction of low-flow periods in
various mountainous zones across Europe. The paper presents the planned
activities including a first analysis of already available dataset of
environmental isotopes, discharge, snow water equivalent and modelling
experiments of the (already) available datasets
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A monolithic ASIC demonstrator for the Thin Time-of-Flight PET scanner
Time-of-flight measurement is an important advancement in PET scanners to improve image reconstruction with a lower delivered radiation dose. This article describes the monolithic ASIC for the TT-PET project, a novel idea for a high-precision PET scanner for small animals. The chip uses a SiGe Bi-CMOS process for timing measurements, integrating a fully-depleted pixel matrix with a low-power BJT-based front-end per channel, integrated on the same 100 µm thick die. The target timing resolution of the scanner is 30 ps RMS for electrons from the conversion of 511 keV photons. The system will include 1.6 million channels across almost 2000 different chips. A full-featured demonstrator chip with a 3×10 matrix of 500×500 µm2 pixels was fabricated to validate each block. Its design and experimental results are presented here. © 2019 CERN
Subdecoherent Information Encoding in a Quantum-Dot Array
A potential implementation of quantum-information schemes in semiconductor
nanostructures is studied. To this end, the formal theory of quantum encoding
for avoiding errors is recalled and the existence of noiseless states for model
systems is discussed. Based on this theoretical framework, we analyze the
possibility of designing noiseless quantum codes in realistic semiconductor
structures. In the specific implementation considered, information is encoded
in the lowest energy sector of charge excitations of a linear array of quantum
dots. The decoherence channel considered is electron-phonon coupling We show
that besides the well-known phonon bottleneck, reducing single-qubit
decoherence, suitable many-qubit initial preparation as well as register design
may enhance the decoherence time by several orders of magnitude. This behaviour
stems from the effective one-dimensional character of the phononic environment
in the relevant region of physical parameters.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX, 5 postscript figures. Final version accepted by PR
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A 50 ps resolution monolithic active pixel sensor without internal gain in SiGe BiCMOS technology
A monolithic pixelated silicon detector designed for high time resolution has been produced in the SG13G2 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology of IHP. This proof-of-concept chip contains hexagonal pixels of 65 µm and 130 µm side. The SiGe front-end electronics implemented provides an equivalent noise charge of 90 and 160 e- for a pixel capacitance of 70 and 220 fF, respectively, and a total time walk of less than 1 ns. Lab measurements with a 90Sr source show a time resolution of the order of 50 ps. This result is competitive with silicon technologies that integrate an avalanche gain mechanism. © 2019 CERN
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