Next-to-leading order multi-leg processes for the Large Hadron Collider

In this talk we discuss recent progress concerning precise predictions for the LHC. We give a status report of three applications of our method to deal with multi-leg one-loop amplitudes: The interference term of Higgs production by gluon- and weak boson fusion to order O(alpha^2 alpha_s^3) and the next-to-leading order corrections to the two processes pp -> ZZ jet and u ubar -> d dbar s sbar. The latter is a subprocess of the four jet cross section at the LHC.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. Talk given at the 8th international Symposium on Radiative Corrections (RADCOR), October 1-5 2007, Florence, Ital

Behavioural and insecticidal effects of organophosphate-, carbamate- and pyrethroid-treated mosquito nets against African malaria vectors.

Three insecticides - the pyrethroid deltamethrin, the carbamate carbosulfan and the organophosphate chlorpyrifos-methyl - were tested on mosquito nets in experimental huts to determine their potential for introduction as malaria control measures. Their behavioural effects and efficacy were examined in Anopheles gambiae Giles s.s. (Diptera: Culicidae) and Anopheles funestus Giles s.s. in Muheza, Tanzania, and in Anopheles arabiensis Patton and Culex quinquefasciatus Say in Moshi, Tanzania. A standardized dosage of 25 mg/m(2) plus high dosages of carbosulfan (50 mg/m(2), 100 mg/m(2) and 200 mg/m(2)) and chlorpyrifos-methyl (100 mg/m(2)) were used to compare the three types of insecticide. At 25 mg/m(2), the rank order of the insecticides for insecticide-induced mortality in wild An. gambiae and An. funestus was, respectively, carbosulfan (88%, 86%) > deltamethrin (79%, 78%) > chlorpyrifos-methyl (35%, 53%). The rank order of the insecticides for blood-feeding inhibition (reduction in the number of blood-fed mosquitoes compared with control) in wild An. gambiae and An. funestus was deltamethrin > chlorpyrifos-methyl > carbosulfan. Carbosulfan was particularly toxic to endophilic anophelines at 200 mg/m(2), killing 100% of An. gambiae and 98% of An. funestus that entered the huts. It was less effective against the more exophilic An. arabiensis (67% mortality) and carbamate-resistant Cx quinquefasciatus (36% mortality). Carbosulfan deterred anophelines from entering huts, but did not deter carbamate-resistant Cx quinquefasciatus. Deltamethrin reduced the proportion of insects engaged in blood-feeding, probably as a consequence of contact irritancy, whereas carbosulfan seemed to provide personal protection through deterred entry or perhaps a spatial repellent action. Any deployment of carbosulfan as an individual treatment on nets should be carried out on a large scale to reduce the risk of diverting mosquitoes to unprotected individuals. Chlorpyrifos-methyl was inferior to deltamethrin in terms of mortality and blood-feeding inhibition and would be better deployed on a net in combination with a pyrethroid to control insecticide-resistant mosquitoes

Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on insect pests in the urban environment

Larval susceptibility to organophosphates (OP), carbamates (CARB) and pyrethroids (PYR) was investigated in #Culex quinquefasciatus$ from Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. A total of 33 populations collected in 25 cities were tested. The resistance of these natural field populations was compared to a susceptible reference strain under the same conditions. In Côte d'Ivoire, populations showed a heterogeneous response to OP and CARB. A range of 40 %-98 % of larvae had a low resistance level to both chlorpyrifos (2-8x) and propoxur (1-4x). The remaining 2 % to 60 % of larvae displayed a high level of cross-resistance between chlorpyrifos (15-30x) and propoxur (>700x). Biochemical studies showed that low level resistance to OP was due to A2-B2 overproduced esterases and that cross-resistance to OP and CARB was conferred by an insensitive acetylcholinesterase (AChE). This AChE provided a lower resistance to temephos (10x). In Burkina Faso, populations were slightly resistant to OP (1-3x) and not to CARB. The esterases A2-B2 were only present at 50 % frequency. In contrast, PYR-resistance was similar between the two countries. All populations were resistant to either permethrin (20-80x) and deltamethrin (15-40x). Bioassays using piperonyl butoxide (PB) and biochemical studies showed that PYR-resistance involved increased metabolism by mixed function oxidases. Knowing that synergism of PB did not completely suppress resistance and that adults did not show a knockdown effect with high permethrin concentrations, it is likely that PYR-resistance was also due to a Kdr gene. (Résumé d'auteur

Dust models post-Planck: constraining the far-infrared opacity of dust in the diffuse interstellar medium

We compare the performance of several dust models in reproducing the dust spectral energy distribution (SED) per unit extinction in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). We use our results to constrain the variability of the optical properties of big grains in the diffuse ISM, as published by the Planck collaboration. We use two different techniques to compare the predictions of dust models to data from the Planck HFI, IRAS and SDSS surveys. First, we fit the far-infrared emission spectrum to recover the dust extinction and the intensity of the interstellar radiation field (ISRF). Second, we infer the ISRF intensity from the total power emitted by dust per unit extinction, and then predict the emission spectrum. In both cases, we test the ability of the models to reproduce dust emission and extinction at the same time. We identify two issues. Not all models can reproduce the average dust emission per unit extinction: there are differences of up to a factor $\sim2$ between models, and the best accord between model and observation is obtained with the more emissive grains derived from recent laboratory data on silicates and amorphous carbons. All models fail to reproduce the variations in the emission per unit extinction if the only variable parameter is the ISRF intensity: this confirms that the optical properties of dust are indeed variable in the diffuse ISM. Diffuse ISM observations are consistent with a scenario where both ISRF intensity and dust optical properties vary. The ratio of the far-infrared opacity to the $V$ band extinction cross-section presents variations of the order of $\sim20\%$ ($40-50\%$ in extreme cases), while ISRF intensity varies by $\sim30\%$ ($\sim60\%$ in extreme cases). This must be accounted for in future modelling.Comment: A&A, in pres

DETECTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CIRCULATING ENDOTHELIAL CELLS IN MULTIPLE MYELOMA VERSUS MONOCLONAL GAMMAPATHY OF INDETERMINATED SIGNIFIANCE

Oral Communication presented at the ";Forum des Jeunes Chercheurs";, Brest (France) 2011

Photon tagged correlations in heavy ion collisions

A detailed study of various two-particle correlation functions involving photons and neutral pions is presented in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at the LHC energy. The aim is to use these correlation functions to quantify the effect of the medium (in lead-lead collisions) on the jet decay properties. The calculations are carried out at the leading order in QCD but the next-to-leading order corrections are also discussed. The competition between different production mechanisms makes the connection between the jet energy loss spectrum and the gamma-pi correlations somewhat indirect while the gamma-gamma correlations have a clearer relation to the jet fragmentation properties.Comment: 32 pages, 19 figures. Minor changes, published versio

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to pp --> b b_bar b b_bar + X at the LHC: the quark induced case

The production of two b-quark pairs is a prominent background for Higgs and New Physics searches in various extensions of the Standard Model. We present here the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the quark induced subprocess using the GOLEM approach for the virtual corrections. We show that our result considerably improves the prediction and conclude that the inclusion of next-to-leading order effects is indispensable for reliable studies of four b-quark observables in hadronic collisions.Comment: 9 pages latex, 6 eps figures include

Key parameters design for online battery electrochemical impedance tracker

International audienceNew applications in transport and energy storage require the use of Lithium-ion batteries. Advanced battery management systems including electrochemical impedance measurement are studied for the determination of the state of the battery, the prediction of the autonomy, the failure and security management. Taking into account constraints of cost and simplicity, we propose to use the existing electronics of current control and we evaluate the effect of the electronics design on the performance of a frequency evolutionary estimation of the electrochemical impedance. This recursive method relies on a wideband active approach and provides both an accurate estimate of the impedance in the frequency area and a tracking of its temporal variations. Benefits are the limitation of the data memory required and the amount of operations that can be completely carried out by a target such as a microcontroller. We propose a methodology to design the key parameters of electronics in function of the frequency band of interest and the desired accuracy. We highlighted that electronics of conventional BMS can host this tracking algorithm, with analog to digital converters of 10 bits or more, having an analog stage to adapt their dynamics, and that microcontrollers can be enough powerful to perform calculations, both in terms of number of operations and speed of execution. This design strategy has been applied to define a prototyping environment for a BMS based on an ARM microcontroller which is expected to provide the tracking impedance of a battery every 250 ms with less than 0,5 % of error

The evolution of amorphous hydrocarbons in the ISM: dust modelling from a new vantage point

Context. The evolution of amorphous hydrocarbon materials, a-C(:H), principally resulting from ultraviolet (UV) photon absorption- induced processing, are likely at the heart of the variations in the observed properties of dust in the interstellar medium. Aims. The consequences of the size-dependent and compositional variations in a-C(:H), from aliphatic-rich a-C:H to aromatic-rich a-C, are studied within the context of the interstellar dust extinction and emission. Methods. Newly-derived optical property data for a-C(:H) materials, combined with that for an amorphous forsterite-type silicate with iron nano-particle inclusions, a-SilFe, are used to explore dust evolution in the interstellar medium. Results. We present a new dust model that consists of a power-law distribution of small a-C grains and log-normal distributions of large a-SilFe and a-C(:H) grains. The model, which is firmly anchored by laboratory-data, is shown to quite naturally explain the variations in the infrared (IR) to far-ultraviolet (FUV) extinction, the 217 nm UV bump, the IR absorption and emission bands and the IR-mm dust emission. Conclusions. The major strengths of the new model are its inherent simplicity and built-in capacity to follow dust evolution in interstellar media. We show that mantle accretion in molecular clouds and UV photo-processing in photo-dominated regions are likely the major drivers of dust evolution.Comment: 22 pages, 20 figure

A stable fish reporter cell line to study estrogen receptor transactivation by environmental (xeno)estrogens.

International audienceCross-species differences between human and fish estrogen receptor (ER) binding by environmental chemicals have been reported. To study ER transactivation in a fish cellular context, we stably co-transfected the PLHC-1 fish hepatoma cell line with a rainbow trout estrogen receptor (rtER) and the luciferase reporter gene driven by an estrogen response element (ERE). This new cell model, called PELN-rtER (for PLHC-1-ERE-Luciferase-Neomycin), responded to 17beta-estradiol (E2) in a both concentration- and temperature-dependent manner, as well as to environmental ER ligands from different chemical classes: natural and synthetic estrogens, zearalenone metabolites, genistein, alkyphenoles and benzophenone derivatives. The comparison with other in vitro models, i.e. human reporter cell lines (HELN-rtER, MELN) and vitellogenin induction in primary cultures of rainbow trout hepatocytes, showed an overall higher sensitivity of the human cells for a majority of ligands, except for benzophenone derivatives which were active at similar or lower concentrations in fish cells, suggesting species-specificity for these substances. Correlation analyses suggest that the fish cell line is closer to the trout hepatocyte than to the human cell context, and could serve as a relevant mechanistic tool to study ER activation in fish hepatic cellular context