Raman microscopy to characterize plasma-wall interaction materials: from carbon era to metallic walls

Plasma-wall interaction in magnetic fusion devices is responsible for wall changes and plasma pollution with major safety issues. It is investigated both in situ and ex situ, especially by realizing large scale dedicated post-mortem campaigns. Selected parts of the walls are extracted and characterized by several techniques. It is important to extract hydrogen isotopes, oxygen or other element content. This is classically done by ion beam analysis and thermal desorption spectroscopy. Raman microscopy is an alternative and complementary technique. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that Raman microscopy is a very sensitive tool. Moreover, if coupled to other techniques and tested on well-controlled reference samples, Raman microscopy can be used efficiently for characterization of wall samples. Present work reviews long experience gained on carbon-based materials demonstrating how Raman microscopy can be related to structural disorder and hydrogen retention, as it is a direct probe of chemical bonds and atomic structure. In particular, we highlight the fact that Raman microscopy can be used to estimate the hydrogen content and bonds to other elements as well as how it evolves under heating. We also present state-of-the-art Raman analyses of beryllium- and tungsten-based materials, and finally, we draw some perspectives regarding boron-based deposits.</p

Surgery for anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries : a multicentre study from the European Congenital Heart Surgeons Association

OBJECTIVES: We sought to describe early and late outcomes in a large surgical series of patients with anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries. METHODS: We performed a retrospective multicentre study including surgical patients with anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries since 1991. Patients with isolated high coronary takeoff and associated major congenital heart disease were excluded. RESULTS: We collected 156 surgical patients (median age 39.5 years, interquartile range 15-53) affected by anomalous right (67.9%), anomalous left (22.4%) and other anatomical abnormalities (9.6%). An interarterial course occurred in 86.5%, an intramural course in 62.8% and symptoms in 85.9%. The operations included coronary unroofing (56.4%), reimplantation (19.2%), coronary bypass graft (15.4%) and other (9.0%). Two patients with preoperative cardiac failure died postoperatively (1.3%). All survivors were discharged home in good clinical condition. At a median follow-up of 2 years (interquartile range 1-5, 88.5% complete), there were 3 deaths (2.2%), 9 reinterventions in 8 patients (5 interventional, 3 surgical); 91.2% are in New York Heart Association functional class <= II, but symptoms persisted in 14.2%; 48.1% of them returned to sport activity. On Kaplan-Meier analysis, event-free survival at follow-up was 74.6%. Morbidity was not significantly different among age classes, anatomical variants and types of surgical procedures. Furthermore, return to sport activity was significantly higher in younger patients who participated in sports preoperatively. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical repair of anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries is effective and has few complications. Unroofing and coronary reimplantation are safe and are the most common procedures. The occurrence of late adverse events is not negligible, and long-term surveillance is mandatory. Most young athletes can return to an unrestrained lifestyle

VITAMIN E: a multipurpose ENDF/B-V coupled neutron-gamma cross section library

The US Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy and the Division of Reactor Research and Technology jointly sponsored the development of a coupled fine-group cross section library (VITAMIN-C). The experience gained in the generation, validation, and utilization of the VITAMIN-C library along with its broad range of applicability has led to the request for updating this data set using ENDF/B-V. Additional support in this regard has been provided by the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) and by EPRI in support of weapons analyses and light water reactor shielding and dosimetry problems, respectively. The rationale for developing the multipurpose ENDF/B-V-based VITAMIN-E library is presented, with special emphasis on new models used in the data generation algorithms. The library specifications and testing procedures are also discussed in detail. The distribution of the VITAMIN-E library is currently subject to the same restrictions as the distribution of the ENDF/B-V data. 2 tables

CC9 Livestock-Associated Staphylococcus aureus Emerges in Bloodstream Infections in French Patients Unconnected With Animal Farming

We report 4 bloodstream infections associated with CC9 agr type II Staphylococcus aureus in individuals without animal exposure. We demonstrate, by microarray analysis, the presence of egc cluster, fnbA, cap operon, lukS, set2, set12, splE, splD, sak, epiD, and can, genomic features associated with a high virulence potential in human

Developpement de la technique des nontisses a base de micro-fibres 'Melt-Blown'

SIGLEAvailable at INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : AR 13834 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Adverse drug reaction-related hospitalizations of adults in the Lao People's Democratic Republic: health risks of unknown medicines

Although important to take preventive measures towards drug-related morbidity reduction, drug safety research is impaired by the lack of knowledge of medicines used by patients. The danger of medicines of unknown identity (MUIs) (not sold in their original packaging and without written identity) has been suspected in previous studies in low- and middle-income countries of South-East Asia. Using visual and analytical tools to identify MUIs, we designed a cross-sectional study to evaluate the incidence of and factors associated to adverse drug reaction (ADR)-related hospitalizations in adults in a Laotian central hospital in Vientiane Capital