Card sorting, test d'oculométrie et test d'utilisabilité sur le site web du Service d'information scientifique du CERN

Ce travail de Bachelor a pour objectif l’évaluation du site web du Service d’information scientifique du CERN. Cette évaluation est basée sur les méthodes utilisées en User Centered Design (UCD). Pour effectuer cette évaluation, nous avons sélectionné trois tests : un card sorting, un test d’oculométrie et un test d’utilisabilité. Selon la norme ISO 9241-11 :1998, l’utilisabilité se définit par « le degré selon lequel un produit peut être utilisé, par des utilisateurs identifiés, pour atteindre les buts définis avec efficacité, efficience et satisfaction, dans un contexte d’utilisation spécifié ». Les tests que nous avons réalisés nous ont permis d’identifier les problèmes d’utilisabilité du site du Service, en nous appuyant sur les caractéristiques d’utilisabilité définies dans cette norme. Pour ce faire, nous avons élaboré les tests en nous basant sur les pratiques utilisées par les spécialistes en UCD. Nous avons ensuite proposé à des employés du CERN, représentatifs des utilisateurs du site, à participer aux tests. Nous avons ainsi pu récolter des données quantitatives et qualitatives. De plus, les commentaires des participants, obtenus avec le « think aloud » et les débriefings, nous ont apporté des informations utiles sur la manière dont ils perçoivent et utilisent le site. Au terme des tests, les résultats de ceux-ci ont été analysés individuellement. A la suite de cette analyse, nous avons élaboré une synthèse, reprenant les principaux problèmes d’utilisabilité identifiés pour lesquels nous proposons des améliorations. Les principaux problèmes observés sont liés à la disposition des informations sur les pages du site, notamment avec la présence de longs textes suivis qui ne facilitent pas la lecture et l’identification des informations essentielles. Quelques problèmes ont également été identifiés dans la structure du site. Ceux-ci concernent principalement la nomenclature utilisée pour les menus et les sous-menus, ainsi que quelques titres de pages, qui prêtent à confusion. Au vu des problèmes constatés, nous recommandons de diminuer la longueur des textes présents sur les pages et de fractionner l’information quand cela s’avère nécessaire, afin de proposer des pages plus claires et donc plus lisibles. Concernant la structure, nous proposons également de modifier certains labels de menus et sousmenus, afin de les rendre plus explicites

Role of parathyroid hormone in the phosphaturia of extracellular fluid volume expansion

Role of parathyroid hormone in the phosphaturia of extracellular fluid volume expansion. Acute expansion of the extracellular fluid volume increases the urinary excretion of phosphate. The present study examined the importance of increased plasma parathyroid hormone concentration in the phosphaturia accompanying acute extracellular fluid volume expansion (ECVE). Infusion of a calcium-free Ringer's solution into dogs was associated with increased urinary phosphate excretion and serum immunoreactive parathyroid hormone concentration (iPTH), the latter being significantly correlated with a decrease in plasma ionized calcium concentration. Prevention of the fall in plasma ionized calcium concentration by infusion of a calcium containing Ringer's solution prevented the increase in serum iPTH but the magnitude of the phosphaturia was not affected. The phosphaturia associated with ECVE was also not affected in thyroparathyroidectomized (TPTX) dogs which received a maintenance infusion of bovine PTH. In contrast, in acutely TPTX dogs which did not receive a maintenance infusion of PTH, the phosphaturic response to ECVE was significantly depressed. These data indicate that 1) the increase in serum iPTH concentration following ECVE is the result of a fall in plasma ionized calcium concentration, 2) the increase in phosphate excretion accompanying ECVE is not dependent on an increase in serum iPTH concentration and 3) in the presence of a low or falling serum PTH concentration, the increase in phosphate excretion can be significantly blunted.Rôle de l'hormone parathyroïdienne dans la phosphaturie consécutive à l'expansion extracellulaire. L'expansion aiguë du volume extracellulaire augmente l'excrétion urinaire du phosphate. Ce travail examine le rôle de l'augmentation de la concentration d'hormone parathyroïdienne dans la phosphaturie qui accompagne l'expansion du volume extracellulaire (ECVE). L'administration à des chiens d'une solution de Ringer sans calcium est associée à une augmentation de l'excrétion urinaire de phosphate et à une augmentation de la concentration d'hormone parathyroïdienne immunoréactive du plasma (iPTH). Cette dernière est significativement corrélée à la diminution de la concentration plasmatique du calcium ionisé. L'empêchement de la diminution de la concentration plasmatique du calcium ionisé par l'administration d'une solution de Ringer contenant du calcium évite l'augmentation de iPTH dans le plasma mais n'affecte pas l'importance de la phosphaturie. La phosphaturie associée à ECVE n'est pas non plus modifiée chez des chiens thyroparathyroïdectomisés (TPTX) qui reçoivent une perfusion de PTH bovine. Au contraire chez des chiens TPTX aigus qui ne reçoivent pas de perfusion de PTX la réponse à ECVE est significativement diminuée. Ces résultats indiquent que 1) L'augmentation de iPTH du plasma après ECVE est la conséquence d'une diminution de la concentration plasmatique du calcium ionisé, 2) l'augmentation de l'excrétion du phosphate qui accompagne ECVE ne dépend pas de l'augmentation de iPTH du plasma et 3) quand la concentration plasmatique de PTH est faible ou en voie de diminution, l'augmentation de l'excrétion de phosphate peut être significativement masquée

Consistent model for drain current mismatch in mosfets using the carrier number fluctuation theory

PostprintThis work presents an approach for accurate MOS transistor matching calculation. Our model, which is based on an accurate physics-based MOSFET model, allows the assessment of mismatch from process parameters and valid for any operating region. Experimental results taken on a test set of transistors implemented in a 1.2 /spl mu/m CMOS technology corroborate the theoretical development of this work

X-ray Insights into the Nature of Weak Emission-Line Quasars at High Redshift

We present Chandra observations of nine high-redshift quasars (z=2.7-5.9) discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with weak or undetectable high-ionization emission lines in their UV spectra (WLQs). Adding archival X-ray observations of six additional sources of this class has enabled us to place the strongest constraints yet on the X-ray properties of this remarkable class of AGNs. Although our data cannot rule out the possibility that the emission lines are overwhelmed by a relativistically boosted continuum, as manifested by BL Lac objects, we find that WLQs are considerably weaker in the X-ray and radio bands than the majority of BL Lacs found at much lower redshifts. If WLQs are high-redshift BL Lacs, then it is difficult to explain the lack of a large parent population of X-ray and radio bright weak-lined sources at high redshift. We also consider the possibility that WLQs are quasars with extreme properties, and in particular that the emission lines are suppressed by high accretion rates. Using joint spectral fitting of the X-ray spectra of 11 WLQs we find that the mean photon index in the hard X-ray band is consistent with those observed in typical radio-quiet AGNs with no hint of an unusually steep hard-X-ray spectrum. This result poses a challenge to the hypothesis that WLQs have extremely high accretion rates, and we discuss additional observations required to test this idea.Comment: 13 pages (emulateapj), 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

The Infrared Luminosity of Galaxy Clusters

The aim of this study is to quantify the infrared luminosity of clusters as a function of redshift and compare this with the X-ray luminosity. This can potentially constrain the origin of the infrared emission to be intracluster dust and/or dust heated by star formation in the cluster galaxies. We perform a statistical analysis of a large sample of galaxy clusters selected from existing databases and catalogues.We coadd the infrared IRAS and X-ray RASS images in the direction of the selected clusters within successive redshift intervals up to z = 1. We find that the total infrared luminosity is very high and on average 20 times higher than the X-ray luminosity. If all the infrared luminosity is to be attributed to emission from diffuse intracluster dust, then the IR to X-ray ratio implies a dust-to-gas mass abundance of 5e-4. However, the infrared luminosity shows a strong enhancement for 0.1 < z < 1, which cannot be attributed to cluster selection effects. We show that this enhancement is compatible with a star formation rate in the member galaxies that is typical of the central Mpc of the Coma cluster at z = 0 and evolves with the redshift as (1+z)^5. It is likely that most of the infrared luminosity that we measure is generated by the ongoing star formation in the member galaxies. From theoretical predictions calibrated on extinction measurements (dust mass abundance equal to 1e-5), we expect only a minor contribution, of a few percent, from intracluster dust.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted july 31st 2008 for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, language improved for this versio

Detectability of low energy X-ray spectral components in type 1 AGN

In this paper we examine the percentage of type 1 AGN which require the inclusion of a soft excess component and/or significant cold absorption in the modelling of their X-ray spectra obtained by XMM-Newton. We do this by simulating spectra which mimic typical spectral shapes in order to find the maximum detectability expected at different count levels. We then apply a correction to the observed percentages found for the Scott et al. (2011) sample of 761 sources. We estimate the true percentage of AGN with a soft excess component to be 75+/-23%, suggesting that soft excesses are ubiquitous in the X-ray spectra of type 1 AGN. By carrying out joint fits on groups of low count spectra in narrow z bins in which additional spectral components were not originally detected, we show that the soft excess feature is recovered with a mean temperature kT and blackbody to power-law normalisation ratio consistent with those of components detected in individual high count spectra. Cold absorption with nH values broadly consistent with those reported in individual spectra are also recovered. We suggest such intrinsic cold absorption is found in a minimum of ~5% of type 1 AGN and may be present in up to ~10%.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma by percutaneous ethanol injection: Imaging findings

Summary: Since PEI is a treatment based on imaging techniques, the radiologist should be familiar with the various findings that may be observed after PEI on US, CT, and MR images immediately after treatment and during later follow-up. Although US is well suited for performing PEI, contrast-enhanced CT currently is the most commonly used imaging method to evaluate the effect of PEI. Residual, nodular areas of contrast enhancement correlate well with residual tumor and warrant additional treatment. Although the findings on MR images obtained after PEI are more complex, MR imaging may be used as an alternative to C

X-ray Detection of the Primary Lens Galaxy Cluster of the Gravitational Lens System Q0957+561

Analysis of several recent ROSAT HRI observations of the gravitationally lensed system Q0957+561 has led to the detection at the 3sigma level of the cluster lens containing the primary galaxy G1. The total mass was estimated by applying the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium to the detected hot intracluster gas for a range of cluster core radii, cluster sizes and for different values of the Hubble constant. X-ray estimates of the lensing cluster mass provide a means to determine the cluster contribution to the deflection of rays originating from the quasar Q0957+561. The present mass estimates were used to evaluate the convergence parameter kappa, the ratio of the local surface mass density of the cluster to the critical surface mass density for lensing. The convergence parameter, kappa, calculated in the vicinity of the lensed images, was found to range between 0.07 and 0.21, depending on the assumed cluster core radius and cluster extent. This range of uncertainty in kappa does not include possible systematic errors arising from the estimation of the cluster temperature through the use of the cluster luminosity-temperature relation and the assumption of spherical symmetry of the cluster gas. Applying this range of values of kappa to the lensing model of Grogin & Narayan (1996) for Q0957+561 but not accounting for uncertainties in that model yields a range of values for the Hubble constant:67<H_0<82 km s^-1 Mpc^-1, for a time delay of 1.1 years.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 25 pages, 9 figure

The X-Ray Properties of the Optically Brightest Mini-BAL Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We have compiled a sample of 14 of the optically brightest radio-quiet quasars ($m_{i}$~$\le$~17.5 and $z$~$\ge$~1.9) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 quasar catalog that have C IV mini-BALs present in their spectra. X-ray data for 12 of the objects were obtained via a Chandra snapshot survey using ACIS-S, while data for the other two quasars were obtained from archival XMM-Newton observations. Joint X-ray spectral analysis shows the mini-BAL quasars have a similar average power-law photon index ($\Gamma\approx1.9$) and level of intrinsic absorption ($N_H \lesssim 8\times 10^{21} \ {\rm cm}^{-2}$) as non-BMB (neither BAL nor mini-BAL) quasars. Mini-BAL quasars are more similar to non-BMB quasars than to BAL quasars in their distribution of relative X-ray brightness (assessed with $\Delta\alpha_{\rm ox}$). Relative colors indicate mild dust reddening in the optical spectra of mini-BAL quasars. Significant correlations between $\Delta\alpha_{\rm ox}$ and UV absorption properties are confirmed for a sample of 56 sources combining mini-BAL and BAL quasars with high signal-to-noise ratio rest-frame UV spectra, which generally supports models in which X-ray absorption is important in enabling driving of the UV absorption-line wind. We also propose alternative parametrizations of the UV absorption properties of mini-BAL and BAL quasars, which may better describe the broad absorption troughs in some respects.Comment: ApJ accepted; 21 pages, 11 figures, and 9 table

XMM-Newton study of the lensing cluster of galaxies CL0024+17

We present a detailed gravitational mass measurement based on the XMM-Newton imaging spectroscopy analysis of the lensing cluster of galaxies CL0024+17 at z=0.395. The emission appears approximately symmetric. However, on the scale of r~3.3' some indication of elongation is visible in the northwest-southeast (NW-SE) direction from the hardness ratio map (HRM). Within 3', we measure a global gas temperature of 3.52\pm0.17 keV, metallicity of 0.22\pm0.07, and bolometric luminosity of 2.9\pm0.1 \times 10^{44} h^{-2}_{70} erg/s. We derive a temperature distribution with an isothermal temperature of 3.9 keV to a radius of 1.5' and a temperature gradient in the outskirts (1.3<r<3'). Under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium, we measure gravitational mass and gas mass fraction to be M_{200}=2.0\pm0.3 \times 10^{14} h_{70}^{-1} M_{\odot} and f_{\rm gas}=0.20\pm0.03 h^{-3/2}_{70} at r_{200}=1.05 h^{-1}_{70} Mpc using the observed temperature profile. The complex structure in the core region is the key to explaining the discrepancy in gravitational mass determined from XMM-Newton X-ray observations and HST optical lensing measurements.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, to appear in A&