491 research outputs found
Is the Coulomb sum rule violated in nuclei?
Guided by the experimental confirmation of the validity of the Effective
Momentum Approximation (EMA) in quasi-elastic scattering off nuclei, we have
re-examined the extraction of the longitudinal and transverse response
functions in medium-weight and heavy nuclei. In the EMA we have performed a
Rosenbluth separation of the available world data on Ca, Ca,
Fe, Au, Pb and U. We find that the longitudinal
response function for these nuclei is "quenched" and that the Coulomb sum is
not saturated, at odds with claims in the literature.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Approximate treatment of electron Coulomb distortion in quasielastic (e,e') reactions
In this paper we address the adequacy of various approximate methods of
including Coulomb distortion effects in (e,e') reactions by comparing to an
exact treatment using Dirac-Coulomb distorted waves. In particular, we examine
approximate methods and analyses of (e,e') reactions developed by Traini et al.
using a high energy approximation of the distorted waves and phase shifts due
to Lenz and Rosenfelder. This approximation has been used in the separation of
longitudinal and transverse structure functions in a number of (e,e')
experiments including the newly published 208Pb(e,e') data from Saclay. We find
that the assumptions used by Traini and others are not valid for typical (e,e')
experiments on medium and heavy nuclei, and hence the extracted structure
functions based on this formalism are not reliable. We describe an improved
approximation which is also based on the high energy approximation of Lenz and
Rosenfelder and the analyses of Knoll and compare our results to the Saclay
data. At each step of our analyses we compare our approximate results to the
exact distorted wave results and can therefore quantify the errors made by our
approximations. We find that for light nuclei, we can get an excellent
treatment of Coulomb distortion effects on (e,e') reactions just by using a
good approximation to the distorted waves, but for medium and heavy nuclei
simple additional ad hoc factors need to be included. We describe an explicit
procedure for using our approximate analyses to extract so-called longitudinal
and transverse structure functions from (e,e') reactions in the quasielastic
region.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 16 reference
Infections of implantable cardiac devices by biofilm forming bacteria in western Algeria hospitals
Background: The significant increase in the use of implantable cardiac devices (ICDs) has been accompanied by biofilm formation and increase rate of infection on the devices. The purpose of our study is to describe the clinical and microbiological findings of infection of ICDs in the cardiology units of western Algeria hospitals.
Methodology: All patients with clinical diagnosis of ICD infections or infective endocarditis upon removal of their ICDs from December 2012 to August 2014 in cardiology units of 4 Algerian hospitals were included in the study. Each element of the ICD pocket and lead was separately sonicated in sterile saline, inoculated onto Chapman and MacConkey agar plates and incubated aerobically at 37oC for colony count after 24 hours. Biochemical identification of the bacteria isolates was made by API 20E, API 20 NE and API Staph, and confirmed by Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics WalkAway® 96 Plus System. Antibiotic susceptibility testing on each isolate was performed by the disk diffusion method on Mueller Hinton agar. Biofilm formation was detected by Congo Red Agar (CRA) and Tissue Culture Plate (TCP) methods, and hydrophobicity of the bacterial cell was determined by the MATH protocol.
Results: Over a period of twenty-one months, 17 ICDs were removed from patients with post-operative infections; 6 (35.3%) had early infection of ICD and 11 (64.7%) had late ICD infection. Fifty-four bacterial strains were isolated and identified, with coagulase-negative staphylococci being the predominant bacteria with 46.3% (25/54). There was no significant association between hydrophobicity and antimicrobial resistance in the 54 isolates but there is positive correlation between biofilm production and antimicrobial resistance, with the strongest biofilm producers resistant to more than one antibiotic. Four independent predictors of infection of resynchronization devices were reported; reoperation, multi-morbidity, long procedure, and ICD implantation.
Conclusion: Our study is the first in Algeria to describe microbiological characteristics of ICD infection. The bacteria in the biofilm were protected, more resistant and tolerated high concentrations of antibiotics and thus played a major role in the development of ICD infections. Despite the improvements in ICD design and implantation techniques, ICD infection remains a serious challenge.
Keywords: implantable cardiac devices, staphylococci, resistance, biofilm, hydrophobicity
French title: Infections des dispositifs cardiaques implantables par des bactéries formant un biofilm dans les hôpitaux de l'ouest Algérien
Contexte: L'augmentation significative de l'utilisation des dispositifs cardiaques implantables est un risque majeur d'augmentation du taux d'infection et donc du risque de formation d'un biofilm sur ce genre de dispositifs. L'objectif de notre étude est de décrire les résultats cliniques et microbiologiques de l'infection sur les dispositifs cardiaques implantables (DCI) dans les unités de cardiologie des hôpitaux de l'ouest Algérien.
Méthodologie: Tous les patients cliniquement diagnostiqués avec une infection sur DCI, ou une endocardite infectieuse et ayant subit un retrait de leur dispositif cardiaque sont inclus dans cette étude et cela sur une période entre décembre 2012 et aout 2014 dans 4 unités de cardiologie. Chaque élément du DCI (boitier et sonde) est trempé séparément dans une solution saline stérile, ensemencé sur deux milieux de culture, un milieu de Chapman et un milieu MacConkey et incubé en aérobiose à 37°C pour la numération des colonies après 24 heures. L'identification biochimique des isolats de bactéries est effectuée par le API 20E, API 20 NE et API Staph, et confirmée par le système WalkAway® 96 Plus de Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. Les tests de sensibilité aux antibiotiques de chaque isolat sont effectués par la méthode de diffusion des disques sur gélose de Mueller Hinton. La formation d'un biofilm est détectée par les méthodes de la gélose rouge du Congo (CRA) et de la plaque de culture tissulaire (TCP), et l'hydrophobicité de la cellule bactérienne est déterminée par le protocole MATH.
Résultats: Sur une période de 21 mois, 17 DCI sont retirés de patients atteints d'infections postopératoires; 6 patients (35,3%) sont identifiés comme ayant une infection précoce sur leurs DCI et 11 patients (64,7%) ayant une infection tardive. Cinquante-quatre souches bactériennes sont isolées et identifiées, les staphylocoques à coagulase négative étant les bactéries prédominantes avec 46,3% (25/54). Il n'y a pas d'association significative entre l'hydrophobicité et la résistance aux antimicrobiens dans les 54 isolats, mais il existe une corrélation positive entre la production de biofilm et la résistance aux antimicrobiens, les plus puissants en biofilm sont résistant à plus d'un antibiotique. Quatre facteurs prédictifs indépendants d’infection des dispositifs cardiaques implantable sont retrouvés dans ce travail: ré-intervention, longue procédure, sujets multi-tarés, et implantation d’un DCI
Conclusion: Notre étude est la première en Algérie à décrire les caractéristiques microbiologiques de l'infection des DCI. Les bactéries présentes dans le biofilm sont protégées, plus résistantes et tolèrent de fortes concentrations d'antibiotiques et jouent ainsi un rôle majeur dans le développement des infections par DCI. Malgré des améliorations dans les techniques de conception et d'implantation de DCI, l'infection des dispositifs cardiaques implantables reste un problème grave et très couteux.
Mots-clés: dispositifs cardiaques implantables; staphylocoque; résistance; biofilm; hydrophobicit
Modelling Graphene-based Transparent Electrodes for Si Solar Cells by Artificial Neural Networks
Transparent electrodes based on conductive transparent oxides (TCO) are increasingly invading the
photovoltaic (PV) field because of their unique ability to reconcile high transparency with good electrical
conductivity. The TCO market is dominated by the Indium oxide doped with Tin (ITO) with a resistivity of
30-80 Ω/sq and a transmittance of 90 % in the visible range. Yet, its cost is rising due to the high indium
content, is one of the reason that encouraging research on alternative materials essential for the development
of PV technologies. It is in this theme that graphene, a material with exceptional properties, is tested
as a design material for transparent electrodes for Si solar cells. In this paper, we optimized optically and
electronically the graphene-based transparent electrodes (G-TE) by proposing a model of simulation based
on artificial intelligence and specifically artificial neural networks (ANN) which is the ANN-model. Therefore,
to achieve an appropriate characterisation of a behaviour of G-TE for the Si solar cells, the ANN model
has been performed to simulate and optimise different parameters of the G-TE, by controlling graphene
layer number, tuning graphene work function, and deduce the suitable transmittance and resistivity in order
to have a complete adjustment for these parameters. Our study mentioned that a G-TE with three layers
of graphene and a work function of 4.75 eV leads for a sheet resistance of 50 Ω/sq and transmittance of
91.4 %; these results suggest that G-TE is a promising candidate in the TCO field
Charge radii of the nucleon from its flavor dependent Dirac form factors
We have determined the proton and the neutron charge radii from a global
analysis of the proton and the neutron elastic form factors, after first
performing a flavor decomposition of these form factors under charge symmetry
in the light cone frame formulation. We then extracted the transverse
mean-square radii of the flavor dependent quark distributions. In turn, these
are related in a model-independent way to the proton and neutron charge radii
but allow us to take into account motion effects of the recoiling nucleon for
data at finite but high momentum transfer. In the proton case we find ,
consistent with the proton charge radius obtained from muonic hydrogen
spectroscopy \cite{pohl:2010,antog2013}. The current method improves on the
precision of the extraction based on the form factor
measurements. Furthermore, we find no discrepancy in the
determination among the different electron scattering measurements, all of
which, utilizing the current method of extraction, result in a value that is
consistent with the smallest extraction from the electron
scattering measurements \cite{Xiong:2019umf}. Concerning the neutron case, past
results relied solely on the neutron-electron scattering length measurements,
which suffer from an underestimation of underlying systematic uncertainties
inherent to the extraction technique. Utilizing the present method we have
performed the first extraction of the neutron charge radius based on nucleon
form factor data, and we find
Inelastic nucleon contributions in nuclear response functions
We estimate the contribution of inelastic nucleon excitations to the
inclusive cross section in the CEBAF kinematic range.
Calculations are based upon parameterizations of the nucleon structure
functions measured at SLAC. Nuclear binding effects are included in a
vector-scalar field theory, and are assumed have a minimal effect on the
nucleon excitation spectrum. We find that for q\lsim 1 GeV the elastic and
inelastic nucleon contributions to the nuclear response functions are
comparable, and can be separated, but with roughly a factor of two uncertainty
in the latter from the extrapolation from data. In contrast, for q\rsim 2 GeV
this uncertainty is greatly reduced but the elastic nucleon contribution is
heavily dominated by the inelastic nucleon background.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures available from the authors at Department of
Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester NY 1462
Eikonal analysis of Coulomb distortion in quasi-elastic electron scattering
An eikonal expansion is used to provide systematic corrections to the eikonal
approximation through order , where is the wave number. Electron
wave functions are obtained for the Dirac equation with a Coulomb potential.
They are used to investigate distorted-wave matrix elements for quasi-elastic
electron scattering from a nucleus. A form of effective-momentum approximation
is obtained using trajectory-dependent eikonal phases and focusing factors.
Fixing the Coulomb distortion effects at the center of the nucleus, the
often-used ema approximation is recovered. Comparisons of these approximations
are made with full calculations using the electron eikonal wave functions. The
ema results are found to agree well with the full calculations.Comment: 12 pages, 6 Postscript figure
Sum Rules and Moments of the Nucleon Spin Structure Functions
The nucleon has been used as a laboratory to investigate its own spin
structure and Quantum Chromodynamics. New experimental data on nucleon spin
structure at low to intermediate momentum transfers combined with existing high
momentum transfer data offer a comprehensive picture of the transition region
from the {\it confinement} regime of the theory to its {\it asymptotic freedom}
regime. Insight for some aspects of the theory is gained by exploring lower
moments of spin structure functions and their corresponding sum rules (i.e. the
Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn, Bjorken and Burkhardt-Cottingham). These moments are
expressed in terms of an operator product expansion using quark and gluon
degrees of freedom at moderately large momentum transfers. The sum rules are
verified to a good accuracy assuming that no singular behavior of the structure
functions is present at very high excitation energies. The higher twist
contributions have been examined through the moments evolution as the moments
evolution as the momentum transfer varies from higher to lower values.
Furthermore, QCD-inspired low-energy effective theories, which explicitly
include chiral symmetry breaking, are tested at low momentum transfers. The
validity of these theories is further examined as the momentum transfer
increases to moderate values. It is found that chiral perturbation calculations
agree reasonably well with the first moment of the spin structure function
at momentum transfer of 0.1 GeV but fail to reproduce the neutron
data in the case of the generalized polarizability .Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, review for Modern Physics Letters A. Minor
modifications in text and improved quality for one figure. Corrected mistakes
in section
y scaling in electron-nucleus scattering
Data on inclusive electron scattering from A = 4, 12, 27, 56, 197 nuclei at large momentum transfer are presented and analyzed in terms of y scaling. We find that the data do scale for y 1), and we study the convergence of the scaling function with the momentum transfer Q^2 and A
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