851 research outputs found
: The impact of war on the evolution of sleeping sickness in west-central Cote d'Ivoire
International audienceTo evaluate the situation of sleeping sickness in west-central Cote d'Ivoire from 2000 to 2003, in view of the war which broke out in September 2002. Active surveys by medical teams and passive case detection. Between 2000 and 2003, 250 patients were diagnosed with sleeping sickness. At first it appeared that sleeping sickness prevalence had fallen since the beginning of political troubles. But this apparent drop was due to poor population coverage. Participation in medical surveys differed according to ethnic group, reflecting land use conflicts between ethnic communities. Such conflicts are common in this area, but have been exacerbated by the war. In war, assessing the importance of sleeping sickness by medical surveys only is very difficult. But detection of sleeping sickness cases by passive surveillance increased.Evaluer la situation de la maladie du sommeil dans le centre-ouest de la Cote d'Ivoire de 2000 a 2003, en tenant compte des evenements survenus depuis en septembre 2002. Enquete active realisee par des equipes medicales et detection passive des cas. Entre 2000 et 2003, 250 patients ont ete diagnostiques pour la maladie du sommeil. De prime abord la prevalence de la maladie du sommeil semblait avoir baisse depuis le debut de la guerre. Mais cette baisse apparente etait due a une faible couverture de la population. La participation dans l'enquete medicale etait differente selon le groupe ethnique, refletant les conflits entre les differentes communautes pour les terres. De tels conflits sont courants dans la zone mais ont ete exacerbes par la guerre. L'evaluation de l'importance de la maladie du sommeil durant la guerre par enquete medicale seule est tres difficile. Mais la detection de la maladie du sommeil par surveillance passive a augmente
Gamma Efficiency Simulations towards Coincidence Measurements for Fusion Cross Sections
With the experimental station STELLA (STELlar LAboratory) we will measure fusion cross sections of astrophysical relevance making use of the coincident detection of charged particles and gamma rays for background reduction. For the measurement of gamma rays from the de-excitation of fusion products a compact array of 36 UK FATIMA LaBr3 detectors is designed based on efficiency studies with Geant4. The photo peak efficiency in the region of interest compares to other gamma detection systems used in this field. The features of the internal decay of 138La is used in a background study to obtain an online calibration of the gamma detectors. Background data are fit to the Monte Carlo model of the self activity assuming crude exponential behavior of external background. Accuracy in the region of interest is of the order of some keV in this first study
Clusters in Light Nuclei
A great deal of research work has been undertaken in the alpha-clustering
study since the pioneering discovery, half a century ago, of 12C+12C molecular
resonances. Our knowledge of the field of the physics of nuclear molecules has
increased considerably and nuclear clustering remains one of the most fruitful
domains of nuclear physics, facing some of the greatest challenges and
opportunities in the years ahead. In this work, the occurence of "exotic"
shapes in light N=Z alpha-like nuclei is investigated. Various approaches of
superdeformed and hyperdeformed bands associated with quasimolecular resonant
structures are presented. Results on clustering aspects are also discussed for
light neutron-rich Oxygen isotopes.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Invited Talk presented by C. Beck at the
Zakopane Conference on Nuclear Physics "Extremes of the Nuclear Landscape"
XLV in the series of Zakopane Schools of Physics - International Symposium -
Zakopane, Poland, August 30 - September 5, 2010.To be publihed in Acta
Physica Polonica B42 no 3, March 201
Binary reaction decays from 24Mg+12C
Charged particle and gamma decays in 24Mg* are investigated for excitation
energies where quasimolecular resonances appear in 12C+12C collisions. Various
theoretical predictions for the occurence of superdeformed and hyperdeformed
bands associated with resonance structures with low spin are discussed within
the measured 24Mg* excitation energy region. The inverse kinematics reaction
24Mg+12C is studied at E_lab(24Mg) = 130 MeV, an energy which enables the
population of 24Mg states decaying into 12C+12C resonant break-up states.
Exclusive data were collected with the Binary Reaction Spectrometer in
coincidence with EUROBALL IV installed at the VIVITRON Tandem facility at
Strasbourg. Specific structures with large deformation were selectively
populated in binary reactions and their associated gamma decays studied.
Coincident events associated with inelastic and alpha-transfer channels have
been selected by choosing the excitation energy or the entry point via the
two-body Q-values. The analysis of the binary reaction channels is presented
with a particular emphasis on 24Mg-gamma, 20Ne-gamma and 16O-gamma
coincidences. New information (spin and branching ratios) is deduced on
high-energy states in 24Mg and 16O, respectively.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl
Reaction mechanisms in 24Mg+12C and 32S+24Mg
The occurence of "exotic" shapes in light N=Z alpha-like nuclei is
investigated for 24Mg+12C and 32S+24Mg. Various approaches of superdeformed and
hyperdeformed bands associated with quasimolecular resonant structures with low
spin are presented. For both reactions, exclusive data were collected with the
Binary Reaction Spectrometer in coincidence with EUROBALL IV installed at the
VIVITRON Tandem facility of Strasbourg. Specific structures with large
deformation were selectively populated in binary reactions and their associated
-decays studied. The analysis of the binary and ternary reaction
channels is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Paper presented at the Fusion08 International
Conference on New Aspects of Heavy Ion Collisions Near the Coulomb Barrier,
Chicago. Proceedings to be published by AIP Conference Proceedings Illinois,
USA, September 22-26, 200
Tsetse elimination : its interest and feasibility in the historical sleeping sickness focus of Loos Islands, Guinea
Guinea is the West African country which is currently the most prevalent for sleeping sickness. The littoral area is the region where most of the recent sleeping sickness cases have been described, especially the mangrove sleeping sickness foci of Dubreka and Boffa where Glossina palpalis gambiensis is the vector. Loos islands constitute a small archipelago 5 km apart from the capital, Conakry. Medical, animal, and entomological surveys were implemented in these islands in Oct-Nov 2006. No pathogenic tryponosomes were found in these surveys. The locally very high tsetse densities (up to more than 100 tsetse/trap/day) linked to pig rearing, constitute a high potential risk for humans (taking into account populations movements with neighboring active sleeping sickness foci,of the Guinea littoral, and the history of sleeping sickness on these islands), and for the economically important pig rearing, as well as a danger for tourism. This situation, associated to the possibility of elimination of these tsetse populations due to low possibility of reinvasion, led the National Control Program to launch a tsetse elimination project following an "area wide" strategy for the first time in West Africa, which participates in the global objective of the PATTEC (Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Eradication Campaign)
C+O sub-barrier radiative capture cross-section measurements
We have performed a heavy ion radiative capture reaction between two light
heavy ions, C and O, leading to Si. The present experiment
has been performed below Coulomb barrier energies in order to reduce the phase
space and to try to shed light on structural effects. Obtained -spectra
display a previously unobserved strong feeding of intermediate states around 11
MeV at these energies. This new decay branch is not fully reproduced by
statistical nor semi-statistical decay scenarii and may imply structural
effects. Radiative capture cross-sections are extracted from the data.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, to appear as proceedings of FUSION 2011
conference at St-Malo, Franc
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