Observation of a non-adiabatic geometric phase for elastic waves

We report the experimental observation of a geometric phase for elastic waves in a waveguide with helical shape. The setup reproduces the experiment by Tomita and Chiao [A. Tomita, R.Y. Chiao, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57 (1986) 937-940, 2471] that showed first evidence of a Berry phase, a geometric phase for adiabatic time evolution, in optics. Experimental evidence of a non-adiabatic geometric phase has been reported in quantum mechanics. We have performed an experiment to observe the polarization transport of classical elastic waves. In a waveguide, these waves are polarized and dispersive. Whereas the wavelength is of the same order of magnitude as the helix's radius, no frequency dependent correction is necessary to account for the theoretical prediction. This shows that in this regime, the geometric phase results directly from geometry and not from a correction to an adiabatic phase.Comment: 13 figure

Optimisation de l'effet radiobiologique d'un traitement de radiothérapie interne vectorisée des tumeurs neuroendocrines

Les médicaments radiopharmaceutiques ciblant les récepteurs peptidiques tels que les analogues de la somatostatine ont un réel potentiel et un fort intérêt pour à la fois le diagnostic et le traitement des tumeurs neuroendocrines (TNE) non-opérables, par radiothérapie interne vectorisée (RIV). La toxicité des traitements par radiopeptides analogues de la somatostatine limite leur développement clinique. Le développement de nouveaux peptides ciblant d'autres types de récepteurs tels que le ceux de la cholécystokinine (CCK) est une solution dont l'intérêt a été montré par les travaux de notre équipe, basés sur un analogue CCK novateur. Ce travail en trois volets décrit dans un premier temps le radiomarquage de l'analogue CCK, par des radionucléides émetteurs β- tels que l'yttrium 90 et le lutétium 177 adaptés à la thérapie, en plus de l'indium 111 pour le diagnostic, les capacités de complexation et la stabilité de ce nouvel analogue peptidique CCK. Une étude in vivo préliminaire sur modèle murin a permis d'étudier la faisabilité d'un traitement de RIV. Une troisième étude a été réalisée in vitro sur deux lignées cellulaires tumorales par le traitement à l'aide d'une molécule antitumorale caractérisée dans notre équipe, à travers la réexpression d'une voie de signalisation cellulaire. Ce travail a permis de montrer l'intérêt potentiel de l'utilisation des analogues CCK en RIV en association thérapeutique pour la prise en charge de certaines TNE.Radiopharmaceuticals targeting peptide receptors such as somatostatin analogues have a real potential and a strong interest in both diagnosis and treatment of non-operable neuroendocrine tumors (NET) in peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). The toxicity of somatostatin radiopeptide analogs treatments limits their clinical development. The development of new peptides targeting other receptors such as cholecystokinin (CCK) receptors is a new solution, based on an innovative CCK analog that has been developed and studied in our team. This three-part study first describes the radiolabeling of the CCK analogue by β- emitting radionuclides adapted to therapy such as yttrium 90 and lutetium 177, in addition indium 111 for diagnosis, the complexation and stability capacities of this novel peptide analogue CCK. In a preliminary in vivo study on a murine model we experiment the feasibility of a treatment of RIV. A third study was carried out in vitro on two tumor cell lines by treatment with an antitumor molecule characterized in our team, through the reexpression of a cell signaling pathway. This work allowed us to show the potential interest of using this original CCK analog in RIV with therapeutic association for the control of NET cancer

Application d'un cache 2D prédictif à l'accélération de la rétroprojection TEP 2D

Le développement et la diffusion deséquipements TEP passent par la réduction des temps de calcul de la reconstruction des images acquises. Aussi cet article présente une solution mixte logicielle/matérielle pour l'accélération de la reconstruction 2D sur une plateforme SOPC (System on Programmable Chip), la nouvelle génération de circuits reconfigurables. Le verrou technologique posé par la latence des accès mémoire est levé grâce au cache 2D Adaptatif et Prédictif (cache 2D-AP). Abstract : Reduction of image reconstruction time is a key point for the development and spreading of PET scans. Thus this article presentes a hardware/software architecture which aims at accelerating the 2D reconstruction on a SoPC (System on Programmable Chip) plateform, the new generation of reconfigurable chip. Issue posed by the latency of memory accesses has been solved thanks to the 2D Aptative and Predictive cache (2D-AP cache)

Experimental results and first 22Na source image reconstruction by two prototype modules in coincidence of a liquid xenon positron emission tomograph for small animal imaging

International audienceA detector with a very specific design using liquid Xenon (LXe) in the scintillation mode is studied for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) of small animals. Two prototype modules equipped with Position Sensitive Photo Multiplier Tubes (PSPMTs) operating in the VUV range (178 nm) and at 165 K were built and studied in coincidence. This paper reports on energy, time and spatial resolution capabilities of this experimental test bench. Furthermore, these experimental results were used to perform the first image reconstruction of a 22Na source placed in the experimental setup

The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions.

Research on the origin of life is highly heterogeneous. After a peculiar historical development, it still includes strongly opposed views which potentially hinder progress. In the 1st Interdisciplinary Origin of Life Meeting, early-career researchers gathered to explore the commonalities between theories and approaches, critical divergence points, and expectations for the future. We find that even though classical approaches and theories-e.g. bottom-up and top-down, RNA world vs. metabolism-first-have been prevalent in origin of life research, they are ceasing to be mutually exclusive and they can and should feed integrating approaches. Here we focus on pressing questions and recent developments that bridge the classical disciplines and approaches, and highlight expectations for future endeavours in origin of life research

The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high metallicity stars.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in press (minor updates from submitted version

Erratum: “The eighth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: first data from SDSS-III” (2011, ApJS, 193, 29)

Section 3.5 of Aihara et al. (2011) described various sources of systematic error in the astrometry of the imaging data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In addition to these sources of error, there is an additional and more serious error, which introduces a large systematic shift in the astrometry over a large area around the north celestial pole. The region has irregular boundaries but in places extends as far south as declination δ ≈ 41◦. The sense of the shift is that the positions of all sources in the affected area are offset by roughly 250 mas in a northwest direction. We have updated the SDSS online documentation to reflect these errors, and to provide detailed quality information for each SDSS field

SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems

Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS DR8 (which occurred in Jan 2011). This paper presents an overview of the four SDSS-III surveys. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Lya forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the BAO feature of large scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z<0.7 and at z~2.5. SEGUE-2, which is now completed, measured medium-resolution (R=1800) optical spectra of 118,000 stars in a variety of target categories, probing chemical evolution, stellar kinematics and substructure, and the mass profile of the dark matter halo from the solar neighborhood to distances of 100 kpc. APOGEE will obtain high-resolution (R~30,000), high signal-to-noise (S/N>100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51-1.70 micron) spectra of 10^5 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for ~15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. MARVELS will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 m/s, ~24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. (Abridged)Comment: Revised to version published in The Astronomical Journa

Probing slow dynamics of consolidated granular multicomposite materials by diffuse acoustic wave spectroscopy

slow dynamics, multiple scattering, coda wavesInternational audienceThe stiffness of a consolidated granular medium experiences a drop immediately after a moderate mechanical solicitation. Then the stiffness rises back toward its initial value following a logarithmic time evolution called slow dynamics. In the literature, \textit{slow dynamics} has been probed by macroscopic quantities averaged over the sample volume, for instance by the resonant frequency of vibrational eigenmodes. This article presents a different approach based on Diffuse Acoustic Wave Spectroscopy (DAWS), a technique that is directly sensitive to the details of the sample structure. The parameters of the dynamics are found to depend on the damage of the medium. Results confirm that \textit{slow dynamics} is, at least in part, due to tiny structural rearrangements at the microscopic scale, such as inter-grain contacts

Optimisation de l'effet radiobiologique d'un traitement de radiothérapie interne vectorisée des tumeurs neuroendocrines

Les médicaments radiopharmaceutiques ciblant les récepteurs peptidiques tels que les analogues de la somatostatine ont un réel potentiel et un fort intérêt pour à la fois le diagnostic et le traitement des tumeurs neuroendocrines (TNE) non-opérables, par radiothérapie interne vectorisée (RIV). La toxicité des traitements par radiopeptides analogues de la somatostatine limite leur développement clinique. Le développement de nouveaux peptides ciblant d'autres types de récepteurs tels que le ceux de la cholécystokinine (CCK) est une solution dont l'intérêt a été montré par les travaux de notre équipe, basés sur un analogue CCK novateur. Ce travail en trois volets décrit dans un premier temps le radiomarquage de l'analogue CCK, par des radionucléides émetteurs - tels que l'yttrium 90 et le lutétium 177 adaptés à la thérapie, en plus de l'indium 111 pour le diagnostic, les capacités de complexation et la stabilité de ce nouvel analogue peptidique CCK. Une étude in vivo préliminaire sur modèle murin a permis d'étudier la faisabilité d'un traitement de RIV. Une troisième étude a été réalisée in vitro sur deux lignées cellulaires tumorales par le traitement à l'aide d'une molécule antitumorale caractérisée dans notre équipe, à travers la réexpression d'une voie de signalisation cellulaire. Ce travail a permis de montrer l'intérêt potentiel de l'utilisation des analogues CCK en RIV en association thérapeutique pour la prise en charge de certaines TNE.Les médicaments radiopharmaceutiques ciblant les récepteurs peptidiques tels que les analogues de la somatostatine ont un réel potentiel et un fort intérêt pour à la fois le diagnostic et le traitement des tumeurs neuroendocrines (TNE) non-opérables, par radiothérapie interne vectorisée (RIV). La toxicité des traitements par radiopeptides analogues de la somatostatine limite leur développement clinique. Le développement de nouveaux peptides ciblant d'autres types de récepteurs tels que le ceux de la cholécystokinine (CCK) est une solution dont l'intérêt a été montré par les travaux de notre équipe, basés sur un analogue CCK novateur. Ce travail en trois volets décrit dans un premier temps le radiomarquage de l'analogue CCK, par des radionucléides émetteurs - tels que l'yttrium 90 et le lutétium 177 adaptés à la thérapie, en plus de l'indium 111 pour le diagnostic, les capacités de complexation et la stabilité de ce nouvel analogue peptidique CCK. Une étude in vivo préliminaire sur modèle murin a permis d'étudier la faisabilité d'un traitement de RIV. Une troisième étude a été réalisée in vitro sur deux lignées cellulaires tumorales par le traitement à l'aide d'une molécule antitumorale caractérisée dans notre équipe, à travers la réexpression d'une voie de signalisation cellulaire. Ce travail a permis de montrer l'intérêt potentiel de l'utilisation des analogues CCK en RIV en association thérapeutique pour la prise en charge de certaines TNE