[en] The generalization of the MSSM to the case of four chiral fermion generations (4GMSSM) can lead to significant changes in the phenomenology of the otherwise familiar Higgs sector. In most of the 3GMSSM parameter space, the lighter CP-even h is ∼ 115-125 GeV and mostly Standard Model-like while H,A,H^± are all relatively heavy. Furthermore, the ratio of Higgs vevs, tan β, is relatively unconstrained. In contrast to this, in the 4GMSSM, heavy fourth generation fermion loops drive the masses of h,H,H^± to large values while the CP-odd boson, A, can remain relatively light and tan β is restricted to the range 1/2 ∼< tan β ∼< 2 due to perturbativity requirements on Yukawa couplings. We explore this scenario in some detail, concentrating on the collider signatures of the light CP-odd Higgs at both the Tevatron and LHC. We find that while gg → A may lead to a potential signal in the τ⁺τ^- channel at the LHC, A may first be observed in the γγ channel due to a highly loop-enhanced cross section that can be more than an order of magnitude greater than that of a SM Higgs for A masses of ∼ 115-120 and tan β < 1. We find that the CP-even states h,H are highly mixed and can have atypical branching fractions. Precision electroweak constraints, particularly for the light A parameter space region, are examined in detail.

[en] To elucidate the role of calcium in regulation of canalicular bile flow, the authors studied biliary sucrose permeability and the transport kinetics of taurocholate in the in situ perfused rat liver. Calcium deprivation did not adversely affect viability or ultrastructural appearances of the liver. Removal of calcium led to initial choleresis followed by cholestasis dependent on external ionized calcium concentration. Biliary recovery of [¹⁴C]sucrose relative to that of tritiated water was determined by a biliary multiple-indicator dilution technique. Analysis in terms of irreversible thermodynamics suggested that biliary permeability to sucrose increased due to a change in the sieving coefficient from 0.135 to 0.435. Biliary recovery of taurocholate was significantly (P less than 0.001) reduced in low-calcium medium (from 79.6 +/- 6.5 to 17.6 +/- 11.8%). This was not due to a defect in hepatocellular uptake of taurocholate as determined in the perfused rat liver by a multiple-indicator dilution technique and in isolated hepatocytes. The authors conclude that calcium deprivation-induced cholestasis is characterized by an increased biliary permeability, a defect in cellular translocation and/or canalicular secretion of bile salts, and a defect in bile salt-independent bile flow

[en] A clinical trial was conducted at the Institut Gustave Roussy between October 1972 and December 1980 to compare mastectomy with local excision plus Cobalt-irradiation, in patients with breast cancer tumors of 20 mm in diameter or less at macroscopic examination. Low-axillary dissection and extemporaneous histologic examination were carried out for all patients. If one or more positive nodes were found, complete axillary dissection was performed. The study included 179 patients. No significant difference was detected in either overall or relapse-free survival between the two groups, although the conservatively treated group showed slightly better results. The results of conservative treatment were esthetically satisfactory in 92% of the cases. The trial included a second randomization for the patients with positive axillary nodes to assess the value of nodal area irradiation; 72 patients were studied in this part of the trial. No significant differences were found between the two groups after adjustment for the number of positive axillary nodes, although the no-nodal irradiation group showed better results and less complications than the nodal irradiation group

[en] Between 1954 and 1983, 7620 patients were treated for breast carcinoma at Institut Gustave Roussy (France). Of these patients, 6919 were followed for at least 1 year. Out of these, 11 presented with sarcomas thought to be induced by irradiation, 2 of which were Steward-Treves Syndrome, and 9 of which were sarcomas within the irradiated fields. All histological slides were reviewed and a comparison with those of breast cancer was done. The sites of these sarcomas were: parietal wall, 1 case; second costal cartilage, 1 case; infraclavicular region, 1 case; supraclavicular region, 2 cases; internal third of the clavicle, 2 cases; axillary region 2 cases; and the internal side of the upper arm (Stewart-Treves syndrome), 2 cases. The median age of these 11 patients at the diagnosis of sarcomas was 65.8 (49-83). The mean latent period was 9.5 years (4-24). Three patients underwent radical mastectomy and nine modified radical mastectomy. Only one patient received chemotherapy. The radiation doses received at the site of the sarcoma were 45 Gy/18 fr. for 10 cases and 90-100 Gy for 1 case (due to overlapping between two fields). The histology was as follows: malignant fibrous histiocytoma, 5 cases; fibrosarcoma, 3 cases; lymphangiosarcoma, 2 cases; and osteochondrosarcoma, 1 case. The median survival following diagnosis of sarcoma was 2.4 years (4 months-9 years). Two patients are still alive: one with recurrence of her breast cancer, the other in complete remission, with 7 and 3 years follow-up, respectively. All other patients died from their sarcomas. The cumulative incidence of sarcoma following irradiation of breast cancer was 0.2% (0.09-0.47) at 10 years. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of sarcoma (observed n number-sign of cases (Obs)/expected n number-sign of cases (Exp) computed from the Danish Cancer Registry for the same period) was 1.81 (CI 0.91-3.23)

[en] The generalization of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) to the case of four chiral fermion generations (4GMSSM) can lead to significant changes in the phenomenology of the otherwise familiar Higgs sector. In most of the 3GMSSM parameter space, the lighter CP-even h is ∼115-125 GeV and mostly standard model-like while H, A, H^± are all relatively heavy. Furthermore, the ratio of Higgs vacuum expectation values, tanβ, is relatively unconstrained. In contrast to this, in the 4GMSSM, heavy fourth-generation fermion loops drive the masses of h, H, H^± to large values while the CP-odd boson, A, can remain relatively light and tanβ is restricted to the range 1/2 < or approx. tanβ < or approx. 2 due to perturbativity requirements on Yukawa couplings. We explore this scenario in some detail, concentrating on the collider signatures of the light CP-odd Higgs at both the Tevatron and LHC. We find that while gg→A may lead to a potential signal in the τ⁺τ^- channel at the LHC, A might first be observed in the γγ channel due to a highly loop-enhanced cross section that can be more than an order of magnitude greater than that of a SM Higgs for A masses of ∼100-150 GeV and tanβ<1. We find that the CP-even states h, H are highly mixed and can have atypical branching fractions. Precision electroweak constraints, particularly for the light A parameter space region, are examined in detail.

[en] Full text of publication follows: Women who are treated for early breast cancer with adjuvant radiation have a decreased risk of local recurrence but an increased risk of mortality from heart disease and lung cancer. Patients with left -sided breast tumors receive a higher dose of radiation to the heart than patients with right-sided tumors. In a previous study of about 300000 women treated for breast cancer during 1973-2001 and followed-up prospectively for cause-specific mortality until January 1, 2002, Sarah Darby showed that for women diagnosed during 1973-1982 and irradiated, the cardiac mortality ratio (left versus right tumor laterality) was 1.20 [1.04-1.38] less then 10 years afterwards, and 1.58 [1.29 - 1.95] after 15 years or more. Because radiation techniques have improved over time, such risks are expected to be reduced. A cohort was performed at Institute Gustave Roussy to investigate long term effects of breast cancer treatments. This cohort comprise 7711 women treated for beast cancer between 1954 and 1984. Mean age at the first treatment was 55 years [21 - 91], 61% were diagnosed before 1977 vs 39% after, 50.4% were left -sided breast cancer, 4832 (73.2 %) were recorded as having received external-beam radiotherapy as part of the initial treatment and 516 (8%) radiotherapy in association with chemotherapy. The aim of the present study is to investigate long term mortality and effects of radiotherapy on mortality from cardiac disease and second cancers. The originality of our study comparing to similar others is the homogeneity of the population studied and the longer follow-up. Vital status and causes of death of women of the cohort were obtained as well as mortality rates in the general French population. The cut off date was January 1, 2001. External and internal analysis were performed. Persons years at risk have been calculated for the entire follow-up period, less then 10 years, 10-19 years, 20-29 years, and 30 or more years afterwards. To study the role of radiotherapy improvements in the decrease of mortality from heart disease and lung cancer, we identified three periods of treatment (<1960, 1960-1977 and > 1977), and studied the interaction between treatment period and laterality. The data analysis is currently performed. H. Bouhkeris has a fellowship from IARC (International Agency for research on cancer) n. R3171. (authors)

[en] The study of structural and electrical properties of three pure bismuth molybdate phases, α-Bi₂Mo₃O₁₂, β-Bi₂Mo₂O₉ and γ-Bi₂MoO₆, prepared by the spray drying technique, is described and discussed. The structure of polycrystalline, layered samples investigated by means of XRD and Raman spectroscopy was found to be monoclinic for the α- and β-phases and orthorhombic for the γ-phase. The microstructure of the as-prepared samples was not sufficiently developed under the given conditions of preparation, however, the thermal treatment can improve it. The high polarizability of Bi³⁺ cations with their lone-pair electrons influences the stability of the disordered oxygen sublattice. All as-prepared phases undergo a slight structural change in the temperature region of 280-430 deg C resulting in a decrease of the electrical conductivity probably due to an order ↔disorder transition in the oxygen arrangement during the sample heating. The change of electrical conductivity observed was found to be reversible in the high-temperature region and irreversible in the low-temperature one. The blocking of oxygen transport by the bismuth lone-pair electrons results in an increase of the activation energy and a decrease of the electrical conductivity in the high-temperature region. Relatively high relative dielectric permittivities ε_r, 36-52, were observed in dependence on the investigated phase

[en] People counting plays a crucial role in various sensing applications such as in smart cities and shopping malls. In this paper, we propose a data-driven solution that uses a low power ultra-wideband impulse (UWB) radar to count the number of random walking people in an indoor space. A pre-processing signal processing method is applied to clean clutter signals from UWB radar. Instead of the conventional counting methods, which manually extract features and learned from effective data patterns, we investigated deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) that automatically learn from the data to count the number of people in an indoor space. The CNN model could accurately predict up to 97% accuracy for up to 10 people random walking in an area of 5 × 5 m. The different settings of the CNN models, such as the data input window size, and kernel size in each layer, will be investigated. (paper)

[en] We present the results of x-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy of NpPd₃ and PuPd₃. The spectra indicate that for both compounds, the 5f electrons are well localized on the actinide sites. Comparison with bulk measurements indicates that for NpPd₃ the electrons have a valence of Np³⁺ and thus a ground state 5f⁴ with a Hund's rules ⁵I₄ configuration. Similarly for PuPd₃, we find a Pu³⁺ valence, 5f⁵ ground state and a Hund's rules ⁶H_5/2 configuration

[en] We study the problem of dimension reduction for the three dimensional Gross–Pitaevskii equation (GPE) describing a Bose–Einstein condensate confined in a strongly anisotropic harmonic trap. Since the gas is assumed to be in a strong interaction regime, we have to analyse two combined singular limits: a semi-classical limit in the transport direction and the strong partial confinement limit in the transversal direction. We prove that both limits commute together and we provide convergence rates. The by-products of this work are approximated models in reduced dimension for the GPE, with a priori estimates of the approximation errors. (paper)