University of Mons

About: University of Mons is a education organization based out in Mons, Belgium. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Large Hadron Collider & Standard Model. The organization has 3073 authors who have published 9465 publications receiving 294776 citations.

Loss of Smell and Taste in 2013 European Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19.

Abstract: Loss of Smell and Taste in 2013 European Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19 Background: Thecoronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread worldwide rapidly. Commonly reported symptoms, such as fever, cough, dyspnea, fatigue, and myalgia, are nonspecific, and the lack of testing in some European countries may make the diagnosis of COVID-19 challenging. However, 2 distinctive symptoms were identified recently: loss of smell and loss of taste (1). These symptoms were not reported extensively in initial studies (2) and might help in the clinical diagnosis of COVID-19. Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and features of, as well as recovery from, smell dysfunction in European patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.

Conformational Disorder and Ultrafast Exciton Relaxation in PPV-family Conjugated Polymers

Abstract: We report combined experimental and theoretical studies of excitation relaxation in poly[2-methoxy,5-(2′-ethyl-hexoxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV), oligophenylenevinylene (OPV) molecules of varying length, and model PPV chains. We build on the paradigm that the basic characteristics of conjugated polymers are decided by conformational subunits defined by conjugation breaks caused by torsional disorder along the chain. The calculations reported here indicate that for conjugated polymers like those in the PPV family, these conformational subunits electronically couple to neighboring subunits, forming subtly delocalized collective states of nanoscale excitons that determine the polymer optical properties. We find that relaxation among these exciton states can lead to a decay of anisotropy on ultrafast time scales. Unlike in Forster energy transfer, the exciton does not necessarily translate over a large distance. Nonetheless, the disorder in the polymer chain means that even small changes in the exciton...

Performance of the CMS missing transverse momentum reconstruction in pp data at √s = 8 TeV

Abstract: The performance of missing transverse energy reconstruction algorithms is presented using √s=8 TeV proton-proton (pp) data collected with the CMS detector. Events with anomalous missing transverse energy are studied, and the performance of algorithms used to identify and remove these events is presented. The scale and resolution for missing transverse energy, including the effects of multiple pp interactions (pileup), are measured using events with an identified Z boson or isolated photon, and are found to be well described by the simulation. Novel missing transverse energy reconstruction algorithms developed specifically to mitigate the effects of large numbers of pileup interactions on the missing transverse energy resolution are presented. These algorithms significantly reduce the dependence of the missing transverse energy resolution on pileup interactions. Finally, an algorithm that provides an estimate of the significance of the missing transverse energy is presented, which is used to estimate the compatibility of the reconstructed missing transverse energy with a zero nominal value.

Time-integrated Searches for Point-like Sources of Neutrinos with the 40-string IceCube Detector

Abstract: We present the results of time-integrated searches for astrophysical neutrino sources in both the northern and southern skies. Data were collected using the partially completed IceCube detector in the 40-string configuration recorded between 2008 April 5 and 2009 May 20, totaling 375.5 days livetime. An unbinned maximum likelihood ratio method is used to search for astrophysical signals. The data sample contains 36,900 events: 14,121 from the northern sky, mostly muons induced by atmospheric neutrinos, and 22,779 from the southern sky, mostly high-energy atmospheric muons. The analysis includes searches for individual point sources and stacked searches for sources in a common class, sometimes including a spatial extent. While this analysis is sensitive to TeV-PeV energy neutrinos in the northern sky, it is primarily sensitive to neutrinos with energy greater than about 1 PeV in the southern sky. No evidence for a signal is found in any of the searches. Limits are set for neutrino fluxes from astrophysical sources over the entire sky and compared to predictions. The sensitivity is at least a factor of two better than previous searches (depending on declination), with 90% confidence level muon neutrino flux upper limits being between E(2)d Phi/dE similar to 2-200 x 10(-12) TeV cm(-2) s(-1) in the northern sky and between 3-700 x 10(-12) TeV cm(-2) s(-1) in the southern sky. The stacked source searches provide the best limits to specific source classes. The full IceCube detector is expected to improve the sensitivity to d Phi/dE proportional to E-2 sources by another factor of two in the first year of operation.

Free-Radical-Induced Grafting from Plasma Polymer Surfaces

Abstract: With the advances in science and engineering in the second part of the 20th century, emerging plasma-based technologies continuously find increasing applications in the domain of polymer chemistry, among others. Plasma technologies are predominantly used in two different ways: for the treatment of polymer substrates by a reactive or inert gas aiming at a specific surface functionalization or for the synthesis of a plasma polymer with a unique set of properties from an organic or mixed organic–inorganic precursor. Plasma polymer films (PPFs), often deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), currently attract a great deal of attention. Such films are widely used in various fields for the coating of solid substrates, including membranes, semiconductors, metals, textiles, and polymers, because of a combination of interesting properties such as excellent adhesion, highly cross-linked structures, and the possibility of tuning properties by simply varying the precursor and/or the synthesis p...