Les besoins et les enjeux en matière d’analyse criminelle stratégique et opérationnelle

Cette table ronde fait suite à la Recommandation n° 24 du Vademecum : promouvoir des travaux de recherche académique in loco au sein de services de police/gendarmerie (soit en tant qu’officier de police/chercheur, soit en tant que chercheur résident) pour accéder plus facilement aux données dans un environnement sécurisé et diffuser de nouvelles méthodes, de nouvelles approches etc. entre pairs. Ces initiatives seraient particulière¬ment importantes pour faciliter les recherches académiques pour, avec et par des praticiens, qui permettent d’injecter l’expérience dans un processus intellectuel

Variability of radioiodine measurements in the thyroid

Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to study the response of a thyroid monitor for measuring intake activities of 125I and 131I. The aim of the study was 3-fold: to cross-validate the Monte Carlo simulation programs, to study the response of the detector using different phantoms and to study the effects of anatomical variations. Simulations were performed using the Swiss reference phantom and several voxelised phantoms. Determining the position of the thyroid is crucial for an accurate determination of radiological risks. The detector response using the Swiss reference phantom was in fairly good agreement with the response obtained using adult voxelised phantoms for 131I, but should be revised for a better calibration for 125I and for any measurements taken on paediatric patient

Monte Carlo simulation of a whole-body counter using IGOR phantoms

Whole-body counting is a technique of choice for assessing the intake of gamma-emitting radionuclides. An appropriate calibration is necessary, which is done either by experimental measurement or by Monte Carlo (MC) calculation. The aim of this work was to validate a MC model for calibrating whole-body counters (WBCs) by comparing the results of computations with measurements performed on an anthropomorphic phantom and to investigate the effect of a change in phantom's position on the WBC counting sensitivity. GEANT MC code was used for the calculations, and an IGOR phantom loaded with several types of radionuclides was used for the experimental measurements. The results show a reasonable agreement between measurements and MC computation. A 1-cm error in phantom positioning changes the activity estimation by >2 %. Considering that a 5-cm deviation of the positioning of the phantom may occur in a realistic counting scenario, this implies that the uncertainty of the activity measured by a WBC is ∼10-20

Multiplex giant magnetoresistive biosensor microarrays identify interferon-associated autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus.

High titer, class-switched autoantibodies are a hallmark of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Dysregulation of the interferon (IFN) pathway is observed in individuals with active SLE, although the association of specific autoantibodies with chemokine score, a combined measurement of three IFN-regulated chemokines, is not known. To identify autoantibodies associated with chemokine score, we developed giant magnetoresistive (GMR) biosensor microarrays, which allow the parallel measurement of multiple serum antibodies to autoantigens and peptides. We used the microarrays to analyze serum samples from SLE patients and found individuals with high chemokine scores had significantly greater reactivity to 13 autoantigens than individuals with low chemokine scores. Our findings demonstrate that multiple autoantibodies, including antibodies to U1-70K and modified histone H2B tails, are associated with IFN dysregulation in SLE. Further, they show the microarrays are capable of identifying autoantibodies associated with relevant clinical manifestations of SLE, with potential for use as biomarkers in clinical practice

J/Psi suppression in colliding nuclei: statistical model analysis

We consider the $J/\Psi$ suppression at a high energy heavy ion collision. An ideal gas of massive hadrons in thermal and chemical equilibrium is formed in the central region. The finite-size gas expands longitudinally in accordance with Bjorken law. The transverse expansion in a form of the rarefaction wave is taken into account. We show that $J/\Psi$ suppression in such an environment, when combined with the disintegration in nuclear matter, gives correct evaluation of NA38 and NA50 data in a broad range of initial energy densities.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Environmental changes and violent conflict

This letter reviews the scientific literature on whether and how environmental changes affect the risk of violent conflict. The available evidence from qualitative case studies indicates that environmental stress can contribute to violent conflict in some specific cases. Results from quantitative large-N studies, however, strongly suggest that we should be careful in drawing general conclusions. Those large-N studies that we regard as the most sophisticated ones obtain results that are not robust to alternative model specifications and, thus, have been debated. This suggests that environmental changes may, under specific circumstances, increase the risk of violent conflict, but not necessarily in a systematic way and unconditionally. Hence there is, to date, no scientific consensus on the impact of environmental changes on violent conflict. This letter also highlights the most important challenges for further research on the subject. One of the key issues is that the effects of environmental changes on violent conflict are likely to be contingent on a set of economic and political conditions that determine adaptation capacity. In the authors' view, the most important indirect effects are likely to lead from environmental changes via economic performance and migration to violent conflict. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd

Sub MeV Particles Detection and Identification in the MUNU detector ((1)ISN, IN2P3/CNRS-UJF, Grenoble, France, (2)Institut de Physique, Neuch\^atel, Switzerland, (3) INFN, Padova Italy, (4) Physik-Institut, Z\"{u}rich, Switzerland)

We report on the performance of a 1 m$^{3}$ TPC filled with CF$_{4}$ at 3 bar, immersed in liquid scintillator and viewed by photomultipliers. Particle detection, event identification and localization achieved by measuring both the current signal and the scintillation light are presented. Particular features of $\alpha$ particle detection are also discussed. Finally, the ${54}$Mn photopeak, reconstructed from the Compton scattering and recoil angle is shown.Comment: Latex, 19 pages, 20 figure

Comparison of organ doses and image quality between CT and flat panel XperCT scans in wrist and inner ear examinations

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare organ doses delivered to patients in wrist and petrous bone examinations using a multislice spiral computed tomography (CT) and a C-arm cone-beam CT equipped with a flat-panel detector (XperCT). For this purpose, doses to the target organ, i.e. wrist or petrous bone, together with those to the most radiosensitive nearby organs, i.e. thyroid and eye lens, were measured and compared. Furthermore, image quality was compared for both imaging systems and different acquisition modes using a Catphan phantom. Results show that both systems guarantee adequate accuracy for diagnostic purposes for wrist and petrous bone examinations. Compared with the CT scanner, the XperCT system slightly reduces the dose to target organs and shortens the overall duration of the wrist examination. In addition, using the XperCT enables a reduction of the dose to the eye lens during head scans (skull base and ear examinations

Source Dimensions in Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Recent experiments on pion correlations, interpreted as interferometric measurements of the collision zone, are compared with models that distinguish a prehadronic phase and a hadronic phase. The models include prehadronic longitudinal expansion, conversion to hadrons in local kinetic equilibrium, and rescattering of the produced hadrons. We find that the longitudinal and outward radii are surprisingly sensitive to the algorithm used for two-body collisions. The longitudinal radius measured in collisions of 200 GeV/u sulfur nuclei on a heavy target requires the existence of a prehadronic phase which converts to the hadronic phase at densities around 0.8-1.0 GeV/fm$^3$. The transverse radii cannot be reproduced without introducing more complex dynamics into the transverse expansion.Comment: RevTeX 3.0, 28 pages, 6 figures, not included, revised version, major change is an additional discussion of the classical two-body collision algorithm, a (compressed) postscript file of the complete paper including figures can be obtained from Authors or via anonymous ftp at ftp://ftp_int.phys.washington.edu/pub/herrmann/pisource.ps.