Size

Résumé

Size in general is the magnitude or dimensions of a thing. More specifically, geometrical size (or spatial size) can refer to linear dimensions (length, width, height, diameter, perimeter), area, or volume. Size can also be measured in terms of mass, especially when assuming a density range. In mathematical terms, "size is a concept abstracted from the process of measuring by comparing a longer to a shorter". Size is determined by the process of comparing or measuring objects, which results in the determination of the magnitude of a quantity, such as length or mass, relative to a unit of measurement. Such a magnitude is usually expressed as a numerical value of units on a previously established spatial scale, such as meters or inches. The sizes with which humans tend to be most familiar are body dimensions (measures of anthropometry), which include measures such as human height and human body weight. These measures can, in the aggregate, allow the generation of commercially us

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Size

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Impact of virus aggregation on disinfection

Vincent Genicoud

This study is based on the hypothesis that viral aggregation slows the inactivation by chemical disinfectants. This slow-down depends on the aggregate size, the concentration and the reactivity of the disinfectant. In this work we test this hypothesis by experimentally investigating the inactivation MS2 coliphage aggregates by dichloramine and PhiX174 aggregates by PAA. The experiments performed with MS2 and dichloramine show good adherence to the theory. We observed that inactivation by dichloramine was slowed by 3.4 to 13 times with aggregates of size between 420 and 580 nm, and with a dichloramine concentration varying between 3.5 and 13 mg/L. The larger the aggregates, and the higher the concentration of disinfection, the greater was the observed inhibition of inactivation due to aggregates. Comparing the inactivation of MS2 by dichloramine and by PAA, we observed that dichloramine was a stronger disinfectant, and the impact of aggregation on dichlormaine was more extensive. This permitted to verify the hypothesis that a more reactive disinfectant was more sensitive to aggregation. Our results were furthermore in good agreement with the mechanistic model for the inactivation of viral aggregates developed by Mattle et al. (2011). In contrast to MS2, results for the disinfection of aggregates of PhiX174 did not exhibit an effect of aggregation on disinfection. We hypothesize that PhiX174 viruses within aggregates were not sufficiently compact to result in inhibition of disinfection. This phenomenon was probably due to the spikes on the PhiX174 capsid. Structural features of viral aggregates thus influence their propensity to inhibit inactivation.

2012

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Traditionally, the search for active and selective catalysts involved a rather tedious "hit-and-miss" approach in which hundreds, if not thousands catalysts were tested until the optimal substance was identified. With the advancing theoretical understanding of catalysis and the development of computational power, a new era of rational catalyst design is dawning. This approach, grounded on first principles, is based on new advances in synthesis, characterization and modeling with the ultimate aim of predicting the expected behavior of a catalyst based on chemical composition, molecular structure and morphology. The rational design of a catalyst is a complex process which spans across several levels of scale. In this thesis, the pursuit of a rational design for Pd-based catalysts effective in alkyne hydrogenations is presented. A multi-level integrated approach was thus applied ranging from the nano-scale design of the active sites for a specific reaction, taking into account its structure sensitivity, to the micro-scale design of the supported Pd nanoparticles including metal-additive and metal-support interactions as well as mass and heat transfer phenomena. In order to rationally design a catalyst at a nano-scale, i.e. a catalyst's active site, several methodologies have been hitherto applied, such as the study on single crystals or model catalysts. Here we present the use of metal nanoparticles with tuned sizes (5-30 nm) and shapes (cubes, octahedra and cube-octahedra) prepared via colloidal techniques. These nanoparticles can be tested per se and represent a new generation of model catalysts, complementing single crystal studies, which inherently lack the complexity of industrial catalysis. However, metal nanoparticles, especially those prepared in a controlled manner in order to tailor their shape and size, require the use of stabilizing and/or capping agents capable of directing their growth. These substances can mask the true catalytic behavior of the nanoparticles. Thus, it is of great importance to study the interactions of the active phase with the substances that are in close contact with it, in the so-called meso-scaled level of rational catalyst design. Therefore, the effect of the nature of the stabilizing agent on the catalytic response was studied, as well as the promoting effect of some of these substances. Finally, a methodology was developed capable of eliminating organic stabilizing agents from the surface of nanoparticles without compromising their morphological stability. The knowledge gathered in the first two levels can be applied further to reach the microscale rational catalyst design. In this thesis, a final catalyst consisting on well-defined stabilizer-free supported Pd nanoparticles was used in the hydrogenation of acetylene. This deep study of the catalytic behavior of well-defined Pd catalysts throughout several levels of scale and complexity have given us the tools needed to perform a rational catalyst design for alkyne hydrogenations. Depending on the specific reaction, the active phase can be optimized in terms of the desired activity and selectivity and can be tuned even further with the use of specific additives. Finally, the appropriate support also exerts a promoting effect on the nanoparticles and ensures their anchoring in addition to avoiding heat and mass transfer artifacts.

EPFL2011

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Non topological solitons, Q balls can arise in many particle theories with U(1) global symmetries. As was shown by Cohen et al. [2], if the corresponding scalar field couples to massless fermions, large Q-balls are unstable and evaporate, producing a fermion flux proportional to the Q ball's surface. In this work we analyse Q-ball instabilities as a function of Q-ball size and fermion mass. In particular, we construct an exact quantum-mechanical description of the evaporating Q-ball. This new construction provides an alternative method to compute Q-Ball's evaporation rates. We shall also find a new expression for the upper bound on evaporation as a function of the produced fermion mass and study the effects of the size of the Q ball on particle production. We also analyse what happens if external fermion is scattered on a Q ball and demonstrate that it can be converted into antiparticle with a probability of the order of one. This result has important implications for astrophysical applications of dark matter Q balls.

EPFL2006

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EPFL2011