The sun is often portrayed as a “laboratory for astrophysics” but it is a laboratory over which we have no control. Instead, solar physicists employ a wide range of theoretical, computational, and observational tools to study the magnetically driven activity on the sun. The challenge for these methods is that solar physics is extremely complex, making it difficult to isolate the key drivers of ...

In the frame of the internal project PUMA (Plasma Used to Master Aerodynamic), ONERA is conducting fundamental studies in order to determine the limits within which air discharge plasmas are able to interact with aerodynamical phenomena. This paper focuses on the physical and numerical modeling of corona discharges and their interaction with aerodynamics. Using a simple plasma kinetic scheme, i...

BACKGROUND Nanoparticles in contact with biological fluids interact with proteins and other biomolecules, thus forming a dynamic corona whose composition varies over time due to continuous protein association and dissociation events. Eventually equilibrium is reached, at which point the continued exchange will not affect the composition of the corona. RESULTS We developed a simple and effecti...

Unique patterns of biomarkers were reproducibly characterized by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI)-mass spectrometry and were used to distinguish Bacillus species members from one another. Discrimination at the strain level was demonstrated for Bacillus cereus spores. Lipophilic biomarkers were invariant in Bacillus globigii spores produced in three different media and in B. g...

The existence of an atmosphere at Io is presumed and used as a starting point to generate neutral coronae produced by magnetospheric ion sputtering from the exobase and to calculate injection of neutrals and ions into the plasma torus. Several different exobase heights, temperatures, and compositions are used to characterize the neutral and ion ejection processes associated with possible atmosp...

The interactions between liquid targets and plasmas provided by a d.c. point-to-plane corona device operated under p = 1 atm. are considered in terms of both Bronsted and Lewis acid-base reactions. The treatments of aqueous solutions by the chargeless species of air or NH3 plasmas increase the Bronsted acidity of the target, and for an air plasma, the pH decrease is a linear function of the qua...

Non-thermal plasma reactors have recently been used for the treatment of gaseous pollutants. High energy electrons (several eV) are produced in the plasma while the gas remains near ambient temperatures. Pollutant molecules are decomposed by highly reactive chemical radicals created through electron collisions. The focus of this work is the treatment of pollutants from the exhaust of electric a...

Plasma in the Sun's hot corona expands into the heliosphere as a supersonic and highly magnetized solar wind. This paper provides an overview of our current understanding of how the corona is heated and how the solar wind is accelerated. Recent models of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence have progressed to the point of successfully predicting many observed properties of this complex, multi-scale s...

It is now well established that the surface of nanoparticles (NPs) in a biological environment is immediately modified by the adsorption of biomolecules with the formation of a protein corona and it is also accepted that the protein corona, rather than the original nanoparticle surface, defines a new biological identity. Consequently, a methodology to effectively study the interaction between n...