Short-term western diet aggravates non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with portal hypertension in TGR(mREN2)27 rats

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is gaining in importance and is linked to obesity. Especially, the development of fibrosis and portal hypertension in NAFLD patients requires treatment. Transgenic TGR(mREN2)27 rats overexpressing mouse renin spontaneously develop NAFLD with portal hypertension but without obesity. This study investigated the additional role of obesity in this model on the development of portal hypertension and fibrosis. Obesity was induced in twelve-week old TGR(mREN2)27 rats after receiving Western diet (WD) for two or four weeks. Liver fibrosis was assessed using standard techniques. Hepatic expression of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), collagen type Iα1, α-smooth muscle actin, and the macrophage markers Emr1, as well as the chemoattractant Ccl2, interleukin-1β (IL1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) were analyzed. Assessment of portal and systemic hemodynamics was performed using the colored microsphere technique. As expected, WD induced obesity and liver fibrosis as confirmed by Sirius Red and Oil Red O staining. The expression of the monocyte-macrophage markers, Emr1, Ccl2, IL1β and TNFα were increased during feeding of WD, indicating infiltration of macrophages into the liver, even though this increase was statistically not significant for the EGF module-containing mucin-like receptor (Emr1) mRNA expression levels. Of note, portal pressure increased with the duration of WD compared to animals that received a normal chow. Besides obesity, WD feeding increased systemic vascular resistance reflecting systemic endothelial and splanchnic vascular dysfunction. We conclude that transgenic TGR(mREN2)27 rats are a suitable model to investigate NAFLD development with liver fibrosis and portal hypertension. Tendency towards elevated expression of Emr1 is associated with macrophage activity point to a significant role of macrophages in NAFLD pathogenesis, probably due to a shift of the renin-angiotensin system towards a higher activation of the classical pathway. The hepatic injury induced by WD in TGR(mREN2)27 rats is suitable to evaluate different stages of fibrosis and portal hypertension in NAFLD with obesity

Shape modeling technique KOALA validated by ESA Rosetta at (21) Lutetia

We present a comparison of our results from ground-based observations of asteroid (21) Lutetia with imaging data acquired during the flyby of the asteroid by the ESA Rosetta mission. This flyby provided a unique opportunity to evaluate and calibrate our method of determination of size, 3-D shape, and spin of an asteroid from ground-based observations. We present our 3-D shape-modeling technique KOALA which is based on multi-dataset inversion. We compare the results we obtained with KOALA, prior to the flyby, on asteroid (21) Lutetia with the high-spatial resolution images of the asteroid taken with the OSIRIS camera on-board the ESA Rosetta spacecraft, during its encounter with Lutetia. The spin axis determined with KOALA was found to be accurate to within two degrees, while the KOALA diameter determinations were within 2% of the Rosetta-derived values. The 3-D shape of the KOALA model is also confirmed by the spectacular visual agreement between both 3-D shape models (KOALA pre- and OSIRIS post-flyby). We found a typical deviation of only 2 km at local scales between the profiles from KOALA predictions and OSIRIS images, resulting in a volume uncertainty provided by KOALA better than 10%. Radiometric techniques for the interpretation of thermal infrared data also benefit greatly from the KOALA shape model: the absolute size and geometric albedo can be derived with high accuracy, and thermal properties, for example the thermal inertia, can be determined unambiguously. We consider this to be a validation of the KOALA method. Because space exploration will remain limited to only a few objects, KOALA stands as a powerful technique to study a much larger set of small bodies using Earth-based observations.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in P&S

IT-SNOW: a snow reanalysis for Italy blending modeling, in situ data, and satellite observations (2010-2021)

We present IT-SNOW, a serially complete and multi-year snow reanalysis for Italy (similar to 301 x 10(3) km(2)) - a transitional continental-to-Mediterranean region where snow plays an important but still poorly constrained societal and ecological role. IT-SNOW provides similar to 500 m daily maps of snow water equivalent (SWE), snow depth, bulk snow density, and liquid water content for the initial period 1 September 2010-31 August 2021, with future updates envisaged on a regular basis. As the output of an operational chain employed in real-world civil protection applications (S3M Italy), IT-SNOW ingests input data from thousands of automatic weather stations, snow-covered-area maps from Sentinel-2, MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), and H SAF products, as well as maps of snow depth from the spatialization of over 350 on-the-ground snow depth sensors. Validation using Sentinel-1-based maps of snow depth and a variety of independent, in situ snow data from three focus regions (Aosta Valley, Lombardy, and Molise) show little to no mean bias compared to the former, and root mean square errors are of the typical order of 30-60 cm and 90-300 mm for in situ, measured snow depth and snow water equivalent, respectively. Estimates of peak SWE by IT-SNOW are also well correlated with annual streamflow at the closure section of 102 basins across Italy (0.87), with ratios between peak water volume in snow and annual streamflow that are in line with expectations for this mixed rain-snow region (22 % on average and 12 % median). Examples of use allowed us to estimate 13.70 +/- 4.9 Gm3 of water volume stored in snow across the Italian landscape at peak accumulation, which on average occurs on 4 March +/- 10 d. Nearly 52 % of the mean seasonal SWE is accumulated across the Po river basin, followed by the Adige river (23 %), and central Apennines (5 %). IT-SNOW is freely available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7034956 (Avanzi et al., 2022b) and can contribute to better constraining the role of snow for seasonal to annual water resources - a crucial endeavor in a warming and drier climate

The composition of the protosolar disk and the formation conditions for comets

Conditions in the protosolar nebula have left their mark in the composition of cometary volatiles, thought to be some of the most pristine material in the solar system. Cometary compositions represent the end point of processing that began in the parent molecular cloud core and continued through the collapse of that core to form the protosun and the solar nebula, and finally during the evolution of the solar nebula itself as the cometary bodies were accreting. Disentangling the effects of the various epochs on the final composition of a comet is complicated. But comets are not the only source of information about the solar nebula. Protostellar disks around young stars similar to the protosun provide a way of investigating the evolution of disks similar to the solar nebula while they are in the process of evolving to form their own solar systems. In this way we can learn about the physical and chemical conditions under which comets formed, and about the types of dynamical processing that shaped the solar system we see today. This paper summarizes some recent contributions to our understanding of both cometary volatiles and the composition, structure and evolution of protostellar disks.Comment: To appear in Space Science Reviews. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-015-0167-

Majorana Neutrino Mixing

The most plausible see-saw explanation of the smallness of the neutrino masses is based on the assumption that total lepton number is violated at a large scale and neutrinos with definite masses are Majorana particles. In this review we consider in details difference between Dirac and Majorana neutrino mixing and possibilities of revealing Majorana nature of neutrinos with definite masses

SMART-1 Impact Ground-based campaign

Based on predictions of impact magnitude and cloud ejecta dynamics, we organized a SMART-1 ground-based observation campaign to perform coordinated measurements of the impact. Results from the coordinated multi-site campaign will be discussed

GAUSS - genesis of asteroids and evolution of the solar system

The goal of Project GAUSS (Genesis of Asteroids and evolUtion of the Solar System) is to return samples from the dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres is the most accessible candidate of ocean worlds and the largest reservoir of water in the inner Solar System. It shows active volcanism and hydrothermal activities in recent history. Recent evidence for the existence of a subsurface ocean on Ceres and the complex geochemistry suggest past habitability and even the potential for ongoing habitability. GAUSS will return samples from Ceres with the aim of answering the following top-level scientific questions: What is the origin of Ceres and what does this imply for the origin of water and other volatiles in the inner Solar System? What are the physical properties and internal structure of Ceres? What do they tell us about the evolutionary and aqueous alteration history of dwarf planets? What are the astrobiological implications of Ceres? Is it still habitable today? What are the mineralogical connections between Ceres and our current collections of carbonaceous meteorites

Follow-up analyses to the O3 LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA lensing searches

Along their path from source to observer, gravitational waves may be gravitationally lensed by massive objects leading to distortion in the signals. Searches for these distortions amongst the observed signals from the current detector network have already been carried out, though there have as yet been no confident detections. However, predictions of the observation rate of lensing suggest detection in the future is a realistic possibility. Therefore, preparations need to be made to thoroughly investigate the candidate lensed signals. In this work, we present some follow-up analyses that could be applied to assess the significance of such events and ascertain what information may be extracted about the lens-source system by applying these analyses to a number of O3 candidate events, even if these signals did not yield a high significance for any of the lensing hypotheses. These analyses cover the strong lensing, millilensing, and microlensing regimes. Applying these additional analyses does not lead to any additional evidence for lensing in the candidates that have been examined. However, it does provide important insight into potential avenues to deal with high-significance candidates in future observations

Experimental phase function and degree of linear polarization of cometary dust analogues

We present experimental phase function and degree of linear polarization curves for seven samples of cometary dust analogues namely: ground pieces of Allende, DaG521, FRO95002, and FRO99040 meteorites, Mg-rich olivine and pyroxene, and a sample of organic tholins. The experimental curves have been obtained at the IAA Cosmic Dust Laboratory at a wavelength of 520 nm covering a phase angle range from 3 degrees to 175 degrees. We also provide values of the backscattering enhancement for our cometary analogue samples. The final goal of this work is to compare our experimental curves with observational data of comets and asteroids to better constrain the nature of cometary and asteroidal dust grains. All measured phase functions present the typical behaviour for mu m-sized cosmic dust grains. Direct comparison with data provided by the OSIRIS/Rosetta camera for comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko reveals significant differences and supports the idea of a coma dominated by big chunks, larger than one micrometer. The polarization curves are qualitatively similar to ground-based observations of comets and asteroids. The position of the inversion polarization angle seems to be dependent on the composition of the grains. We find opposite dependence of the maximum of the polarization curve for grains sizes in the Rayleigh-resonance and geometric optics domains, respectively.Peer reviewe