Pilot optical alignment

PILOT (Polarized Instrument for Long wavelength Observations of the Tenuous interstellar medium) is a balloonborne astronomy experiment designed to study the polarization of dust emission in the diffuse interstellar medium in our Galaxy. The PILOT instrument allows observations at wavelengths 240 μm and 550 μm with an angular resolution of about two arcminutes. The observations performed during the two first flights performed from Timmins, Ontario Canada, and from Alice-springs, Australia, respectively in September 2015 and in April 2017 have demonstrated the good performances of the instrument. Pilot optics is composed of an off axis Gregorian type telescope combined with a refractive re-imager system. All optical elements, except the primary mirror, which is at ambient temperature, are inside a cryostat and cooled down to 3K. The whole optical system is aligned on ground at room temperature using dedicated means and procedures in order to keep the tight requirements on the focus position and ensure the instrument optical performances during the various phases of a flight. We’ll present the optical performances and the firsts results obtained during the two first flight campaigns. The talk describes the system analysis, the alignment methods, and finally the inflight performances

Common Genetic Denominators for Ca++-Based Skeleton in Metazoa: Role of Osteoclast-Stimulating Factor and of Carbonic Anhydrase in a Calcareous Sponge

Calcium-based matrices serve predominantly as inorganic, hard skeletal systems in Metazoa from calcareous sponges [phylum Porifera; class Calcarea] to proto- and deuterostomian multicellular animals. The calcareous sponges form their skeletal elements, the spicules, from amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC). Treatment of spicules from Sycon raphanus with sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) results in the disintegration of the ACC in those skeletal elements. Until now a distinct protein/enzyme involved in ACC metabolism could not been identified in those animals. We applied the technique of phage display combinatorial libraries to identify oligopeptides that bind to NaOCl-treated spicules: those oligopeptides allowed us to detect proteins that bind to those spicules. Two molecules have been identified, the (putative) enzyme carbonic anhydrase and the (putative) osteoclast-stimulating factor (OSTF), that are involved in the catabolism of ACC. The complete cDNAs were isolated and the recombinant proteins were prepared to raise antibodies. In turn, immunofluorescence staining of tissue slices and qPCR analyses have been performed. The data show that sponges, cultivated under standard condition (10 mM CaCl2) show low levels of transcripts/proteins for carbonic anhydrase or OSTF, compared to those animals that had been cultivated under Ca2+-depletion condition (1 mM CaCl2). Our data identify with the carbonic anhydrase and the OSTF the first two molecules which remain conserved in cells, potentially involved in Ca-based skeletal dissolution, from sponges (sclerocytes) to human (osteoclast)

Pilot optical alignment

PILOT (Polarized Instrument for Long wavelength Observations of the Tenuous interstellar medium) is a balloonborne astronomy experiment designed to study the polarization of dust emission in the diffuse interstellar medium in our Galaxy. The PILOT instrument allows observations at wavelengths 240 μm (1.2THz) with an angular resolution about two arc-minutes. The observations performed during the first flight in September 2015 at Timmins, Ontario Canada, have demonstrated the optical performances of the instrument

Evaluation of recent techniques for detection of red blood cell antibodies in sera of reference samples, patients, pregnant women, and blood donors

The sensitivity of the low ionic strength solution antiglobulin test (LISS-AGT), polyethylene glycol antiglobulin test (PEG-AGT), low ionic strength solution solid-phase antiglobulin test (LISS-SPAT), gel low ionic strength solution antiglobulin test (GEL-LISS), and gel papain Bst (GEL-PAP) was compared in titration studies of 460 sera containing identified IgG alloantibodies. the GEL-PAP was 100% sensitive to detect Rh antibodies, whereas the PEG-AGT was the most sensitive to detect Kell, Duffy, Kidd, Ss, and rare blood group antibodies. the better performance of PEG-AGT was especially obvious with Kell, Duffy, and Ss antibodies (S = 100%). When the sensitivity of the LISS-AGT, PEG-AGT, GEL-LISS, and GEL-PAP was evaluated in different routines, the GEL-LISS showed to be more sensitive than PEG-AGT in the detection of clinically significant antibodies. These discrepant results showed that the performance of a technique may change when it is applied as a routine. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Universidade Federal de São Paulo,DISCIPLINA IMUNOL,São Paulo,BRAZILUniversidade Federal de São Paulo,DISCIPLINA IMUNOL,São Paulo,BRAZILWeb of Scienc

PILOT: measuring the FIR astrophysical dust emission

Measuring precisely the faint polarization of the Far-Infrared and sub-millimetre sky is the next observational challenge of modern astronomy. In particular, detection the B-mode polarization from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) shall reveal the inflationary periods in the very early universe. Such measurements will require very high sensitivity and very low instrumental systematic effects. As for measurements of the CMB intensity, sensitive measurements of the CMB polarization will be made difficult by the presence of foreground emission from our own Milky Way, which is orders of magnitude higher than the faint polarized cosmological signal. Such foreground emission will have to be understood very accurately and removed from cosmological measurements. This polarized emission is also interesting in itself, since it brings information relevant to star formation processes, about the orientation of the magnetic field in our Galaxy through the alignment of dust grains. I will first summarize our current knowledge in this field. I will then describe the PILOT balloon-borne experiment project, which is dedicated to measuring precisely the polarization of faint diffuse dust emission in the Far-Infrared in our Galaxy

PILOT end-to-end calibration results

The Polarized Instrument for Long-wavelength Observation of the Tenuous interstellar medium (PILOT) is a balloon-borne astronomy experiment designed to study the linear polarization of the Far Infra-Red emission, 240 ~im (1.2 THz) and 550 ~tm (545 GHz) with an angular resolution of a few minutes of arc, from dust grains present in the diffuse interstellar medium, in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies. The polarisation of light is measured using a half-wave plate (HWP). We performed the instrumental tests from 2012 to 2014 and are planning a first scientific flight in September 2015 from Timmins, Ontario, Canada. This paper describes the measurement principles of PILOT, the results of the laboratory tests and its sky coverage. These include defocus tests, transmission measurements using a Fourier Transform Spectrometer at various positions of the HWP, and identification of internal straylight

The PILOT optical alignment for its first flight

PILOT is a balloon-borne astronomy experiment designed to study the polarization of dust emission in the diffuse interstellar medium in our Galaxy at wavelengths 240 and 550 µm with an angular resolution of about two arc-min. PILOT optics is composed of an off-axis Gregorian telescope and a refractive re-imager system. All these optical elements, except the primary mirror, are in a cryostat cooled to 3K. We used optical and 3D measurements combined with thermo-elastic modeling to perform the optical alignment. This paper describes the system analysis, the alignment procedure, and finally the performances obtained during the first flight in September 2015

PILOT end-to-end calibration results

The Polarized Instrument for Long-wavelength Observation of the Tenuous interstellar medium (PILOT) is a balloon-borne astronomy experiment designed to study the linear polarization of the Far Infra-Red emission, 240 ~im (1.2 THz) and 550 ~tm (545 GHz) with an angular resolution of a few minutes of arc, from dust grains present in the diffuse interstellar medium, in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies. The polarisation of light is measured using a half-wave plate (HWP). We performed the instrumental tests from 2012 to 2014 and are planning a first scientific flight in September 2015 from Timmins, Ontario, Canada. This paper describes the measurement principles of PILOT, the results of the laboratory tests and its sky coverage. These include defocus tests, transmission measurements using a Fourier Transform Spectrometer at various positions of the HWP, and identification of internal straylight

Inflight performance of the PILOT balloon-borne experiment

PILOT is a stratospheric experiment designed to measure the polarization of dust FIR emission, towards the diffuse interstellar medium. The first PILOT flight was carried out from Timmins in Ontario-Canada on September 20th 2015. The flight has been part of a launch campaign operated by the CNES, which has allowed to launch 4 experiments, including PILOT. The purpose of this paper is to describe the performance of the instrument in flight and to perform a first comparison with those achieved during ground tests. The analysis of the flight data is on-going, in particular the identification of instrumental systematic effects, the minimization of their impact and the quantification of their remaining effect on the polarization data. At the end of this paper, we shortly illustrate the quality of the scientific observations obtained during this first flight, at the current stage of systematic effect removal