The enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission - eXTP: an update on its scientific cases, mission profile and development status

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray (2022), Montreal, Jul 17-22, 2022.--Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering vol. 12181 Article number 121811W.-- Full list of authors: Zhang, Shuang-Nan; Santangelo, Andrea; Xu, Yupeng; Feroci, Marco; Hernanz, Margarita; Lu, Fangjun; Chen, Yong; Feng, Hua; Nandra, Kirpal; Jiang, Weichun; Svoboda, Jiri; Brandt, Soren; Schanne, Stephane; in't Zand, Jean; Michalska, Malgorzata; Bozzo, Enrico; Kalemci, Emrah; Agudo, Ivan; Ahangarianabhari, Mahdi; Aitink-Kroes, Gabby; Ambrosi, Giovanni; Ambrosino, Filippo; An, Zhenghua; Perez Torres, Miguel Angel; Antonelli, Matias; Argan, Andrea; Babinec, Viktor; Baldini, Luca; Barbera, Marco; van Baren, Coen; Baudin, David; Bayer, Joerg; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bellutti, Pierluigi; Bertucci, Bruna; Bertuccio, Giuseppe; Bi, Xingzi; Boezio, Mirko; Bonvicini, Valter; Bonvicini, Walter; Bordas, Pol; Borghese, Alice; Borghi, Giacomo; Bouyjou, Florent; Bozkurt, Ayhan; Brez, Alessandro; Brienza, Daniele; Cadoux, Franck; Campana, Riccardo; Cao, Jiewei; Cao, Xuelei; Casares, Jorge; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Ceraudo, Francesco; Chen, Tianxiang; Chen, Wen; Chen, Can; Chen, Yupeng; Chen, Xin; Chen, Yehai; Chenevez, Jerome; Cheng, Yaodong; Cirrincione, Daniela; Civitani, Marta; Cong, Min; Coti Zelati, Francesco; Cui, Weiwei; Cui, Tao; Cui, Wei; Dai, Boyu; Dauser, Thomas; De Angelis, Nicolas; De Marco, Barbara; De Rosa, Alessandra; Del Monte, Ettore; Di Cosimo, Sergio; Diebold, Sebastian; Dilillo, Giuseppe; Ding, Fei; Dohnal, Roman; Dong, Zefang; Donnarumma, Immacolata; Dovciak, Michal; Du, Yuanyuan; Ducci, Lorenzo; Evangelista, Yuri; Fan, Qingmei; Favre, Yannick; Ferres, Patricia; Fiandrini, Emanuele; Ficorella, Francesco; Fuschino, Fabio; Luis Galvez, Jose; Gao, Na; Gao, Min; Ge, Yuqiang; Ge, Mingyu; Gevin, Olivier; Grassi, Marco; Gu, Yudong; Gu, Quanying; Guan, Ju; Guedel, Manuel; Han, Xingbo; Han, Dawei; He, Huilin; He, Junwang; Hedderman, Paul; den Herder, Jan-Willem; Hong, Bin; Hormaetxe, Ander; Hou, Dongjie; Hu, Zexun; Hu, Hao; Hu, Qingbao; Hu, Yu; Huang, Yue; Huang, Jiangjiang; Huang, Qiushi; Huo, Jia; Hynek, Richard; Iwasawa, Kazumi; Izzo, Lucca; Ji, Long; Jia, Shumei; Jiang, Bowen; Jiang, Wei; Jiang, Jiechen; Jiang, Xiaowei; Jiao, Yang; Jin, Ge; Jin, Fan; Jose, Jordi; Karas, Vladimir; Kennedy, Thomas; Kirsch, Christian; Kole, Merlin; Komarek, Martin; Kreykenbohm, Ingo; Kuiper, Lucien; Kuvvetli, Irfan; Labanti, Claudio; Latronico, Luca; Laubert, Phillip; Li, Tao; Li, Longhui; Li, Hong; Li, Duo; Li, Wei; Li, Maoshun; Li, Gang; Li, Xiaobo; Li, Chengkui; Li, Bing; Li, Haibo; Liang, Hong; Liao, Qiuyan; Liao, Jinyuan; Limousin, Olivier; Lin, Yanjian; Linares, Manuel; Liu, Rui; Liu, Yichen; Liu, Zhihao; Liu, Hongwei; Liu, Xiaojing; Liu, Xiaohua; Lo Cicero, Ugo; Loehring, Jens; Lombardi, Giovanni; Lorenz, Maximilian; Lu, Bing; Lucchesi, Leonardo; Luo, Tao; Luo, Laidan; Ma, Jia; Ma, Xiang; Macera, Daniele; Malcovati, Piero; Manfreda, Alberto; Maria Paredes, Josep; Marinucci, Andrea; Martindale, Adrian; Meidinger, Norbert; Mele, Filippo; Mendes, Vasco; Meng, Bin; Merkl, Martin; Meuris, Aline; Miniutti, Giovanni; Minuti, Massimo; Morbidini, Alfredo; Morgante, Gianluca; Muleri, Fabio; Munini, Riccardo; Mussolin, Lorenzo; Negri, Barbara; Nie, Jianyin; Novak, Petr; Nowosielski, Witold; Nuti, Alessio; Onat, Ahmet; Orleanski, Piotr; Orsini, Leonardo; Ottensamer, Roland; Ou, Ge; Pacciani, Luigi; Paltani, Stephane; Pan, Teng; Pan, Kai; Pareschi, Giovanni; Patruno, Alessandro; Pepponi, Giancarlo; Perinati, Emanuele; Piazzolla, Raffaele; Picciotto, Antonino; Piemonte, Claudio; Pinchera, Michele; Pliego, Samuel; Poutanen, Juri; Qi, Liqiang; Qi, Fazhi; Qiang, Pengfei; Qiao, Fangjian; Qiao, Zheng; Qiu, Xiangbiao; Qiu, Chengbo; Qu, Jinlu; Rachevski, Alexandre; Rashevskaia, Irina; Rea, Nanda; Ribo, Marc; de la Rie, Rob; Rodriguez, Jerome; Rodriguez Gil, Pablo; Sala, Gloria; Schanz, Thomas; Serafinelli, Roberto; Sgro, Carmelo; Shen, Zhengxiang; Sheng, Lizhi; Shi, Jingyan; Sironi, Giorgia; Skup, Konrad; Song, Liming; Song, Zeyu; Song, Jiangbo; Spandre, Gloria; Spiga, Daniele; Su, Yongquan; Sun, Liang; Sungur, Muberra; Sveda, Libor; Tagliaferri, Gianpiero; Tan, Ying; Tao, Lian; Tcherniak, Denis; Tenzer, Chris; Todaro, Michela; Tolos, Laura; Torok, Gabriel; Torres, Diego F.; Trois, Alessio; Turhan, Onur; Uttley, Phil; Vacchi, Andrea; Virgilli, Enrico; Vogel, Channah; Walton, Dave; Wang, Jian; Wang, Xianqi; Wang, Bo; Wang, Langping; Wang, Xiaofeng; Wang, Dianlong; Wang, Yusa; Wang, Juan; Wang, Hao; Wang, Ruijie; Wang, Ping; Wang, Lingjun; Wang, Wenshuai; Wang, Tian; Wang, Haoyu; Wang, Zhanshan; Watts, Anna L.; Wen, Xiangyang; Wilms, Joern; Winter, Berend; Wu, Xin; Wu, Chao; Wu, Zhenyu; Wu, Qiong; Wu, Kaiji; Xiong, Hao; Xiong, Shaolin; Xu, Wei; Xu, Zhao; Xu, Jingjing; Xu, Xiongwei; Xue, Jiadai; Yan, Yongqing; Yan, Xingtao; Yang, Xianghui; Yang, Yanji; Yang, Xiongtao; Yang, Sheng; Yang, Jiawei; Yang, Yingquan; Yi, Shuxu; Yu, Yonggao; Yu, Ke; Zampa, Ganluigi; Zampa, Nicola; Zane, Silvia; Zdziarski, Andrzej A.; Zhang, Long; Zhang, Shu; Zhang, Wenda; Zhang, Xiaoli; Zhang, Zhen; Zhang, Jiawei; Zhang, Fan; Zhang, Ziliang; Zhang, Dali; Zhang, Honglin; Zhang, Aimei; Zhang, Tong; Zhang, Hongmei; Zhang, Juan; Zhang, Liang; Zhang, Yueting; Zhao, Li; Zhao, Baosheng; Zhao, Zijian; Zhao, Xiaofan; Zhao, Haisheng; Zhao, Xiaoyun; Zheng, Shijie; Zhou, Yupeng; Zhou, Xiaohong; Zhu, Jiahuan; Zhu, Yuxuan; Zhu, Cheng; Zhu, Zhencai; Zorzi, Nicola; Zwart, FransThe enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission (eXTP) is a flagship observatory for X-ray timing, spectroscopy and polarimetry developed by an International Consortium. Thanks to its very large collecting area, good spectral resolution and unprecedented polarimetry capabilities, eXTP will explore the properties of matter and the propagation of light in the most extreme conditions found in the Universe. eXTP will, in addition, be a powerful X-ray observatory. The mission will continuously monitor the X-ray sky, and will enable multiwavelength and multi-messenger studies. The mission is currently in phase B, which will be completed in the middle of 2022. © 2022 SPIE. All rights reserved.The Chinese team acknowledges support by the Chinese Academy of Sciences through the Strategic Priority Research Program, Grant No. XDA15020100. The Italian authors acknowledge funding support by the Italian Space Agency (under agreement n. 2020-3-HH.0 and ASI-INAF n.2017-14-H.O) and INFN (project XRO -X-ray Observatories). The Spanish authors acknowledge funding support from the MICIN/AEI grant PID2019-108709GB-I00. The German team acknowledges support from the Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Technologie through the Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) under the grant number FKZ 50 OO 1902. The Polish team acknowledges FNP grant POIR.04.04.00-00-5C65/17. The Czech team acknowledges support from the GACR project 21-06825X. The Turkish team acknowledges support from the Turkish Space Agency.With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709Peer reviewe

Antifungal Properties of Wheat Histones (H1-H4) and Purified Wheat Histone H1

Wheat (Triticum spp.) histones H1, H2, H3, and H4 were extracted, and H1 was further purified. The effect of these histones on specific fungi that may or may not be pathogenic to wheat was determined. These fungi included Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium verticillioides, Fusarium solani, Fusarium graminearum, Penicillium digitatum, Penicillium italicum, and Greeneria uvicola. Non-germinated and germinating conidia of these fungi were bioassayed separately. The non-germinated and germinating conidia of all Fusarium species were highly susceptible to the mixture (H1-H4) as well as pure H1, with viability losses of 99-100% found to be significant (p <0.001) at <= 10 mu M or less for the histone mixture and pure H1. F. graminearum was the most sensitive to histone activity. The histones were inactive against all of the non-germinated Penicillium spp. conidia. However, they significantly reduced the viability of the germinating conidia of the Penicillium spp. conidia, with 95% loss at 2.5 mu M. Non-germinated and germinating conidia viability of the Aspergillus spp. and G. uvicola were unaffected when exposed to histones up to 10 mu M. Results indicate that Fusarium spp. pathogenic to wheat are susceptible to wheat histones, indicating that these proteins may be a resistance mechanism in wheat against fungal infection

The enhanced x-ray timing and polarimetry mission – eXTP: an update on its scientific cases, mission profile and development status

The enhanced x-ray timing and polarimetry mission (eXTP) is a flagship observatory for x-ray timing, spectroscopy and polarimetry developed by an international consortium. Thanks to its very large collecting area, good spectral resolution and unprecedented polarimetry capabilities, eXTP will explore the properties of matter and the propagation of light in the most extreme conditions found in the universe. eXTP will, in addition, be a powerful x-ray observatory. The mission will continuously monitor the x-ray sky, and will enable multi-wavelength and multi-messenger studies. The mission is currently in phase B, which will be completed in the middle of 2022

Ezetimibe added to statin therapy after acute coronary syndromes

BACKGROUND: Statin therapy reduces low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular events, but whether the addition of ezetimibe, a nonstatin drug that reduces intestinal cholesterol absorption, can reduce the rate of cardiovascular events further is not known. METHODS: We conducted a double-blind, randomized trial involving 18,144 patients who had been hospitalized for an acute coronary syndrome within the preceding 10 days and had LDL cholesterol levels of 50 to 100 mg per deciliter (1.3 to 2.6 mmol per liter) if they were receiving lipid-lowering therapy or 50 to 125 mg per deciliter (1.3 to 3.2 mmol per liter) if they were not receiving lipid-lowering therapy. The combination of simvastatin (40 mg) and ezetimibe (10 mg) (simvastatin-ezetimibe) was compared with simvastatin (40 mg) and placebo (simvastatin monotherapy). The primary end point was a composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina requiring rehospitalization, coronary revascularization ( 6530 days after randomization), or nonfatal stroke. The median follow-up was 6 years. RESULTS: The median time-weighted average LDL cholesterol level during the study was 53.7 mg per deciliter (1.4 mmol per liter) in the simvastatin-ezetimibe group, as compared with 69.5 mg per deciliter (1.8 mmol per liter) in the simvastatin-monotherapy group (P<0.001). The Kaplan-Meier event rate for the primary end point at 7 years was 32.7% in the simvastatin-ezetimibe group, as compared with 34.7% in the simvastatin-monotherapy group (absolute risk difference, 2.0 percentage points; hazard ratio, 0.936; 95% confidence interval, 0.89 to 0.99; P = 0.016). Rates of pre-specified muscle, gallbladder, and hepatic adverse effects and cancer were similar in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: When added to statin therapy, ezetimibe resulted in incremental lowering of LDL cholesterol levels and improved cardiovascular outcomes. Moreover, lowering LDL cholesterol to levels below previous targets provided additional benefit