944 research outputs found
Documenting and modeling the accretion of surface and subsoil organic carbon in agricultural Inceptisols reclaimed from Mediterranean sea marshes in Sardinia
High input agriculture in productive Inceptisols that were reclaimed from sea marshes offers an opportunity to study the increase of soil organic carbon (SOC) in soils with originally low SOC. We documented the current SOC content and its distribution with depth for several soil profiles
Complete gene expression profiling of Saccharopolyspora erythraea using GeneChip DNA microarrays
The Saccharopolyspora erythraea genome sequence, recently published, presents considerable divergence from those of streptomycetes in gene organization and function, confirming the remarkable potential of S. erythraea for producing many other secondary metabolites in addition to erythromycin. In order to investigate, at whole transcriptome level, how S. erythraea genes are modulated, a DNA microarray was specifically designed and constructed on the S. erythraea strain NRRL 2338 genome sequence, and the expression profiles of 6494 ORFs were monitored during growth in complex liquid medium
Energy deposition studies for the Upgrade II of LHCb at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
The Upgrade II of the LHCb experiment is proposed to be installed during the
CERN Long Shutdown 4, aiming to operate LHCb at 1.5x that
is 75 times its design luminosity and reaching an integrated luminosity of
about by the end of the High Luminosity LHC era. This increase of
the data sample at LHCb is an unprecedented opportunity for heavy flavour
physics measurements. A first upgrade of LHCb, completed in 2022, has already
implemented important changes of the LHCb detector and, for the Upgrade II,
further detector improvements are being considered. Such a luminosity increase
will have an impact not only on the LHCb detector but also on the LHC magnets,
cryogenics and electronic equipment placed in the IR8. In fact, the LHCb
experiment was conceived to work at a much lower luminosity than ATLAS and CMS,
implying minor requirements for protection of the LHC elements from the
collision debris and therefore a different layout around the interaction point.
The luminosity target proposed for the Upgrade II requires to review the layout
of the entire insertion region in order to ensure safe operation of the LHC
magnets and to mitigate the risk of failure of the electronic devices. The
objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the implications of the
Upgrade II of LHCb in the experimental cavern and in the tunnel with a focus on
the LHCb detector, electronic devices and accelerator magnets
The SURPRISE demonstrator: a super-resolved compressive instrument in the visible and medium infrared for Earth Observation
While Earth Observation (EO) data has become ever more vital to understanding the planet and addressing societal challenges, applications are still limited by revisit time and spatial resolution. Though low Earth orbit missions can achieve resolutions better than 100 m, their revisit time typically stands at several days, limiting capacity to monitor dynamic events. Geostationary (GEO) missions instead typically provide data on an hour-basis but with spatial resolution limited to 1 km, which is insufficient to understand local phenomena.
In this paper, we present the SURPRISE project - recently funded in the frame of the H2020 programme – that gathers the expertise from eight partners across Europe to implement a demonstrator of a super-spectral EO payload - working in the visible (VIS) - Near Infrared (NIR) and in the Medium InfraRed (MIR) and conceived to operate from GEO platform -with enhanced performance in terms of at-ground spatial resolution, and featuring innovative on-board data processing and encryption functionalities. This goal will be achieved by using Compressive Sensing (CS) technology implemented via Spatial Light Modulators (SLM). SLM-based CS technology will be used to devise a super-resolution configuration that will be exploited to increase the at-ground spatial resolution of the payload, without increasing the number of detector’s sensing elements at the image plane. The CS approach will offer further advantages for handling large amounts of data, as is the case of superspectral payloads with wide spectral and spatial coverage. It will enable fast on-board processing of acquired data for information extraction, as well as native data encryption on top of native compression.
SURPRISE develops two disruptive technologies: Compressive Sensing (CS) and Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). CS optimises data acquisition (e.g. reduced storage and transmission bandwidth requirements) and enables novel onboard processing and encryption functionalities. SLM here implements the CS paradigm and achieves a super-resolution architecture. SLM technology, at the core of the CS architecture, is addressed by: reworking and testing off-the-shelf parts in relevant environment; developing roadmap for a European SLM, micromirror array-type, with electronics suitable for space qualification.
By introducing for the first time the concept of a payload with medium spatial resolution (few hundreds of meters) and near continuous revisit (hourly), SURPRISE can lead to a EO major breakthrough and complement existing operational services.
CS will address the challenge of large data collection, whilst onboard processing will improve timeliness, shortening time needed to extract information from images and possibly generate alarms. Impact is relevant to industrial competitiveness, with potential for market penetration of the demonstrator and its components
Transarterial radioembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma: An update and perspectives
In the last decade trans-arterial radioembolization has given promising results in the treatment of patients with intermediate or advanced stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), both in terms of disease control and tolerability profile. This technique consists of the selective intra-arterial administration of microspheres loaded with a radioactive compound (usually Yttrium90), and exerts its therapeutic effect through the radiation carried by these microspheres. A careful and meticulous selection of patients is crucial before performing the radioembolization to correctly perform the procedure and reduce the incidence of complications. Radioembolization is a technically complex and expensive technique, which has only recently entered clinical practice and is supported by scant results from phase III clinical trials. Nevertheless, it may represent a valid alternative to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in the treatment of intermediate-stage HCC patients, as shown by a comparative retrospective assessment that reported a longer time to progression, but not of overall survival, and a more favorable safety profile for radioembolization. In addition, this treatment has reported a higher percentage of tumor shrinkage, if compared to TACE, for pre-transplant downsizing and it represents a promising therapeutic option in patients with large extent of disease and insufficient residual liver volume who are not immediately eligible for surgery. Radioembolization might also be a suitable companion to sorafenib in advanced HCC or it can be used as a potential alternative to this treatment in patients who are not responding or do not tolerate sorafenib
Recommended from our members
Impact of stochastic physics and model resolution on the simulation of tropical cyclones in climate GCMs
The role of model resolution in simulating geophysical vortices with the characteristics of realistic Tropical Cyclones (TCs) is well established. The push for increasing resolution continues, with General Circulation Models (GCMs) starting to use sub-10km grid spacing. In the same context it has been suggested that the use of Stochastic Physics (SP) may act as a surrogate for high resolution, providing some of the benefits at a fraction of the cost. Either technique can reduce model uncertainty, and enhance reliability, by providing a more dynamic environment for initial synoptic disturbances to be spawned and to grow into TCs. We present results from a systematic comparison of the role of model resolution and SP in the simulation of TCs, using EC-Earth simulations from project Climate-SPHINX, in large ensemble mode, spanning five different resolutions. All tropical cyclonic systems, including TCs, were tracked explicitly. As in previous studies, the number of simulated TCs increases with the use of higher resolution, but SP further enhances TC frequencies by � 30%, in a strikingly similar way. The use of SP is beneficial for removing systematic climate
biases, albeit not consistently so for interannual variability; conversely, the use of SP improves the
simulation of the seasonal cycle of TC frequency. An investigation of the mechanisms behind this response indicates that SP generates both higher TC (and TC seed) genesis rates, and more suitable environmental conditions, enabling a more efficient transition of TC seeds into TCs. These results were confirmed by the use of equivalent simulations with the HadGEM3-GC31 GCM
- …