202 research outputs found
EChO Payload electronics architecture and SW design
EChO is a three-modules (VNIR, SWIR, MWIR), highly integrated spectrometer,
covering the wavelength range from 0.55 m, to 11.0 m. The baseline
design includes the goal wavelength extension to 0.4 m while an optional
LWIR module extends the range to the goal wavelength of 16.0 m.
An Instrument Control Unit (ICU) is foreseen as the main electronic subsystem
interfacing the spacecraft and collecting data from all the payload
spectrometers modules. ICU is in charge of two main tasks: the overall payload
control (Instrument Control Function) and the housekeepings and scientific data
digital processing (Data Processing Function), including the lossless
compression prior to store the science data to the Solid State Mass Memory of
the Spacecraft. These two main tasks are accomplished thanks to the Payload On
Board Software (P-OBSW) running on the ICU CPUs.Comment: Experimental Astronomy - EChO Special Issue 201
The Visible and Near Infrared module of EChO
The Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) is one of the modules of EChO, the
Exoplanets Characterization Observatory proposed to ESA for an M-class mission.
EChO is aimed to observe planets while transiting by their suns. Then the
instrument had to be designed to assure a high efficiency over the whole
spectral range. In fact, it has to be able to observe stars with an apparent
magnitude Mv= 9-12 and to see contrasts of the order of 10-4 - 10-5 necessary
to reveal the characteristics of the atmospheres of the exoplanets under
investigation. VNIR is a spectrometer in a cross-dispersed configuration,
covering the 0.4-2.5 micron spectral range with a resolving power of about 330
and a field of view of 2 arcsec. It is functionally split into two channels
respectively working in the 0.4-1 and 1.0-2.5 micron spectral ranges. Such a
solution is imposed by the fact the light at short wavelengths has to be shared
with the EChO Fine Guiding System (FGS) devoted to the pointing of the stars
under observation. The spectrometer makes use of a HgCdTe detector of 512 by
512 pixels, 18 micron pitch and working at a temperature of 45K as the entire
VNIR optical bench. The instrument has been interfaced to the telescope optics
by two optical fibers, one per channel, to assure an easier coupling and an
easier colocation of the instrument inside the EChO optical bench.Comment: 26 page
Updates on the PeNCIL project
By comparing measured and expected polarization in the HI Lyα 121.6 nm coronal emission line it is possible to infer the magnetic ïŹeld in the solar corona. PeNCIL is the ideal device to perform such a measurement. It is a light transmitting polarimeter optimized at 121.6 nm, completely free of mechanical moving parts, thought as part of an internally occulted coronagraph to be ïŹown aboard a future small solar mission. Its optical components are in de Senarmont conïŹguration: a ïŹxed MgF2 quarter wave retarder, a nano-wire grid polarizer (nano-WGP) and a MgF2 variable retarder modulated through a calibrated piezo-clamp (PCVR). The nano-WGP and the PCVR represent a ïŹrst-ever achievement in the history of technology development for VUV. The nano-WGP fabrication is at the edge of the current nanotechnology since the pitch between wires shall be 40 nm. The PCVR is based on a MgF 2 parallelepipedic sample refractive index variations as produced by a piezo-electric clamp. This work addresses the status of the project with particular emphasis on the design and manufacturing of the nano-WGP and the PCVR
GROWTH INHIBITION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF HUMAN BREAST CANCER CELLS BY THE PAFR ANTAGONIST WEB-2086
WEB-2086 â an antagonist of platelet-activating factor receptor (PAFR) with known anti-inflammatory, antiangiogenic and antileukaemic properties â also proved to inhibit the proliferation in human solid tumour cell lines of different histology, and with much higher efficacy than in normal fibroblasts. A detailed analysis of WEB-2086 anticancer activity was then performed focusing on breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. WEB-2086-treated cells, either expressing (MCF-7) or unexpressing (MDA-MB-231) the oestrogen receptor (ER)α, underwent a dose-dependent growth arrest (IC(50)=0.65±0.09 and 0.41±0.07âmM, respectively) and accumulation in G(0)âG(1) phase. WEB-2086 also induced morphological and functional changes typical of mature mammary phenotype including (i) cell enlargement and massive neutral lipid deposition (best accomplished in MCF-7 cells); (ii) decrease in motility and active cathepsin D levels (mainly observed in highly invasive MDA-MB-231 cells). The expression of ERα was neither increased nor reactivated in treated MCF-7 or MDA-MB-231 cells, respectively. WEB-2086-induced differentiation in breast cancer cells involved the upregulation of PTEN, a key tumour suppressor protein opposing tumorigenesis, and was apparently independent of p53, PAFR, peripheral benzodiazepine receptor and ERα status. Overall, WEB-2086 can be proposed as an effective antiproliferative and differentiative agent with interesting translational opportunities to treat breast cancers in support to conventional chemotherapy
The ARIEL Instrument Control Unit design for the M4 Mission Selection Review of the ESA's Cosmic Vision Program
The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission
(ARIEL) is one of the three present candidates for the ESA M4 (the fourth
medium mission) launch opportunity. The proposed Payload will perform a large
unbiased spectroscopic survey from space concerning the nature of exoplanets
atmospheres and their interiors to determine the key factors affecting the
formation and evolution of planetary systems. ARIEL will observe a large number
(>500) of warm and hot transiting gas giants, Neptunes and super-Earths around
a wide range of host star types, targeting planets hotter than 600 K to take
advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres. It will exploit primary and
secondary transits spectroscopy in the 1.2-8 um spectral range and broad-band
photometry in the optical and Near IR (NIR). The main instrument of the ARIEL
Payload is the IR Spectrometer (AIRS) providing low-resolution spectroscopy in
two IR channels: Channel 0 (CH0) for the 1.95-3.90 um band and Channel 1 (CH1)
for the 3.90-7.80 um range. It is located at the intermediate focal plane of
the telescope and common optical system and it hosts two IR sensors and two
cold front-end electronics (CFEE) for detectors readout, a well defined process
calibrated for the selected target brightness and driven by the Payload's
Instrument Control Unit (ICU).Comment: Experimental Astronomy, Special Issue on ARIEL, (2017
Comparing extrapolations of the coronal magnetic field structure at 2.5 solar radii with multi-viewpoint coronagraphic observations
The magnetic field shapes the structure of the solar corona but we still know
little about the interrelationships between the coronal magnetic field
configurations and the resulting quasi-stationary structures observed in
coronagraphic images (as streamers, plumes, coronal holes). One way to obtain
information on the large-scale structure of the coronal magnetic field is to
extrapolate it from photospheric data and compare the results with
coronagraphic images. Our aim is to verify if this comparison can be a fast
method to check systematically the reliability of the many methods available to
reconstruct the coronal magnetic field. Coronal fields are usually extrapolated
from photospheric measurements typically in a region close to the central
meridian on the solar disk and then compared with coronagraphic images at the
limbs, acquired at least 7 days before or after to account for solar rotation,
implicitly assuming that no significant changes occurred in the corona during
that period. In this work, we combine images from three coronagraphs
(SOHO/LASCO-C2 and the two STEREO/SECCHI-COR1) observing the Sun from different
viewing angles to build Carrington maps covering the entire corona to reduce
the effect of temporal evolution to ~ 5 days. We then compare the position of
the observed streamers in these Carrington maps with that of the neutral lines
obtained from four different magnetic field extrapolations, to evaluate the
performances of the latter in the solar corona. Our results show that the
location of coronal streamers can provide important indications to discriminate
between different magnetic field extrapolations.Comment: Accepted by A&A the 20th of May, 201
Impact of calreticulin mutations on clinical and hematological phenotype and outcome in essential thrombocythemia
Key Points
CALR mutations occur in half of JAK2 and MPL wt patients with ET and associate with some distinctive phenotypic traits. Patients with ET harboring CALR mutations are at significantly lower risk of thrombosis compared with JAK2- and MPL-mutated patients
HERSCHEL/SCORE, imaging the solar corona in visible and EUV light: CCD camera characterization
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