An MCAO test bench for NFIRAOS

At NRC Herzberg - Astronomy we are developing a closed-loop multi-conjugate adaptive optics bench to simulate a scaled-down version of NFIRAOS, the first light MCAO system on the Thirty Meter Telescope. The current bench consists of four laser guide stars, an evenly spaced array of natural guide stars, two magnetic deformable mirrors, a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and a science camera at the focal plane for the evaluation of the performance and the tip-tilt measurements. Three phase screens conjugated at different altitudes simulate the atmospheric perturbation over the telescope. We can recreate the spot elongation on the SHWFS by defocusing the ground DM and at the same time modulating the intensity of the LGS spots in order to simulate the timevarying density profile of the sodium layer. The goals of this experiment are to compare the experimental performance on the bench with the predicted results of NFIRAOS models and to test the robustness of the tomographic reconstruction under conditions including the use of faint guide stars, non-uniform density profiles of the sodium layer and known non-common path aberrations. In this paper we present an update on the status of the bench and some first results.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Platelet-rich plasma-based bioactive membrane as a new advanced wound care tool

Chronic skin ulcers, consequence of diabetes and other pathological conditions, heavily compromise the patient life quality and represent a high and constantly growing cost for National Health Services. Autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP), has been proposed to treat these lesions. The absence of guidelines for the PRP production and the need of a fresh preparation for each treatment lead us to develop a protocol for the production of an allogenic PRP-based bioactive membrane (BAM), standardized for platelet concentration and growth factor release. This work compares BAMs obtained starting from two different platelet concentrations. There was no direct correlation between the amount of growth factors released by BAM in vitro and the initial platelet count. However, different release kinetics were noticed for different growth factors, suggesting that they were differently retained by the two BAMs. The angiogenic potential of both BAMs was determined by Luminex Angiogenesis Assay. The biological activity of the factors released by the two BAMs was confirmed by cell proliferation and migration. A diabetic mouse chronic ulcer model was used to define the best PRP therapeutic dose in vivo. Both BAMs induced wound healing by increasing the thickness of the regenerated epidermis and the vessel number. However, a too high platelet concentration resulted in a slowdown of the membrane resorption that interfered with the skin healing. Overall, the results indicate that the BAMs could represent a natural and effective wound healing tool for the treatment of skin ulcers. Copyright \uc2\ua9 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Present opto-mechanical design status of NFIRAOS

This paper describes the current opto-mechanical design of NFIRAOS (Narrow Field InfraRed Adaptive Optics System) for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The preliminary design update review for NFIRAOS was successfully held in December 2011, and incremental design progress has since occurred on several fronts. The majority of NFIRAOS is housed within an insulated and cooled enclosure, and operates at -30 C to reduce background emissivity. The cold optomechanics are attached to a space-frame structure, kinematically supported by bipods that penetrate the insulated enclosure. The bipods are attached to an exo-structure at ambient temperature, which also supports up to three client science instruments and a science calibration unit.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Radiologist-rheumatologist multidisciplinary approach in the management of axial spondyloarthritis: a Delphi consensus statement

The aim of this study was to develop a Delphi consensus statement between rheumatologists and radiologists for the diagnosis and monitoring of axial spondyloarthritis (axial-SpA)