Multiple vertebral metastases from brain glioblastoma: An insidious complication

Abstract Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most malignant and the most frequent of primary astrocytomas, typically involving the Central Nervous System (CNS) alone. Extra-CNS localizations (ECM) are exceptional, and vertebral dissemination is extremely uncommon. We present the case of a patient with vertebral dissemination from an intracranial GBM without intra-dural space invasion. The patient underwent a gross total tumor removal followed by radiation therapy (RT) with concomitant temozolomide chemotherapy (STUPP protocol). Following the appearance of back pain, patient underwent whole body computed tomography (CT) and spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Spinal-MRI highlighted multiple vertebral lesions not infiltrating dura mater being confined to vertebral bodies. CT scan demonstrated the absence of other repetitive lesions in both thorax and abdomen. Histological examination from a percutaneous CT-guided vertebral biopsy confirmed the suspicious of secondary localization from intracranial GBM. To the best of our knowledge this is the second reported case of vertebral metastases from GBM in absence of other ECM. This case raises the need for clinical suspicious of vertebral dissemination in case of GBM patient presenting with radicular, myelopathic symptoms or less specifically, back pain

SIOUX project: a simultaneous multiband camera for exoplanet atmospheres studies

The exoplanet revolution is well underway. The last decade has seen order-of-magnitude increases in the number of known planets beyond the Solar system. Detailed characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres provide the best means for distinguishing the makeup of their outer layers, and the only hope for understanding the interplay between initial composition chemistry, temperature-pressure atmospheric profiles, dynamics and circulation. While pioneering work on the observational side has produced the first important detections of atmospheric molecules for the class of transiting exoplanets, important limitations are still present due to the lack of sys- tematic, repeated measurements with optimized instrumentation at both visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. It is thus of fundamental importance to explore quantitatively possible avenues for improvements. In this paper we report initial results of a feasibility study for the prototype of a versatile multi-band imaging system for very high-precision differential photometry that exploits the choice of specifically selected narrow-band filters and novel ideas for the execution of simultaneous VIS and NIR measurements. Starting from the fundamental system requirements driven by the science case at hand, we describe a set of three opto-mechanical solutions for the instrument prototype: 1) a radial distribution of the optical flux using dichroic filters for the wavelength separation and narrow-band filters or liquid crystal filters for the observations; 2) a tree distribution of the optical flux (implying 2 separate foci), with the same technique used for the beam separation and filtering; 3) an exotic solution consisting of the study of a complete optical system (i.e. a brand new telescope) that exploits the chromatic errors of a reflecting surface for directing the different wavelengths at different foci

Molecular analysis of post-harvest withering in grape by AFLP transcriptional profiling

Post-harvest withering of grape berries is used in the production of dessert and fortified wines to alter must quality characteristics and increase the concentration of simple sugars. The molecular processes that occur during withering are poorly understood, so a detailed transcriptomic analysis of post-harvest grape berries was carried out by AFLP-transcriptional profiling analysis. This will help to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of berry withering and will provide an opportunity to select markers that can be used to follow the drying process and evaluate different drying techniques. AFLP-TP identified 699 withering-specific genes, 167 and 86 of which were unique to off-plant and on-plant withering, respectively. Although similar molecular events were revealed in both withering processes, it was apparent that off-plant withering induced a stronger dehydration stress response resulting in the high level expression of genes involved in stress protection mechanisms, such as dehydrin and osmolite accumulation. Genes involved in hexose metabolism and transport, cell wall composition, and secondary metabolism (particularly the phenolic and terpene compound pathways) were similarly regulated in both processes. This work provides the first comprehensive analysis of the molecular events underpinning post-harvest withering and could help to define markers for different withering processes

Giosuè Carducci prosatore

Questo volume su Giosuè Carducci prosatore raccoglie i contributi presentati al XVII Convegno internazionale di Letteratura italiana "Gennaro Barbarisi", tenutosi a Palazzo Feltrinelli (Gargnano del Garda) dal 29 settembre al 1° ottobre 2016. Si è trattato di una proficua occasione di incontro, di studio e di approfondimento su un tema forse poco frequentato, soprattutto in tempi recenti, ma ricco di sollecitazioni per una più articolata e storicamente fondata definizione della personalità di un autore così significativo nel panorama della cultura italiana fra Otto e primo Novecento; non soltanto sul versante della poesia (un primato sancito dal premio Nobel nel 1906) ma anche, e forse ancora di più, su quello della prosa saggistica, degli scritti di polemica, delle curatele editoriali, delle ricerche erudite, fino alle prove di alta oratoria e all'epistolografia

Epistolari dal Due al Seicento. Modelli, questioni ecdotiche, edizioni, cantieri aperti (Gargnano del Garda, 29 settembre - 1° ottobre 2014)

Nei secoli passati, la lettera era l'unico mezzo di comunicazione: familiare, amichevole, d'ufficio o di servizio, ma anche strumento di dibattito politico e culturale. Lo studio degli epistolari dei singoli ma anche delle reti di comunicazione e di scambio è uno dei grandi temi della ricerca europea contemporanea. Vi si inserisce questo secondo volume dei "Quaderni di Gargnano", che - volgendosi sia alla produzione latina sia a quella volgare dal Due al Seicento - si sofferma su problemi metodologici e casi significativi, con impostazioni e tagli diversi: dall'ecdotica alla filologia, dall'archivistica, alla storia, alla storia delle discipline

Radial-velocity fitting challenge. II. First results of the analysis of the data set

Context. Radial-velocity (RV) signals arising from stellar photospheric phenomena are the main limitation for precise RV measurements. Those signals induce RV variations an order of magnitude larger than the signal created by the orbit of Earth-twins, thus preventing their detection. Aims: Different methods have been developed to mitigate the impact of stellar RV signals. The goal of this paper is to compare the efficiency of these different methods to recover extremely low-mass planets despite stellar RV signals. However, because observed RV variations at the meter-per-second precision level or below is a combination of signals induced by unresolved orbiting planets, by the star, and by the instrument, performing such a comparison using real data is extremely challenging. Methods: To circumvent this problem, we generated simulated RV measurements including realistic stellar and planetary signals. Different teams analyzed blindly those simulated RV measurements, using their own method to recover planetary signals despite stellar RV signals. By comparing the results obtained by the different teams with the planetary and stellar parameters used to generate the simulated RVs, it is therefore possible to compare the efficiency of these different methods. Results: The most efficient methods to recover planetary signals take into account the different activity indicators, use red-noise models to account for stellar RV signals and a Bayesian framework to provide model comparison in a robust statistical approach. Using the most efficient methodology, planets can be found down to K/N= Kpl/RV_{rms×√{Nobs}=5} with a threshold of K/N = 7.5 at the level of 80-90% recovery rate found for a number of methods. These recovery rates drop dramatically for K/N smaller than this threshold. In addition, for the best teams, no false positives with K/N > 7.5 were detected, while a non-negligible fraction of them appear for smaller K/N. A limit of K/N = 7.5 seems therefore a safe threshold to attest the veracity of planetary signals for RV measurements with similar properties to those of the different RV fitting challenge systems. Based on observations collected at the La Silla Parana Observatory, ESO (Chile), with the HARPS spectrograph at the 3.6-m telescope

The GAPS programme with HARPS-N at TNG. X. Differential abundances in the XO-2 planet-hosting binary

Binary stars hosting exoplanets are a unique laboratory where chemical tagging can be performed to measure the elemental abundances of both stellar components with high accuracy, with the aim to investigate the formation of planets and their subsequent evolution. Here, we present a high-precision differential abundance analysis of the XO-2 wide stellar binary based on high-resolution HARPS-N at TNG spectra. Both components are very similar K-dwarfs and host planets. Since they formed presumably within the same molecular cloud, we expect that they possess the same initial elemental abundances. We investigated whether planets can cause some chemical imprints in the stellar atmospheric abundances. We measure abundances of 25 elements for both stars with a range of condensation temperature TC = 40-1741 K, achieving typical precisions of ~0.07 dex. The northern component shows abundances in all elements higher by +0.067 ± 0.032 dex on average, with a mean difference of +0.078 dex for elements with TC > 800 K. The significance of the XO-2N abundance difference relative to XO-2S is at the 2σ level for almost all elements. We discuss that this result might be interpreted as the signature of the ingestion of material by XO-2N or depletion in XO-2S that is due to locking of heavy elements by the planetary companions. We estimate a mass of several tens of M⊕ in heavy elements. The difference in abundances between XO-2N and XO-2S shows a positive correlation with the condensation temperatures of the elements, with a slope of (4.7 ± 0.9) × 10-5 dex K-1, which could mean that both components have not formed terrestrial planets, but first experienced the accretion of rocky core interior to the subsequent giant planets. Based on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated on the island of La Palma by the INAF - Fundación Galileo Galilei at the Roche de los Muchachos Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in the framework of the large programme Global Architecture of Planetary Systems (GAPS; P.I. A. Sozzetti).Final reduced spectra (FITS) are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/583/A135</A

VizieR Online Data Catalog: XO-2N and XO-2S spectra (Biazzo+, 2015)

Final reduced spectra used for the elemental abundance measurements. We observed both XO-2 components with the high resolution HARPS-N@TNG (R~115000, λ~3900-6900Å) spectrograph between November 20, 2012 and October 4, 2014. Solar spectra were also obtained through observations of the asteroid Vesta. The spectra reduction was obtained using the 2013 November version of the HARPS-N instrument data reduction software (DRS) pipeline. A detailed description of the observations and data reduction is reported in Paper II (Desidera et al., 2013A&A...554A..29D) (2 data files). <P /

Nightside condensation of iron in an ultra-hot giant exoplanet

Ultra-hot giant exoplanets receive thousands of times Earth's insolation. Their high-temperature atmospheres (>2,000 K) are ideal laboratories for studying extreme planetary climates and chemistry. Daysides are predicted to be cloud-free, dominated by atomic species and substantially hotter than nightsides. Atoms are expected to recombine into molecules over the nightside, resulting in different day-night chemistry. While metallic elements and a large temperature contrast have been observed, no chemical gradient has been measured across the surface of such an exoplanet. Different atmospheric chemistry between the day-to-night ("evening") and night-to-day ("morning") terminators could, however, be revealed as an asymmetric absorption signature during transit. Here, we report the detection of an asymmetric atmospheric signature in the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-76b. We spectrally and temporally resolve this signature thanks to the combination of high-dispersion spectroscopy with a large photon-collecting area. The absorption signal, attributed to neutral iron, is blueshifted by -11+/-0.7 km s-1 on the trailing limb, which can be explained by a combination of planetary rotation and wind blowing from the hot dayside. In contrast, no signal arises from the nightside close to the morning terminator, showing that atomic iron is not absorbing starlight there. Iron must thus condense during its journey across the nightside.Comment: Published in Nature (Accepted on 24 January 2020.) 33 pages, 11 figures, 3 table

The HADES RV Programme with HARPS-N at TNG. VIII. GJ15A: a multiple wide planetary system sculpted by binary interaction

We present 20 yr of radial velocity (RV) measurements of the M1 dwarf Gl15A, combining five years of intensive RV monitoring with the HARPS-N spectrograph with 15 yr of archival HIRES/Keck RV data. We have carried out an MCMC-based analysis of the RV time series, inclusive of Gaussian Process (GP) approach to the description of stellar activity induced RV variations. Our analysis confirms the Keplerian nature and refines the orbital solution for the 11.44-day period super Earth, Gl15A b, reducing its amplitude to 1.68-0.18+0.17 m s-1 (M sin i = 3.03-0.44+0.46 M⊕), and successfully models a long-term trend in the combined RV dataset in terms of a Keplerian orbit with a period around 7600 days and an amplitude of 2.5-1.0+1.3 m s-1, corresponding to a super-Neptune mass (M sin i = 36-18+25 M⊕) planetary companion. We also discuss the present orbital configuration of Gl15A planetary system in terms of the possible outcomes of Lidov-Kozai interactions with the wide-separation companion Gl15B in a suite of detailed numerical simulations. In order to improve the results of the dynamical analysis, we have derived a new orbital solution for the binary system, combining our RV measurements with astrometric data from the WDS catalogue. The eccentric Lidov-Kozai analysis shows the strong influence of Gl15B on the Gl15A planetary system, which can produce orbits compatible with the observed configuration for initial inclinations of the planetary system between 75° and 90°, and can also enhance the eccentricity of the outer planet well above the observed value, even resulting in orbital instability, for inclinations around 0° and 15°-30°. The Gl15A system is the multi-planet system closest to Earth, at 3.56 pc, and hosts the longest period RV sub-Jovian mass planet discovered so far. Its orbital architecture constitutes a very important laboratory for the investigation of formation and orbital evolution scenarios for planetary systems in binary stellar systems. Based on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated on the island of La Palma by the INAF - Fundación Galileo Galilei at the Roche de Los Muchachos Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC); photometric observations made with the robotic telescope APT2 (within the EXORAP programme) located at Serra La Nave on Mt. Etna