A Preliminary Study on SVM based Analysis of Underwater Magnetic Signals for Port Protection

People who attend to the problem of underwater port protection usually use sonar based systems. Recently it has been shown that integrating a sonar system with an auxiliary array of magnetic sensors can improve the effectiveness of the intruder detection system. One of the major issues that arise from the integrated magnetic and acoustic system is the interpretation of the magnetic signals coming from the sensors. In this paper a machine learning approach is proposed for the detection of divers or, in general, of underwater magnetic sources. The research proposed here, by means of a windowing of the signals, uses Support Vector Machines for classification, as tool for the detection problem. Empirical results show the effectiveness of the method

Multicolor fluorescence technique to detect apoptotic cells in advanced coronary atherosclerotic plaques.

Apoptosis occurring in atherosclerotic lesions has been suggested to be involved in the evolution and the structural stability of the plaques. It is still a matter of debate whether apoptosis mainly involves vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs) in the fibrous tissue or inflammatory (namely foam) cells, thus preferentially affecting the cell-poor lipid core of the atherosclerotic plaques. The aim of the present investigation was to detect the presence of apoptotic cells and to estimate their percentage in a series of atherosclerotic plaques obtained either by autopsy or during surgical atherectomy. Apoptotic cells were identified on paraffinembedded sections on the basis of cell nuclear morphology after DNA staining and/or by cytochemical reactions (TUNEL assay, immunodetection of the proteolytic poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 [PARP-1] fragment); biochemical procedures (identifying DNA fragmentation or PARP-1 proteolysis) were also used. Indirect immunofluorescence techniques were performed to label specific antigens for either vSMCs or macrophages (i.e., the cells which are most likely prone to apoptosis in atherosclerotic lesions): the proper selection of fluorochrome labeling allowed the simultaneous detection of the cell phenotype and the apoptotic characteristics, by multicolor fluorescence techniques. Apoptotic cells proved to be less than 5% of the whole cell population, in atherosclerotic plaque sections: this is, in fact, a too low cell fraction to be detected by widely used biochemical methods, such as agarose gel electrophoresis of low-molecular-weight DNA or Western-blot analysis of PARP-1 degradation. Most apoptotic cells were of macrophage origin, and clustered in the tunica media, near or within the lipid-rich core; only a few TUNEL-positive cells were labeled for antigens specific for vSMCs. These results confirm that, among the cell populations in atherosclerotic plaques, macrophage foam-cells are preferentially involved in apoptosis. Their death may decrease the cell number in the lipid core and generate a possibly defective apoptotic clearance: the resulting release of matrix-degrading enzymes could contribute to weakening the fibrous cap and promote the plaque rupture with the risk of acute ischemic events, while increasing the thrombogenic pultaceous pool of the plaque core

A comprehensive multiparametric and multilayer approach to study the preparation phase of large earthquakes from ground to space: The case study of the June 15 2019, M7.2 Kermadec Islands (New Zealand) earthquake

This work deals with a comprehensive multiparametric and multilayer approach to study earthquake-related processes that occur during the preparation phase of a large earthquake. As a case study, the paper investigates the M7.2 Kermadec Islands (New Zealand) large earthquake that occurred on June 15, 2019 as the result of shallow reverse faulting within the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone. The analyses focused on seismic (earthquake catalogs), atmospheric (climatological archives) and ionospheric data from ground to space (mainly satellite) in order to disclose the possible Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC). The ionospheric investigations analysed and compared the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver network with in-situ observations from space thanks to both the European Space Agency (ESA) Swarm constellation and the China National Space Administration (CNSA in partnership with Italian Space Agency, ASI) satellite dedicated to search for possible ionospheric disturbances before medium-large earthquakes, i.e. the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01). An interesting comparison is made with another subsequent earthquake with comparable magnitude (M7.1) that occurred in Ridgecrest, California (USA) on 6 July of the same year but in a different tectonic context. Both earthquakes showed anomalies in several parameters (e.g. aerosol, skin temperature and some ionospheric quantities) that appeared at almost the same times before each earthquake occurrence, evidencing a chain of processes that collectively point to the moment of the corresponding mainshock. In both cases, it is demonstrated that a comprehensive multiparametric and multilayer analysis is fundamental to better understand the LAIC in the occasion of complex phenomena such as earthquakes.This work was undertaken in the framework of Limadou-Science+ funded by ASI (Italian Space Agency). Part of the funds were also given by Working Earth (Pianeta Dinamico) Project. We thank GeoNet (NZ) for providing TEC data (we also thank Claudio Cesaroni and Luca Spogli for giving suggestions on TEC data analyses) and the Kyoto World Data Center for Geomagnetism (http://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/) for providing geomagnetic data indices. ESA is thanked for providing the Swarm satellite data and the CNSA (Chinese National Space Administration) for providing CSES-01 satellite data

Harbour Sea-floor Clearance: “HD” High Definition Magnetic Survey Performance

Seafloor clearance methods based on acoustic, direct-inspection, and single-sensor magnetic approaches suffer from limitations in controlling the target-sensor distance, and may prove ineffective when the small size or the dangerous nature of targets requires high accuracy in localization. Moreover, random magnetic variations over time bring about spatial decorrelation phenomena, and hinder the application of double-sensor methods in noisy harbour environments. The new High Definition (HD) magnetic survey protocol tackles the measurement-distance problem in two ways: first, by varying the sensor depth dynamically, and secondly by backprojecting the measured field according to seafloor data and vertical incremental factors associated with the bandwidth characteristics of targets. The method to make up for timeinduced loss in spatial localization ability exploits the local behaviour of a coherence function, which correlates local observations to a set of spatially-stabilized reference stations. The consequent normalization of measured magnetic signals allows one to assign the monitored areas with a specific level of confidence in the detection results, ranging from 100% (certainty) to 0% (random events). The principles of HD detection have been fully applied in the seafloor clearance of the firing test site located south of Cape Teulada (Sardinia, Italy), where very weak signal sources such as cartridge cases, mines, and small objects down to 1 Kg mass values (lobster pots) have been successfully localized, even when covered by extensive colonies of Posidonia

Security challenges of small cell as a service in virtualized mobile edge computing environments

Research on next-generation 5G wireless networks is currently attracting a lot of attention in both academia and industry. While 5G development and standardization activities are still at their early stage, it is widely acknowledged that 5G systems are going to extensively rely on dense small cell deployments, which would exploit infrastructure and network functions virtualization (NFV), and push the network intelligence towards network edges by embracing the concept of mobile edge computing (MEC). As security will be a fundamental enabling factor of small cell as a service (SCaaS) in 5G networks, we present the most prominent threats and vulnerabilities against a broad range of targets. As far as the related work is concerned, to the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to investigate security challenges at the intersection of SCaaS, NFV, and MEC. It is also the first paper that proposes a set of criteria to facilitate a clear and effective taxonomy of security challenges of main elements of 5G networks. Our analysis can serve as a staring point towards the development of appropriate 5G security solutions. These will have crucial effect on legal and regulatory frameworks as well as on decisions of businesses, governments, and end-users

Identification of particles with Lorentz factor up to 10410^{4} with Transition Radiation Detectors based on micro-strip silicon detectors

This work is dedicated to the study of a technique for hadron identification in the TeV momentum range, based on the simultaneous measurement of the energies and of the emission angles of the Transition Radiation (TR) X-rays with respect to the radiating particles. A detector setup has been built and tested with particles in a wide range of Lorentz factors (from about $10^3$ to about $4 \times 10^4$ crossing different types of radiators. The measured double-differential (in energy and angle) spectra of the TR photons are in a reasonably good agreement with TR simulation predictions.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, paper published on Nuclear Instruments & Methods

Adaptive management of applications across multiple clouds:the SeaClouds approach

How to deploy and manage, in an efficient and adaptive way, complex applications across multiple heterogeneous cloud platforms is one of the problems that have emerged with the cloud revolution. In this paper we present context, motivations and objectives of the EU research project SeaClouds, which aims at enabling a seamless adaptive multi-cloud management of complex applications by supporting the distribution, monitoring and migration of application modules over multiple heterogeneous cloud platforms. After positioning SeaClouds with respect to related cloud initiatives, we present the SeaClouds architecture and discuss some of its aspect, such as the use of the OASIS standard TOSCA and the compatibility with the OASIS CAMP initiative

A Cylindrical GEM Inner Tracker for the BESIII experiment at IHEP

The Beijing Electron Spectrometer III (BESIII) is a multipurpose detector that collects data provided by the collision in the Beijing Electron Positron Collider II (BEPCII), hosted at the Institute of High Energy Physics of Beijing. Since the beginning of its operation, BESIII has collected the world largest sample of J/{\psi} and {\psi}(2s). Due to the increase of the luminosity up to its nominal value of 10^33 cm-2 s-1 and aging effect, the MDC decreases its efficiency in the first layers up to 35% with respect to the value in 2014. Since BESIII has to take data up to 2022 with the chance to continue up to 2027, the Italian collaboration proposed to replace the inner part of the MDC with three independent layers of Cylindrical triple-GEM (CGEM). The CGEM-IT project will deploy several new features and innovation with respect the other current GEM based detector: the {\mu}TPC and analog readout, with time and charge measurements will allow to reach the 130 {\mu}m spatial resolution in 1 T magnetic field requested by the BESIII collaboration. In this proceeding, an update of the status of the project will be presented, with a particular focus on the results with planar and cylindrical prototypes with test beams data. These results are beyond the state of the art for GEM technology in magnetic field

Timing the multiple cell death pathways initiated by Rose Bengal acetate photodynamic therapy

Rose Bengal acetate photodynamic therapy (RBAc–PDT) induced multiple cell death pathways in HeLa cells through ROS and ER stress. Indeed, apoptosis was the first preferred mechanism of death, and it was triggered by at least four different pathways, whose independent temporal activation ensures cell killing when one or several of the pathways are inactivated. Apoptosis occurred as early as 1 h after PDT through activation of intrinsic pathways, followed by activation of extrinsic, caspase-12-dependent and caspase-independent pathways, and by autophagy. The onset of the different apoptotic pathways and autophagy, that in our system had a pro-death role, was timed by determining the levels of caspases 9, 8, 3 and 12; Bcl-2 family; Hsp70; LC3B; GRP78 and phospho-eIF2α proteins. Interestingly, inhibition of one pathway, that is, caspase-9 (Z-LEHD-FMK), caspase-8 (Z-IETD-FMK), pan-caspases (Z-VAD-FMK), autophagy (3-MA) and necrosis (Nec-1), did not impair the activation of the others, suggesting that the independent onset of the different apoptotic pathways and autophagy did not occur in a subordinated manner. Altogether, our data indicate RBAc as a powerful photosensitiser that induces a prolonged cytotoxicity and time-related cell death onset by signals originating from or converging on almost all intracellular organelles. The fact that cancer cells can die through different mechanisms is a relevant clue in the choice and design of anticancer PDT