Return and abort trajectory optimisation for reusable launch vehicles

Among the future space access vehicles, the lifting body spaceplane is the most promising approach to prevent damage to both the launcher and the payload in case of loss of thrust. The glide performances of the vehicle allow the recovery in both nominal and abort cases. The approach presented is used in the investigation of the unpowered descent paths of a sample vehicle through trajectory optimisation. The vehicle's downrange and crossrange limits are obtained for aborts in multiple flight conditions

Neurometabolic changes in a rat pup model of type C hepatic encephalopathy depend on age at liver disease onset.

Chronic liver disease (CLD) is a serious condition where various toxins present in the blood affect the brain leading to type C hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Both adults and children are impacted, while children may display unique vulnerabilities depending on the affected window of brain development.We aimed to use the advantages of high field proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ( <sup>1</sup> H MRS) to study longitudinally the neurometabolic and behavioural effects of Bile Duct Ligation (animal model of CLD-induced type C HE) on rats at post-natal day 15 (p15) to get closer to neonatal onset liver disease. Furthermore, we compared two sets of animals (p15 and p21-previously published) to evaluate whether the brain responds differently to CLD according to age onset.We showed for the first time that when CLD was acquired at p15, the rats presented the typical signs of CLD, i.e. rise in plasma bilirubin and ammonium, and developed the characteristic brain metabolic changes associated with type C HE (e.g. glutamine increase and osmolytes decrease). When compared to rats that acquired CLD at p21, p15 rats did not show any significant difference in plasma biochemistry, but displayed a delayed increase in brain glutamine and decrease in total-choline. The changes in neurotransmitters were milder than in p21 rats. Moreover, p15 rats showed an earlier increase in brain lactate and a different antioxidant response. These findings offer tentative pointers as to which neurodevelopmental processes may be impacted and raise the question of whether similar changes might exist in humans but are missed owing to <sup>1</sup> H MRS methodological limitations in field strength of clinical magnet

Predictive value of hematological and phenotypical parameters on postchemotherapy leukocyte recovery

Background: Grade IV chemotherapy toxicity is defined as absolute neutrophil count <500/μL. The nadir is considered as the lowest neutrophil number following chemotherapy, and generally is not expected before the 7th day from the start of chemotherapy. The usual prophylactic dose of rHu-G-CSF (Filgrastim) is 300 μg/day, starting 24-48 h after chemotherapy until hematological recovery. However, individual patient response is largely variable, so that rHu-G-CSF doses can be different. The aim of this study was to verify if peripheral blood automated flow cytochemistry and flow cytometry analysis may be helpful in predicting the individual response and saving rHu-G-CSF. Methods: During Grade IV neutropenia, blood counts from 30 cancer patients were analyzed daily by ADVIA 120 automated flow cytochemistry analyzer and by Facscalibur flow cytometer till the nadir. "Large unstained cells" (LUCs), myeloperoxidase index (MPXI), blasts, and various cell subpopulations in the peripheral blood were studied. At nadir rHu-G-CSF was started and 81 chemotherapy cycles were analyzed. Cycles were stratified according to their number and to two dose-levels of rHuG-CSF needed to recovery (300-600 vs. 900-1200 μg) and analyzed in relation to mean values of MPXI and mean absolute number of LUCs in the nadir phase. The linear regressions of LUCs % over time in relation to two dose-levels of rHu-G-CSF and uni-multivariate analysis of lymphocyte subpopulations, CD34+ cells, MPXI, and blasts were also performed. Results: In the nadir phase, the increase of MPXI above the upper limit of normality (>10; median 27.7), characterized a slow hematological recovery. MPXI levels were directly related to the cycle number and inversely related to the absolute number of LUCs and CD34 +/CD45+ cells. A faster hematological recovery was associated with a higher LUC increase per day (0.56% vs. 0.25%), higher blast (median 36.7/μL vs. 19.5/μL) and CD34+/CD45+ cell (median 2.2/μL vs. 0.82/μL) counts. Conclusions: Our study showed that some biological indicators such as MPXI, LUCs, blasts, and CD34 +/CD45+ cells may be of clinical relevance in predicting individual hematological response to rHu-G-CSF. Special attention should be paid when nadir MPXI exceeds the upper limit of normality because the hematological recovery may be delayed. © 2009 Clinical Cytometry Society

Kinetochore alignment within the metaphase plate is regulated by centromere stiffness and microtubule depolymerases

During mitosis in most eukaryotic cells, chromosomes align and form a metaphase plate halfway between the spindle poles, about which they exhibit oscillatory movement. These movements are accompanied by changes in the distance between sister kinetochores, commonly referred to as breathing. We developed a live cell imaging assay combined with computational image analysis to quantify the properties and dynamics of sister kinetochores in three dimensions. We show that baseline oscillation and breathing speeds in late prometaphase and metaphase are set by microtubule depolymerases, whereas oscillation and breathing periods depend on the stiffness of the mechanical linkage between sisters. Metaphase plates become thinner as cells progress toward anaphase as a result of reduced oscillation speed at a relatively constant oscillation period. The progressive slowdown of oscillation speed and its coupling to plate thickness depend nonlinearly on the stiffness of the mechanical linkage between sisters. We propose that metaphase plate formation and thinning require tight control of the state of the mechanical linkage between sisters mediated by centromeric chromatin and cohesion

Rethinking Pose in 3D: Multi-stage Refinement and Recovery for Markerless Motion Capture

We propose a CNN-based approach for multi-camera markerless motion capture of the human body. Unlike existing methods that first perform pose estimation on individual cameras and generate 3D models as post-processing, our approach makes use of 3D reasoning throughout a multi-stage approach. This novelty allows us to use provisional 3D models of human pose to rethink where the joints should be located in the image and to recover from past mistakes. Our principled refinement of 3D human poses lets us make use of image cues, even from images where we previously misdetected joints, to refine our estimates as part of an end-to-end approach. Finally, we demonstrate how the high-quality output of our multi-camera setup can be used as an additional training source to improve the accuracy of existing single camera models

Semen Analysis in “Urology-Naïve” Patients: A Chance of Uroandrological Screening in Young Males

(1) Background: While females start their gynecological examinations during puberty, only few men decide to be visited by urologists in their youth. Given the participation in the EcoFoodFertility research project, our department had the opportunity to screen young males that were supposedly healthy. (2) Results: from January 2019 to July 2020, we evaluated 157 patients with sperm, blood analysis, and uroandrological examinations. The inclusion criteria were age 18–40 and absence of previous urological disease (urology-naïve). The primary endpoint of the study was to record uroandrological diseases that are occasionally discovered during examination in asymptomatic young men. The average age was 26.9 years (range 18–40); average testicular volume was 15.7 mL (range 12–22 mL); and 45.2% reported abnormal semen analysis: 62 cases of teratozoospermia, 27 asthenozoospermia, 18 oligozoospermia, and 2 azoospermia were discovered respectively; 4/157 patients were diagnosed with hypogonadism; 2 cases with suspicious testicular mass resulted in testicular cancer; and 31 suspected varicoceles and 8 patients with mild sexual dysfunctions were managed. (3) Conclusions: an uroandrological evaluation of young asymptomatic males allowed for the prompt diagnosis of different urological conditions, including cancerous ones, in our series. Despite being debatable, combining urological counselling with physical examination, semen analysis, and a laboratory profile could be useful and cost-effective in order to ameliorate male health

Expected performance of the ASTRI-SST-2M telescope prototype

ASTRI (Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana) is an Italian flagship project pursued by INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) strictly linked to the development of the Cherenkov Telescope Array, CTA. Primary goal of the ASTRI program is the design and production of an end-to-end prototype of a Small Size Telescope for the CTA sub-array devoted to the highest gamma-ray energy region. The prototype, named ASTRI SST-2M, will be tested on field in Italy during 2014. This telescope will be the first Cherenkov telescope adopting the double reflection layout in a Schwarzschild-Couder configuration with a tessellated primary mirror and a monolithic secondary mirror. The collected light will be focused on a compact and light-weight camera based on silicon photo-multipliers covering a 9.6 deg full field of view. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to estimate the performance of the planned telescope. The results regarding its energy threshold, sensitivity and angular resolution are shown and discussed.Comment: In Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2013), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). All CTA contributions at arXiv:1307.223