Vaginal wall thickness as potential biomarker of vaginal health. A proposal for standardized ultrasound measurement using three‐dimensional transvaginal ultrasound

Vaginal wall thickness could be used as a biomarker of vaginal health. We propose a standardized method using three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound for measuring vaginal wall thickness. Fill the vagina with gel. Insert the endovaginal transducer into the vagina up to the middle third. In the sagittal plane, visualizing the cervix and vaginal fornices, capture a 3D volume of the upper third of the vagina. Using tomographic ultrasound imaging function in the sagittal plane and the posterior vaginal fornix as the reference obtain at least three axial planes of the vagina, separated by 1 cm. Measure the vaginal wall thickness at a distance of 2 cm from the posterior vaginal fornix at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. The reproducibility of measurements was high. Measurements of vaginal wall thickness can be reliably performed.Vaginal wall thickness could be used as a biomarker of vaginal health. We propose a standardized method using three-dimensional ultrasound for measuring vaginal wall thickness. Measurements of vaginal wall thickness can be reliably performed

Lamellar macular defects: are degenerative lamellar macular holes truly degenerative?

PurposeTo investigate morpho-functional changes after surgical treatment for ERM foveoschisis or lamellar macular hole (LMH), and to evaluate whether the two entities are associated with different healing processes and long-term outcomes.DesignRetrospective interventional case series.MethodsA total of 56 eyes, treated for lamellar macular defects and followed up for 24 months, were enrolled. The eyes were divided into two groups: 34 with ERM foveoschisis and 22 with LMH. Changes in the following features were evaluated and compared between the two groups: best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), external limiting membrane (ELM) and ellipsoid zone (EZ) defects, central foveal thickness (CFT), and autofluorescence (FAF) diameter and area.ResultsAfter surgery, progressive BCVA improvement was observed with no significant difference between the two groups (p-value: 0.06). An increased number of eyes with intact outer-retinal layers was found both in the ERM foveoschisis and LMH groups. FAF diameter and area decreased significantly throughout the FU with no significant difference between the two groups (p-value: 0.2).ConclusionIn the present study, significant functional and microstructural improvements were observed after surgery for both ERM foveoschisis and LMH, demonstrating considerable repair potential in both types of lamellar defects. These findings question the true “degenerative” nature of LMH

miR-199a-3p increases the anti-tumor activity of palbociclib in liver cancer models

Palbociclib is in early-stage clinical testing in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we investigated whether the anti-tumor activity of palbociclib, which prevents the CDK4/6-mediated phosphorylation of RB1 but simultaneously activates AKT signaling, could be improved by its combination with a PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitor in liver cancer models. The selective pan-AKT inhibitor, MK-2206, or the microRNA-199a-3p were tested in combination with palbociclib in HCC cell lines and in the TG221 HCC transgenic mouse model. The combination palbociclib/MK-2206 was highly effective, but too toxic to be tolerated by mice. Conversely, the combination miR-199a-3p mimics/palbociclib not only induced a complete or partial regression of tumor lesions, but was also well tolerated. After 3 weeks of treatment, the combination produced a significant reduction in number and size of tumor nodules in comparison with palbociclib or miR-199a-3p mimics used as single agents. Moreover, we also reported the efficacy of this combination against sorafenib-resistant cells in vitro and in vivo. At the molecular level, the combination caused the simultaneous decrease of the phosphorylation of both RB1 and of AKT. Our findings provide pre-clinical evidence for the efficacy of the combination miR-199a-3p/palbociclib as anti-HCC treatment or as a new approach to overcome sorafenib resistance

Preserving privacy in surgical video analysis using a deep learning classifier to identify out-of-body scenes in endoscopic videos

Surgical video analysis facilitates education and research. However, video recordings of endoscopic surgeries can contain privacy-sensitive information, especially if the endoscopic camera is moved out of the body of patients and out-of-body scenes are recorded. Therefore, identification of out-of-body scenes in endoscopic videos is of major importance to preserve the privacy of patients and operating room staff. This study developed and validated a deep learning model for the identification of out-of-body images in endoscopic videos. The model was trained and evaluated on an internal dataset of 12 different types of laparoscopic and robotic surgeries and was externally validated on two independent multicentric test datasets of laparoscopic gastric bypass and cholecystectomy surgeries. Model performance was evaluated compared to human ground truth annotations measuring the receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC AUC). The internal dataset consisting of 356,267 images from 48 videos and the two multicentric test datasets consisting of 54,385 and 58,349 images from 10 and 20 videos, respectively, were annotated. The model identified out-of-body images with 99.97% ROC AUC on the internal test dataset. Mean +/- standard deviation ROC AUC on the multicentric gastric bypass dataset was 99.94 +/- 0.07% and 99.71 +/- 0.40% on the multicentric cholecystectomy dataset, respectively. The model can reliably identify out-of-body images in endoscopic videos and is publicly shared. This facilitates privacy preservation in surgical video analysis

Heat treatment procedure of the Aluminium 6061-T651 for the Ariel Telescope mirrors

The Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large Survey (Ariel) is the M4 mission adopted by ESA’s ”Cosmic Vision” program. Its launch is scheduled for 2029. The purpose of the mission is the study of exoplanetary atmospheres on a target of ∼ 1000 exoplanets. Ariel scientific payload consists of an off-axis, unobscured Cassegrain telescope. The light is directed towards a set of photometers and spectrometers with wavebands between 0.5 and 7.8 µm and operating at cryogenic temperatures. The Ariel Space Telescope consists of a primary parabolic mirror with an elliptical aperture of 1.1· 0.7 m, followed by a hyperbolic secondary, a parabolic collimating tertiary and a flat-folding mirror directing the output beam parallel to the optical bench; all in bare aluminium. The choice of bare aluminium for the realization of the mirrors is dictated by several factors: maximizing the heat exchange, reducing the costs of materials and technological advancement. To date, an aluminium mirror the size of Ariel’s primary has never been made. The greatest challenge is finding a heat treatment procedure that stabilizes the aluminium, particularly the Al6061T651 Laminated alloy. This paper describes the study and testing of the heat treatment procedure developed on aluminium samples of different sizes (from 50mm to 150mm diameter), on 0.7m diameter mirror, and discusses future steps

Development, manufacturing, and testing of Ariel’s structural model prototype flexure hinges

The Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large Survey (Ariel) is the M4 mission adopted by ESA's "Cosmic Vision" program. Its launch is scheduled for 2029. The mission aims to study exoplanetary atmospheres on a target of ∼ 1000 exoplanets. Ariel's scientific payload consists of an off-axis, unobscured Cassegrain telescope. The light is directed towards a set of photometers and spectrometers with wavebands between 0.5 and 7.8 μm and operating at cryogenic temperatures. The Ariel Space Telescope consists of a primary parabolic mirror with an elliptical aperture of 1.1· 0.7 m, all bare aluminum. To date, aluminum mirrors the size of Ariel's primary have never been made. In fact, a disadvantage of making mirrors in this material is its low density, which facilitates deformation under thermal and mechanical stress of the optical surface, reducing the performance of the telescope. For this reason, studying each connection component between the primary mirror and the payload is essential. This paper describes, in particular, the development, manufacturing, and testing of the Flexure Hinges to connect Ariel's primary Structural Model mirror and its optical bench. The Flexure Hinges are components already widely used for space telescopes, but redesigning from scratch was a must in the case of Ariel, where the entire mirror and structures are made of aluminum. In fact, these flexures, as well as reducing the stress due to the connecting elements and the launch vibrations and maintaining the alignment of all the parts preventing plastic deformations, amplified for aluminum, must also have resonance frequencies different from those usually used, and must guarantee maximum contact (tolerance in the order of a micron) for the thermal conduction of heat. The entire work required approximately a year of work by the Ariel mechanical team in collaboration with the industry

Aluminum based large telescopes: the ARIEL mission case

Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large Survey) is the adopted M4 mission of ESA “Cosmic Vision” program. Its purpose is to conduct a survey of the atmospheres of known exoplanets through transit spectroscopy. Launch is scheduled for 2029. Ariel scientific payload consists of an off-axis, unobscured Cassegrain telescope feeding a set of photometers and spectrometers in the waveband between 0.5 and 7.8 µm, and operating at cryogenic temperatures. The Ariel Telescope consists of a primary parabolic mirror with an elliptical aperture of 1.1 m of major axis, followed by a hyperbolic secondary, a parabolic recollimating tertiary and a flat folding mirror. The Primary mirror is a very innovative device made of lightened aluminum. Aluminum mirrors for cryogenic instruments and for space application are already in use, but never before now it has been attempted the creation of such a large mirror made entirely of aluminum: this means that the production process must be completely revised and fine-tuned, finding new solutions, studying the thermal processes and paying a great care to the quality check. By the way, the advantages are many: thermal stabilization is simpler than with mirrors made of other materials based on glass or composite materials, the cost of the material is negligeable, the shape may be free and the possibility of making all parts of the telescope, from optical surfaces to the structural parts, of the same material guarantees a perfect alignment at whichever temperature. The results and expectations for the flight model are discussed in this paper

Protected silver coating for Ariel telescope mirrors: study of ageing effects

The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (Ariel), selected as ESA’s fourth mediumclass mission in the Cosmic Vision program, is set to launch in 2029. The objective of the study is to conduct spectroscopic observations of approximately one thousand exoplanetary atmospheres for better understanding the planetary system formation and evolution and identifying a clear link between the characteristics of an exoplanet and those of its parent star. The realization of the Ariel’s telescope is a challenging task that is still ongoing. It is an off-axis Cassegrain telescope (M1 parabola, M2 hyperbola) followed by a re-collimating off-axis parabola (M3) and a plane fold mirror (M4). It is made of Al 6061 and designed to operate at visible and infrared wavelengths. The mirrors of the telescope will be coated with protected silver, qualified to operate at cryogenic temperatures. The qualification of the coating was performed according to the ECSS Q-ST-70-17C standard, on a set of samples that have been stored in ISO 6 cleanroom conditions and are subjected to periodic inspection and reflectance measurements to detect any potential performance degradation. The samples consist of a set of Aluminum alloy Al 6061-T651 disks coated with protected silver. This paper presents the results of the morphological characterization of the samples based on Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and the reflectivity measurement in the infrared by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy

FEA testing the pre-flight Ariel primary mirror

Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey) is an ESA M class mission aimed at the study of exoplanets. The satellite will orbit in the lagrangian point L2 and will survey a sample of 1000 exoplanets simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. The challenging scientific goal of Ariel implies unprecedented engineering efforts to satisfy the severe requirements coming from the science in terms of accuracy. The most important specification – an all-Aluminum telescope – requires very accurate design of the primary mirror (M1), a novel, off-set paraboloid honeycomb mirror with ribs, edge, and reflective surface. To validate such a mirror, some tests were carried out on a prototype – namely Pathfinder Telescope Mirror (PTM) – built specifically for this purpose. These tests, carried out at the Centre Spatial de Liège in Belgium – revealed an unexpected deformation of the reflecting surface exceeding a peek-to-valley of 1µm. Consequently, the test had to be re-run, to identify systematic errors and correct the setting for future tests on the final prototype M1. To avoid the very expensive procedure of developing a new prototype and testing it both at room and cryogenic temperatures, it was decided to carry out some numerical simulations. These analyses allowed first to recognize and understand the reasoning behind the faults occurred during the testing phase, and later to apply the obtained knowledge to a new M1 design to set a defined guideline for future testing campaigns