| 1. |
- Marcelli, L., et al.
(author)
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Integration, qualification, and launch of the Mini-EUSO telescope on board the ISS
- 2023
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In: Rendiconti Lincei SCIENZE FISICHE E NATURALI. - : Springer Nature. - 2037-4631 .- 1720-0776. ; 34:1, s. 23-35
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mini-EUSO is a high-sensitivity imaging telescope that observes the Earth from the ISS in the near ultraviolet band (290÷ 430 nm), through the nadir-facing, UV-transparent window in the Russian Zvezda module. The instrument, launched in 2019, has a field of view of 44∘, a spatial resolution on the Earth’s surface of 6.3 km and a temporal sampling rate of 2.5 microseconds. Thanks to its triggering and on-board processing, the telescope is capable of detecting UV emissions of cosmic, atmospheric, and terrestrial origin on different time scales, from a few microseconds up to tens of milliseconds. The optics is composed of two Fresnel lenses focusing light onto an array of 36 Hamamatsu Multi-Anode PhotoMultiplier Tubes, for a total of 2304 pixels. The telescope also contains two cameras in the near-infrared and visible, an 8-by-8 array of Silicon-PhotoMultipliers and a series of UV sensors to manage night-day transitions. The scientific objectives range from the observation of atmospheric phenomena [lightning, Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), ELVES], the study of meteoroids, the search of interstellar meteoroids and strange quark matter, mapping of the Earth’s nocturnal emissions in the ultraviolet range, and the search of cosmic rays with energy above 1021 eV. The instrument has been integrated and qualified in 2019, with the final tests in Baikonur prior to its launch. Operations involve periodic installation in the Zvezda module of the station with observations during the crew night time, with periodic downlink of data samples, with the full data being sent to the ground via pouches containing the data disks. Mission planning involves the selection of the optimal orbits to maximize the scientific return of the instrument. In this work, we will describe the various phases of construction, testing, and qualification prior to the launch and the in-flight operations of the instrument on board the ISS.
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| 2. |
- Bisconti, F., et al.
(author)
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Pre-flight qualification tests of the Mini-EUSO telescope engineering model
- 2022
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In: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Nature. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 53:1, s. 133-158
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mini-EUSO is part of the JEM-EUSO program and operates on board the International Space Station (ISS). It is a UV-telescope with single-photon counting capability looking at nighttime downwards to the Earth through a nadir-facing UV-transparent window. As part of the pre-flight tests, the Mini-EUSO engineering model, a telescope with 1/9 of the original focal surface and a lens of 2.5 cm diameter, has been built and tested. Tests of the Mini-EUSO engineering model have been made in laboratory and in open-sky conditions. Laboratory tests have been performed at the TurLab facility, located at the Physics Department of the University of Turin, equipped with a rotating tank containing different types of materials and light sources. In this way, the configuration for the observation of the Earth from space was emulated, including the Mini-EUSO trigger schemes. In addition to the qualification and calibration tests, the Mini-EUSO engineering model has also been used to evaluate the possibility of using a JEM-EUSO-type detector for applications such as observation of space debris. Furthermore, observations in open-sky conditions allowed the studies of natural light sources such as stars, meteors, planets, and artificial light sources such as airplanes, satellites reflecting the sunlight, and city lights. Most of these targets could be detected also with Mini-EUSO. In this paper, the tests in laboratory and in open-sky conditions are reported, as well as the obtained results. In addition, the contribution that such tests provided to foresee and improve the performance of Mini-EUSO on board the ISS is discussed.
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| 3. |
- Barrillon, P., et al.
(author)
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The EUSO@TurLab project in the framework of the JEM-EUSO program
- 2023
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In: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Nature. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 55:2, s. 569-602
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The EUSO@TurLab project aims at performing experiments to reproduce Earth UV emissions as seen from a low Earth orbit by the planned missions of the JEM-EUSO program. It makes use of the TurLab facility, which is a laboratory, equipped with a 5 m diameter and 1 m depth rotating tank, located at the Physics Department of the University of Turin. All the experiments are designed and performed based on simulations of the expected response of the detectors to be flown in space. In April 2016 the TUS detector and more recently in October 2019 the Mini-EUSO experiment, both part of the JEM-EUSO program, have been placed in orbit to map the UV Earth emissions. It is, therefore, now possible to compare the replicas performed at TurLab with the actual images detected in space to understand the level of fidelity in terms of reproduction of the expected signals. We show that the laboratory tests reproduce at the order of magnitude level the measurements from space in terms of spatial extension and time duration of the emitted UV light, as well as the intensity in terms of expected counts per pixel per unit time when atmospheric transient events, diffuse nightlow background light, and artificial light sources are considered. Therefore, TurLab is found to be a very useful facility for testing the acquisition logic of the detectors of the present and future missions of the JEM-EUSO program and beyond in order to reproduce atmospheric signals in the laboratory.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Cambié, G., et al.
(author)
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Integration and qualification of the Mini-EUSO telescope on board the ISS
- 2022
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In: 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2021. - : Sissa Medialab Srl.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mini-EUSO is a compact telescope (37 × 37 × 62 cm3) currently hosted on board the International Space Station. Mini-EUSO is devoted primarily to study Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) above 1021 eV but also to search for Strange Quark Matter (SQM), to observe Transient Luminous Event (TLE) in upper atmosphere, meteoroids, sea bioluminescence and space debris tracking. Mini-EUSO consist of a main optical system, the Photo Detector Module (PDM), sensitive to UV spectrum (300 ÷ 400 nm) and several ancillary sensors comprising a visible (400 ÷ 780 nm) and NIR (1500 ÷ 1600 nm) cameras and a 8 × 8 channels Multi-Pixel Photon Counter Silicon PhotoMultiplier (MPPC SiPM) array which will increase the Tecnological Readyness Level of this ultrafast imaging sensor. Mini-EUSO belongs to a novel set of missions committed to evaluate, for the first time, the capability of observing Cosmic Rays from a space-based The instrumentation, space-qualified tests will be shown.
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| 6. |
- Kostecka, A, et al.
(author)
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High prevalence of somatic PIK3CA and TP53 pathogenic variants in the normal mammary gland tissue of sporadic breast cancer patients revealed by duplex sequencing
- 2022
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In: NPJ breast cancer. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2374-4677. ; 8:1, s. 76-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The mammary gland undergoes hormonally stimulated cycles of proliferation, lactation, and involution. We hypothesized that these factors increase the mutational burden in glandular tissue and may explain high cancer incidence rate in the general population, and recurrent disease. Hence, we investigated the DNA sequence variants in the normal mammary gland, tumor, and peripheral blood from 52 reportedly sporadic breast cancer patients. Targeted resequencing of 542 cancer-associated genes revealed subclonal somatic pathogenic variants of: PIK3CA, TP53, AKT1, MAP3K1, CDH1, RB1, NCOR1, MED12, CBFB, TBX3, and TSHR in the normal mammary gland at considerable allelic frequencies (9 × 10−2– 5.2 × 10−1), indicating clonal expansion. Further evaluation of the frequently damaged PIK3CA and TP53 genes by ultra-sensitive duplex sequencing demonstrated a diversified picture of multiple low-level subclonal (in 10−2–10−4 alleles) hotspot pathogenic variants. Our results raise a question about the oncogenic potential in non-tumorous mammary gland tissue of breast-conserving surgery patients.
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| 7. |
- Dumanski, Jan P., et al.
(author)
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Immune cells lacking Y chromosome show dysregulation of autosomal gene expression
- 2021
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In: Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS). - : Springer. - 1420-682X .- 1420-9071. ; 78:8, s. 4019-4033
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Epidemiological investigations show that mosaic loss of chromosome Y (LOY) in leukocytes is associated with earlier mortality and morbidity from many diseases in men. LOY is the most common acquired mutation and is associated with aberrant clonal expansion of cells, yet it remains unclear whether this mosaicism exerts a direct physiological effect. We studied DNA and RNA from leukocytes in sorted- and single-cells in vivo and in vitro. DNA analyses of sorted cells showed that men diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease was primarily affected with LOY in NK cells whereas prostate cancer patients more frequently displayed LOY in CD4 + T cells and granulocytes. Moreover, bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing in leukocytes allowed scoring of LOY from mRNA data and confirmed considerable variation in the rate of LOY across individuals and cell types. LOY-associated transcriptional effect (LATE) was observed in ~ 500 autosomal genes showing dysregulation in leukocytes with LOY. The fraction of LATE genes within specific cell types was substantially larger than the fraction of LATE genes shared between different subsets of leukocytes, suggesting that LOY might have pleiotropic effects. LATE genes are involved in immune functions but also encode proteins with roles in other diverse biological processes. Our findings highlight a surprisingly broad role for chromosome Y, challenging the view of it as a “genetic wasteland”, and support the hypothesis that altered immune function in leukocytes could be a mechanism linking LOY to increased risk for disease.
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| 8. |
- Jonason, Peter K., et al.
(author)
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Country-level correlates of the Dark Triad traits in 49 countries
- 2020
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In: Journal of personality. - : Wiley. - 0022-3506 .- 1467-6494. ; 88:6, s. 1252-1267
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives: The Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) capture individual differences in aversive personality to complement work on other taxonomies, such as the Big Five traits. However, the literature on the Dark Triad traits relies mostly on samples from English-speaking (i.e., Westernized) countries. We broadened the scope of this literature by sampling from a wider array of countries.Method: We drew on data from 49 countries (N = 11,723; 65.8% female;Age(Mean) = 21.53) to examine how an extensive net of country-level variables in economic status (e.g., Human Development Index), social relations (e.g., gender equality), political orientations (e.g., democracy), and cultural values (e.g., embeddedness) relate to country-level rates of the Dark Triad traits, as well as variance in the magnitude of sex differences in them.Results: Narcissism was especially sensitive to country-level variables. Countries with more embedded and hierarchical cultural systems weremorenarcissistic. Also, sex differences in narcissism werelargerinmoredeveloped societies: Women were less likely to be narcissistic in developed (vs. less developed) countries.Conclusions: We discuss the results based on evolutionary and social role models of personality and sex differences. That higher country-level narcissism was more common in less developed countries, whereas sex differences in narcissism were larger in more developed countries, is more consistent with evolutionary than social role models.
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| 9. |
- Kaplan, L. P., et al.
(author)
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Plan quality assessment in clinical practice: Results of the 2020 ESTRO survey on plan complexity and robustness
- 2022
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In: Radiotherapy and Oncology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-8140. ; 173, s. 254-261
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: Plan complexity and robustness are two essential aspects of treatment plan quality but there is a great variability in their management in clinical practice. This study reports the results of the 2020 ESTRO survey on plan complexity and robustness to identify needs and guide future discussions and con-sensus.Methods: A survey was distributed online to ESTRO members. Plan complexity was defined as the mod-ulation of machine parameters and increased uncertainty in dose calculation and delivery. Robustness was defined as a dose distribution's sensitivity towards errors stemming from treatment uncertainties, patient setup, or anatomical changes.Results: A total of 126 radiotherapy centres from 33 countries participated, 95 of them (75%) from Europe and Central Asia. The majority controlled and evaluated plan complexity using monitor units (56 centres) and aperture shapes (38 centres). To control robustness, 98 (97% of question responses) photon and 5 (50%) proton centres used PTV margins for plan optimization while 75 (94%) and 5 (50%), respectively, used margins for plan evaluation. Seventeen (21%) photon and 8 (80%) proton centres used robust opti-misation, while 10 (13%) and 8 (80%), respectively, used robust evaluation. Primary uncertainties consid-ered were patient setup (photons and protons) and range calculation uncertainties (protons). Participants expressed the need for improved commercial tools to control and evaluate plan complexity and robust-ness.Conclusion: Clinical implementation of methods to control and evaluate plan complexity and robustness is very heterogeneous. Better tools are needed to manage complexity and robustness in treatment plan-ning systems. International guidelines may promote harmonization.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Radiotherapy and Oncology 173 (2022) 254-261 This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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| 10. |
- Marcelli, L., et al.
(author)
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The Mini-EUSO telescope on board the ISS: in-flight operations and performances
- 2022
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In: Proceedings International Conference on Technology and Instrumentation in Particle Physics, TIPP 2021. - : IOP Publishing.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mini-EUSO is a high sensitivity imaging telescope that observes the Earth from the ISS in the ultraviolet band (2904÷430 nm), through the UV-transparent window in the Russian Zvezda module. The instrument, launched in 2019 as part of the ESA mission Beyond, has a field of view of 44°, a spatial resolution on the Earth surface of 6.3 km and a temporal resolution of 2.5 microseconds. The telescope detects UV emissions of cosmic, atmospheric and terrestrial origin on different time scales, from a few microseconds upwards. Mini-EUSO main detector optics is composed of two Fresnel lenses focusing light onto an array of 36 Hamamatsu multi-anode photomultiplier tubes, for a total of 2304 pixels. The telescope also contains: two ancillary cameras to complement measurements in the near infrared and visible ranges, an array of Silicon-PhotoMultipliers and UV sensors to manage night-day transitions. In this work we will describe the in-flight operations and performances of the various instruments in the first months after launch.
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