The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) aims to monitor electromagnetic, particle, and plasma perturbations in the iono-magnetosphere and inner Van Allen radiation belts originated by ...electromagnetic sources external and internal to the geomagnetic cavity, cosmic rays, and solar events. In particular, the objective of the space mission is to investigate lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling mechanisms (including the effects of lightning, earthquakes, volcanoes, and artificial electromagnetic emissions) that induce perturbations of the top side of the ionosphere and lower boundary of the radiation belts. To this purpose, the mission has been conceived to take advantage of a multi-instrument payload comprising nine detectors for the measurement of electromagnetic field components, plasma parameters, and energetic particles, as well as X-ray flux. The Italian team participating in the CSES mission has built one of these devices, the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD), for high-precision observations of electrons, protons, and light nuclei. During its trip along the orbit, and thanks to the large set of detectors operated on board, CSES completely monitors the Earth, acting as an excellent instrument for space weather. The satellite was launched on 2018 February 2, with an expected life span of 5 yr. This article describes the CSES mission with a particular focus on the HEPD apparatus and its in-flight performance.
The prevalence of psychiatric problems and substance abuse is high in the veteran population with hepatitis C. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively analyze the effect of preexisting ...psychiatric conditions in veteran patients undergoing treatment with interferon a-2b (IFN-alpha) with respect to adverse events, compliance, and treatment response.
Thirty-three veterans with chronic hepatitis C were treated with IFN-alpha (5 million units three times weekly) for 6 months, followed by a tapering dose for an additional 6 months. All patients fulfilled standard criteria for treatment eligibility. Psychiatric diagnoses, adverse events, and virological and biochemical responses to therapy were determined.
Nineteen of 33 (58%) patients with hepatitis C had documented psychiatric conditions before starting IFN-alpha therapy. Of the patients with preexisting psychiatric diagnoses, 13/19 (68%) developed major adverse events requiring intervention or discontinuation of therapy. In contrast, 4/14 (29%) patients without psychiatric diagnoses developed major adverse events (p = 0.024) In the psychiatric group, 6/19 (32%) developed major neuropsychiatric side effects compared with 2/14 patients (14%) in the nonpsychiatric group (p = 0.25). Patients with and without psychiatric diagnoses had equivalent biochemical and virological responses to therapy. Overall, only 2/33 (6%) patients had a sustained virological response.
Veterans with chronic hepatitis C and psychiatric diagnoses experienced a significantly greater number of major adverse events during treatment with IFN-alpha. Veteran patients with hepatitis C should be carefully screened for psychiatric conditions and may require more intensive monitoring during IFN-alpha therapy.
Precision measurements of cosmic ray positrons are presented up to 1 TeV based on 1.9 million positrons collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station. The positron ...flux exhibits complex energy dependence. Its distinctive properties are (a) a significant excess starting from 25.2±1.8 GeV compared to the lower-energy, power-law trend, (b) a sharp dropoff above 284_{-64}^{+91} GeV, (c) in the entire energy range the positron flux is well described by the sum of a term associated with the positrons produced in the collision of cosmic rays, which dominates at low energies, and a new source term of positrons, which dominates at high energies, and (d) a finite energy cutoff of the source term of E_{s}=810_{-180}^{+310} GeV is established with a significance of more than 4σ. These experimental data on cosmic ray positrons show that, at high energies, they predominantly originate either from dark matter annihilation or from other astrophysical sources.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, NUK, UL
Precision results on cosmic-ray electrons are presented in the energy range from 0.5 GeV to 1.4 TeV based on 28.1×10^{6} electrons collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International ...Space Station. In the entire energy range the electron and positron spectra have distinctly different magnitudes and energy dependences. The electron flux exhibits a significant excess starting from 42.1_{-5.2}^{+5.4} GeV compared to the lower energy trends, but the nature of this excess is different from the positron flux excess above 25.2±1.8 GeV. Contrary to the positron flux, which has an exponential energy cutoff of 810_{-180}^{+310} GeV, at the 5σ level the electron flux does not have an energy cutoff below 1.9 TeV. In the entire energy range the electron flux is well described by the sum of two power law components. The different behavior of the cosmic-ray electrons and positrons measured by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is clear evidence that most high energy electrons originate from different sources than high energy positrons.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, NUK, UL
The deuteron (D) over proton (p) flux ratio in cosmic rays (CR) is one of the most valuable tools for understanding the propagation of CR in the galaxy and constrain the models that describe it. In ...this work, two new preliminary measurement of D/p flux ratios is presented, each obtained from the data of the AMS-02 experiment.
CSES (China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite) is a Chinese–Italian scientific space mission dedicated to monitor the variations of the main parameters of the topside ionosphere (electric and magnetic ...fields, plasma parameters, charge particle fluxes) caused by either natural emitters – especially earthquakes – or artificial ones.
The CSES satellite was successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center located in the west of Inner Mongolia on February 2nd, 2018, and it is now orbiting under nominal conditions. The expected mission lifetime amounts to 5 years. CSES is the first element of a multi-satellite monitoring system; several satellites are scheduled for the next few years.
The High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD) is the main contribution of the Italian collaboration to the mission. It was designed and built in order to detect electrons in the energy range between 3 and 100 MeV, protons between 30 and 200 MeV, and light nuclei in the MeV energy window.
The electronics of the detector was designed following stringent requirements on mechanical and thermal stability, power consumption, radiation hardness and double redundancy. The system successfully went through the space qualification tests. In this paper, we describe the HEPD electronics, the space qualification tests performed before launch, and the in-flight performance of the detector.
CSES (China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite) is a Chinese-Italian space mission dedicated to monitoring of variations of the electromagnetic field and waves, plasma parameters, and particle fluxes ...induced by natural sources and artificial emitters in the near-Earth space. The satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert (Inner Mongolia, China) on 2, 2018. The expected mission lifetime amounts to 5 years.
The Italian contribution to the mission includes the design and construction of the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD), aimed to detect electrons in the energy range between 3 and 100 MeV and protons between 30 and 200 MeV, as well as light nuclei in the MeV energy range.
In this paper, we describe the calibration procedures applied to HEPD based on data acquired during two tests at accelerator laboratories, which were performed on HEPD Flight Model prior to the delivery to China for final integration. An additional acquisition of cosmic muons was performed in order to better characterize the detector response before launch.
The AMS-02 lead-scintillating fibres Electromagnetic Calorimeter Adloff, C.; Basara, L.; Bigongiari, G. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
06/2013, Volume:
714
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECAL) of the AMS-02 experiment is a fine grained lead-scintillating fibres sampling calorimeter that allows for a precise three-dimensional imaging of the ...longitudinal and lateral shower development. It provides a high (≥106) electron/hadron discrimination with the other AMS-02 detectors 1 and good energy resolution. The calorimeter also provides a standalone photon trigger capability to AMS-02. The mechanical assembly was realized to ensure minimum weight, still supporting the intrinsically heavy calorimeter during launch. ECAL light collection system and electronics are designed to measure electromagnetic particles over a wide energy range, from GeV up to TeV. A full-scale flight-like model was tested using electrons and proton beams with energies ranging from 6 to 250GeV.
Metastasizing tumor cells must traverse diverse extracellular matrices during dissemination. Extracellular matrices consist of two basic types, interstitial stroma and basement membranes. ...Extracellular matrices are chemically complex structures that interact with cell surfaces by a number of mechanisms. There has been a great deal of effort in recent years to understand the molecular nature of extracellular matrices, especially as it relates to the adhesion of normal and malignant cell types. Adhesive noncollagenous glycoproteins, such as laminin and fibronectin, serve pivotal roles in basement membrane and stromal matrices, respectively. These proteins participate in establishing the architecture of extracellular matrices as well as in attaching to the surface of cells and affecting cellular phenotype. This phenotypic effect ranges from adhesion and motility to growth and differentiation. Changes in adhesive characteristics and motility of cells have long been suspected to play a role in mediating the spread of malignant neoplasms. This article is designed to review extracellular matrix constituents that are currently known that can mediate the adhesion and motility of malignant neoplasms. The adhesion of normal and malignant cells to matrices is a complex process mediated by several distinct mechanisms which are initially manifested by changes in cytoskeletal architecture. The topic of normal and malignant cell adhesion to matrices will also be discussed in this regard, since any explanation of tumor cell migration must account for the complex dynamic interactions of the cell surface with the substratum as well as with the cytoskeleton. Finally, current efforts designed to understand the molecular nature of tumor cell:matrix interactions that contribute to metastatic behavior will also be discussed. The rationale behind these studies is that selective inhibition of specific tumor:extracellular matrix interactions can provide an avenue for therapeutic intervention of metastatic cancer.
Treatment options for bacterial vaginosis (BV) include oral and topical formulations of metronidazole or topical formulations of clindamycin. Opinions of a new vaginal suppository form of ...clindamycin, administered for 3 days, were obtained in a survey of 96 women who had been generally satisfied with their previous treatment. Following manipulation of the clindamycin ovule and metronidazole vaginal gel, more respondents expressed a preference for the ovule (52% vs 47%), and 54% preferred the ovule to the gel (44%) for possible future use. The gel was rated easier to use, but the ovule was found to be less messy. After manipulating both products, respondents read a profile of the ovule and identified the 3-day course as its most beneficial feature, citing this reason as increasing their likelihood of completing therapy with the ovule than with the gel. Approximately three fourths of the respondents who initially preferred the gel switched their preference to the ovule after reading the product profile. At that point, 86.5% of all respondents preferred the ovule. These results suggest the potential for improved compliance with therapy for BV with the clindamycin ovule.
PDF
