We describe some applications of SiPMs developed for space-borne detectors to be employed in astroparticle physics research. SiPMs were first installed in space in 2005 on board of the International ...Space Station (ISS) in the Lazio-Sirad experiment. In Lazio-Sirad the SiPMs have been used as sensors of a small calorimeter to measure radiation environment in space and assess the effectiveness of shielding for astronauts. More recently, a 64 pixel array of SiPMs was used in Mini-EUSO, an UV telescope to study UV terrestrial emissions. Mini-EUSO was launched in Summer 2019 on board the ISS and is observing the Earth from a nadir facing window in the Russian section of the station. The detector technology and readout electronics developed in these contexts can also be employed in ground-based applications, both in research and in technological transfer implementations. As an example, we also discuss the application of SiPM detectors developed for EUSO detectors in the development of Lanfos, a detector to assess the amount of Cesium in food produced in the regions affected by the 2011 Fukushima power plant accident.
Recently rapid mapping techniques based on UAV photogrammetry increasingly help on-site archaeological documentation works. Multi-temporal data are specifically crucial in diachronic investigation ...research, and for this purpose the data co-registration and integration can support the accurate 3D digitization of excavation phases and make coherent topological relation among them and phases-related stratigraphic units’ data. In this framework, the level of automation and accuracy control are challenging aspects to streamline the documentation process during excavation activities, however all experimentation phases must be tested and validated in the actual archaeological context, where the boundary conditions are typically demanding. This research is developed during the collaboration project with Cà Foscari University of Venice, started in 2022 campaign, in the excavation site of Tell Zeyd, in Iraqi Kurdistan, The Tell Zeyd Archaeological Project (ZAP) aims to study the rural landscape of the hinterland of Mosul in the long Islamic period, from the Arab conquest in the 7th century to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire with the First World War, as an ideal observatory on the characteristics of the settlement in its spatial organisation, places of worship, production installations and facilities for storing foodstuffs. The research aims to present the preliminary test and results on an experimental documentation activity based on multi-scale UAV mapping strategy and training with the archaeological expert group, and particularly for automatic co-registration of multi-temporal data, considering different images datasets epochs belonging to subsequent excavation phases.
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.
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.
More than three dozen submillisecond events of ELVES type (“elves”), which are the result of the interaction of the front of an electromagnetic pulse from a lightning discharge and the lower layer of ...the ionosphere, have been identified in the data of a UV Atmosphere orbital multichannel detector (Mini-EUSO). Each event has a characteristic annular glow pattern and occupies a significant part of the detector’s field of view, and the signal in a separate channel has an asymmetric profile with a pronounced peak. The distribution of peak times contains information about both the localization of the discharge and the altitude of the glow. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian (probabilistic) model for reconstructing ELVES events, implemented using probabilistic programming methods in PyMC-5. The capabilities of the model for determining the position of the discharge are shown using the example of several events. Methods for modifying the model to restore the discharge orientation and refine the glow height are outlined.
Summary
The differences in systemic T‐cell responses between patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and patients with cutaneous psoriasis (Ps) are still largely unknown. To determine differential ...features that could be used to distinguish PsA from Ps, we compared the cytokine secretion profile of circulating T cells in patients with PsA, patients with cutaneous Ps and control subjects. We determined Th1, Th2 and Th17 cytokine secretion of anti‐CD3‐stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) using a cytokine bead array. Normality of data distribution was assessed by the Shapiro–Wilk test, and statistical significance was calculated by the Mann–Whitney test. Phenotypic characterization of circulating T cells was performed by fluorescence‐activated cell sorting analysis. We found that the major systemic differences distinguishing PsA from cutaneous Ps were the increased secretion of interleukin (IL)‐2 by α‐CD3‐stimulated PBMCs and a higher percentage of circulating CD3+ T cells expressing the proliferation marker CD71 in PsA. These results indicate IL‐2 as a possible biomarker of PsA, and suggest a role of circulating T cells with high proliferative capacity in the pathogenesis of PsA.
Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting approximately 2% of the population. Important clinical benefits in the treatment of psoriasis have been obtained with TNF inhibitors, which ...have also contributed to the understanding of mechanisms involved in the disease pathogenesis. Despite the evidence that TNF-inhibitors block the inflammatory cascade and induce a decrease of Th17 responses in the psoriatic plaques, their primary mechanism of action in inhibiting the self-sustaining pathogenic cycle in psoriasis is not completely understood 1–3. In this study we want to identify the early key events for the resolution of inflammation in psoriatic skin lesions upon treatment with TNF inhibitors.
We used a translational approach combining quantitative gene expression analysis, clinical parameter of disease severity (PASI) and immunofluorescence analysis on tissue sections. Punch biopsies were collected from lesional skin at baseline and after 4weeks of anti-TNF therapy (Etanercept, Infliximab or Adalimumab) and gene expression levels were evaluated by qRT-PCR performed by TaqMan Low Density Array (Human Immune Panel). The correlation between changes of gene expression in lesional skin and the decrease of PASI score after treatment was calculated with Spearman’s rank correlation test.
Data were validated by immunofluorescence microscopy on skin biopsies collected at baseline and after anti-TNF therapy (4weeks).
We found that among genes down-modulated by TNF inhibitors, the ones that mostly associated with clinical remission were Ccr7, its ligand Ccl19 and dendritic cell maturation genes. Clinical remission was also associated with the decreased expression of T cell activation genes and Vegf. Importantly, the down-regulation of Ccr7 observed at 4weeks also correlated with the clinical remission occurring at later time points. Immunofluorescence microscopy on skin biopsies showed that reduction of CCR7+ cells and CCL19 was paralleled by disaggregation of the dermal lymphoid-like tissue in the psoriatic plaque.
These data show that early critical events for psoriasis resolution induced by TNF-blockade are the inhibition of CCR7/CCL19 axis and the disaggregation of the lymphoid-like tissue in the upper derma. This strongly supports the role of dermal lymphoid aggregate formation mediated by CCR7/CCL19 interaction in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.
We examined the effect of the protein kinase C-selective inhibitor AEB071 (sotrastaurin) on neutrophil functions in vitro. Pre-incubation with AEB071 at concentrations similar to those reached during ...in vivo therapy significantly reduced cell capacity to migrate toward three different chemo-attractants and to produce superoxide anions (O2) in response to phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) or to iV-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP). AEB071 also significantly inhibited the O−2 “overproduction induced by fMLP in neutrophils primed with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) or granulocyte/macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). This inhibition was not linked to fMLP-receptor down-regulation since the drug had no effect on either fMLP-receptors or fMLP-induced CD11b membrane expression. When the activity of AEB071 was compared to that of the conventional protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor Gö6850 (which, like sotrastaurin, inhibits classical and novel PKC isoforms), Gö6976 (an inhibitor of α and β PKC isoforms) and rottlerin (a prevailing δ PKC isoform inhibitor), AEB071 at an equimolar concentration of 3 μM (close to the maximum drug concentration reached in patients treated with AEB071) caused significantly more inhibition on both chemotactic response and superoxide production. These in vitro findings suggest that neutrophils may offer a cellular target for AEB071 activity in vivo.
Light flashes are unusual visual phenomena that are observed in space and are caused by the interaction of energetic cosmic-ray particles with the human visual system. Using data gathered on board ...the Mir space station during the Sileye-2 experiment, we show here that there are two separate components of cosmic rays that cause these flashes: one due to heavy nuclei and one due to protons. This indicates that perception by an astronaut's visual apparatus could involve two complementary mechanisms.
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