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Ultralow-noise microwave amplification and detection play a central role in different applications, going from fundamental physics experiments to the deployment of quantum technologies. In many applications the necessity of reading multiple detectors, or cavities or qubits, calls for large bandwidth amplifiers with the lowest possible noise. Current technologies are based on High Electron Mobility Transistors and Josephson Parametric Amplifiers. Both have limitations, the former in terms of the minimum noise, the latter in terms of bandwidth. Superconducting Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (TWPAs) have the potential of offering quantum limited noise and large bandwidth. These amplifiers are based on the parametric amplification of microwaves traveling along a transmission line with embedded nonlinear elements. We are developing superconducting TWPAs based both on Josephson junction arrays (Traveling Wave Josephson Parametric mplifiers) and on nonlinear kinetic inductance (Dispersion Engineered Traveling Wave Kinetic Inductance Amplifiers). Our goal is to achieve large bandwidth (in the 5 to 10 GHz range), large gain (more than 20 dB), large saturation power (more than -50 dBm), and near quantum limited noise (noise temperature less than 600 mK). Current achievements in the design and development of the high performance TWPAs are here reported and discussed, together with current limitations and possible future developments.

The growing interest in quantum technologies, from fundamental physics experiments to quantum computing, demands for extremely performing electronics only adding the minimum amount of noise admitted by quantum mechanics to the input signal (i.e. quantum-limited electronics). Superconducting microwave amplifiers, due to their dissipationless nature, exhibit outstanding performances in terms of noise (quantum limited), and gain. However, bandwidth and saturation power still show space for substantial improvement. Within the DARTWARS* collaboration, we are developing state-of-the-art microwave superconducting amplifiers based on Josephson junction arrays and on distributed kinetic inductance transmission lines. Here we report the realization of a setup for the characterization of the performances of Josephson Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifiers (JTWPA) at a temperature of 300 mK. Although in the final experimental setup these amplifiers will operate at a base temperature of about 20 mK, their characterization at 300 mK allows to evidence the main aspects of their performances, but the ultimate noise level. This represents a quick and relatively inexpensive way to test these superconductive devices that can be of help to improve their design and fabrication. IEEE

The advancement of technology in the field of glycemic control has led to the widespread use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), which can be nowadays obtained from wearable devices equipped with a minimally invasive sensor, that is, transcutaneous needle type or implantable, and a transmitter that sends information to a receiver or smart device for data storage and display. This work aims to review the currently available software packages and tools for the analysis of CGM data. Based on the purposes of this work, 12 software packages have been identified from the literature, published until December 2021, namely: GlyCulator, EasyGV (Easy Glycemic Variability), CGM-GUIDE

In this paper, we present a three-dimensional discrete model governing the deformation of a viral capsid, modelled as a regular icosahedron and subjected not to cross a given flat rigid surface on which it initially lies in correspondence of one vertex only. First, we set up the model in the form of a set of variational inequalities posed over a non-empty, closed and convex subset of a suitable space. Second, we show the existence and uniqueness of the solution for the proposed model. Third, we numerically test this model and we observe that the outputs of the numerical experiments comply with physics. Finally, we establish the existence of solutions for the corresponding time-dependent version of the obstacle problem under consideration.

This is the first study that quantifies explicitly the impact of present vegetation on concentrations and depositions, considering simultaneously its effects on meteorology, biogenic emissions, dispersion, and dry deposition in three European cities: Bologna, Milan, and Madrid. The behaviour of three pollutants (O3, NO2, and PM10) was investigated considering two different scenarios, with the actual vegetation (VEG) and without it (NOVEG) for two months, representative of summer and winter seasons: July and January. The evaluation is based on simulations performed with two state-of-the-art atmospheric modelling systems (AMS) that use similar but not identical descriptions of physical and chemical atmospheric processes: AMS-MINNI for the two Italian cities and WRF-CMAQ for the Spanish city. The choice of using two AMS and applying one of them in two cities has been made to ensure the robustness of the results needed for their further generalization. The analysis of the spatial distribution of the vegetation effects on air concentrations and depositions shows that they are highly variable from one grid cell to another in the city area, with positive/negative effects or high/low effects in adjacent cells being observed for the three pollutants investigated in all cities. According to the pollutant, on a monthly basis, the highest differences in concentrations (VEG-NOVEG) produced by vegetation were estimated in July for O3 (−7.40 μg/m3 in Madrid and +2.67 μg/m3 in Milan) and NO2 (−3.01 μg/m3 in Milan and +7.17 μg/m3 in Madrid) and in January for PM10 (−3.14 μg/m3 in Milan +2.01 μg/m3 in Madrid). Thus, in some parts of the cities, the presence of vegetation had produced an increase in pollutant concentrations despite its efficient removal action that ranges from ca. 17% for O3 in Bologna (January) to ca. 77% for NO2 in Madrid (July).

In this work, we aim to characterize the effective scale height at the ionosphere F2-layer peak (H0) by using in situ electron density (Ne) observations by Langmuir Probes (LPs) onboard the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES—01). CSES—01 is a sun-synchronous satellite orbiting at an altitude of ~500 km, with descending and ascending nodes at ~14:00 local time (LT) and ~02:00 LT, respectively. Calibrated CSES—01 LPs Ne observations for the years 2019–2021 provide information in the topside ionosphere, whereas the International Reference Ionosphere model (IRI) provides Ne values at the F2-layer peak altitude for the same time and geographical coordinates as CSES—01. CSES—01 and IRI Ne datasets are used as anchor points to infer H0 by assuming a linear scale height in the topside representation given by the NeQuick model. COSMIC/FORMOSAT—3 (COSMIC—1) radio occultation (RO) data are used to constrain the vertical gradient of the effective scale height in the topside ionosphere in the linear approximation. With the CSES—01 dataset, we studied the global behavior of H0 for daytime (~14:00 LT) and nighttime (~02:00 LT) conditions, different seasons, and low solar activity. Results from CSES—01 observations are compared with those obtained through Swarm B satellite Ne-calibrated measurements and validated against those from COSMIC—1 RO for similar diurnal, seasonal, and solar activity conditions. H0 values modeled by using CSES—01 and Swarm B-calibrated observations during daytime both agree with corresponding values obtained directly from COSMIC—1 RO profiles. Differently, H0 modeling for nighttime conditions deserves further investigation because values obtained from both CSES—01 and Swarm B-calibrated observations show remarkable and spatially localized differences compared to those obtained through COSMIC—1. Most of the H0 mismodeling for nighttime conditions can probably to be attributed to a sub-optimal spatial representation of the F2-layer peak density made by the underlying IRI model. For comparison, H0 values obtained with non-calibrated CSES—01 and Swarm B Ne observations are also calculated and discussed. The methodology developed in this study for the topside effective scale height modeling turns out to be applicable not only to CSES—01 satellite data but to any in situ Ne observation by low-Earth-orbit satellites orbiting in the topside ionosphere.

EuPRAXIA@SPARC_LAB is a new multi-disciplinary user-facility that is currently under construction at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of the INFN in the framework of the EuPRAXIA collaboration. The electron beam will be accelerated by an X-band normal conducting linac followed by a Plasma WakeField Acceleration (PWFA) stage. It will be characterized by a small footprint and it will drive two FEL beamlines for experiments, one in the VUV (50-180 nm) and the other in the XUV-soft x-rays (4-10 nm) spectral region. As an ancillary beamline, we are also including a betatron source in the x-ray from laser-plasma interaction. We present the status update of our facility.

The recent developments in quantum technologies, as well as advanced detection experiments, have raised the need to detect extremely weak signals in the microwave frequency spectrum. To this aim, the Josephson travelling wave parametric amplifier, a device capable of reaching the quantum noise limit while providing a wide bandwidth, has been proposed as a suitable cryogenic front-end amplifier. This work deals with the numerical study of a Josephson travelling wave parametric amplifier, without approximations regarding the nonlinearity of the key elements. In particular, we focus on the investigation of the system of coupled nonlinear differential equations representing all the cells of the Josephson travelling wave parametric amplifier, with proper input and output signals at the boundaries. The investigation of the output signals generated by the parametric amplification process explores the phase-space and the Fourier spectral analysis of the output voltage, as a function of the parameters describing the pump and signal tones that excite the device. Beside the expected behavior, i.e., the signal amplification, we show that, depending on the system operation, unwanted effects (such as pump tone harmonics, incommensurate frequency generation, and noise rise), which are not accounted for in simple linearized approaches, can be generated in the whole nonlinear system. IEEE

We report the synthesis, chemical properties, and disulfide bond-reducing performance of a dithiol called NACMEAA, conceived as a hybrid of two biologically relevant thiols: cysteine and cysteamine. NACMEAA is conveniently prepared from inexpensive l-cystine in an efficient manner. As a nonvolatile, highly soluble, and neutral compound at physiological pH with the first thiol p

In this paper we identify a set of two-dimensional variational inequalities that model the displacement of a linearly elastic flexural shell subjected to a confinement condition, expressing that all the points of the admissible deformed configurations remain in a given half-space. The action of friction is neglected., More details have been added to the proofs

The topside ionosphere embraces the region extending from the F2-layer electron density peak to the overlying plasmasphere. In this region the electron density monotonically decreases at a vertical rate driven by the plasma scale height, which in turn depends on both the plasma chemical composition and the physical state. Since an accurate and thorough knowledge of the plasma chemical and physical properties at these altitudes is not available with the required spatial and temporal coverage, an effective plasma scale height is usually inferred from topside electron density measurements and used for empirical modelling purposes.In this work, we aim at characterizing the effective plasma scale height (H0) above the F2-layer peak through in-situ electron density (Ne) observations by Langmuir Probes (LPs) on-board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01). Additional information is given by the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model. CSES-01 is a sun-synchronous satellite flying with an orbital inclination of 97.4°, an altitude of ~500 km, and descending and ascending nodes are at ~14 local time (LT) and ~02 LT, respectively. Calibrated CSES-01 LPs Ne data recorded in the years 2019-2021 provides the information in the topside ionosphere, while IRI provides the Ne values at the F2-layer peak (NmF2) for the same time, latitude, and longitude sounded by CSES-01. These two Ne set of values are used as anchor points to infer H0 through the topside representation given by the NeQuick model. By exploiting the CSES-01 dataset for the years 2019-2021 we deduced the global H0 behavior for daytime (~14 LT) and nighttime (~02 LT) conditions, for low solar activity conditions. Results obtained with CSES-01 observations are compared and validated with corresponding ones provided by COSMIC-1 radio occultation measurements for similar diurnal and solar activity conditions.

We present the results of a study of the electric field properties in the auroral oval (AO) region. We exploit more than one year of electric field measurements taken by the EFD instrument onboard the China-Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite 01 (CSES-01) spacecraft, orbiting sun-synchronously at around 500 km of altitude inside the Earth ionosphere. To exploit the high temporal resolution of EFD, we devise a new technique that allows to detect the crossing of the AO by CSES-01 using electric field measurements only. This new technique combines a median-weighted local variance measure and Iterative Filtering to automatically isolate high levels of electromagnetic activity caused by, e.g., particle precipitation and Field Aligned Currents (FAC) at auroral latitudes. We validate this new method on few selected orbits against other standard proxies, such as the SWARM single-FAC product and the auroral radiance emission measured by SSUSI onboard the DMSP constellation. Furthermore, we identify ~3 000 orbits (on a dataset of ~10 000) of high geomagnetic activity where CSES either crossed the AO boundary or the polar cap region and characterize the multiscale (down to characteristic electron scales) statistical properties of the electric field. This work represents the first systematic study of the Auroral electric field, with many potential applications to space-weather studies, thanks to the large amount of continuous observations of the ionosphere carried out by CSES-01.

In the last few decades, the efforts of the scientific community to search earthquake signatures in the Earth atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere have grown rapidly. The increasing amount of good quality data from ground stations and satellites allowed the detection of specific signatures with high statistical significance such as ionospheric plasma density perturbations and/or atmospheric temperature and pressure changes. In addition, the recent development of a magnetospheric–ionospheric–lithospheric coupling (M.I.L.C.) analytical model has provided promising results in the identification of causal links between the observed anomalies and their possible seismic origin. With the aim of statistical validating such a model, we have performed a multi-instrument analysis of a mid-latitude seismic event, including also the investigation of atmospheric activity, in order to validate the identification of confounders and possibly explain any observed anomalous signal. Specifically, we have investigated the earthquake (Mw 4.2) occurred in Italy (Marche) on November 20th 2022 by using high-quality data from both ground-based detectors and satellites, preserving their statistical significance, that we have compared with the predictions of the M.I.L.C. model.

We model plasma turbulence in the near-Sun solar wind by means of a high-resolution fully kinetic simulation initialised with average plasma conditions measured by Parker Solar Probe during its first solar encounter. Once turbulence is fully developed, the power spectra of the plasma and electromagnetic fluctuations exhibit clear power-law intervals down to sub-electron scales. Our simulation models the electron-scale electric field fluctuations with unprecedented accuracy. This allows us to perform the first detailed analysis of the different terms of the electric field in the generalised Ohm's law (MHD, Hall, and electron pressure terms) at ion and electron scales, both in physical space and in Fourier space. Such analysis suggests rewriting the Ohm’s law in a different form, which disentangles the contribution of different underlying plasma mechanisms, characterising the nature of the electric field fluctuations in the different range of scales. This provides a new insight on how energy in the turbulent electromagnetic fields is transferred through ion and electron scales and seems to favour the role of pressure-balanced structures versus waves. We finally test our assumptions and numerical results by means of a statistical analysis using magnetic field, electric field, and electron density data from Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe. Preliminary results show good agreement with our theoretical expectations inspired by our simulation.

The primary stone building material of ancient Rome from its initial settlement until recent times is constituted by the tuff; easy to cut, resistant to weathering, and an effective thermal insulator, with the disadvantage of a significant radionuclide content. An accurate monitoring of indoor radon in workplaces and residential dwellings constitutes a first step towards mitigating the exposure to the population. Since radon diffusion dynamics involves complex interactions among many environmental parameters on different time scales, a proper assessment of radon concentration variations can be better achieved by means of active monitoring approaches. We present here the results of continuous measurements conducted in 35 residential dwellings located in the municipality of Rome and its suburban area, and in a public building and workplace: the geophysical museum of Rocca di Papa.The use of active devices makes it possible to discriminate between average indoor radon measured during the day, when workers and visitors are more likely present, and overnight, more relevant for the exposure of residents. Collecting long time series of radon concentration enables us to identify fluctuations over seasonal scales, with radon generally decreasing in the warm season. The simultaneous tracking of different floors of the same building shows an inversion of the dynamics of gas convection during the warm season compared to the cold one, likely depending on the chimney effect. Monitoring different rooms of the same dwelling reveals that values of gas concentration may greatly differ, indicating the importance of ventilation and/or heating system. Considering several dwellings allows us to question the general belief of a constantly higher exposure of the lowest floors to the indoor radon risk with respect to elevated floors (radon would enter mainly through foundation walls). Finally, the clustering of houses with high indoor radon levels in the historic center of Rome indicates the influence of geogenic radon and of building characteristics like age, typology, and construction materials.With so many endogenous and exogenous factors affecting the healthiness of indoor environments in terms of radon concentration, a proper assessment of health hazard requires the knowledge of the dynamics of the gas generation and transport inside the buildings, and of its temporal fluctuations; our analysis provides the instruments to disclose the characteristics of such dynamics, with the final goal to select the most suitable preventive measures to reduce radon exposure.

This study, conducted in the frame of the Pianeta Dinamico project funded by Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, aims to improve the knowledge of radon concentration dissolved in several different waters from some of the Italian volcanic areas and its relationships with lithological and structural settings, fluid chemistry and circulation, volcano dynamics.The study mainly focuses on 222Rn variations over time in thermal waters of the Campi Flegrei caldera at NW of Naples, an active volcanic field hosting an important geothermal system and one of the most dangerous calderas in the world. The caldera, part of the SW-NE trending fissure-like feeding system of the Phlegraean Volcanic District including also Ischia island, lastly erupted in 1538 and, since 2000, has been under a permanent unrest with up 1 metres of uplift, thousands of earthquakes and tons of CO2 emissions.25 sites were sampled and analysed for dissolved 222Rn levels at least twice per year since October 2021; starting from October 2022, 5 waters were then selected for monthly monitoring with the goal of unravelling exogenous (e.g., temperature or rainfall) versus endogenous processes relationships.In order to compare radon concentrations in the caldera with those in the volcanic context of southern Italy, we sampled and analysed as follows: a) 23 cold waters at Somma-Vesuvius, the stratovolcano placed at the intersection of regional NW–SE and NE–SW fault systems east of Naples, showing mild gaseous emissions after the 1944 eruption; b) 8 cold waters from the north of Campi Flegrei caldera, i.e. 7 from a multi-layer aquifer at the base of the extinct Roccamonfina stratovolcano and 1 water at Minturno (northern edge of Roccamonfina); c) 1 thermal water belonging to Ischia at the NW corner of the Gulf of Naples; d) 3 thermal waters of the Vulcano island from the Sicilian Aeolian Arc, characterised by vigorous seismic and fumarolic degassing activities that has shown an abrupt increase on August 2021.The waters are springs, lakes, pools, and groundwater; two are from Le Fumose (Campi Flegrei) and Porto Ponente (Vulcano) submerged emissions.Measurements have been performed by a Radon-in-air detector (RAD7®, Durridge Co.) equipped with Big Bottle RAD H2O and DRYSTIK accessories and processed using the CAPTURE program.Campi Flegrei reaches the highest radon concentrations, varying from 0.20 ± 0.03 to ~1887 ± 13 Bq/L. Somma-Vesuvius shows from almost no radon to 24 ± 1 Bq/L, and Ischia is at 54 ± 2 Bq/L.Roccamonfina area has a discrete variability from 0.2 ± 0.1 to ~ 71 ± 7 Bq/L at SE, being 9.0 ± 0.4 Bq/L at Minturno.Vulcano island attains the lowest detected concentrations, less than 2.4 ± 1.0 Bq/L.Dealing with different areas, the presented results lay the groundwork for better understanding radon behaviour and evaluating the implications on environmental and volcanic hazards assessment. At Campi Flegrei where, in 2012, the alert level was raised from base to warning, radon should be useful to investigate processes from which volcanic dynamics originates and to corroborate the monitoring outcomes.

Ground-based very low frequency (VLF; 10-30kHz) transmitters have been found in previous studies to emit whistler waves that can re- sonate with high-energy particles (>100keV) in the radiation belt, causing energetic electron precipitation via pitch angle scattering. In the attempt to find a similar mechanism responsible for electron precipitation due to EM waves emitted during seismic events, we ha- ve analysed three years of data (2019-2021) from the China Seismo- Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) and the NOAA POES satellites. We found enhanced electron fluxes due to the 19.8kHz waves of the NWC transmitter in Australia at L-shell values of about 1.5 and 1.8 at energies up to 400keV in the data of the CSES and NOAA POES-19 sa- tellite, respectively. The enhanced fluxes can be followed along the drift shells from Australia eastwards, and are observed to be lost in the the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) due to the interaction with the atmosphere. The high energy resolution of the HEPP-L detector on board CSES of 11keV from 0.1 to 3MeV allows a detailed study of the signal and we will present the expected energy-dispersed wisp struc- ture in L-shell. Finally, we will present our latest results on the identification of isolated electron bursts and the assignment to dif- ferent VLF transmitters, which includes the correlation of VLF wave measurements from ground and space-based instruments to determined on/off periods of the transmitters.

Dataset related to the paper: Can rock deformation control radon emission? data fotmat is a structured .mat data are listed by experiment name mechanical data start with "s" and contain: Time_new (time in day hh:mm), shear1 (shear stress MPa), normal (normal load MPa), short (axial shortening (mm + shortening - dilation), slipF (slip, m ), velF (slip rate m/s) slip and slip rate are filtered using an acausal filter with butter windows. shortening data are smoothed of 200 points acquisition rate was 200 Hz radon data start with "r" and contain: t (time in day hh:mm), time (time in s), countesec (counts for seconds), cumcounts (cumulative counts) mm# (counts averaged every 1, 5, 10 15, 30, 60 minute)

This paper is devoted to the analysis of a numerical scheme based on the Finite Element Method for approximating the solution of Koiter's model for a linearly elastic elliptic membrane shell subjected to remaining confined in a prescribed half-space. First, we show that the solution of the obstacle problem under consideration is uniquely determined and satisfies a set of variational inequalities which are governed by a fourth order elliptic operator, and which are posed over a non-empty, closed, and convex subset of a suitable space. Second, we show that the solution of the obstacle problem under consideration can be approximated by means of the penalty method. Third, we show that the solution of the corresponding penalised problem is more regular up to the boundary. Fourth, we write down the mixed variational formulation corresponding to the penalised problem under consideration, and we show that the solution of the mixed variational formulation is more regular up to the boundary as well. In view of this result concerning the augmentation of the regularity of the solution of the mixed penalised problem, we are able to approximate the solution of the one such problem by means of a Finite Element scheme. Finally, we present numerical experiments corroborating the validity of the mathematical results we obtained.

A standardized methodology for the validation of short-term air quality forecast applications was developed in the framework of FAIRMODE activities. The proposed approach, focusing on specific features to be checked when evaluating a forecasting application, investigates the model capability to detect sudden changes of pollutants concentrations levels, to predict threshold exceedances and to reproduce air quality indices. The proposed formulation relies on the definition of specific forecast Modelling Quality Objective and Performance Criteria, defining the minimum level of quality to be achieved by a forecasting application when it is used for policy purposes. The persistence model, which uses the most recent observed value as predicted value, is used as benchmark for the forecast evaluation. The validation protocol has been applied to several forecasting applications across Europe, using different modelling paradigms and covering a range of geographical contexts and spatial scales. The method is successful, with room for improvement, in highlighting shortcomings and strengths of forecasting applications. This provides a useful basis for using short-term air quality forecast as a supporting tool for correct information to citizens and regulators.

Background Modeling the whole cardiac function involves the solution of several complex multi-physics and multi-scale models that are highly computationally demanding, which call for simpler yet accurate, high-performance computational tools. Despite the efforts made by several research groups, no software for whole-heart fully-coupled cardiac simulations in the scientific community has reached full maturity yet. Results In this work we present $$\texttt {life}^{\texttt {x}}$$ life x -fiber, an innovative tool for the generation of myocardial fibers based on Laplace-Dirichlet Rule-Based Methods, which are the essential building blocks for modeling the electrophysiological, mechanical and electromechanical cardiac function, from single-chamber to whole-heart simulations. $$\texttt {life}^{\texttt {x}}$$ life x -fiber is the first publicly released module for cardiac simulations based on $$\texttt {life}^{\texttt {x}}$$ life x , an open-source, high-performance Finite Element solver for multi-physics, multi-scale and multi-domain problems developed in the framework of the iHEART project, which aims at making in silico experiments easily reproducible and accessible to a wide community of users, including those with a background in medicine or bio-engineering. Conclusions The tool presented in this document is intended to provide the scientific community with a computational tool that incorporates general state of the art models and solvers for simulating the cardiac function within a high-performance framework that exposes a user- and developer-friendly interface. This report comes with an extensive technical and mathematical documentation to welcome new users to the core structure of $$\texttt {life}^{\texttt {x}}$$ life x -fiber and to provide them with a possible approach to include the generated cardiac fibers into more sophisticated computational pipelines. In the near future, more modules will be successively published either as pre-compiled binaries for systems or as open source software.

Ionospheric disturbances (such as electromagnetic emissions) in connection to strong earthquakes have been reported in literature for over two decades. In order to be reliable, the identification of such disturbances requires a preliminary robust definition of the ionospheric background in the absence of both seismic activity and any other possible input (e.g., transient change in solar activity).In this work, we present a new technique for the assessment of the electromagnetic (EM) background in the ionosphere over seismic regions. The background is estimated via a multiscale statistical analysis that makes use of most of the electric- and magnetic-field datasets (2019–2021) from the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01).The result is a map of the average relative energy in a 6° x 6° LAT-LON cell centered at the earthquake epicenter (EE). Only EM signals that statistically differ from the background should be considered as events suitable for investigation.The method is tested against two strong seismic events, the 14 August 2021 Haitian earthquake (7.2 MW) and the 27 September 2021 Cretan earthquake (6.0 MW). In the former case, a signal (with characteristic frequency of 250 Hz) can be identified, which emerges from the background. In the latter one, the concurrent strong geomagnetic activity does not allow to tell any distinct signal apart from the background.

We present the results of a systematic study of the ionospheric electric field in the Auroral Oval (AO) region in the southern hemisphere. We exploit one year of electric field measurements taken by the Electric Field Detector (EFD) on board the Chinese Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite-01 (CSES-01), flying at around 500 km altitude in a sun-synchronous orbit. We exploit the high temporal resolution of the EFD to devise a new technique for the detection of CSES-01 crossing of the AO using electric field measurements only. This new technique combines a Median-Weighted Local Variance Measure with Fast Iterative Filtering to automatically isolate high levels of electromagnetic activity caused by, e.g., particle precipitation and Field Aligned Currents (FACs) at auroral latitudes. We validate this new method against other standard proxies, such as the single-FAC product from the Swarm mission and the auroral radiance emission measured by the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager (SSUSI) units on board the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) constellation. Furthermore, we identify ∼3000 orbits (out of a dataset of ∼10,000) where CSES-01 crosses the AO boundary under conditions of high geomagnetic activity. This dataset represents the first step in the systematic study of the auroral electric field, with many potential applications to space weather, thanks to the large amount of continuous observations of the ionosphere by CSES-01 and the forthcoming CSES-02 mission.

Reducing noise to the quantum limit over a large bandwidth is a fundamental requirement for future applications operating at millikelvin temperatures, such as the neutrino mass measurement, the next-generation X-ray observatory, the CMB measurement, the dark matter and axion detection, and the rapid high-fidelity readout of superconducting qubits. The read out sensitivity of arrays of microcalorimeter detectors, resonant axion-detectors, and qubits, is currently limited by the noise temperature and bandwidth of the cryogenic amplifiers. The Detector Array Readout with Traveling Wave Amplifiers project has the goal of developing high-performing innovative traveling wave parametric amplifiers with a high gain, a high saturation power, and a quantum-limited or nearly quantum-limited noise. The practical development follows two different promising approaches, one based on the Josephson junctions and the other one based on the kinetic inductance of a high-resistivity superconductor. In this contribution, we present the aims of the project, the adopted design solutions and preliminary results from simulations and measurements.

DARTWARS (Detector Array Readout with Traveling Wave AmplifieRS) is a three years project that aims to develop high-performing innovative Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (TWPAs) for low temperature detectors and qubit readout (C-band). The practical development follows two different promising approaches, one based on the Josephson junctions (TWJPA) and the other one based on the kinetic inductance of a high-resistivity superconductor (KITWPA). This paper presents the advancements made by the DARTWARS collaboration to produce a first working prototype of a KITWPA., 3 pages, 4 figures. Proceeding of Pisa15th Meeting conference

Policies to improve air quality need to be based on effective plans for reducing anthropogenic emissions. In 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant reductions of anthropogenic pollutant emissions, offering an unexpected opportunity to observe their consequences on ambient concentrations. Taking the national lockdown occurred in Italy between March and May 2020 as a case study, this work tries to infer if and what lessons may be learnt concerning the impact of emission reduction policies on air quality. Variations of NO2, O3, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were calculated from numerical model simulations obtained with business as usual and lockdown specific emissions. Both simulations were performed at national level with a horizontal resolution of 4 km, and at local level on the capital city Rome at 1 km resolution. Simulated concentrations showed a good agreement with in-situ observations, confirming the modelling systems capability to reproduce the effects of emission reductions on ambient concentration variations, which differ according to the individual air pollutant. We found a general reduction of pollutant concentrations except for ozone, that experienced an increase in Rome and in the other urban areas, and a decrease elsewhere. The obtained results suggest that acting on precursor emissions, even with sharp reductions like those experienced during the lockdown, may lead to significant, albeit complex, reduction patterns for secondary pollutant concentrations. Therefore, to be more effective, reduction measures should be carefully selected, involving more sectors than those related to mobility, such as residential and agriculture, and integrated on different scales.

IntroductionA great number of anti-inflammatory drugs have been suggested in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Reparixin, a non-competitive allosteric inhibitor of the CXCL8 (IL-8) receptors C-X-C chemokine receptor type 1 (CXCR1) and C-X-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CXCR2), has already been tried out as a treatment in different critical settings. Due to the contrasting existing literature, we decided to perform the present meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to investigate the effect of the use of reparixin on survival in patients at high risk for in-hospital mortality.MethodsWe created a search strategy to include any human RCTs performed with reparixin utilization in patients at high risk for in-hospital mortality, excluding oncological patients. Two trained, independent authors searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) for appropriate studies. Furthermore, references of review articles and included RCTs were screened to identify more studies. No language restrictions were enforced. To assess the risk of bias of included trials, the Revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (RoB 2) was used.ResultsOverall, six studies were included and involved 406 patients (220 received reparixin and 186 received the comparator). The all-cause mortality in the reparixin group was significantly lower than that in the control group [5/220 (2.3%) in the reparixin group vs. 12/186 (6.5%) in the control group, odds ratio = 0.33 (95% confidence interval 0.12 to 0.96), p-value for effect 0.04, p for heterogeneity 0.20, I2 = 36%]. In addition, no difference in the rate of pneumonia, sepsis, or non-serious infections was shown between the two groups.ConclusionOur meta-analysis of randomized trials suggests that short-term inhibition of CXCL8 activity improved survival in patients at high risk for in-hospital mortality without increasing the risk of infection.Meta-analysis registrationPROSPERO, identifier CRD42021254467.

While ventricular electromechanics is extensively studied in both physiological and pathological conditions, four-chamber heart models have only been addressed recently; most of these works however neglect atrial contraction. Indeed, as atria are characterized by a complex anatomy and a physiology that is strongly influenced by the ventricular function, developing computational models able to capture the physiological atrial function and atrioventricular interaction is very challenging. In this paper, we propose a biophysically detailed electromechanical model of the whole human heart that considers both atrial and ventricular contraction. Our model includes: (i) an anatomically accurate whole-heart geometry; (ii) a comprehensive myocardial fiber architecture; (iii) a biophysically detailed microscale model for the active force generation; (iv) a 0D closed-loop model of the circulatory system, fully-coupled with the mechanical model of the heart; (v) the fundamental interactions among the different core models, such as the mechano-electric feedback or the fibers-stretch and fibers-stretch-rate feedbacks; (vi) specific constitutive laws and model parameters for each cardiac region. Concerning the numerical discretization, we propose an efficient segregated-intergrid-staggered scheme that includes a computationally efficient strategy to handle the non-conductive regions. We also propose extending recent stabilization techniques - regarding the circulation and the fibers-stretch-rate feedback - to the whole heart, demonstrating their cruciality for obtaining a stable formulation in a four-chamber scenario. We are able to reproduce the healthy cardiac function for all the heart chambers, in terms of pressure-volume loops, time evolution of pressures, volumes and fluxes, and three-dimensional cardiac deformation, with volumetric indexes within reference ranges for cardiovascular magnetic resonance. We also show the importance of considering atrial contraction, fibers-stretch-rate feedback and the proposed stabilization techniques, by comparing the results obtained with and without these features in the model. In particular, we show that the fibers-stretch-rate feedback, often neglected due to the numerical challenges that it entails, plays a fundamental role in the regulation of the blood flux ejected by ventricles. The proposed model represents the state-of-the-art electromechanical model of the iHEART ERC project - an Integrated Heart Model for the Simulation of the Cardiac Function - and is a fundamental step toward the building of physics-based digital twins of the human heart.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

On May 12, 2021 the interplanetary counterpart of the May 9, 2021 coronal mass ejection impacted the Earth’s magnetosphere, giving rise to a strong geomagnetic storm. This work discusses the evolution of the various events linking the solar activity to the Earth’s ionosphere with special focus on the effects observed in the circumterrestrial environment. We investigate the propagation of the interplanetary coronal mass ejection and its interaction with the magnetosphere - ionosphere system in terms of both magnetospheric current systems and particle redistribution, by jointly analysing data from interplanetary, magnetospheric, and low Earth orbiting satellites. The principal magnetospheric current system activated during the different phases of the geomagnetic storm is correctly identified through the direct comparison between geosynchronous orbit observations and model predictions. From the particle point of view, we have found that the primary impact of the storm development is a net and rapid loss of relativistic electrons from the entire outer radiation belt. Our analysis shows no evidence for any short-term recovery to pre-storm levels during the days following the main phase., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

Mathematical modelling of brain parenchyma mechanics and fluid dynamics is a powerful tool to better understand clearance mechanisms, and investigate mechanistic hypotheses that cannot be verified with in vivo experiments. Single and multiple network poroelasticity theory (MPET) can be used to model the behaviour of different types of porous media. In addition, MPET has been used in the past decade to understand better how the different fluid compartments exchange mass in the brain and, more generally, the brain’s clearance process. Nonetheless, the MPET equations applied to brain modelling present several numerical and modelling challenges. Therefore, in the articles collected in this thesis, an analysis of the system of equations from a numerical and computational viewpoint using both theoretical proofs and practical numerical experiments is presented. In particular, we present parameter-robust formulations and preconditioners for the MPET equations in order to solve the system in an efficient and accurate maner. In addition, brain parenchyma pulsatility is modelled via linear elasticity and single network poroelasticity equations in a realistic human brain domain.

In this article, we formulate a model describing the evolution of thickness of a grounded shallow ice sheet. The thickness of the ice sheet is constrained to be nonnegative. This renders the problem under consideration an obstacle problem. A rigorous analysis shows that the model is thus governed by a set of variational inequalities that involve nonlinearities in the time derivative and in the elliptic term, and that it admits solutions, whose existence is established by means of a semi-discrete scheme and the penalty method.

The SARS-CoV-2 life cycle is strictly dependent on the environmental redox state that influences both virus entry and replication. A reducing environment impairs the binding of the spike protein (S) to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor (ACE2), while a highly oxidizing environment is thought to favor S interaction with ACE2. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 interferes with redox homeostasis in infected cells to promote the oxidative folding of its own proteins. Here we demonstrate that synthetic low molecular weight (LMW) monothiol and dithiol compounds induce a redox switch in the S protein receptor binding domain (RBD) toward a more reduced state. Reactive cysteine residue profiling revealed that all the disulfides present in RBD are targets of the thiol compounds. The reduction of disulfides in RBD decreases the binding to ACE2 in a cell-free system as demonstrated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assays. Moreover, LMW thiols interfere with protein oxidative folding and the production of newly synthesized polypeptides in HEK293 cells expressing the S1 and RBD domain, respectively. Based on these results, we hypothesize that these thiol compounds impair both the binding of S protein to its cellular receptor during the early stage of viral infection, as well as viral protein folding/maturation and thus the formation of new viral mature particles. Indeed, all the tested molecules, although at different concentrations, efficiently inhibit both SARS-CoV-2 entry and replication in Vero E6 cells. LMW thiols may represent innovative anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics acting directly on viral targets and indirectly by inhibiting cellular functions mandatory for viral replication.

Schumann resonances are active frequencies found in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. They are due to a global electromagnetic resonance phenomenon that is generated and excited by lightning discharges in the cavity formed between the Earth's surface and the ionosphere. In this talk, we present an analysis of Earth’s ELF electromagnetic field spectrum measured by the CSES01 satellite, focusing on the identification of the Schumann resonances by applying a new time-frequency representation method called IMFogram. It is based on the decomposition of a signal into simple oscillatory components, the so-called Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs), which are produced by the Fast Iterative Filtering (FIF) method. IMFogram has been proven convergent, in the limit, to the Spectrogram of the signal. We will briefly review these techniques and show the comparison of results obtained using IMFogram with the ones produced by spectrogram, wavelet, synchrosqueezing, and Hilbert Huang transforms., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

Over the last few years, the scientific community has made a significant effort to detect and interpret electromagnetic signals that might be related to seismic activity. Recent studies have shown how during or even before strong earthquakes the ionosphere shows characteristic electromagnetic interactions observed as plasma variations or electromagnetic (EM) emissions (both in the ELF and VLF bands). These EM emissions were detected both by ground-based [Pulinets and Boyarchuk 2004] and by space-based [Ouzounov et al. 2011, Pulinets and Ouzounov, 2011] instruments.However, a robust identification of such EM emissions should start from the definition of statistical distribution of the ionospheric electromagnetic (EM) waves energy in absence of seismic activity and other anomalous inputs (such as the ones derived by solar forcing). In this way, a background in the ionospheric EM emissions over seismic regions can be determined. Only after this step, a proper detection of an EM signal possibly correlated with the seismic activity can be accomplished: every EM signal which differs from the background (exceeding a statistically meaningful threshold) should be considered as a potential event to be investigated.Therefore, in this study, we performed a multiscale analysis of the ionospheric environmental background, using the entire CSES-01 (China Seismo-ElectroMagnetic Satellite) electric and magnetic field dataset (2018 - 2023), by creating the map of the averaged relative energy (εrel) over a 1° x 1° latitude-longitude cell, depending on both spatial and temporal scale of the ionospheric medium. The analysis was performed by means of the newly developed Fast Iterative Filtering (FIF) technique.Geomagnetic activity conditions are considered by the means of the Sym-H index in order to make a proper discrimination between external (atmospheric, ionospheric, magnetospheric, solar and cosmic activities) and internal (earthquakes, volcanoes) sources generating anomalous signals.Here we present the background obtained for various seismic regions and results obtained for some recent earthquakes., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves are commonly observed in space over a wide L shell range, and on ground often in the Pc1-Pc2 frequency range (0.1 − 5 Hz). EMIC activity proves critical to the dynamics of ring-current protons and MeV electrons in the outer radiation belt, since causing loss of these particles to the atmosphere via pitch angle scattering. EMICs in the Pc1 class are excited by cyclotron instability of protons with anisotropy in the temperature distribution along the perpendicular/parallel directions. These pulsations can be ducted within the ionosphere and detected on ground over a much larger region than in space, and in the form of a prolonged emission compared to short-term packets collected at LEO. Under quiet conditions, transient solar-wind dynamic-pressure enhancements behave as the main controller of such phenomena, even at relatively modest amplitudes. We provide here coordinated ground-satellite observations of particle precipitation and local electromagnetic field variations in strict conjunction with the occurrence of transverse EMIC Pc1 waves from quiet days (Kp < 3; −10 nT < Dst < 10 nT; AE < 100 nT) of March 29-30, 2021. CSES-01 measurements (with auxiliary data from other LEO satellites) were used to monitor the top-side ionosphere at ~500 km, while magnetometers at auroral latitudes served as the probe of Pc1 activity at ground. The present study contributes to enlarge the experimental collection needed to characterize the impact of EMIC waves on iono/magnetospheric dynamics., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

The topside ionosphere embraces the region extending from the F2-layer electron density peak to the overlying plasmasphere. In this work, we aim at characterizing the effective plasma scale height (H0) above the F2-layer peak using in-situ electron density (Ne) observations by Langmuir Probes (LPs) on the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01). The International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model and COSMIC-1 radio occultation measurements provide additional information. CSES-01 is a sun-synchronous satellite with an orbital inclination of 97.4° and an altitude of ~500 km, with descending and ascending nodes at ~14:00 local time (LT) and ~02:00 LT, respectively. Calibrated CSES-01 LPs Ne data from 2019-2021 provide information in the topside ionosphere, whereas IRI provides the Ne values at the F2-layer peak (NmF2) for the same time, latitude, and longitude sounded by CSES-01; COSMIC-1 data are instead used to infer the vertical gradient of the effective plasma scale height in the topside ionosphere. The two Ne set of values are used as anchor points to infer H0 by assuming a linear scale height in the topside representation given by the NeQuick model. By exploiting the CSES-01 dataset for the years 2019-2021 we deduced the global behavior of H0 for daytime (~14:00 LT) and nighttime (~02:00 LT) conditions, different seasons, and for low solar activity conditions. Results from CSES-01 observations are compared and validated with those from COSMIC-1 radio occultation and Swarm B satellite measurements, for similar diurnal, seasonal, and solar activity conditions., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs) are plasma density depletions observed in the equatorial ionosphere at different spatial and temporal scales. Typically, they occur within a narrow band of ±20° latitude, at altitudes between the bottom side of the ionospheric F region and up to ~1000 km.Generically, they appear at local dusk where the pre-reversal enhancement of the eastward electric field can elevate the F layer to higher altitudes, thereby increasing the Rayleigh–Taylor instability growth rate. However, EPBs are also observed during geomagnetic storms when the Prompt Penetration Electric Fields (PPEFs) of magnetospheric origin and/or the ionospheric disturbance dynamo can generate electric field perturbations, which can either suppress or favour the development of such irregularities.Here, we present a new algorithm able to automatically detect EPBs, based on the in-situ electron density (Ne) observations by Langmuir Probes (LPs) on-board the first China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01). CSES-01 is a sun-synchronous satellite flying with an orbital inclination of 97.4°, at an altitude of ~500 km, and with descending and ascending nodes at ~14:00 local time (LT) and ~02:00 LT, respectively.A statistical comparison between the main characteristics of the EPBs observed by CSES-01 and Swarm B in the time frame from 2019 to 2021 will be also presented. In addition, in order to investigate the possible sources of EPBs, we will show the analysis of the relative solar wind parameters., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

We introduce a multiphysics and geometric multiscale computational model, suitable to describe the hemodynamics of the whole human heart, driven by a four-chamber electromechanical model. We first present a study on the calibration of the biophysically detailed RDQ20 activation model (Regazzoni et al., 2020) that is able to reproduce the physiological range of hemodynamic biomarkers. Then, we demonstrate that the ability of the force generation model to reproduce certain microscale mechanisms, such as the dependence of force on fiber shortening velocity, is crucial to capture the overall physiological mechanical and fluid dynamics macroscale behavior. This motivates the need for using multiscale models with high biophysical fidelity, even when the outputs of interest are relative to the macroscale. We show that the use of a high-fidelity electromechanical model, combined with a detailed calibration process, allows us to achieve remarkable biophysical fidelity in terms of both mechanical and hemodynamic quantities. Indeed, our electromechanical-driven CFD simulations - carried out on an anatomically accurate geometry of the whole heart - provide results that match the cardiac physiology both qualitatively (in terms of flow patterns) and quantitatively (when comparing in silico results with biomarkers acquired in vivo). We consider the pathological case of left bundle branch block, and we investigate the consequences that an electrical abnormality has on cardiac hemodynamics thanks to our multiphysics integrated model. The computational model that we propose can faithfully predict a delay and an increasing wall shear stress in the left ventricle in the pathological condition. The interaction of different physical processes in an integrated framework allows us to faithfully describe and model this pathology, by capturing and reproducing the intrinsic multiphysics nature of the human heart.

International audience; The Se77(n,γ) reaction is of importance for Se77 abundance during the slow neutron capture process in massive stars. We have performed a new measurement of the Se77 radiative neutron capture cross section at the Neutron Time-of-Flight facility at CERN. Resonance capture kernels were derived up to 51 keV and cross sections up to 200 keV. Maxwellian-averaged cross sections were calculated for stellar temperatures between kT=5keV and kT=100keV, with uncertainties between 4.2% and 5.7%. Our results lead to substantial decreases of 14% and 19% in Se77 abundances produced through the slow neutron capture process in selected stellar models of 15M⊙ and 2M⊙, respectively, compared to using previous recommendation of the cross section.

Intraoperative hypotension (IOH) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Hypotension Prediction Index (HPI) is a machine learning derived algorithm that predicts IOH shortly before it occurs. We tested the hypothesis that the application of the HPI in combination with a pre-defined Goal Directed Therapy (GDT) hemodynamic protocol reduces IOH during major gynaecologic oncologic surgery. We enrolled women scheduled for major gynaecologic oncologic surgery under general anesthesia with invasive arterial pressure monitoring. Patients were randomized to a GDT protocol aimed at optimizing stroke volume index (SVI) or hemodynamic management based on HPI guidance in addition to GDT. The primary outcome was the amount of IOH, defined as the timeweighted average (TWA) mean arterial pressure (MAP) Trial registration number: NCT04547491. Date of registration: 10/09/2020.