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This paper presents the results of observation campaigns performed with the multibeam radar sensor BIRALES. A general overview of the main features of the sensor is provided. Then, the devoted initial orbit determination algorithm is described, and the results of first observation campaigns are presented.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a highly malignant tumor and is one of the few life-threatening diseases that present first to the ophthalmologist. It is the most common soft-tissue sarcoma of the head and neck in childhood with 10% of all cases occurring in the orbit. RMS has been reported from birth to the seventh decade, with the majority of cases presenting in early childhood. Survival has changed drastically over the years, from 30% in the 1960’s to 90% presently, with the advent of new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. The purpose of this review is to provide a general overview of primary orbital RMS derived from a literature search of material published over the last 10years, as well as to present two representative cases of patients that have been managed at our institute.

Epithelioid sarcoma is a rare but often aggressive malignancy of soft tissue that usually occurs in young adults as a superficial lesion in the distal upper limbs. To date, there are only 4 case reports of epithelioid sarcoma primarily occurring in the orbit. Two of these patients were treated with primary exenteration only one of whom was alive 3 years after diagnosis. Radical surgical excision is thus the first treatment of choice for primary orbital epithelioid sarcoma. The authors present a patient with primary orbital epithelioid sarcoma who refused exenteration. Surgical debulking followed by local brachytherapy was performed. The patient remains tumor free 5 years after diagnosis. The literature remains limited regarding treatment options for primary orbital epithelioid sarcoma. However, based on reported cases and this case, the authors conclude that surgical excision combined with local iridium radiation therapy is an acceptable treatment when treating primary orbital epithelioid sarcoma.

Waste biomass is continuously generated in huge amounts by cultivation, harvest, selection and industrial transformation of fruits, vegetables and crops that are exploited for production of foods, chemicals, fertilizers and bioenergy. The management and the proper disposal of such biomass (whose levels in Italy reach about 22,000,000 t/y) is a worldwide problem both in environmental and in economical terms. On this basis we investigated a possible strategy of valorization of these residues, with particular regard to some agro-industry wastes and crop residues. Agro-industrial wastes included tomato and lemon processing wastes, fennel and carrot selection residues that are produced by some of the most important activities of Italian food industry sector. Crop residues selected for this study included giant roots and cardoon residues, that are two lignocellulosic cultures that in recent year attracted attention in relation to their potential use in bioenergy (bioethanol, biodiesel) production. All the wastes were tested as growth media in batch fermentation (BF) and dialysis fermentation (DF) modes for the production of biotechnologically useful microorganisms, namely two thermophilic species and two halophilic species. All the wastes afforded appreciable microbial biomass production and moreover they positively affected also production of enzymes and biopolymers by the studied extremophiles. The results obtained encourage to exploit such wastes as zero cost fermentation media for biotechnologically useful microorganisms, thus also providing an alternative and less environmental impacting method for vegetable wastes management. © 2014, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.

The ATLAS Experiment is reworking and upgrading systems during the current LHC shut down. In particular, the Pixel detector has inserted an additional inner layer called Insertable B-Layer (IBL). The Readout-Driver card (ROD), the Back-of-Crate card (BOC), and the S-Link together form the essential frontend data path of the IBL’s off-detector DAQ system. The strategy for IBLROD firmware development was three-fold: keeping as much of the PixelROD datapath firmware logic as possible, employing a complete new scheme of steering and calibration firmware and designing the overall system to prepare for a future unified code version integrating IBL and Pixel layers. Essential features such as data formatting, frontend-specific error handling, and calibration are added to the ROD data path. An IBLDAQ testbench using realistic frontend chip model was created to serve as an initial framework for full offline electronic system simulation. In this document, major firmware achievements concerning the IBLROD data path implementation, tested in testbench and on ROD prototypes, will be reported. Recent Pixel collaboration efforts focus on finalizing hardware and firmware tests for IBL. Time plan is to approach a final IBL DAQ phase by the end of 2014.

The upgrade of the ATLAS experiment at LHC foresees the insertion of an innermost silicon layer, called Insertable B-layer (IBL). IBL read-out system will be equipped with new electronics. The Readout-Driver card (ROD) is a VME board devoted to data processing, configuration and control. A pre-production batch has been delivered in order to perform tests with instrumented slices of the overall acquisition chain, aiming to finalize strategies for system commissioning. In this contribution both setups and results will be described, as well as preliminary studies on changes in order to adopt the ROD for the ATLAS Pixel Layers 1 and 2.