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The biological effectiveness of laser driven protons on cells in a single exposure has been studied. In this experiment, V79 cell lines were irradiated with laser driven protons whereas comparison with the effectiveness of X-ray exposures was studied. Here design of the experiment and irradiation setup are explained in details as it is a first and foremost experiment in this field. Bangladesh Journal of Physics, 27(2), 59-70, December 2020

Cascaded H-Bridges Multilevel Inverter (CHBMI) is a fascinating solution for optimization purposes in several application fields. The CHBMI performance optimization can be reached both with hardware and software solutions. In detail, the CHBMI performances are a function of the modulation strategy adopted and its parameters such as modulation index, switching frequency, and dead time. This paper presents performance experimental analysis on dead time effects on CHBMI performance in terms of harmonic distortion and conversion efficiency. In this analysis, two different modulation strategies have been considered and implemented. The paper focuses on modulation strategies implemented, the test bench set-up, experimental investigations, and the results comparative analysis.

Telescope detectors have long been studied for their capability of discriminating the type of radiation detected. Silicon is the most widely used material for solid-state detectors. However, in many nuclear physics experiments and medical applications, diamond offers significant advantages due to its outstanding features, such as a near tissue equivalence, high radiation hardness and reliable operation in harsh environments. A monolithic ΔE–E diamond-based telescope was fabricated. The thicknesses of the two detection stages were 2.5 μm and 500 μm for the ΔE and E stage, respectively. The device was characterised by means of IBIC (Ion Beam Induced Charge) analysis at the Ruđer Bošković Institute ion microbeam. The detector, irradiated with different low energy ions ranging from helium to oxygen, showed good homogeneity of the response on a well-defined sensitive volume with a charge collection efficiency close to 100%. The ΔE stage showed a very good linear response on a wide range of LET values in diamond (170–3140 keV/μm). Due to its relatively low thickness, it can be successfully used as a microdosimeter. Time coincidence measurements have demonstrated the diamond telescope capability of discriminating and identifying the impinging ions. However, when the ratio between the energy deposited by the particle in the E stage and in the ΔE stage is small, the response of the E stage was observed to be affected by a cross-talk between the two stages of the device. A method to correct the E response for such effect was developed and successfully applied to the acquired data.

Introdução: A participação dos neutrófilos como mediadores de infecção, trombose e neoplasia tem sido descrita em vários cenários. Além de seu papel na imunidade inata, sabe-se que os neutrófilos contribuem para ativação de inflamação, coagulação, imunossupressão através da formação de redes extracelulares de neutrófilos (NETs -neutrophil extracellular traps) em resposta a estímulos antigênicos e de ácidos nucleicos. Entretanto, pouco se sabe sobre o papel da NETose no cenário do transplante hepático, situação em que há um estado inflamatório persistente, exacerbado por vários eventos, inclusive transfusão de hemocomponentes. Ainda, sabe-se que os pacientes hepatopatas são bastante complexos do ponto de vista hemostático e a identificação de possíveis marcadores preditores de transfusão e hemoderivados potencialmente auxiliaria no manejo clínico destes pacientes. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o papel de NETs como preditores de transfusão de hemocomponentes, bem como estabelecer uma correlação entre NETs e complicações em transplante hepático. Materiais e métodos: Foram quantificados DNA livre pela técnica de PicoGreen (dsDNAAssay Kit (ThermoFisherScientific, EUA) e H3 citrulinado por ELISA (clone 11D3, ELISA, Cayman), marcadores de remanescentes de NETs, no pré-operatório, intraoperatório e pós-operatório de 93 pacientes submetidos a transplante hepático em um hospital terciário em São Paulo-SP. Os pacientes foram seguidos desde a internação até a alta hospitalar e foram avaliados os seguintes desfechos clínicos: transfusão de hemocomponentes, uso de hemoderivados e antifibrinolíticos, rejeição, trombose, infecção e disfunção de órgãos. Resultados: Observamos uma ascensão dos níveis de H3 citrulinado e DNA livre do pré-operatório para o intraoperatório, com posterior declínio pré-alta hospitalar, de maneira estatisticamente significativa, (p < 0.0001), confirmando a ocorrência de NETOse exacerbada no intraoperatório do transplante hepático. Ainda, demonstramos que a liberação de NETs no intraoperatório foi preditora de óbito intra-hospitalar (OR = 1,168, CI 95% = 1,021-1,336, p = 0,024). Não se observou nenhuma associação entre NETose e transfusão, nem uso de hemoderivados. Entretanto, observou-se que a liberação de H3 citrulinado foi associada a menor uso de ácido tranexâmico durante o transplante (OR:0,824, CI95%0,705-0,964, p:0,016). Não foram observadas outras associações entre NETose no intraoperatório e demais desfechos clínicos negativos (rejeição, trombose, infecção ou disfunção de órgãos). Conclusão: Não foi possível estabelecer correlação entre NETose e necessidades transfusionais nos pacientes submetidos a transplante hepático. Entretanto, o presente estudo evidenciou uma associação significativa entre NETose e óbito intra-hospitalar. Dada a relevância da associação entre NETose e óbito e o papel central dos NETs na inflamação do transplante hepático, consideramos que NETs podem ser potenciais biomarcadores de inflamação nestes pacientes. Ainda, o desenvolvimento de terapêuticas focando na inibição de NETose poderia ser uma estratégia plausível para redução de efeitos deletérios da inflamação exacerbada inerente ao transplante. Mais estudos são necessários a fim de confirmar esta hipótese.

The steadily growing exploitation of the circumterrestrial space with the significant increase in the traffic launch, mostly related to private sector and associated to the forthcoming advent of the mega-constellations of satellites, calls for a renewed and increased effort towards efficient and effective mitigation measures. The de-orbiting of the spacecraft at the end-of-life, within a given residual orbital lifetime, currently represents a fundamental part of a space mission and an essential step to guarantee the future exploitation of the Earth orbit. In this respect an accurate dynamical characterization of the circumterrestrial region can identify the natural orbital mechanisms that can be exploited to improve the current end-of-life measures. The goal is to identify stable and unstable regions in the phase space where the objects could be moved to exploit either long term "graveyards" or, possibly and preferentially, faster escape routes. To this purpose, the most accurate dynamical mapping of the circumterrestrial space, from the Low Earth Orbit to the Geostationary Orbit, ever performed at this date was realized within the Horizon 2020 project ReDSHIFT (Revolutionary Design of Spacecraft through Holistic Integration of Future Technologies). The underlying idea stems from the asteroid dynamics where small Main Belt bodies are driven towards the inner Solar System by powerful resonances (and non-gravitational forces) which increase their eccentricity leading them to gravitationally interact with the terrestrial planets. Similarly, in the Earth orbit we identified the main resonances, involving the rate of precession of Right Ascension of the Ascending Node, the argument of perigee and the apparent mean motion of the Sun with respect to the ecliptic plane. The long-term effects associated with these resonances that can be used to de-orbiting is indeed a variation in eccentricity, that can become quasi-secular when the effects of the solar radiation pressure is coupled with the planetary oblateness. From the theoretical point of view, the effect was explained by computing the equilibrium points and the corresponding stability of the dynamical system associated with solar radiation pressure and Earth's oblateness. In particular, it turns out that the natural de-orbiting can occur in two situations, either by following the hyperbolic invariant curves stemming from a saddle equilibrium point or by following a wide enough libration curve in the neighborhood of an elliptic equilibrium point. A thorough characterization of these resonances by means of a frequency analysis was performed too. Finally, by means of long term simulations of the evolution of a sample traffic launch we showed how these resonances can sometimes be exploited as natural reentry corridors (the so-called "de-orbiting highways") to improve the disposal of the spacecraft at the end-of-life and help in stabilizing the space debris population.

Among its results, the ReDSHIFT project has developed a software tool for spacecraft operators, space agencies and research institutions to design the end-of-life of Earth-based missions and to study the interaction with the space debris environment. As part of this, the "Disposal Mapping" module, presented in this paper in its structure and algorithm, computes the end-of-life disposal strategy for missions whose operational orbit is in the orbital region from Low-Earth orbit to Geostationary Earth orbit. Given the initial orbit, the available ?v on board and the spacecraft characteristics in terms of cross area and mass, the options for end-of-life disposal are given and compared; namely, end-of-life disposal via one or a sequence of impulsive manoeuvres, end-of-life disposal through the use of a solar/drag sail or end-of-life through a hybrid sail plus an impulsive manoeuvre.

One of the deliverables of the ReDSHIFT H2020 project will be a software tool available to the scientific community and the public via a web-based interface. The ReDSHIFT software is thought as a tool for spacecraft operators, space agencies and research institution to design the end-of-life of any Earth-based mission and to study the interaction with the space debris environment. In this talk the general description of the tool will be given together with a detailed description of the modules currently in the more advanced development state: the disposal module, via impulsive manoeuvres (manoeuvre module) and solar and drag sails (solar dynamics module), the spacecraft population interaction module and the re-entry module. Given the initial orbit of the spacecraft and the spacecraft characteristics in terms of its cross area and mass, the optimal options for end-of-life disposal are given and compared; namely end-of-life disposal via one or a sequence of manoeuvres, end-of-life disposal through the use of a solar/drag sail or end-of-life through a hybrid sail + manoeuvre approach. This module is based on a study of the natural orbit evolution in the low to medium and geostationary regions that was performed to identify long-term stable orbits or resonance conditions to be used as graveyard or re-entry trajectories. The optimal manoeuvre to reach such re-entry or graveyard conditions is calculated. Moreover, the re-entry can be enhanced through a sail. In this case, different strategies for sail attitude control were previously compared and selected. The optimal disposal by this module is passed to the space environment module so that the effect of this disposal on the space debris environment is calculated. This is done based on precomputed long-term simulations of the whole space debris environment, under different scenarios, to be used for the computation of the collision risk for the spacecraft in the disposal phase. In the case the disposal trajectory is a re-entry one, the condition of the orbit at 120 km are used to verify the demisability of the spacecraft. This is done, by default, using some predetermined spacecraft configuration but the external user can also load a preferred configuration. All the modules are interfaced and linked, in a carefully triggered processing chain, through the openSF simulation framework properly configured and customised to adhere to the needs of the ReDSHIFT SW tool. It is the aim of the ReDSHIFT tool to contribute in a proactive way to the mitigation of space debris problem via passive end-of-life mitigation. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Horizon 2020 Program of the European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (H2020- PROTEC-2015) under REA grant agreement n. [687500]- ReDSHIFT.

After two and a half years of work, the H2020 project ReDSHIFT (Revolutionary Design of Spacecraft through Holistic Integration of Future Technologies) is approaching the final semester. The focus or ReDSHIFT is to study a new paradigm in the planning of space missions where the space debris issue is central, from different perspectives: theoretical, technological (hardware and software) and political. The project is grounded on two main pillars, theoretical and experimental. The first one is based on a complete mapping of the LEO to GEO region looking for "dynamical" disposal strategies for any orbital regime, exploiting natural perturbations to the spacecraft orbits. Some preferential de-orbiting routes, called "de-orbiting highways", result from specific resonances populating the different orbital regimes involving gravitational (lunisolar and geopotential) and non-gravitational perturbations (solar radiation pressure). In order to properly exploit the solar radiation pressure driven resonances, the use of area augmentation devices (solar and drag sails) is studied in detail. The experimental pillar is mainly devoted to the design and production of a novel spacecraft by 3D printing. The advantages of the additive manufacturing in terms of design, prototyping and production were studied and tested. Innovative shielding against small particles were studied and shall be directly embedded in the aluminum printed spacecraft structure. The shields were separately tested with hypervelocity impacts too. The materials and components of the spacecraft were tested for Design for Demise (D4D) in the DLR heated wind tunnel. The D4D tests included also an unprecedented test on an engineering model of a reaction wheel. The first prototype spacecraft (an 8-unit CubeSat) is now in the production phase and will be tested in the late spring. Based on the results of the first testing phase an improved design, expressly tailored to the 3D printing peculiarities, will be performed and the final ReDSHIFT prototype will be printed in the second part of the year 2018. A software tool, that shall help users to conceive a "debris compliant" space mission from the design to the disposal phase encompassing all the above findings, was produced. A web version will be made public at the end of the project on the ReDSHIFT website (http://redshift-h2020.eu/). The possible improvements to the international space regulations and standards, stemming from the projects findings, were analysed and will be outlined here and more expensively presented separately in this same meeting. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Horizon 2020 Program of the European Unions Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (H2020-PROTEC-2015) under REA grant agreement n. [687500]- ReDSHIFT.

One of the deliverables of the ReDSHIFT H2020 project will be a software tool available to the scientific community and the wider public. The ReDSHIFT software is thought as a tool for spacecraft operators, space agencies and research institutions to design the end-of-life of any Earth satellite mission and to study the interaction with the space debris environment. The tool will be able to calculate the disposal of the spacecraft, via impulsive manoeuvres and/or solar and drag sails, the spacecraft interaction with the debris environment and its re-entry. The tool has been developed with two different user interfaces: a desktop one based on the ESA openSF integration framework and a web one to reach a wider base of users. It is the aim of the ReDSHIFT tool to contribute in a proactive way to the mitigation of space debris problem via passive end-of-life mitigation.

One of the problems in setting up a normative scheme for space activities in general (and space debris as an outcome of space activities in particular) is the different pace of the advancement of the technology with respect to the law. i.e., the development of new technological solutions is running much faster than the law does, while legislative regulations are struggling to adapt to technological challenges. A striking example is the planning and development of the new mega-constellations of low Earth orbit satellites, which are going to stress the existing guidelines to their extreme limits and might require their reformulation or even new ones. In the framework of the H2020 ReDSHIFT project, a special effort was devoted to the study of the current international legal framework related to space debris in order to identify its deficiencies and propose possible advancements. For the existing guidelines, the possibility for their present non-binding character and dependence of their effectiveness on voluntary adherence to evolve to more specific national and international legislation is explored. Next to legal mechanisms, also economic incentives could contribute to the 'attractiveness' of the adherence to mitigation standards if properly coupled with viable novel technical solutions. Therefore, in a strict collaboration between the technical and the law experts, all the project findings were analysed to identify the main results that could be translated in updated and even re-formulated mitigation practices and guidelines. Following the extensive cartography of the circumterrestrial phase space the possibility to exploit the newly identify re-entry "corridors" steering the space traffic towards these preferential routes for disposal is one example of this long term strategy. In this respect, the re-definition of the concept of residual lifetime implicit in the 25-year rule, towards a concept considering the actual interaction of a spacecraft with a given protected zone is explored too. From a technical point of view, the possibility to apply economic incentives to such promotion of de-orbiting devices (similarly to what is seen on Earth sometimes in eco-friendly devices and transport means) is another proposed option. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Horizon 2020 Program of the European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (H2020-PROTEC-2015) under REA grant agreement n. [687500]- ReDSHIFT.

One of the main goals of the Mercury Orbiter Radio science Experiment (MORE), onboard the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury, is to perform a test of gravitational theories by means of high precision radio-observables, constraining sev- eral Post-Newtonian (PN) parameters. This will be performed in two steps: (i) with a superior solar conjunction experiment during the cruise phase of the mission; (ii) by reconstructing the orbit of Mercury around the Sun once the spacecraft will be arrived at Mercury. In this work we present the results of numerical simulations of the MORE relativity experiment, carried out in a realistic scenario, showing how the experiment can improve over current estimates.

Radiation resistance and toxicity in normal tissues are limiting factors in the efficacy of radiotherapy. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been shown to be effective at enhancing radiation-induced cell death, and were initially proposed to physically enhance the radiation dose deposited. However, biological responses of GNP radiosensitization based on physical assumptions alone are not predictive of radiosensitisation and therefore there is a fundamental research need to determine biological mechanisms of response to GNPs alone and in combination with ionising radiation. This study aimed to identify novel mechanisms of cancer cell radiosensitisation through the use of GNPs, focusing on their ability to induce cellular oxidative stress and disrupt mitochondrial function. Using N-acetyl-cysteine, we found mitochondrial oxidation to be a key event prior to radiation for the radiosensitisation of cancer cells and suggests the overall cellular effects of GNP radiosensitisation are a result of their interaction with protein disulphide isomerase (PDI). This investigation identifies PDI and mitochondrial oxidation as novel targets for radiosensitisation.

Linear Energy Transfer (LET) is the main physical parameter to compare charged particles to photons and predict the higher biological effectiveness of the former radiation. Cytogenetic damage complexity governs cellular radioresponse and reflects the peculiar manner with which energy is deposited by ions as described by the Bragg curve, and is therefore likely to change along ion penetration depth and with its track structure. Hence, ion beams of different Z but similar LETs may differ radiobiologically and construction of ???biological??? Bragg curves may improve modeling of this type of radiation. Moreover, there are still uncertainties on charged-particle non-cancer effects of relevance in cancer hadrontherapy. In fact, most experimental data are almost exclusively on tumour cell lethality and on the Spread-Out Bragg Peak (SOBP), overlooking sub-lethal damage induction on normal cells at various positions along the Bragg curve. Further, very little is known on non-targeted effects (NTE) by ion-irradiated normal cells expressing long-term sub-lethal damage. We studied the onset of Stress-Induced Premature Senescence (SIPS) by ???-galactosidase assay and the induction of chromosome aberrations (CA) by whole-chromosome FISH painting and mFISH along the Bragg curve for several ion beams on three normal cell lines (AG01522 fibroblasts, MCF-10A breast epithelial cells and endothelial HUVEC cells). Occurrence of NTE by medium-transfer design from irradiated prematurely senescing cells was studied at different time points after irradiation on unirradiated MCF10A and breast cancer epithelial MCF7 cells. End-of-track effects of up to 20 MeV 12C and 16O beams were studied at the 3-MV Tandem accelerator, Department of Physics, Naples; 60 MeV/u 16O and 20Ne beams were used at INFN-LNS cyclotron, Catania, to explore changing biological effectiveness along the Bragg curve. Data show SIPS being very effectively induced by ion irradiation, with a qualitative and quantitative dependence on ion type and Bragg curve position, persisting for up to 2 months post exposure. CA data also indicate a similar dependence: the elevated incidence of complex-type rearrangements as revealed by mFISH well agrees with these aberrations being a cytogenetic signature of high-LET radiation. However, the overall incidence of CA and SIPS point to a significantly greater efficiency of ion beams compared to x-rays even at very high LETs, contrary to the notion of a close-to-unity RBE above 200 keV/???m. The onset of SIPS at ion beam entrance may have important implications for hadrontherapy cancer patients. Finally, we observed a significant bystander effect by senescing cells manifesting itself with an increase in tumour cell proliferation, in agreement with in vivo reports of a Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype. Monte-Carlo modeling by Geant4 code is under way to correlate ion-track structure with such results.

Laser driven accelerators have been proposed for possible clinical applications facilities with the clear aim to reduce the facilities overall cost and complexity of at least one order of magnitude compared to currently employed accelerators. While significant efforts is on-going in the physics community to achieve the required ion beam parameters for medical applications and design suitable radiotherapy facilities, radiobiological investigations of the effects of such beams is also mandatory in order to validate their future therapeutic use. The main aim of these investigations has been initially to establish a procedure for cell handling, irradiation and dosimetry compatible with the mixed beam, continuous energy spread and ultra-high dose rate of the pulsed particle beams produced by high power lasers. Moreover, ions are emitted in bursts of picosecond duration at the source and their therapeutic use may result in dose rates exceeding 109 Gy/sec and the biological effects at these ultra-high dose rates...

On June 2, 2003, SOHO/LASCO coronagraph observed two CMEs at the West limb of the Sun, at 00.30 and 08:54 UT, respectively, which appeared to originate from the same source region. Both CMEs show the typical three‐part structure. These events have been also observed by SOHO/UVCS, allowing us to infer their physical parameters. We also looked for interplanetary signatures of the CMEs in ACE ‘in situ’ observations but we did not find evidence of the ejected flux rope; however, the solar wind appeared significantly distorted, probably as a consequence of the influence of both CMEs on their surrounding interplanetary plasma.

Thirty-five outpatients (7 F, 28 M, mean age 39.8 years) with histologically confirmed active chronic B hepatitis, have been immunised with specific anti-HBV vaccine (Engerix B 20 mcg, SmithKline Beecham Biologicals, Rioxensart, Belgium) on days 0, 30 and 60. Hepatitis B markers, HBV-DNA and anti-HDV antibodies were determined on the same day of vaccination. One week after the last dose of anti-HBV vaccine, 15 and 10 patients have been treated respectively with alpha-leukocyte-IFN and beta-natural-IFN at the dose of 6 mU three times/week for one year; the remaining 10 patients were included in the control group. Hepatitis B and D markers and transaminases were monitored monthly during IFN therapy. Within one month from the last dose of anti-HBV vaccine, 20 patients out 35 have shown a transitory disappearance of HBV-DNA. After the 2nd dose in 4 patients a marked increase in AST and ALT levels was observed (up to 10 times the normal values). After the 3rd dose (last dose) five HBV-DNA-negative patients have shown transitory low levels of anti-HBs antibodies; moreover, after the last dose of anti-HBV, one HBV-DNA-negative patient resulted HBV-DNA-positive. After one year of IFN-therapy, 8 patients out 15 treated with alpha-leukocyte-IFN and 2 treated with beta-natural-IFN, have shown normalisation of transaminases. These results confirm the effectiveness of an anti-HBV vaccination before an IFN treatment and a better response achieved with alpha-leukocyte-IFN.

Three systems which use laboratory scale X-ray sources and zone plate optics are under development: a dark field microscope, a scanning microscope and a microprobe for studies of cellular radiation response. Both microscopes are designed for use on a laser plasma source, but the dark field system can also be utilised at a storage ring. The microprobe uses either a micro focus source with a carbon target or a laser plasma source.

Dengue is an acute infectious disease, caused by a single stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus of the family of Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, transmitted by Aedes mosquitos, the most important vectors being Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. There are four serotypes, DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, DEN-4 that are nearly human specific. The geographical distribution of dengue is pantropical, except for Madagascar and some African regions. It is endemo-epidemic in tropical and subtropical countries included between 25 degrees north latitude and 25 degrees south latitude, particularly in southeast Asia and epidemic in the Caribbean, West-Africa, tropical American and Pacific Islands. Further spread will depend on the invasion of Aedes aegypti into new areas in South America. Maintenance of dengue is supported by an increasing demography, uncontrolled urbanization and climatic conditions favorable to the vectors. Spread of dengue is primarily caused by modern transportation, especially aircraft. No vaccine and no specific treatment exist so that mosquito control is the only way to reduce the incidence of dengue around the world. Dengue is, obviously, an important risk for travelers going to endemic areas.

There is an actual discussion about the best way to provide medical care for critically ill patients, particularly between the classical opened versus closed ICU models [1,2]. In Brazil, all ICUs have to have a full-time and dedicated physician at the unit but the primary physician also can visit his patient every day and, most of the time, participates in the patient's care plan. This hybrid model creates opportunity for patient's care plan divergences between the ICU staff and the primary physician. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of divergences about patient's care plan on the outcome of critically ill patients.

The authors gave recombinant human erythropoietin to four anaemic patients with HIV-infection treated with zidovudine. After erythropoietin administration an increase in haemoglobin, erythrocytes and haematocrit was observed and patients could continue AZT therapy.

The reported results show a prevalence of HIV-1 antibodies in drug addicts by ELISA and Western Blot. In this case report the presence of persons (drug addicts) whose sera have antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2 by ELISA and Western Blot advise that further epidemiological studies are necessary to assess the real HIV-2 circulation in Italy.

The authors notice a prevalence of P. falciparum in eight observed cases of imported malaria and confirm the increasing polychemioresistance of plasmodium and its prophylactic and therapeutic problems.

The smartgrid is a key technology for the sustainable and smart utilization of the renewable energies. In this paper, a prototyping of a microgrid, assembled at the Sustainable Development and Energy Saving Laboratory (SDESLAB) of the University of Palermo, is presented and discussed. In detail, the microgrid presents only one mechanical point of common coupling (PCC) with the main grid and it is electrically separated from the main grid. In this way, the voltage variations of the main grid do not affect the microgrid electric quantities behavior. In order to validate the effectiveness of the voltage and frequency control, several experimental tests and analysis have been carried out. In detail, a no-negligible 11th spatial harmonic component and switching frequency harmonics components have been detected on the microgrid output voltage.Therefore, in order to cancel these harmonic components, a LCL filter has been designed and experimental validated in its effectiveness. The study conducted represents a first stage for the experimental realization of a hybrid microgrid electrically independent of the main grid.

In this article the preliminary evaluation of the performance of a photovoltaic window is presented. The aim is to trace the behavior of next-generation systems, which favor architectonical integration. Three different systems have been taken into account: a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC), blue and grey caved silicon panels. The systems can be placed behind a window or behind a wall of glass blocks.

This paper describes the development and experimental characterization of a real-time, low-cost, wireless AC monitoring system based on ATmega 328P-PU microcontroller. The proposed system is composed by a main brain for the acquisition and the processing of the data measured by smart meters. From the experimental tests discussed in this work it is demonstrated that the proposed system can monitor, with adequate accuracy, the working cycles of electrical loads in order to evaluate its energy consumption.

In this paper a wind electrical power generation system for Distributed on Site (DoS) applications is proposed. This system was developed and conceived in order to guarantee simple installation, use and service, obtaining a product that can be easily industrialized and put into the market with limited costs. The field of application of such an electrical generation system is addressed towards domestic or at the most toward condominium applications concerning moreover the opportunity of working in addition to combined photovoltaic and solar-thermal systems to enhance the renewable energy generation at house level (DoS). The proposed system has its hot spot in the blades shape, in the wind flux canalization system and in the permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) optimized for this specific purpose. In fact with the proposed system intends to search the best aerodynamic profile and electrical generator to ensure the slightest encumbrance and the lowest weight. For this purpose the traditional and classical tangential wind turbine design, equipped with large blades, is overturned in favour of the use of numerous little blades. A further peculiarity of the system is the expected increase of its efficiency thanks to the presence of the wind flux channelling system with the elimination of the part opposing the wind and thanks to the adoption of a specifically designed PMSG.

Studies regarding the radiobiological effects of low dose radiation, microbeam irradiation services have been developed in the world and today laser acceleration of protons and heavy ions may be used in radiation therapy. The application of different facilities is essential for studying bystander effects and relating signalling phenomena in different cells or tissues. In particular the use of ion beams results advantageous in cancer radiotherapy compared to more commonly used X-rays, since the ability of ions in delivering lethal amount of doses into the target tumour avoiding or limiting damage to the contiguous healthy tissues. At the INFN-LNS in Catania, a multidisciplinary radiobiology group is strategically structured aimed to develop radiobiological research, finalised to therapeutic applications, compatible with the use of high dose laser-driven ion beams. The characteristic non-continuous dose rates with several orders of magnitude of laser-driven ion beams makes this facility very interesting in the cellular systems' response to ultra-high dose rates with non-conventional pulse time intervals cellular studies. Our group have projected to examine the effect of high dose laser-driven ion beams on two cellular types: foetal fibroblasts (normal control cells) and DU145 (prostate cancer cells), studying the modulation of some different bio-molecular parameters, in particular cell proliferation and viability, DNA damage, redox cellular status, morphological alterations of both the cytoskeleton components and some cell organelles and the possible presence of apoptotic or necrotic cell death. Our group performed preliminary experiments with high energy (60 MeV), dose rate of 10 Gy/min, doses of 1, 2, 3 Gy and LET 1 keV/mu m on human foetal fibroblasts (control cells). We observed that cell viability was not influenced by the characteristics of the beam, the irradiation conditions or the analysis time. Conversely, DNA damage was present at time 0, immediately following irradiation in a dose-dependent manner. The analysis of repair capability showed that the cells irradiated with 1 and 2 Gy almost completely recovered from the damage, but not, however, 3 Gy treated cells in which DNA damage was not recovered. In addition, the results indicate the importance of the use of an appropriate control in radiobiological in vitro analysis.

Introduzione al volume

In this article we propose a general method for estimating the capacitance of a ring placed on a dielectric supported by a metal plane. The problem, formulated as three integral equations, valid in complementary regions, is resolved by adopting a new expansion, which we have called double Neumann series, according to which the unknown of the problem is expanded by adopting a series of two Bessel function products.