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Introduction/Background* Platinum-containing chemotherapy ± bevacizumab is standard-of-care for recurrent/metastatic/persistent (R/M/P) cervical cancer (CC). Anti-PD-(L)1 therapy has benefit in some patients who progress after first-line (1L) therapy; 1L efficacy is unknown. HPV infection, implicated in >95% of CCs, is linked to TGF-β upregulation. Bintrafusp alfa is a first-in-class bifunctional fusion protein composed of the extracellular domain of the TGF-βRII receptor (a TGF-β ‘trap’) fused to a human IgG1 mAb blocking PD-L1. Promising activity was observed in patients with recurrent, platinum-experienced CC (response rate 28.2%). We report data from a phase 1b trial evaluating safety of 1L bintrafusp alfa + chemotherapy ± bevacizumab (INTR@PID 046; NCT04551950). Methodology Patients with R/M/P CC who had not received prior systemic therapy were eligible for cohort 1. They received bintrafusp alfa 2400mg q3w plus cisplatin 50mg/m2 or carboplatin AUC5, paclitaxel 175mg/m2 with (cohort 1A)/without (cohort 1B) bevacizumab 15mg/kg until disease progression, death, unacceptable toxicity, or withdrawal. Primary endpoints: occurrence of predefined dose-limiting toxicities (DLT) ≤4 weeks from treatment start; adverse event occurrence. Target recruitment was 8 patients/cohort, with safety assessments when 3 and 8 patients had completed the DLT period. Result(s)* As of May 4, 2021, 8 and 9 patients in cohorts 1A and 1B had received therapy for a median of 10.6 and 9.0 weeks. All patients had completed the DLT period and remained on therapy. Two non-bintrafusp alfa-related DLTs were observed in cohort 1B (grade 4 amylase elevation, grade 3 menorrhagia); neither led to treatment discontinuation. Any-grade treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) occurred in 62.5% and 100% of patients in cohorts 1A and 1B. Grade 3 TRAEs occurred in 3 and 2 patients (cohort 1A: anemia [n=2], lipase increase, decreased neutrophil count, maculo-papular rash [n=1 each]; cohort 1B: anemia, rectal hemorrhage, vaginal bleeding [n=1 each]); 1 patient in cohort 1B had grade 4 anemia. No treatment-related deaths occurred. Preliminary efficacy based on short follow-up showed 3 and 2 tumor responses (2 and 1 pending confirmation) in cohorts 1A and 1B. Conclusion* No new safety signals were observed with 1L bintrafusp alfa + chemotherapy ± bevacizumab in patients with R/M/P CC. Further studies are warranted.

This paper describes mainly the design and the features of the RadioFrequency (RF) unit which is part of the development of a novel active X-band SAR system calibrator for both PAZ satellite and airborne prototypes (RBX, RIX) by INTA. The ground calibrator consists of an active transponder path and a detector path. This system will be used for absolute radiometric calibration of SAR image data and for antenna pattern evaluation, besides it provides a monitoring of the performance of the transponder itself. During the validation phase of both the PAZ and the RBX missions in 2014 this system will be demanded.

The NASA Deep Space Network hosts three complexes worldwide for spacecrafts tracking. The Spanish complex, the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC), operates a set of highly sensitive antennas, which are used for Host Country Radio Astronomy (HCRA) during a percentage of their operational time. We have designed, developed and built a wideband backend for HCRA in MDSCC, which greatly improves its available facilities, and opens new scientic cases to be tackled. The backend is able to sample up to 6 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth, in the frequency range from 18 to 50 GHz, using two dierent antennas. An intermediate-frequency (IF) processor downconverts the two-polarization signals to four base-band channels of 1.5 GHz width. Digitalisation is done through a set of FPGA-based FFT spectrometers, which can provide spectral resolutions from 7 to 200 kHz, and spectral coverages from 100MHz to 1.5 GHz each. This new facility enables HCRA to aord new scientic projects, such as extragalactic radio astronomy and spectral surveys; at the same time, the available time for HC is greatly optimized. It was necessary the development of dedicated software for spectra acquisition and control of the equipment, and also the upgrading of the existing observing programs. Once end-to-end assembled, the whole backend was tested through a set of commissioning observations. In this contribution the main features of the new backend are described, including the IF processor, the FFT spectrometer and the developed software. Some astronomical results are also included.

The antennas of NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC) in Robledo de Chavela are available as single-dish radio astronomical facilities during a significant percentage of their operational time. Current instrumentation includes two antennas of 70 and 34 m in diameter, equipped with dual-polarization receivers in K (18 - 26 GHz) and Q (38 - 50 GHz) bands, respectively. We have developed and built a new wideband backend for the Robledo antennas, with the objectives (1) to optimize the available time and enhance the efficiency of radio astronomy in MDSCC; and (2) to tackle new scientific cases impossible to that were investigated with the old, narrow-band autocorrelator. The backend consists of an IF processor, a FFT spectrometer (FFTS), and the software that interfaces and manages the events among the observing program, antenna control, the IF processor, the FFTS operation, and data recording. The whole system was end-to-end assembled in August 2011, at the start of commissioning activities, and the results are reported in this paper. Frequency tunings and line intensities are stable over hours, even when using different synthesizers and IF channels; no aliasing effects have been measured, and the rejection of the image sideband was characterized. The first setup provides 1.5 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth in a single polarization, using 8192 channels and a frequency resolution of 212 kHz; upgrades under way include a second FFTS card, and two high-resolution cores providing 100 MHz and 500 MHz of bandwidth, and 16384 channels. These upgrades will permit simultaneous observations of the two polarizations with instantaneous bandwidths from 100 MHz to 3 GHz, and spectral resolutions from 7 to 212 kHz., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysics

The IFSAR is an airborne SAR simulator for extended targets developed by INTA. This tool generates simulated signal data of an artificial three-dimensional scene as collected by an interferometric SAR with a fully configurable system oriented to airborne applications. Scene is made of points and triangular extended targets, over a selected ellipsoid, and it can be drawn using common CAD software. GPS motion records of plane and moving point targets, extended targets, associated scattering patterns, chirp signal, antenna patterns and TxRx diagram can be simulated too. Experimental results comparing interferograms from real and simulated missions shows that the tool is extremely accurate and requires few computer resources. It is used to calibrate of MOCO algorithms and interferometric processors, to probe new techniques and solve problems in real acquisitions of interferometric airborne SAR data