Juno spacecraft gravity measurements provide evidence for normal modes of Jupiter.

The Juno spacecraft has been collecting data to shed light on the planet's origin and characterize its interior structure. The onboard gravity science experiment based on X-band and Ka-band dual-frequency Doppler tracking precisely measured Jupiter's zonal gravitational field. Here, we analyze 22 Juno's gravity passes to investigate the gravity field. Our analysis provides evidence of new gravity field features, which perturb its otherwise axially symmetric structure with a time-variable component. We show that normal modes of the planet could explain the anomalous signatures present in the Doppler data better than other alternative explanations, such as localized density anomalies and non-axisymmetric components of the static gravity field. We explain Juno data by p-modes having an amplitude spectrum with a peak radial velocity of 10-50 cm/s at 900-1200 µHz (compatible with ground-based observations) and provide upper bounds on lower frequency f-modes (radial velocity smaller than 1 cm/s). The new Juno results could open the possibility of exploring the interior structure of the gas giants through measurements of the time-variable gravity or with onboard instrumentation devoted to the observation of normal modes, which could drive spacecraft operations of future missions.

Attitude Sensor from Ellipsoid Observations: A Numerical and Experimental Validation.

The preliminary design and validation of a novel, high accuracy horizon-sensor for small satellites is presented, which is based on the theory of attitude determination from ellipsoid observations. The concept consists of a multi-head infrared sensor capturing images of the Earth limb. By fitting an ellipse to the imaged limb arcs, and exploiting some analytical results available from projective geometry, a closed form solution for computing the attitude matrix is provided. The algorithm is developed in a dimensionless framework, requiring the knowledge of the shape of the imaged target, but not of its size. As a result, the solution is less sensitive to the limb shift caused by the atmospheric own radiance. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, a numerical simulator is developed, which generates images captured in low Earth orbit, including also the presence of the atmosphere. In addition, experimental validation is provided due to a dedicated testbed, making use of a miniature infrared camera. Results show that our sensor concept returns rms errors of few hundredths of a degree or less in determining the local nadir direction.

Gastric metastasis from breast carcinoma. Report of three cases, diagnostic-therapeutic critical close examination and literature review.

Gastric metastases of breast cancer represent a not so rare event in patients affected. In fact, it occurs in 0.3% of cases. Although the introduction of new adjuvant therapies has given rise to an increase in disease free survival and overall survival rates, it has also led to more frequent occurrences of breast cancer metastatic lesions localized in bone, lung/pleura and liver, but above all in the stomach. The authors present three cases of patients suffering from breast cancer with secondary gastric neoplastic lesions from lobular and infiltrating ductal breast cancer. Lobular breast cancer is the histological type mostly involved in disseminated disease, with an incidence of 85% of cases. A review of the literature reveals that authors address the clinical and diagnostic problems of differentiating between a breast cancer metastasis to the stomach and a primary gastric cancer using recent diagnostic strategies to make an early diagnosis. Today practitioners have specific tests to detect early gastric cancer metastases of breast cancer such as endoscopic ultrasound, which provides a better endoscopic definition of the lesions, and immunohistochemical markers, able to distinguish the primary lobular histological type from ductal cancer. Besides, an early diagnosis associated with the latest adjuvant systemic therapies and hormonal treatment, alone or in combination, may grant affected patients a remission with a survival rate of 10-28 months, and a reasonable quality of life. At present the surgical approach should be reserved for selected cases and/or complications.

[A video-aided minilaparocholecystectomy]. / Una tecnica di minilaparocolecistectomia video-assistita.

AIM: The main objective is to prospectively evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of minilaparocholecystectomy combined with videolaparoscopic view in cases of complicated gallstones where VLC was risky. MATERIAL OF STUDY: We carried out minilaparotomic video-aided cholecystectomy on 110 patients (32 males and 78 females) with preoperative diagnosis of intraabdominal adhesions or biliary severe inflammation. RESULT: No significant intra or postoperative complications was reported and in all cases pain was never greater than that reported after VLC. In all these cases the anesthetists reported an easier intra-operative management of the vital parameters than with VLC procedures. DISCUSSION: Minilaparocholecystectomy appears a type of alternative procedure able to combine mini-invasiveness with as low a number as possible of intra- and post-operative complications, in cases where VLC have risk. No significant postoperative pain was reported, and in any case pain was never greater than that reported after VLC. Recovery times were similar to those after VLC; patients were able to return to their normal social and working life within a mean 3 days. The procedure carried out by us is a low-cost one: it does not require disposable instruments From the esthetic viewpoint, video-aided minicholecystectomy minimal scars in our cases, wound ranged from 4 to 6 cm. in length. CONCLUSIONS: In patients in whom VLC have risks, video-aided minilaparocholecystectomy represents an easy-to-perform and low-cost alternative. VMC can also be proposed as a procedure of choice in cases of complicated gallstones instead of the traditional open cholecystectomy technique.

A translocation t(4; 13)(q21;q14) as single clonal chromosomal abnormality in a parathyroid adenoma.

Most of the information about the genetic composition of parathyroid tumors has been obtained by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) studies, whereas only few conventional cytogenetic investigation results are available. We have performed cytogenetic analysis of short-term cultures from 3 parathyroid adenoma tissue samples. Two cases showed a normal karyotype in all the metaphases obtained from independent primary cultures. In one case 5 metaphases (in a total of 25) from 2 independent cultures showed a nonrandom translocation t(4;13)(q21;q14), which was therefore accepted as clonal. To our knowledge this is the second clonal translocation described in this tumor type. Further conventional cytogenetic analysis of more parathyroid tumor specimens would be necessary to identify other specific abnormalities and the involved genes with a potential important role in the diagnosis, prognosis and pathogenesis of parathyroid tumors.