ALBERT

Description: Twenty-six adult patients (pts) aged between 22 and 60 years (median age: 46) with BCR-ABL+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) were prospectively monitored by Q-RT-PCR between August 2001 and July 2004. All pts entered the GIMEMA LAL 0201/A protocol, in which Imatinib alone, at the dosage of 400 mg x 2 daily for at least six months, was administered as post-consolidation therapy in responding pts after intensive chemotherapy (CHT). Eighteen pts (69%) were p190+and 8 (31%) p210+ with/without the p190. In these two groups, the mean number of BCR-ABL copies at diagnosis (ie: BCR-ABL/ABL x 104) was 13,052 (range: 1,466–35,449) and 22,487 (range: 7,315–78,000) (p=ns), respectively. All pts were in 1st complete hematologic remission (25 pts after the first induction-consolidation course; 1 pt after a salvage treatment). Before Imatinib, 8 of the 18 p190+ pts (44%) showed a BCR-ABL copy reduction of ≥ 3 log compared to the levels at diagnosis, (mean BCR-ABL copies 3.6; range: 0–10), and they were defined as good responders to CHT. The remaining 10 pts (56%), defined as poor responders, showed a reduction of 〈 3 log (mean copies 2,825.8; range: 12 – 25,245). In the 10 poor responders, BCR-ABL copies constantly increased over time and this was predictive of an hematologic relapse in 8/10 patients. By contrast, 7 of the 8 good responder pts during Imatinib treatment persistently showed levels of BCR-ABL below 10. These 7 pts are in CCR maintained by Imatinib alone at 6, 9, 13, 13, 17, 21 and 23 months, respectively. In 1 pt, at 6 months from the start of Imatinib, a CNS relapse preceded a marked increase in the BCR-ABL copy numbers in BM cells. Therefore, after a median follow-up of 6 months (range 3 – 23), for poor responders, and of 13 months (range 6 – 30), for good responders, the actuarial probability of relapse was 100% and 12.5%, at 24 months (p=.027), respectively. p210+ pts achieved a molecular response rate slightly different respect to the p190+ cases. In fact, before starting Imatinib, only 2 of the 8 cases (25%) analyzed showed a reduction in BCR/ABL copies ≥ 3 log whereas in the remaining 6 pts, 1 relapsed at 6 months, but the other 5 showed a decrease of the BCR-ABL copies that in 2 cases fell below the 3 log reduction after 8 and 12 months, respectively. Altogether, after a median follow-up of 6 months (range: 2–28), 7/8 p210+ pts were in CCR maintained by Imatinib alone without transplant at 2, 4, 5, 6, 19, 24 and 28 months, respectively. In conclusion, Imatinib is a highly effective post-consolidation treatment for adult Ph+ ALL pts being able to maintain and/or to induce a minimum level of BCR-ABL expression, without the high morbidity and mortality relating to allografting procedures. In addition, in the p190+ cases an unsatisfactory molecular response rate after CHT was a powerful predictor of a subsequent clinical resistance to Imatinib.

Description: The Landsat series of satellites provides the longest running continuous data set of moderate-spatial-resolution imagery beginning with the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972 and continuing with the 1999 launch of Landsat 7 and current operation of Landsats 5 and 7. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) will continue this program into a fourth decade providing data that are keys to understanding changes in land-use changes and resource management. LDCM consists of a two-sensor platform comprised of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensors (TIRS). A description of the applications and design of the TIRS instrument is given as well as the plans for calibration and characterization. Included are early results from preflight calibration and a description of the inflight validation.

Description: The flight focal plane array (FPA) for the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 (TIRS-2) instrument, to be flown on Landsat 9, was built and characterized at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The FPA was assembled using GaAs quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) arrays from the same lot as the TIRS instrument on Landsat 8. Each QWIP array is hybridized to an Indigo ISC9803 readout integrated circuit (ROIC) with 640 x 512, 25m by 25m pixels. Each QWIP hybrid was tested at the NASA/GSFC Detector Characterization Laboratory (DCL) as a single sensor chip assembly (SCA). The best SCAs in terms of performance were then built up into an FPA consisting of three SCAs, required to provide the necessary 15-degree field of view of the instrument. The FPA was tested to determine if project requirements were being met as a fully assembled unit. The performance of the QWIP SCAs and the fully assembled, NASA flight-qualified FPA will be reviewed.

Description: The focal plane assembly for the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instrument on NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) consists of three 512 x 640 GaAs Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) arrays. The three arrays are precisely mounted and aligned on a silicon carrier substrate to provide a continuous viewing swath of 1850 pixels in two spectral bands defined by filters placed in close proximity to the detector surfaces. The QWIP arrays are hybridized to Indigo ISC9803 readout integrated circuits (ROICs). QWIP arrays were evaluated from four laboratories; QmagiQ, (Nashua, NH), Army Research Laboratory, (Adelphi, MD}, NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center, (Greenbelt, MD) and Thales, (Palaiseau, France). All were found to be suitable. The final discriminating parameter was the spectral uniformity of individual pixels relative to each other. The performance of the QWIP arrays and the fully assembled, NASA flight-qualified, focal plane assembly will be reviewed. An overview of the focal plane assembly including the construction and test requirements of the focal plane will also be described.

Description: Describe in-flight calibration for the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) (1) Overview of TIRS (2) On-orbit radiometric calibration (2a) Onboard calibrator (2b) Terrestrial sites (3) On-orbit geometric and spatial calibration

Description: This slide presentation reviews the calibration methods being planned for use for the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) on the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). The description reviews the TIRS and the prelaunch testing: (1) Radiometric and spectral tests, (2) Geometric and spatial tests and (3) Calibration test equipment. It also reviews the planned on-orbit testing.