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Bisphenol-A (BPA) is considered an endocrine disruptor with estrogenic activity. It is described as an environment-polluting industrial chemical whose adverse effects on the male reproductive system depend on the period of exposure (i.e., fetal, prepubertal, or adult life). We exposed male mice to BPA during the fetal-perinatal period (from 10 days post coitum to 31 days post partum) and investigated the impact of this early-life exposure on gamete health in adulthood animals at 78 days of age. Both in control and BPA-exposed mice, viability and motility of spermatozoa, as well as sperm motility acquisition and chromatin condensation of spermatozoa, have been evaluated. Results reveal harmful effect of BPA on viability and motility of sperm cells as well as on chromatin condensation status during epididymal maturation of spermatozoa. In particular, BPA exposure interferes with biochemical mechanism useful to stabilize sperm chromatin condensation, as it interferes with oxidation of thiol groups associated to chromatin.

The objective of this work has been to characterize the estrogenic activity of bisphenol-A (BPA) and the adverse effects on the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in modulating germ cell progression. Male offspring exposed to BPA during the foetal-perinatal period at doses below the no-observed-adverse-effect-level were used to investigate the exposure effects in adulthood. Results showed that BPA accumulates specifically in epididymal fat rather than in abdominal fat and targets testicular expression of 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and cytochrome P450 aromatase, thus promoting sustained increase of estrogens and a decrease of testosterone. The exposure to BPA affects the expression levels of some ECS components, namely type-1 (CB1) and type-2 cannabinoid (CB2) receptor and monoacylglycerol-lipase (MAGL). Furthermore, it affects the temporal progression of germ cells reported to be responsive to ECS and promotes epithelial germ cell exfoliation. In particular, it increases the germ cell content (i.e., spermatogonia while reducing spermatocytes and spermatids), accelerates progression of spermatocytes and spermatids, promotes epithelial detachment of round and condensed spermatids and interferes with expression of cell–cell junction genes (i.e., zonula occcludens protein-1, vimentin and β-catenin). Altogether, our study provides evidence that early exposure to BPA produces in adulthood sustained and site-specific BPA accumulation in epididymal fat, becoming a risk factor for the reproductive endocrine pathways associated to ECS.

We use the state-of-the-art data on cosmic chronometers (CCH) and the Pantheon+ compilation of supernovae of Type Ia (SNIa) to test the constancy of the SNIa absolute magnitude, \\(M\\), and the robustness of the cosmological principle (CP) at \\(z\\lesssim 2\\) with a model-agnostic approach. We do so by reconstructing \\(M(z)\\) and the curvature parameter \\(\\Omega_{k}(z)\\) using Gaussian Processes. Moreover, we use CCH in combination with data on baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) from various galaxy surveys (6dFGS, BOSS, eBOSS, WiggleZ, DES Y3) to measure the sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch, \\(r_d\\), from each BAO data point and check their consistency. Given the precision allowed by the CCH, we find that \\(M(z)\\), \\(\\Omega_k(z)\\) and \\(r_d(z)\\) are fully compatible (at \\(<68\\%\\) C.L.) with constant values. This justifies our final analyses, in which we put constraints on these constant parameters under the validity of the CP, the metric description of gravity and standard physics in the vicinity of the stellar objects, but otherwise in a model-independent way. If we exclude the SNIa contained in the host galaxies employed by SH0ES, our results read \\(M=(-19.314^{+0.086}_{-0.108})\\) mag, \\(r_d=(142.3\\pm 5.3)\\) Mpc and \\(\\Omega_k=-0.07^{+0.12}_{-0.15}\\), with \\(H_0=(71.5\\pm 3.1)\\) km/s/Mpc (\\(68\\%\\) C.L.). These values are independent from the main data sets involved in the \\(H_0\\) tension, namely, the cosmic microwave background and the first two rungs of the cosmic distance ladder. If, instead, we also consider the SNIa in the host galaxies, calibrated with Cepheids, we measure \\(M=(-19.252^{+0.024}_{-0.036})\\) mag, \\(r_d=(141.9^{+5.6}_{-4.9})\\) Mpc, \\(\\Omega_k=-0.10^{+0.12}_{-0.15}\\) and \\(H_0=(74.0^{+0.9}_{-1.0})\\) km/s/Mpc.

We present an analytical modelling of the angular cross-correlations between the Integrated Sachs Wolfe-Rees Sciama (ISWRS) effect and large-scale structure tracers in the presence of massive neutrinos. Our method has been validated against large N-body simulations with a massive neutrino particle component, namely the DEMNUni suite. We investigate the impact of different neutrino masses on the cross-correlations between the ISWRS effect and both the galaxy clustering and the lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We also test the ability of current nonlinear matter power spectrum modellings to reproduce neutrino effects in such cross-correlations. We show that the multipole position of a characteristic sign inversion in the cross-spectra, due to nonlinear effects, is strongly related to the total neutrino mass \\(M_\\nu\\) and depends almost linearly on it. While these nonlinear cross-correlation signals may not be able alone to constrain the neutrino mass, our approach paves the way to the detection of such cross-spectra on small scales for their exploitation in combination with main probes from future galaxy surveys and CMB experiments.

The observation of primordial B-modes in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) represents the main scientific goal of most of the future CMB experiments. This signal is predicted to be much lower than polarised Galactic emission (foregrounds) in any region of the sky pointing to the need for effective components separation methods, such as the Needlet-ILC (NILC). In this work, we explore the possibility of employing NILC for B-mode maps reconstructed from partial-sky data of sub-orbital experiments, addressing the complications that such an application yields: E-B leakage, needlet filtering and beam convolution. We consider two complementary simulated datasets from future experiments: the balloon-borne SWIPE telescope of the Large Scale Polarization Explorer, which targets the observation of both reionisation and recombination peaks of the primordial B-mode angular power spectrum, and the ground-based Small Aperture Telescope of Simons Observatory, which is designed to observe only the recombination bump. We assess the performance of two alternative techniques to correct for the CMB E-B leakage: the recycling technique (Liu et al. 2019) and the ZB method (Zhao & Baskaran 2010). We find that they both reduce the E-B leakage residuals at a negligible level given the sensitivity of the considered experiments, except for the recycling method in the SWIPE patch at \\(\\ell < 20\\). Thus, we implement two extensions of the pipeline, the iterative B-decomposition and the diffusive inpainting, which enable us to recover the input CMB B-mode power for \\(\\ell \\geq 5\\). We demonstrate that needlet filtering and beam convolution do not affect the B-mode reconstruction. Finally, with an appropriate masking strategy, we find that NILC foregrounds subtraction allows to achieve sensitivities for the tensor-to-scalar ratio compatible to the targets of the considered CMB experiments.

At its third edition, the Young Researcher Meeting in Rome (YRMR) proves to be a growing event in the Italian scientific panorama. The high-quality content of the abstracts submitted to the scientific committee resulted in an exciting conference, held, for the second time, at the University of Rome Tor Vergata on 20 January 2012. A busy schedule covered a large variety of cutting-edge science topics: fundamental interactions, particle physics, cosmology, astrophysics, condensed matter and biomedical physics. The broad range of the subjects discussed is the distinctive feature of the YRMR, a meeting aimed at enhancing the synergy among complementary branches of science by stimulating a fruitful exchange between theoretical, experimental and computational physics. Promoting collaborations between PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and young researchers creates a solid scientific network with an open-minded approach to discovery. In this volume, we collect the contributions that have been presented both in the form of talks and of posters. YRMR Organising and Editorial Committee Fabio Agostini (fabio.agostini@roma2.infn.it) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma Italy Giordano Cattani (giordano.cattani@roma2.infn.it) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata INFN sezione di Roma Tor Vergata Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma Italy Luca Mazzaferro (luca.mazzaferro@roma2.infn.it) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata INFN sezione di Roma Tor Vergata Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma Italy Marina Migliaccio (migliaccio@ifca.unican.es) Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria, Edificio Juan Jorda, Avenida de los Castros, E-39005 Santander, Cantabria Spain Davide Pietrobon (davide.pietrobon@jpl.nasa.gov) Jet Propulsion Laboratory – California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Drive 169-237 91109 Pasadena, CA USA Daniel Ricci Pacifici (Daniel.Ricci.Pacifici@roma2.infn.it) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata INFN sezione di Roma Tor Vergata Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma Italy Francesco Stellato (francesco.stellato@cfel.de) Center for Free Electron Laser science c/o DESY 22607 Hamburg Germany Marcella Veneziani (marcella.veneziani@caltech.edu) California Institute of Technology 1200 California Blvd, Pasadena, 91125, CA USA Acknowledgments The organizers of the 3rd Young Researcher Meeting in Rome would like to thank all the scientists who participated in the meeting. We thank the Science Faculty of the University of Rome Tor Vergata for hosting the conference. The Tor Vergata Division of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the Department of Physics of the University of Rome Tor Vergata who have sponsored the event, covering the organization costs and allowing for travel grants to the speakers. We are grateful to Professor Francesco Fucito, Professor Piergiorgio Picozza, Professor Rinaldo Santonico, Dr Jose Francisco Morales and Ms Francesca Luna for their valuable support.

We investigate the origin of the large clustering signal detected in the angular distribution of the radio sources in the TGSS catalog. To do so, we cross-correlate the angular position of the radio sources with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lensing maps from the Planck satellite, since cross-correlation is expected to be insensitive to source of possible systematic errors that may generate a spurious clustering signal. The amplitude of the angular cross-correlation spectrum of TGSS-CMB lensing turns out to be much smaller than that of the TGSS auto-spectrum and consistent with that of the NVSS-CMB lensing cross spectrum. A result that confirms the spurious origin of the TGSS large scale clustering signal. We further compare the two cross-spectra with theoretical predictions that use various prescriptions from the literature, for the redshift counts of the radio sources, \\(N(z)\\), and their bias \\(b(z)\\). These models, that assume a \\(\\Lambda\\)CDM cosmology and that were proposed to fit the NVSS auto-spectrum, fail to match the cross-spectra on large scale, though not by far. When the bias relation is let free to vary (model predictions are rather insensitive to the choice of the N(z)) the quality of the fit improves but a large bias (\\( b_g = 2.53 \\pm 0.11\\)) is required, which does not seem to be consistent with the observed clustering amplitude of the radio sources in the local universe. Whether this large cross-correlation amplitude represents a problem for the radio sources models, or for the \\(\\Lambda\\)CDM framework itself, can only be clarified using next generation datasets featuring large number of objects. What our analysis does show is the possibility to remove the \\(N(z)\\) and \\(b(z)\\) degeneracy by combining angular and cross-correlation analyses.

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) primordial B-modes signal is predicted to be much lower than the polarized Galactic emission (foregrounds) in any region of the sky pointing to the need for sophisticated component separation methods. Among them, the blind Needlet-ILC (NILC) has great relevance given our current poor knowledge of the B-modes foregrounds. However the expected level of spatial variability of the foreground spectral properties complicates the NILC subtraction of the Galactic contamination. In order to reach the ambitious targets of future CMB experiments, we therefore propose a novel extension of the NILC approach, the Multi-Clustering NILC (MC-NILC), which performs NILC variance minimization on separate regions of the sky (clusters) properly chosen to have similar spectral properties of the B-modes foregrounds emission. Clusters are identified thresholding the ratio of B-modes maps at two separate frequencies which is used as tracer of the spatial distribution of the spectral indices of the Galactic emission in B modes. We consider ratios either of simulated foregrounds-only B modes (ideal case) or of cleaned templates of Galactic emission obtained from realistic simulations. In this work we present an application of MC-NILC to the future LiteBIRD satellite, which targets the observation of both reionization and recombination peaks of the primordial B-modes angular power spectrum with a total error on the tensor-to-scalar ratio \\(\\delta r < 0.001\\). We show that MC-NILC provides a CMB solution with residual foregrounds and noise contamination that is significantly reduced with respect to NILC and lower than the primordial signal targeted by LiteBIRD at all angular scales for the ideal case and at the reionization peak for a realistic ratio. Thus, MC-NILC will represent a powerful method to mitigate B-modes foregrounds for future CMB polarization experiments.

The angular power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies is a key tool to study the Universe. However, it is blind to the presence of non--Gaussianities and deviations from statistical isotropy, which instead can be detected with other statistics such as Minkowski Functionals (MFs). These tools have been applied to CMB temperature and \\(E\\)-mode anisotropies with no detection of deviations from Gaussianity and isotropy. In this work, we extend the MFs formalism to the CMB polarisation intensity, \\(P^2=Q^2+U^2\\). We use the Gaussian Kinematic Formula to derive the theoretical predictions of MFs for Gaussian isotropic fields. We develop a software that computes MFs on \\(P^2\\) HEALPix maps and apply it to simulations to verify the robustness of both theory and methodology. We then estimate MFs of \\(P^2\\) maps from Planck, both in pixel space and needlet domain, comparing them with realistic simulations which include CMB and instrumental noise residuals. We find no significant deviations from Gaussianity or isotropy in Planck CMB polarisation intensity. However, MFs could play an important role in the analysis of CMB polarisation measurements from upcoming experiments with improved sensitivity. Therefore we forecast the ability of MFs applied to \\(P^2\\) maps to detect much fainter non-Gaussian anisotropic signals than with Planck data for two future complementary experiments: the LiteBIRD satellite and the ground-based Simons Observatory. We publicly release the software to compute MFs in arbitrary scalar HEALPix maps as a fully-documented Python package called \\(\\texttt{Pynkowski}\\) (https://github.com/javicarron/pynkowski).

Several studies in the literature have found a disagreement between data on Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) derived using two distinct methodologies: the two-dimensional (2D or angular) BAO, which extracts the BAO signal from the angular two-point correlation function; and the three-dimensional (3D) BAO, which also exploits the radial signal imprinted on the large-scale structure of the universe. This discrepancy is worrisome, since many of the points contained in these data sets are obtained from the same catalogs of tracers, so we would expect them to be consistent. Since BAO measurements play a pivotal role in the building of the inverse distance ladder, this mismatch impacts the discourse on the Hubble tension and the theoretical solutions to the latter. So far, the discrepancy between 2D and 3D BAO has been only pointed out in the context of fitting analyses of cosmological models or parametrizations that involve a concrete calibration of the comoving sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch. In this Letter, we avoid the use of any calibration and cosmological model, assuming that the Etherington (a.k.a distance duality) relation holds. We use state-of-the-art measurements in our analysis, and study how the results change when the angular components of the 3D BAO data from BOSS/eBOSS are substituted by the recent data from DESI Y1. We find the tension to exist at the level of \\(\\sim 2\\sigma\\) and \\(\\sim 2.5\\sigma\\), respectively, when the SNIa of Pantheon+ are used, and at \\(\\sim 4.6\\sigma\\) when they are replaced with those of DES Y5. We then apply a calibrator-independent method to investigate the robustness of the distance duality relation when analyzed not only with 3D BAO measurements, but also with 2D BAO. We do not find any hint for a violation of the cosmic distance duality relation in any of the considered data sets. [abridged]