SKPFM investigations of intermetallic compounds of innovative Er‐ and Zr‐containing Al–Si–Mg alloys and their influence on corrosion localization in saline solution

The paper aims at characterizing the influence of intermetallic compounds on the corrosion localization of innovative Al–Si–Mg Er‐ and Zr‐containing casting alloys. Samples of the investigated materials were studied by means of optical and scanning electron microscope micrographs, immersion tests, and scanning Kelvin probe force microscope (SKPFM) analyses in the T6 temper. Combination of immersion tests and SKPFM analyses allowed to identify those classes of intermetallic compounds promoting localization of the corrosion process. It was found that intermetallic compounds richer in Fe were the most critical for corrosion localization; furthermore, additions of Er caused a marked decrease of the potential difference of intermetallic compounds with respect to the Al matrix and a consequent less intense microgalvanic coupling, which translates into slower corrosion kinetics. Further, Zr additions slightly increased the potential difference of intermetallic compounds with the Al matrix, promoting a faster corrosion process.     

Optimized production of a high-performance hybrid biomaterial: biomineralized spider silk for bone tissue engineering

Silks have been widely used as biomaterials due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and excellent mechanical properties. In the present work, native spider silk was used as organic template for controlled nucleation of hydroxyapatite (HA) nano-coating that can act as biomimetic interface. Different bio-inspired neutralization methods and process parameters were evaluated to optimize the silk functionalization. The morphology and chemical composition were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis and mechanical properties were studied through tensile tests. Results showed that the optimized protocol enabled a controlled and homogeneous nucleation of apatite nano-crystals while maintaining silk mechanical performances after mineralization. This study reports the optimization of a simple and effective bio-inspired nucleation process for precise nucleation of HA onto spider silk templates, suitable to develop high-performance hybrid interfaces for bone tissue engineering. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48739.     

SGLT2is and Renal Protection: From Biological Mechanisms to Real-World Clinical Benefits

In recent years, following the publication of results from several RCTs, first on cardiovascular and more recently on renal outcomes, SGLT2is have become the standard of care to prevent diabetic kidney disease and slow its progression. This narrative review focuses on biological mechanisms, both renal and extrarenal, underlying kidney protection with SGLT2is. Furthermore, data from cardiovascular as well as renal outcome trials, mostly conducted in diabetic patients, are presented and discussed to provide an overview of current uses as well as the future therapeutic potential of these drugs.     

A2B Adenosine Receptors: When Outsiders May Become an Attractive Target to Treat Brain Ischemia or Demyelination

Adenosine is a signaling molecule, which, by activating its receptors, acts as an important player after cerebral ischemia. Here, we review data in the literature describing A_2BR-mediated effects in models of cerebral ischemia obtained in vivo by the occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAo) or in vitro by oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) in hippocampal slices. Adenosine plays an apparently contradictory role in this receptor subtype depending on whether it is activated on neuro-glial cells or peripheral blood vessels and/or inflammatory cells after ischemia. Indeed, A_2BRs participate in the early glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity responsible for neuronal and synaptic loss in the CA1 hippocampus. On the contrary, later after ischemia, the same receptors have a protective role in tissue damage and functional impairments, reducing inflammatory cell infiltration and neuroinflammation by central and/or peripheral mechanisms. Of note, demyelination following brain ischemia, or autoimmune neuroinflammatory reactions, are also profoundly affected by A_2BRs since they are expressed by oligodendroglia where their activation inhibits cell maturation and expression of myelin-related proteins. In conclusion, data in the literature indicate the A_2BRs as putative therapeutic targets for the still unmet treatment of stroke or demyelinating diseases.     

A review of varietal change in roots,tubers and bananas: consumer preferences and other drivers of adoption and implications for breeding

This review of the literature on varietal change in sub-Saharan Africa looks in detail at adoption of new varieties of bananas in Uganda, cassava in Nigeria, potato in Kenya, sweetpotato in Uganda and yams in Côte d’Ivoire. The review explored three hypotheses about drivers of varietal change. There was a strong confirmation for the hypothesis that insufficient priority given to consumer-preferred traits by breeding programmes contributes to the limited uptake of modern varieties (MVs) and low varietal turnover. Lack of evidence meant the second hypothesis of insufficient attention to understanding and responding to gender differences in consumer preferences for quality and post-harvest traits was unresolved. The evidence on the third hypothesis about the informal seed system contributing to slow uptake of MVs was mixed. In some cases, the informal system has contributed to rapid uptake of MVs, but often it appears to be a barrier with inconsistent varietal naming a major challenge.     

Room-Temperature Operation of a p-Type Molecular Spin Photovoltaic Device on a Transparent Substrate

The coupling of diverse degrees of freedom opens the door to physical effects that go beyond each of them individually, making multifunctionality a much sought-after attribute for high-performance devices. Here, the multifunctional operation of a single-layer p-type organic device, displaying both spin transport and photovoltaic effect at the room temperature on a transparent substrate, is shown. The generated photovoltage is almost three times larger than the applied bias to the device which facilitates the modulation of the magnetic response of the device with both bias and light. The device shows an increase in power conversion efficiency under magnetic field, an ability to invert the current with magnetic field and under certain conditions it can act as a spin photodetector with zero power consumption in the standby mode. The room-temperature exploitation of the interplay among light, bias, and magnetic field in the single device with a p-type molecule opens a way toward the development of efficient high-performance spin photovoltaic cells.     

A comparison of graph-based word sense induction clustering algorithms in a pseudoword evaluation framework

This article presents a comparison of different Word Sense Induction (wsi) clustering algorithms on two novel pseudoword data sets of semantic-similarity and co-occurrence-based word graphs, with a special focus on the detection of homonymic polysemy. We follow the original definition of a pseudoword as the combination of two monosemous terms and their contexts to simulate a polysemous word. The evaluation is performed comparing the algorithm’s output on a pseudoword’s ego word graph (i.e., a graph that represents the pseudoword’s context in the corpus) with the known subdivision given by the components corresponding to the monosemous source words forming the pseudoword. The main contribution of this article is to present a self-sufficient pseudoword-based evaluation framework for wsi graph-based clustering algorithms, thereby defining a new evaluation measure (top2) and a secondary clustering process (hyperclustering). To our knowledge, we are the first to conduct and discuss a large-scale systematic pseudoword evaluation targeting the induction of coarse-grained homonymous word senses across a large number of graph clustering algorithms.