Intercomparison campaign of spectroradiometers for a correct estimation of solar spectral irradiance: results and potential impact on photovoltaic devices calibration

This paper describes the results of an intercomparison of spectroradiometers for global and direct normal incidence irradiance in the visible and near‐infrared spectral regions together with an assessment of the impact these results may have on the estimation of the short‐circuit current (I_SC) calibration of photovoltaic devices and on the spectral mismatch calculation. The intercomparison was conducted in the framework of the European project Apollon with the additional participation of external partners from the Italian project for the long‐term monitoring of solar radiation for photovoltaics. Six institutions and six spectroradiometer systems, representing different technologies and manufacturers, were involved. Prior to the intercomparison, all participating partners calibrated their own instrument(s) according to their usual procedures in order to verify the entire measuring and traceability chain. The difference in measured spectra shape and amplitude showed to have an impact on I_SC calculation of less than 3% and less than 6% for single‐junction and multi‐junction devices, respectively. When only the shape of the spectra is considered, the spectral mismatch ranges from 1.7% to 4.7% depending on the spectral response of the device. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tridiagonalization of a dense symmetric matrix on multiple GPUs and its application to symmetric eigenvalue problems

For software to fully exploit the computing power of emerging heterogeneous computers, not only must the required computational kernels be optimized for the specific hardware architectures but also an effective scheduling scheme is needed to utilize the available heterogeneous computational units and to hide the communication between them. As a case study, we develop a static scheduling scheme for the tridiagonalization of a symmetric dense matrix on multicore CPUs with multiple graphics processing units (GPUs) on a single compute node. We then parallelize and optimize the Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines (BLAS)‐2 symmetric matrix‐vector multiplication, and the BLAS‐3 low rank symmetric matrix updates on the GPUs. We demonstrate the good scalability of these multi‐GPU BLAS kernels and the effectiveness of our scheduling scheme on twelve Intel Xeon processors and three NVIDIA GPUs. We then integrate our hybrid CPU‐GPU kernel into computational kernels at higher‐levels of software stacks, that is, a shared‐memory dense eigensolver and a distributed‐memory sparse eigensolver. Our experimental results show that our kernels greatly improve the performance of these higher‐level kernels, not only reducing the solution time but also enabling the solution of larger‐scale problems. Because such symmetric eigenvalue problems arise in many scientific and engineering simulations, our kernels could potentially lead to new scientific discoveries. Furthermore, these dense linear algebra algorithms present algorithmic characteristics that can be found in other algorithms. Hence, they are not only important computational kernels on their own but also useful testbeds to study the performance of the emerging computers and the effects of the various optimization techniques. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis and Characterizations of Melamine-Based Epoxy Resins

A new, easy and cost-effective synthetic procedure for the preparation of thermosetting melamine-based epoxy resins is reported. By this innovative synthetic method, different kinds of resins can be obtained just by mixing the reagents in the presence of a catalyst without solvent and with mild curing conditions. Two types of resins were synthesized using melamine and a glycidyl derivative (resins I) or by adding a silane derivative (resin II). The resins were characterized by means of chemical-physical and thermal techniques. Experimental results show that all the prepared resins have a good thermal stability, but differ for their mechanical properties: resin I exhibits remarkable stiffness with a storage modulus value up to 830 MPa at room temperature, while lower storage moduli were found for resin II, indicating that the presence of silane groups could enhance the flexibility of these materials. The resins show a pot life higher than 30 min, which makes these resins good candidates for practical applications. The functionalization with silane terminations can be exploited in the formulation of hybrid organic-inorganic composite materials.     

Influence of some environmental factors on drupe maturation and olive oil composition

BACKGROUND: Understanding the relationships between olive cultivars and the cultivation environment as well as optimising cultivation choices can lead to maximum expression of oil production in terms of both quantity and quality. For this purpose, samples of the Ortice olive cultivar grown in two different environments in southern Italy at altitudes of 500 and 50 m above sea level (a.s.l.) were harvested on various dates to monitor drupe maturation and determine the nutritional and chemical characteristics of the oils. RESULTS: Fruits grown at 50 m a.s.l. ripened about 10–15 days earlier than those grown at 500 m a.s.l. The oil obtained at 500 m a.s.l. was characterised by a higher content of total polyphenols and a higher content of oleic and stearic acids. CONCLUSION: The different heat accumulation related to the environment affected drupe development as well as the colouring trend and oil content. Consequently, the growth environment changed the content of Ortice oil fatty acids and polyphenols, while the flavour profile remained fairly stable in both environments, with the cultivar effect prevailing over the environment factor. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Laccase Mediator Cocktail System as a Sustainable Skin Whitening Agent for Deep Eumelanin Decolorization

The overproduction of eumelanin leads to a panel of unaesthetic hyper-pigmented skin diseases, including melasma and age spots. The treatment of these diseases often requires the use of tyrosinase inhibitors, which act as skin whitening agents by inhibiting the synthesis of eumelanin, with harmful side effects. We report here that laccase from Trametes versicolor in association with a cocktail of natural phenol redox mediators efficiently degraded eumelanin from Sepia officinalis, offering an alternative procedure to traditional whitening agents. Redox mediators showed a synergistic effect with respect to their single-mediator counterpart, highlighting the beneficial role of the cocktail system. The pro-oxidant DHICA sub-units of eumelanin were degraded better than the DHI counterpart, as monitored by the formation of pyrrole-2,3,5-tricarboxylic acid (PTCA) and pyrrole-2,3-dicarboxylic acid (PDCA) degradation products. The most effective laccase-mediated cocktail system was successively applied in a two-component prototype of a topical whitening cream, showing high degradative efficacy against eumelanin.     

Fascial Innervation: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Currently, myofascial pain has become one of the main problems in healthcare systems. Research into its causes and the structures related to it may help to improve its management. Until some years ago, all the studies were focused on muscle alterations, as trigger points, but recently, fasciae are starting to be considered a new, possible source of pain. This systematic review has been conducted for the purpose of analyze the current evidence of the muscular/deep fasciae innervation from a histological and/or immunohistochemical point of view. A literature search published between 2000 and 2021 was made in PubMed and Google Scholar. Search terms included a combination of fascia, innervation, immunohistochemical, and different immunohistochemical markers. Of the 23 total studies included in the review, five studies were performed in rats, four in mice, two in horses, ten in humans, and two in both humans and rats. There were a great variety of immunohistochemical markers used to detect the innervation of the fasciae; the most used were Protein Gene Marker 9.5 (used in twelve studies), Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (ten studies), S100 (ten studies), substance P (seven studies), and tyrosine hydroxylase (six studies). Various areas have been studied, with the thoracolumbar fascia being the most observed. Besides, the papers highlighted diversity in the density and type of innervation in the various fasciae, going from free nerve endings to Pacini and Ruffini corpuscles. Finally, it has been observed that the innervation is increased in the pathological fasciae. From this review, it is evident that fasciae are well innerved, their innervation have a particular distribution and precise localization and is composed especially by proprioceptors and nociceptors, the latter being more numerous in pathological situations. This could contribute to a better comprehension and management of pain.     

State-of-the-Art on Wound Vitality Evaluation: A Systematic Review

The vitality demonstration refers to determining if an injury has been caused ante- or post-mortem, while wound age means to evaluate how long a subject has survived after the infliction of an injury. Histology alone is not enough to prove the vitality of a lesion. Recently, immunohistochemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology have been introduced in the field of lesions vitality and age demonstration. The study was conducted according to the preferred reporting items for systematic review (PRISMA) protocol. The search terms were “wound”, “lesion”, “vitality”, “evaluation”, “immunohistochemistry”, “proteins”, “electrolytes”, “mRNAs”, and “miRNAs” in the title, abstract, and keywords. This evaluation left 137 scientific papers. This review aimed to collect all the knowledge on vital wound demonstration and provide a temporal distribution of the methods currently available, in order to determine the age of lesions, thus helping forensic pathologists in finding a way through the tangled jungle of wound vitality evaluation.     

The Outcomes of Decorated Prolines in the Discovery of Antimicrobial Peptides from Temporin-L

Previously, we identified a potent antimicrobial analogue of temporin L (TL), [Pro³]TL, in which glutamine at position 3 was substituted with proline. In this study, a series of analogues in which position 3 is substituted with non-natural proline derivatives, was investigated for correlations between the conformational properties of the compounds and their antibacterial, cytotoxic, and hemolytic activities. Non-natural proline analogues with substituents at position 4 of the pyrrolidine ring were considered. Structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies of these analogues were performed by means of antimicrobial and cytotoxicity assays along with circular dichroism (CD) and NMR spectroscopic analyses for selected compounds. The most promising peptides were additionally evaluated for their activity against some representative veterinary microbial strains to compare with those from human strains. We identified novel analogues with interesting properties that make them attractive lead compounds.     

3D printing of fine alumina powders by binder jetting

Additive manufacturing of ceramics is still at an early-development stage; however, the huge interest in custom production of these materials has led to the development of different techniques that could provide highly performing devices. In this work, alumina (α-Al₂O₃) components were produced by binder jetting 3D printing (BJ), a powder-based technique that enables the ex-situ thermal treatment of the printed parts. The employment of fine particles has led to high green relative density values (>60 %), as predicted by Lubachevsky-Stillinger algorithm and DEM modelling. Then, extended sintering has been observed on samples treated at 1750 °C that have reached a final density of 75.4 %. Finally, the mechanical properties of the sintered material have been assessed through bending test for flexural resistance and micro-indentation for Vickers hardness evaluation.