Improving the gravure printed PEDOT:PSS electrode by gravure printing DMSO post-treatment

The poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is one of the most attractive conducting polymers proposed as electrode for flexible electronics. Promising methods for enhancing its low conductivity, main limit for its use, are based on post-treatment. However, most of them are not suitable for mass production. In this study, the gravure printing technique was tried for the post-treatment of the PEDOT layer using dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), as practical, safe and cost effective process for improving the printed electrode. An increase of the conductivity of the printed PEDOT:PSS layer was found and attributed to the rearrangement of the polymeric chains that leads to the formation of PEDOT-rich regions improving the conducting pathways. In addition, smoother film surface and improved stability to the humidity were obtained, representing further advantages for its employment in plastic electronics. Therefore, the feasibility and the efficacy of the DMSO post-treatment of the PEDOT:PSS films by gravure printing were demonstrated, showing the way for the low cost all in-line industrial production of large area PEDOT:PSS electrodes.     

A fusion-based approach to digital movie restoration

Many algorithms have been proposed in literature for digital movie restoration; unfortunately, none of them ensures a perfect result whichever is the image sequence to be restored. Here we propose a new digital scratch restoration algorithm which achieves accuracy results higher than that of already existing algorithms and naturally adapts for implementation into high-performance computing environments.The basic idea of the proposed algorithm is to adopt several relatively well-settled algorithms for the problem at hand and combine obtained results through suitable image fusion techniques, with the aim of taking advantage of the adopted algorithms’ capabilities and, at the same time, limiting their deficiencies.Extensive experiments on real image sequences deeply investigate both accuracy results of the presented scratch restoration approach, which is shown to outperform other existing approaches, and performance of its parallel implementation, which allows for real-time restoration.     

Different membrane modifications revealed by atomic force/lateral force microscopy after doping of human pancreatic cells with Cd, Zn, or Pb

The interaction of the cytotoxic metals cadmium, zinc, and lead with pancreatic cells was studied by atomic force/lateral Force microscopy (AFM/LFM), an approach that provides both topographic (with nanometer scale lateral resolution) and chemical information on the membrane. Different morphological modifications of the overall cell shape and roughness took place as consequence of 100 muM metal-dependent treatment. Furthermore, after exposure to Cd(Cl(2)) and Zn(Cl(2)), but not Pb(Cl(2)), the LFM images revealed several areas of the cell's surface showing lateral friction contrasts that have been interpreted as marker of different alterations of the cell physiology induced by the metal loading. Thus, the coupling of LFM detection to topographic AFM characterization allows to distinguish, through a nondestructive and surface characterising approach, between different metal-induced cytotoxic effects on cells. In this framework, the role of the LFM as an important tool to discriminate between different alteration of a biological system has to be highlighted.     

Turnover frequency for NO decomposition over Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts: insight into the reaction mechanism

In this letter we present a simple model useful to understand the relationship between the turnover frequency for NO decomposition over Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts (N _Cu), the number of Al atoms per unit cell of the ZSM-5 zeolite (p),and the copper loading expressed as percent of exchange (E). Our simple model is able to explain the literature data. We show that: (1) on catalysts with the highest activity (Cu exchange levelsE>90%),N _Cu increases withp (i.e. decreasing the Si/A1 ratio) indicating that the most active sites may contain two close copper ions; (2) at low Cu exchange levels (E<80%) the catalysts have lower activity and, moreover,N _Cu decreases withP, according to previous results of Iwamoto et al. (1986). The present results are also in agreement with the evidence that the redox couple Cu^2–/Cu^– play a key role in the reaction mechanism.Some of the ideas discussed in this letter were presented at the 2nd Italian national meeting on Science and Technology of Zeolites held in Modena, Italy, 6–8 October 1993.     

Isomerization of n-Butane over Ultrastable H-Y Zeolites with Different Si/Al Atomic Ratio

Ultrastable H-Y zeolites with different Si/Al atomic ratios (3n-butane isomerization. The initial activity of these catalysts is lower than that measured on tungsta supported on zirconia catalysts (WO _x /ZrO₂) and acidic mordenite catalysts; however, the Brønsted acid sites of the ultrastable H-Y zeolites are stable and selective towards isobutane. No deactivation of the catalysts was observed after 5 h of time on stream. In contrast, WO _x /ZrO₂ and acidic mordenite catalysts under the same experimental conditions are largely deactivated in less than 1 h of time on stream. The stability of the ultrastable H-Y zeolite in comparison to H-mordenite catalysts may be due to the three-dimensional structure of H-Y made of large supercages interconnected by apertures of 12 oxygen atoms. This structure may favour the diffusion of reactant and product decreasing the residence time and the ensuing degradation to coke. Acidic molecular sieves with monodimensional structure may favour the formation of the precursors of the coke responsible of the catalyst deactivation.     

Effect of Trehalose and Ceftriaxone on the Stability of Aggregating-Prone Tau Peptide Containing PHF6* Sequence: An SRCD Study

The tau protein, a soluble protein associated with microtubules, which is involved in the assembly and stabilization of cytoskeletal elements, was found to form neurofibrillary tangles in different neurodegenerative diseases. Insoluble tau aggregates were observed to be organized in paired helical filaments (PHFs) and straight filaments (SFs). Recently, two small sequences (306–311 and 275–280) in the microtubule-binding region (MTBR), named PHF6 and PHF6*, respectively, were found to be essential for tau aggregation. Since a possible therapeutic approach consists of impairing amyloid formation either by stabilizing the native proteins or reducing the level of amyloid precursors, here we use synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD) at Diamond B23 beamline to evaluate the inhibitory effects of two small molecules, trehalose and ceftriaxone, against the aggregation of a small peptide containing the PHF6* sequence. Our results indicate that both these molecules, ceftriaxone and trehalose, increased the stability of the peptide toward aggregation, in particular that induced by heparin. With trehalose being present in many fruits, vegetables, algae and processed foods, these results support the need to investigate whether a diet richer in trehalose might exert a protective effect toward pathologies linked to protein misfolding.     

Penalized factor mixture analysis for variable selection in clustered data

A model-based clustering approach which contextually performs dimension reduction and variable selection is presented. Dimension reduction is achieved by assuming that the data have been generated by a linear factor model with latent variables modeled as Gaussian mixtures. Variable selection is performed by shrinking the factor loadings though a penalized likelihood method with an L1 penalty. A maximum likelihood estimation procedure via the EM algorithm is developed and a modified BIC criterion to select the penalization parameter is illustrated. The effectiveness of the proposed model is explored in a Monte Carlo simulation study and in a real example.     

Accurate Analysis of Planar Microstrip Antenna Array

For the microstrip patch resonator, as a planar antenna of a microstrip, a set of equations that represents the electromagnetic fields in the x and z direction as function of the electric field in the y direction are obtained applying the TTL method. This method is very suitable at microwave and antenna applications, and gives accurate complex resonant frequency, which contributes definitively to obtain higher precision antenna parameters. For each type of array is calculated the array factor, considering the excitation, phase and the relative displacement between the elements as well as the dimensions and number of elements.