Effect of lithium intercalation on the photovoltaic performances of photovoltachromic cells

In the last few years, a new class of smart multifunctional photoelectrochemical devices has been attracting the interest of several academic institutions and industrial companies: photovoltachromic cells, combining the features of photoelectrochromic cells with those of dye‐sensitized solar cells. Here, we report the results of a detailed electrochemical analysis aiming at investigating the electrochemical behavior of these complex photoelectrochemical devices. In particular, we have been focused on the effect of Li⁺ ions displacement during the coloration of the electrochromic tungsten oxide on the performances of the photovoltaic unit. As we had previously observed striking differences between the performances of the barely photovoltaic mode (with the tungsten oxide in the bleached state) and the photovoltachromic mode (with the tungsten oxide in the colored state), we thus attempted to provide a reasonable physical interpretation to the observed phenomena. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of thermal treatments on the structure of MoNxOy thin films

MoN_xO_y films were deposited on steel substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering. The depositions were carried out from a pure molybdenum target, varying the flow rate of reactive gases. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed the occurrence of cubic MoN_x and hexagonal (δ-MoN) phases for the films with high nitrogen flow rates. The increase of oxygen content induces the decrease of the grain size of the molybdenum nitride crystallites. The thermal stability of a set of samples was studied in vacuum, for an annealing time of 1 h, for temperatures ranging from 500 to 800 °C in 100 °C steps. The results showed that pure molybdenum nitride films changed their structure from a meta-stable cubic MoN to hexagonal δ-MoN and cubic γ-Mo₂N-type structures with increasing annealing temperatures. The samples with molybdenum nitride films evidenced a good thermal stability, but those with molybdenum oxynitride coatings showed a tendency to detach with the increase of the annealing temperature.     

Catalytic activity of Ni-Co supported metals in carbon dioxides methanation

This work deals with the catalytic performance of nickel-cobalt supported on ceria-doped gadolinia (GDC) catalyst in the single and in the simultaneous methanation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The catalysts have been prepared by impregnation method, starting from metal salts precursors. Samples have been characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (TGA-DSC), hydrogen temperature programmed reduction (TPR-H₂), transmission electronic microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDX) technique. The temperature examined for methanation tests ranged from 200°C-600°C. The results show that the prepared and optimized catalysts possess the main characteristics of materials suitable for SOECs (solid oxide electrolyzer cells) applications: high metal content (50% wt/wt with respect to the support), high activity, and high stability. The catalytic performance of bimetallic catalysts highlights that the cobalt does not improve the activity of the nickel catalysts.     

An OpenCL-based feature matcher

Nowadays visual search is one of the most active branches of computer vision. It relies on finding invariant points inside images, describing them into features and then matching these features against a reference database to identify objects in the scene or the entire photo (environment). In this paper, we discuss an approach to feature matching that exploits the capabilities of modern GPUs to speed up the aforementioned and that keeps low the number of false matches.     

Microfluidic devices modulate tumor cell line susceptibility to NK cell recognition

This study aims to adoptively reduce the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecule surface expression of cancer cells by exposure to microfluid shear stress and a monoclonal antibody. A microfluidic system is developed and tumor cells are injected at different flow rates. The bottom surface of the microfluidic system is biofunctionalized with antibodies (W6/32) specific for the MHC-I molecules with a simple method based on microfluidic protocols. The antibodies promote binding between the bottom surface and the MHC-I molecules on the tumor cell membrane. The cells are injected at an optimized flow rate, then roll on the bottom surface and are subjected to shear stress. The stress is localized and enhanced on the part of the membrane where MHC-I proteins are expressed, since they stick to the antibodies of the system. The localized stress allows a stripping effect and consequent reduction of the MHC-I expression. It is shown that it is possible to specifically treat and recover eukaryotic cells without damaging the biological samples. MHC-I molecule expression on treated and control cell surfaces is measured on tumor and healthy cells. After the cell rolling treatment a clear reduction of MHC-I levels on the tumor cell membrane is observed, whereas no changes are observed on healthy cells (monocytes). The MHC-I reduction is investigated and the possibility that the developed system could induce a loss of these molecules from the tumor cell surface is addressed. The percentage of living tumor cells (viability) that remain after the treatment is measured. The changes induced by the microfluidic system are analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and confocal microscopy. Cytotoxicity tests show a relevant increased susceptibility of natural killer (NK) cells on microchip-treated tumor cells.     

Adipose Tissue Plasticity in Response to Pathophysiological Cues: A Connecting Link between Obesity and Its Associated Comorbidities

Adipose tissue (AT) is a remarkably plastic and active organ with functional pleiotropism and high remodeling capacity. Although the expansion of fat mass, by definition, represents the hallmark of obesity, the dysregulation of the adipose organ emerges as the forefront of the link between adiposity and its associated metabolic and cardiovascular complications. The dysfunctional fat displays distinct biological signatures, which include enlarged fat cells, low-grade inflammation, impaired redox homeostasis, and cellular senescence. While these events are orchestrated in a cell-type, context-dependent and temporal manner, the failure of the adipose precursor cells to form new adipocytes appears to be the main instigator of the adipose dysregulation, which, ultimately, poses a deleterious milieu either by promoting ectopic lipid overspill in non-adipose targets (i.e., lipotoxicity) or by inducing an altered secretion of different adipose-derived hormones (i.e., adipokines and lipokines). This “adipocentric view” extends the previous “expandability hypothesis”, which implies a reduced plasticity of the adipose organ at the nexus between unhealthy fat expansion and the development of obesity-associated comorbidities. In this review, we will briefly summarize the potential mechanisms by which adaptive changes to variations of energy balance may impair adipose plasticity and promote fat organ dysfunction. We will also highlight the conundrum with the perturbation of the adipose microenvironment and the development of cardio-metabolic complications by focusing on adipose lipoxidation, inflammation and cellular senescence as a novel triad orchestrating the conspiracy to adipose dysfunction. Finally, we discuss the scientific rationale for proposing adipose organ plasticity as a target to curb/prevent adiposity-linked cardio-metabolic complications.     

Folic Acid Functionalized Surface Highlights 5‐Methylcytosine‐Genomic Content within Circulating Tumor Cells

Although the detection of methylated cell free DNA represents one of the most promising approaches for relapse risk assessment in cancer patients, the low concentration of cell‐free circulating DNA constitutes the biggest obstacle in the development of DNA methylation‐based biomarkers from blood. This paper describes a method for the measurement of genomic methylation content directly on circulating tumor cells (CTC), which could be used to deceive the aforementioned problem. Since CTC are disease related blood‐based biomarkers, they result essential to monitor tumor's stadiation, therapy, and early relapsing lesions. Within surface's bio‐functionalization and cell's isolation procedure standardization, the presented approach reveals a singular ability to detect high 5‐methylcytosine CTC‐subset content in the whole CTC compound, by choosing folic acid (FA) as transducer molecule. Sensitivity and specificity, calculated for FA functionalized surface (FA‐surface), result respectively on about 83% and 60%. FA‐surface, allowing the detection and characterization of early metastatic dissemination, provides a unique advance in the comprehension of tumors progression and dissemination confirming the presence of CTC and its association with high risk of relapse. This functionalized surface identifying and quantifying high 5‐methylcytosine CTC‐subset content into the patient's blood lead significant progress in cancer risk assessment, also providing a novel therapeutic strategy.     

Dry fermented sausages of Southern Italy: a comparison of free amino acids and biogenic amines between industrial and homemade products

This paper compares some important parameters and the free amino acid and biogenic amine contents of cured industrial and homemade meat products. To this aim, industrial and homemade "soppressata" and "salsiccia", typical dry fermented sausages produced in Southern Italy, were analyzed. The homemade sausages showed a higher level of free biogenic amines than that manufactured industrially, most likely because biogenic amine formation in industrial products is limited by the use of starter cultures. The industrial sausages are characterized by a higher total free amino acid content than the homemade products. Overall, free amino acid and biogenic amine contents demonstrated that appreciable differences exist between homemade and industrial sausages.