3D silicon pixel detectors for the ATLAS Forward Physics experiment

The ATLAS Forward Physics (AFP) project plans to install 3D silicon pixel detectors about 210 m away from the interaction point and very close to the beamline (2-3 mm). This implies the need of slim edges of about 100-200 $\mu$m width for the sensor side facing the beam to minimise the dead area. Another challenge is an expected non-uniform irradiation of the pixel sensors. It is studied if these requirements can be met using slightly-modified FE-I4 3D pixel sensors from the ATLAS Insertable B-Layer production. AFP-compatible slim edges are obtained with a simple diamond-saw cut. Electrical characterisations and beam tests are carried out and no detrimental impact on the leakage current and hit efficiency is observed. For devices without a 3D guard ring a remaining insensitive edge of less than 15 $\mu$m width is found. Moreover, 3D detectors are non-uniformly irradiated up to fluences of several 10$^{15}$ n$_{eq}$/cm$^2$ with either a focussed 23 GeV proton beam or a 23 MeV proton beam through holes in Al masks. The efficiency in the irradiated region is found to be similar to the one in the non-irradiated region and exceeds 97% in case of favourable chip-parameter settings. Only in a narrow transition area at the edge of the hole in the Al mask, a significantly lower efficiency is seen. A follow-up study of this effect using arrays of small pad diodes for position-resolved dosimetry via the leakage current is carried out.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to JINS

A cosmic ray telescope for the test of the upgraded MEG tracker

The MEG experiment has been looking for the decay of the muon in the ultra rare lepton flavour violating channel μ → eγ since 2009 and will conclude the data taking at the end of summer 2013. This decay channel is forbidden by the minimal Standard Model of particle interactions, which preserves lepton flavour. Extensions of the model predict μ → eγ, some of them with a branching ratio close to the MEG sensitivity. The MEG collaboration recently published the result of the analysis of the data collected in the years 2009-2011 setting an upper limit to the branching ratio equal to 5.7 · 10−13 at 90% confidence level. The MEG analysis consists in the reconstruction of the momentum of photons and positrons coming from the muon decay at rest. The photons are detected by a scintillation electromagnetic calorimeter which uses liquid xenon as a scintillating medium, while the positrons trajectories are reconstructed through a set of drift chambers in a non homogeneous magnetic field and a set of scintillation bar placed at the end of the tracker for the timing measurement. The MEG upgrade will preserve the beam and target used by MEG while the calorimeter, the timing counter and the tracking system will be subject to modification, especially the drift chamber will have a totally new design. It will be a unique volume filled with a mixture of helium and isobutane with more than 2000 wires almost two meters long. The required resolution of the point of closest approach to the wire for the new drift chamber is of about 100 μm so that a more sensitive tracking system is useful to test the effective performance of the chamber and of the reconstruction algorithm. For this purpose a cosmic ray telescope has been set up. The sensitive part of the telescope is made by four spare modules of the BaBar silicon vertex tracker, the resolution of the hits on each plane depend on the pitch of the strips, 100 μm along one direction and 50 μm along the other. The resolution at the height of the detector under test, given by the errors on the fit parameters, is around 20 μm low enough to characterize the MEG drift chamber prototypes. In this thesis are described the steps needed to set the telescope in operating condition. The programming of the FPGA and the microprocessor used to manage the communication (com- mand and data transfer) between the PC and the SVT frontend chips. The noise analysis and the investigation of the environmental conditions that affect the performance of the detectors. Finally a description of the calibration, data acquisition, and data analysis software. This cosmic ray telescope has a trigger rate around 0.3 Hertz, collecting more than 1500 reconstructed tracks per day, so that a sufficient statistic will be accumulated in a few day of data acquisition. The telescope will remain as a facility of the INFN section of Pisa available to test in house any moderately compact detector

Near-Infrared, Light-Triggered, On-Demand Antiinflammatories and Antibiotics Release by Graphene Oxide/Elecrospun PCL Patch for Wound Healing

Very recently, significant attention has been focused on the adsorption and cell adhesion properties of graphene oxide (GO), because it is expected to allow high drug loading and controlled drug release, as well as the promotion of cell adhesion and proliferation. This is particularly interesting in the promotion of wound healing, where antibiotics and anti-inflammatories should be locally released for a prolonged time to allow fibroblast proliferation. Here, we designed an implantable patch consisting of poly(caprolactone) electrospun covered with GO, henceforth named GO–PCL, endowed with high ibuprofen (5.85 mg cm−2), ketoprofen (0.86 mg cm−2), and vancomycin (0.95 mg cm−2) loading, used as anti-inflammatory and antibiotic models respectively, and capable of responding to near infrared (NIR)-light stimuli in order to promptly release the payload ondemand beyond three days. Furthermore, we demonstrated the GO is able to promote fibroblast adhesion, a key characteristic to potentially provide wound healing in vivo

Studies of irradiated AMS H35 CMOS detectors for the ATLAS tracker upgrade

Silicon detectors based on the HV-CMOS technology are being investigated as possible candidate for the outer layers of the ATLAS pixel detector for the High Luminosity LHC. In this framework the H35Demo ASIC has been produced in the 350 nm AMS technology (H35). The H35Demo chip has a large area ($18.49 \times 24.40 \, \mathrm{mm^2}$) and includes four different pixel matrices and three test structures. In this paper the radiation hardness properties, in particular the evolution of the depletion region with fluence is studied using edge-TCT on test structures. Measurements on the test structures from chips with different substrate resistivity are shown for non irradiated and irradiated devices up to a cumulative fluence of $2 \cdot 10^{15} \, \mathrm{1\,MeV\, n_{eq} / cm^{2}}$

Tiltrotor with double mobile wing

A convertiplane structure (100), having a longitudinal axis x and a plane n orthogonal to it, comprises a main wing (120) arranged to rotate about at least one transversal rotation axis y, an auxiliary wing (130), which is located back with respect to main wing (120), and arranged to rotate about at least one transversal rotation axis y', at least two main propellers (220) located on the main wing (120), and at least two auxiliary propellers (230) located on the auxiliary wing (130). The auxiliary wing (130) is located at a vertical height higher than main wing (120). Two vertical wings (140) are also provided located in such a way that the projections on the plane n of the main wing (120), of the auxiliary wing (130) and of the vertical wings (140) shape a closed polygon, thus reducing the induced drag and increasing the overall aerodynamic efficiency

TAT decorated siRNA polyplexes for inhalation delivery in anti-asthma therapy

In this work, a novel protonable copolymer was designed to deliver siRNA through the inhalation route, as an innovative formulation for the management of asthma. This polycation was synthesized by derivatization of α,β-poly(N-2-hydroxyethyl)D,L-aspartamide (PHEA) first with 1,2-Bis(3-aminopropylamino)ethane (bAPAE) and then with a proper amount of maleimide terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-MLB), with the aim to increase the superficial hydrophilicity of the system, allowing the diffusion trough the mucus layer. Once the complexation ability of the copolymer has been evaluated, obtaining nanosized polyplexes, polyplexes were functionalized on the surface with a thiolated TAT peptide, a cell-penetrating peptide (CPP), exploiting a thiol-ene reaction. TAT decorated polyplexes result to be highly cytocompatible and able to retain the siRNA with a suitable complexation weight ratio during the diffusion process through the mucus. Despite polyplexes establish weak bonds with the mucin chains, these can diffuse efficiently through the mucin layer and therefore potentially able to reach the bronchial epithelium. Furthermore, through cellular uptake studies, it was possible to observe how the obtained polyplexes penetrate effectively in the cytoplasm of bronchial epithelial cells, where they can reduce IL-8 gene expression, after LPS exposure. In the end, in order to obtain a formulation administrable as an inhalable dry powder, polyplexes were encapsulated in mannitol-based microparticles, by spray freeze drying, obtaining highly porous particles with proper technological characteristics that make them potentially administrable by inhalation route

Development of a novel rapamycin loaded nano- into micro-formulation for treatment of lung inflammation

It has recently emerged that drugs such as the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin (Rapa) may play a key role in the treatment of airway inflammation associated with lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and cystic fibrosis. Nevertheless, Rapa clinical application is still prevented by its unfavorable chemical-physical properties, limited oral bioavailability, and adverse effects related to non-specific biodistribution. In this paper, the design and production of a novel formulation of Rapa based on nano into micro (NiM) particles are detailed. To achieve it, Rapa-loaded nanoparticles were produced by nanoprecipitation of an amphiphilic pegylated poly-e-caprolactone/polyhydroxyethyl aspartamide graft copolymer. The obtained nanoparticles that showed a drug loading of 14.4 wt% (corresponding to an encapsulation efficiency of 82 wt%) did not interact with mucins and were able to release and protect Rapa from degradation in simulated lung and cell fluids. To allow their local administration to the lungs as a dry powder, particle engineering at micro-sized level was done by embedding nanoparticles into mannitol-based microparticles by spray drying. Obtained NiM particles had a mean diameter of about 2-mu, spherical shape and had good potential to be delivered to the lungs by a breath-activated dry powder inhalers. Rheological and turbidity experiments showed that these NiM particles can dissolve in lung simulated fluid and deliver the Rapa-loaded pegylated nanoparticles, which can diffuse through the mucus layer

Exploiting inhalable microparticles incorporating hybrid polymer-lipid nanoparticles loaded with Iloprost manages lung hyper-inflammation

This study focuses on developing of a novel inhalation therapy for managing lung hyper-inflammation, producing hybrid polymer-lipid nanoparticles loaded with Iloprost (Ilo). These nanoparticles showed a size of approximately 100 nm with a core–shell structure and provided prolonged drug release, reaching 28 wt% after 6 h of incubation. The phospholipid composition and quantity (64 wt% on the total sample weight) result in minimal interaction with mucin and a significant effect on the rheology of a cystic fibrosis mucus model, in terms of reducing complex viscosity. To obtain an inhalable microparticulate matrix suitable for incorporating Ilo@PEG-LPHNPs, the qualitative and quantitative composition of the feed fluid for the spray drying (SD) process was optimized. The selected composition (10 % wt/vol of mannitol and 10 % wt of ammonium bicarbonate relative to the weight of mannitol) was used to produce Nano-into Microparticles (NiM). The characterization of NiM revealed excellent aerodynamic properties, with a Mass Median Aerodynamic Diameter (MMAD) of 4.34 μm and a Fine Particle Fraction (FPF) of approximately 57 %. Biological characterization revealed that the particles are non-toxic to 16-HBE cells and can effectively evade macrophage uptake, likely due to the presence of PEG in their composition. Moreover, the delivered Iloprost significantly downregulates the production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6, showing the therapeutic potential of this drug delivery system

Splenic rupture after colonoscopy: Report of a case and review of literature

Splenic rupture is a rare complication of colonoscopy. For this reason the diagnosis could be delayed and the outcome dismal. Fifty-four cases of splenic rupture after colonoscopy have been described in the literature. The majority of the cases required emergent or delayed splenectomy, 13 of these cases were treated conservatively. The main feature that stands out from the review of the literature is the "surprise" of this unexpected complication. This factor explains the elevated mortality (2 out of 54 cases), likely due to the delay in diagnosis. The case here described is probably among the most complex published in the literature; in fact the presence of dense intra-abdominal adhesions not only contributed to the complication itself, but also explain the confinement of the hemoperitoneum to the left supra-mesocolic space and the delayed presentation (13 days from the time of the trauma)