Small molecule activation

The activation of small molecules has become an increasingly popular area of research over the last years, and there are many reasons to be captivated by this fascinating topic

Microfluidic Platform for Adherent Single Cell High-Throughput Screening

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.Traditionally, in vitro investigations on biology and physiology of cells rely on averaging the responses eliciting from heterogeneous cell populations, thus being unsuitable for assessing individual cell behaviors in response to external stimulations. In the last years, great interest has thus been focused on single cell analysis and screening, which represents a promising tool aiming at pursuing the direct and deterministic control over cause-effect relationships guiding cell behavior. In this regard, a high-throughput microfluidic platform for trapping and culturing adherent single cells was presented. A single cell trapping mechanism was implemented based on dynamic variation of fluidic resistances. A round-shaped culture chamber (Φ=250μm, h=25μm) was conceived presenting two connections with a main fluidic path: (i) an upper wide opening, and (ii) a bottom trapping junction which modulates the hydraulic resistance. Several layouts of the chamber were designed and computationally validated for the optimization of the single cell trapping efficacy. The optimized chamber layouts were integrated in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic platform presenting two main functionalities: (i) 288 chambers for trapping single cells, and (ii) a chaoticmixer based serial dilution generator for delivering both soluble factors and non-diffusive molecules under spatio-temporally controlled chemical patterns. The devices were experimentally validated and allowed for trapping individual U87-MG (human glioblastoma-astrocytoma epithelial-like) cells and culturing them up to 3 days

Ultralow-Temperature Measurements of Submicron Devices

Contains research summary.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAALO03-86-K-0002

Orbital effect of in-plane magnetic field on quantum transport in chaotic lateral dots

We show how the in-plane magnetic field, which breaks time-reversal and rotational symmetries of the orbital motion of electrons in a heterostructure due to the momentum-dependent inter-subband mixing, affects weak localisation correction to conductance of a large-area chaotic lateral quantum dot and parameteric dependences of universal conductance fluctuations in it.Comment: 4 pages with a figur

Lorenzo Licini (1725-1802) surveyor of Dalmatia and Count of Poljica as Rubcich

Very little is known about the Great County of Poljica, the autonomous Croatian community in twelve counties on the Adriatic Sea situated mostly in modern Southern Croatia in eastern Dalmatia which had been long and voluntarily under the rule of the Republic of Venice at the border with Ottoman Bosnia. Now Venetian years could be reconstructed in the light of original documents in the State Archives of Zadar and Venice. The author inquires into the proper manner of signing one\u27s name to documents and maps as a pathway into higher research degrees. Focusing on representations of maritime Dalmatia by the hand of one of the twelve Poljica\u27s counts – Lorenzo as \u27Licini\u27 of Venetian nationality in the State of Dalmatia and as \u27Licini Rubcich\u27 by Croatian affiliation to Rupčići village for the Poljicans living in Poljica, Kotor and Zadar – the analysis demonstrates that maps made for the Grimani Cadastre collection in Zadar can be virtually investigated to reveal the broader organizational devices and patterns through which Venice actually structured and controlled this pivotal land in such a way as to support the economy of a rapidly modernizing State

Shifting a Quantum Wire through a Disordered Crystal: Observation of Conductance Fluctuations in Real Space

A quantum wire is spatially displaced by suitable electric fields with respect to the scatterers inside a semiconductor crystal. As a function of the wire position, the low-temperature resistance shows reproducible fluctuations. Their characteristic temperature scale is a few hundred millikelvin, indicating a phase-coherent effect. Each fluctuation corresponds to a single scatterer entering or leaving the wire. This way, scattering centers can be counted one by one.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Women, wealth and finance (19th Century Italy)

The research is based on fiscal sources, estate and income tax returns. More precisely, all the papers recorded at the Registar Office of Milan in the period 1862-1900 have been taken into account and a data base including personal information and gross amount of the estate has been built. Besides, a list of taxpayers published by the Ministry of Finance in 1872 has been considered and analysed. The figures resulting from the elaboration of the available information show, on one hand, the expected high degree of gender inequality, on the other hand, the significant weight of female wealth. On the whole the value of women’s property is re-evaluated and the significance of women financial activity is, also with regard to Italy, assessed. The share of wealth detained by women is the first question the paper focus on. Then attention turns to the financial assets held by women: inferences on their investment behaviour are drawn and compared with that of men. Some considerations on women’s function in the credit market finally follow. In 1865, the introduction of a new civil code in the Italian Kingdom corroborated women’s dependence from men. Wives needed their husband’s authorization both to handle autonomously their own property and entering in trade. Women on the whole were hindered to practise liberal professions and they had no free access to secondary schools. However, as equitable inheritance was stated and sons and daughters had acquired – more or less- the same rights on their parents’ property, women’s proprietorship was not occasional nor trifling at the time. The paper provides some new evidence on the economic role and position of women in nineteenth century Italy, especially pointing out their financial resources and choices

Correlation between IgA tissue transglutaminase antibody ratio and histological finding in celiac disease.

OBJECTIVES: Positivity of both immunoglobulin A anti-tissue transglutaminase (TTG) and anti-endomysium antibodies (EMA) has a positive predictive value of nearly 100% for celiac disease (CD). The objective of the present study was to evaluate whether patients of any age, with high pretest probability of CD and high titre of anti-TTG and EMA positivity, have a high probability of intestinal damage and may not require the biopsy for final diagnosis. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 412 consecutively referred patients, age range 10 months to 72 years, who underwent small-bowel biopsy for suspicion of CD and positivity to both anti-TTG and EMA, was performed at 4 Italian centers. Biopsies were evaluated independently by 2 pathologists using Marsh modified classification; in cases of dissimilar results, a third pathologist examined the biopsy. The final histological finding diagnosis was expressed as the prevalent or highest score assigned by the pathologist board. RESULTS: Three hundred ninety-six patients (96.1%) had histological findings consistent with CD (grade 2 and 3a, 3b, or 3c of modified Marsh classification). An anti-TTG ratio ≥ 7 was able to identify with the 3 assays used (Celikey, anti-TTG immunoglobulin A, EuTTG) all of the patients with significant mucosal damage (Marsh ≥ 2) independent of age and sex; specificity and positive predictive value were 100%. An anti-TTG ratio >20 was more specific (99.8%) for identification of patients with villous atrophy (Marsh 3 a, b, or c). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with positivity of anti-TTG ≥ 7-fold cutoff, confirmed by positivity to EMA, have a high-degree probability of duodenal damage. In selected conditions, a duodenal biopsy may be avoided and a confirmed greatly positive anti-TTG result could be the basis to prescribe a gluten-free diet

Iridium-mediated Bond Activation and Water Oxidation as an Exemplary Case of CARISMA, A European Network for the Development of Catalytic Routines for Small Molecule Activation

CARISMA is a currently running COST Action that pools leading European experts in computational and experimental chemistry to foster synergies for developing new catalytic processes for the transformation of abundant small molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, or ammonia into high-value chemicals and energy-relevant products. CARISMA promotes new collaborations, exchange of knowledge and skills, frontier training to young as well as established researchers, and a platform for the advancement of theoretical and experimental research in an iterative process, comprised of expertise in various connate domains including synthesis, catalysis, spectroscopy, kinetics, and computational chemistry. These interactions stimulate the discovery of new and efficient catalytic processes, illustrated in the second part of this contribution with the collaborative development of powerful iridium-based complexes for bond activation and water oxidation catalysis

Is it the boundaries or disorder that dominates electron transport in semiconductor `billiards'?

Semiconductor billiards are often considered as ideal systems for studying dynamical chaos in the quantum mechanical limit. In the traditional picture, once the electron's mean free path, as determined by the mobility, becomes larger than the device, disorder is negligible and electron trajectories are shaped by specular reflection from the billiard walls alone. Experimental insight into the electron dynamics is normally obtained by magnetoconductance measurements. A number of recent experimental studies have shown these measurements to be largely independent of the billiards exact shape, and highly dependent on sample-to-sample variations in disorder. In this paper, we discuss these more recent findings within the full historical context of work on semiconductor billiards, and offer strong evidence that small-angle scattering at the sub-100 nm length-scale dominates transport in these devices, with important implications for the role these devices can play for experimental tests of ideas in quantum chaos.Comment: Submitted to Fortschritte der Physik for special issue on Quantum Physics with Non-Hermitian Operator