Exciton states in monolayer MoSe2 and MoTe2 probed by upconversion spectroscopy

Transitions metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are direct semiconductors in the atomic monolayer (ML) limit with fascinating optical and spin-valley properties. The strong optical absorption of up to 20 % for a single ML is governed by excitons, electron-hole pairs bound by Coulomb attraction. Excited exciton states in MoSe$_2$ and MoTe$_2$ monolayers have so far been elusive due to their low oscillator strength and strong inhomogeneous broadening. Here we show that encapsulation in hexagonal boron nitride results in emission line width of the A:1$s$ exciton below 1.5 meV and 3 meV in our MoSe$_2$ and MoTe$_2$ monolayer samples, respectively. This allows us to investigate the excited exciton states by photoluminescence upconversion spectroscopy for both monolayer materials. The excitation laser is tuned into resonance with the A:1$s$ transition and we observe emission of excited exciton states up to 200 meV above the laser energy. We demonstrate bias control of the efficiency of this non-linear optical process. At the origin of upconversion our model calculations suggest an exciton-exciton (Auger) scattering mechanism specific to TMD MLs involving an excited conduction band thus generating high energy excitons with small wave-vectors. The optical transitions are further investigated by white light reflectivity, photoluminescence excitation and resonant Raman scattering confirming their origin as excited excitonic states in monolayer thin semiconductors.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, main text and appendi

Mucoadhesive solid lipid microparticles for controlled release of a corticosteroid in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treatment.

AIM: Therapeutic efficacy of pulmonary diseases is often limited and drug delivery systems offer new solutions to clinical problems. Solid lipid microparticles (SLMs) are suggested as systems for the delivery of therapeutics to the lung as, because of their size, they are able to deposit into secondary bronchi. MATERIALS & METHODS: Here, we describe two novel different SLMs using chitosan and alginate such as mucoadhesive polymers and we also studied their biocompatibility and their effectiveness compared with the free drug in controlling senescence and inflammatory processes in cigarette smoke extracts. RESULTS: Data reported show that fluticasone propionate (FP)-loaded SLMs are more effective than FP alone in controlling oxidative stress. CONCLUSION: The therapeutic approach using FP-loaded microparticles could be a promising strategy for the treatment of the chronic inflammatory pulmonary diseases

Understanding the effect of cognitive/brain reserve and depression on regional atrophy in early Alzheimer’s disease

Introduction: Depression in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia of the Alzheimer’s type (AD) is associated with worse prognosis. Indeed, depressed MCI patients have worse cognitive performance and greater loss of gray-matter volume in several brain areas. To date, knowledge of the factors that can mitigate this detrimental effect is still limited. The aim of the present study was to understand in what way cognitive reserve/brain reserve and depression interact and are linked to regional atrophy in early stage AD. Methods: Depression was evaluated with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 in 90 patients with early AD, and a cutoff of ≥ 5 was used to separate depressed (n = 44) from non-depressed (n = 46) patients. Each group was further stratified into high/low cognitive reserve/brain reserve. Cognitive reserve was calculated using years of education as proxy, while normalized parenchymal volumes were used to estimate brain reserve. Voxel-based morphometry was carried out to extract and analyze gray-matter maps. 2 × 2 ANCOVAs were run to test the effect of the reserve-by-depression interaction on gray matter. Age and hippocampal ratio were used as covariates. Composite indices of major cognitive domains were also analyzed with comparable models. Results: No reserve-by-depression interaction was found in the analytical models of gray matter. Depression was associated with less gray matter volume in the cerebellum and parahippocampal gyrus. The brain reserve-by-depression interaction was a significant predictor of executive functioning. Among those with high brain reserve, depressed patients had poorer executive skills. No significant results were found in association with cognitive reserve. Conclusion: These findings suggest that brain reserve may modulate the association between neurodegeneration and depression in patients with MCI and dementia of the AD type, influencing in particular executive functioning

Families of languages encoded by SN P systems

[EN] In this work, we propose the study of SN P systems as classical information encoders. By taking the spike train of an SN P system as a (binary) source of information, we can obtain different languages according to a previously defined encoding alphabet. We provide a characterization of the language families generated by the SN P systems in this way. This characterization depends on the way we define the encoding scheme: bounded or not bounded and, in the first case, with one-to-one or non injective encodings. Finally, we propose a network topology in order to define a cascading encoder.Sempere Luna, JM. (2018). Families of languages encoded by SN P systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 10725:262-269. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73359-3_17S26226910725Chen, H., Freund, R., Ionescu, M., Păun, G., Pérez-Jiménez, M.J.: On string languages generated by spiking neural P systems. Fundam. Inf. 75(1–4), 141–162 (2007)Chen, H., Ionescu, M., Păun, A., Păun, G., Popa, B.: On trace languages generated by spiking neural P systems. In: Eighth International Workshop on Descriptional Complexity of Formal Systems (DCFS 2006), Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA, pp. 94–105, 21–23 June 2006Csuhaj-Varjú, E., Vaszil, G.: On counter machines versus dP automata. In: Alhazov, A., Cojocaru, S., Gheorghe, M., Rogozhin, Y., Rozenberg, G., Salomaa, A. (eds.) CMC 2013. LNCS, vol. 8340, pp. 138–150. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54239-8_11Ibarra, O.H., Leporati, A., Păun, A., Woodworth, S.: Spiking neural P systems. In: Păun, G., Rozenberg, G., Salomaa, A. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Membrane Computing, Oxford University Press (2010)Ionescu, M., Păun, G., Yokomori, T.: Spiking neural P systems. Fundam. Inf. 71(2–3), 279–308 (2006)Manca, V.: On the generative power of iterated transduction. In: Ito, M., Păun, G., Yu, S. (eds.) Words, Semigroups, and Transductions, pp. 315–327. World Scientific (2001)Manca, V., Martín-Vide, C., Păun, G.: New computing paradigms suggested by DNA computing: computing by carving. BioSystems 52, 47–54 (1999)Păun, G.: Membrane Computing. An Introduction. Springer, Heidelberg (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-56196-2Păun, G., Pérez-Jiménez, M.J., Rozenberg, G.: Spike trains in spiking neural P systems. Int. J. Found. Comput. Sci. 17(4), 975–1002 (2006)Rozenberg, G., Salomaa, A. (eds.): Handbook of Formal Languages, vol. 3. Springer, Heidelberg (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59136-

Nasal spray formulations based on combined hyalurosomes and glycerosomes loading zingiber officinalis extract as green and natural strategy for the treatment of rhinitis and rhinosinusitis

A total green nanotechnological nasal spray has been manufactured and proposed as an alternative treatment of rhinitis and rhinosinusitis. It was obtained by combining the strengthening effect of liposomes on barrier function, the hydrating and lubricating properties of sodium hyaluro-nan and the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of the extract of Zingiber officinalis. To this purpose, the extract was loaded in special phospholipid vesicles immobilized with hyaluronic acid (hyalurosomes), which were further enriched with glycerol in the water phase. Liposomes and glycerosomes were prepared as well and used as reference. Vesicles were oligolamellar and multi-compartment, as confirmed by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) observation, small in size (~140 nm) and negatively charged (~-23 mV). Spray characteristics were evaluated by using the Spraytec® and instant images, from which the plume angle was measured. The range of the droplet size distribution and the narrow spray angle obtained suggest a good nebulization and a possible local deposition in the nasal cavity. In vitro studies performed by using human keratinocytes confirmed the high biocompatibility of vesicles and their ability to effectively counteract oxidative damage on cells induced by hydrogen peroxide. The overall collected data suggest that our vesicles are suitable as nasal spray. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Measurement of the time resolution of the installed muon chambers with the 2008 cosmic runs

One of the main goals of the LHCb muon system commissioning is to access the detector performance and identify possible misbehaviors in the installed chambers: this is partially possible using cosmic ray muons tracked through the detector. In this note we focus on the measurement of the time resolution of the whole installed detector (M2-M5 stations) using the 2008 commissioning data. Results are compared with the expected performances