Inkjet printing of functional materials for optical and photonic applications

Inkjet printing, traditionally used in graphics, has been widely investigated as a valuable tool in the preparation of functional surfaces and devices. This review focuses on the use of inkjet printing technology for the manufacturing of different optical elements and photonic devices. The presented overview mainly surveys work done in the fabrication of micro-optical components such as microlenses, waveguides and integrated lasers; the manufacturing of large area light emitting diodes displays, liquid crystal displays and solar cells; as well as the preparation of liquid crystal and colloidal crystal based photonic devices working as lasers or optical sensors. Special emphasis is placed on reviewing the materials employed as well as in the relevance of inkjet in the manufacturing of the different devices showing in each of the revised technologies, main achievements, applications and challenges

Iminium Salts of ω-Dithiafulvenylpolyenals: An Easy Entry to the Corresponding Aldehydes and Doubly Proaromatic Nonlinear Optic-phores

A short, high-yielding route to ω-dithiafulvenylpolyenals (1) via the corresponding iminium salts (2) and starting from trimethyl-1,3-dithiolium tetrafluoroborate is reported. The Knoevenagel reactions of either 1 or 2 with isoxazolone-containing acceptors afford merocyanines 7 and 9, in a process that is often accompanied by a vinylene-shortening side reaction. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that compounds 7 and 9, featuring two proaromatic end groups, are strongly polarized and show good second-order nonlinear optical responses

New one- and two-dimensional 4H-pyranylidene NLO-phores

Dipolar, V-shaped compounds derived from 4H-pyranylidene-linked acceptors have been synthesized, and their linear and nonlinear optical properties (displaying μβ values up to 3000 × 10−48 esu) have been compared to those of analogous one-dimensional derivatives. The pyranylidene ring behaves strictly as a spacer, and not as a donor group

Effect of Tofacitinib on One-Year Colectomy Risk in Anti-TNF Refractory Ulcerative Colitis: A Prospective Multicenter Italian Study

Background: Tofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase inhibitor recently approved to induce and maintain remission in ulcerative colitis (UC). Aims: Considering the number of anti-TNF non-responders, this study aims to assess the effectiveness and safety of tofacitinib in a cohort of multi-failure patients with moderate-to-severe UC at 52 weeks. Methods: From January 2021 to March 2023, we performed a prospective multicenter study observing adult patients with moderate-to-severe UC starting tofacitinib after an anti-TNF failure for a 52-week-long period. Effectiveness and safety were assessed in terms of colectomy rate, clinical remission and response, endoscopic remission, steroid-free clinical remission, and rate of adverse events. Results: We included 58 patients with UC with an age of 42 ± 14.4 years, 59% males, 96.6% left-sided or pancolitis, who were failure to a single (65.5%) or more than one anti-TNF (34.5%). Only 6 (10.3%) patients underwent colectomy. Colectomy was clinically associated with the necessity and the number of extra cycles of tofacitinib 10 mg bid at W8 (p = 0.023) and W24 (p = 0.004), and with a higher partial Mayo score at W8 (p = 0.025). At W52, clinical remission, clinical response, and steroid-free clinical remission were 53.4%, 43.1%, and 48.3%, respectively. Of 22 performed colonoscopies at W52, 11 (50%) showed endoscopic remission. Adverse events occurred in 14 (24.1%) patients, but only 2 (3.4%) led to tofacitinib discontinuation. Conclusions: In a real-life setting of patients with anti-TNF refractory UC, tofacitinib has proved to be effective in preventing colectomy and inducing clinical and endoscopic remission at 52 weeks with a good safety profile

4H-Pyran-4-ylidenes: Strong Proaromatic Donors for Organic Nonlinear Optical Chromophores

Merocyanines where a polyenic spacer separates a 4H-pyran-4-ylidene moiety and different strong organic acceptors have been synthesized. According to NMR studies and X-ray diffraction data, these compounds have weakly alternated structures and remarkably zwitterionic ground states, with a partial aromatic character that is compared to those of other pyran derivatives. The proaromaticity of the 4H-pyran-4-ylidene donor lies behind the cyanine-like behavior and low (positive or negative) second-order optical nonlinearities of the shorter derivatives. On the other hand, lengthening the π-spacer gives rise to rapidly increasing μβ1907 values up to 17,400 × 10−48 esu

Proteinen tolestura tunel erribosomikoan

Proteins are synthesised as linear polymers and must fold into their native three-dimensional structure to perform various functions in the cell. Understanding protein folding is crucial because protein misfolding is at the origin of several neurodegenerative diseases. Protein folding can start cotranslationally, i.e. when the emerging peptide is still asso-ciated with the ribosome. Indeed, it has been shown that more than one third of the cell’s proteins fold in the limited space of the ribosome tunnel. Increasing evidence suggests that the ribosome plays a critical role in protein folding. The ribosome can facilitate protein compaction, cause the creation of non-visible media in solution or delay the onset of folding. However, the study of cotranslational folding presents serious difficulties, mainly due to the limitations of the different current techniques. Hence, most studies on protein folding are based on proteins in solution, which are carried out by unfolding and refolding the protein, without taking into account the role of the ribosome in this process. In this article, we summarised the techniques developed in recent years for the study of cotranslational protein folding.; Proteinak polimero lineal gisa sintetizatzen dira eta beren jatorrizko egitura tridimentsionalean tolestu behar dira zelulan hainbat funtzio betetzeko. Proteinen tolespena ulertzea funtsezkoa da, tolespen okerrak hainbat gaixotasun neuro-degeneratiboren jatorria direlako. Proteinen tolespena modu koitzultzailean has daiteke, hau da, sortzen ari den peptidoa erribosomari lotuta dagoenean oraindik. Izan ere, zelularen proteinen heren bat baino gehiago erribosomaren tunelaren espazio mugatuan tolesten direla frogatu da, hau da, erribosomaren gainazalarekiko interakzioek modulatuta eta erribosoma-tunelaren beraren mugen pean. Gero eta ebidentzia gehiagok iradokitzen dute erribosomak funtsezko zeregina duela proteinen tolespenean. Erribosomak proteina trinkotzea erraztu dezake, soluzioan ikusten ez diren bitartekoak sortzea eragin dezake edo tolestearen hasiera atzeratu dezake. Hala ere, proteinen koitzulpenezko tolesdura aztertzeak zailtasun handiak ditu, batik bat, egungo teknikek dituzten mugengatik. Hori dela eta, proteinen tolesteari buruzko ikerketa gehienak soluzioan dauden proteinetan oinarritzen dira, proteina tolestuz eta destolestuz egiten direnak, prozesu horretan erribosomak duen rola kontuan hartu gabe. Artikulu honetan, azken urteotan proteinen koitzulpenezko tolestura ikertzeko garatu diren tekniken laburpena egin da

Do calmodulin binding IQ motifs have built-in capping domains?

Most calmodulin (CaM) targets are α-helices. It is not clear if CaM induces the adoption of an α-helix configuration to its targets or if those targets are selected as they spontaneously adopt an α-helical conformation. Other than an α-helix propensity, there is a great variety of CaM targets with little more in common. One exception to this rule is the IQ site that can be recognized in a number of targets, such as those ion channels belonging to the KCNQ family. Although there is negligible sequence similarity between the IQ motif and the docking site on SK2 channels, both adopt a similar three-dimensional disposition. The isolated SK2 target presents a pre-folded core region that becomes fully α-helical upon binding to CaM. The existence of this pre-folded state suggests the occurrence of capping within CaM targets. In this review, we examine the capping properties within the residues flanking this core domain, and relate known IQ motifs and capping.The Government of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (IT1165-19 and KK-2020/00110) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RTI2018-097839-B-100 to A.V. and PID2019-105488GB-I00 to A.B., A.L., and O.R.B.) and FEDER funds provided financial support for this work. A.M-M. is supported by predoctoral contracts from the Basque Government administered by University of the Basque Country.Peer reviewe

Cardiovascular risk factors, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and carotid artery intima-media thickness in an adolescent population in southern Italy

The objective of this study was to determine, in an adolescent population, the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and the association of NAFLD and cardiovascular risk factors with carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT), a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. The authors conducted a population-based study among 642 randomly selected adolescents aged 11-13 years in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy, between November 2007 and October 2008. Prevalences of overweight and obesity were 30.5% and 13.5%, respectively. The overall prevalence of NAFLD was 12.5%, increasing to 23.0% in overweight/obese adolescents. In univariate analysis, increased IMT was positively associated with the presence of NAFLD, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, systolic blood pressure (all P's < 0.001), diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.006), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (P = 0.006), alanine aminotransferase (P = 0.007), and C-reactive protein (P = 0.008) and was inversely associated with high density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, NAFLD (P = 0.002), BMI (P = 0.004), waist circumference (P = 0.003), and systolic blood pressure (P = 0.005) retained significant associations. The authors conclude that NAFLD, BMI, waist circumference, and systolic blood pressure are independent markers of increased IMT in a random sample of adolescents

Observation of collider muon neutrinos with the SND@LHC experiment

Theoretical Physic

Measurement of the muon flux at the SND@LHC experiment

The Scattering and Neutrino Detector at the LHC (SND@LHC) started taking data at the beginning of Run 3 of the LHC. The experiment is designed to perform measurements with neutrinos produced in proton-proton collisions at the LHC in an energy range between 100 GeV and 1 TeV. It covers a previously unexplored pseudo-rapidity range of 7.2 < η< 8.4 . The detector is located 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point in the TI18 tunnel. It comprises a veto system, a target consisting of tungsten plates interleaved with nuclear emulsion and scintillating fiber (SciFi) trackers, followed by a muon detector (UpStream, US and DownStream, DS). In this article we report the measurement of the muon flux in three subdetectors: the emulsion, the SciFi trackers and the DownStream Muon detector. The muon flux per integrated luminosity through an 18 × 18 cm 2 area in the emulsion is: 1.5±0.1(stat)×104fb/cm2. The muon flux per integrated luminosity through a 31 × 31 cm 2 area in the centre of the SciFi is: 2.06±0.01(stat)±0.12(sys)×104fb/cm2 The muon flux per integrated luminosity through a 52 × 52 cm 2 area in the centre of the downstream muon system is: 2.35±0.01(stat)±0.10(sys)×104fb/cm2 The total relative uncertainty of the measurements by the electronic detectors is 6 % for the SciFi and 4 % for the DS measurement. The Monte Carlo simulation prediction of these fluxes is 20–25 % lower than the measured values