Mobile learning for the integration of groups that risk being marginalized

Social inclusion and cohesion are two of the objectives that the European Union has very often proclaimed in its documents, in the past ten years. At the same time, community policies have emphasized the role that ICTs can play to encourage and support participation and integration opportunities of disadvantaged citizens. Within this context, the ENSEMBLE project, presented here, aims at developing a strategy of use of ICTs to promote socio-cultural integration of immigrant citizens by using technologies such as MP3 players and mobile phones, and by experimenting instructional methods and communication models suitable for the adopted instruments. The present paper focuses particularly on the educational communication design of MMS messages

Coupling Chromophores to Metal and Semiconductor Nanoparticles for Energy Conversion

In this thesis work, we have investigated the interaction between molecular species and nanoparticles to realize organic-inorganic architectures able to perform complex photophysical and photoelectrochemical functions. In a first study, we have coupled an organic oligomer to silicon nanoparticles, demonstrating the ability of this system to act as a light harvesting antenna, considerably enhancing the ability of silicon nanoparticles to exploit visible light to generate its typical very long lived excited state. The high two photon absorption coefficient of the dye allows the system to be excited by NIR femtosecond pulsed light, improving the applicability of the system in high-resolution bioimaging applications. In a second study, we have performed the synthesis of a family of red-NIR emissive zinc complexes of benzodipyrrins, a little explored class of compounds, with the goal of a future integration with silicon nanoparticles to realize advanced photoactive systems. The complexes show good absorption and emission properties in an highly interesting spectral region for bioimaging and solar energy conversion. Moreover, a serendipitous chemical transformation has been observed and investigated, demonstrating its value to access a completely novel class of4 luminescent compounds. Finally, a supramolecular system composed of platinum nanoparticles coupled to a photoactive dendrimer has been synthesized and characterized, proving its ability to drive the evolution of hydrogen from water upon photoirradiation. This novel approach, thanks to the close spatial arrangement of the different components of a photosynthetic system (from the light absorbing units to the catalyst), opens the way to the realization of efficient systems with a wide variety of chromophores (exploiting the well developed chemistry of dendrimeric systems). This strategy overcomes the typical problems of diffusion based approaches, such as the necessity to use long-lived phosphorescent compounds containing expensive metals and the need of electron relays to transport electrons between the photosensizer and the catalyst

Simultaneous dynamic glucose-enhanced (DGE) MRI and fiber photometry measurements of glucose in the healthy mouse brain

Glucose is the main energy source in the brain and its regulated uptake and utilization are important biomarkers of pathological brain function. Glucose Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (GlucoCEST) and its time-resolved version Dynamic Glucose-Enhanced MRI (DGE) are promising approaches to monitor glucose and detect tumors, since it is radioactivity-free, does not require 13C labelling and it is easily translatable to the clinics. The main principle of DGE is clear. However, what remains to be established is to which extent the signal reflects vascular, extracellular or intracellular glucose. To elucidate the compartmental contributions to the DGE signal, we coupled it with FRET-based fiber photometry of genetically encoded sensors, a technique that combines quantitative glucose readout with cellular specificity. The glucose sensor FLIIP was used with fiber photometry to measure astrocytic and neuronal glucose changes upon injection of D-glucose, 3OMG and L-glucose, in the anaesthetized murine brain. By correlating the kinetic profiles of the techniques, we demonstrate the presence of a vascular contribution to the signal, especially at early time points after injection. Furthermore, we show that, in the case of the commonly used contrast agent 3OMG, the DGE signal actually anticorrelates with the glucose concentration in neurons and astrocytes. Keywords: fiber photometry; genetically encoded sensors; glucoCEST; kinetic modelling; two-photon microscopy

Measurement of cerebral oxygen pressure in living mice by two-photon phosphorescence lifetime microscopy

The ability to quantify partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) is of primary importance for studies of metabolic processes in health and disease. Here, we present a protocol for imaging of oxygen distributions in tissue and vasculature of the cerebral cortex of anesthetized and awake mice. We describe in vivo two-photon phosphorescence lifetime microscopy (2PLM) of oxygen using the probe Oxyphor 2P. This minimally invasive protocol outperforms existing approaches in terms of accuracy, resolution, and imaging depth