NURE: An ERC project to study nuclear reactions for neutrinoless double beta decay

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is considered the best potential resource to access the absolute neutrino mass scale. Moreover, if observed, it will signal that neutrinos are their own anti-particles (Majorana particles). Presently, this physics case is one of the most important research “beyond Standard Model” and might guide the way towards a Grand Unified Theory of fundamental interactions. Since the 0νββ decay process involves nuclei, its analysis necessarily implies nuclear structure issues. In the NURE project, supported by a Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), nuclear reactions of double charge-exchange (DCE) are used as a tool to extract information on the 0νββ Nuclear Matrix Elements. In DCE reactions and ββ decay indeed the initial and final nuclear states are the same and the transition operators have similar structure. Thus the measurement of the DCE absolute cross-sections can give crucial information on ββ matrix elements. In a wider view, the NUMEN international collaboration plans a major upgrade of the INFN-LNS facilities in the next years in order to increase the experimental production of nuclei of at least two orders of magnitude, thus making feasible a systematic study of all the cases of interest as candidates for 0νββ

Reverse Engineering and Redesign of the Impeller of a Submersible Centrifugal Pump

In this work a Reverse Engineering based approach has been implemented aiming to reconstruct the 3D shape of a strongly damaged and no longer usable impeller of a submersible centrifugal pump. After obtaining the 3D model, new designs of the impeller were investigated in terms of structural stability and corrosion resistance by changing the geometry and the material. Obtained results show the used approach can be very useful both to reproduce, by Additive Manufacturing, no longer available spare parts, so allowing to extend the useful life of old machineries and to reduce costs resulting from plant shutdowns, but also to improve the performances of old designs, making use of different materials and new manufacturing processes

Surface functionalization by poly-acrylic acid plasma-polymerized films for microarray DNA diagnostics

The rapid detection of enteropathogens with high sensitivity and selectivity continues to be a significant challenge, especially in order to transfer laboratory analyses to the Point-Of -Care (POC) by developing simple and reliable diagnostics kits. Bacterial infections are already detected, in analytical labs, by means of high-density Microarray Biochips based both on RNA/DNA fragments and antibodies as probes and antigens receptors, respectively, immobilized on the chip surface. Many efforts to obtain an high efficiency of the surface chemical properties for a stable probes grafting in order to avoid unspecificity or non-selectivity of the bio-recognition are still under way. The aim of this work is to show the advantages of applying a low pressure plasma polymerized Acrylic Acid (exposing -COOH groups) thin coating to a low-density microarray biochip for the efficient grafting of suitable NH2 terminated probes able to match complementary DNA oligonucleotides of Listeria monocytogenes by means of a novel hybridization protocol and a commercial simple and low-cost colorimetric detection method compatible with POC applications. The chemical properties of the obtained PolyAcrylic Acid thin films are characterized by means of ATR FT-IR Spectroscopy, XPS and contact angle (OCA) measurements. The surface density of the carboxylic functionalities is quantified by colorimetric titration with Toluidine Blue O (TBO). The optimized functional thin film is shown to provide good advantages for DNA Microarray diagnostics in terms of chemical stability, density of readily accessible -COOH groups and at the same time low hydrophilicity, crucial for reducing the dilution of spotted probes on the surface and thus resulting in higher and satisfying intensity of the detect signals in the Microarray test