Stabilization of Polymeric Nanofibers Layers for Use as Real-Time and In-Flow Photonic Sensors

In order to increase the sensitivity of a sensor, the relationship between its volume and the surface available to be functionalized is of great importance. Accordingly, porous materials are becoming very relevant, because they have a notable surface-to-volume ratio. Moreover, they offer the possibility to infiltrate the target substances on them. Among other porous structures, polymeric nanofibers (NFs) layers fabricated by electrospinning have emerged as a very promising alternative to low-cost and easy-to-produce high-performance photonic sensors. However, experimental results show a spectrum drift when performing sensing measurements in real-time. That drift is responsible for a significant error when trying to determine the refractive index variation for a target solution, and, because of that, for the detection of the presence of certain analytes. In order to avoid that problem, different chemical and thermal treatments were studied. The best results were obtained for thermal steps at 190 °C during times between 3 and 5 h. As a result, spectrum drifts lower than 5 pm/min and sensitivities of 518 nm/refractive index unit (RIU) in the visible range of the spectrum were achieved in different electrospun NFs sensors.This work was supported by the Spanish government through the project TEC2015-63838-C3-1-ROPTONANOSENS and from the Basque government through the project KK-2019/00101 -µ4INDUSTR

Síndrome coronario agudo y enfermedad de Erdheim-Chester. Patogénesis e implicaciones terapéuticas

ResumenLa enfermedad de Erdheim-Chester es una histiocitosis celular diferente a la histiocitosis de Langerhans, de origen incierto. Se caracteriza por una implicación multi-orgánica debida a la infiltración de los histiocitos CD68+/CD1a-, en forma de xantogranulomas, que afectan principal y comúnmente a la metáfisis y diáfisis de huesos largos. El diagnóstico se realiza mediante biopsia, donde se revelan histiocitos CD68+/CD1a-, carencia de proteína S, y presencia de gránulos de Birbeck. Se ha subestimado la implicación cardiovascular. Reportamos un caso de un varón de 67 años con la enfermedad de Erdheim-Chester e infarto de miocardio agudo, debido a implicación coronaria, además de enfermedad ósea, vascular, pituitaria y retroperitoneal. Revisamos la literatura relevante y describimos el tratamiento clínico de estos pacientes.AbstractErdheim-Chester disease is a non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis of uncertain origin. It is characterized by multiorgan involvement due to infiltration of CD68+/CD1a- histiocytes, in the form of xantogranulomas, most commonly affecting the metaphysis and diaphysis of long bones. The diagnosis is made by biopsy showing CD68+/CD1ahistiocytes, lack of S protein and Birbeck granules. Cardiovascular involvement is underestimated. We report a case of a 67 year-old man with Erdheim-Chester disease and acute myocardial infarction due to coronary involvement, in addition to bone, vascular, pituitary and retroperitoneal disease. We review relevant literature and describe the clinical management of these patients

Effects of Self-Construction of Materials on the Ecological Awareness of Physical Education Primary School Students

Physical Education (PE) has unique features to expand the students’ sustainability awareness. Being active in natural environments has been described as an opportunity to contribute on this matter. However, there is lack of related research. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a didactic proposal for PE based on the self-construction of materials on the ecological awareness of primary school students. A total of 111 students participated in this quasi-experimental study that lasted 4 weeks (eight sessions). The Mann-Whitney U test was applied for comparisons between groups, experimental and control, (SELF vs. CON) on two factors (PRE and POST). No significant differences were observed in any of them (p ≤ 0.05). On the other hand, to compare the data from the pre and post questionnaires within the same group (PRE vs. POST), the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used. No significant differences in any of the groups were observed (p ≤ 0.05). Although SELF improved on some scores such as reusing things after picking up litter from yards, the differences were not significant. This could be explained by the brevity of the intervention. These results could contribute to increasing research on the integration of sustainability in PE.This work was supported by the University of Alicante. Through the project: ODSEF PROJECT. Design and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals for Physical Education (REDES ICE-2021-5489). This research is one of the research projects resulting from the doctoral thesis of the doctoral student Paula Botella

Macropore Formation and Pore Morphology Characterization of Heavily Doped p-Type Porous Silicon

[EN] Tuning the pore diameter of porous silicon films is essential for some applications such as biosensing, where the pore size can be used for filtering analytes or to control the biofunctionalization of its walls. However, macropore (>50nm) formation on p-type silicon is not yet fully controlled due to its strong dependence on resistivity. Electrochemical etching of heavily doped p-type silicon usually forms micropores (<5nm), but it has been found that bigger sizes can be achieved by adding an organic solvent to the electrolyte. In this work, we compare the results obtained when adding dimethylformamide (DMF) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) to the electrolyte as well as the effect of a post-treatment of the sample with potasium hydroxide (KOH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for macropore formation in p-type silicon with resistivities between 0.001 and 10ohm· cm, achieving pore sizes from 5 to 100nm.The authors acknowledge the funding from the Spanish government through the project TEC2015-63838-C3-1-R-OPTONANOSENS.Martín-Sánchez, D.; Ponce-Alcántara, S.; Martinez-Perez, P.; García-Rupérez, J. (2019). Macropore Formation and Pore Morphology Characterization of Heavily Doped p-Type Porous Silicon. Journal of The Electrochemical Society. 166(2):B9-B12. https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0051902jesB9B121662Canham, L. T. (1990). Silicon quantum wire array fabrication by electrochemical and chemical dissolution of wafers. Applied Physics Letters, 57(10), 1046-1048. doi:10.1063/1.103561Dhanekar, S., & Jain, S. (2013). Porous silicon biosensor: Current status. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 41, 54-64. doi:10.1016/j.bios.2012.09.045Pacholski, C. (2013). Photonic Crystal Sensors Based on Porous Silicon. Sensors, 13(4), 4694-4713. doi:10.3390/s130404694Hutter, T., Horesh, M., & Ruschin, S. (2011). Method for increasing reliability in gas detection based on indicator gradient in a sensor array. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 152(1), 29-36. doi:10.1016/j.snb.2010.09.058Mariani, S., Strambini, L. M., & Barillaro, G. (2016). Femtomole Detection of Proteins Using a Label-Free Nanostructured Porous Silicon Interferometer for Perspective Ultrasensitive Biosensing. Analytical Chemistry, 88(17), 8502-8509. doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.6b01228Caroselli, R., Ponce-Alcántara, S., Quilez, F. P., Sánchez, D. M., Morán, L. T., Barres, A. G., … García-Rupérez, J. (2017). Experimental study of the sensitivity of a porous silicon ring resonator sensor using continuous in-flow measurements. Optics Express, 25(25), 31651. doi:10.1364/oe.25.031651Ashuri, M., He, Q., & Shaw, L. L. (2016). Silicon as a potential anode material for Li-ion batteries: where size, geometry and structure matter. Nanoscale, 8(1), 74-103. doi:10.1039/c5nr05116aAshuri, M., He, Q., Liu, Y., Zhang, K., Emani, S., Sawicki, M. S., … Shaw, L. L. (2016). Hollow Silicon Nanospheres Encapsulated with a Thin Carbon Shell: An Electrochemical Study. Electrochimica Acta, 215, 126-141. doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2016.08.059Ashuri, M., He, Q., Liu, Y., Emani, S., & Shaw, L. L. (2017). Synthesis and performance of nanostructured silicon/graphite composites with a thin carbon shell and engineered voids. Electrochimica Acta, 258, 274-283. doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2017.10.198Ashuri, M., He, Q., Zhang, K., Emani, S., & Shaw, L. L. (2016). Synthesis of hollow silicon nanospheres encapsulated with a carbon shell through sol–gel coating of polystyrene nanoparticles. Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, 82(1), 201-213. doi:10.1007/s10971-016-4265-zLiu, N., Huo, K., McDowell, M. T., Zhao, J., & Cui, Y. (2013). Rice husks as a sustainable source of nanostructured silicon for high performance Li-ion battery anodes. Scientific Reports, 3(1). doi:10.1038/srep01919Yi, R., Dai, F., Gordin, M. L., Chen, S., & Wang, D. (2012). Micro-sized Si-C Composite with Interconnected Nanoscale Building Blocks as High-Performance Anodes for Practical Application in Lithium-Ion Batteries. Advanced Energy Materials, 3(3), 295-300. doi:10.1002/aenm.201200857Föll, H., Christophersen, M., Carstensen, J., & Hasse, G. (2002). Formation and application of porous silicon. Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports, 39(4), 93-141. doi:10.1016/s0927-796x(02)00090-6Zhang G. X. , in Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry, Vayenas C. Gamboa-Adelco M. E. , Springer, Boston, USA, (2006).Canham L. T. , in Handbook of porous silicon, Canham L. T. , Springer International Publishing, Switzerland (2014).Lehmann, V., & Föll, H. (1990). Formation Mechanism and Properties of Electrochemically Etched Trenches in n‐Type Silicon. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 137(2), 653-659. doi:10.1149/1.2086525Lehmann, V., & Ronnebeck, S. (1999). The Physics of Macropore Formation in Low‐Doped p‐Type Silicon. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 146(8), 2968-2975. doi:10.1149/1.1392037Lehmann, V., Stengl, R., & Luigart, A. (2000). On the morphology and the electrochemical formation mechanism of mesoporous silicon. Materials Science and Engineering: B, 69-70, 11-22. doi:10.1016/s0921-5107(99)00286-xMariani, S., Pino, L., Strambini, L. M., Tedeschi, L., & Barillaro, G. (2016). 10 000-Fold Improvement in Protein Detection Using Nanostructured Porous Silicon Interferometric Aptasensors. ACS Sensors, 1(12), 1471-1479. doi:10.1021/acssensors.6b00634Lau, H. ., Parker, G. ., & Greef, R. (1996). High aspect ratio silicon pillars fabricated by electrochemical etching and oxidation of macroporous silicon. Thin Solid Films, 276(1-2), 29-31. doi:10.1016/0040-6090(95)08042-2Chernienko, A. V., Astrova, E. V., & Zharova, Y. A. (2013). Zigzag structures obtained by anisotropic etching of macroporous silicon. Technical Physics Letters, 39(11), 990-993. doi:10.1134/s1063785013110175Ponomarev, E. A., & Lévy-Clément, C. (2000). Journal of Porous Materials, 7(1/3), 51-56. doi:10.1023/a:1009690521403Haldar, S., De, A., Chakraborty, S., Ghosh, S., & Ghanta, U. (2014). Effect of Dimethylformamide, Current Density and Resistivity on Pore Geometry in P-type Macroporous Silicon. Procedia Materials Science, 5, 764-771. doi:10.1016/j.mspro.2014.07.326Rasband W. S. , U. S. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, 1997.Mawhinney, D. B., Glass, J. A., & Yates, J. T. (1997). FTIR Study of the Oxidation of Porous Silicon. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 101(7), 1202-1206. doi:10.1021/jp963322

Emotional self-regulation in everyday life: a systematic review

Emotional self-regulation in childhood and adolescence constitutes a growing interest in the scientific community, highlighting in recent years the need to observe its development in their daily life. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review is to characterize publications referring to the development of emotional self-regulation of people under 18 years-old, in natural contexts. Based on the PRISMA guidelines, searches are carried out in the Web of Science, Scopus and PsycINFO databases, and in Google Scholar until May 2020. After reviewing the full text of 376 publications, 14 works are selected that are observed in their extrinsic, substantive and methodological characteristics based on the GREOM and MQCOM guidelines, by two independent evaluators. Most of the studies correspond to the last 20 years, increasing the interest in observing older children, in interaction with adults and/or in different cultures. They apply mixed methodologies, not always ascribing to a low intensity design. Strengths are observed regarding the collection and analysis of the quality of the data; and weaknesses related to the failure to record the duration and sequence of behaviors, highlighting the use of guidelines as guides for future research

High performance photonic biosensors based on periodic configurations

[EN] Periodic photonic configurations as photonic crystals (PhCs) and subwavelength grating (SWG) waveguides are gaining a renewed interest for the development of biosensing structures. By performing a proper design, these periodic configurations allow a significant sensitivity increase while keeping a compact footprint, what is achieved by exploiting concepts such as the slow-wave effect, the increase of the light-matter overlap or the interference of dispersion engineered modes.These results were achieved thanks to the funding received from the European Union (ICT-644242-SAPHELY, PHC634013-PHOCNOSIS and the operational program of the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) of the Valencia Regional Government 2014¿2020), the Spanish Government (TEC2015-63838-C3-1-R-OPTONANOSENS and PID2019-106965RB-C21-PHOLOW), the Generalitat Valenciana (AVANTI/2019/123, ACIF/2019/009 and PPC/2020/037), the Universitat Politècnica de València (PAID-01-17, PAID-01-18 and OCUSENSOR).García-Rupérez, J.; Torrijos-Morán, L.; Gómez-Gómez, MI.; Martinez-Perez, P.; Ponce-Alcántara, S. (2021). High performance photonic biosensors based on periodic configurations. SPIE. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2576401S1

Experimental and analytical evaluation of the response time of high temperature fiber optic sensors

Gas temperature is a key variable in many high temperature applications. Sensors for measuring gas temperatures must be selected according to many different criteria, response time being one of the most important. Response time quantifies the time that the sensor needs to react to a sudden temperature variation. When rapid temperature fluctuations are expected, as in the case of fire tests, significant instantaneous errors can occur if the sensor response time is longer than the duration of the temperature fluctuation. Despite the importance of response time, there is no general agreement on how to quantify this value in high temperature fiber optic sensors. This paper proposes a methodology to estimate the response time of fiber optic temperature sensors based on an analytical model of the heat transfer between the sensor and its surroundings. The method is validated by an experimental study. In addition, the response times of three different high temperature fiber optic sensors developed by the authors are compared with each other and with the response time of some widely used thermocouples. The results show (i) that fiber optic sensors have a significantly shorter response time than thermocouples with similar packaging, (ii) that the response time is shorter during the heating phase than the cooling phase, and (iii) highlight the importance of considering this parameter in the sensor selection process. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work has been possible thanks to the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Research Project BIA 2011-27104). Funding for this research has been provided to Paula Rinaudo by the European Commission (Erasmus Mundus Action 2 ARCOIRIS).Rinaudo, P.; Paya-Zaforteza, I.; Calderón García, PA.; Sales Maicas, S. (2016). Experimental and analytical evaluation of the response time of high temperature fiber optic sensors. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical. 243:167-174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2016.03.022S16717424

Label-Free Optical Biosensing Using Low-Cost Electrospun Polymeric Nanofibers

Polymeric nanofiber matrices are promising structures to develop biosensing devices due to their easy and affordable large-scale fabrication and their high surface-to-volume ratio. In this work, the suitability of a polyamide 6 nanofiber matrix for the development of a label-free and real-time Fabry–Pérot cavity-based optical biosensor was studied. For such aim, in-flow biofunctionalization of nanofibers with antibodies, bound through a protein A/G layer, and specific biodetection of 10 µg/mL bovine serum albumin (BSA) were carried out. Both processes were successfully monitored via reflectivity measurements in real-time without labels and their reproducibility was demonstrated when different polymeric nanofiber matrices from the same electrospinning batch were employed as transducers. These results demonstrate not only the suitability of correctly biofunctionalized polyamide 6 nanofiber matrices to be employed for real-time and label-free specific biodetection purposes, but also the potential of electrospinning technique to create affordable and easy-to-fabricate at large scale optical transducers with a reproducible performance.This research was supported by a co-financed action by the European Union through the operational program of the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) of the Valencian Community 2014–2020, the Generalitat Valenciana through the PROMETEO project AVANTI/2019/123 and the grant PPC/2020/037, the Spanish government through the project TEC2015-63838-C3-OPTONANOSENS, Universitat Politècnica de València through grant PAID-01-17, and by the Basque government through the project µ4Industry, KK-2019/00101, from the ELKARTEK Program