U–Pb zircon geochronology of volcanic deposits from the Permian basin of the Orobic Alps (Southern Alps, Lombardy): chronostratigraphic and geological implications

U\u2013Pb zircon ages from volcanic rocks of Early Permian age (Southern Alps, Lombardy), associated with fault-controlled transtensional continental basins, were determined with the laser ablation (LA)-ICP-MS technique. Four samples were collected at the base and at the top of the up to 1000 m thick volcaniclastic unit of the Cabianca Volcanite. This unit pre-dates the development of a sedimentary succession that still contains, at different stratigraphic levels, volcanic intercalations. Age results from a tuff in the basal part of the unit constrain the onset of the volcanic activity to 280 \ub1 2.5 Ma. Ignimbritic samples from the upper part of the unit show a large scatter in the age distribution. This is interpreted as the occurrence of antecrystic and autocrystic zircons. The youngest autocrystic zircons (c. 270 Ma) are thus interpreted as better constraining the eruption age, constraining the duration of the volcanic activity in the Orobic Basin to about 10 Ma. The new geochronological results compared with those of other Early Permian basins of the Southern Alps reveal important differences that may reflect (1) a real time-transgressive beginning and end of the volcanic activity or (2) the complex mixing of antecrystic and autocrystic zircon populations in the analysed samples

Fieldtrips and Virtual Tours as Geotourism Resources: Examples from the Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark (NW Italy)

In the 20th anniversary year of the European Geopark Network, and 5 years on from the receipt of the UNESCO label for the geoparks, this research focuses on geotourism contents and solutions within one of the most recently designated geoparks, admitted for membership in 2013: the Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark (Western Italian Alps). The main aim of this paper is to corroborate the use of fieldtrips and virtual tours as resources for geotourism. The analysis is developed according to: i) geodiversity and geoheritage of the geopark territory; ii) different approaches for planning fieldtrip and virtual tours. The lists of 18 geotrails, 68 geosites and 13 off-site geoheritage elements (e.g., museums, geolabs) are provided. Then, seven trails were selected as a mirror of the geodiversity and as container of on-site and off-site geoheritage within the geopark. They were described to highlight the different approaches that were implemented for their valorization. Most of the geotrails are equipped with panels, and supported by the presence of thematic laboratories or sections in museums. A multidisciplinary approach (e.g., history, ecology) is applied to some geotrails, and a few of them are translated into virtual tours. The variety of geosciences contents of the geopark territory is hence viewed as richness, in term of high geodiversity, but also in term of diversification for its valorization

A sub-150-nanometre-thick and ultraconformable solution-processed all-organic transistor

Recent advancements in the field of electronics have paved the way to the development of new applications, such as tattoo electronics, where the employment of ultraconformable devices is required, typically achievable with a significant reduction in their total thickness. Organic materials can be considered enablers, owing to the possibility of depositing films with thicknesses at the nanometric scale, even from solution. However, available processes do not allow obtaining devices with thicknesses below hundreds of nanometres, thus setting a limit. Here, we show an all-organic field effect transistor that is less than 150 nm thick and that is fabricated through a fully solution-based approach. Such unprecedented thickness permits the device to conformally adhere onto nonplanar surfaces, such as human skin, and to be bent to a radius lower than 1 μm, thereby overcoming another limitation for field-effect transistors and representing a fundamental advancement in the field of ultrathin and tattoo electronics

ASSESSMENT OF CHLORIDE LEVELS ON RENAL FUNCTION AFTER CARDIAC ARREST

SCOPUS: no.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Self-aligned organic field-effect transistors on plastic with picofarad overlap capacitances and megahertz operating frequencies

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Nature of Charge Carriers in a High Electron Mobility Naphthalenediimide Based Semiconducting Copolymer

The nature of charge carriers in recently developed high mobility semiconducting donor-acceptor polymers is debated. Here, localization due to charge relaxation is investigated in a prototypal system, a good electron transporting naphthalenediimide based copolymer, by means of current-voltage I-V electrical characteristics and charge modulation spectroscopy (CMS) in top-gate field-effect transistors (FETs), combined with density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent DFT (TDDFT) calculations. In particular, pristine copolymer films are compared with films that underwent a melt-annealing process, the latter leading to a drastic change of the microstructure. Despite the packing modification, which involves also the channel region, both the electron mobility and the energy of polaronic transitions are substantially unchanged upon melt-annealing. The polaron absorption features can be rationalized and reproduced by TDDFT calculations for isolated charged oligomers. Therefore, it is concluded that in such a high electron mobility copolymer the charge transport process involves polaronic species which are intramolecular in nature and, from a more general point of view, that interchain delocalization of the polaron is not necessary to sustain charge mobilities in the 0.1 to 1 cm2 V–1 s–1 range. These findings contribute to the rationalization of the charge transport process in the recently developed class of donor-acceptor π-conjugated copolymers featuring high charge mobilities and complex morphologies

Edible cellulose-based conductive composites for triboelectric nanogenerators and supercapacitors

Edible electronics will enable systems that can be safely ingested and degraded in the human body after completing their function, such as sensing physiological parameters or biological markers in the gastrointestinal tract, without risk of retention or need of recollection. The same systems are potentially suitable for directly tagging food, monitoring its quality, and developing edible soft actuators control and sensing abilities. Designing appropriate edible power sources is critical to turn such a vision into real opportunities. We propose electrically conductive edible composites based on ethylcellulose and activated carbon as enabling materials for energy harvesting and storage. Free-standing, phase-separated bi-layered films, insulating at the top and with low electrical resistivity (∼10 Ω cm) at the bottom, were produced with a scalable single-step process. Food additives can tune the mechanical and triboelectrical properties of the proposed edible films. We demonstrated their successful operation as electropositive elements in organic triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and as electrodes in fully edible supercapacitors (SC). The TENGs showed ∼60 V peak voltage (root mean square power density ∼2.5 μW cm−2 at 5 Hz), while the SC achieved an energy density of 3.36 mW h g−1, capacity of ∼ 9 mAh g−1, and stability for more than 1000 charge-discharge cycles. These results show that the combination of ethyl cellulose and activated carbon, and the control over their mixture, allow on-demand edible devices for energy generation and storage, serving future edible and green electronics scenarios

Langerhans cell histiocytosis of the suprasellar region: diagnosis based on thyroid cytology.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) may present as unifocal disease of the suprasellar region, with symptoms and signs of hypopituitarism, arginine vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D), and weight gain. Transcranial biopsy is necessary to define diagnosis and guide treatment decisions, but it is associated with significant morbidity. We describe a patient with Hashimoto thyroiditis and a single hypothalamic mass in whom LCH diagnosis was made by thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) performed despite nonspecific findings in thyroid imaging, on the basis of a slightly elevated [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) avidity on PET/CT and volume increase during follow-up

Stable and Solution-Processable Cumulenic sp-Carbon Wires: A New Paradigm for Organic Electronics

open12siAcknowledgements. E.G.F. acknowledges the support through the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, H2020-FETOPEN-01-2018-2020 (FET-Open Challenging Current Thinking), “LION-HEARTED”, grant agreement no. 828984. C.S.C. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program ERC-Consolidator Grant (ERC CoG 2016 EspLORE grant agreement no. 724610, website: www.esplore.polimi.it). R.R.T. acknowledges funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). This work was partially supported by the European Union's H2020-EU.4.b. – Twinning of research institutions “GREENELIT”, grant agreement number 951747. GIWAXS experiments were performed at BL11 NCD-SWEET beamline at ALBA Synchrotron (Spain) with the collaboration of ALBA staff. This work was in part carried out at Polifab, the micro- and nanotechnology centre of the Politecnico di Milano. Open access funding provided by Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.Solution-processed, large-area, and flexible electronics largely relies on the excellent electronic properties of sp2-hybridized carbon molecules, either in the form of π-conjugated small molecules and polymers or graphene and carbon nanotubes. Carbon with sp-hybridization, the foundation of the elusive allotrope carbyne, offers vast opportunities for functionalized molecules in the form of linear carbon atomic wires (CAWs), with intriguing and even superior predicted electronic properties. While CAWs represent a vibrant field of research, to date, they have only been applied sparingly to molecular devices. The recent observation of the field-effect in microcrystalline cumulenes suggests their potential applications in solution-processed thin-film transistors but concerns surrounding the stability and electronic performance have precluded developments in this direction. In the present study, ideal field-effect characteristics are demonstrated for solution-processed thin films of tetraphenyl[3]cumulene, the shortest semiconducting CAW. Films are deposited through a scalable, large-area, meniscus-coating technique, providing transistors with hole mobilities in excess of 0.1 cm2V−1s−1, as well as promising operational stability under dark conditions. These results offer a solid foundation for the exploitation of a vast class of molecular semiconductors for organic electronics based on sp-hybridized carbon systems and create a previously unexplored paradigm.openPecorario S.; Scaccabarozzi A.D.; Fazzi D.; Gutierrez-Fernandez E.; Vurro V.; Maserati L.; Jiang M.; Losi T.; Sun B.; Tykwinski R.R.; Casari C.S.; Caironi M.Pecorario S.; Scaccabarozzi A.D.; Fazzi D.; Gutierrez-Fernandez E.; Vurro V.; Maserati L.; Jiang M.; Losi T.; Sun B.; Tykwinski R.R.; Casari C.S.; Caironi M

Extracorporeal Chloride Removal by Electrodialysis (CRe-ED): A Novel Approach to Correct Acidemia

RATIONALE: Acidemia is a severe condition among critically ill patients. Despite lack of evidence, sodium bicarbonate is frequently used to correct pH. However, its administration is burdened by several side effects. We hypothesized that the reduction of plasma chloride concentration could be an alternative strategy to correct acidemia. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate feasibility, safety, and effectiveness of a novel strategy to correct acidemia through Extracorporeal Chloride Removal by Electrodialysis (CRe-ED). METHODS: Ten swine (6 treatments, 4 controls) were sedated, mechanically ventilated and connected to an electrodialysis extracorporeal device capable of removing selectively chloride. In random order, an arterial pH of 7.15 was induced either through reduction of ventilation (respiratory acidosis) or through lactic acid infusion (metabolic acidosis). Acidosis was subsequently sustained for 12-14 hours. In treatment pigs, soon after reaching target acidemia, electrodialysis was started in order to restore pH. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: During respiratory acidosis, electrodialysis reduced plasma chloride concentration by 26\ub15 mEq/L within 6 hours (final pH=7.36\ub10.04). Control animals exhibited incomplete and slower compensatory response to respiratory acidosis (final pH=7.29\ub10.03, p<0.001). During metabolic acidosis, electrodialysis reduced plasma chloride concentration by 15\ub13 mEq/L within 4 hours (final pH=7.34\ub10.07). No effective compensatory response occurred in controls (final pH=7.11\ub10.08; p<0.001). No complications occurred. CONCLUSIONS: We described the first in-vivo application of an extracorporeal system targeted to correct severe acidemia by lowering plasma chloride concentration. The CRe-ED proved to be feasible, safe, and effective. Further studies are warranted to assess its performance in presence of impaired respiratory and renal functions