Design nanostruktur založených na klastrových sloučeninách bóru ve vodných roztocích

Náplní této disertační práce bylo studium roztokového chování klastrových sloučenin bóru a jejich interakce s polymery, s důrazem na pochopení zákonitostí vedoucích k tvorbě příslušných nano-struktur. Kromě polymerního systému obsahujícího o-karboran, byl výzkum zaměřen zejména na chování kobalt bis(dikarbollidového) aniontu (COSAN). Hlavní myšlenkou bylo pochopit některé dosud nejasné aspekty micelizace COSANu v souladu s dlouhodobými badatelskými plány v naší skupině. Z toho důvodu byla provedena detailní kalorimetrická studie, která umožnila kromě dalších termodynamických parametrů stanovit hodnotu agregačního čísla solí COSANu při koncentracích blízkých kritické micelární koncentrace (KMK), což je obtížně dostupné pomocí jiných experimentálních technik. Použití acetonitrilu jako příměsi ve vodném roztoku COSANu se ukázalo jako velmi účinný prostředek pro získání alespoň přibližné představy o vnitřní struktuře micel COSANu, což je z experimentálního hlediska jinak velmi obtížné. Z provedených fyzikálně chemických experimentů plyne, že C-H skupiny COSANu pravděpodobně směřují dovnitř nano-agregátů. Dále byla studována solubilizace COSANu v micelách s hydrofobním jádrem a polyelektrolytovou slupkou, kde byl použit COSAN jako modelové léčivo kombinující elektrostatický náboj s hydrofobním...Thesis The main objective of this thesis is the study of boron cluster compounds in solution, their interaction with polymers and the formation of nanostructures. Most of the work was focused around cobalt bis(dicarbollide) (COSAN) but the incorporation of carborane into polymers was also studied. The idea was to close the knowledge gap around the way COSAN aggregates and continue the line of the laboratory in leading this topic. Therefore, we performed in-depth analysis of isothermal titration calorimetry curves to determine the aggregation number at concentrations around the critical micellar concentration (CMC). Thus, the aggregation number obtained was an improvement over previous data obtained a much higher concentration. The use of acetonitrile as a cosolvent in the micellization process helped formulate a model describing how C-H bonds in the COSAN micelles are directed towards the inside of the micelle. Furthermore, COSAN was used as a model drug for loading nanocarriers composed of hydrophobic core and charged corona. The importance of this work relies on the creation of guidelines for drug loading into similar polymeric vectors in order to determine how the nanocarrier will be affected. With the help of coarse-grained simulations, we determined that changes in the hydrophobicity of the...Katedra fyzikální a makromol. chemieDepartment of Physical and Macromolecular ChemistryPřírodovědecká fakultaFaculty of Scienc

Influence of Thickness on the Holographic Parameters of H-PDLC Materials

For photopolymers the compound concentrations and final thickness of the sample should be known in order to model hologram formation and introduce the reaction-diffusion kinetics of the monomer-polymer system. In principle the cell thickness can be controlled by bead spacers between the two pieces of ITO glass. In this paper we report a study of the influence of thickness on the holographic properties of this type of materials. To fit the physical and optical thickness of the samples we used the rigorous coupled wave analysis assuming an exponential decay in the refractive index modulation.The work was supported by the “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” of Spain under Projects FIS2011-29803-C02-01 and FIS2011-29803-C02-02 and by the “Generalitat Valenciana” of Spain under Projects PROMETEO/2011/021 and ISIC/2012/013

Sequential capillarity-assisted particle assembly in a microfluidic channel

The authors acknowledge support from an ETH Research Grant ETH-15 17-1 (R. S.), from an ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship FEL-21 15-2 and SNSF PRIMA Grant 179834 (E. S.), from a Postdoctoral fellowships programme “Beatriu de Pinós”, funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Government of Catalonia) and by the Horizon 2020 programme of research and innovation of the European Union under the Marie Sklodwoska-Curie grant agreement no. 801370 (Grant 2018 BP 00029) (M. A. F. R.) and from a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator Award on Aquatic Microbial Symbiosis (grant GBMF9197) (R. S.). The authors thank Dr. Heiko Wolf at IBM Research Zurich for insightful discussions.Colloidal patterning enables the placement of a wide range of materials into prescribed spatial arrangements, as required in a variety of applications, including micro- and nano-electronics, sensing, and plasmonics. Directed colloidal assembly methods, which exploit external forces to place particles with high yield and great accuracy, are particularly powerful. However, currently available techniques require specialized equipment, which limits their applicability. Here, we present a microfluidic platform to produce versatile colloidal patterns within a microchannel, based on sequential capillarity-assisted particle assembly (sCAPA). This new microfluidic technology exploits the capillary forces resulting from the controlled motion of an evaporating droplet inside a microfluidic channel to deposit individual particles in an array of traps microfabricated onto a substrate. Sequential depositions allow the generation of a desired spatial layout of colloidal particles of single or multiple types, dictated solely by the geometry of the traps and the filling sequence. We show that the platform can be used to create a variety of patterns and that the microfluidic channel easily allows surface functionalization of trapped particles. By enabling colloidal patterning to be carried out in a controlled environment, exploiting equipment routinely used in microfluidics, we demonstrate an easy-to-build platform that can be implemented in microfluidics labs.ETH Research Grant ETH-15 17-1ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship FEL-21 15-2SNSF PRIMA Grant 179834Postdoctoral fellowships programme "Beatriu de Pinos" - Government of CataloniaHorizon 2020 programme of research and innovation of the European Union under the Marie Sklodwoska-Curie grant 801370 2018 BP 00029Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator Award on Aquatic Microbial Symbiosis GBMF919

Exploring binary and ternary modulations on a PA-LCoS device for holographic data storage in a PVA/AA photopolymer

We focus on the novelty of three elements in holographic data storage systems (HDSS): the data pager, where we introduce a parallel-aligned liquid crystal on silicon (PA-LCoS) microdisplay; the recording material, where we consider the highly versatile PVA/AA photopolymer; and also in the architecture of the object arm, where a convergent correlator system is introduced. We show that PA-LCoS devices cannot implement pure hybrid-ternary modulated (HTM) data pages but a rather close approximation. Validation of the HDSS expressions for the convergent correlator and comparison with the widespread 4-f system is performed. Experimental results with PVA/AA material showing bit-error rates (BER) in the range of 10−3, further show its potential application for HDSS, and also demonstrate the validity of the testing platform and PA-LCoS calibration and optimization.Work supported by Ministerio de Trabajo y Competitividad of Spain (projects FIS2011- 29803-C02-01 and FIS2011-29803-C02-02), by Generalitat Valenciana of Spain (projects PROMETEOII/2015/015 and ISIC/2012/013), and by Univ. de Alicante (project GRE12-14

Coordinación del primer curso del Grado en Telecomunicación, efectos de la reorganización temática

Desde el diseño e implantación de los nuevos grados en la Universidad de Alicante el grado de Ingeniería en Sonido e Imagen en Telecomunicación ha realizado anualmente redes de investigación docente para optimizar el funcionamiento del mismo. Estas redes han sido transversales, incluyendo diferentes cursos, y horizontales coordinando la asignaturas de un mismo curso académico. Una de las tareas que abordaban era solucionar las incidencias detectadas en las fichas de seguimiento de las diferentes asignaturas. Estas fichas de seguimiento impulsadas por la unidad técnica de calidad y por el subdirector de calidad de la Escuela Politécnica superior han repercutido, en general, en una mejora en la excelencia docente anticipando la detección de problemas de diferente índole. En referencia al Grado en Telecomunicación analizado en este trabajo una de las incidencias más significativas tuvo lugar en el curso 2012-2013, donde se plasmó que los docentes que impartían la asignatura de Electrónica Analógica, detectaban una falta alarmante de conocimientos previos sobre semiconductores en su asignatura que se imparte en el primer cuatrimestre del primer curso

PVA/AA photopolymers and PA-LCoS devices combined for holographic data storage

We introduce a polyvinil alcohol/acrylamide (PVA/AA) photopolymer compound in a holographic memory testing platform to provide experimental results for storage and retrieval of information. We also investigate different codification schemes for the data pages addressed onto the parallel-addressed liquid crystal on silicon (PA-LCoS) device, used as the data pager, such as binary intensity modulation (BIM), and hybrid-ternary modulation (HTM), and we will see that an actual approximation for HTM can be obtained with a PA-LCoS device. We will also evaluate the effect of the time fluctuations in the PA-LCoS microdisplays onto the BIM and HTM regimes. Good results in terms of signal-tonoise ratio and bit-error ratio are provided with the experimental system and using the PVA/AA photopolymer produced in our lab, thus showing its potential and interest for future research focused on this material with highly tunable properties. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Trabajo y Competitividad of Spain under projects FIS2014-56100-C2-1-P and FIS2015-66570-P and by the Generalitat Valenciana of Spain (under projects PROMETEOII/2015/015 and ISIC/2012/013) and by the University of Alicante (GRE12-14)

Optimization of Photopolymer Materials for the Fabrication of a Holographic Waveguide

In this work, we present a method of manufacturing an optical see-through display based on a holographic waveguide with transmission holograms that couple the incident light between air and the glass substrate, accomplishing total internal reflection. The holograms (slanted transmission gratings with a spatial frequency of 1700 lines/mm) were recorded on a polyvinyl alcohol acrylamide (PVA/AA) photopolymer. We will also show that the addition of N,N′-methylene-bis-acrylamide (BMA) to the composition of the photopolymer allows the achievement of the index modulations necessary to obtain high diffraction efficiencies in non-slanted diffraction gratings of 1000 and 2200 lines/mm, and also in slanted gratings of 1700 lines/mm (which are the base of the optical system proposed).Work supported by the “Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad” of Spain (projects FIS2014-56100-C2-1-P and FIS2015-66570-P) and by the “Generalitat Valenciana” of Spain (projects PROMETEO II/2015/015)

Diseño de la evaluación en el grado en ingeniería en sonido e imagen en telecomunicación

Con la implantación de los nuevos grados, y la normativa de evaluación de la universidad de Alicante, se han introducido una gran cantidad de pruebas adicionales para los alumnos durante cada cuatrimestre. La única restricción aparente era que el examen final, en el caso de existir, únicamente podría valer un 50 % como máximo de la nota de la asignatura. Este hecho ha supuesto la aparición de multitud de pruebas intermedias no programadas en los anteriores títulos, sin embargo dicha evaluación continuada no ha supuesto una mejora apreciable en las tasas de éxito de los estudiantes. Inicialmente se advirtió que existían semanas donde los estudiantes tenían numerosas pruebas repercutiendo en situaciones de ansiedad e impidiendo que el resto de asignaturas se desarrollara con normalidad dichas semanas. Por ello, desde la dirección de la titulación se limitó a 3 el número de pruebas que pudiera existir en una semana con la idea de racionalizar la evaluación continua. Esto se consiguió utilizando como herramienta las guías docentes donde debían aparecer las fechas de dichas pruebas y se publicaba un calendario global que los estudiantes podían consultar. No obstante se han seguido evidenciando incidencias durante los dos últimos cursos, por ello hemos contrastado las opiniones de estudiantes y profesores, para optimizar el diseño de la evaluación en toda la titulación. En este trabajo se muestran los problemas detectados y las medidas propuestas para abordarlos

Emotional Processing Profile in Patients with First Episode Schizophrenia:The Influence of Neurocognition

This study sought to investigate the influence of neurocognition on the emotional processing profiles of patients with first-episode schizophrenia, using the 4-branch Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) (Perceiving Emotions; Facilitating Emotions; Understanding Emotions and Managing Emotions). A sample of 78 patients with first-episode schizophrenia and a group of 90 non-psychiatric control subjects were included in this work. The initial results showed that patients had lower scores than controls for the "Understanding Emotions" and "Managing Emotions" MSCEIT branches. However, after controlling for neurocognition, the only deficits were found on the "Managing Emotions" branch of the MSCEIT. This branch can be considered as measuring a more sophisticated level of emotional processing, which may constitute a deficit in itself. In conclusion, patients with first-episode schizophrenia present deficits in social cognition at the highest level that seem to be independent from neurocognition. These findings support the inclusion of the "Managing Emotions" branch of the MSCEIT as part of the MCCB.Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI16/00359)Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI19/00766)Comunidad de Madrid (S2017/BMD-3740)Ministry of Health (MOH-000013)4.242 JCR (2020) Q1, 39/167 Medicine, general & internal1.040 SJR (2021) Q1, 438/2489 Medicine (miscellaneous)No data IDR 2020UE