Peculiar Applications Research Articles

Exploring the potential of muon radiography for blast furnace assessments: advancements in non-invasive imaging and structural analysis

The BLEMAB European project (BLast furnace stack density Estimation through online Muon ABsorption measurements), the evolution of the previous Mu-Blast European project, is designed to investigate in detail the capability of muon radiography techniques applied to the imaging of the inner zone of a blast furnace. In particular, the goal of this collaboration is to characterize the internal region (so-called cohesive zone) where the slowly downward-moving material begins to soften and melt, which plays an important role in the performance of the blast furnace itself. In this contribution, we describe the state-of-the-art of the muon tracking system which is currently being developed and installed at a blast furnace on the ArcelorMittal site in Bremen (Germany). Moreover, we will present the GEANT4 simulation framework devised for this application together with the simulation results. Finally, we will show the possible contribution of multiple scattering effects to such peculiar applications.

LC-MS/MS Application in Pharmacotoxicological Field: Current State and New Applications.

Nowadays, it is vital to have new, complete, and rapid methods to screen and follow pharmacotoxicological and forensic cases. In this context, an important role is undoubtedly played by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) thanks to its advanced features. This instrument configuration can offer comprehensive and complete analysis and is a very potent analytical tool in the hands of analysts for the correct identification and quantification of analytes. The present review paper discusses the applications of LC-MS/MS in pharmacotoxicological cases because it is impossible to ignore the importance of this powerful instrument for the rapid development of pharmacological and forensic advanced research in recent years. On one hand, pharmacology is fundamental for drug monitoring and helping people to find the so-called "personal therapy" or "personalized therapy". On the other hand, toxicological and forensic LC-MS/MS represents the most critical instrument configuration applied to the screening and research of drugs and illicit drugs, giving critical support to law enforcement. Often the two areas are stackable, and for this reason, many methods include analytes attributable to both fields of application. In this manuscript, drugs and illicit drugs were divided in separate sections, with particular attention paid in the first section to therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and clinical approaches with a focus on central nervous system (CNS). The second section is focused on the methods developed in recent years for the determination of illicit drugs, often in combination with CNS drugs. All references considered herein cover the last 3 years, except for some specific and peculiar applications for which some more dated but still recent articles have been considered.

Living Sensors: The Greenest Paradigm in Instrumentation and Measurements

The advent of latest technologies, rising materials and solutions is enabling a brand-new wave of innovation. Going into more detail on electronic solutions, measuring architectures, transducers and sensors, a new environmental issue has emerged concerning the toxicity of such components throughout manufacturing and through use in peculiar applications [1], [2]. It should be noted that these electronic devices typically contain dangerous materials and noxious components, like batteries, which might be venturous for the local communities, and at the same time, have detrimental effects on nature [2]. In this framework, considering the era 4.0 with industry/agriculture 4.0, precision agriculture and smart solutions [3], [4], new ideas and paradigms in the context of sensors have overthrown “classical” devices, such as silicon-based elements, MEMS, semiconductors, and solid state chips. As a matter of fact, the semiconductor manufacturing process and the fabrication of integrated sensors represents an un-green step, far from being considered eco-friendly, considering that the CO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emission and pollutants is quite significant during manufacturing [5], [6]. They present, at the same time, limited biodegradability and lack the ability to be absorbed by the environment. In the perspective to conceive more eco-friendly devices, several approaches, mainly based on new compounds, have been addressed in the literature [7].

A narrative review of peculiar forensic-pathological applications of scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX)

article: A narrative review of peculiar forensic-pathological applications of scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX) - Minerva Forensic Medicine 2022 December;142(4):58-65 - Minerva Medica - Journals

Framing business cases for the success of product configuration system projects

Product configuration systems (PCSs) are peculiar IT applications used for efficient product customization. Unfortunately, PCS implementation involves many challenges. A well-defined business case (BC) could increase PCS project success. However, the literature does not provide specific guidance for building BCs for PCS projects. The proposed BC framework for PCS projects was developed based on literature and professional expertise, and tested in three PCS projects at two engineer-to-order (ETO) companies. Figures of benefits, costs, ROIs, scenario examples, sensitivity analyses, risk analyses, and key information about application experiences were reported. The framework test shows that it is viable and helps overcome PCS challenges.

A REVIEW OF GREEN SOLVENT IONIC LIQUIDS: AS A FUTURE SOLVENT

Currently, chemists seem more fascinated with exploiting less hazardous green solvent ionic liquids for countering the detrimental consequence of organic solvents on the environment. Ordinarily, ionic liquids having salt-like structures comprise cations and anions. Ionic liquids alleviate various enzyme-catalyzed reactions having excellent yields, increasing capacities and functions, enhancing recyclability, increasing stability, recovery, and cost-effectiveness, and these are cardinal elements for applications in industry. Furthermore, growing nanotechnology, polymer, electrochemistry, environmental chemistry, pharmaceutical medicinal chemistry or pharmaceutical chemistry, and biochemistry in the area of ionic liquids have been flourished among investigators. Ionic liquids-supported materials and techniques are excellent for efficient and sustainable procedures. Because of their assignment as designer solvents, through which the physiochemical dimensions of an Ionic liquid can be adjusted for better functioning for peculiar applications. The review delivers the gradual improvement, growth or development, or progress and prospects of ionic liquids and their physicochemical properties as well as examples of applications in a unified fashion.

Modern Management of Esophageal Cancer: Radio-Oncology in Neoadjuvancy, Adjuvancy and Palliation.

Simple SummaryRadiotherapy plays an important role in the management of esophageal cancer. Historically, it has been used in different settings—adjuvant, neoadjuvant, definitive in combination with chemotherapy, and even palliative scenario. The aim of this review is to focus on the role of radiotherapy at different levels, and to describe the new therapeutic opportunities offered by technological advances.The modern management of esophageal cancer is crucially based on a multidisciplinary and multimodal approach. Radiotherapy is involved in neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings; moreover, it includes radical and palliative treatment intention (with a focus on the use of a stent and its potential integration with radiotherapy). In this review, the above-mentioned settings and approaches will be described. Referring to available international guidelines, the background evidence bases will be reviewed, and the ongoing, more relevant trials will be outlined. Target definitions and radiotherapy doses to administer will be mentioned. Peculiar applications such as brachytherapy (interventional radiation oncology), and data regarding innovative approaches including MRI-guided-RT and radiomic analysis will be reported. A focus on the avoidance of surgery for major clinical responses (particularly for SCC) is detailed.

The likelihood-ratio test for multi-edge network models

The complexity underlying real-world systems implies that standard statistical hypothesis testing methods may not be adequate for these peculiar applications. Specifically, we show that the likelihood-ratio (LR) test’s null-distribution needs to be modified to accommodate the complexity found in multi-edge network data. When working with independent observations, the p-values of LR tests are approximated using a χ 2 distribution. However, such an approximation should not be used when dealing with multi-edge network data. This type of data is characterized by multiple correlations and competitions that make the standard approximation unsuitable. We provide a solution to the problem by providing a better approximation of the LR test null-distribution through a beta distribution. Finally, we empirically show that even for a small multi-edge network, the standard χ 2 approximation provides erroneous results, while the proposed beta approximation yields the correct p-value estimation.

A New Generation of Bio-Composite Thermoplastic Filaments for a More Sustainable Design of Parts Manufactured by FDM

The most recent developments of Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) techniques are moving the application of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies toward new areas of investigation such as the biomedical, aerospace, and marine engineering in addition to the more consolidated industrial and civil fields. Some specific characteristics are required for the components designed for peculiar applications, such as complex geometries, lightweight, and high strength as well as breathability and aesthetic appearance specifically in the biomedical field. All these design specifications could be potentially satisfied by manufacturing with 3D printing techniques. Moreover, the development of purpose-dedicated filaments can be considered a key factor to successfully meet all the requirements. In this paper, fabrication and applications of five new thermoplastic materials with fillers are described and analyzed. They are organic bio-plastic compounds made of polylactic acid (PLA) and organic by-products. The growing interest in these new composite materials reinforced with organic by-products is due to the reduction of production management costs and their low environmental impact. In this study, the production workflow has been set up and described in detail. The main properties of these new thermoplastic materials have been analyzed with a major emphasis on strength, lightweight, and surface finish. The analysis showed that these materials can be particularly suitable for biomedical applications. Therefore, two different biomedical devices were selected and relative prototypes were manufactured with one of the analyzed thermoplastic materials. The feasibility, benefits, and performance of the thermoplastic material considered for these applications were successfully assessed.

Phenotypic Variations of Oleispira antarctica RB-8(T) in Different Growth Conditions.

The peculiar biotechnological applications of Oleispira spp. in the natural cleansing of oil-polluted marine systems stimulated the study of the phenotypic characteristics of the Oleispira antarctica RB-8(T) strain and modifications of these characteristics in relation to different growth conditions. Bacterial abundance, cell size and morphology variations (by image analysis) and hydrocarbon degradation (by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection, GC-FID) were analysed in different cultures of O. antarctica RB-8(T). The effects of six different hydrocarbon mixtures (diesel, engine oil, naval oil waste, bilge water, jet fuel and oil) used as a single carbon source combined with two different growth temperatures (4° and 15°C) were analysed (for 22days). The data obtained showed that the mean cell volume decreased with increasing experimental temperature. Three morphological bacterial shapes were identified: spirals, rods and cocci. Morphological transition from spiral to rod and coccoid shapes in relation to the different substrates (oil mixtures) and/or growth temperatures was observed, except for one experimental condition (naval oil waste) in which spiral bacteria were mostly dominant. Phenotypic traits and physiological status of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria showed important modifications in relation to culture conditions. These findings suggest interesting potential for strain RB-8(T) for ecological and applicative purposes.

Anisotropic polaritons in van der Waals materials

AbstractPolaritons in two‐dimensional (2D) materials continues to garner significant attention due to their favorable ability of field‐confinement and intriguing potential for low‐loss and ultrafast optical and photonic devices. The recent experimental observation of in‐plane anisotropic dispersion in natural van der Waals materials has revealed much richer physics as compared to isotropic plasmonic materials, which provides new insight to manipulate the polaritons and manufacture flat optical devices with unprecedented controls. Herein, we give an overview of the recent progress in in‐plane anisotropic polaritons launched and visualized in the near‐field range in 2D layered van der Waals materials. Furthermore, future prospects in this promising but emerging field are featured on the basis of its peculiar applications. This review article will stimulate the scientific community to explore other hyperbolic materials and structures in order to develop optical technologies with novel functionalities and further improve the understanding of the exotic photonic phenomena.image

Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle using Cocos nucifera male Flower Extract and Analysis their Antimicrobial Activity

Nanotechnology deals with the invention and practice of material in the nanoscale measurement. The large bandwidth and high exiciton binding results in peculiar potential applications like antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant property. In recent studies Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) had been synthesized frequently for the antibacterial, antifungal studies. Since the physical and chemical production of these nano particals, from the plants extract is economic and ecofriendly, the environment is protected from the usage of toxic chemicals. Thus the current study is the synthesis and characterization methods to ZnO nano particals using different biological sources. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential of Cocos nucifera male flowers extracts for the synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles and their antimicrobial properties.

Functional Materials for Two-Photon Polymerization in Microfabrication.

Direct laser writing methods based on two-photon polymerization (2PP) are powerful tools for the on-demand printing of precise and complex 3D architectures at the micro and nanometer scale. While much progress was made to increase the resolution and the feature size throughout the years, by carefully designing a material, one can confer specific functional properties to the printed structures thus making them appealing for peculiar and novel applications. This Review summarizes the state-of-the-art of functional resins and photoresists used in 2PP, discussing both the range of material functions available and the methods used to prepare them, highlighting advantages and disadvantages of different classes of materials in achieving certain properties.

Tuning the decay time of plastic scintillators

In the field of nuclear physics, plastic scintillators are popular and efficient radiation detectors thanks to the following properties: they can be prepared in large volumes, are cheap and various configurations can be afforded to the material. However, peculiar applications might require plastic scintillator with unusual scintillation decay times, such as laser beam positioning or detectors stacking. In the case of the scintillation decay time, commercial suppliers do not propose many choices, as only the range 0.7–10 ns is usually covered, along with a longer decay time – 285 ns – material. Herein we propose a new concept and associated formulations where the scintillation decay time can be finely chosen and tuned in a range starting at 2.5 ns and finishing around 90 ns. These materials are presented, synthesized and characterized.

Use of Stokes and anti‐Stokes Raman scattering for new applications

AbstractWe show the interest in recording both Stokes and anti‐Stokes Raman spectra in two peculiar applications. In one case, the comparison between these two parts of the spectrum, measured at one temperature only, allows to distinguish between first‐ and second‐order phonon bands. In the second example, the difference between Stokes and anti‐Stokes spectra provides separation between vibrational and emission lines. We describe the different stages needed in the measurements and data treatment.

Deregulation of sialidases in human normal and tumor tissues.

Aberrant sialylation is a characteristic feature associated with cancer. The four types of mammalian sialidases identified to date have been shown to behave in different manners during carcinogenesis. While NEU1, NEU2 and NEU4 have been observed to oppose malignant phenotypes, the membrane-bound sialidase NEU3 was revealed to promote cancer progression. With the aim of improving the knowledge about sialidases deregulation in various cancer types, we investigated the amount of NEU1, NEU3 and NEU4 transcripts in paired normal and tumor tissues from 170 patients with 11 cancer types. mRNA was extracted from patients' tissue specimens and retrotranscribed into cDNA, which was quantified by Real-Time PCR. We found NEU1 and NEU3 to be up regulated, while NEU4 was down regulated in most cancer types. In particular, colorectal cancer tissues showed the highest increase in NEU3 expression. Both NEU1 and NEU3 showed a strong up-regulation in ovarian cancer. Our data show that human sialidases are expressed at different levels in healthy tissues and are strongly deregulated in tumors. Moreover, sialidases expression in our European cohort showed significant differences from Asian populations. Some of these peculiar features open potential applications of sialidases in cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Application of Combined Materials for Baby Incubator

Incorporation of phase change materials for the development of a system to store the latent heat belongs to the most functional technique to store thermal energy with a popularity of the storage process being isothermal in nature and surplus of high-energy storage density. The concept of maintaining the temperature suitable for the babies to incubate and therefore controlling the fundamentals parameter necessary with the help of phase change materials is the vital objective of this research. The objective of the creation of microenvironment for babies is accomplished by the combination of PCMs, thermal energy storage devices, thermal insulators. Thus, the development of PCM into nano-HVAC components developed phase change thermal energy storage baby incubator. Phase Change Materials exhibit peculiar applications in the storage of thermal latent heat systems for the control in thermal applications of spacecrafts, solar engineering and heat pumps. The objective of this research is manufacturing of a cost effective and portable baby incubators to make the babies sustain in adverse environmental conditions specially in the tribal regions where medical aid and hospital and health care facilities are not available at the vicinity.

Carbon-Containing Catalysts for Hydrotreatment of Oil Fractions: Review

In the last two decades, intensive studies on hydrotreatment of oil fractions were focused on carbon-containing catalysts prepared with carbonized alumina, carbon materials as the supports and metal carbides as active components. In the Review, properties of various carboncontaining catalysts are discussed, peculiar applications of carbon supports demonstrated that result from their necessary chemical pretreatment (oxidation, leaching) and the use of aqueous organic solvents for impregnation to produce disperse active components of the catalysts.

Si CMOS Extension and Ge Technology Perspectives Forecast Through Metal-oxide-semiconductor Junctionless Field-effect Transistor

Applications of Si have been increasingly exploited and extended to More-Moore, More-than-Moore, and beyond-CMOS approaches. Ge is regarded as one of the supplements for Si owing to its higher carrier mobilities and peculiar band structure, facilitating both advanced and optical applications. As an emerging metal-oxide device, the junctionless field-effect transistor (JLFET) has drawn considerable attention because of its simple process, less performance fluctuation, and stronger immunity against short-channel effects due to the absence of anisotype junctions. In this study, we investigated lateral field scalability, which is equivalent to channel-length scaling, in Si and Ge JLFETs. Through this, we can determine the usability of Si CMOS and hypothesize its replacement by Ge. For simulations with high accuracy, we performed rigorous modeling for μ n and μ p of Ge, which has seldom been reported. Although Ge has much higher μ n and μ p than Si, its saturation velocity (v sat ) is a more determining factor for maximum I on . Thus, there is still room for pushing More-Moore technology because Si and Ge have a slight difference in v sat . We compared both p- and n-type JLFETs in terms of I on , I off , I on /I off , and swing with the same channel doping and channel length/thickness. I on /I off is inherently low for Ge but is invariant with V DS . It is estimated that More-Moore approach can be further driven if Si is mounted on a JLFET until Ge has a strong possibility to replace Si for both p- and n-type devices for ultra-low-power applications.

The exploitation of the physical exergy of liquid natural gas by closed power thermodynamic cycles. An overview

The world trade in LNG (liquefied natural gas) has tripled in the last 15 years and the forecasts are for its further rapid expansion. Although the cryogenic exergy of the LNG could be used in many industrial processes, it is recognized also as a source for power cycles.When using the low temperature capacity of LNG for power production, several thermodynamic cycles can be considered. This paper reports the state-of-the art of the most relevant solutions based on conventional and non-conventional thermodynamic closed cycles. Moreover, a novel metrics framework, suitable for a fairer comparison among the energy recovery performances of the different technologies is proposed. According to the defined indicators the compounds plants with gas turbine and closed Brayton cycles perform really better, with an almost full use of LNG available cold temperature and a fuel consumption with an efficiency better than that of the current combined cycles. The Rankine cycles with organic working fluids (pure fluids or non-azeotropic mixtures) using seawater or heat available at low temperature (for instance at 150 °C) also perform in a very satisfactory way. Real gas Brayton cycles and carbon dioxide condensation cycles work with very good thermal efficiency also at relatively low maximum temperatures (300 ÷ 600 °C) and could have peculiar applications.