A novel chemical chaperone ameliorates osteoblast homeostasis and extracellular matrix in osteogenesis imperfecta.

Aims: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a collagen I-related heritable family of skeletal diseases associated to extreme bone fragility and deformity. Its classical forms are caused by dominant mutations in COL1A1 and COL1A2, which encode for the protein α chains, and are characterized by impairment in collagen I structure, folding, and secretion. Mutant collagen I assembles in an altered extracellular matrix affecting mineralization and bone properties and partially accumulating inside the cells, leading to impaired trafficking and cellular stress.

Dual-Mode Sensing of Fe(III) Based on Etching Induced Modulation of Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance and Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.

Convenient, rapid, highly sensitive and on-site iron determination is important for environmental safety and human health. We developed a sensing system for the detection of Fe(III) in water based on 7-mercapto-4-methylcoumarine (MMC)-stabilized silver-coated gold nanostars (GNS@Ag@MMC), exploiting a redox reaction between the Fe(III) cation and the silver shell of the nanoparticles, which causes a severe transformation of the nanomaterial structure, reverting it to pristine GNSs. This system works by simultaneously monitoring changes in the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) and Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) spectra as a function of added Fe(III).

Micro-Inclusion Engineering via Sc Incompatibility for Luminescence and Photoconversion Control in Ce-Doped TbAlScO Garnet.

Aluminum garnets display exceptional adaptability in incorporating mismatching elements, thereby facilitating the synthesis of novel materials with tailored properties. This study explored Ce-doped TbAlScO crystals (where x ranges from 0.5 to 3.

NaMnTi(PO)/C Nanofiber Free-Standing Electrode for Long-Cycling-Life Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Self-standing NaMnTi(PO)/carbon nanofiber (CNF) electrodes are successfully synthesized by electrospinning. A pre-synthesized NaMnTi(PO) is dispersed in a polymeric solution, and the electrospun product is heat-treated at 750 °C in nitrogen flow to obtain active material/CNF electrodes. The active material loading is 10 wt%.

Design of NaMnZr(PO)/Carbon Nanofiber Free-Standing Cathodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries with Enhanced Electrochemical Performances through Different Electrospinning Approaches.

The NASICON-structured NaMnZr(PO) compound is a promising high-voltage cathode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). In this study, an easy and scalable electrospinning approach was used to synthesize self-standing cathodes based on NaMnZr(PO) loaded into carbon nanofibers (CNFs). Different strategies were applied to load the active material.

Increasing gold nanostars SERS response with silver shells: a surface-based seed-growth approach.

A straightforward method to prepare surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) chips containing a monolayer of silver coated gold nanostars (GNS@Ag) grafted on a glass surface is introduced. The synthetic approach is based on a seed growth method performed directly on surface, using GNS as seeds, and involving a green pathway, which only uses silver nitate, ascorbic acid and water, to grow the silver shell. The preparation was optimized to maximize signals obtaining a SERS response of one order of magnitude greater than that from the original GNS based chips, offering in the meantime good homogeneity and acceptable reproducibility.

Ligand-Induced Chirality in ClMBA SnI 2D Perovskite.

Chiral perovskites possess a huge applicative potential in several areas of optoelectronics and spintronics. The development of novel lead-free perovskites with tunable properties is a key topic of current research. Herein, we report a novel lead-free chiral perovskite, namely (R/S-)ClMBA SnI (ClMBA=1-(4-chlorophenyl)ethanamine) and the corresponding racemic system.

Food Safety Issues in the Oltrepò Pavese Area: A SERS Sensing Perspective.

Handly and easy-to-use optical instrumentation is very important for food safety monitoring, as it provides the possibility to assess law and health compliances at every stage of the food chain. In particular, the Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) method appears highly promising because the intrinsic drawback of Raman spectroscopy, i.e.

Origin of Broad Emission Induced by Rigid Aromatic Ditopic Cations in Low-Dimensional Metal Halide Perovskites.

The development of broadband emitters based on metal halide perovskites (MHPs) requires the elucidation of structure-emission property correlations. Herein, we report a combined experimental and theoretical study on a series of novel low-dimensional lead chloride perovskites, including ditopic aromatic cations. Synthesized lead chloride perovskites and their bromide analogues show both narrow and broad photoluminescence emission properties as a function of their cation and halide nature.

ZnS-rGO/CNF Free-Standing Anodes for SIBs: Improved Electrochemical Performance at High C-Rate.

ZnS-graphene composites (ZnSGO) were synthesized by a hydrothermal process and loaded onto carbon nanofibers (CNFs) by electrospinning (ZnS-GO/CNF), to obtain self-standing anodes for SIBs. The characterization techniques (XRPD, SEM, TEM, EDS, TGA, and Raman spectroscopy) confirm that the ZnS nanocrystals (10 nm) with sphalerite structure covered by the graphene sheets were successfully synthesized. In the ZnS-GO/CNF anodes, the active material is homogeneously dispersed in the CNFs' matrix and the ordered carbon source mainly resides in the graphene component.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Chips Based on Silver Coated Gold Nanostars.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is becoming widely used as an analytical tool, and the search for stable and highly responsive SERS substrates able to give ultralow detection of pollutants is a current challenge. In this paper we boosted the SERS response of Gold nanostars (GNS) demonstrating that their coating with a layer of silver having a proper thickness produces a 7-fold increase in SERS signals. Glass supported monolayers of these GNS@Ag were then prepared using simple alcoxyliane chemistry, yielding efficient and reproducible SERS chips, which were tested for the detection of molecules representative of different classes of pollutants.

Self-Supported Fibrous Sn/SnO@C Nanocomposite as Superior Anode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Low-cost and simple methods are constantly chased in order to produce less expensive lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) while possibly increasing the energy and power density as well as the volumetric capacity in order to boost a rapid decarbonization of the transport sector. Li alloys and tin-carbon composites are promising candidates as anode materials for LIBs both in terms of capacity and cycle life. In the present paper, electrospinning was employed in the preparation of Sn/SnO@C composites, where tin and tin oxides were homogeneously dispersed in a carbonaceous matrix of carbon nanofibers.

Silver Doped Magnesium Ferrite Nanoparticles: Physico-Chemical Characterization and Antibacterial Activity.

Spinel phases, with unique and outstanding physical properties, are attracting a great deal of interest in many fields. In particular, MgFeO, a partially inverted spinel phase, could find applications in medicine thanks to the remarkable antibacterial properties attributed to the generation of reactive oxygen species. In this paper, undoped and Ag-doped MgFeAgO (x = 0.

Anatase Forming Treatment without Surface Morphological Alteration of Dental Implant.

The osseointegration of titanium implants is allowed by the TiO layer that covers the implants. Titania can exist in amorphous form or in three different crystalline conformations: anatase, rutile and brookite. Few studies have characterized TiO covering the surface of dental implants from the crystalline point of view.

High Stability Thiol-Coated Gold Nanostars Monolayers with Photo-Thermal Antibacterial Activity and Wettability Control.

The adhesion and proliferation of bacteria on abiotic surfaces pose challenges in both health care and industrial applications. Gold nanostars (GNSs) monolayers grafted on glass have demonstrated to exert antibacterial action due to their photo-thermal features. Here, these GNS layers were further functionalized using thiols monolayers, in order to impart different wettability to the surfaces and thus adding a feature that could help to fight bacterial proliferation.

Robust, reproducible, recyclable SERS substrates: monolayers of gold nanostars grafted on glass and coated with a thin silica layer.

We prepared and characterized recyclable surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) active glass chips. Gold nanostars were grafted on properly functionalized glasses by means of electrostatic interactions and then they were coated with a silica layer of controllable thickness in the nanometer range. The SERS activity of the obtained substrates were tested in terms of reproducibility and homogeneity intra-samples and inter-samples from different batches using the Raman reporter as the model compound rhodamine 6G.

Ambient condition retention of band-gap tuning in MAPbI induced by high pressure quenching.

In the present work, we show a successful approach to achieve stable structural and optical changes induced by pressure on bulk amounts of MAPI after pressure release. Such effects on the optical properties resemble those achieved in situ (e.g.

Deepening the shear structure FeNbO: influence of polymorphism and doping on structural, spectroscopic and magnetic properties.

FeNb11O29 is an intriguing and promising material that has been emerging in the last few years. It is isostructural with Nb12O29, one of the rare compounds in which Nb displays a local magnetic moment and shows both antiferromagnetic ordering and metallic conductivity at low temperatures. Both the two polymorphic monoclinic and orthorhombic forms have a mono-dimensional magnetic arrangement, but the different disposition of the structural building blocks leads to a strong frustration phenomenon of the magnetic order in the high-temperature orthorhombic form.

Systemic inflammation in cardiovascular and periodontal disease: comparative study.

Epidemiological studies have implicated periodontal disease (PD) as a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). These studies addressed the premise that local infection may perturb the levels of systemic inflammatory mediators, thereby promoting mechanisms of atherosclerosis. Levels of inflammatory mediators in the sera of subjects with only PD, only CVD, both diseases, or neither condition were compared.

Relevance of complement fixing antinuclear antibodies.

Background: Connective tissue diseases (CTDs) are a heterogeneous group of disorders defined by the association of a variety of clinical manifestations with immunologic and other laboratory findings. Overlap of syndromes and aberrant findings appear rather frequently.

Methods: Sera of eight antinuclear antibody (ANA) negative, cases of subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (SCLE) with antibodies to Ro (SS-A) and a ninth case with clinical and laboratory signs of Sjögren's syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were tested for complement (C') fixing antinuclear antibodies (C-ANAs).

Isolation of Enterococcus durans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a scid mouse colony.

In a colony of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice conspicuously altered behavioural characteristics were observed: hunched position, apathy, dullness, short breath, bristled fur, emaciation, circling movements around their longitudinal axis and oblique head posture. This was most common in pregnant and lactating animals and also observed in 4 mice after experimental treatment. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, serotype P1 and Enterococcus durans, serotype D were isolated from various organs and from the middle ear.

Antibodies to quail erythrocytes in quail-chicken spinal cord chimeras.

Quail-chicken spinal cord chimeras are a model for temporary acceptance followed by rejection of xenografts and also for demyelinating lesions of the central nervous system. The antiglobulin test with quail erythrocytes was employed to detect antibodies in sera of quail-chicken spinal cord chimeras. Sera of all 46 chimeras tested gave positive results.

Morphological studies on avian spinal cord chimeras.

Spinal cord chimeras were constructed by orthotopic grafting of quail embryonal neutral folds, neural crest and neural tube into chicken embryos. The spinal cord xenografts were accepted for varying lengths of time, but most chimeras eventually rejected the quail transplant. This was associated with perivenular cuffing and demyelination with preservation of most neurons, as well as clinical neurological symptoms.

Streptococcus-mutans-induced nephritis in rabbits: rheumatoid factors and nephritogenicity.

The pathogenesis of streptococcus-induced nephritides (SIN) involves immune complex-mediated inflammation; however, specific mechanisms are still poorly understood. Using preparations of two strains of Streptococcus mutans (SM) in attempts to induce SIN in rabbits, one preparation was strongly and the other virtually not nephritogenic. The non-nephritogenic preparation provided a negative control for our studies.