Search for Leptonic Decays of Dark Photons at NA62.

The NA62 experiment at CERN, configured in beam-dump mode, has searched for dark photon decays in flight to electron-positron pairs using a sample of 1.4×10^{17} protons on dump collected in 2021. No evidence for a dark photon signal is observed.

Cerium Coatings on Pristine and Nanostructured Ti and Ti6Al4V Surfaces: Bioactivity, Resistance in Simulated Inflammatory Conditions, and Antibacterial Performance.

Despite the significant contribution of titanium and its alloys for hard tissue regenerative medicine, some major issues remain to be solved. Implants' long-term stability is threatened by poor osseointegration. Moreover, bacterial adhesion and excessive inflammatory response are also to be considered in the design of a device intended to be integrated into the human body.

Multifunctional Platform for Covalent Titanium Coatings: Micro-FTIR, XPS, and NEXAFS Characterizations.

This work aims at preparing and characterizing a versatile multifunctional platform enabling the immobilization of macromolecules on a titanium surface by robust covalent grafting. Functionalized titanium is widely used in the biomedical field to improve its properties. Despite its high biocompatibility and osteointegrability, titanium implants are not very stable in the long term due to the onset of inflammation and bacterial infections.

Self-assembling nanowires from a linear l,d-peptide conjugated to the dextran end group.

Preparation and characterization of a block-like l,d-octapeptide-dextran conjugate DEX-(l-Val-d-Val) self-assembling into nanowire structures is reported. The conjugate was prepared by solid phase click-chemistry on an alkyne group N-terminus functionalized peptide with a regularly alternating enantiomeric sequence. Low molecular weight dextran (X = 29) with moderately low dispersity (1.

Search for Lepton Number and Flavor Violation in K^{+} and π^{0} Decays.

Searches for the lepton number violating K^{+}→π^{-}μ^{+}e^{+} decay and the lepton flavor violating K^{+}→π^{+}μ^{-}e^{+} and π^{0}→μ^{-}e^{+} decays are reported using data collected by the NA62 experiment at CERN in 2017-2018. No evidence for these decays is found and upper limits of the branching ratios are obtained at 90% confidence level: B(K^{+}→π^{-}μ^{+}e^{+})<4.2×10^{-11}, B(K^{+}→π^{+}μ^{-}e^{+})<6.

Identification of remodeled collagen fibers in tumor stroma by FTIR Micro-spectroscopy: A new approach to recognize the colon carcinoma.

The tumor stroma plays a pivotal role in colon cancer genesis and progression. It was observed that collagen fibers in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of cancer stroma, undergo a strong remodeling. These fibrous proteins result more aligned and compact than in physiological conditions, creating a microenvironment that favors cancer development.