IT – Page 9 – TechConnect Briefs

Investigation of Zona Pellucida Hardening with Atomic Force Microscopy and Nonlinear Optimization

Frassanito M.C., Papi M., De Spirito M., Lamberti L., Boccaccio A., Arcovito G., Pappalettere C., Politecnico di Bari, IT

The Zona Pellucida (ZP) is an extracellular membrane surrounding mammalian oocytes. The so called “zona hardening” has a key role in the fertilization process as it produces a block of polyspermy also through an increase [...]

Biodegradable micro and nanoparticles for controlled drug release

Mattu C., Sartori S., Ranzato E., Boffito M., Li R., Ciardelli G., Politecnico di Torino, IT

Biodegradable polymeric micro and nanoparticles have shown to be promising forms for the delivery of a wide array of drug formulations, such as hydrophobic or hydrophilic active principles, proteins or other bio molecules. The aim [...]

Nanomaterials can influence living biological systems with nanometer sensitivity

Sabella S., Brunetti V., Maiorano G., Rizzello L., Sorce B., Vecchio G., Galeone A., Cingolani R., Pompa P.P., Italian Institute of Technology, IT

We show the different response of human neuroblastoma cells line to gold surfaces with different levels of nanoroughness, finding out that neurons are capable to sense and actively respond to these nanotopography features, with a [...]

Biomimetic Polyurethanes for Regenerative Medicine

Ciardelli G., Sartori S., Serafini P., Boffito M., Caporale A., Silvestri A., Bernardi E., Boccafoschi F., Politecnico di Torino, IT

Degradable linear polyurethanes from non toxic building blocks were prepared. Bioactive peptides were incorporated in polyurethane chains, in order to create a synthetic equivalent of the Extracellular Matrix, able to mimic natural tissue. Both cell [...]

Responsive Materials

Lo Presti C., Merck Serono, IT

Continuous advances in polymer chemistry are enabling the synthesis of novel responsive biomaterials. This class of biomaterials are polymers able to undergo significant changes in their properties in response to external stimuli. Depending on their [...]

Modeling Strategies for Flash Memory Devices

Padovani A., Larcher L., Pavan P., Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, IT

Flash memories are one of the most pervasive components of today electronic systems. The continuous scaling of the memory device opened new issues with regards to sensitivity of the cell threshold voltage to degradation mechanisms [...]

Modeling a plane 3 DOF compliant micromanipulator

Verotti M., University of Rome “La Sapienza”, IT

In the present work, a new MBS (Multi-Body System) code has been dedicated to the static and dynamic analysis of micro-compliant mechanisms. Although the inertial force become more and more negligible, the smaller becomes the [...]

Electromechanical and Electromagnetic Simulation of RF-MEMS Complex Networks Based on Compact Modeling Approach

Iannacci J., Faes A., Kuenzig T., Niessner M., Wachutka G., Fondazione Bruno Kessler - FBK, IT

RF-MEMS, i.e. MicroElectroMechanical-Systems for Radio Frequency applications, have been attracting the interest of the scientific community for more than one decade, thanks to their high performance and large reconfigurability. The employment of RF-MEMS based devices [...]

Superhydrophobic porous silicon surfaces

Bolognesi G., University of Roma “La Sapienza”, IT

In this paper, we present a novel inexpensive technique to produce superhydrophobic surfaces from porous silicon. Superhydrophobic surfaces are a key technology for their ability to reduce friction losses in microchannels and their self cleaning [...]

Thermal Conductivity and Viscosity Measurements of Water-Based Silica Nanofluids

Bobbo S., Colla L., Scattolini M., Agresti F., Barison S., Pagura C., Fedele L., CNR-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, IT

Nanofluids are a new class of fluids that could significantly improve the thermal properties of fluids used as thermal vectors. They are obtained by dispersing in common fluids (water, glycol, oil) solid nanoparticles (diameter <100 [...]