Life cycle assessment of a geopolymer mixture for fireproofing applications

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - Alkali-activated materials, also known as geopolymers, are considered promising assets in the sustainable materials industry. Given the...     

Bis(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) cyanobridge polymeric cations

Polymeric cations made up of Ru(bpy)₂ units linked by cyanide bridges can be prepared by reacting Ru(bpy)₂(CN)₂ with Ru(bpy)₂C₂O₄. The reaction yields a mixture of polymeric cations of various chain lengths. Polymeric cations of this type have emitting excited states in solution, with lifetimes in the 50–100 ns range.     

An original clinical methodology for non-invasive assessment of pivot-shift test

Even if pivot-shift (PS) test has been clinically used to specifically detect anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, the main problem in using this combined test has been yet associated with the difficulty of clearly quantifying its outcome. The goal of this study was to describe an original non-invasive methodology used to quantify PS test, highlighting its possible clinical reliability. The method was validated on 66 consecutive unilateral ACL-injured patients. A commercial triaxial accelerometer was non-invasively mounted on patient's tibia, the corresponding 3D acceleration was acquired during PS test execution and a set of specific parameters were automatically identified on the signal to quantify the test. PS test was repeated three times on both injured and controlateral limbs. Reliability of the method was found to be good (mean intra-rater intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.79); moreover, we found that ACL-deficient knees presented statistically higher values for the identified parameters - than the controlateral healthy limbs, averagely reporting also large effect size.     

Dye-sensitized solar cells based on PEDOP as a hole conductive medium

Dye-sensitized photo-electrochemical cells based on a solid poly-(3,4-(ethylenedioxy)pyrrole) (PEDOP) electron mediating matrix were assembled and photo-electrochemically characterized. The conductive polymer was directly grown on the sensitized TiO₂ surface exploiting a photo-assisted electropolymerization promoted by a properly designed ruthenium dye bearing pyrrole functionalities. J-V characteristics and photoaction spectra indicated very low efficiencies mainly determined by an efficient recombination of photo-injected electrons with both PEDOP acceptor states and oxidized sensitizers.     

An original clinical methodology for non-invasive assessment of pivot-shift test

Even if pivot-shift (PS) test has been clinically used to specifically detect anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, the main problem in using this combined test has been yet associated with the difficulty of clearly quantifying its outcome. The goal of this study was to describe an original non-invasive methodology used to quantify PS test, highlighting its possible clinical reliability. The method was validated on 66 consecutive unilateral ACL-injured patients. A commercial triaxial accelerometer was non-invasively mounted on patient's tibia, the corresponding 3D acceleration was acquired during PS test execution and a set of specific parameters were automatically identified on the signal to quantify the test. PS test was repeated three times on both injured and controlateral limbs. Reliability of the method was found to be good (mean intra-rater intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.79); moreover, we found that ACL-deficient knees presented statistically higher values for the identified parameters – than the controlateral healthy limbs, averagely reporting also large effect size.