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In cancer microenvironment, aberrant glycosylation events of ECM proteins and cell surface receptors occur. We developed a protocol to generate 3D bioprinted models of colorectal cancer (CRC) crosslinking hyaluronic acid and gelatin functionalized with three signalling glycans characterized in CRC, 3′-Sialylgalactose, 6′-Sialylgalactose and 2′-Fucosylgalactose. The crosslinking, performed exploiting azide functionalized gelatin and hyaluronic acid and 4arm-PEG-dibenzocyclooctyne, resulted in biocompatible hydrogels that were 3D bioprinted with commercial CRC cells HT-29 and patient derived CRC tumoroids. The glycosylated hydrogels showed good 3D printability, biocompatibility and stability over the time. SEM and synchrotron radiation SAXS/WAXS analysis revealed the influence of glycosylation in the construct morphology, whereas MALDI-MS imaging showed that protein profiles of tumoroid cells vary with glycosylation, indicating that sialylation and fucosylation of ECM proteins induce diverse alterations to the proteome of the tumoroid and surrounding cells.

We adopted a procedure to achieve an optimised CH3NH3PbI3 layer in a planar TiO2 based Planar Heterojunction, which finally results in hysteresis-less and high-efficiency solar cells. We explored the optimisation of the perovskite film thickness, by using a super-saturated solution of CH3NH3I and PbI2 precursors, which also impact on the quality and size of perovskite domains, and the fine-tuning of the perovskite layer surface by a thermal-vacuum post-deposition treatment. Using this procedure, we have obtained a pinhole-free perovskite film with large grain size, reduced surface defects, and generate high photovoltaic performance almost independent on the voltage scan direction. Through photophysical characterization, we proved that the fine setting of the combined thermal-vacuum treatments results in extra-large grains, simultaneously offsetting film defect concentration. Our finding suggests how hysteresis can be efficiently stemmed by simply optimising perovskite processing conditions targeting different device layouts.[1] Moreover, we present a well know p-type doping material as an additive for the Hole Transport Material (HTM), 2,3,5,6-Tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane, i.e. F4TCNQ: we have tested various doping concentration in the two most used HTM material for perovskite-based solar cells, Spiro-OMeTAD and P3HT, defining the best doping condition and testing stability in months.

Hybrid halide perovskite solar cells generally show differences in the power output depending on the voltage sweep direction, an undesired phenomenon termed hysteresis. Although the causes of this behavior have not yet been univocally determined, commonly, hysteresis heavily affects solar cells based on flat TiO2 as electron extracting layer. Herein, it is shown how perovskite material quality has a preeminent impact on hysteresis, and how combined deposition and post-deposition engineered manufacturing could lead to highly efficient and hysteresis-less solar cells, notwithstanding a planar TiO2-based layout. This methodology relies on solvent engineering during the casting process, leading to an ultra-flat, uniform, and thick film ensuring an optimal interface connection with the charge-extracting layer combined with post-deposition thermal and vacuum treatments, which merge the crystalline domains and cure the defects at the grain boundaries. This method allows obtaining perovskite active layer with superior optical properties, explaining the ideal device behavior and performances, therefore, a simple optimization of perovskite processing conditions can efficiently stem hysteresis targeting different device layouts. Power conversion efficiency of 15.4% and reduced hysteresis are achieved.

We exploit TiO2 surface functionalization as a tool to induce the crystallization process of CH3NH3PbI3-xClx perovskite thin films resulting in a reduction of the degree of orientation of the (110) crystallographic planes. Notably, the variation of the film crystalline orientational order does not affect the photovoltaic performances of the perovskite-based devices, whose efficiency remains mostly unchanged. Our findings suggest that other factors are more significant in determining the device efficiency, such as the non-homogenous coverage of the TiO2 surface causing charge recombination at the organic/TiO2 interface, defect distribution on the perovskite bulk and at the interfaces, and transport in the organic or TiO2 layer. This observation represents a step towards the comprehension of the perovskite film peculiarities influencing the photovoltaic efficiency for high performance devices.

The paper shows how a table top superbright microfocus laboratory X-ray source and an innovative restoring-data algorithm, used in combination, allow to analyze the super molecular structure of soft matter by means of Small Angle X-ray Scattering ex-situ experiments. The proposed theoretical approach is aimed to restore diffraction features from SAXS profiles collected from low scattering biomaterials or soft tissues, and therefore to deal with extremely noisy diffraction SAXS profiles/maps. As biological test cases we inspected: i) residues of exosomes' drops from healthy epithelial colon cell line and colorectal cancer cells; ii) collagen/human elastin artificial scaffolds developed for vascular tissue engineering applications; iii) apoferritin protein in solution. Our results show how this combination can provide morphological/structural nanoscale information to characterize new artificial biomaterials and/or to get insight into the transition between healthy and pathological tissues during the progression of a disease, or to morphologically characterize nanoscale proteins, based on SAXS data collected in a room-sized laboratory.

Background Dermoscopy is a very useful and non-invasive technique for in vivo observation and preoperative diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions (PSLs) inasmuch as it enables analysis of surface and subsurface structures that are not discernible to the naked eye. Methods The authors used the ABCD rule of dermoscopy to test the accuracy of melanoma diagnosis with respect to a panel of 165 PSLs and the intra- and inter-observer diagnostic agreement obtained between three dermatologists with different degrees of experience, one General Practitioner and a DDA for computer-assisted diagnosis (Nevuscreen(®), Arkè s.a.s., Avezzano, Italy). Results 165 Pigmented Skin Lesions from 165 patients were selected. Histopathological examination revealed 132 benign melanocytic skin lesions and 33 melanomas. The kappa statistic, sensitivity, specificity and predictive positive and negative values were calculated to measure agreement between all the human observers and in comparison with the automated DDA. Conclusion Our results revealed poor reproducibility of the semi-quantitative algorithm devised by Stolz et al. independently of observers' experience in dermoscopy. Nevuscreen(®) (Arkè s.a.s., Avezzano, Italy) proved to be 'user friendly' to all observers, thus enabling a more critical evaluation of each lesion and representing a helpful tool for clinicians without significant experience in dermoscopy in improving and achieving more accurate diagnosis of PSLs.

The dermatoscopic diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is based on well-known specific criteria. Despite the fact that a pigment network is considered a negative feature for the diagnosis of BCC, its detection in a BCC context has been reported in 2.8% of cases.

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Early detection of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is crucial to reduce the morbidity of this tumor.

In this work we investigate the influence of the substrate resistivity and of different buffer layers on the out-of-band insertion losses in AlN SAW devices fabricated on (1 0 0) silicon substrates. The measurements have shown that the out-of-band insertion loss is improved by increasing the substrate resistivity but also by the introduction of an insulating buffer layer material. An out-of-band insertion loss as low as -75 dB has been achieved by the device realized on a silicon nitride buffer layer. This can be explained in terms of inhibition of the diffusion of silicon atoms in the AlN film. Our results show that silicon nitride represents a good solution in terms of low out-of-band insertion loss and cost effectiveness for the realization of nitride-based piezoelectric MEMS devices on silicon substrates.

To investigate changes in dermoscopic patterns of acquired acral melanocytic nevi (AAMN) over time.

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The combined nevus is a clinical simulator of melanoma, and clinical examination alone can be inadequate to diagnose this melanocytic pigmented skin lesion. Dermoscopy is a useful tool to differentiate the features related to each type of nevus. We report two cases of combined nevi dermoscopically characterized by a diffuse blue-whitish pigmentation similar to the blue-whitish veil, suggesting the diagnosis of melanoma.

Hypoepiluminescence microscopy (HELM) is a new dermoscopic approach for analysis of pigmented skin lesions (PSLs) after surgical excision.

To investigate the dermoscopic features of acral melanocytic lesions in a white population in central Italy.

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