The study of the reduction size effects on the material properties of nanostructured systems is fundamental for understanding physical phenomena otherwise not observed in bulk materials. In particular, below a critical size, nanostructured materials can present phases that are metastable in macroscopic crystals or can even crystallize as new polimorphs, with properties different from the usual ones. Pertanto, la scoperta, la caratterizzazione e l'ingegnerizzazione di tali fasi possono aprire ...

Supersonic molecular beams deposition is a powerful method to study the growth processes of organic molecular semiconductors. The possibility to tune the kinetic energy of the impinging molecules such as their momentum open different pathway not accessible with other vacuum deposition techniques. An example is given by the study made on pentacene growth (Chemical Communication [50 (2014) 7694]) where we demonstrated the role played in the growth processes by the perpendicular and parallel ...

SOEC are produced at ISTEC starting from powders obtained by conventional solid state synthesis or chemical routes (precipitation, sol-gel, etc.). The powders are synthesized with characteristics suitable for the subsequent shaping processes. The cell fabrication consists in depositing the cell elements onto a supporting-element produced by tape casting. All the possible substrates for SOEC were produced with this technique: anodes: La0.6Sr0.4Fe0.8Co0.2O3 (LSCF), La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 (LSM); ...

Mechanical oscillators operate in the degenerate parametric regime when their spring constant is modulated at twice the oscillator resonance frequency. In such regime, like in a child's swing, the response of the oscillator to an external excitation acting close to resonance is enhanced, and can easily reach a threshold marking the birth of self-oscillations (parametric resonance). More precisely, the response is amplified if the motion is in phase with the parametric modulation (quadrature), ...

A new algorithm to help detecting rainfall from the bottom up SM2RAIN is an innovative system for the estimation of the rainfall, based on measurements of the soil water content. SM2RAIN considers the soil as a natural rain gauge, and by measuring temporal variations of the soil water content, it estimates the rainfall falling on the soil, adopting a "bottom up" approach. Technically, SM2RAIN relies on the inversion of the soil water balance equation that computes the repartition of rainfall ...

The new X-by-Wire systems under study for commercial and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as for Agricultural Tractors, are increasingly independent autonomous systems, capable to control the vehicle functionality, actuating the operator's commands, or managing in a complete autonomy a machine function. These applications need an higher Performance Level from the functional safety point of view, due to the risk of malfunction. IMAMOTER institute has developed and patented a new concept hydraulic ...

Coupling nanoparticle sol-gel process technology with textile finishing or spinning techniques let to obtain HIGHLY VERSATILE MULTIFUNCTIONAL MEDIA, easily exploitable in environmental green technology, application. The high scalability and sustainability of the process is guaranteed by the consolidated technologies involved in nanotech / sol-gel / colloidal and textile processes. ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES _The widely accepted mechanism of antibacterial action is for both TiO2 and Ag ...

One of the key steps in nanotechnology is our ability to engineer and fabricate low-dimensional nano-objects, such as quantum dots, nanowires, two-dimensional atomic layers or three-dimensional nano-porous systems. Silicon carbide (SiC), a wide band-gap semiconductor, offers fascinating structural, thermomechanical, electronic, and chemical properties with a vast range of advanced applications including high-power, high-frequency, and high-temperature electronic devices and sensors. SiC ...

Researchers at IMEM-CNR have created a composite nanostructure made of zinc oxide (ZnO) tetrapod-shaped crystals and nanometric magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles with super-paramagnetic properties, i.e. thanks to their small size they behaves like a ferromagnetic material only when an external magnetic field is applied. In the obtained composite nano-material several useful properties are contemporary present and combined together in a single multifunctional structure. By means of the proper ...

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a semiconductor with unique physical/chemical properties ideally suitable for hard and protective coatings, optoelectronics and sensing. It is the most promising alternative to Si for electronic devices working at high power/high frequency or in prohibitive conditions. A new perspective is now being pursued for SiC as material for biomedical applications, thanks to its good biocompatibility. Since it is also the substrate for synthesizing high quality Graphene, SiC is ...

La produzione di energia ecosostenibile richiede il miglioramento delle prestazioni e la riduzione dell'impatto sull'ambiente e sul clima dei processi utilizzati. L'Istituto di Ricerche sulla Combustione (IRC) del CNR di Napoli, capofila d'importanti progetti finanziati dalla Ricerca di Sistema Elettrico del MiSE e del progetto FECUNDUS finanziato dalla Commissione Europea, svolge da tempo attività di studio sui processi tecnologicamente avanzati per la cattura della CO2(CCS). Le attività di ...

La professoressa Maria Concetta Morrone, docente di Fisiologia dell'Ateneo di Pisa ed associata all'Istituto di Neuroscienze del CNR, si è aggiudicata un finanziamento di 2,5 milioni di euro per il periodo 2014-2018 con una ricerca nel campo delle neuroscienze cognitive. "Early cortical sensory plasticity and adaptability in human adults" - questo il titolo del progetto finanziato - si propone di indagare la plasticità e la capacità di adattamento del cervello degli adulti, con studi ...

Il Progetto SOLar Thermal Energy Solid Storage (SOLTESS), inserito nel contesto delle energie rinnovabili e in particolare dell'energia solare, introduce una tecnologia innovativa applicata al solare termodinamico a concentrazione. SOLTESS ha ricevuto nel 2012 un prestigioso riconoscimento con una menzione speciale quale Miglior Processo/Tecnologia alla VI edizione del Premio Impresa Ambiente. Il Premio è un'iniziativa promossa dal Ministero dell'Ambiente e dalla Camera di Commercio di Roma che ...

La trasformazione di liquame fresco in pellet ha diversi vantaggi. La riduzione del contenuto di acqua e la densificazione della massa solida conferisce al materiale organico una migliore conservabilità e una maggiore facilità di trasporto e distribuzione. La pellettizzazione del materiale organico ottimizza la gestione aziendale dei reflui da un punto di vista economico ed ambientale. Infatti il materiale pellettizzato può essere utilizzato come ammendante organico oltre i confini aziendali ...

Da novembre 2013 è online il sito web "LiBER | Linear B Electronic Resources". Il progetto LiBER, nato presso l'Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico (ISMA) e sviluppato da Maurizio Del Freo e Francesco Di Filippo, si propone di realizzare un'edizione elettronica aggiornata dei testi in lineare B interrogabile online attraverso un motore di ricerca specificamente progettato per il trattamento delle scritture logo-sillabiche. La base di dati contiene le trascrizioni dei testi con le relative ...

La mostra è il risultato di una collaborazione internazionale che vede coinvolti il Louvre, l'ISMA-CNR e la Soprintendenza per i Beni archeologici dell'Etruria meridionale. Oltre 450 oggetti prestati da Musei di tutto il mondo e provenienti da Cerveteri, l'antica Caere, saranno esposti nella "Sister Gallery" del Louvre a Lens, nella regione del Nord-Pas-de-Calais e permetteranno per la prima volta di ripercorrere circa dieci secoli di storia che videro la città etrusca fra le metropoli più ...

The introduction of inorganic natural or artificial pigments permit to obtain colored geopolymers can be used in the restoartion field. The mechanical and physical characteristics are able to use the obtained products for realising musive tesserae. At the present, briquettes of different colors are realised. the obtained tesseare can also be used to realise modern mosaics as altenartive solutions to resin tesserae.

To mitigate the impact of fossil energy on pollution and greenhouse effect, the current technologies need to be improved for achieving limited environmental impact and high sustainability (zero emission). When CO2 sorbents are used in granular or structured forms, high superficial area and well developed open porosity are prerequisites for an effective process. A typical continuous process also requires the sorbent to be mechanically resistant, regenerable and easily available. ISTEC has tested ...

The ESA's GOCE satellite was launched on 17 March 2009. It had a dry mass of 1002 kg and a roughly cylindrical shape of 1 m diameter and 5.3 m length, with wing-shaped fins spanning 2 m. After mapping the geopotential with unrivalled accuracy and detail for four years from an extremely low circular polar orbit, on 21 October 2013 the low thrust ion propulsion motor used to contrast the atmospheric drag was automatically shut down when the pressure in the xenon propellant tank dropped below a ...

Wool-geopolymer composite pots were produced as an alternative to commonly used peat ones. Already grown plants and seeds were studied over a period of 6 weeks. First results outlined that wool-geopolymer pots promote the earlier growth of seeds comparing to the reference ones. The alkaline environment of the geopolymer is indeed able to partially degrade the keratin structure of the wool (but preserving the fibers' nature), making most nutrients readily available for the sprouts. Moreover, the ...

CNR, Aula Marconi, 5 novembre 2013, ore 9,30-13,00 L'evento è dedicato alla presentazione del "Gruppo di Ricerca Interdisciplinare di Storia degli Studi Orientali" (GRISSO), iniziativa permanente nata nel 2013 all'interno dell'Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico (ISMA). Coordinato da Silvia Alaura, GRISSO si propone come centro di aggregazione e promozione di ricerca e come luogo di discussione e formazione. Ne fanno parte professori e ricercatori di istituti, centri di ricerca e ...

The focus of the Istitute of Nanoscence is on graphene with the ambitious of developing research activities that have the potential to bring this material and related nanostructures from a state of raw potential to a point where they can revolutionize multiple industries - from flexible, transparent electronics, to energy and high performance computing and spintronics. Our current efforts are on the growth of epitaxial graphene and its chemical functionalization for energy applications. Other ...

Nanobrain is part of the flagship project NanoMax and originates from the collaboration between four CNR Institutes: Nanoscienze (Nano), Neuroscienze (IN), Officina dei Materiali (IOM) and Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO). This project promotes the collaboration between the neuroscience and the nanofabrication technologies present in CNR. At the basis of this project is the consideration that the brain is biochemically isolated from the body by the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB): because of this ...

How many times in daily research activity do we face with datasets where is contained some relevant knowledge, which a direct visual inspection is not able to extract?!? And in how many cases we would desire an integrated system capable of performing advances statistical analysis or employing complex data mining algorithms without having to manage the choice of obscure options and unknown formats?!? The problem of extracting knowledge from real world data producing effective models that allow ...

It is time to rethink platelet count reference intervals actually used to define "normal" a person basing on his sex and age. A study recently published in PLOS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0054289) analyzed about 41.000 subjects involving 3 CNR Institutes and other research facilities, and showed that women had steadily more platelets than men. The number of platelets decreases quickly in childhood, stabilizes in adulthood, and further decreases in oldness. Furthermore a ...

Locus/Spatium è stato il tema del XIV Colloquio Internazionale dell'Istituto Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee. Durante i lavori del XIV Colloquio, la polisemia dei termini locus/spatium è stata indagata nel suo articolarsi storico, attraverso interventi che si sono soffermati su momenti centrali del pensiero pre-greco, greco classico e di età ellenistica, fino agli epigoni della tradizione interpretativa sul Timeo di Platone suscitati dalla profonda influenza della traduzione ...

The mammalian neurons can live as long as the body that has generated them. The limit of their existence would not, therefore, written in the genes. In practice, the brain can survive the body. This is demonstrated by an Italian experiment in which rat neurons were transplanted into the brain of a rat, where they set perfectly. The research was coordinated by the neurosurgeon Magrassi Lorenzo, who works at the University of Pavia, at the Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo and the lnstitute of ...

DA Almanacco della Scienza CNR - N. 4 - 27 feb 2013 Un nuovo materiale 'intelligente', nanostrutturato e potenzialmente capace di rilasciare un farmaco in una superficie di pochi nanometri, nella misura e nella concentrazione desiderata e nei tempi prestabiliti. È l'esito di una ricerca condotta da due Istituti del Cnr fiorentino, quello di fisica applicata (Ifac) e quello di chimica dei composti metallorganici (Iccom), in collaborazione con il dipartimento di Chimica del locale ateneo ...

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) represents the future of radioastronomy. It will be composed of several subsystems operating in various frequency bands from 50 MHz to 10 GHz. The lower portion of this spectrum will be covered by a sparse array of antennas with more than 250000 elements which will provide incredibly high sensitivity and resolution performance. Italy is very active in the SKA design. A long-term collaboration between the Istituto di Radio Astronomia (IRA) of the Istituto ...

Macromolecules (DNA, proteins, and lipids) in all cells are constantly damaged by reactive oxygen species (ROS). In particular, ROS cause 1,000-7,000 DNA damages per day. Due to its lowest redox potential, the base guanine is mostly affected, resulting in the formation of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine. This modified base instructs incorporation of adenosine, instead of cytidine, by replicative DNA polymerases, potentially leading to GC ->TA transversion mutations. DNA polymerase lambda is the most ...