| 1. |
- Allaria, E., et al.
(author)
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Highly coherent and stable pulses from the FERMI seeded free-electron laser in the extreme ultraviolet
- 2012
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In: Nature Photonics. - 1749-4885. ; 6:10, s. 699-704
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Free-electron lasers (FELs) are promising devices for generating light with laser-like properties in the extreme ultraviolet and X-ray spectral regions. Recently, FELs based on the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) mechanism have allowed major breakthroughs in diffraction and spectroscopy applications, despite the relatively large shot-to-shot intensity and photon-energy fluctuations and the limited longitudinal coherence inherent in the SASE mechanism. Here, we report results on the initial performance of the FERMI seeded FEL, based on the high-gain harmonic generation configuration, in which an external laser is used to initiate the emission process. Emission from the FERMI FEL-1 source occurs in the form of pulses carrying energy of several tens of microjoules per pulse and tunable throughout the 65 to 20 nm wavelength range, with unprecedented shot-to-shot wavelength stability, low-intensity fluctuations, close to transform-limited bandwidth, transverse and longitudinal coherence and full control of polarization.
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| 2. |
- Wetzel, G., et al.
(author)
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Validation of MIPAS-ENVISAT H2O operational data collected between July 2002 and March 2004
- 2013
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In: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 13:11, s. 5791-5811
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Water vapour (H2O) is one of the operationally retrieved key species of the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) instrument aboard the Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) which was launched into its sun-synchronous orbit on 1 March 2002 and operated until April 2012. Within the MIPAS validation activities, independent observations from balloons, aircraft, satellites, and ground-based stations have been compared to European Space Agency (ESA) version 4.61 operational H2O data comprising the time period from July 2002 until March 2004 where MIPAS measured with full spectral resolution. No significant bias in the MIPAS H2O data is seen in the lower stratosphere (above the hygropause) between about 15 and 30 km. Differences of H2O quantities observed by MIPAS and the validation instruments are mostly well within the combined total errors in this altitude region. In the upper stratosphere (above about 30 km), a tendency towards a small positive bias (up to about 10 %) is present in the MIPAS data when compared to its balloon-borne counterpart MIPAS-B, to the satellite instruments HALOE (Halogen Occultation Experiment) and ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment, Fourier Transform Spectrometer), and to the millimeter-wave airborne sensor AMSOS (Airborne Microwave Stratospheric Observing System). In the mesosphere the situation is unclear due to the occurrence of different biases when comparing HALOE and ACE-FTS data. Pronounced deviations between MIPAS and the correlative instruments occur in the lowermost stratosphere and upper troposphere, a region where retrievals of H2O are most challenging. Altogether it can be concluded that MIPAS H2O profiles yield valuable information on the vertical distribution of H2O in the stratosphere with an overall accuracy of about 10 to 30% and a precision of typically 5 to 15% - well within the predicted error budget, showing that these global and continuous data are very valuable for scientific studies. However, in the region around the tropopause retrieved MIPAS H2O profiles are less reliable, suffering from a number of obstacles such as retrieval boundary and cloud effects, sharp vertical discontinuities, and frequent horizontal gradients in both temperature and H2O volume mixing ratio (VMR). Some profiles are characterized by retrieval instabilities.
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| 3. |
- Cornacchia, C., et al.
(author)
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Development of L-Dopa-containing diketopiperazines as blood-brain barrier shuttle
- 2022
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In: European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0223-5234 .- 1768-3254. ; 243
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In our overall goal to develop anti-Parkinson drugs, we designed novel diketopiperazines (DKP1-6) aiming to both reach the blood-brain barrier and counteract the oxidative stress related to Parkinson's Disease (PD). The anti-Parkinson properties of DKP 1–6 were evaluated using neurotoxin-treated PC12 cells, as in vitro model of PD, while their cytotoxicity and genotoxicity potentials were investigated in newborn rat cerebral cortex (RCC) and primary human whole blood (PHWB) cell cultures. The response against free radicals was evaluated by the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) assay. Comet assay was used to detect DNA damage while the content of 8-hydroxyl-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) was determined as a marker of oxidative DNA damage. PAMPA-BBB and Caco-2 assays were employed to evaluate the capability of DKP1-6 to cross the membranes. Stability studies were conducted in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids and human plasma. Results showed that DKP5-6 attenuate the MPP + -induced cell death on a nanomolar scale, but a remarkable effect was observed for DKP6 on Nrf2 activation that leads to the expression of genes involved in oxidative stress response thus increasing glutathione biosynthesis and ROS buffering. DKP5-6 resulted in no toxicity for RCC neurons and PHWB cells exposed to 10–500 nM concentrations during 24 h as determined by MTT and LDH assays and TAC levels were not altered in both cultured cell types. No significant difference in the induction of DNA damage was observed for DKP5-6. Both DKPs resulted stable in simulated gastric fluids (t1/2 > 22h). In simulated intestinal fluids, DKP5 underwent immediate hydrolysis while DKP6 showed a half-life higher than 3 h. In human plasma, DKP6 resulted quite stable. DKP6 displayed both high BBB and Caco-2 permeability confirming that the DKP scaffold represents a useful tool to improve the crossing of drugs through the biological membranes.
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| 4. |
- Di Mitri, S., et al.
(author)
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Electron beam optics and trajectory control in the Fermi free electron laser delivery system
- 2012
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In: Physical Review Special Topics. Accelerators and Beams. - 1098-4402. ; 15:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Electron beam optics (particle betatron motion) and trajectory (centroid secular motion) in the FERMI@Elettra free electron laser (FEL) are modeled and experimentally controlled by means of the ELEGANT particle tracking code. This powerful tool, well known to the accelerator community, is here for the first time fully integrated into the Tango-server based high level software of an FEL facility, thus ensuring optimal charge transport efficiency and superposition of the beam Twiss parameters to the design optics. The software environment, the experimental results collected during the commissioning of FERMI@Elettra, and the comparison with the model are described. As a result, a matching of the beam optics to the design values is accomplished and quantified in terms of the betatron mismatch parameter with relative accuracy down to the 10(-3) level. The beam optics control allows accurate energy spread measurements with sub-keV accuracy in dedicated dispersive lines. Trajectory correction and feedback is achieved to a 5 mu m level with the implementation of theoretical response matrices. In place of the empirical ones, they speed up the process of trajectory control when the machine optics is changed, avoid particle losses that may occur during the on-line computation of experimental matrices, and confirm a good agreement of the experimental magnetic lattice with the model.
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