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Supramolecular polymers are known to form strong and resilient hydrogels which can take up large amounts of water while exhibiting ease of processing and self-healing. They also possess similarities with networks of biological macromolecules. The combination of these features makes supramolecular polymers ideal candidates for studying mechanisms and consequences of self-assembly, which are relevant to biological materials. At the same time, this renders investigations of mixed hydrogels based on different supramolecular compounds necessary, since this substantially widens their applicability. Here, we address unusual viscoelastic properties of a class of binary hydrogels made by mixing fibrillar supramolecular polymers that are formed from two compounds: 1,3,5-benzene-tricarboxamide decorated with aliphatic chains terminated by tetra(ethylene glycol) (BTA) and a 20 kg/mol telechelic poly(ethylene glycol) decorated with the same hydrogen bonding BTA motif on both ends (BTA-PEG-BTA). Using a suite of experimental and simulation techniques, we find that the respective single-compound-based supramolecular systems form very different networks which exhibit drastically different rheology. More strikingly, mixing the compounds results in a non-monotonic dependence of modulus and viscosity on composition, suggesting a competition between interactions of the two compounds, which can then be used to fine-tune the mechanical properties. Simulations offer insight into the nature of this competition and their remarkable qualitative agreement with the experimental results is promising for the design of mixed hydrogels with desired and tunable properties. Their combination with a sensitive dynamic probe (here rheology) offer a powerful toolbox to explore the unique properties of binary hydrogel mixtures.

Questo saggio analizza il pensiero di Adam Smith, padre fondatore dell’economia politica, a più riprese accusato di non aver adeguatamente considerato il ruolo delle donne nella società. Attraverso un’analisi dei principali testi smithiani, l’autore mostra come il filosofo scozzese abbia in realtà trattato questo tema, da una parte incorporando nella sua visione alcuni pregiudizi tipici del suo tempo; dall’altra descrivendo meccanismi che spiegano il crescente svantaggio delle donne nella divisione sociale del lavoro e nella distribuzione del reddito. Nel complesso, pur ritenendo che la società di mercato favorisca una crescente emancipazione femminile, Smith sembra incline ad attri¬buire alla donna un ruolo cruciale nella sfera domestica, come custode di quei sentimenti di empatia e di benevolenza che il filosofo pone a fon¬damento dell’educazione morale e della stessa vita sociale.

In the melt state at equilibrium, entangled nonconcatenated ring macromolecules adapt more compact conformations compared to their linear analogs and do not form an entanglement network. We show here that, when subjected to uniaxial stretching, they exhibit a unique response, which sets them apart from any other polymer. Remarkably, whereas both linear and ring polymers strain-harden, the viscosity of the rings increases dramatically (the melt thickens) at very low stretch rates due to the unraveling of their conformations along the stretching direction. At high rates, stretching leads to viscosity thinning similar to that of entangled linear polymers, albeit with subtle differences.

Application of Precision Agriculture requires an accurate assessment of fine-resolution spatial variation. At present, advances in proximal sensing and spatial data analysis are available to characterize soil systems and detect changes in physical or chemical properties useful to understand and manage the variation within fields in a site-specific way. The objective of this work was to verify the suitability of geostatistical techniques to fuse data measured with different geophysical sensors for delineating homogeneous within-field zones for Precision Agriculture. A geophysical survey, using electromagnetic induction (EMI) and ground penetrating radar (GPR), was carried out at Montecorvino Rovella in the southern Apennines (Salerno, Italy). Both sensors (EMI and GPR) enabled the assessment of variation of soil dielectric properties both laterally and vertically. The study area is a 5 ha terraced olive grove under organic cropping. The sensor surveys were carried out along the terraces and over the entire field. The multi-sensor data were analyzed using geostatistical techniques to estimate synthetic scale-dependent regionalized factors. The results allowed the division of the study area into smaller areas, characterized by different properties that could impact agronomic management. In particular, a large area was delineated in the northern part of the grove, where apparent soil electrical conductivity and radar attenuation were greater. Through soil profiling it was shown that soils of the northern macro-area refer to deep, well developed, clayey Luvic Phaezem, whereas soils of the southern macro-area are shallower and less developed, sandy loam Leptic Calcisol. The proposed geostatistical approach effectively combined the complementary 2D EMI and 3D GPR measurements, to delineate areas characterized by different soil horizontal and vertical conditions. This within-olive grove partition might be advantageously used for site-specific tillage and fertilization.