Introduction: Transverse colon cancer (TCC) is poorly studied, and TCC cases are often excluded from large prospective randomized trials because of their complexity and their potentially high complication rate. The best surgical approach for TCC has yet to be established. The aim of this large retrospective multicenter Italian series is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of both hemicolectomy and transverse colectomy in order to identify the best surgical approach. Materials and methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients with mid-transverse colon cancer treated with a segmental colon resection or an extended hemicolectomy (right or left) between 2006 and 2016 in 28 high-volume (more than 70 procedures/year) Italian referral centers for colorectal surgery.Results: The study included 1529 patients, 388 of whom underwent a segmental resection while 1141 underwent an extended resection. A higher number of complications has been reported in the segmental group than in the extended group (30.1% versus 23.6%; p 0.010). In 42 cases the main complication was the anastomotic leak (4.4% versus 2.2%; p 0.020). Recovery outcomes also showed statistical differences: time to first flatus (p 0.014), time to first mobilization (p 0.040), and overall hospital stay (p < 0.001) were significantly shorter in the extended group. Even if overall survival were similar between the groups (95.1% versus 97%; p 0.384), 3-year disease-free survival worsened after segmental resection (78.1% versus 86.2%; p 0.001). Conclusions: According to our results, an extended right colon resection for TCC seems to be surgically safer and more oncologically valid.

Bottom up self-assembly of functional materials at liquid-liquid interfaces has recently emerged as method to design and produce novel 2D nanostructured membranes and devices with tailored properties. Liquid-liquid interfaces can be seen as a "factory floor" for nanoparticle (NP) selfassembly, since NPs are driven there by a reduction of interfacial energy. Such 2D assembly can be characterised by reciprocal space techniques, namely X-ray and neutron scattering or reflectivity.These techniques have drawbacks however, as the structural information is averaged over the finite size of the radiation beam and non-periodic isolated assemblies in 3D or defects may not be easily detected. Real-space in-situ imaging methods are more appropriate in this context, but they often suffer from limited resolution and under-perform or fail when applied to challenging liquid-liquid interfaces. Here we study the surfactant-induced assembly of SiO2 nanoparticle monolayers at a water-oil interface using in-situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) achieving nanoscale resolved imaging capabilities. Hitherto, AFM imaging has been restricted to solid-liquid interfaces since

a Solution-processed organic photovoltaic devices are advantageous due to their low-cost large area manufacturing techniques, such as slot-die coating, gravure printing and roll-to-roll coating. The final microstructure of a polymer:fullerene bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) film is a fine interplay between solution thermodynamics (e.g. solubility, miscibility. . .) and kinetics (e.g. solvent evaporation, polymer ordering, phase separation. . .) during the drying process. In order to design better performing organic photovoltaic devices, gaining knowledge over the drying properties of polymer:fullerene thin films is essential.A novel in situ thin film drying characterization chamber, equipped with white-light reflectometry, laser light scattering and photoluminescence, is presented in combination with grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction on two different polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunctions based on poly-(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) and polythieno [3,2b]thiophene-diketopyrrolopyrrole-co-thiophene (DPP-TT-T) polymers.With photoluminescence applied for the first time as an in situ method for such drying studies, these single-chamber measurements track the fine interplay between thermodynamics and kinetics of thin film drying and provide invaluable information on solution behavior and microstructure formation.

Real-time sensing of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) is, today, a crucial topic to prevent lethal effects of a chemical terroristic attack. For this reason, the development of efficient, selective, sensitive, and reversible sensoristic devices, which are able to detect by optical response the ppm levels of these compounds, both in water and in air, is strongly required. Here, we report the design and synthesis of a fluorescent nanosensor, based on carbon nanoparticles covalently functionalized with ethanolamine arms, which exploits the multitopic supramolecular interaction with nerve agents, ensuring highly efficient (log K 6.46) and selective molecular recognition. Moreover, given the aqueous dispersibility of carbon nanoparticles, these nanosensors ensure even higher sensitivity, detecting sub-ppt concentration of nerve agents in water, and subppm level in air by using a common digital camera or a smartphone. Our results pave the way to an innovative class of low-cost reusable CWA sensors, prompting, for the first time, the simultaneous detection of nerve agents through gaseous and aqueous media, thus extending the protection range to public water supplies.

We have resolved the molecular structure of a bulk oil/water interface that contains amphiphilic ligand molecules using a combination of X-ray and neutron reflectivity measurements for the first time. This new capability can greatly impact future work in the field of ion separation by phase transfer, i.e. liquid/liquid extraction.