Food insecurity and nutrition index: Disaggregation and evidence for Brazilian states

Food security and nutrition is a multidimensional theme consisting of three pillars: food access, availability, and sufficiency. Given food security and nutrition's extent, its measures are usually limited. To address these limitations, this paper proposes the creation of a disaggregated food insecurity index for Brazilian states, with the three dimensions in mind. The results show that while food availability elevates the average of the index, the sufficiency still is a problem. Even though the distribution of and access to food in Brazil has increased in the last years, it was not combined with policies that guarantee its safety and quality, reinforcing the need for specific interventions considering regional particularities.     

Editorial: Security and Privacy in Internet of Things

Mobile Networks and Applications -     

An evolutionary algorithm for the multi‐objective pick‐up and delivery pollution‐routing problem

The design of sustainable logistics solutions poses new challenges for the study of vehicle‐routing problems. The design of efficient systems for transporting products via a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles must consider the minimization of cost, emissions of greenhouse gases, and the ability to serve every customer within an available time slot. This phenomenon gives rise to a multi‐objective problem that considers the emission of greenhouse gases, the total traveling time, and the number of customers served. The proposed model is approached with an ε‐constraint technique that allows small instances to be solved and an evolutionary algorithm is proposed to deal with complex instances. Results for small instances show that all the points that approach the Pareto frontier found by the evolutionary algorithm are nondominated by any solution found by the multi‐objective model. For complex instances, nondominated solutions that serve most of the requests are found with low computational requirements.     

A Cyclometalated Iridium (III) Complex as a Microtubule Probe for Correlative Super-Resolution Fluorescence and Electron Microscopy

The visualization of microtubules by combining optical and electron microscopy techniques provides valuable information to understand correlated intracellular activities. However, the lack of appropriate probes to bridge both microscopic resolutions restricts the areas and structures that can be comprehended within such highly assembled structures. Here, a versatile cyclometalated iridium (III) complex is designed that achieves synchronous fluorescence–electron microscopy correlation. The selective insertion of the probe into a microtubule triggers remarkable fluorescence enhancement and promising electron contrast. The long-life, highly photostable probe allows live-cell super-resolution imaging of tubulin localization and motion with a resolution of ≈30 nm. Furthermore, correlative light–electron microscopy and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy reveal the well-associated optical and electron signal at a high specificity, with an interspace of ≈41 Å of microtubule monomer in cells.     

Activated carbon from agave wastes (agave tequilana) for supercapacitors via potentiostatic floating test

To prepare an efficient supercapacitor, an activated carbon from agave wastes was prepared and their electrochemical performance was evaluated as a novel electrode for supercapacitor. The carbon was prepared by two thermal pyrolysis processes under nitrogen atmosphere. The first pyrolysis was achieved at 500 °C until the charring of the bagasse; in the second pyrolysis step, the char was impregnated with different mass ratios of KOH (1:2–1:4) and thermally treated at 800 or 900 °C, for 1 h under N₂ flow. The textural analysis showed that the activated carbon had a specific surface area of 1462 m² g^?1 and depicted a type I isotherm (IUPAC) characteristic of a microporous carbon. Raman spectroscopy and XRD measurements confirm that the activated carbon contains a small graphitization degree and a disordered structure. The electrochemical study of the symmetric carbon supercapacitor was carried out in 1 M Li₂SO₄ solution as the electrolyte. The electrochemical performance of the coin cell supercapacitor was evaluated under an accelerated aging floating test consisting of potentiostatic steps at different voltages (1.5, 1.6 and 1.8 V) for 10 h followed by galvanostatic charge/discharge sequences, and the overall procedure summarized a floating time up to 200 h. The highest capacitance was observed at a floating voltage of 1.5 V, with a large initial specific capacitance of 297 F g^?1.

     

Engineering DNA-Grafted Quatsomes as Stable Nucleic Acid-Responsive Fluorescent Nanovesicles

The development of artificial vesicles into responsive architectures capable of sensing the biological environment and simultaneously signaling the presence of a specific target molecule is a key challenge in a range of biomedical applications from drug delivery to diagnostic tools. Herein, the rational design of biomimetic DNA-grafted quatsome (QS) nanovesicles capable of translating the binding of a target molecule to amphiphilic DNA probes into an optical output is presented. QSs are synthetic lipid-based nanovesicles able to confine multiple organic dyes at the nanoscale, resulting in ultra-bright soft materials with attractiveness for sensing applications. Dye-loaded QS nanovesicles of different composition and surface charge are grafted with fluorescent amphiphilic nucleic acid-based probes to produce programmable FRET-active nanovesicles that operate as highly sensitive signal transducers. The photophysical properties of the DNA-grafted nanovesicles are characterized and the highly selective, ratiometric detection of clinically relevant microRNAs with sensitivity in the low nanomolar range are demonstrated. The potential applications of responsive QS nanovesicles for biosensing applications but also as functional nanodevices for targeted biomedical applications is envisaged.     

Test and Reliability in Approximate Computing

This paper presents an overview of test and reliability approaches for approximate computing architectures. We focus on how specific methods for test and reliability can be used to improve the characteristics of approximate computing in terms of power consumption, area, life expectancy and precision. This paper does not address specification and design of approximate hardware/software/algorithms, but provides an in-depth knowledge on how the reliability and test related techniques can be efficiently used to maximize the benefits of approximate computing.     

Antimicrobial nanocomposites and electrospun coatings based on poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) and copper oxide nanoparticles for active packaging and coating applications

Active biodegradable poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) melt mixed nanocomposites and bilayer structures containing copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles were developed and characterized. The bilayer structures consisted of a bottom layer of compression molded PHBV3 (3% mol valerate) coated with an active electrospun fibers mat made with CuO nanoparticles and PHBV18 (18% valerate) derived from microbial mixed cultures and cheese whey. The results showed that the water vapor permeability increased with the CuO addition while the oxygen barrier properties were slightly enhanced by the addition of 0.05 wt % CuO nanoparticles to nanocomposite films but a negligible effect was registered for the bilayer structures. However, the mechanical properties were modified by the addition of CuO nanoparticles. Interestingly, by incorporating highly dispersed and distributed CuO nanoparticles in a coating by electrospinning, a lower metal oxide loading was required to exhibit significant bactericidal and virucidal performance against the food‐borne pathogens Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes, and murine norovirus. The biodisintegration tests of the samples under composting conditions showed that even the 0.05% CuO‐coated structures biodegraded within 35 days. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45673.