Pregnancy-Related Extracellular Vesicles Revisited

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small vesicles ranging from 20–200 nm to 10 μm in diameter that are discharged and taken in by many different types of cells. Depending on the nature and quantity of their content—which generally includes proteins, lipids as well as microRNAs (miRNAs), messenger-RNA (mRNA), and DNA—these particles can bring about functional modifications in the receiving cells. During pregnancy, placenta and/or fetal-derived EVs have recently been isolated, eliciting interest in discovering their clinical significance. To date, various studies have associated variations in the circulating levels of maternal and fetal EVs and their contents, with complications including gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, ultimately leading to adverse pregnancy outcomes. Furthermore, EVs have also been identified as messengers and important players in viral infections during pregnancy, as well as in various congenital malformations. Their presence can be detected in the maternal blood from the first trimester and their level increases towards term, thus acting as liquid biopsies that give invaluable insight into the status of the feto-placental unit. However, their exact roles in the metabolic and vascular adaptations associated with physiological and pathological pregnancy is still under investigation. Analyzing peer-reviewed journal articles available in online databases, the purpose of this review is to synthesize current knowledge regarding the utility of quantification of pregnancy related EVs in general and placental EVs in particular as non-invasive evidence of placental dysfunction and adverse pregnancy outcomes, and to develop the current understanding of these particles and their applicability in clinical practice.     

Embedding Ethical Impact Assessment in Nanosafety Decision Support

Nanotechnology is a key enabling technology, which is developing fast and influences many aspects of life. Nanomaterials are already included in a broad range of products and industrial sectors. Nanosafety issues are still a matter of concern for policy makers and stakeholders, but currently, there is no platform where all stakeholders can meet and discuss these issues. A comprehensive overview of all the issues in one single dashboard presenting the output of a decision support system is also lacking. This article outlines a strategy for developing one innovative part of a modular decision support system, designed to support the work of a new Risk Governance Council (RGC) for nanomaterials which will be established through the combined efforts of the GOV4NANO, NANORIGO, and RiskGONE H2020 projects. This new module will consist of guidelines for Ethical Impact Assessment (EIA) for nanomaterials and nanoenabled products. This article offers recommendations for adapting the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) prestandard on Ethical Impact Assessment CWA (CEN Workshop Agreement) 17145‐2:2017 (E), to fit into the more‐encompassing decision support system for risk governance of nanomaterials within the RiskGONE project.     

Risk Governance of Emerging Technologies Demonstrated in Terms of its Applicability to Nanomaterials

Nanotechnologies have reached maturity and market penetration that require nano‐specific changes in legislation and harmonization among legislation domains, such as the amendments to REACH for nanomaterials (NMs) which came into force in 2020. Thus, an assessment of the components and regulatory boundaries of NMs risk governance is timely, alongside related methods and tools, as part of the global efforts to optimise nanosafety and integrate it into product design processes, via Safe(r)‐by‐Design (SbD) concepts. This paper provides an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art regarding risk governance of NMs and lays out the theoretical basis for the development and implementation of an effective, trustworthy and transparent risk governance framework for NMs. The proposed framework enables continuous integration of the evolving state of the science, leverages best practice from contiguous disciplines and facilitates responsive re‐thinking of nanosafety governance to meet future needs. To achieve and operationalise such framework, a science‐based Risk Governance Council (RGC) for NMs is being developed. The framework will provide a toolkit for independent NMs' risk governance and integrates needs and views of stakeholders. An extension of this framework to relevant advanced materials and emerging technologies is also envisaged, in view of future foundations of risk research in Europe and globally.     

Nitrate Esters of Heteroaromatic Compounds as Candida albicans CYP51 Enzyme Inhibitors

Four heteroaromatic compounds bearing nitrate esters were selected using a virtual‐screening procedure as putative sterol 14α‐demethylase (CYP51) Candida albicans inhibitors. Compounds were examined for their inhibition on C. albicans growth and biofilm formation as well as for their toxicity. NMR spectroscopy studies, in silico docking, and molecular dynamics simulations were used to investigate further the selectivity of these compounds to fungal CYP51. All compounds exhibited good antimicrobial properties, indicated with low minimal inhibitory concentrations and ability to inhibit formation of fungal biofilm. Moreover, all of the compounds had the ability to inhibit growth of C. albicans cells. N‐(2‐Nitrooxyethyl)‐1Η‐indole‐2‐carboxamide was the only compound with selectivity on C. albicans CYP51 that did not exhibit cytotoxic effect on cells isolated from liver and should be further investigated for selective application in new leads for the treatment of candidiasis.     

Green optical backbone networks: virtual topology adaptation using a page rank‐based rating system

An energy‐aware virtual topology rating system is proposed in this work, which can be utilized as a tool during the virtual topology reconfiguration procedure in an optical backbone network in order to reduce its energy consumption. It is well known that maintaining a static virtual topology in Internet Protocol (IP)‐over‐Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks is not energy‐efficient. To that end, virtual topology adaptation algorithms have been developed to adjust the virtual topology to the constantly fluctuating traffic load. While these algorithms achieve significant energy savings, further reduction on the total network energy consumption can be achieved through the proposed rating system. The proposed rating system is a modified version of the page rank algorithm, which ranks websites in the Internet based on their importance. The proposed rating system attributes ratings to lightpaths, which indicate the relative significance of a lightpath in the virtual topology in terms of energy consumption. The rating can be used during the routing procedure as an energy efficiency indicator, in order to increase the number of lightpaths that are deactivated from the reconfiguration mechanism and increase the utilization per lightpath. The proposed reconfiguration scheme (page rank‐based virtual topology reconfiguration) achieves up to 12% additional energy savings in comparison to an existing virtual topology reconfiguration algorithm at the cost of slightly increased average hop distance. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Economic model predictive control with time‐varying objective function for nonlinear process systems

Economic model predictive control (EMPC) is a control scheme that combines real‐time dynamic economic process optimization with the feedback properties of model predictive control (MPC) by replacing the quadratic cost function with a general economic cost function. Almost all the recent work on EMPC involves cost functions that are time invariant (do not explicitly account for time‐varying process economics). In the present work, we focus on the development of a Lyapunov‐based EMPC (LEMPC) scheme that is formulated with an explicitly time‐varying economic cost function. First, the formulation of the proposed two‐mode LEMPC is given. Second, closed‐loop stability is proven through a theoretical treatment. Last, we demonstrate through extensive closed‐loop simulations of a chemical process that the proposed LEMPC can achieve stability with time‐varying economic cost as well as improve economic performance of the process over a conventional MPC scheme. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J 60: 507–519, 2014     

Particle Transport and Deposition under High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation and Normal Breathing

The fluid mechanics of high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) for gas transport in the pulmonary region of the human lungs have been thoroughly studied by different methods. The major concept of HFOV adaptation is to push gas into further generation of the bronchial tree, with adequate gas mixing and small tidal volume. However, particle transport and deposition under HFOV is a rarely studied case where different mechanisms, compared to the mechanisms of gas transport, may associate. The target of this study is to numerically compare the efficiency of particle drug deposition under HFOV to normal breathing (NB) and to further clarify the mechanisms of particle transport and deposition under oscillating flows. A fully Eulerian computational fluid particles dynamic (CFPD) model is used for studying the transport and deposition of several sizes of inertia particles, under different transient flow conditions, inside a single physiologically realistic bifurcation created by generations G3–G4 of the human lung. An insight into the particle dynamics under high-frequency oscillating flow fields is given and the results showed that the highly oscillating field (HFOV) displayed stronger secondary flows, thinner boundary layers, and strong counter flow that accumulate and deposit particles further than a lower frequency oscillatory field (NB).

Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Dye-sensitized solar cells based on nanocrystalline titania electrodes made at various sintering temperatures

Dye-sensitized solar cells were made by using nanocrystalline titania deposited on Fluorine-doped SnO2 (FTO) electrodes. Nanocrystalline titania deposition was made by the sol-gel method using reverse micelles of bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT) in cyclohexane as reaction medium. This surfactant could be easily removed from the deposited nanocomposite organic-inorganic film by simple rinsing with distilled water, without affecting titania adherence on FTO electrode. These nanocrystalline titania electrodes were used to make solar cells either without sintering or after sintering at various temperatures. Sintering extensively affected short circuit current but had small effect on device open-circuit voltage. Thus satisfactory photovoltaic response could be obtained even with devices made of non-sintered (room-temperature) titania.     

Use of Ureasil gels to extract ions from aqueous solutions

Nanocomposite organic-inorganic gels synthesized through the sol-gel procedure by using Ureasil precursors can be employed as efficient sorbents for retaining metal cations and small anions from aqueous solutions. Sulfate or sulfonate as well as nitrate ions demonstrate a high affinity for Ureasils. High affinity was also demonstrated by trivalent metal cations. This affinity was explained by the presence of urea and of ether groups in Ureasils, which have the ability to complex many different types of ionic species.     

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

Soft robots actuated by inflation of a pneumatic network (a “pneu‐net”) of small channels in elastomeric materials are appealing for producing sophisticated motions with simple controls. Although current designs of pneu‐nets achieve motion with large amplitudes, they do so relatively slowly (over seconds). This paper describes a new design for pneu‐nets that reduces the amount of gas needed for inflation of the pneu‐net, and thus increases its speed of actuation. A simple actuator can bend from a linear to a quasi‐circular shape in 50 ms when pressurized at ΔP = 345 kPa. At high rates of pressurization, the path along which the actuator bends depends on this rate. When inflated fully, the chambers of this new design experience only one‐tenth the change in volume of that required for the previous design. This small change in volume requires comparably low levels of strain in the material at maximum amplitudes of actuation, and commensurately low rates of fatigue and failure. This actuator can operate over a million cycles without significant degradation of performance. This design for soft robotic actuators combines high rates of actuation with high reliability of the actuator, and opens new areas of application for them.