Ocean sprawl: challenges and opportunities for biodiversity management in a changing world.

The last few decades have seen rapid proliferation of hard artificial structures (e.g., energy infra-structure, aquaculture, coastal defences) in the marine environment: ocean sprawl. The replacement of natural, often sedimentary, substrata with hard substrata has altered the distribution of species, particularly non-indigenous species, and can facilitate the assisted migration of native species at risk from climate change. This has been likened to urbanization as a driver of global biotic homogenization in the marine environment—the process by which species invasions and extinctions increase the genetic, taxonomic, or functional similarity of communities at local, regional, and global scales. Ecological engineering research showed that small-scale engineering interventions can have a significant positive effect on the biodiversity of artificial structures, promoting more diverse and resilient communities on local scales. This knowledge can be applied to the design of multifunctional structures that provide a range of ecosystem services. In coastal regions, hybrid designs can work with nature to combine hard and soft approaches to coastal defence in a more environmentally sensitive manner. The challenge now is to manage ocean sprawl with the dual goal of supporting human populations and activities, simultaneously strengthening ecosystem resilience using an ecosystem- based approach.

Overview on bio-based building material made with plant aggregate

Global warming, energy savings, and life cycle analysis issues are factors that have contributed to the rapid expansion of plant-based materials for buildings, which can be qualified as environmental-friendly, sustainable and efficient multifunctional materials. This review presents an overview on the several possibilities developed worldwide about the use of plant aggregate to design bio-based building materials. The use of crushed vegetal aggregates such as hemp (shiv), flax, coconut shells and other plants associated to mineral binder represents the most popular solution adopted in the beginning of this revolution in building materials. Vegetal aggregates are generally highly porous with a low apparent density and a complex architecture marked by a multi-scale porosity. These geometrical characteristics result in a high capacity to absorb sounds and have hygro-thermal transfer ability. This is one of the essential characteristics which differ of vegetal concrete compared to the tradition mineral-based concretes. In addition, the high flexibility of the aggregates leads to a non-fragile elasto-plastic behavior and a high deformability under stress, lack of fracturing and marked ductility with absorbance of the strains ever after having reached the maximum mechanical strength. Due to the sensitivity to moisture, the assessment of the durability of vegetal concrete constitutes one of the next scientific challenging of bio-based building materials.

Current status of gene therapy for breast cancer: progress and challenges

Breast cancer is characterized by a series of genetic mutations and is therefore ideally placed for gene therapy intervention. The aim of gene therapy is to deliver a nucleic acid-based drug to either correct or destroy the cells harboring the genetic aberration. More recently, cancer gene therapy has evolved to also encompass delivery of RNA interference technologies, as well as cancer DNA vaccines. However, the bottleneck in creating such nucleic acid pharmaceuticals lies in the delivery. Deliverability of DNA is limited as it is prone to circulating nucleases; therefore, numerous strategies have been employed to aid with biological transport. This review will discuss some of the viral and nonviral approaches to breast cancer gene therapy, and present the findings of clinical trials of these therapies in breast cancer patients. Also detailed are some of the most recent developments in nonviral approaches to targeting in breast cancer gene therapy, including transcriptional control, and the development of recombinant, multifunctional bio-inspired systems. Lastly, DNA vaccines for breast cancer are documented, with comment on requirements for successful pharmaceutical product development.

Delivery of nucleic acids for cancer gene therapy: overcoming extra- and intra-cellular barriers

The therapeutic potential of cancer gene therapy has been limited by the difficulty of delivering genetic material to target sites. Various biological and molecular barriers exist which need to be overcome before effective nonviral delivery systems can be applied successfully in oncology. Herein, various barriers are described and strategies to circumvent such obstacles are discussed, considering both the extracellular and intracellular setting. Development of multifunctional delivery systems holds much promise for the progression of gene delivery, and a growing body of evidence supports this approach involving rational design of vectors, with a unique molecular architecture. In addition, the potential application of composite gene delivery platforms is highlighted which may provide an alternative delivery strategy to traditional systemic administration.

Structural and Electrical Investigation of C 60 –Graphene Vertical Heterostructures

Graphene, with its unique electronic and structural qualities, has become an important playground for studying adsorption and assembly of various materials including organic molecules. Moreover, organic/graphene vertical structures assembled by van der Waals interaction have potential for multifunctional device applications. Here, we investigate structural and electrical properties of vertical heterostructures composed of C60 thin film on graphene. The assembled film structure of C60 on graphene is investigated using transmission electron microscopy, which reveals a uniform morphology of C60 film on graphene with a grain size as large as 500 nm. The strong epitaxial relations between C60 crystal and graphene lattice directions are found, and van der Waals ab initio calculations support the observed phenomena. Moreover, using C60-graphene heterostructures, we fabricate vertical graphene transistors incorporating n-type organic semiconducting materials with an on/off ratio above 3 × 10(3). Our work demonstrates that graphene can serve as an excellent substrate for assembly of molecules, and attained organic/graphene heterostructures have great potential for electronics applications.

Radiopacity and Chemical resistance of Elastomer-Barium sulphate nanocomposites

The Human race of our century is in gluttonous search for novel engineering products which led to a skyrocketed progress in research and fabrication of filled polymers. Recently, a big window has been opened up for speciality polymers especially elastomers with promising properties. Among the many reasons why rubbers are widely used in the process industries, three are considered as important. Firstly, rubbers operate in a variety of environments and possess usable ranges of deformity and durability and can be exploited through suitable and more or less conventional equipment design principles. Secondly, rubber is an eminently suitable construction material for protection against corrosion in the chemical plant and equipment against various corrosive chemicals as, acids and alkalies and if property tailored, can shield ionising radiations as X-rays and gamma rays in medical industry, with minimum maintenance lower down time, negligible corrosion and a preferred choice for aggressive corroding and ionising environment. Thirdly, rubber can readily and hastily, and at a relatively lower cost, be converted into serviceable products, having intricate shapes and dimensions. In a century’s gap, large employment of flexible polymer materials in the different segments of industry has stimulated the development of new materials with special properties, which paved its way to the synthesis of various nanoscale materials. At nano scale, one makes an entry into a world where multidisciplinary sciences meet and utilises the previously unapproached infinitesimal length scale, having dimension which measure upto one billionth of a meter, to create novel properties. The nano fillers augment the elastomers properties in an astonishing fashion due to their multifunctional nature and unprecedented properties have been exhibited by these polymer-nanocomposites just to beat the shortcomings of traditional micro composites. The current research aims to investigate the possibility of using synthesised nano barium sulphate for fabricating elastomer-based nanocomposites and thereby imparting several properties to the rubber. In this thesis, nano materials, their synthesis, structure, properties and applications are studied. The properties of barium sulphate like chemical resistance and radiopacity have been utilized in the present study and is imparted to the elastomers by preparing composites.

Development of a Wireless MEMS Multifunction Sensor System and Field Demonstration of Embedded Sensors for Monitoring Concrete Pavements, TR-637, 2016

Pavements tend to deteriorate with time under repeated traffic and/or environmental loading. By detecting pavement distresses and damage early enough, it is possible for transportation agencies to develop more effective pavement maintenance and rehabilitation programs and thereby achieve significant cost and time savings. The structural health monitoring (SHM) concept can be considered as a systematic method for assessing the structural state of pavement infrastructure systems and documenting their condition. Over the past several years, this process has traditionally been accomplished through the use of wired sensors embedded in bridge and highway pavement. However, the use of wired sensors has limitations for long-term SHM and presents other associated cost and safety concerns. Recently, micro-electromechanical sensors and systems (MEMS) and nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) have emerged as advanced/smart-sensing technologies with potential for cost-effective and long-term SHM. This two-pronged study evaluated the performance of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) MEMS sensors embedded in concrete pavement (Final Report Volume I) and developed a wireless MEMS multifunctional sensor system for health monitoring of concrete pavement (Final Report Volume II).

Books for asset management in hospitals in Seville.

Hospitals from ancient Seville had an important heritage for survival of the institution and its patients. In order to keep this heritage, the officialdom settled down several control mechanisms that would serve to manage a profitable management of their income and rights. For this purpose, they developed devising instruments able to preserve their possessions and put them into operation. This article attempts to identify the defining elements of these books, called “protocolos de bienes” (protocols goods), indicating their characteristics and evolution from archaic models until the final form. This final form was reached late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, at which time devoted use main codex of hospitality. To do this, we used the documentary collec-tions of Seville, preserved in different archives of the city, from where they have taken several significant examples showing the changes that occurred in both its internal structure and its mate-rials manufacturing, underlining the participation of official, booksellers, illuminators and calligraphers. Similarly, it has high-lighted the multifaceted and multifunctional character of this ins-titutions that became also a corporate identity. The multiplicity of hospitals in Sevilla had different types and features of protocols, which were modificated according to the different needs of each institution.

#srynotfunny : Communicative functions of hashtags on Twitter

This study investigates various communicative functions served by hashtags in written communication on Twitter from a linguistic pragmatic perspective. A tweet containing a hashtag links to, and is integrated into, a timeline of other tweets containing the same hashtag. Thus, hashtags are by default categorizing or organizing; a user of Twitter may add the tag #food to their tweet to integrate it into a general conversation about this topic. However, this study demonstrates that hashtags are also used creatively to perform other communicative functions. In the data presented, hashtags are employed as complexly multifunctional linguistic devices for, among other things, structuring information, playing games, and engaging in reflexive meta-commentary. Notably, while pragmatic methodology is typically applied to speech, this study indicates that a traditional speech acts framework may be profitably applied to written communication in new media.

Molecular cloning and expression of leptin in gray and harbor seal blubber, bone marrow, and lung and its potential role in marine mammal respiratory physiology

Leptin is a multifunctional hormone, produced predominantly in adipocytes. It regulates energy balance through its impact on appetite and fat metabolism, and its concentration indicates the size of body fat reserves. Leptin also plays a vital role in stretch-induced surfactant production during alveolar development in the fetus. The structure, expression pattern, and role of leptin have not previously been explored in marine mammals. Phocid seals undergo cyclical changes in body composition as a result of prolonged fasting and intensive foraging bouts and experience rapid, dramatic, and repeated changes in lung volume during diving. Here, we report the tissue-specific expression pattern of leptin in these animals. This is the first demonstration of leptin expression in the lung tissue of a mature mammal, in addition to its expression in the blubber and bone marrow, in common with other animals. We propose a role for leptin in seal pulmonary surfactant production, in addition to its likely role in long-term energy balance. We identify substitutions in the phocine leptin sequence in regions normally highly conserved between widely distinct vertebrate groups, and, using a purified seal leptin antiserum, we confirm the presence of the leptin protein in gray seal lung and serum fractions. Finally, we report the substantial inadequacies of using heterologous antibodies to measure leptin in unextracted gray seal serum.

La enseñanza por competencias

La enseñanza por competencias, de manera semejante con el conjunto de actividades académicas que realizan los centros de educación superior, poseen una compleja estructura de atributos, tales como: conocimientos, actitudes, valores y habilidades. Bajo estas consideraciones, entendemos que los docentes de las universidades deberían de orientar entre otras, sus preocupaciones académicas, para impulsar el cambio de enfoque educativo que viabilice la construcción de puentes, para modificar favorablemente el desfase existente entre lo que demanda el sector productivo y la práctica cotidiana en los salones de clase de las universidades. Las universidades como entes responsables de la formación profesional de los(as) ciudadanos(as) de la sociedad, deben velar por coadyuvar a insertar al mercado laboral a sus graduados con una mentalidad flexible, dinámica, creativos, y con visión de futuros conocedores de las realidades de mercado, con una formación integral, plurifuncionales y versados en las herramientas tecnológicas de punta, con el propósito que sean competentes en sus labores específicas. Abstract Teaching through competencies as well as the academic activities carried out in universities, has complex structures as attributes such as: knowledge, values, and abilities. Based on this consideration, we understand that university professors should guide their academic interest towards a change on the teaching approach, allowing the building of bridges that can positively modify the existing gap between the demands of the productive sector on the current practice in the university classroom. The Universities are responsible for the professional education of the members of society and should watch over to help introduce graduates in the labor market. These graduates should characterized by a flexible, dynamic, and creative mind, capable of future projections, as acquainted with the characteristics of the real market, with a well rounded formation, multifunctional and versed in the leading technological tools; so they can be competent on their specific tasks.

Bioanalytical applications of microfluidic devices

The first part of the thesis describes a new patterning technique--microfluidic contact printing--that combines several of the desirable aspects of microcontact printing and microfluidic patterning and addresses some of their important limitations through the integration of a track-etched polycarbonate (PCTE) membrane. Using this technique, biomolecules (e.g., peptides, polysaccharides, and proteins) were printed in high fidelity on a receptor modified polyacrylamide hydrogel substrate. The patterns obtained can be controlled through modifications of channel design and secondary programming via selective membrane wetting. The protocols support the printing of multiple reagents without registration steps and fast recycle times. The second part describes a non-enzymatic, isothermal method to discriminate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). SNP discrimination using alkaline dehybridization has long been neglected because the pH range in which thermodynamic discrimination can be done is quite narrow. We found, however, that SNPs can be discriminated by the kinetic differences exhibited in the dehybridization of PM and MM DNA duplexes in an alkaline solution using fluorescence microscopy. We combined this method with multifunctional encoded hydrogel particle array (fabricated by stop-flow lithography) to achieve fast kinetics and high versatility. This approach may serve as an effective alternative to temperature-based method for analyzing unamplified genomic DNA in point-of-care diagnostic.

Interference lithography for optical devices and coatings

Interference lithography can create large-area, defect-free nanostructures with unique optical properties. In this thesis, interference lithography will be utilized to create photonic crystals for functional devices or coatings. For instance, typical lithographic processing techniques were used to create 1, 2 and 3 dimensional photonic crystals in SU8 photoresist. These structures were in-filled with birefringent liquid crystal to make active devices, and the orientation of the liquid crystal directors within the SU8 matrix was studied. Most of this thesis will be focused on utilizing polymerization induced phase separation as a single-step method for fabrication by interference lithography. For example, layered polymer/nanoparticle composites have been created through the one-step two-beam interference lithographic exposure of a dispersion of 25 and 50 nm silica particles within a photopolymerizable mixture at a wavelength of 532 nm. In the areas of constructive interference, the monomer begins to polymerize via a free-radical process and concurrently the nanoparticles move into the regions of destructive interference. The holographic exposure of the particles within the monomer resin offers a single-step method to anisotropically structure the nanoconstituents within a composite. A one-step holographic exposure was also used to fabricate self- healing coatings that use water from the environment to catalyze polymerization. Polymerization induced phase separation was used to sequester an isocyanate monomer within an acrylate matrix. Due to the periodic modulation of the index of refraction between the monomer and polymer, the coating can reflect a desired wavelength, allowing for tunable coloration. When the coating is scratched, polymerization of the liquid isocyanate is catalyzed by moisture in air; if the indices of the two polymers are matched, the coatings turn transparent after healing. Interference lithography offers a method of creating multifunctional self-healing coatings that readout when damage has occurred.

Synteza, modyfikacja powierzchni i charakterystyka fizykochemiczna wielofunkcyjnych nanomateriałów luminescencyjnych zawierających jony pierwiastków ziem rzadkich

Wydział Chemii: Zakład Ziem Rzadkich

Challenges for a shared European countryside of uncertain future. Towards a modern community based landscape perspective

This paper addresses current changes in the highly diverse European landscape, and the way these transitions are being treated in policy and landscape management in the fragmented, heterogeneous and dynamic context of today’s Europe. It appears that intersecting driving forces are increasing the complexity of European landscapes and causing polarising developments in agricultural land use, biodiversity conservation and cultural landscape management. On the one hand, multifunctional rural landscapes, especially in peri-urban regions, provide services and functions that serve the citizens in their demand for identity, support their sense of belonging and offer opportunities for recreation and involvement in practical landscape management. On the other hand, industrial agricultural production on increasingly large farms produces food, feed, fibre and energy to serve expanding international markets with rural live ability and accessibility as a minor issue. The intermediate areas of traditionally dominant small and family farms in Europe seem to be gradually declining in profitability. The paper discusses the potential of a governance approach that can cope with the requirement of optimising land-sharing conditions and community-based landscape development, while adapting to global market conditions.