LPMO-Catalyzed Oxidation of Cellulosic Fibers with Controlled Addition of a Reductant and HO.

Cellulose-derived biomaterials offer a sustainable and versatile platform for various applications. Enzymatic engineering of these fibers, particularly using lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs), shows promise due to the ability to introduce functional groups onto cellulose surfaces, potentially enabling further functionalization. However, harnessing LPMOs for fiber engineering remains challenging, partly because controlling the enzymatic reaction is difficult and partly because limited information is available about how LPMOs modify the fibers.

Monitoring of indoor air quality at a large sailing cruise ship to assess ventilation performance and disease transmission risk.

Large passenger ships are characterised as enclosed and crowded indoor spaces with frequent interactions between travellers, providing conditions that facilitate disease transmission. This study aims to provide an indoor ship CO dataset for inferring thermal comfort, ventilation and infectious disease transmission risk evaluation. Indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring was conducted in nine environments (three cabins, buffet, gym, bar, restaurant, pub and theatre), on board a cruise ship voyaging across the UK and EU, with the study conducted in the framework of the EU HEALTHY SAILING project.

Identification of waste lithium-ion battery cell chemistry for recycling.

Battery technology has attained a key position as an energy storage technology in decarbonization of energy systems. Lithium-ion batteries have become the dominant technology currently used in consumer appliances, electric vehicles (EVs), and industrial applications. However, lithium-ion batteries are not alike and can have different cathode chemistries which makes their recycling more complex.

Enhancing photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide generation by tuning hydrazone linkage density in covalent organic frameworks.

The conversion of solar energy into chemical energy or high-value chemicals has attracted considerable research interest in the context of the global energy crisis. Hydrogen peroxide (HO) is a versatile and powerful oxidizing agent widely used in chemical synthesis and medical disinfection. HO also serves as a clean energy source in fuel cells, generating electricity with zero-carbon emissions.

Microbial production of food lipids using the oleaginous yeast Apiotrichum brassicae.

Oleaginous yeasts offer a promising sustainable alternative for producing edible lipids, potentially replacing animal and unsustainable plant fats and oils. In this study, we screened 11 oleaginous yeast species for their lipid profiles and identified Apiotrichum brassicae as the most promising candidate due to its versatility across different growth media. A.

Biological contaminants analysis in microalgae culture by UV-vis spectroscopy and machine learning.

This study elucidates the utility and efficacy of UV-visible spectroscopy for the detection and characterization of biological contaminants within microalgae cultures, augmented by machine learning algorithms. Biological contamination, exemplified by flagellates and rotifers, poses a significant concern due to its potential to rapidly devastate entire cultures, thus jeopardizing commercial viability. Conventional analytical methods for monitoring contamination, such as microscopy and cytometry, are often labor-intensive, reliant on specialized expertise for microorganism identification, and may lack specificity in discerning the nature of contamination, impeding timely intervention.

Examining the effect of personality on user acceptance of conditionally automated vehicles.

Automated vehicle acceptance (AVA) research has grown substantially in the past few years. There is a paucity of research on the role of the big five personality traits on attitudes towards automated vehicles (AVs) and AVA. This is a critical shortcoming given that personality is considered a critical factor explaining technology adoption.

Voice Analysis in Dogs with Deep Learning: Development of a Fully Automatic Voice Analysis System for Bioacoustics Studies.

Extracting behavioral information from animal sounds has long been a focus of research in bioacoustics, as sound-derived data are crucial for understanding animal behavior and environmental interactions. Traditional methods, which involve manual review of extensive recordings, pose significant challenges. This study proposes an automated system for detecting and classifying animal vocalizations, enhancing efficiency in behavior analysis.

Association of real life postural transitions kinematics with fatigue in neurodegenerative and immune diseases.

Fatigue is prevalent in immune-mediated inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, yet its assessment relies largely on patient-reported outcomes, which capture perception but not fluctuations over time. Wearable sensors, like inertial measurement units (IMUs), offer a way to monitor daily activities and evaluate functional capacity. This study investigates the relationship between sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions and self-reported physical and mental fatigue in participants with Parkinson's, Huntington's, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, primary Sjögren's syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.

An electrochemical sensor integrated lab-on-a-CD system for phenylketonuria diagnostics.

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is characterized by an autosomal recessive mutation in the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene. Impaired PAH enzyme activity leads to the accumulation of phenylalanine (Phe) and its metabolites in the bloodstream, which disrupts the central nervous system and causes psychomotor retardation. Early diagnosis of PKU is essential for timely intervention.

Microtubule-Targeting NAP Peptide-Ru(II)-polypyridyl Conjugate As a Bimodal Therapeutic Agent for Triple Negative Breast Carcinoma.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) poses significant treatment challenges due to its high metastasis, heterogeneity, and poor biomarker expression. The N-terminus of an octapeptide NAPVSIPQ () was covalently coupled to a carboxylic acid derivative of Ru(2,2'-bipy) () to synthesize an N-stapled short peptide-Rubpy conjugate (). This photosensitizer (PS) was utilized to treat TNBC through microtubule (MT) targeted chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy (PDT).

H-driven xylitol production in Cupriavidus necator H16.

Background: Biocatalysis offers a potentially greener alternative to chemical processes. For biocatalytic systems requiring cofactor recycling, hydrogen emerges as an attractive reducing agent. Hydrogen is attractive because all the electrons can be fully transferred to the product, and it can be efficiently produced from water using renewable electricity.

Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy Analysis of Radiocarbon from Nuclear Waste Materials.

Radiocarbon analysis of nuclear waste produced in nuclear facilities lacks fast, in situ detection methods. Moreover, the amount of radiocarbon desorbing from graphitic waste is not well known. In this study, we demonstrate the use of mid-infrared cavity ring-down spectroscopy combined with an automatic sample processing unit as a method to examine radiocarbon concentration in three types of nuclear waste: spent ion-exchange resin, graphite, and graphite outgassing in sealed storage crates.

Portable emissions toxicity system: Evaluating the toxicity of emissions or polluted air by exposure of cell cultures at air-liquid interface in a compact field-deployable setup.

Exposure of cell cultures at air-liquid interface (ALI), mimicking i.e. human lung surface, is believed to be one of the most realistic means to model toxicity of complex mixtures of pollutants on human health.

A ferroelectric helical polymer.

This communication introduces helical polyacetylene (P1) with an appended acceptor (A)-donor (D)-acceptor (A) conjugated chromophore as a promising ferroelectric candidate. The helical conformation of P1 leads to a highly stable chiral assembly of the appended ADA chromophores. This results in prominent ferroelectricity as evident from the superior hysteresis loop at room temperature, exhibiting a saturation polarization () value ∼2 μC cm and remanent polarization () value ∼1.

MIBiG 4.0: advancing biosynthetic gene cluster curation through global collaboration.

Specialized or secondary metabolites are small molecules of biological origin, often showing potent biological activities with applications in agriculture, engineering and medicine. Usually, the biosynthesis of these natural products is governed by sets of co-regulated and physically clustered genes known as biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). To share information about BGCs in a standardized and machine-readable way, the Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG) data standard and repository was initiated in 2015.

Covalent Organic Frameworks for Photocatalysis.

The global energy crisis and environmental concerns are driving research into renewable energy and sustainable energy conversion and storage technologies. Solar energy, as an ideal sustainable resource, has significant potential to contribute to the goal of net-zero carbon emissions if effectively harnessed and converted into a reliable and storable form of energy. Photocatalysts have the potential to convert sunlight into chemical energy carriers.

The distribution of valuable metals in gasification of metal-containing residues from mechanical recycling of end-of-life vehicles and electronic waste.

In the recycling of metal-containing wastes such as end-of-life vehicles (ELV), residues are generated in the mechanical pre-treatment stage. Beside organics which is the main part of the residues, they also contain metals that physical separation has not been able to separate. As the current treatment of residues is disposal through thermal processing, the process is not optimized from the point of view of metal's recovery.

Surface plasmon polariton-enhanced upconversion luminescence for biosensing applications.

Upconversion luminescence (UCL) has great potential for highly sensitive biosensing due to its unique wavelength shift properties. The main limitation of UCL is its low quantum efficiency, which is typically compensated using low-noise detectors and high-intensity excitation. In this work, we demonstrate surface plasmon polariton (SPP)-enhanced UCL for biosensing applications.

Facile and versatile PDMS-glass capillary double emulsion formation device coupled with rapid purification toward microfluidic giant liposome generation.

The exceptional ability of liposomes to mimic a cellular lipid membrane makes them invaluable tools in biomembrane studies and bottom-up synthetic biology. Microfluidics provides a promising toolkit for creating giant liposomes in a controlled manner. Nevertheless, challenges associated with the microfluidic formation of double emulsions, as precursors to giant liposomes, limit the full exploration of this potential.

Perspectives of Clients and Health Care Professionals on the Opportunities for Digital Health Interventions in Cerebrovascular Disease Care: Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Background: Cerebrovascular diseases (CVDs) are a major and potentially increasing burden to public health. Digital health interventions (DHIs) could support access to and provision of high-quality health care (eg, outcomes, safety, and satisfaction), but the design and development of digital solutions and technologies lack the assessment of user needs. Research is needed to identify opportunities to address health system challenges and improve CVD care with primary users of services as the key informants of everyday requirements.

Understanding the correlation between source and chiral, physichochemical properties of chitin nanocrystals; insights from beetle (Cetonia aurata) skeletal segments.

Chitin properties are known to vary depending on animal taxa, organismal source, and specific skeletal segments; However, the influence of these source-dependent variations on the physicochemical characteristics of chitin nanocrystals, particularly their Bouligand architecture, remains largely unexplored. Herein, chitin nanocrystals were isolated from seven different skeletal segments of C. aurata and characterized.

Deep Learning-Based Classification of Macrofungi: Comparative Analysis of Advanced Models for Accurate Fungi Identification.

This study focuses on the classification of six different macrofungi species using advanced deep learning techniques. Fungi species, such as , , , , and were chosen based on their ecological importance and distinct morphological characteristics. The research employed 5 different machine learning techniques and 12 deep learning models, including DenseNet121, MobileNetV2, ConvNeXt, EfficientNet, and swin transformers, to evaluate their performance in identifying fungi from images.

Unravelling the bread-making functionality of gluten-rich sub-aleurone flour obtained by dry fractionation of wheat miller's bran.

The residual endosperm of wheat miller's bran is rich in gluten proteins due to the presence of protein-rich sub-aleurone cells. Here, the goal was to gain insight into the bread-making functionality of sub-aleurone gluten-enriched fractions obtained through dry fractionation of miller's bran and the inherent bread-making functionality of sub-aleurone gluten. Therefore, two sub-aleurone gluten-enriched fractions (Sub-al and Sub-al), differing in particle size distribution and chemical composition, were prepared from miller's bran using impact milling, sieving, and air classification.

Deriving Chiroptical Properties from Intrinsically Achiral Building Blocks of One-Dimensional CsPbBr Perovskite Nanowires.

Chirality is a ubiquitous feature in biological systems and occurs even in certain inorganic crystals. Interestingly, some inorganic nanocrystals have been shown to possess chirality, despite their achiral bulk forms. However, the mechanism of chirality formation and chiroptical responses in such nanocrystals is still ambiguous due to the presence of chiral organic ligands used to passivate such nanocrystals.