Achieving the fast oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics at the cathode of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is indispensable to enhance the efficiency of SOFCs at intermediate temperatures. Mixed ionic and electronic conducting (MIEC) oxides such as ABO₃ perovskites and Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) oxides (A₂BO₄) have been widely used as promising cathode materials owing to their attractive physicochemical properties. In particular, oxides in forms of thin films and heterostructures have enabled significant enhancement in the ORR activity. Therefore, we aim to give a comprehensive overview on the recent development of thin film cathodes of SOFCs. We discuss important advances in ABO₃ and RP oxide thin film cathodes for SOFCs. Our attention is also paid to the influence of oxide heterostructure interfaces on the ORR activity of SOFC cathodes. Full article

In order to increase the flood resilience of cities (i.e., the ability to cope with flood hazards), it is also crucial to make critical infrastructure functions resilient, since these are essential for urban society. Cities are complex systems with many actors of different disciplines and many interdependent critical infrastructure networks and functions. Common flood risk analysis techniques provide useful information but are not sufficient to obtain a complete overview of the effects of flooding and potential measures to increase flood resilience related to critical infrastructure networks. Therefore, a more comprehensive approach is needed which helps accessing knowledge of actors in a structured way. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States has suffered from flood impacts, especially from disruptions in critical infrastructure. This paper shows how shared insight among different sectors and stakeholders into critical infrastructure resilience and potential resilience-enhancing measures was obtained using input from these actors. It also provides a first quantitative indication of resilience, indicated by the potential disruption due to floods and the effect of measures on resilience. The paper contributes to the existing literature on resilience specifically by considering the duration of disruption, the inclusion of critical infrastructure disruption in flood impact analysis, and the step from resilience quantification to measures. Full article

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is a human γ-herpesvirus that infects up to 95% of the adult population. Primary EBV infection usually occurs during childhood and is generally asymptomatic, though the virus can cause infectious mononucleosis in 35–50% of the cases when infection occurs later in life. EBV infects mainly B-cells and epithelial cells, establishing latency in resting memory B-cells and possibly also in epithelial cells. EBV is recognized as an oncogenic virus but in immunocompetent hosts, EBV reactivation is controlled by the immune response preventing transformation in vivo. Under immunosuppression, regardless of the cause, the immune system can lose control of EBV replication, which may result in the appearance of neoplasms. The primary malignancies related to EBV are B-cell lymphomas and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which reflects the primary cell targets of viral infection in vivo. Although a number of antivirals were proven to inhibit EBV replication in vitro, they had limited success in the clinic and to date no antiviral drug has been approved for the treatment of EBV infections. We review here the antiviral drugs that have been evaluated in the clinic to treat EBV infections and discuss novel molecules with anti-EBV activity under investigation as well as new strategies to treat EBV-related diseases. Full article

Background: The addition of the adjuvant dexmedetomidine to a nerve block improves the quality of the block and reduces perioperative opioid consumption. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of dexmedetomidine as an adjuvant for the thoracic paravertebral block (TPVB) in postoperative pain control after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Methods: Sixty-six males, aged 15–40 years, with spontaneous pneumothorax scheduled for VATS wedge resection were enrolled. Following surgery, ultrasound-guided TPVB was performed on the T3 and T5 levels with 30 mL of 0.5% ropivacaine, plus adjuvant dexmedetomidine 50 μg or normal saline. The primary outcome was cumulative fentanyl consumption at 24 h. Pain severity, the requirement for additional rescue analgesics, hemodynamic variations, and side effects were also evaluated. Results: Median postoperative cumulative fentanyl consumption at 24 h was significantly lower in the dexmedetomidine group (122.6 (interquartile range (IQR) 94.5–268.0) μg vs. 348.1 (IQR, 192.8–459.2) μg, p-value = 0.001) with a Hodges–Lehman median difference between groups of 86.2 (95% confidence interval (CI), 4.2–156.4) mg. Coughing numeric rating scale (NRS) was lower in the dexmedetomidine group at postoperative 2, 4, 8, and 24 h. However, resting NRS differed significantly only after 4 h postoperative. Conclusions: Dexmedetomidine as an adjunct in TPVB provided effective pain relief and significantly reduced opioid requirement in VATS. Full article

Niemann-Pick disease, type C1 (NPC1) is a rare, autosomal recessive, lipid storage disorder caused by mutations in NPC1. As a result, there is accumulation of unesterified cholesterol and sphingolipids in the late endosomal/lysosomal system. Clinically, patients can present with splenomegaly and hepatomegaly. In the current study, we analyzed the differential proteome of the spleen in symptomatic Npc1^−/− mice to complement previous studies focused on the differential proteome of the liver, and then evaluated biomolecules that may serve as tissue biomarkers. The proteomic analysis revealed altered pathways in NPC1 representing different functional categories including heme synthesis, cellular regulation and phosphoinositide metabolism in both tissues. Differential proteins included several activators of the ubiquitous and critical protein, Akt, a major kinase involved in multiple cellular processes. Evaluation of Akt revealed decreased expression in both the liver and spleen tissues of symptomatic Npc1^−/− mice. Upstream regulation analysis also suggested that miR-155 may modulate the differences of known downstream protein targets observed in our dataset. Upon evaluation of miR-155, we observed an increased expression in the liver and decreased expression in the spleen of symptomatic Npc1^−/− mice. Here, we propose that miR-155 may be a novel indicator of spleen and liver pathology in NPC1. Full article

With the emergence of huge volumes of high-resolution Hyperspectral Images (HSI)
produced by different types of imaging sensors, analyzing and retrieving these images require
effective image description and quantification techniques. Compared to remote sensing RGB images,
HSI data contain hundreds of spectral bands (varying from the visible to the infrared ranges) allowing
profile materials and organisms that only hyperspectral sensors can provide. In this article, we study
the importance of spectral sensitivity functions in constructing discriminative representation of
hyperspectral images. The main goal of such representation is to improve image content recognition
by focusing the processing on only the most relevant spectral channels. The underlying hypothesis
is that for a given category, the content of each image is better extracted through a specific set of
spectral sensitivity functions. Those spectral sensitivity functions are evaluated in a Content-Based
Image Retrieval (CBIR) framework. In this work, we propose a new HSI dataset for the remote
sensing community, specifically designed for Hyperspectral remote sensing retrieval and classification.
Exhaustive experiments have been conducted on this dataset and on a literature dataset. Obtained
retrieval results prove that the physical measurements and optical properties of the scene contained
in the HSI contribute in an accurate image content description than the information provided by the
RGB image presentation. Full article

School lunches contribute significantly to students’ food intake (FI) and are important to their long-term health. Objective quantification of FI is needed in this context. The primary aim of this study was to investigate how much eating rate (g/min), number of food additions, number of spoonfuls, change in fullness, food taste, body mass index (BMI), and sex explain variations in school lunch FI. The secondary aim was to assess the reliability of repeated FI measures. One hundred and three (60 females) students (15–18 years old) were monitored while eating lunch in their normal school canteen environment, following their usual school schedules. A subgroup of students (n = 50) participated in a repeated lunch (~3 months later). Linear regression was used to explain variations in FI. The reliability of repeated FI measurements was assessed by change in mean, coefficient of variation (CV), and intraclass correlation (ICC). The regression model was significant and explained 76.6% of the variation in FI. Eating rate was the strongest explanatory variable, followed by spoonfuls, sex, food additions, food taste, BMI, and change in fullness. All explanatory variables were significant in the model except BMI and change in fullness. No systematic bias was observed in FI (−7.5 g (95% CI = −43.1–28 g)) while individual students changed their FI from −417 to +349 g in the repeated meal (CV 26.1% (95% CI = 21.4–33.5%), ICC 0.74 (95% CI = 0.58–0.84)). The results highlight the importance of objective eating behaviors for explaining FI in a school lunch setting. Furthermore, our methods show promise for large-scale quantification of objectively measured FI and eating behaviors in schools. Full article

The waves on a free surface of 2D deep water can be split into two groups: the waves moving to the right, and the waves moving to the left. A specific feature of the four-wave interactions of water waves allows to describe the evolution of the two groups as a system of two equations. The fundamental consequence of this decomposition is the conservation of the “number of waves” in each particular group. The envelope approximation for the waves in each group of counter streaming waves is obtained. Full article

We selected DNA aptamers to the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) expressed on primary lung cancer cells isolated from the tumors of patients with non-small cell lung cancer using competitive displacement of aptamers from EpCAM by a corresponding antibody. The resulting aptamers clones showed good nanomolar affinity to EpCAM-positive lung cancer cells. Confocal microscopy imaging and spectral profiling of lung cancer tissues confirmed the same protein target for the aptamers and anti-EpCAM antibodies. Furthermore, the resulted aptamers were successfully applied for isolation and detection of circulating tumor cells in clinical samples of peripheral blood of lung cancer patients. Full article

Autophagy is an essential cellular process by which a cell degrades materials within its cytoplasm. Intracellular pathogens like viruses must deal with autophagy, either positively or negatively, for their own survival and replication. For some viruses, autophagy can even play proviral roles, helping their replication or dissemination. For other viruses, including noroviruses, the exact role of autophagy is more complex. This short review seeks to summarize the known interactions between autophagy, autophagy proteins and norovirus, and to address remaining questions relevant to these interactions. Full article

Fuel ethanol is considered to be a clean alternative fuel to meet increasing energy demands and mitigate environmental pollution. Faced with challenges in terms of energy security and environmental pollution, China is vigorously developing fuel ethanol. However, ethanol-manufacturing is a water-intensive industry; it consumes large volumes of fresh water and generates a corresponding amount of waste water. Expansion of this industry can reduce water quality and cause water stress. This study aims to combine the water footprint (WF) with a water pinch analysis technique to manage water consumption and sewage discharge systematically in an ethanol plant. A well-operated cassava ethanol plant in China was chosen as a case study. The WF of industrial ethanol production was evaluated. The total WF was 17.08 L/L ethanol, comprised of a 7.69 L blue water footprint (BWF), and a 9.39 L gray water footprint (GWF). The direct WF was 16.38 L/L ethanol, and the indirect WF was 0.70 L/L ethanol. Thereafter, a water pinch analysis was conducted, and the optimal direct water reuse scheme was studied. After the water network was optimized, the BWF was reduced by 0.98 L/L ethanol, while the GWF was reduced by 1.47 L/L ethanol. These results indicate that the combined use of WF and pinch analysis can provide the starch-based ethanol industry with an effective tool to improve its water management. Full article

Since the early 1970s when “virus-like” agents were considered as the cause of two diseases (potato spindle tuber and citrus exocortis), their study and further characterization have been linked to the development and use of molecular biology tools. Sucrose density gradient centrifugation and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) played a critical role in the pioneering studies of PSTVd and citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd). This was later modified by using other PAGEs (sequential PAGE, return PAGE, two-dimensional PAGE), and/or different staining methods (ethidium bromide, silver nitrate, etc.). Since then, disease-causing agents suspected to be viroids were usually subjected to a number of tests to define their: (i) Molecular nature (RNA or DNA; single stranded or double stranded; circular or linear RNA); (ii) molecular weight; (iii) secondary and tertiary structure. Further biological assays are also essential to establish the relationship of a viroid with plant disease and to fulfill Koch’s postulates. Full article