In Europe, the technology development of high-speed trains is increasingly exposed to societal needs, driven by ICT advancements, external to traditional design. Together with the liberalisation of the rail markets and increase pressures from other transport modes leads to an unprecedented situation where planers, operators and suppliers of high-speed have to take decision in this complex and competitive environment.
In such broadening of elements influencing design and, thus, product development process, from the survey here to be presented, it was not observed technology options assessment or strategic agenda setting from visions shifting in the same way.
For the high-speed train industry this new trend requires going beyond the visions of the past 15 to 20 years’ practices of “sector endogenous” and structurally closed strategic methods approaches to a broader interaction with the widening of societal actors now capable of being active contributors to innovation from digitalization.
This way to understand the European industry readiness for undertaking such supra systemic challenge, this paper presents the results from a survey conducted by the authors to 74 representatives of the high-speed train innovation chain regarding to which extent societal embedding is considered in the drafting of their visions and technology development projects.
This work becomes even more pertinent if considered that the debate is now open in the railway industry (not exclusive to high-speed trains) as they are launching the joint initiative SHIFT2RAIL, revise ERRAC (the European Rail Research Advisory Council) mandate and enter in a new research cycle with the European research framework Horizon 2020.

In Europe, the technology development of high-speed trains is increasingly exposed to societal needs, driven by ICT advancements, external to traditional design. Together with the liberalisation of the rail markets and increase pressures from other transport modes leads to an unprecedented situation where planers, operators and suppliers of high-speed have to take decision in this complex and competitive environment.
In such broadening of elements influencing design and, thus, product development process, from the survey here to be presented, it was not observed technology options assessment or strategic agenda setting from visions shifting in the same way.
For the high-speed train industry this new trend requires going beyond the visions of the past 15 to 20 years’ practices of “sector endogenous” and structurally closed strategic methods approaches to a broader interaction with the widening of societal actors now capable of being active contributors to innovation from digitalization.
This way to understand the European industry readiness for undertaking such supra systemic challenge, this paper presents the results from a survey conducted by the authors to 74 representatives of the high-speed train innovation chain regarding to which extent societal embedding is considered in the drafting of their visions and technology development projects.
This work becomes even more pertinent if considered that the debate is now open in the railway industry (not exclusive to high-speed trains) as they are launching the joint initiative SHIFT2RAIL, revise ERRAC (the European Rail Research Advisory Council) mandate and enter in a new research cycle with the European research framework Horizon 2020.

Pullulan, a neutral polysaccharide, was chemically modified in order to obtain two charged derivatives: reaction with SO3.DMF complex afforded a sulfate derivative (SP), while reaction with glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride gave a quaternary ammonium salt (AP). The presence of the charged groups was confirmed by FTIR. Assessment of the positions where the reaction took place was based on 1H- and 13C NMR (COSY, HSQC-TOCSY, HSQC-DEPT, and HMBC) experiments. Estimation of the degree of substitution (DS) was made from elemental analysis data, and further confirmed by NMR peak areas in the case of AP. These new derivatives showed the capability to condense with each other, forming nanoparticles with the ability to associate a model protein (BSA) and displaying adequate size for drug delivery applications, therefore making them good candidates for the production of pullulan-based nanocarriers by polyelectrolyte complexation.

In the present work, two drug delivery systems were produced by encapsulating doxorubicin into chitosan and O-HTCC (ammonium-quaternary derivative of chitosan) nanoparticles. The results show that doxorubicin release is independent of the molecular weight and is higher at acidic pH (4.5) than at physiological pH. NPs with an average hydrodynamic diameter bellow 200 nm are able to encapsulate up to 70% and 50% of doxorubicin in the case of chitosan and O-HTCC nanoparticles, respectively. O-HTCC nanoparticles led to a higher amount of doxorubicin released than chitosan nanoparticles, for the same experimental conditions, although the release mechanism was not altered. A burst effect occurs within the first hours of release, reaching a plateau after 24 h. Fitting mathematical models to the experimental data led to a concordant release mechanism between most samples, indicating an anomalous or mixed release, which is in agreement with the swelling behavior of chitosan described in the literature.

In the present work, two drug delivery systems were produced by encapsulating doxorubicin into chitosan and O-HTCC (ammonium-quaternary derivative of chitosan) nanoparticles. The results show that doxorubicin release is independent of the molecular weight and is higher at acidic pH (4.5) than at physiological pH. NPs with an average hydrodynamic diameter bellow 200 nm are able to encapsulate up to 70% and 50% of doxorubicin in the case of chitosan and O-HTCC nanoparticles, respectively. O-HTCC nanoparticles led to a higher amount of doxorubicin released than chitosan nanoparticles, for the same experimental conditions, although the release mechanism was not altered. A burst effect occurs within the first hours of release, reaching a plateau after 24 h. Fitting mathematical models to the experimental data led to a concordant release mechanism between most samples, indicating an anomalous or mixed release, which is in agreement with the swelling behavior of chitosan described in the literature.

Gold nanoparticles functionalized with thiolated oligonucleotides (Au-nanoprobes) have been used in a range of applications for the detection of bioanalytes of interest, from ions to proteins and DNA targets. These detection strategies are based on the unique optical properties of gold nanoparticles, in particular, the intense color that is subject to modulation by modification of the medium dieletric. Au-nanoprobes have been applied for the detection and characterization of specific DNA sequences of interest, namely pathogens and disease biomarkers. Nevertheless, despite its relevance, only a few reports exist on the detection of RNA targets. Among these strategies, the colorimetric detection of DNA has been proven to work for several different targets in controlled samples but demonstration in real clinical bioanalysis has been elusive. Here, we used a colorimetric method based on Au-nanoprobes for the direct detection of the e14a2 BCR-ABL fusion transcript in myeloid leukemia patient samples without the need for retro-transcription. Au-nanoprobes directly assessed total RNA from 38 clinical samples, and results were validated against reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nested PCR) and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The colorimetric Au-nanoprobe assay is a simple yet reliable strategy to scrutinize myeloid leukemia patients at diagnosis and evaluate progression, with obvious advantages in terms of time and cost, particularly in low- to medium-income countries where molecular screening is not routinely feasible.

The strategy of confining stimuli-responsive microgels in electrospun fibres would allow the fabrication of polymeric networks that combine the microgels swelling ability and properties with the interest features of the electrospun fibres. Colloidal electrospinning is an emerging method in which fibres containing microgels can be produced by a single-nozzle and designed through the solution carrier materials. The incorporation of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAM) and PNIPAAM-chitosan (PNIPAAM-CS) in poly(ethyleneoxyde) (PEO) fibres via colloidal electrospinning producing composite fibres was the main purpose of the present work{,} which was confirmed by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Dynamic light scattering was used to analyse the microgels hydrodynamic diameter ranging up to 900 nm depending on the composition and temperature of the surrounding medium. By performing a statistical analysis the relationship of the processing variables over the fibre size was evaluated following the response surface methodology (RSM). From the set of parameters aimed to minimize the fibre diameter{,} composite fibres with an average diameter of 63 nm were produced. Only the as-prepared microgels with higher monodispersity provided {"}bead-on-a-string{"} morphologies.

Nearly 1.5 million people worldwide suffer from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), characterized by the genetic translocation t(9;22)(q34;q11.2), involving the fusion of the Abelson oncogene (ABL1) with the breakpoint cluster region (BCR) gene. Early onset diagnosis coupled to current therapeutics allow for a treatment success rate of 90, which has focused research on the development of novel diagnostics approaches. In this review, we present a critical perspective on current strategies for CML diagnostics, comparing to gold standard methodologies and with an eye on the future trends on nanotheranostics.

The interaction of light with wavelength-sized photonic nanostructures is highly promising for light management applied to thin-film photovoltaics. Several light trapping effects come into play in the wave optics regime of such structures that crucially depend on the parameters of the photonic and absorbing elements. Thus, multi-parameter optimizations employing exact numerical models, as performed in this work, are essential to determine the maximum photocurrent enhancement that can be produced in solar cells.

Generalized spheroidal geometries and high-index dielectric materials are considered here to model the design of the optical elements providing broadband absorption enhancement in planar silicon solar cells. The physical mechanisms responsible for such enhancement are schematized in a spectral diagram, providing a deeper understanding of the advantageous characteristics of the optimized geometries. The best structures, composed of TiO2 half-spheroids patterned on the cells' top surface, yield two times higher photocurrent (up to 32.5 mA/cm2 in 1.5 µm thick silicon layer) than the same devices without photonic schemes.

These results set the state-of-the-art closer to the theoretical Lambertian limit. In addition, the considered light trapping designs are not affected by the traditional compromise between absorption enhancement versus current degradation by recombination, which is a key technological advantage.

This paper describes improvements to the Nondestructive Testing (NDT) technique recently proposed, based on the use of bacterial cell suspensions to identify micro- and nano-surface defects. New bacterial strains were used with magnetic fields to improve bacteria mobility. Different materials and defect morphologies were tested, including nanoindentation defects, micro-powder injection moulding components and micro-laser welding. Nanoindentations with 0.6 µm depth and 5.3 µm side length were successfully detected. Bacterial cells allow identifying different topographic attributes of the surfaces, such as roughness. Cracks of about 0.5 µm wide and 10 µm depth in a reference test block Type 1 were successfully detected.

In the field of cellulosic liquid crystals, attempts to establish the relationship between structure/properties have been developed. Above a critical concentration in an aqueous solution, hydroxypropylcellulose self-assembles in order to form cholesteric liquid crystal phases (LC-HPC). In this work we aim to understand how the incorporation of a low content of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) within LC-HPC/H2O (50 wt%), could influence the behaviour of the system when subjected to low shear rates, where the cholesteric phase still persists. The analysis of the deuterium spectrum and the T2 (transversal relaxation) values confirm that the mobility of LC-HPC at low shear rates is restricted due to CNC, and consequently so is the flow of the cholesteric polydomains. These effects are more evident in the LC-HPC sample containing 2 wt% of CNC; besides needing more strain units to induce some degree of order, the achieved degree of order is recovered faster when compared to the reference sample.

The remarkable physicochemical properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have prompted developments in the exploration of biomolecular interactions with AuNP-containing systems, in particular for biomedical applications in diagnostics. These systems show great promise in improving sensitivity, ease of operation and portability. Despite this endeavor, most platforms have yet to reach maturity and make their way into clinics or points of care (POC). Here, we present an overview of emerging and available molecular diagnostics using AuNPs for biomedical sensing that are currently being translated to the clinical setting.