Paper biodeterioration by fungi has always been a concern in archives, libraries and museums. Several guidelines have been published regarding the prevention of fungal development in paper collections and recovery of affected objects, but what is actually being implemented from the literature by worldwide paper and book conservators? How common is this type of biodeterioration? What needs to be further studied? In order to access this information we conducted an online international questionnaire with participants from 20 different countries. The results show that fungal biodeterioration is highly common in paper collections. All of the respondents already had to deal with paper deteriorated by fungi, and although the vast majority uses active measures to prevent fungal development, most of them have already experienced active fungal infestations. The mainly used preventive measures are the ones concerned with the control of the environmental conditions in storage and display rooms. Drying the affected paper objects and applying 70% ethanol are the most preferred options to stop active fungal growth. The study of non-toxic and safer antifungals is considered here as the most relevant research topic in the area of paper biodeterioration by fungi, meaning that the options currently available are not totally satisfactory.

Monoliths represent powerful platforms for isolation of large molecules with high added value. This work presents a hybrid approach for antibody (Ab) capture and release. Using mostly natural polymers and clean processes, it is possible to create macroporous monoliths with well-defined porous networks, tuneable mechanical properties, and easy functionalization with a biomimetic ligand specific for Ab. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are embedded on the monolith network to confer a controlled magnetic response that facilitates and accelerates Ab recovery in the elution step. The hybrid monolithic systems prepared with agarose or chitosan/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) blends exhibit promising binding capacities of Abs directly from cell-culture extracts (120 ± 10 mg Ab g−1 support) and controlled Ab magnetically-assisted elution yielding 95 ± 2% recovery. Moreover, a selective capture of mAbs directly from cell culture extracts is achieved yielding a final mAb preparation with 96% of purity.

European policy has acknowledged the significance of local and regional communities for the
deployment of new low carbon technologies and their potential for sustainable energy production and use.
Several initiatives and programmes (e.g. Covenant of Mayors) have been set up to engage European cities in the
effort towards a low carbon future. At the same time, there is a critical need to improve comprehensive city
planning driven by an integrated approach and focused on cost benefit assessment towards sustainable energy
use. Hence, innovative tools and models to assess and perform in-depth analysis of the alternative measures
towards efficient energy use, will help pave the way to fully capture the potential of each city in the most
efficient (economically, socially and technically) way.
The InSMART concept brings together four European cities: Évora (Portugal), Cesena (Italy), Nottingham (UK)
and Trikala (Greece), and scientific organizations of these countries, to establish a methodology for enhancing
sustainable planning for city needs through an integrative and multidisciplinary planning approach, aiming to
developing detailed sustainable energy action plans. Such an approach will identify the optimum mix of short,
medium and long term projects and investments, addressing the efficiency of energy flows across various city
sectors with regards to economic, environmental and social criteria and will highlight priority actions.
Tools and models, like Geographic Information System, buildings models (CitySim and EnergyPlus) and
transport-based energy and carbon model, as well as a technological partial equilibrium energy model (TIMES),
are used to analyse, all the relevant sectors (buildings, industries, transports, waste and water management).
Furthermore, the cities buildings stocks are being characterized through an extensive 110-question survey
(around 410 door-to-door interviews) and will be modelled through a typology approach. Four hundred 20-
question surveys are also being carried out to evaluate transport and mobility patterns, supported on travel diaries and fulfilling different quotas for several variables (geographic location, days of the week, age and working
status) in order to assure representativeness of the data collected.
The main differences between rural and urban areas results from the building surveys and high-resolution
electricity consumption from smart meters for the Portuguese city of Évora are highlighted.

CGE (computable general equilibrium) and bottom-up models each have unique strengths and weakness in evaluating energy and climate policies. This paper describes the development of an integrated technological, economic modeling platform (HYBTEP), built through the soft-link between the bottom-up TIMES (The Integrated MARKAL-EFOM system) and the CGE GEM-E3 models. HYBTEP combines cost minimizing energy technology choices with macroeconomic responses, which is essential for energy-climate policy assessment. HYBTEP advances on other hybrid tools by assuming 'full-form' models, integrating detailed and extensive technology data with disaggregated economic structure, and 'full-link', i.e., covering all economic sectors. Using Portugal as a case study, we examine three scenarios: (i) the current energy-climate policy, (ii) a CO2 tax, and (iii) renewable energy subsidy, with the objective of assessing the advantages of HYBTEP vis-à-vis bottom-up approach. Results show that the economic framework in HYBTEP partially offsets the increase or decrease in energy costs from the policy scenarios, while TIMES is very sensitive to energy services-price elasticities, setting a wide range of results. HYBTEP allows the computation of the economic impacts of policies in a technological detailed environment. The hybrid platform increases transparency of policy analysis by making explicit the mechanisms through which energy demand evolves, resulting in high confidence for decision-making. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Laboratory studies were conducted to evaluate the interaction between bare and polymer-coated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) with various environmentally relevant carrying solutions including natural oceanic seawater with and without addition of algal exopolymeric substances (EPS). The MNPs were coated with three different stabilising agents, namely gum Arabic (GA-MNP), dextran (D-MNP) and carboxymethyl-dextran (CMD-MNP). The colloidal stability of the suspensions was evaluated over 48 h and we demonstrated that: (i) hydrodynamic diameters increased over time regardless of carrying solution for all MNPs except the GA-coated ones; however, the relative changes were carrying solution- and coat-dependent; (ii) polydispersity indexes of the freshly suspended MNPs are below 0.5 for all coated MNPs, unlike the much higher values obtained for the uncoated MNPs; (iii) freshly prepared MNP suspensions (both coated and uncoated) in Milli-Q (MQ) water show high colloidal stability as indicated by zeta-potential values below -30 mV, which however decrease in absolute value within 48 h for all MNPs regardless of carrying solution; (iv) EPS seems to "stabilise" the GA-coated and the CMD-coated MNPs, but not the uncoated or the D-coated MNPs, which form larger aggregates within 48 h; (v) despite this aggregation, iron (Fe)-leaching from MNPs is sustained over 48h, but remained within the range of 3-9% of the total iron-content of the initially added MNPs regardless of suspension media and capping agent. The environmental implications of our findings and biotechnological applicability of MNPs are discussed.

The thermal behavior and transport properties of several ion jellys (IJs), a composite that results from the combination of gelatin with an ionic liquid (IL), were investigated by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (PFG NMR). Four different ILs containing the dicyanamide anion were used: 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide (BMIMDCA), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide (EMIMDCA), 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide (BMPyrDCA), and 1-butylpyridinium dicyanamide (BPyDCA); the bulk ILs were also investigated for comparison. A glass transition was detected by DSC for all materials, ILs and IJs, allowing them to be classified as glass formers. Additionally, an increase in the glass transition temperature upon dehydration was observed with a greater extent for IJs, attributed to a greater hindrance imposed by the gelatin matrix after water removal, rendering the IL less mobile. While crystallization is observed for some ILs with negligible water content, it was never detected for any IJ upon thermal cycling, which persist always as fully amorphous materials. From DRS measurements, conductivity and diffusion coefficients for both cations (D+) and anions (D–) were extracted. D+ values obtained by DRS reveal excellent agreement with those obtained from PFG NMR direct measurements, obeying the same VFTH equation over a large temperature range (ΔT ≈ 150 K) within which D+ varies around 10 decades. At temperatures close to room temperature, the IJs exhibit D values comparable to the most hydrated (9%) ILs. The IJ derived from EMIMDCA possesses the highest conductivity and diffusion coefficient, respectively, 10–2 S·cm–1 and 10–10 m2·s–1. For BMPyrDCA the relaxational behavior was analyzed through the complex permittivity and modulus formalism allowing the assignment of the detected secondary relaxation to a Johari–Goldstein process. Besides the relevant information on the more fundamental nature providing physicochemical details on ILs behavior, new doorways are opened for practical applications by using IJ as a strategy to produce novel and stable electrolytes for different electrochemical devices.