The bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens displays an extraordinary respiratory versatility underpinning the diversity of electron donors and acceptors that can be used to sustain anaerobic growth. Remarkably, G. sulfurreducens can also use as electron donors the reduced forms of some acceptors, such as the humic substance analog anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDS), a feature that confers environmentally competitive advantages to the organism. Using UV-visible and stopped-flow kinetic measurements we demonstrate that there is electron exchange between the triheme cytochrome PpcA from Gs and AQDS. 2D-(1)H-(15)N HSQC NMR spectra were recorded for (15)N-enriched PpcA samples, in the absence and presence of AQDS. Chemical shift perturbation measurements, at increasing concentration of AQDS, were used to probe the interaction region and to measure the binding affinity of the PpcA-AQDS complex. The perturbations on the NMR signals corresponding to the PpcA backbone NH and heme substituents showed that the region around heme IV interacts with AQDS through the formation of a complex with a definite life time in the NMR time scale. The comparison of the NMR data obtained for PpcA in the presence and absence of AQDS showed that the interaction is reversible. Overall, this study provides for the first time a clear illustration of the formation of an electron transfer complex between AQDS and a G. sulfurreducens triheme cytochrome, shedding light on the electron transfer pathways underlying the microbial oxidation of humics.

Industrial and urban activities yield large amounts of contaminated groundwater, which present a major health issue worldwide. Infectious diseases are the most common health risk associated with drinking-water and wastewater remediation is a major concern of our modern society. The field of wastewater treatment is being revolutionized by new nano-scale water disinfection devices which outperform most currently available technologies. In particular, iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been widely used in environmental applications due to their unique physical–chemical properties. In this work, poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG)-coated MNPs have been functionalized with (RW)3, an antimicrobial peptide, to yield a novel magnetic-responsive support with antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli K-12 DSM498 and Bacillus subtilis 168. The magnetic-responsive antimicrobial device showed to be able to successfully disinfect the surrounding solution. Using a rapid high-throughput screening platform, the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined to be 500 μM for both strains with a visible bactericidal effect.

FucoPol, a fucose-containing extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) produced by bacterium Enterobacter A47 using glycerol as the carbon source, was employed as a coating material for magnetic particles (MPs), which were subsequently functionalized with an artificial ligand for the capture of antibodies. The performance of the modified MPs (MP–EPS-22/8) for antibody purification was investigated using direct magnetic separation alone or combined with an aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) composed of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and dextran. In direct magnetic capturing, and using pure protein solutions of human immunoglobulin G (hIgG) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), MP–EPS-22/8 bound 120 mg hIgG g−1 MPs, whereas with BSA only 10 ± 2 mg BSA g−1 MPs was achieved. The hybrid process combining both the ATPS and magnetic capturing leads to a good performance for partitioning of hIgG in the desired phase as well as recovery by the magnetic separator. The MPs were able to bind 145 mg of hIgG g−1 of particles which is quite high when compared with direct magnetic separation. The theoretical maximum capacity was calculated to be 410 ± 15 mg hIgG adsorbed g−1 MPs with a binding affinity constant of 4.3 × 104 M−1. In multiple extraction steps, the MPs bound 92% of loaded hIgG with a final purity level of 98.5%. The MPs could easily be regenerated, recycled and re-used for five cycles with only minor loss of capacity. FucoPol coating allowed both electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions with the antibody contributing to enhance the specificity for the targeted products.

Software Transactional Memory algorithms associate metadata with the memory locations accessed during a transaction’s lifetime. This metadata may be stored in an external table and accessed by way of a function that maps the address of each memory location with the table entry that keeps its metadata (this is the out-place or external scheme); or alternatively may be stored adjacent to the associated memory cell by wrapping them together (the in-place scheme). In transactional memory multi-version algorithms, several versions of the same memory location may exist. The efficient implementation of these algorithms requires a one-to-one correspondence between each memory location and its list of past versions, which is stored as metadata. In this chapter we address the matter of the efficient implementation of multi-version algorithms in Java by proposing and evaluating a novel in-place metadata scheme for the Deuce framework. This new scheme is based in Java Bytecode transformation techniques and its use requires no changes to the application code. Experimentation indicates that multi-versioning STM algorithms implemented using our new in-place scheme are in average 6× faster than when implemented with the out-place scheme.

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.