Collagens from marine organisms towards biomedical applications

[Excerpt] Collagen is the main fibrous structural protein in the extracellular matrix and connective tissue of animals. It is a primary building block of bones, tendons, skin, hair, nails, cartilage, and all joints in the body. It is also considered a "glue" that holds the body together. In this regard, it receives great attention in healthcare and wellbeing, both as a functional ingredient in different formulations and as a component of several products, such as medical devices and pharmaceutical systems

Engineering Technology Programs Outreach to K-12

The Engineering Technology (ET) degree emphasizes hands-on application and implementation. Graduates holding this degree play a valuable role in economically growing the US and keeping it internationally competitive. However, “engineering and engineering technology, are widely misunderstood… the public sector (employers, students, high-school counselors, politicians and the general public) needs to be educated as to the particular value of each,” according to Engineering.com [1]. The National Academy of Engineering states, “Unlike the much better-known field of engineering, engineering technology is unfamiliar to most Americans and goes unmentioned in most policy discussions about the US technical workforce. This is even though workers in this field play an important role in supporting the nation’s infrastructure and capacity for innovation” [2]. In the above context, outreach by ET programs to K-12 constituents including students, teachers, and even parents is extremely important. The outreach activity can take many forms. It may be as simple as a visit to classroom either by ET faculty or students to a K-12 classroom for a show and tell. Inviting high school and middle school students and teachers to engineering open houses and campus visits can be another effective method. In addition to these traditional methods, new and innovative methods of outreach can use social media tools to reach out to students and parents. Another method for increasing awareness about ET programs is via career day events. This paper discusses various methods for outreach including some case studies of tried and tested methods

Using service learning for improving student attraction and engagement in STEM studies

Both in Europe and around the world, there is a lack of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) graduates. The Universities that offer STEM studies face two common problems, the first of which is the lack of technological vocation. Despite the need in Europe for more engineers, and while STEM graduates enjoy almost full employment, few students decide to enrol for these degree courses. The second problem is that engineering studies traditionally have one of the highest dropout rates in Higher Education. One of the reasons for this is that students perceive engineering courses as highly technical and difficult, and with little relation to social progress. They are not aware of the creative nature of such studies, or the contribution to human development made by engineers. In order to tackle these problems, we are advocating the use of Service Learning. The projects resulting from this initiative will be able show future graduates the importance of creativity and the important role of science and technology in the future welfare of society; two points capable of inspiring vocation and enhancing the sense of belonging to the STEM collective in the first STEM degree courses. In this paper, we present the project and describe some of the experiences we have identified at our university, with the aim of using them for student attraction and engagement.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Current-efficient preamplifier architecture for CMRR sensitive neural recording applications

Este trabajo fue parcialmente financiado por CSIC (Comisión Sectorial de Investigación Científica, Uruguay), ANII (Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación, Uruguay) y CAP (Comisión Académica de Posgrado, Uruguay).There are neural recording applications in which the amplitude of common-mode interfering signals is several orders of magnitude higher than the amplitude of the signals of interest. This challenging situation for neural amplifiers occurs, among other applications, in neural recordings of weakly electric fish or nerve activity recordings made with cuff electrodes. This paper reports an integrated neural amplifier architecture targeting invivo recording of local field potentials and unitary signals from the brain stem of a weakly electric fish Gymnotus omarorum. The proposed architecture offers low noise, high common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR), current-efficiency, and a high-pass frequency fixed without MOS pseudoresistors. The main contributions of this work are the overall architecture coupled with an efficient and simple single-stage circuit for the amplifier main transconductor, and the ability of the amplifier to acquire biopotential signals from high-amplitude common-mode interference in an unshielded environment. A fully-integrated neural preamplifier, which performs well in line with the state-of-the-art of the field while providing enhanced CMRR performance, was fabricated in a 0.5 μm CMOS process. Results from measurements show that the gain is 49.5 dB, the bandwidth ranges from 13 Hz to 9.8 kHz, the equivalent input noise is 1.88 μVrms, the CMRR is 87 dB and the Noise Efficiency Factor is 2.1. In addition, in-vivo recordings of weakly electric fish neural activity performed by the proposed amplifier are introduced and favorably compared with those of a commercial laboratory instrumentation system

Cellulose lattice strains and stress transfer in native and delignified wood

Small specimens of spruce wood with different degrees of delignification were studied using in-situ tensile tests and simultaneous synchrotron X-ray diffraction to reveal the effect of delignification and densification on their tensile properties at relative humidity of 70–80 %. In addition to mechanical properties, these analyses yield the ratio of strains in the cellulose crystals and in the bulk, which reflects the stress-transfer to crystalline cellulose. While the specific modulus of elasticity slightly increases from native wood by partial or complete delignification, the lattice strain ratio does not show a significant change. This could indicate a compensatory effect from the decomposition of the amorphous matrix by delignification and from a tighter packing of cellulose crystals that would increase the stress transfer. The reduced strain to failure and maximum lattice strain of delignified specimens suggests that the removal of lignin affects the stress-strain behavior with fracture at lower strain levels

Macro and microstructural characteristics of north Atlantic deep-sea sponges as bioinspired models for tissue engineering scaffolding

Sponges occur ubiquitously in the marine realm and in some deep-sea areas they dominate the benthic communities forming complex biogenic habitats â sponge grounds, aggregations, gardens and reefs. However, deep-sea sponges and spongegrounds are still poorly investigated with regards to biotechnological potential in support of a Blue growth strategy. Under the scope of this study, five dominant North Atlantic deep-sea sponges, were characterized to elucidate promising applications in human health, namely for bone tissue engineering approaches. Geodia barretti (Gb), Geodia atlantica (Ga), Stelletta normani (Sn), Phakellia ventilabrum (Pv), and Axinella infundibuliformis (Ai), were morphologically characterized to assess macro and microstructural features, as well as chemical composition of the skeletons, using optical and scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and microcomputed tomography analyses. Moreover, compress tests were conducted to determine the mechanical properties of the skeletons. Results showed that all studied sponges have porous skeletons with porosity higher than 68%, pore size superior than 149 mm and higher interconnectivity (>96%), thus providing interesting models for the development of scaffolds for tissue engineering. Besides that, EDS analyses revealed that the chemical composition of sponges, pointed that demosponge skeletons are mainly constituted by carbon, silicon, sulfur, and oxygen combined mutually with organic and inorganic elements embedded its internal architecture that can be important features for promoting bone matrix quality and bone mineralization. Finally, the morphological, mechanical, and chemical characteristics here investigated unraveled the potential of deep-sea sponges as a source of biomaterials and biomimetic models envisaging tissue engineering applications for bone regeneration.The authors would like to acknowledge the funding from the European Union Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 through project SponGES (H2020- BG-01-2015-679849) and from the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the Structured projects for R&D&I NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000021 and NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000023. JRX research was further supported by national funds through FCT Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020, and CEECIND/00577/2018

Prototyping and calibration of a low-cost stroboscope: an educational experiment in mechatronics

In the industry is very common the applying of resources and machines for implementation of the processes and creation of the products. For this reason, the measurement and control of such processes are essential to achieve better performance, efficiency, and consequently best quality, as well as, monitor the operation of the equipment, identify failures and ensure the security for the industry and the employees. The measure instruments are the set of tools used with the objective of obtaining data about the particular processes. In general, these devices measure features like pressure, temperature, velocity, humidity, vibration, and are widely applied in machines such as motors, heaters, reactors, refrigerators, air conditioners, compressors, ovens, and other equipment. It’s important to obtain the periodic calibration of these instruments so that the results obtained through them be reliable and accurate [1]

Applications of lignin in the agri-food industry

Of late, valorization of agri-food industrial by-products and their sustainable utilization is gaining much contemplation world-over. Globally, 'Zero Waste Concept' is promoted with main emphasis laid towards generation of minimal wastes and maximal utilization of plantbased agri-food raw materials. One of the wastes/by-products in the agri-food industry are the lignin, which occurs as lignocellulosic biomass. This biomass is deliberated to be an environmental pollutant as they offer resistance to natural biodegradation. Safe disposal of this biomass is often considered a major challenge, especially in low-income countries. Hence, the application of modern technologies to effectively reduce these types of wastes and maximize their potential use/applications is vital in the present day scenario. Nevertheless, in some of the high-income countries, attempts have been made to efficiently utilize lignin as a source of fuel, as a raw material in the paper industry, as a filler material in biopolymer based packaging and for producing bioethanol. However, as of today, agri-food industrial applications remains significantly underexplored. Chemically, lignin is heterogeneous, bio-polymeric, polyphenolic compound, which is present naturally in plants, providing mechanical strength and rigidity. Reports are available wherein purified lignin is established to possess therapeutic values; and are rich in antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-carcinogenic, antidiabetic properties, etc. This chapter is divided into four sub-categories focusing on various technological aspects related to isolation and characterization of lignin; established uses of lignin; proved bioactivities and therapeutic potentials of lignin, and finally on identifying the existing research gaps followed by future recommendations for potential use from agri-food industrial wastes.Theme of this chapter is based on our ongoing project- Valortech, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 810630

Collective locomotion of human cells, woundh healing and their control by extracts and isolated compounds from marine ivertebrates

The collective migration of cells is a complex integrated process that represents a common theme joining morphogenesis, tissue regeneration, and tumor biology. It is known that a remarkable amount of secondary metabolites produced by aquatic invertebrates displays active pharmacological properties against a variety of diseases. The aim of this review is to pick up selected studies that report the extraction and identification of crude extracts or isolated compounds that exert a modulatory effect on collective cell locomotion and/or skin tissue reconstitution and recapitulate the molecular, biochemical, and/or physiological aspects, where available, which are associated to the substances under examination, grouping the producing species according to their taxonomic hierarchy. Taken all of the collected data into account, marine invertebrates emerge as a still poorly-exploited valuable resource of natural products that may significantly improve the process of skin regeneration and restrain tumor cell migration, as documented by in vitro and in vivo studies. Therefore, the identification of the most promising invertebrate-derived extracts/molecules for the utilization as new targets for biomedical translation merits further and more detailed investigations