Decontamination of Diesel particles from air by using the Counterfog (R) system

The existence of particles with diameter under 10m in air is strongly correlated with respiratory diseases. These particles are profusely produced by heating systems, traffic, and Diesel engines creating a serious problem to modern cities. Natural mechanisms removing particles from the atmosphere are too slow to deal with the huge amount of particles daily released by human activity. The objective of this work is to measure the effectiveness of a new technology called Counterfog (R) to eliminate airborne particles. The results show that Counterfog (R) is able to wash out PM10, PM5, and PM2.5 Diesel-generated airborne particles quite efficiently.This work has been funded by the FP7-SEC-2012-1 program of the EU Commission under grant number 312804

Fast surface disinfection with COUNTERFOG® SDR-F05A+

COUNTERFOG® has been proposed as a rapid decontamination and disinfection technology that uses dynamic submicrometric-disinfecting fog cones. When projected onto surfaces, they create a micrometre-thick film of disinfectant minimizing the use of liquids and the impact on environment. The extremely thin film is intended to be enough to cover and kill microorganisms and simultaneously thin enough to evaporate in a few minutes¿depending on the environmental conditions. In the present work, experimental tests were carried out to verify this hypothesis. These include a physical characterization of the fog in the cone, a measurement of the liquid flow projected on surfaces as well as disinfection tests with a series of microorganisms. In addition to these results, operational recommendations are derived to ensure disinfection reliability.Publicad

MOSAR : Modular spacecraft assembly and reconfiguration demonstrator

With rapid development of space systems in recent years and their limited lives, it is imperative that a sustainable space development approach is developed to support more affordable access to space for all stakeholders. The European Commission hence funded the MOSAR project which aims to create a new paradigm technology to address this increasing challenge. This paper provides an overview of this technology’s preliminary development to enable on-orbit servicing. Building on five successful projects which collectively created all required common building blocks for both planetary explorations and in-orbit missions, a novel architecture is proposed to create a walking manipulator to demonstrate its unique capability in both space system assembly and on-orbit servicing. Preliminary design concepts of a walking manipulator and spacecraft modules are shown. A dedicated simulator is also developed to evaluate the proposed novel architecture for these targeted applications

Fast Air-to-Liquid Sampler Detects Surges in SARS-CoV-2 Aerosol Levels in Hospital Rooms

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the dangers of airborne pathogen transmission. SARS-CoV-2 is known to be transmitted through aerosols; however, little is known about the dynamics of these aerosols in real environments, the conditions, and the minimum viral load required for infection. Efficiently measuring and capturing pathogens present in the air would help to understand the infection process. Air samplers usually take several hours to obtain an air sample. In this work a fast (1-2 min) method for capturing bioaerosols into a liquid medium has been tested in hospital rooms with COVID-19 patients. This fast sampling allows detecting transient levels of aerosols in the air. SARS-CoV-2 RNA is detected in aerosols from several hospital rooms at different levels. Interestingly, there are sudden boosts of the SARS-CoV-2 load in the air, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 could be released abundantly at certain moments. These results show that the distribution of SARS-CoV-2-containing aerosols is not homogeneous in the hospital room. This technology is a fast and effective tool for capturing airborne matter in a very short time, which allows for fast decision-making any kind of hazard in the air is detected. It is also useful for a better understanding of aerosols dynamics.This study was funded partially by European Union HORIZON EUROPE grant 101084097 and grant 101073899, H2020 INNO4COV19 grant 101016203 to José Luis Pérez-Díaz and by Nextgeneration EU, and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones to Antonio Alcamí.Peer reviewe

KRAS p.G12C mutation occurs in 1% of EGFR-mutated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients progressing on a first-line treatment with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor

Background: KRAS is mutated in ∼30% of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) but it has also been identified as one of the mechanisms underlying resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in EGFR-positive NSCLC patients. Novel KRAS inhibitors targeting KRAS p.G12C mutation have been developed recently with promising results. The proportion of EGFR-positive NSCLC tumours harbouring the KRAS p.G12C mutation upon disease progression is completely unexplored. Materials and methods: Plasma samples from 512 EGFR-positive advanced NSCLC patients progressing on a first first-line treatment with a TKI were collected. The presence of KRAS p.G12C mutation was assessed by digital PCR. Results: Overall, KRAS p.G12C mutation was detected in 1.17% of the samples (n = 6). In two of these cases, we could confirm that the KRAS p.G12C mutation was not present in the pre-treatment plasma samples, supporting its role as an acquired resistance mutation. According to our data, KRASG12C patients showed similar clinicopathological characteristics to those of the rest of the study cohort and no statistically significant associations between any clinical features and the presence of the mutation were found. However, two out of six KRASG12C tumours harboured less common EGFR driver mutations (p.G719X/p.L861Q). All KRASG12C patients tested negative for the presence of p.T790M resistance mutation. Conclusions: The KRAS p.G12C mutation is detected in 1% of EGFR-positive NSCLC patients who progress on a first line with a TKI. All KRASG12C patients were negative for the presence of the p.T790M mutation and they did not show any distinctive clinical featureThis work was supported by CLARIFY project (https://www.clarify2020.eu/). ES-H was supported by the Consejería de Ciencia, Universidades e Innovación of the Comunidad de Madrid (Doctorados Industriales of the Comunidad de Madrid) [grant number IND2019/BMD-17258]. EG-V was supported by AECC (Asociación española Contra el Cáncer) grant ‘Programa de Prácticas de Laboratorio de curso académico AECC 2020’ (no grant number)