Plant-Based Vaccines: Antigen Design, Diversity, and Strategies for High Level Production

Vaccines for human use have conventionally been developed by the production of (1) microbial pathogens in eggs or mammalian cells that are then inactivated, or (2) by the production of pathogen proteins in mammalian and insect cells that are purified for vaccine formulation, as well as, more recently, (3) by using RNA or DNA fragments from pathogens. Another approach for recombinant antigen production in the last three decades has been the use of plants as biofactories. Only have few plant-produced vaccines been evaluated in clinical trials to fight against diseases, of which COVID-19 vaccines are the most recent to be FDA approved. In silico tools have accelerated vaccine design, which, combined with transitory antigen expression in plants, has led to the testing of promising prototypes in pre-clinical and clinical trials. Therefore, this review deals with a description of immunoinformatic tools and plant genetic engineering technologies used for antigen design (virus-like particles (VLP), subunit vaccines, VLP chimeras) and the main strategies for high antigen production levels. These key topics for plant-made vaccine development are discussed and perspectives are provided.

Methodological basis of road acoustic researches

Transport is one of the most burdensome negative sources affecting the natural environment. Long-term exposure of the body to exhaust pollution can cause health problems and, in the worst case, even lead to death. In addition to exhaust emissions, traffic noise is another equally important issue. Due to its nature, variability over time or the design diversity of vehicles in the traffic flow, it is a phenomenon difficult to define. Like exhaust pollution, it affects people's health and quality of life. In addition to its direct impact on the human physical system, it can also cause psychosomatic disorders, which is why a detailed analysis of road noise taking into account the real operation of the vehicle is so important. The paper presents the basic concepts related to the problem of traffic noise in the world, determines the sources of noise in vehicles and the methodology of conducting acoustic road tests. At the final stage of the scientific paper, methods of reducing excessive noise levels in large urban agglomerations were also presented, and the effectiveness of using noise barriers on selected parts of the city road network using proprietary acoustic tests was assessed.

The Carrying Capacity Assessment of Two MRTStations Transit-Oriented Development Areas in Jakarta

Many studies have investigated the effects of transit-oriented development (TOD) on density, design, diversity development, and transit ridership. However, fewer studies address the issue of carrying capacity of TOD. This paper aims to assess TOD areas' carrying capacity using four criteria (land capability, water availability, socio-economic, and green infrastructure) and 14 indicators on Jakarta's two TOD areas. These results show that even though both of the TOD area, Dukuh Atas and Lebak Bulus, are in the good of carrying capacity in land capability, there are some issues to address the possibility of water availability. For TOD's success, the socio-economic criteria should be promoted in the fringe-urban TOD area like Lebak Bulus. We identified the green infrastructure, such as pedestrian, cycling route, and green open space, still in low development and should be pursued to extend the TOD carrying capacity for the future.

A niching cross-entropy method for multimodal satellite layout optimization design

Satellite layout optimization design (SLOD) relies on solving a high-dimensional and multimodal optimization problem, in which there exist multiple global optimal solutions. Existing algorithms for SLOD focus on seeking only one approximate global optimum. However, finding multiple solutions simultaneously could provide more design diversity for the designers. To alleviate this problem, multimodal optimization method is studied for SLOD in this paper, and an improved niching-based cross-entropy method (INCE) is proposed. INCE consists of an improved niching strategy, cross-entropy method-based offspring generation and a cross operator. CEC2013 benchmarks and satellite layout optimization design problem are investigated to verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed INCE. Compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms, the proposed algorithm performs better.

The investigation of the state of Ukraine furniture industry development under current economic conditions

Furniture for a long time has been an integral component of human activity, recreation and everyday life. Its design, diversity and versatility along with the development of human civilization is increasingly becoming the object of further improvement. At present furniture production in Ukraine is the developing industry, gradually entering the European market in terms of quality and design. European furniture market is extremely attractive to operators and, therefore, has dynamics towards the competitor number increase. One of the factors of increasing the industry attractiveness is the support of amendments to the Law of Ukraine «On peculiarities of state regulation of business entities related to the sale and export of timber» by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in April 2015, which imposed temporary, gradual prohibition on the export of raw timber (forest logs) for 10 years. The corresponding partial prohibition entered into force on 11.01.2015, and complete prohibition (including pine wood) - from January 1, 2017. The consequences of this moratorium during the first five years of its operation, which is important in the context of politicization of this problem are analyzed in this paper. The dynamics and structure of the amount of enterprises in industry and the number of employees employed in them are investigated. The volume of furniture industry sales in general and the areas of their implementation (internal or external markets) are analyzed. The next stage is the analysis of the dynamics of the ratio of furniture products exports and imports in Ukraine and determination of the major exporters of such products. The final stage is the investigation of the dynamics of foreign direct investments in the enterprises capital share in this industry in order to identify its investment attractiveness. As a result, it is determined that the introduced moratorium has partial positive impact on the development of furniture industry in Ukraine. However, at present, the furniture industry is not attractive enough for new foreign investment. This is the consequence of significant amount of «shadow» production, which in its turn destabilizes the situation in the furniture market. Ukrainian manufacturers will be able to strengthen their position in domestic market and even abroad, if they solve the main problems in furniture production and eliminate all disincentives.

Photovoltaics on Landmark Buildings with Distinctive Geometries

This review study, framed in the Work group 4 “Photovoltaic in built environment” within the COST Action PEARL PV, CA16235, aims to examine applications of integrated and applied photovoltaic technologies on ten landmark buildings characterised by distinctive geometries, highlighting the aesthetics of their architecture and quality of PV integration based on a proposed set of seven criteria. The selected building samples cover a large design diversity related to the quality of PV systems integration into building envelope that could serve as a basis for general guidelines of best architectural and technological practice. After introducing the problem and defining the research methodology, an analysis of ten landmark buildings is presented, as representative models of aesthetics of their architecture, photovoltaic integration and implementation and energy performance. The study concludes with the main characteristics of photovoltaic integration on landmark buildings. The paper is intended to support both engineers and architects in comprehending the convergent development of contemporary architecture and photovoltaic technology, as well as the need for a closer collaboration, sometimes resulting in architectural masterworks that promote the diffusion of photovoltaics to the public.

A Dual Nanoparticle Delivery Strategy for Enhancing Drug Distribution in Cancerous Tissue

Nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery may be a promising alternative to traditional chemotherapy of high systemic toxicity. Tumor tissue architecture poses a challenge to delivery of nanoparticles. Small and spherical nanoparticles have poor adherence to the tumor vasculature, while larger and more eccentric ones create high heterogeneity in tissue-to-drug exposure. In previous work, we quantified these tradeoffs using numerical optimization. In this study, we demonstrate that simultaneous delivery of multiple nanoparticle designs can enhance drug distribution in the cancerous tissue without compromising nanoparticle tumoral accumulation. We formulate and solve optimization problems to find the optimal constituent of the heterogeneous injection in terms of nanoparticle design diversity that increases drug distribution by 14%.