Cutaneous wounds are often superinfected during the healing process and this leads to prolonged convalescence and discomfort. Usage of suitable wound dressings is very important for an appropriate wound care leading to a correct healing. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the influence of a nano-coated wound dressing (WD) on Candida albicans colonization rate and biofilm formation. The modified WD was achieved by submerging the dressing pieces into a nanofluid composed of functionalized magnetite nanoparticles and Satureja hortensis (SO) essential oil (EO). Chemical composition of the EO was established by GC-MS. The fabricated nanostructure was characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) and Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). The analysis of the colonized surfaces using (Scanning Electron Microscopy) SEM revealed that C. albicans adherence and subsequent biofilm development are strongly inhibited on the surface of wound dressing fibers coated with the obtained nanofluid, comparing with regular uncoated materials. The results were also confirmed by the assay of the viable fungal cells embedded in the biofilm. Our data demonstrate that the obtained phytonanocoating improve the resistance of wound dressing surface to C. albicans colonization, which is often an etiological cause of local infections, impairing the appropriate wound healing.

This paper reports a newly fabricated nanophyto-modified wound dressing with microbicidal and anti-adherence properties. Nanofluid-based magnetite doped with eugenol or limonene was used to fabricate modified wound dressings. Nanostructure coated materials were characterized by TEM, XRD, and FT-IR. For the quantitative measurement of biofilm-embedded microbial cells, a culture-based method for viable cell count was used. The optimized textile dressing samples proved to be more resistant to staphylococcal and pseudomonal colonization and biofilm formation compared to the uncoated controls. The functionalized surfaces for wound dressing seems to be a very useful tool for the prevention of wound microbial contamination on viable tissues.

The purpose of this work was to investigate the potential of functionalized magnetite nanoparticles to improve the antibiofilm properties of textile dressing, tested in vitro against monospecific Candida albicans biofilms. Functionalized magnetite (Fe3O4/C18), with an average size not exceeding 20 nm, has been synthesized by precipitation of ferric and ferrous salts in aqueous solution of oleic acid (C18) and NaOH. Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and differential thermal analysis coupled with thermo gravimetric analysis were used as characterization methods for the synthesized Fe3O4/C18. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the architecture of the fungal biofilm developed on the functionalized textile dressing samples and culture-based methods for the quantitative assay of the biofilm-embedded yeast cells. The optimized textile dressing samples proved to be more resistant to C. albicans colonization, as compared to the uncoated ones; these functionalized surfaces-based approaches are very useful in the prevention of wound microbial contamination and subsequent biofilm development on viable tissues or implanted devices.

As transparency has become the new paradigm of economic activities, we set out to analyse the extent to which the EU real estate companies legitimise their role in society through the sustainable development goals (SDGs) while meeting stakeholders’ information needs. Applying the content analysis, the sustainability reports and the annual reports of the entities from the real estate sector, from 2016 to 2018, were studied in order to highlight the priority SDGs of the field and the extent to which they are integrated in their business models. In addition, we evaluated, based on a quality score, the depth with which the entities report their sustainability commitments. The results of the study show that although more and more real estate entities are expressing their interest for sustainable development, there is still a large gap between the assumed intentions and the real actions undertaken by the companies. Most of them do not have the strategy, culture and tools needed to turn sustainability commitments into concrete actions. According to the average quality score (2.99 out of 5), the entities present their sustainability aspirations mostly qualitatively and report few quantitative key performance indicators (KPIs) to reveal the degree of achievement of the priority SDGs, such as: SDG 11—Sustainable cities and communities, SDG 13—Climate action and SDG 8—Decent work and economic growth.