Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs), products from modern nanotechnologies, can potentially impact the marine environment to pose serious threats to marine ecosystems. However, the cellular responses of marine phytoplankton to ENPs are still not well established. Here, we investigate four different diatom species (Odontella mobiliensis, Skeletonema grethae, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Thalassiosira pseudonana) and one green algae (Dunaliella tertiolecta) for their extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) release under model ENP treatments: 25 nm titanium dioxide (TiO2), 10–20 nm silicon dioxide (SiO2), and 15–30 nm cerium dioxide (CeO2). We found SiO2 ENPs can significantly stimulate EPS release from these algae (200–800%), while TiO2 ENP exposure induced the lowest release. Furthermore, the increase of intracellular Ca2+ concentration can be triggered by ENPs, suggesting that the EPS release process is mediated through Ca2+ signal pathways. With better understanding of the cellular mechanism mediated ENP-induced EPS release, potential preventative and safety measures can be developed to mitigate negative impact on the marine ecosystem.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s11671-017-2397-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A novel nanostructured architecture for the construction of electrochemical enzyme biosensors is here described. It implies the electrostatic layer‐by‐layer assembly of four‐generation ethylenediamine core polyamidoamine G‐4 dendrimers on glassy carbon electrodes coated with a graphene oxide‐carboxymethylcellulose hybrid nanomaterial. This modified surface was further employed for the covalent immobilization of the model enzyme tyrosinase through a glutaraldehyde‐mediated cross‐linking. The prepared enzyme electrode allowed the amperometric detection of catechol in the 2–400 nM range. The biosensor showed excellent analytical performance with high sensitivity of 6.3 A/M and low detection limit of 0.9 nM. The enzyme electrode retained over 93 % of the initial activity after 40 days at 4 °C.

Aunque la innovación social se plantea como una alternativa a los modelos de protección social y productivismo social imperantes desde los años 50s a nuestros días, no está del todo claro qué es la innovación social, cuáles son sus principales potencialidades y cuales sus limitaciones más aparentes. Tampoco está claro si hay una única definición de innovación social, o varias en función de cómo esta se posiciona respecto a elementos clave de la relación Estado-Mercado. En este artículo nos proponemos aportar luz a este debate ofreciendo una definición más integral de innovación social basada en el concepto de eficiencracia.

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) have proliferated in the last years in many European countries, and their effects have been extensively discussed. One of their main objectives is to increase voter's political competence by notifying users of their closest political party according to their own preferences. In order to do this, VAAs compare and aggregate users' and political parties' preferences on a set of policy issues. The main goal of this paper is to argue that current VAAs do not fulfill their stated aims. First, we discuss the notion of political competence advanced by VAAs. Second, we define four normative criteria to evaluate whether their methods of recommendation are likely to increase voters' political competence: informativeness, respect for users' way of comparing and aggregating policy issues, reliability, and transparency. Third, we argue that current VAAs compare and aggregate users' and parties' policy preferences following a weak method. It fails to respect sufficiently the users' way of comparing and aggregating policy issues and is not reliable. To prove it, we analyze the methodology of currents VAAs and use the outcomes from the EU-Vox 2014 in several countries. Fourth, we discuss the two possibilities by which VAAs could improve these problems: 1) by using ex-ante survey data to fill their gaps 2) by creating a learning algorithm to adapt the VAA to users' preferences. We found that some changes need to be made if VAAs aim to have an impact on users' political competence.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a deep restructuring of cardiovascular care, especially in the setting of cardiac arrhythmia units, which are characterized by a wide variety of clinical and interventional activities. We describe the experience of a large university hospital deeply hit during the COVID-19 health crisis (first outbreak of the pandemic), focusing on the exceptional measures implemented and their impact in terms of outcomes. We performed a retrospective study comparing the human and structural resources and the activity of a cardiac arrhythmia unit in a Spanish tertiary hospital for two consecutive periods: from January 12, 2020, to March 8, 2020 (“pre-COVID stage”), and from March 9, 2020, to May 2, 2020 (“COVID stage”). Data were contextualized within the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the region of Madrid. The measures implemented were promotion of non–face-to-face consultations, selection of urgent procedures, design of a “COVID-free” circuit for outpatient interventions, and protocolization for patients with COVID-19. A total of 3,526 consultations and 362 procedures were performed. During the COVID stage, the number of consultations remained stable, and the electrophysiology rooms’ activity decreased by 55.2% with a relative increase in the number of urgent-hospitalized cases attended (11.8% COVID-19-positive patients). The electrophysiology rooms’ activity returned to “normal” in the last week of the COVID stage, with no contagion being detected among patients or professionals. In conclusion, the measures implemented allowed us to respond safely and efficiently to the health care needs of patients with arrhythmias during the COVID-19 crisis and may be useful for other institutions facing similar situations.