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The development of strategies to mimic the natural environment of tissues with engineered scaffolds remains one of the biggest challenges of tissue engineering. Hydrogels appear as suitable materials for this purpose due to their substantial water content, biocompatibility, and for being able to carry nanomaterials that introduce new functionalities to the hydrogel. The incorporation of magnetically responsive and, in particular, magnetoelectric materials into the hydrogel-based scaffolds are a promising approach for bone tissue engineering applications once it can promote not only tissue regeneration through magnetic to mechanic to electrical conversion/stimuli but also the external control of the scaffold by the application of magnetic fields. This work reports on a new CoFe2O4/ Methacrylated Gellan Gum (GGMA)/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) hydrogel-based scaffold with 20kPa Young's modulus and cell viability superior to 80%. The 1µm thick PVDF/CoFe2O4 spheres added to GGMA gel (2wt.%) exhibit 20emu.g-1 magnetization saturation, 2.7kOe magnetic coercivity and -phase contents 78%, leading to a piezoelectric response |d33| of 22 pC N-1 and a magnetoelectric response of |d33| 6 pC N-1 at a DC magnetic field of 220mT, as verified for the CoFe2O4/PVDF spheres with 20wt.% filler content. Such characteristics allow novel tissue regeneration strategies approaches once CoFe2O4/GGMA/PVDF has a porous 3-D structure, biocompatibility, bioresorbability, and mechanical/electrical dynamic responses that can be triggered by an applied external magnetic field., This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013 funded by national funds and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) and project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028237. Funds provided by FCT in the framework of EuroNanoMed 2016 call, Project LungCheckENMed/0049/2016 are also gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank the FCT for the SFRH/BPD/90870/2012 (C.R.) and SFRH/BPD/96227/2013 (P.M.) grants. The authors acknowledge funding by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the project MAT2016-76039-C4-3R (AEI/FEDER, UE) and from the Basque Government Industry and Education Departments under the ELKARTEK, HAZITEK and PIBA (PIBA-2018-06) programs, respectively. The authors thank Stemmatters for providing the hydrogel., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Integrins are cell adhesion receptors predominantly important during normal and tumor angiogenesis. A sequence present on several extracellular matrix proteins composed of Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) has attracted attention due to its role in cell adhesion mediated by integrins. The development of ligands that can bind to integrins involved in tumor angiogenesis and brake disease progression has resulted in new investigational drug entities reaching the clinical trial phase in humans. The use of integrin-specific ligands can be useful for the vascularization of regenerative medicine constructs, which remains a major limitation for translation into clinical practice. In order to enhance vascularization, immobilization of integrin-specific RGD peptidomimetics within constructs is a recommended approach, due to their high specificity and selectivity towards certain desired integrins. This review endeavours to address the potential of peptidomimetic-coated biomaterials as vascular network promoters for regenerative medicine purposes. Clinical studies involving molecules tracking active integrins in cancer angiogenesis and reasons for their failure are also addressed., Prémios Santa Casa Neurociências - Prize Melo e Castro for Spinal Cord Injury Research; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [Doctoral fellowship (PD/BDE/127835/2016) to L. A. Rocha; IF Development Grant to A. J. Salgado; national funds through grant TUBITAK/0007/2014]. This article has been developed under the scope of the projects NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER); This work has been funded by FEDER funds, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by National funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This paper uses a multi-period economic-environmental Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelling framework to analyse local sustainability policy issues. Our focus is the small, open, labour-constrained regional economy of Jersey. The case of Jersey is of particular interest for two main reasons. The first is the unusually low degree of geographical labour market integration for such a small regional economy. This motivates our treatment of labour as a region-specific factor of production. The second is the availability of high quality, Jersey-specific economic-enviromental data. We employ CGE model simulations to track the impact of changes in population on a number of energy-consumption and pollution indicators in a recursive dynamic framework under alternative hypotheses regarding economic conditions over the time period under consideration. In the case of Jersey, we find that household consumption is the key factor governing the environmental impact of economic disturbances. Therefore the analysis includes an examination of the sensitivity of the simulation results to different assumptions affecting the wage elasticities of labour demand and supply, and the speed of adjustment to equilibrium on the responsiveness of household income to shifts in labour supply.

A series of novel derivatives of oxcarbazepine (5), 10,11-dihydro-10-oxo-5H-dibenz/b,f/azepine-5-carboxamide was synthesised and evaluated for their anticonvulsant activity and sodium channel blocking properties. The oxime 8 was found to be the most active compound from this series, displaying greater potency than its geometric isomer 9 and exhibiting also the highest protective index value. Importantly, the metabolic profile of 8 differs from the already established dibenz/b,f/azepine-5-carboxamide drugs such as 1 and 5 which undergo rapid and complete conversion in vivo to several biologically active metabolites. In contrast 8 is metabolised to only a very minor extent leading to the conclusion that the observed anti-convulsant effect is solely attributable to 8. It is concluded that 8 may be as effective as 1 and 5 at controlling seizures and that the low toxicity and consequently high protective index should provide the compound with an improved side-effect profile.