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The anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) is a thermomagnetic phenomenon with potential applications in thermal energy harvesting. While many recent works studied the approaches to increase the ANE coefficient of materials, relatively little effort was devoted to increasing the power supplied by the effect. Here, we demonstrate a nanofabricated device with record power density generated by the ANE. To accomplish this, we fabricate micrometer-sized devices in which the thermal gradient is 3 orders of magnitude higher than conventional macroscopic devices. In addition, we use Co/Pt multilayers, a system characterized by a high ANE thermopower (∼1 μV/K), low electrical resistivity, and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. These innovations allow us to obtain power densities of around 13 ± 2 W/cm 3 . We believe that this design may find uses in harvesting wasted energy, e.g., in electronic devices., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) represents a new global threat demanding a multidisciplinary effort to fight its etiological agent-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In this regard, immunoinformatics may aid to predict prominent immunogenic regions from critical SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins, such as the spike (S) glycoprotein, for their use in prophylactic or therapeutic interventions against this highly pathogenic betacoronavirus. Accordingly, in this study, an integrated immunoinformatics approach was applied to identify cytotoxic T cell (CTC), T helper cell (THC), and Linear B cell (BC) epitopes from the S glycoprotein in an attempt to design a high-quality multi-epitope vaccine. The best CTC, THC, and BC epitopes showed high viral antigenicity and lack of allergenic or toxic residues, as well as CTC and THC epitopes showed suitable interactions with HLA class I (HLA-I) and HLA class II (HLA-II) molecules, respectively. Remarkably, SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and its receptor-binding motif (RBM) harbour several potential epitopes. The structure prediction, refinement, and validation data indicate that the multi-epitope vaccine has an appropriate conformation and stability. Four conformational epitopes and an efficient binding between Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and the vaccine model were observed. Importantly, the population coverage analysis showed that the multi-epitope vaccine could be used globally. Notably, computer-based simulations suggest that the vaccine model has a robust potential to evoke and maximize both immune effector responses and immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2. Further research is needed to accomplish with the mandatory international guidelines for human vaccine formulations., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Cellular therapy based on chondrocytes implantation is the most widely used procedure for inducing cartilage regeneration. However, the dedifferentiation process that these cells suffer and their limited capacity of proliferation, when they are cultured in vitro, restrict their use in cellular therapy protocols. To investigate the capacity of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to promote chondrogenesis from chondrocytes or chondrons in 2D and 3D coculture systems. Murine chondrocytes and chondrons were cocultured with MSCs at different cell ratios (100/0, 50/50, 70/30, 0/100) in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) culture systems. High proliferation of cells with chondrocyte morphology, enhanced GAG production and expression of cartilage genes (aggrecan, type II collagen, and SOX-9) were observed in chondrocytes/MSCs cocultures. In contrast, fibroblastoid cells, down-regulation of cartilage gene expression and reduction of GAG production were observed in chondrons/MSCs cocultures. Chondrocytes within cartilage lacunae and surrounded by extracellular matrix were observed in chondrocytes/MSC pellets. MSCs promote the proliferation of functional chondrocytes in 2D and 3D culture systems. Transplantation of chondrogenic construct based on MSCs and chondrocytes may constitute a potential treatment for inducing cartilage repair., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a dangerous global threat that has no clinically approved treatment yet. Bioinformatics represent an outstanding approach to reveal key immunogenic regions in viral proteins. Here, five severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) non-structural proteins (NSPs) (NSP7, NSP8, NSP9, NSP12, and NSP13) were screened to identify potential human leukocyte antigen (HLA) binding peptides. These peptides showed robust viral antigenicity, immunogenicity, and a marked interaction with HLA alleles. Interestingly, several peptides showed affinity by HLA class I (HLA-I) alleles that commonly activates to natural killer (NK) cells. Notably, HLA biding peptides are conserved among SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Interestingly, HLA-I and HLA class II (HLA-II) binding peptides induced humoral and cell-mediated responses after in silico vaccination. These results may open further in vitro and in vivo investigations to develop novel therapeutic strategies against coronaviral infections., (Copyright © 2020 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Although many of heat shock proteins (HSPs) are crucial in homeostasis due to their role in maintaining cellular proteostasis by the integration of two pivotal processes-folding and degradation, several decades of cancer proteomics suggest that HSPs may improve cancer establishment and progression. Therefore, it is imperative to explore how these molecules impact patient outcomes and whether their interaction with the immune systems improves the protumour or antitumour environment. Here, using an immunoinformatics approach were investigated the best probable epitopes from ten HSPs (HSP90α, HSP90β, HSPA1A, HSPA1L, HSPA2, HSPA5, HSPA6, HSPB1, HSPB5 and HSP60/HSP10). To achieve this aim, antigenicity, immunogenicity (prediction of continuous and discontinuous B cell epitopes, binding peptides to HLA class I and HLA class II, and overlapping epitopes), analysis of conservancy and population coverage, and prediction of IgE epitopes were evaluated. According to the physicochemical properties used for their prediction (hydrophilicity, flexibility, accessibility and antigenicity propensity), ten continuous epitopes (one per HSPs) were considered as the best and also several regions of each molecule were identified as B discontinuous epitopes. Interestingly, peptides of HSP90β, HSPA2, HSPB1, and HSPB5 were predicted as both continuous and discontinuous B cell epitopes. For all the HSPs evaluated were identified potential overlapping epitopes ("NTFYSNKEI", "TTYSCVGVF", "TADRWRVSL", "VKHFSPEEL" and "CEFQDAYVL"). Moreover, these peptides were negative for IgE epitopes and showed a large coverage in the human population (HLA-A*02, HLA-B*15, HLA-C*03, and HLA-C*12). Taken together, these data indicate that such epitopes may activate both the humoral and cell-mediated response, and thus serve as therapeutic targets for cancer. However, it must be assessed their efficacy and safety in vitro and in vivo before their translation in clinical trials., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Swine dysentery caused by Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, results in substantial economic losses in swine producing countries worldwide. Although a number of different vaccine approaches have been explored with regard to this disease, they show limitations and none of them have reached the market. We here determine the vaccine potential of a weakly haemolytic B. hyodysenteriae strain. The virulence of this strain was assessed in experimental infection trials and its protection against swine dysentery was quantified in a vaccination-challenge experiment using a seeder infection model. Systemic IgG production and local IgA production were monitored in serum and faeces respectively. Across all trials, pigs that were colonized by virulent, strongly haemolytic B. hyodysenteriae strains consistently developed swine dysentery, in contrast to none of the pigs colonized by the weakly haemolytic B. hyodysenteriae vaccine strain. In the seeder vaccination trial nearly all immunised animals developed swine dysentery on subsequent challenge with a virulent strain, but the speed of spread of swine dysentery and faecal score were significantly reduced in animals immunised with the weakly haemolytic strain compared to sham-immunised animals. The IgA response of immunised animals upon challenge with a virulent B. hyodysenteriae strain significantly correlated to a later onset of disease. The correlation between local IgA production and protection induced by a weakly haemolytic B. hyodysenteriae strain provides leads for future vaccine development against swine dysentery.

Background/aims: To compare the prevalence of positive bacterial cultures at the cesarean delivery (CD) incision site in patients with pre-operative application of chlorhexidine gluconate (CG) versus povidone iodine (PI)., Methods: Women undergoing a scheduled CD at ≥36 gestational weeks were randomly assigned to receive CG or PI. A swab of the incision site was performed at 3 min after disinfectant application and at 18 post-operative hours, and the prevalence of cultures with any detected bacterial growth was compared for the two groups., Results: Of the 60 participants, 33 (55.0%) were in the PI group. There were no differences detected at 3 min, with 9.1% positive in the PI group versus 0% positive in the CG group (p = 0.2499). However, at 18 h, women in the PI group were seven times more likely than women in the CG group to have a positive culture (16/33 [48.5%] versus 3/27 [11.1%], OR = 7.53 [95% CI 1.67-38.83], p = 0.0023). Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated similar results: OR = 7.33 (95% CI 1.77-30.35), p = 0.0060., Conclusion: The prevalence of positive bacterial cultures obtained at the site of the skin incision 18 h after CD was higher in the PI versus the CG group.

We present a case of a 51-year-old woman with urinary urgency, frequency, and lower abdominal pain; she was found to have an anterior vaginal wall mass on examination. Ultrasound and computerized tomography revealed a complex solid cystic mass. Transvaginal partial cystectomy was performed; histologic examination revealed hamartoma of the urinary bladder.