Search Results (13)

Background/Objectives: RNA interference (RNAi) is a promising strategy for mitigating diseases at the molecular level. However, RNAi is limited by its instability in biological fluids and impermeability to cellular membranes. In response, our lab has previously patented a non-ionizable lipid nanoparticle (LNP) platform (R8-PLP) for RNAi therapeutic delivery. This formulation incorporates 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000] (DSPE-PEG) to improve particle stability and drug retention. However, long-anchored PEGylated lipids like DSPE-PEG may impair internalization and stimulate immune responses. The literature suggests substituting short-anchored PEGylated-lipids like 1,2-dimyristoyl-rac-glycero-3-[methoxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000] (DMG-PEG) to attenuate these effects. Here, we evaluated whether substituting DMG-PEG for DSPE-PEG in our R8-PLP would improve in vitro cellular delivery and gene transfection without compromising in vitro critical quality attributes (CQAs) or increasing cytotoxicity. Methods: CQAs [encapsulation efficiency (EE%), particle size (nm), homogeneity (polydispersity index; PDI), and membrane zeta-potential] were assessed at assembly and after storage for up to 28 days at 4 °C. Additionally, in-serum stability at 4 °C and serum release kinetics at 37 °C were assessed. Human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) were treated with R8-PLPs and analyzed for cellular uptake (fluorometry), cytotoxicity (LIVE/DEAD stain), and gene modulation (qPCR). Results: DMG-PEG incorporation at variable mol% did not alter R8-PLP size, homogeneity, or siRNA EE% at assembly or after long-term storage, but did accelerate siRNA release kinetic profiles compared to DSPE-PEG controls. DMG-PEG substitution enhanced cellular uptake compared to DSPE-PEG R8-PLPs without increasing cytotoxicity. DMG-PEG incorporation also achieved significant silencing versus non-treated controls but did not improve gene silencing compared to DSPE-PEG R8-PLPs. Conclusions: Thus, DMG-PEG substitution did not enhance R8-PLP in vitro gene modulation efficacy despite improving cellular uptake and maintaining CQAs. Full article

The main objective of this article is to conduct a literature review on the use of open innovation (OI) for green transition to identify tools and methods that can make green transition more effective, efficient, and socially acceptable. This review is accompanied by an attempt to answer the following research questions: R1. How can open innovation be used in the economy and by individual entities to achieve the goals of the green transition? R2. How can individual stakeholders be activated and motivated to participate in the process of creating open innovation for the green transition? and R3. What are the real effects of using open innovation on a macroeconomic, social, and individual scale? The results allow concluding that OI is used by enterprises, cities, regions, and entire economies. Among the methods of activating and motivating individual stakeholders to engage in the process of creating OI for green transition, the following can be selected: (1) internal resources and competencies (knowledge management, internal programs, open leadership, trust, complementarity of resources); (2) partnership characteristics (modern business models, involvement of partnership intermediaries, strengthening relationships with suppliers and customers, involvement of prosumers, cooperation with universities and research institutions); (3) external legal and regulatory conditions (protection of intellectual property rights, pro-innovation and pro-environmental education systems, creation of a legal framework for cooperation between science and business); and (4) external technical and organizational solutions (online platforms, social media, Living Labs, external sources of knowledge). The most frequently mentioned individual effects of open innovation in the energy sector include: improved efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness in environmental management and the implementation of sustainable development, as well as the use of modern technologies. At the economic level, OI supports investment and economic growth. It can also have a positive impact on reducing energy poverty and developing renewable energy sources, including in emerging economies. This form of innovation also promotes social integration and the creation of social values. The findings of this review can be utilized by scholars to identify current and future research directions. They may also prove valuable for practitioners as both an incentive to engage in open innovation and guidance for its design and implementation. Furthermore, the results can contribute to disseminating knowledge about open innovation and its role in the green transformation. Full article

Extreme climate events like droughts and floods are creating urgent challenges for sectors such as Agriculture or water management. Effective adaptation requires stakeholder collaboration, supported by stakeholder analysis (SA) methods, which are still evolving in environmental management. We briefly reviewed examples of recent existing systematic evidence syntheses on SA across different domains. This highlighted several SA challenges, including the lack of transparent, common methods—particularly for climate-induced extreme events—and weak links between SA results and policy or practice. We then present a case study that illustrates these challenges and suggests ways to address them. Cooperating with a local network organisation, the Living Lab Schouwen-Duiveland (LAB), we conducted a case study on the island of Schouwen-Duiveland (NL), which is trying to adapt to drought. Applying a novel stakeholder analysis method, the “Rings of involvement”, which enables the visualisation of stakeholders’ levels of affectedness regarding the issue, we were able to identify and categorise the stakeholder network in a systematic manner. We identified stakeholder groups, such as “Implementers”, who are not yet in the network but likely hold key practical knowledge to address local-regional climate adaptation. This calls for a better institutionalisation of and a more dynamic approach to SA in the local climate change adaptation practices. Based on our case study, we suggest that future studies could explore under which conditions a network organisation (such as the LAB) acts as a dynamic platform for facilitating stakeholder knowledge co-production. Full article

Students and educators spend considerable time in indoor learning spaces on university campuses, where indoor air quality (IAQ), of which particulate matter (PM) is an important component, is a critical concern that architecture students must address. However, IAQ is seldom monitored and very rarely, if at all, reported in these spaces. We used a novel living lab approach to provide third-year students of building services with a hands-on learning activity. During a two-week monitoring period, students designed, assembled, and operated low-cost PM sensors using Arduino platforms. The data analysis showed hotspots where the IAQ was consistently compromised and showed repetitive patterns in time. Workshop and laboratory areas repeatedly recorded the highest PM levels in 15 min sampling events distributed over daily two-hour segments, averaging 43.3 and 47.9 μg/m³ PM₁₀, respectively, with maxima of 118.6 and 119.9 μg/m³ PM₁₀. These measurements would have qualified as ‘moderate’ IAQ if sustained over a full day. A distinct weekly pattern was discovered, with Mondays being worse. The results demonstrated a new practical approach to monitoring the building’s IAQ at minimal cost while obtaining reproducible data. This tool provided educators with a valuable teaching tool that provided students with a deeper understanding of indoor air pollution. Full article

This study focuses on living labs as ‘platforms for co-creation (i.e., platform-level living labs)’, in which multiple co-creation projects on diverse social issues are promoted through mutual interaction. The long-term operation of such a platform-level living lab is important for achieving social innovation and transformation through the living lab approach; however, methods and tools to support its sustainable management and operation have not been developed. Therefore, this study aims to identify key elements and develop a tool for the sustainable operation and management of platform-level living labs. It undertakes a qualitative analysis of data collected from in-depth interviews conducted with experts who have organised actual cases of long-term practising platform-level living labs in Japan. We also conduct a case-based application of the developed canvas tool and find that it enables us to consider various perspectives that are important when setting up and managing a platform-level living lab. This study also provides a ‘first step’ for further discussions on a methodology for the integrated use of multi-level canvases in the sustainable management of platform-level living labs. Full article

This paper presents the design and development of a flexible hyper-distributed IoT–Edge–Cloud computing platform for real-time Digital Twins in real logistics and industrial environments, intended as a novel living lab and testbed for future 6G applications. It expands the limited capabilities of IoT devices with extended Cloud and Edge computing functionalities, creating an IoT–Edge–Cloud continuum platform composed of multiple stakeholder solutions, in which vertical application developers can take full advantage of the computing resources of the infrastructure. The platform is built together with a private 5G network to connect machines and sensors on a large scale. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are used to allocate computing resources for real-time services by an end-to-end intelligent orchestrator, and real-time distributed analytic tools leverage Edge computing platforms to support different types of Digital Twin applications for logistics and industry, such as immersive remote driving, with specific characteristics and features. Performance evaluations demonstrated the platform’s capability to support the high-throughput communications required for Digital Twins, achieving user-experienced rates close to the maximum theoretical values, up to 552 Mb/s for the downlink and 87.3 Mb/s for the uplink in the n78 frequency band. Moreover, the platform’s support for Digital Twins was validated via QoE assessments conducted on an immersive remote driving prototype, which demonstrated high levels of user satisfaction in key dimensions such as presence, engagement, control, sensory integration, and cognitive load. Full article

Smart grids play an important role for energy management by directly supporting the socio-ecological transition of neighbourhoods. This research provides the design of a coordination model to enable the management and exchange of electrical energy between producers and consumers at a micro-grid level. This model, which derives from the SAPERE coordination model, allows the intelligent digital twins to interact and generate services on the fly to meet different needs in real time. We have designed producer and consumer digital twins, which autonomously generate supply contracts in the form of a transaction, and supervisor digital twins, which regulate energy at the node level, managing threshold violations and proactively avoiding future threshold violations by using predictions. This coordination model allows energy exchanges in a single node and in a micro-grid structure that contains several neighbouring nodes. We have implemented and tested the platform with realistic data, based on the consumption statistics of a real household, and with real data, collected in the living-lab of “Les Vergers” located near Geneva. The results show that the combination of a coordination model and intelligent digital twins actually supports self-adaptive energy management in a smart grid. Such approaches are fundamental to develop efficient and reliable smart grids. Full article

The emergence of smart cities has illuminated positive expectations, such as the solving of urban problems through information and communications technology (ICT). Behind the spotlight of the smart city, not everybody is enjoying the smart infrastructure owing to knowledge gaps such as the digital divide. Living labs provide a new platform for smart cities that can prevent the failure of urban development. They give citizens a better understanding of how to adapt to life in a smart city, enabling the development of smart cities that are more likely to succeed through a participatory approach. In this way, the competencies of participants may affect the success of a living lab. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research on improving participants’ knowledge through living labs. This study aims to examine how participation in an urban living lab influences the knowledge level of photovoltaic power generation and to identify the influencing factors. Our empirical study shows that the knowledge level of solar power technology improved through participation in a living lab. Additionally, the results indicate that the types of activity programs in the living lab were not associated with knowledge acquisition. Full article

When dealing with seismic risk assessment at a large scale, the collection of relevant building data is still deemed a challenging task, often leading to limited building knowledge and, consequently, high uncertainties. Therefore, innovative yet standardized frameworks and adaptive tools are needed to support the seismic risk assessment of buildings. Towards this goal, this paper proposes a simplified multi-knowledge seismic assessment methodology involving the analytical-mechanical SLaMA (Simple Lateral Mechanism Analysis) method. An ad-hoc data collection form is first developed to identify the building vulnerabilities by merging and building on existing institutional forms at the international level and integrating new input data. The data are then used to implement the SLaMA-based methodology, at different building knowledge levels, to assess the seismic safety and the economic losses of buildings. The proposed data structure and approach is planned to be included in the “Seismic-Response” module for PELL (Public Energy Living Lab)-School platform, aiming to become a standardized and interoperable database for relevant data of Italian schools and a dashboard for allowing stakeholders to continuously monitor their energetic and static/seismic conditions. The paper discusses the potential and effectiveness of the proposed procedure for large-scale applications and its integration into platforms assessing the energy efficiency of buildings. Full article

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is one of the most demanding IoT applications. The insertion of industries in the context of smart cities and other smart environments, allied with new communication technologies such as 5G, brings a new horizon of possibilities and new requirements. These requirements include low latency, the support of a massive quantity of devices and data, and the need to support horizontal communications between devices at the edge level. To make this feasible, it is necessary to establish an IIoT-to-cloud continuum distributing federated brokers across the infrastructure and providing scalability and interoperability. To attend this type of application, we present the Helix Multi-layered IoT platform and its operating modes. We report and discuss its real-world deployment in the Aveiro Tech City Living Lab in Aveiro, Portugal with functional and performance tests. We tested device-to-device communication across edge and core layers and also interconnected the infrastructure with one in São Paulo, Brazil, replicating the use of a global industry. The successful deployment validates the use of a Helix Multi-layered IoT platform as a suitable backend platform for IIoT applications capable of establishing the IIoT-to-cloud continuum. It also helps for the deployment of other applications in such a domain. Full article

By observing the activity of anti-cancer agents directly in tumors, there is potential to greatly expand our understanding of drug response and develop more personalized cancer treatments. Implantable microdevices (IMD) have been recently developed to deliver microdoses of chemotherapeutic agents locally into confined regions of live tumors; the tissue can be subsequently removed and analyzed to evaluate drug response. This method has the potential to rapidly screen multiple drugs, but requires surgical tissue removal and only evaluates drug response at a single timepoint when the tissue is excised. Here, we describe a “lab-in-a-tumor” implantable microdevice (LIT-IMD) platform to image cell-death drug response within a live tumor, without requiring surgical resection or tissue processing. The LIT-IMD is inserted into a live tumor and delivers multiple drug microdoses into spatially discrete locations. In parallel, it locally delivers microdose levels of a fluorescent cell-death assay, which diffuses into drug-exposed tissues and accumulates at sites of cell death. An integrated miniaturized fluorescence imaging probe images each region to evaluate drug-induced cell death. We demonstrate ability to evaluate multi-drug response over 8 h using murine tumor models and show correlation with gold-standard conventional fluorescence microscopy and histopathology. This is the first demonstration of a fully integrated platform for evaluating multiple chemotherapy responses in situ. This approach could enable a more complete understanding of drug activity in live tumors, and could expand the utility of drug-response measurements to a wide range of settings where surgery is not feasible. Full article

Lab-on-a-chip biological platforms have been intensively developed during the last decade since emerging technologies have offered possibilities to manufacture reliable devices with increased spatial resolution and 3D configurations. These biochips permit testing chemical reactions with nanoliter volumes, enhanced sensitivity in analysis and reduced consumption of reagents. Due to the high peak intensity that allows multiphoton absorption, ultrafast lasers can induce local modifications inside transparent materials with high precision at micro- and nanoscale. Subtractive manufacturing based on laser internal modification followed by wet chemical etching can directly fabricate 3D micro-channels in glass materials. On the other hand, additive laser manufacturing by two-photon polymerization of photoresists can grow 3D polymeric micro- and nanostructures with specific properties for biomedical use. Both transparent materials are ideal candidates for biochips that allow exploring phenomena at cellular levels while their processing with a nanoscale resolution represents an excellent opportunity to get more insights on biological aspects. We will review herein the laser fabrication of transparent microfluidic and optofluidic devices for biochip applications and will address challenges associated with their potential. In particular, integrated micro- and optofluidic systems will be presented with emphasis on the functionality for biological applications. It will be shown that ultrafast laser processing is not only an instrument that can tailor appropriate 3D environments to study living microorganisms and to improve cell detection or sorting but also a tool to fabricate appropriate biomimetic structures for complex cellular analyses. New advances open now the avenue to construct miniaturized organs of desired shapes and configurations with the goal to reproduce life processes and bypass in vivo animal or human testing. Full article

In this work, context aware scenarios applied to e-Health and m-Health in the framework of typical households (urban and rural) by means of deploying Social Sensors will be described. Interaction with end-users and social/medical staff is achieved using a multi-signal input/output device, capable of sensing and transmitting environmental, biomedical or activity signals and information with the aid of a combined Bluetooth and Mobile system platform. The devices, which play the role of Social Sensors, are implemented and tested in order to guarantee adequate service levels in terms of multiple signal processing tasks as well as robustness in relation with the use wireless transceivers and channel variability. Initial tests within a Living Lab environment have been performed in order to validate overall system operation. The results obtained show good acceptance of the proposed system both by end users as well as by medical and social staff, increasing interaction, reducing overall response time and social inclusion levels, with a compact and moderate cost solution that can readily be largely deployed. Full article