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From its inception, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), which is part of the broader Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has contributed to the development of international radiological protection norms and standards. This continues today, in the form of studies and workshops to assist radiological protection policy makers, regulators and practitioners to develop concepts and approaches to help the international system of radiological protection, as recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), to evolve to better serve societal needs. The NEA's Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH), in providing this support, has collaborated closely with the ICRP and strongly supports the current ICRP recommendation development process. In particular, active dialogue with a broad range of stakeholders is contributing to the evolution of concepts towards consensus on new ICRP recommendations. The CRPPH, as a body of ICRP recommendation practitioners, feels that the public, workers and the environment are well protected by the current radiological protection system, but agrees that a new consolidation and clarification of ICRP recommendations would be of value. The intent of the CRPPH in collaborating with ICRP is to develop a system of radiological protection that is simplified, more coherent, firmly based upon science and more clearly presented than the current system. This paper summarises the more detailed views of the CRPPH on the evolution of the system of radiological protection.

The fast decay in PEM fuel cells of a highly active, high performance, but unstable Fe/N/C catalyst like our NC_Ar + NH3 follows a chemical, not an electrochemical, demetallation mechanism for its ORR active FeN4 sites in the catalyst micropores.

Lipase‐catalyzed transesterification of triglycerides and alcohols to obtain biodiesel is an environmentally friendly and sustainable route for fuels production since, besides proceeding in mild reaction conditions, it allows for the use of low‐cost feedstocks that contain water and free fatty acids, for example non‐edible oils and waste oils. This review article reports recent advances in the field and focus in particular on a major issue in the enzymatic process, the inactivation of most lipases caused by methanol, the preferred acyl acceptor used for alcoholysis. The recent results about immobilization of enzymes on nano‐materials and the use of whole‐cell biocatalysts, as well as the use of cell‐surface display technologies and metabolic engineering strategies for microbial production of biodiesel are described. It is discussed also insight into the effects of methanol on lipases obtained by modeling approaches and report on studies aimed at mining novel alcohol stable enzymes or at improving robustness in existing ones by protein engineering.

Biotechnology can greatly improve the efficiency of forest tree breeding for the production of biomass, energy, and materials. However, EU regulations impede the market introduction of genetically modified (GM) trees so their socioeconomic and environmental benefits are not realized. European policy makers should concentrate on a science-based regulatory process.

Significance Bioethanol produced from waste biomass from crops has the potential to provide a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based transportation fuel that does not compete with human food supply. The main obstacle to this approach is the resistance of this biomass to digestion. Thus, expensive energetic pretreatment and high enzyme inputs are needed to increase digestion. In this study, we screened a population of randomly mutated plants for digestibility with the aim of identifying novel factors that impact on this trait. We found a number of mutants with high digestibility and no impairments in growth or fitness. These mutants show a range of alterations in cell-wall composition, and we have mapped and characterized the mutant with the highest increase in digestibility.

To contribute to the debate on climate-proof urban regeneration, the illustrated study seeks to understand how the provision of new multiscalar, multidimensional, and integrated planning tools based on sustainable and resilient strategies can guarantee high levels of urban, environmental, and energy efficiency and quality, as well as circularity of resources, counteracting the effects deriving from climate change. Starting from some regulatory and design references that integrate a new ecologically oriented city model into the planning of urban projects, the contribution identifies in the construction of green and blue infrastructures (GI) new design metaphors capable of improving biodiversity; favoring ecological and energy transition; restoring the quality of the air, water, and soil environmental matrices with natural solutions; and making cities truly inclusive, sustainable, and resilient. The methodology adopted for the design of the “Acilia–Madonnetta” Urban and Metropolitan Centrality in the Municipality of Rome simulates a planning process for part of the X Municipality by applying an iterative and interscalar logic, an articulation of levels and phases with the aim of prefiguring the construction of a GI characterized by new ecological-environmental and functional endowments strictly related to the promotion of an efficient, smart, and green city. The contribution highlights the potential and limits of the proposed experimentation, relating both to the quality and innovation of design solutions and possible evolutionary lines and to the lack of clear institutional governance that is limiting the implementation of projects.

The nature of the highly efficient energy transfer in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes is a subject of intense research. Unfortunately, the low fluorescence efficiency and limited photostability hampers the study of individual light-harvesting complexes at ambient conditions. Here we demonstrate an over 500-fold fluorescence enhancement of light-harvesting complex 2 (LH2) at the single-molecule level by coupling to a gold nanoantenna. The resonant antenna produces an excitation enhancement of circa 100 times and a fluorescence lifetime shortening to ~20 ps. The radiative rate enhancement results in a 5.5-fold-improved fluorescence quantum efficiency. Exploiting the unique brightness, we have recorded the first photon antibunching of a single light-harvesting complex under ambient conditions, showing that the 27 bacteriochlorophylls coordinated by LH2 act as a non-classical single-photon emitter. The presented bright antenna-enhanced LH2 emission is a highly promising system to study energy transfer and the role of quantum coherence at the level of single complexes.