From Perception to Reality: Overcoming Toxicity Barriers in Healthcare Material Innovation

Bibliometric analysis of Mongolian medicine and medicinal materials in China since 2000

"Medicine and food homology" is a precious health care concept rooted in the culture of Chinese medicine and plays an important role in the development of the national health industry. It is consistent with the current global trend that food and medicine are mutually penetrating. Accordingly, the Chinese medicinal materials with edible values have an increasing production scale. Especially, in the context that the development of Chinese medicinal materials is switching from pursuing quantity to quality, the food field has become the main market for the new production capacity of Chinese medicinal materials, which has presented a broad prospect. However, the quality standards of raw materials, production methods, and administration ways vary between the materials for edible and medicinal purposes. Specifically, the food for medicinal use on the market cannot meet the quality standards of medicinal mate-rials, while the medicinal materials fail to meet the taste requirements as food. As a result, these problems cause difficulties in market circulation and supervision. In this paper, we analyzed the formation of Chinese medicinal materials with edible values, compared the food with medicinal value, common food, and functional food, and analyzed the different quality requirements of Chinese medicinal materials used in different scenarios. Further, we advised the differential development of Chinese medicinal materials in different directions(edible or medicinal use) from production to supervision. Including:(1) In the variety registration of Chinese medicinal materials with edible values, the variety breeding direction should be announced according to the requirements that medicinal materials care more about the content of active ingredients and food use materials preferentially need to meet the requirements of edible palatability.(2) Differentiation can be reflected in the selection of cultivation mode and planting and processing technology of medicinal materials, The differential production technical specification of medicinal materials with edible values should be developed. Such as the "simulated cultivation" mode is encouraged in the plant of medicinal materials to ensure its quality and the strict management of inputs and sufficient cultivation years should be guaranteed. While for edible medicinal materials, more kinds of cultivation techniques can be selected according to their processing methods.(3) The market supervision of medicinal materials with edible values should be guided by the purpose of their sales and use, which depends on the accurately recognize of the relationship between the properties of medicinal materials with edible values and the situation of pharmacopeia collection.(4) During publicity, when used as ordinary food and health food medi-cinal materials, it should be noticed that the publicity of the product's efficacy must meet the requirements of corresponding regulations.

Bioinspiration Across All Length Scales of Materials.

Characterizing human health and ecological impacts of chemicals from multiple emission sectors: A simple integrated approach

Exotic medicinal plants from the Silk Road promote the diversification of traditional Chinese medicines

LIMITED DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS Paralleling the limited concept of teaching objectives in general, the development of innovative instructional materials has been equally limited. A body of research related to cognitive processes and learning has been developing, but the theoretical ideas that have stimulated this research have not been tested in the development of teaching materials. Although the development of new materials has grown as a response to some of the main problems of education today, research on the cognitive processes has been little considered for the contribution it can make toward the writing of effective materials. Innovative materials have been written for many fields of study including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, English, and some areas of social studies, but they are developed on the basis of dissatisfaction with present materials. A general theory for generating the materials does not exist.

Using reclaimed water from treated wastewater as an irrigation source is gaining popularity in arid and semi-arid areas. However, life cycle assessment studies, utilizing experimental data to analyze the environmental and health impacts of crops irrigated with reclaimed water, are lacking. This study presents the first comparative life cycle assessment of corn, soybean and wheat systems irrigated with groundwater and reclaimed water in Northern China. While the life cycle foreground inventory was based on a combination of experimental and modeling datasets, the life cycle background inventory was compiled with commercially available data packages augmented with Chinese electricity mix data. The life cycle impact analyses were based on the characterization factors from state-of-art life cycle impact assessment models. The analyses indicated that the life cycle global warming impacts of the crop systems ranged from 0.37 to 0.64 kg CO2-eq/kg grain, with reclaimed water irrigated soybean and ground water irrigated wheat exhibiting, respectively, the lowest and highest global warming impacts. Irrigation, farming equipment operation, on-field emissions and fertilizer production ranked as top contributors to the life cycle impacts for corn, soybean, and wheat. The comparative analyses of irrigation sources suggested that significant environmental tradeoffs existed. Replacing groundwater with reclaimed water as the irrigation source significantly decreased life cycle global warming, acidification, ozone depletion, smog formation, and respiratory impacts of corn, soybean and wheat systems. However, replacing groundwater with reclaimed water increased the life cycle noncancer impacts of those systems. Coordinating policies within the water–food–health nexus is required, in order to minimize the environmental tradeoffs, while maximizing the benefits of irrigation with reclaimed water.

A rapid development of ultrasonography has enabled physicians to make earlier prenatal diagnosis of various fetal congenital diseases, in maternal-fetal medicine. Due to the significant mortality and irreversible damage to fetal vital organs during pregnancy, fetal surgeries have been tried in some congenital disease including congenital diaphragmatic hernia, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), myelomeningocele (MMC), and lower urinary tract obstruction. However, open fetal surgery requires laparotomy followed by hysterotomy, which can cause preterm premature rupture of membrane (pPROM), oligohydramnios, preterm delivery, dehiscence of uterine wall, and other maternal complications during pregnancy. Minimally invasive approach using fetoscopy has been tried, and fetoscopic laser photocoagulation of vascular communications is currently considered as a treatment of choice for TTTS before 26weeks' gestation. However, more development of surgical instrument and innovative materials using tissue engineering are required to improve outcomes of fetoscopic surgery. Because iatrogenic pPROM is the major challenge after fetoscopic surgery, this review focuses on current development of materials for treatment of spontaneous or iatrogenic pPROM and recent experimental progress of tissue engineering-based technology in prenatal treatment of MMC. Placental tissue is an emerging material for regenerative medicine. This chapter will also review regenerative potential and experiments of placenta and placenta-derived stem cells, as well as prospects of "in utero stem cell therapy."

The International Symposium on Innovative Materials for Processes in Energy Systems, IMPRES, organized by IMPRES Committee and the Division of Energy Engineering, the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan (SCEJ), was held at Kyoto Research Park, Kyoto on 28th to 31st October, 2007. The symposium was designed to aid in the establishment of a sustainable energy society by catalysing the development of innovative energy materials. The symposium concept owes a part of its origin to an energy road map project which was discussed by a project group in the Division of Energy Engineering, SCEJ (Kameyam and Kato, 2005; Kato, 2007). The road map named HONEBUTO Energy Road Map was based on chemical engineering technologies, and attempted to investigate the shape of an ideal energy society in the future. The authors of the group realized the importance of innovative energy materials for the realization of such a society from the discussion. Although innovative materials are developing now in any technology fields, material developments in energy fields are still needed and such development would benefit from a systematic approach. This symposium, IMPRES, is aimed at responding to such needs. (See more in PDF.)

This study explores the potential of insect-derived sensory systems, bio-inspired robotics, and bio-inspired materials in advancing modern technology. Insects possess highly specialized sensory mechanisms and locomotion strategies that have evolved over millions of years, offering novel insights for the development of bio-electronic sensors, adaptive robots, and innovative materials. The study employs a combination of electrophysiological recordings, computational modeling, and bio-engineering techniques, including microfabrication of bio-sensors, neural interfacing for insect-controlled robotics, and genetic modifications for analyzing insect sensory mechanisms to investigate the sensory capabilities of insects such as honeybees, fruit flies, and cockroaches. The findings reveal that insect olfactory receptors, mechanosensory systems, and locomotion patterns can be effectively mimicked in bio-hybrid robots and bio-inspired materials. These bio-inspired systems demonstrated enhanced chemical detection capabilities, multi-terrain adaptability, and efficient material properties. Furthermore, insect-derived nanostructures were successfully replicated to create superhydrophobic surfaces and energy-efficient photonic materials. This study underscores the vast potential of biomimicry in addressing intricate engineering challenges, including the development of sustainable materials, adaptive robotics, and advanced sensing technologies However, scalability and ethical considerations remain key challenges for the widespread adoption of insect-inspired systems. The integration of AI, computational modeling, and bio-engineering presents a promising pathway toward next-generation technologies.

The application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to analyze the environmental impact to different swine waste treatment systems was investigated. The first part of LCA is to organize an inventory of parameters and emissions released due to the system under investigation. In the following step of the Life Cycle Impact Assessment, the inventory data were analyzed and aggregated in order to finally get one index representing the total environmental burden. For the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) the Eco-indicator 95 method has been chosen because this is well documented and regularly applied impact method. Two different swine waste treatment systems such as aerobic and anaerobic digestion systems were chosen as an example for the life cycle impact analysis. For establishing the parameters to be assessed the agricultural environmental effects to above swine waste treatment systems, it has been observed that there was high at T-P emission in anaerobic digestion system and emission in aerobic digestion system. For Eco-indicator values per environmental effect for swine waste treatment systems related to one tonne of swine waste, it was shown that there was a negative index for global warm potential and soil acidification in aerobic digestion system, but relatively high positive index for eutrophication in anaerobic digestion system.

How we manage alternative freshwater resources to close the gap between water supply and demand is pivotal to the future of the environment and human well-being. Increased scarcity of water for agricultural irrigation in semi-arid and arid regions has resulted in a growing interest in water reuse practices. However, insight into the life cycle impacts and potential trade-offs of these emerging practices are still limited by the paucity of systematic evaluations of different water reuse implementations. In this study, a host of environmental and human health impacts at three implementation levels of allowing water reclamation for crop irrigation was comparatively evaluated across the operational landscape via a combination of scenario modelling, life-cycle impact analyses and Monte Carlo simulations. Net harvesting of reclaimed water for irrigation was found to be dependent upon the sophistication of the treatment processes, since multistage and complex configurations can cause greater direct water consumption during processing. Further, the direct benefits of water resource recovery can be essentially offset by indirect adverse impacts, such as mineral depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, ecotoxicity, and human health risks, which are associated with increased usage of energy and chemicals for rigorous removal of contaminants, such as heavy metals and contaminants of emerging concern. Nonetheless, expanded simulations suggest the significance of concurrently implementing energy recovery, nutrient recycling, and/or nature-based, chemical-free water technologies to reduce the magnitude of negative impacts from engineered water reclamation processes.

Life cycle assessment of 50 MW wind firms and strategies for impact reduction

This book provides a contemporary research-led overview of the applications of inorganic materials in biomedicine. It begins with a short introduction summarising key concepts in inorganic materials (layered materials, framework materials etc.), and explaining the need for new materials in medicine. It then discusses the key areas in which inorganic materials have been applied, considering: drug delivery; imaging; diagnostics and theranostics; hard matter restoration; and vaccines. Each chapter gives an overview of the major extant challenges in the research area, before presenting a systematic review of how inorganic materials have been applied to gain traction in the field. A clear focus is maintained on the fate of the applied materials in vivo, clinical considerations, and the path to translation from lab to clinic. With contributions from leading researchers, Biomedical Applications of Inorganic Materials will provide a comprehensive introduction for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers wishing to learn about the topic.

Recent development and research priorities on cool and super cool materials to mitigate urban heat island