Thenext Generation Research Articles

An Overview of Thrombin Inhibitors in the Perspective of Structureactivity Relationships.

Thrombosis is one of the most important pathogenic factors related to cardiovascular diseases. Presently, thrombin inhibitors have gradually gained prominence in clinical practice due to their unique potential, such as dabigatran. Nevertheless, the risk of bleeding is not completely eliminated, and the threats of gastrointestinal bleeding are even increased in some cases. Therefore, developing new oral thrombin inhibitors with low side effects is urgent. In this paper, we summarized recent advances in the newly synthesized and isolated thrombin inhibitors from 2000 to 2019 and their structure-activity relationships (SARs) along with structure-dependent pharmacokinetic parameters, guiding the next generation of oral thrombin inhibitors.

CREATIVITIES AND INNOVATIVE SKILLS IN HOME ECONOMICS

The purpose of the study was to examine creativities and innovative skills in Home Economics. The studyfocused on Home Economics as one subject that adequately equips individuals and groups thoughcreativities and innovative skill for gainful employment and self actualization. It explored the various waysHome Economics can enhance entrepreneurial skills, wealth creation and poverty alleviation. . It focuseson mission, rewards, goals, objectives and components of Home Economics. The paper fully examined theconcept and the importance of Home Economics Education as creative and innovative for skills acquisition.This will promote income earnings for individuals and families thereby reducing unemployment, poverty,economic hardship and restoring dignity and hope to the educated, uneducated and families. It was thereforerecommended among others that Home Economics education should provide necessary link to employ thenext generation through creativities and innovative skills, Government ought to introduce innovativeprograms and new trends to aid the knowledge of the society and Tertiary institutions in the nation shouldbe massively empowered with the important resources or materials to improve the capabilities of graduatesfor creative and innovative skills

The complete mitochondrial genome of Melanostoma mellinum (Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera: Syrphidae) and phylogenetic analysis

In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Melanostoma mellinum (Linnaeus, 1758) was sequenced using the-next generation sequencing technology. The assembled mitogenome of M. mellinum has a total length of 16,055bp and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs). The results of phylogenetic reconstruction based on the combined mitochondrial gene dataset indicated that M. mellinum belongs to Melanostoma genus with a close relationship to Melanostoma orientale, but the monophyly of the tribe Bacchini is not well supported.

The Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) airborne field campaign

Abstract. In the fall of 2017, an airborne field campaign was conducted from the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, to advance the remote sensing of aerosols and clouds with multi-angle polarimeters (MAP) and lidars. The Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) campaign was jointly sponsored by NASA and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON). Six instruments were deployed on the ER-2 high-altitude aircraft. Four were MAPs: the Airborne Hyper Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (AirHARP), the Airborne Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (AirMSPI), the Airborne Spectrometer for Planetary EXploration (SPEX airborne), and the Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP). The remainder were lidars, including the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) and the High Spectral Resolution Lidar 2 (HSRL-2). The southern California base of ACEPOL enabled observation of a wide variety of scene types, including urban, desert, forest, coastal ocean, and agricultural areas, with clear, cloudy, polluted, and pristine atmospheric conditions. Flights were performed in coordination with satellite overpasses and ground-based observations, including the Ground-based Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (GroundMSPI), sun photometers, and a surface reflectance spectrometer. ACEPOL is a resource for remote sensing communities as they prepare for the next generation of spaceborne MAP and lidar missions. Data are appropriate for algorithm development and testing, instrument intercomparison, and investigations of active and passive instrument data fusion. They are freely available to the public. The DOI for the primary database is https://doi.org/10.5067/SUBORBITAL/ACEPOL2017/DATA001 (ACEPOL Science Team, 2017), while for AirMSPI it is https://doi.org/10.5067/AIRCRAFT/AIRMSPI/ACEPOL/RADIANCE/ELLIPSOID_V006 and https://doi.org/10.5067/AIRCRAFT/AIRMSPI/ACEPOL/RADIANCE/TERRAIN_V006 (ACEPOL AirMSPI 75 Science Team, 2017a, b). GroundMSPI data are at https://doi.org/10.5067/GROUND/GROUNDMSPI/ACEPOL/RADIANCE_v009 (GroundMSPI Science Team, 2017). Table 3 lists further details of these archives. This paper describes ACEPOL for potential data users and also provides an outline of requirements for future field missions with similar objectives.

The Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter (CRISTAL) high-priority candidate mission

Abstract. The Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter (CRISTAL) mission is one of six high-priority candidate missions (HPCMs) under consideration by the European Commission to enlarge the Copernicus Space Component. Together, the high-priority candidate missions fill gaps in the measurement capability of the existing Copernicus Space Component to address emerging and urgent user requirements in relation to monitoring anthropogenic CO2 emissions, polar environments, and land surfaces. The ambition is to enlarge the Copernicus Space Component with the high-priority candidate missions in the mid-2020s to provide enhanced continuity of services in synergy with the next generation of the existing Copernicus Sentinel missions. CRISTAL will carry a dual-frequency synthetic-aperture radar altimeter as its primary payload for measuring surface height and a passive microwave radiometer to support atmospheric corrections and surface-type classification. The altimeter will have interferometric capabilities at Ku-band for improved ground resolution and a second (non-interferometric) Ka-band frequency to provide information on snow layer properties. This paper outlines the user consultations that have supported expansion of the Copernicus Space Component to include the high-priority candidate missions, describes the primary and secondary objectives of the CRISTAL mission, identifies the key contributions the CRISTAL mission will make, and presents a concept – as far as it is already defined – for the mission payload.

OPTIMAL VOLTAGE PROFILE FOR HEMISPHERICAL DEFLECTOR ENERGY ANALYZERS USING GENETIC ALGORITHM

In this study, the genetic algorithm (GA) method is used to optimize the hemispherical deflector analyzer, which can analyze according to the energies of charged particles. The GA inspired by evolutionary codes consists of the population of individuals. At each step, the GA, selects the population individuals as parents and uses them to produce children for the next generation. Thus throughout generations, the population evolves to an optimal solution. The purpose of this study is to achieve the best voltage profile for the 180° hemispherical energy analyzers through the voltage equations of the energy analyzer. The best voltage values ​​for the 180˚ hemispherical deflector analyzer, which is the most used analyzer in experimental studies, are found with high accuracy in this study. Optimization of a complex electron optical system, such as an analyzer system with a GA, has been achieved using voltage equations and has been found to work very well given the difficulty of the problem. In contrast to other techniques in the literature, the best voltage profile is obtained in a short time by means of the proposed GA method.

Dual-polarized quantitative precipitation estimation as a function of range

Abstract. Since the advent of dual-polarization radar technology, many studies have been conducted to determine the extent to which the differential reflectivity (ZDR) and specific differential phase shift (KDP) add benefits to estimating rain rates (R) compared to reflectivity (Z) alone. It has been previously noted that this new technology provides significant improvement to rain-rate estimation, primarily for ranges within 125 km of the radar. Beyond this range, it is unclear as to whether the National Weather Service (NWS) conventional R(Z)-convective algorithm is superior, as little research has investigated radar precipitation estimate performance at larger ranges. The current study investigates the performance of three radars – St. Louis (KLSX), Kansas City (KEAX), and Springfield (KSGF), MO – with 15 tipping bucket gauges serving as ground truth to the radars. With over 300 h of precipitation data being analyzed for the current study, it was found that, in general, performance degraded with range beyond, approximately, 150 km from each of the radars. Probability of detection (PoD) in addition to bias values decreased, while the false alarm rates increased as range increased. Bright-band contamination was observed to play a potential role as large increases in the absolute bias and overall error values near 120 km for the cool season and 150 km in the warm season. Furthermore, upwards of 60 % of the total error was due to precipitation being falsely estimated, while 20 % of the total error was due to missed precipitation. Correlation coefficient values increased by as much as 0.4 when these instances were removed from the analyses (i.e., hits only). Overall, due to the lowest normalized standard error (NSE) of less than 1.0, a National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) R(Z,ZDR) equation was determined to be the most robust, while a R(ZDR,KDP) algorithm recorded NSE values as high as 5. The addition of dual-polarized technology was shown to estimate quantitative precipitation estimates (QPEs) better than the conventional equation. The analyses further our understanding of the strengths and limitations of the Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) system overall and from a seasonal perspective.

Growth factors, medicine and synthetic peptides

Biological pathways often have an important role in more than one process. Equally, processes that are essential for normal physiology are hijacked by diseases such as cancer. The same pathways that assist tumour growth, survival and spreading can be critically important for the recovery from injuries or other diseases. This means there are often two sides to consider in the research of these pathways. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a protein that has intrinsically a key role in pathways responsible for dynamic movement, reconstruction and survival of cells for tissue regeneration. In tumour tissues, however, these actions of HGF participate in tumour spreading, metastasis and resistance against anticancer drugs. At the forefront of Matsumoto's research is the potential targeting of HGF and its receptor MET in regeneration and cancer, leading to drug discovery. He started bioventure to facilitate his research to clinical application. Clinical trials of HGF protein for treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/ALS and spinal cord injury are ongoing. He recently discovered artificial HGF composed of synthetic peptides. The artificial HGF can be the next generation biological drug by chemical synthesis. Peptides targeting HGF-MET pathway will be invaluable in the drug discovery for diagnosis and therapeutics of cancer.

An evidence-based review of the genotoxic and reproductive effects of sulfur mustard.

Sulfur mustard (SM) is a chemical warfare agent which is cytotoxic in nature, and at the molecular level, SM acts as DNA alkylating agent leading to genotoxic and reproductive effects. Mostly, the exposed areas of the body are the main targets for SM; however, it also adversely affects various tissues of the body and ultimately exhibits long-term complications including genotoxic and reproductive effects, even in thenext generations. The effect of SM on reproductive system is the reason behind male infertility. The chronic genotoxic and reproductive complications of SM have been observed in thenext generation, such as reproductive hormones disturbances, testicular atrophy, deficiency of spermcells, retarded growth of sperm and male infertility. SM exerts toxic effects through various mechanisms causing reproductive dysfunction. The key mechanisms include DNA alkylation, production of reactive oxygen species(ROS) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide(NAD) depletion. However, the exact molecular mechanism of such long-term effects of SM is still unclear. In general, DNA damage, cell death and defects in the cell membrane are frequently observed in SM-exposed individuals. SM can activate various cellular and molecular mechanisms related to oxidative stress(OS) and inflammatory responses throughout the reproductive system, which can cause decreased spermatogenesis and impaired sperm quality via damage to tissue function and structure. Moreover, the toxic effects of SM on the reproductive system as well as the occurrence of male infertility among exposed war troopers in the late exposure phase is still uncertain. The chronic effects of SM exposure in parents can cause congenital defects in their children. In this review, we aimed to investigate chronic genotoxic and reproductive effects of SM and their molecular mechanisms in the next generations.

Enhanced thermoelectric power in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers

This paper was supported by the Funding Program for the Next Generation of World-Leading Researchers and Grantsin- Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) (Grants No. 16K13618, No. 26107533, No. 26102012, and No. 25000003) (T.T.) and the Leading Graduate Program in Science and Engineering, Waseda University from MEXT (J.P. and K.K.). J.P. was also supported by the Research Fellowship for Young Scientists from JSPS. L.J.L. acknowledges support from KAUST (Saudi Arabia), the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Taiwan Consortium of Emergent Crystalline, Academia Sinica, and the Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development (AOARD)-134137 (USA). H.O. was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science-Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JSPS-KAKENHI) (Grants No. 25246023 and No. 25106007) and the Asahi Glass Foundation. This paper was also supported in part by the Network Joint Research Center for Materials and Devices. S.O. was supported by JSPS-KAKENHI (Grants No. 25246010, No. 16H00898, and No. 16H06331).

On the Possibilities of Using Alternative Fuels in ICE Powered Lawn Mowers and Tractors to Meet Phase III Emissions Standards

There is a need to use alternative fuels in Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) powered lawn care equipment used around residential, office and reserved areas. This will enable this equipment to meet Phase III emissions standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. One method of reducing emissions from trimmers, lawn mowers, tractors and blowers is to use alcohol fuels in the next generation of ICE powered devices and also, to make it adaptable to operate on flex-fuels. These devices are not only a great source of noise pollution, they are also a major source of hydrocarbon, NOx and CO emissions in the residential neighbourhood from spring to the fall seasons, hence, the need to mandate the use of alcohol and flex fuels to lowers emissions. These changes will require a slight modification of the engine, by way of increasing the compression ratio on one hand, and modifying the fuel system: tank, fuel lines, and fuel dispensing system (carburetor) to meet flex-fuel requirements. This proposed engine modification will meet Phase 3 emissions standards as alcohol fuels possess superior combustion characteristics and lower emissions.

Keeping an eye on gold

Unlike the metal itself, the gold markets are always changingand you haveto haveyoureyeswideopento keepup. Thisisespecially true in the field of gold nanotechnology, wherescientists around the world are advancing our understandingof this special form of gold year in, year out.This special issue of Gold Bulletin offers a series of 16research articles describing cutting edge advances in the fieldof gold nanotechnology. The common thread of this work isthe GDR Or-nano, a research network set up in France in2006 with the support of CNRS (Centre National de laRecherche Scientifique, the French fundamental researchorganization). Or-nano (which stands for gold-nano) hasorganized and run a wide variety of meetings and eventsover the last 8 years, involving approximately 450 re-searchers along the way.The successes of Or-nano community are numerous andincludeavarietyofnewresearchcollaborations,thelaunchofnew projects, many invited lectures, and the training of thenext generation of PhD students and postdocs.In early 2013, a call to the community was issued forsubmissions to Gold Bulletin. After the usual review process,16 articles have been accepted, bringing together 86 authorsand 17 different research institutions into this special issue.This isa fairly accurate snapshot of the work achievedbyOr-

Planned Parenthood and the Next Generation of Feminist Activists

Planned Parenthood and theNext Generation ofFeministActivists Dawn Laguens Julisa is twenty-three. She's a sociology major at the University of Texas-Pan American. She can't afford health insurance, and she relies on the Texas Women's Health Program—a program helping low income women access health care—to get her basic care and birth control. When the governor of Texas cut funding for the Texas Wom en's Health Program, and specifically targeted Planned Parenthood, Julisa didn't sit idly by: she became a youth activist, spoke at rallies, and traveled across the state to be trained on advocacy and leader ship so that she could better organize her fellow college students. She ignited a movement on her college campus. Julisa isn't alone. The unprecedented attacks on women's health over the last two years have given rise to a new generation of activists, and we have seen it firsthand at Planned Parenthood. We see the surge in youth support for women's health at every rally we hold around the coun try,and we see it every time we look at our Facebook and Twitter pages. We've gained 1.5 million new supporters who are more ethnically and generationally diverse than ever before. Over the past two years, we've almost doubled the number of Planned Parenthood campus chapters—including a significant uptick in involvement on histori cally black college campuses. In the last presidential election —when FeministStudies39, no. 1. © 2013 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 187 i88 Dawn Laguens women's health was a defining and decisive issue—young people voted in even greater numbers than they did in 2008. By a twenty three-point margin, they voted for President Obama, who made women's health a centerpiece of his campaign. It would not be a stretch to say that this is the most diverse and progressive generation we have seen in decades. For years, the conventional wisdom has been that feminism is yesterday's fight — that younger generations aren't as supportive or as engaged, particularly when it comes to abortion. It is simply not the case, though, that young people are less supportive of safe and legal abortion. What we have found is that young people think about—and talk about—these issues differently. If we want to continue expand ing our support with younger people, then we need to change the way we communicate with them. Nearly two-thirds of voters under thirty believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. Our own internal polls indicate that among eighteen to twenty-nine year olds, more than eight in ten say that the issue of abortion is important to them personally, a higher rate than any other age group. But this is also a generation that doesn't want to be labeled. They don't like being singularly defined by their political party, or their sexual orientation, or their views on abortion. Increasingly, the broader public—and particularly young adults— also no longer self-identifies as "pro-choice" or "pro-life." When Gallup released its annual poll using these terms, some media outlets rushed to report that the number of pro-choice Americans was in a sharp decline. "Americans have turned against abortion," screamed a head line in Nebraska's KearneyHub newspaper. In fact, what had dropped was just support for the label "pro-choice." The same Gallup poll that showed only 41 percent of people identifying as "pro-choice" also showed that fully 77 percent believe abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances. We have seen this trend of resisting labels in virtually all of the recent polling on the issue. A Quinnipiac poll taken in February 2012 found that nearly two-thirds of Americans support Roe v.Wade,with a mere 31 percent disagreeing with the historic court decision. But sim ilar polls that ask people about abortion in "pro-life" and "pro-choice" terms get varied and seemingly contradictory answers. Anywhere Dawn Laguens 189 from 41 to 54 percent of Americans say they're "pro-choice," with 38 to 50 percent saying they're "pro-life." A...

Cadmium sulfide nanowires for the window semiconductor layer in thin film CdS–CdTesolar cells

Thin film CdS/CdTe heterojunction device is a leading technology for the solar cells of thenext generation. We report on two novel device configurations for these cells where thetraditional CdS window layer is replaced by nanowires (NW) of CdS, embedded in analuminum oxide matrix or free-standing. An estimated 26.8% improvement in power conversionefficiency over the traditional device structure is expected, primarily because of the enhancedspectral transmission of sunlight through the NW-CdS layer and a reduction in the junctionarea/optical area ratio. In initial experiments, nanostructured devices of the two designs were fabricatedand a power conversion efficiency value of 6.5% was achieved.

Correlation between the performance and microstructure of Ti/Al/Ti/Au Ohmic contactsto p-type silicon nanowires

Understanding the electrical and microstructural aspects of contact formation atnanoscale is essential for the realization of low-resistance metallization suitable for thenext generation of nanowire based devices. In this study, we present detailedelectrical and microstructural characteristics of Ti/Al/Ti/Au metal contacts top-type Si nanowires (SiNWs) annealed at various temperatures. Focused ion beamcross-sectioning techniques and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)were used to determine the microstructure of the source/drain metal contactsof working SiNW field-effect transistors (FETs) annealed for 30 s in the 450–850 °C temperature range in inert atmosphere. Formation of titaniumsilicides is observed at the metal/semiconductor interface after the750 °C anneal. Extensive Si out-diffusion from the nanowire after the750 °C anneal led to Kirkendall void formation. Annealing at850 °C led to almost complete out-diffusion of Si from the nanowire core. Devices with550 °C annealed contacts had linear electrical characteristics; whereas the devices annealed at750 °C had the best characteristics in terms of linearity, symmetric behavior, and yield. Devices annealed at850 °C had poor yield, which can be directly attributed to the microstructure of the contact regionobserved in STEM.

Performance evaluation for connection oriented service in the next generation Internet

In this paper, the principle of connection oriented service in the next generation Internet is analyzed. Considering the finite capacity, a Geom/ G/1/K queueing model with Setup, Close Delay and Close Down is built based on the operating mechanism of the connection oriented service. By using the approach of embedded Markov chain and supplementary variable, this queueing model is analyzed. The probability distribution of the queue length and the Probability Generating Function (P.G.F.) of waiting time are derived under the steady state. Correspondingly, the performance measures in terms of average response time, blocking probability and system throughput of this connection oriented Internet service are given to describe the dependency relationships between these measures and the time length $T$ of the Close Delay timer mathematically. Both of the analytical results and the simulation results are provided to investigate and validate the influence of the system parameters on the system performance. The research work in this paper can provide theoretic bases for network design, network maintenance, network management and capacity design of the next generation network systems.

Preface for the Special Issue on “Geotectonic Evolution of the Japanese Islands under New Paradigms of theNext Generation (Part III)”

Preface for the Special Issue on “Geotectonic Evolution of the Japanese Islands under New Paradigms of theNext Generation (Part III)”

PLATO: Platform for integrating large-scale brain model from sub-system models

Event Abstract Back to Event PLATO: Platform for integrating large-scale brain model from sub-system models Takayuki Kannon1*, Keiichiro Inagaki2, Nilton Kamiji1, Kouji Makimura1 and Shiro Usui1 1 RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan 2 RIKEN, Computational Science Research Program, Japan Most mathematical models in neuroscience have focused on specific sub-systems such as functional areas in the brain. In order to understand details of brain function, each sub-system model needs to be integrated toward the large-scale brain system model. In the present work, we propose a data-oriented model integration method. The main idea of our approach is to commonize the input and output of each model, so that any kind of models can be connected to each other. Our aim is to provide an integrated development environment platform for large-scale model assembled from sub-system models by means of a common data format. This platform includes the data-oriented model integration library named PLATO Network Interface Class Library (PLATONIC), a graphical user interface editor, and a database that manages common data used for model integration. This platform enable us to reuse and to integrate newly developed and existing sub-system models by minimum changes in the program codes towards development and simulation of a large-scale brain system model. As an example we here demonstrate a large-scale visual system model which covers eye optics, retina, several function of visual cortex and eye movement control to study visual illusion. Acknowledgement: This work is partially funded by "The-Next Generation Integrated Simulation of Living Matter" project, part of the Development and Use of the Next-Generation Supercomputer Project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. Keywords: Large scale modeling Conference: 4th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics, Boston, United States, 4 Sep - 6 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Large scale modeling Citation: Kannon T, Inagaki K, Kamiji N, Makimura K and Usui S (2011). PLATO: Platform for integrating large-scale brain model from sub-system models. Front. Neuroinform. Conference Abstract: 4th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics. doi: 10.3389/conf.fninf.2011.08.00122 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 17 Oct 2011; Published Online: 19 Oct 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Takayuki Kannon, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Japan, kannon@med.kanazawa-u.ac.jp Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Takayuki Kannon Keiichiro Inagaki Nilton Kamiji Kouji Makimura Shiro Usui Google Takayuki Kannon Keiichiro Inagaki Nilton Kamiji Kouji Makimura Shiro Usui Google Scholar Takayuki Kannon Keiichiro Inagaki Nilton Kamiji Kouji Makimura Shiro Usui PubMed Takayuki Kannon Keiichiro Inagaki Nilton Kamiji Kouji Makimura Shiro Usui Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

The Stable Rechargeability of Secondary Zn-Air Batteries: Is It Possible to Recharge a Zn-Air Battery?

Department of Chemistry and Institute of Basic Science, Sungshin Women’s University, Seoul 136-742, South Korea(Received January 28, 2010 : Accepted February 11, 2010)Abstract : The rechargeable Zn-air battery is considered as one of the potential candidates for thenext generation secondary batteries due to its many advantages. However, its further applicationsand commercialization have been limited by the complexity of the reactions on air electrodewhich are oxygen reduction and evolution reactions (ORR/OER) upon discharging and chargingprocesses, respectively. In the present study, lanthanum was impregnated into a commercial Pt/Cgas diffusion electrode, and it clearly verified significantly enhanced cycling stability and revers-ibility. The results presented in this study show the possibility of repeated charge/discharge processesfor Zn-air batteries with a La-loaded air electrode, and they demonstrate the potential as a prom-ising next generation secondary battery.Keywords : Secondary battery, Zn-air battery, Rechargeable, Oxygen evolution reaction, Oxygenreduction reaction

Malaria Vaccines: Where Next?

A malaria vaccine for mass immuniza-tion, which could be delivered cheaply andwidely and provide long lasting protection,would have a massive effect on globalpublic health. However, such a vaccinedoes not currently exist. The reduction inglobal malaria incidence, in part due tothe ongoing introduction of mosquitocontrol measures such as insecticide-treat-ed nets and disease treatment with arte-mesinin combination drug therapy, raisesthe performance requirements for a futurevaccine, since the cost may be high relativeto that of other interventions and the scaleof the disease burden. Nevertheless, histo-ry teaches that complacency and an over-reliance on a small number of tools tocombat this disease are dangerous. Thereis therefore still a pressing need for avaccine to complement other control andpotential elimination tools. The big ques-tion is whether or not a malaria vaccinethat fulfills the above criteria can bedeveloped.RTS,S, the first malaria vaccine thattargets the so-called pre-erythrocytic stagesin humans, has just started in Phase 3 trials[1]; this is a major achievement based onnumerous trials (most recent trials in [2,3])and 40 years of research (reviewed in [4]).Although questions persist about whetherthis vaccine will be effective enough [5]and about the nature of the protectivemechanisms, does this achievement signalthe end for research on new vaccines andthe basic parasite biology and host immu-nology that underpins vaccine research?Other malaria vaccine candidates thattarget the asexual blood stages are not soadvanced, and without improvement maynot live up to hopes and expectations[6,7]; is it therefore time to reassess thestrategy on which they were developed[8]? For example, instead of subunit orvectored vaccines, the potential use of liveor live and attenuated parasite vaccineshas been proposed [9,10] and is beingpursued (http://www.sanaria.com/). Nowthat the international community is striv-ing to eliminate malaria, maybe therequirements for a malaria vaccine arechanging. Perhaps now is the time for agreater effort to research and develop thenext generation of malaria vaccines. If thisis the time for reinvigoration, what moredo we need to know to develop malariavaccines?Current vaccines are based on a handfulof proteins, several of which were firstdescribed several decades ago and beforeanalysis of the Plasmodium falciparum ge-nome indicated that there are about 5,400protein-coding genes, some of which areexpressed in an exquisitely stage-specificmanner and others that are not. Are anyof these other proteins antigens that areworth considering for vaccine develop-ment? It is unlikely that the level ofresources devoted to the circumsporozoitesurface protein (CSP) development thatled to RTS,S could be mustered to supportthe further development of any newantigen. If all new malaria vaccines needto be compared against RTS,S, this couldonly be done in an expensive clinical trialformat since alternative assays of efficacydo not exist. The cost and practicalities ofthis may inhibit vaccine-related researchand the development of next generationvaccines, because a company or public–private partnership may not be preparedto put in the resources to produce a newvaccine. We must, therefore, ask wherelimited resources are best placed; vaccinediscovery and development are bothexpensive. We have to take rationalapproaches; it’s the best we can do, andresources are not available for purelyempirical approaches. We need to en-hance efforts on basic science in combi-nation with clinical studies to provide astrong rationale for further vaccine devel-opment. This will need to be an integratedrather than a compartmentalized ap-proach; vaccine development from antigendiscovery to clinical trial is not a linearprocess. For example, clinical samplescollected as part of a vaccine evaluationtrial are essential for the development ofbetter and more appropriate methods andassays to understand relevant humanimmune responses.