Dynamic factors driving PM2.5 concentrations: Fresh evidence at the global level.

This paper analyzes the dynamic impact of economic, social, and governance factors on PM2.5 concentrations in 89 countries from 2006 to 2019. Using the GMM-PVAR approach and Impulse-Response Functions, we examine how shocks to specific variables affect PM2.5 concentrations over a 10-year period. Our findings reveal that the influence of these factors on PM2.5 levels varies over time. For example, a shock in urbanization has no effect on PM2.5 concentrations in the first year, but in the second year, pollution increases significantly. In the third period, PM2.5 levels decrease, but they rise again in the fourth period, albeit not significantly. By the fifth period, pollution decreases until a new equilibrium is reached in the sixth period. Additionally, a shock in financial development, government effectiveness, industrialization, trade openness, or GDP has no effect on PM2.5 concentrations in the initial period. However, during the second period, air pollution decreases, followed by an increase in the third period and a decrease again in the fourth period. These dynamic patterns highlight the need for environmental policies that consider the evaluation time horizon. Our analysis is supplemented by the Granger causality test, guiding specific policy recommendations based on our findings.

Assessing the influence of land use, agricultural, industrialization, CO2 emissions, and energy intensity on cereal production.

In light of the growing global demand for food and the urgent need to address environmental challenges, it is essential to understand the factors that influence cereal production. This research set out to examine the intricate relationships between land use practices, agricultural methods, industrialization, energy intensity, carbon emissions, urban population growth, gross domestic savings, and cereal production across fifteen key cereal-producing states in the Americas. The study employs a Panel VAR/GMM model with data spanning from 2000 to 2021. The findings indicate that the lag of all variables exerts a strong, positive, and statistically significant effect on their current values. However, the lag of cereal production on other variables reveals a mixed and weaker effect, with cereal production showing a slight negative impact on land use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Conversely, the lag of land use positively influences cereal production, underscoring land management's crucial role. Meanwhile, the lag of agricultural practices, while mostly insignificant on other variables including cereal production, negatively affects urban population growth, suggesting that agricultural activities may slow urbanization. Additionally, industrialization has no significant effect on cereal production, except a weak negative influence on CO2 emissions and energy intensity. In contrast, Carbon dioxide emissions, exhibit a significant negative effect on cereal production, highlighting their detrimental impact on agricultural output. Moreover, the lag of energy intensity negatively affects CO2 emissions, suggesting more efficient energy use could help reduce emissions. Meanwhile, Urban population growth also has a significant negative impact on cereal production, indicating that urbanization may harm food security. The effect of gross domestic savings is generally weak and statistically insignificant across variables, though it shows some negative influence on both cereal production and urban population growth. Lastly, Granger causality tests show significant bidirectional causality between land use and cereal production, as well as between CO2 emissions and cereal production. The stability tests indicate that the model remains stable with impulse response functions. Based on these findings, the study offers practical policy implications, acknowledges limitations, and suggests future research directions, providing valuable insights for balancing agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, and urban development.

Scaling of cell and gene therapies to population.

Cell and gene therapies (CGTs) are intended to address many different diseases, including widespread diseases with millions of patients. The success of CGTs thus depends on the practicability of scaling cell manufacturing to population. It is obvious that process integration and automation are key for the reproducibility, quality, cost-effectiveness, and scalability of cell manufacturing. Still, different manufacturing concepts can be considered depending on the characteristics of cell therapies such as the degree of ex vivo manipulation of cells, the intended treatment scheme for the underlying medical indication, the prevalence of the indication, and the cell dose per final drug product. Here, we explain the characteristics of cellular products and their implications from the perspective of a manufacturer. We outline and exemplify with a list of devices' different strategies and scaling options for CGT manufacturing considering technical and regulatory aspects in the early and late clinical development of cellular products. Finally, we address the need for appropriate in-process and quality controls and the regulatory requirements and options for improvements of a cellular product at different manufacturing stages.

Balancing growth and sustainability: COP 28 policy implications of green energy, industrialization, foreign direct investment, and globalization in South Asia.

This research investigates the intricate relationships between economic variables and how they affect South Asian nation's ability to develop sustainably. Given the growing concerns about climate change and global warming brought on by emissions of greenhouse gases, this study looks into the connection between emissions of CO2, green energy, industrialization, foreign direct investment, economic globalization, and financial development from 1995 to 2022. Second-generation panel techniques were employed in this study to look at the relationship between variables because of the potential of residual cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity. The empirical outcomes display that green energy, economic globalization, and financial development reduce CO2 emissions by 1.839%, 1.223%, and 3.902% respectively. Industrialization and foreign direct investment degrade the environment by 4.302% and 1.893% respectively. A bidirectional causality link between green energy, industrialization, economic globalization, and CO2 emissions was found by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H). Based on our findings, we recommend legislative support for renewable energy, cleaner technologies, and strict environmental regulations, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Encouraging FDI, sustainable practices, and financial development can drive economic growth while preserving the environment. As we approach COP28, this holistic approach to sustainable development becomes increasingly vital for South Asian countries to achieve their SDG targets and combat climate change.

Bioprocesses for lactic acid production from organic wastes toward industrialization-a critical review.

Lactic acid (LA) is a crucial chemical which has been widely used for industrial application. Microbial fermentation is the dominant pathway for LA production and has been regarded as the promising technology. In recent years, many studies on LA production from various organic wastes have been published, which provided alternative ways to reduce the LA production cost, and further recycle organic wastes. However, few researchers focused on industrial application of this technology due to the knowledge gap and some uncertainties. In this review, the recent advances, basic knowledge and limitations of LA fermentation from organic wastes are discussed, the challenges and suitable envisaged solutions for enhancing LA yield and productivity are provided to realize industrial application of this technology, and also some perspectives are given to further valorize the LA fermentation processes from organic wastes. This review can be a useful guidance for industrial LA production from organic wastes on a sustainable view.

The built environment is more predictive of cardiometabolic health than other aspects of lifestyle in two rapidly transitioning Indigenous populations.

Background: Many subsistence-level and Indigenous societies around the world are rapidly experiencing urbanization, nutrition transition, and integration into market-economies, resulting in marked increases in cardiometabolic diseases. Determining the most potent and generalized drivers of changing health is essential for identifying vulnerable communities and creating effective policies to combat increased chronic disease risk across socio-environmental contexts. However, comparative tests of how different lifestyle features affect the health of populations undergoing lifestyle transitions remain rare, and require comparable, integrated anthropological and health data collected in diverse contexts. Methods: We developed nine scales to quantify different facets of lifestyle (e.g., urban infrastructure, market-integration, acculturation) in two Indigenous, transitioning subsistence populations currently undergoing rapid change in very different ecological and sociopolitical contexts: Turkana pastoralists of northwest Kenya (n = 3,692) and Orang Asli mixed subsistence groups of Peninsular Malaysia (n = 688). We tested the extent to which these lifestyle scales predicted 16 measures of cardiometabolic health and compared the generalizability of each scale across the two populations. We used factor analysis to decompose comprehensive lifestyle data into salient axes without supervision, sensitivity analyses to understand which components of the multidimensional scales were most important, and sex-stratified analyses to understand how facets of lifestyle variation differentially impacted cardiometabolic health among males and females. Findings: Cardiometabolic health was best predicted by measures that quantified urban infrastructure and market-derived material wealth compared to metrics encompassing diet, mobility, or acculturation, and these results were highly consistent across both populations and sexes. Factor analysis results were also highly consistent between the Turkana and Orang Asli and revealed that lifestyle variation decomposes into two distinct axes-the built environment and diet-which change at different paces and have different relationships with health. Interpretation: Our analysis of comparable data from Indigenous peoples in East Africa and Southeast Asia revealed a surprising amount of generalizability: in both contexts, measures of local infrastructure and built environment are consistently more predictive of cardiometabolic health than other facets of lifestyle that are seemingly more proximate to health, such as diet. We hypothesize that this is because the built environment impacts unmeasured proximate drivers like physical activity, increased stress, and broader access to market goods, and serves as a proxy for the duration of time that communities have been market-integrated.

A probabilistic risk assessment of heavy metal in water and sediment: An industrially affected urban river in Bangladesh.

Human welfare and biodiversity are at risk due to the deterioration of water and sediment quality. Particularly, in last few decades, global water and sediment quality degraded due to the rapid industrialization and urbanization. This study aimed to determine the concentration of nine heavy metals and metalloid (Pb, Cr, Cd, Hg, As, Mn, Ni, Cu, and Zn) and assess the ecological risks using different pollution indices (e.g., heavy metal pollution index [HPI], Nemerow pollution index [NI], geo-accumulation index [Igeo], contamination factor [CF], degree of contamination [CD] and pollution load index [PLI], ecological risk index [ERI]) in water and sediment of the Shitalakshya River, an industrially affected urban river of Bangladesh. For the first time, 20 water and sediment samples were collected across a wider geographical area of the Shitalakshya River during both monsoon and dry seasons and analyzed using the atomic absorption spectrometer. Average concentrations of heavy metals and metalloid in water were within the Bangladesh standard except for Cr (51.69 ppb) and Mn (228.20 ppb) during monsoon season, portraying potential ecological and human health risks. Besides, average concentration of Mn (549.75 and 370.93 ppb), Ni (549.75 and 370.93 ppb), and Cu (45.34 and 36.09 ppb) in sediment during both seasons were above international standard, implying risk to aquatic sediment biota. The average HPI values indicated moderate to high contamination, whereas the NI values implied polluted water in monsoon season with severe pollution in port area of the river. Similarly, Igeo, CF, CD, and PLI elucidated different levels of contamination in the sediment, particularly during dry season. The ERI values also referred moderate ecological risk in the sediment during dry season. Overall, our findings highlight the alarming level of heavy metal pollution in the Shitalakshya River, necessitating immediate action to protect the aquatic environment, sediment biota, and human health. PRACTITIONER POINTS: This study determined the concentration of heavy metals and metalloid in water and sediment of the Shitalakshya River, Bangladesh. The study revealed that the average concentration of Cr and Mn in water exceeded national standard, whereas Mn, Ni, and Cu in sediment exceeded international limit. Potential ecological risk of heavy metals was also assessed using different pollution indices. Calculated pollution indices indicated different degree of pollution, implying critical ecological condition due to heavy metal pollution in aquatic environment and sediment biota.

Can digital industrialization promote energy conservation development in China? Empirical evidence based on national big data comprehensive pilot zone policy.

Digital industrialization represented by big data provides substantial support for the high-quality development of the digital economy, but its impact on urban energy conservation development requires further research. To this end, based on the panel data of Chinese cities from 2010 to 2019 and taking the establishment of the national big data comprehensive pilot zone (NBDCPZ) as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper explores the impact, mechanism, and spatial spillover effect of digital industrialization represented by big data on urban energy conservation development using the Difference-in-Differences (DID) method. The results show that digital industrialization can help achieve urban energy conservation development, which still holds after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that digital industrialization impacts urban energy conservation development by driving industrial sector output growth, promoting industrial upgrading, stimulating green technology innovation, and alleviating resource misallocation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the energy conservation effect of digital industrialization is more significant in the central region, intra-regional demonstration comprehensive pilot zones, large cities, non-resource-based cities, and high-level digital infrastructure cities. Additionally, digital industrialization can promote energy conservation development in neighboring areas through spatial spillover effect. This paper enriches the theoretical framework concerning the relationship between digital industrialization and energy conservation development. The findings have significant implications for achieving the coordinated development of digitalization and conservation.

Matching comparative advantages to special economic zones for sustainable industrialization.

African countries are consistently trying to leverage industrialization to advance their economic development. Despite possessing favorable factors such as abundant natural resources, a surplus of low-cost labor, and an increasing number of established Special Economic Zones (SEZs), African countries are yet to fully maximize their potential and achieve sustainable and inclusive industrialization. This study explores the comparative advantages of African countries to determine the types of SEZs that can effectively accelerate industrialization. By leveraging the unique strengths and resources of each country, customized strategies for SEZs can be developed to attract investments, promote technological advancements, and foster sustainable economic growth. The research utilizes the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) matrix, which is grounded in Ricardian trade theory, examining trade data spanning from 2011 to 2021 to evaluate the competitive export capabilities of various countries. The findings consistently reveal that the selected countries (Ghana, Ethiopia, and South Africa) possess a significant and consistent comparative advantage in natural and agricultural resources compared to other sectors. Establishing SEZs that focus on these sectors can generate substantial socio-economic impacts, including attracting investments, creating employment opportunities, enhancing export capacities, stimulating economic growth, fostering linkages, facilitating skills and technology transfer, promoting spillover effects, encouraging specialization, developing infrastructure, and supporting value addition in agribusinesses. The result of this study will contribute to policy discussions and aid decision-making processes for policymakers, investors, and development practitioners in their efforts to advance industrial development across Africa.

Bio-Inspired Strategies Are Adaptable to Sensors Manufactured on the Moon.

Bio-inspired strategies for robotic sensing are essential for in situ manufactured sensors on the Moon. Sensors are one crucial component of robots that should be manufactured from lunar resources to industrialize the Moon at low cost. We are concerned with two classes of sensor: (a) position sensors and derivatives thereof are the most elementary of measurements; and (b) light sensing arrays provide for distance measurement within the visible waveband. Terrestrial approaches to sensor design cannot be accommodated within the severe limitations imposed by the material resources and expected manufacturing competences on the Moon. Displacement and strain sensors may be constructed as potentiometers with aluminium extracted from anorthite. Anorthite is also a source of silica from which quartz may be manufactured. Thus, piezoelectric sensors may be constructed. Silicone plastic (siloxane) is an elastomer that may be derived from lunar volatiles. This offers the prospect for tactile sensing arrays. All components of photomultiplier tubes may be constructed from lunar resources. However, the spatial resolution of photomultiplier tubes is limited so only modest array sizes can be constructed. This requires us to exploit biomimetic strategies: (i) optical flow provides the visual navigation competences of insects implemented through modest circuitry, and (ii) foveated vision trades the visual resolution deficiencies with higher resolution of pan-tilt motors enabled by micro-stepping. Thus, basic sensors may be manufactured from lunar resources. They are elementary components of robotic machines that are crucial for constructing a sustainable lunar infrastructure. Constraints imposed by the Moon may be compensated for using biomimetic strategies which are adaptable to non-Earth environments.

The making of the Homo Polaris: human acclimatization to the Arctic environment and Soviet ideologies in Northern Medical Institutions.

This paper examines the history of the Soviet human acclimatization project in the North and Siberia, which spanned from medical experiments in Stalin's forced labor camps to the subsequent wave of industrialization in the region. The author argues that human acclimatization in the North was a settler colonial science project aimed at facilitating Russian administrators and engineers in asserting control over the territory and its resources, while creating a new homogeneous 'indigenous population' in Siberia and the North. This envisioned population, referred to as Homo Polaris by the author, was intended to emerge through a two-way transformation: the adaptation of Indigenous peoples into Soviet ideologies and practices, and the acclimatization of settlers coming from the European part of the country to the Arctic environment. Although the administrators and medical doctors were unable to achieve this biopolitical objective, the complexities and dialogues surrounding these transformations shed light on the late Soviet settler-colonial ideologies and their impact on social life in Siberia from the 1950s to the 1980s. The research is based on a comprehensive analysis of both published and archival works by scholars involved in the project.

[Research progress on clinically effective single preparations of traditional Chinese medicine].

The traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) single preparation refers to the innovative TCM made from the whole or the effective part(including the effective ingredient) extract of a TCM single herb by modern technology. They have a long history of applications, definite effects and few side effects. It is an indispensable part of the research of innovative TCM. In recent years, with the optimization of national policies, the development of TCM single preparation shows a positive trend. However, because of the imbalance in the composition ratio, the need for expansion of indications, the need for further basic research, and the low conversion rate of existing patent achievements in universities and institutes, the TCM single preparation still has significant development space. In this review, we analyze and study the current situation, characteristics and difficulties of TCM single preparation, as well as relevant clinical application, basic research, industrialization and patent application information through statistical analysis of TCM single preparations in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, which helps to provide direction for the development and research of single preparation of TCM.

Tracking Childhood Lead Exposure in Early Industrial Romanians.

Childhood lead exposure has been linked to severe adverse health outcomes throughout life. Measurements of lead in teeth have established that individuals living in contaminated environments show higher levels compared to individuals living further away, although less is known about when individuals are most susceptible to these exposures. We examined lead (Pb208) concentrations (ppm) in teeth over the first 2.5 years of life in 16 children born in the late 19th to early 20th century throughout Romania. This period of intense industrialization was characterized by increases in mining, coal burning, and oil refining-activities that contaminate air, water, and food with Pb. We hypothesized the distance from an operational mine or oil refinery, or being born in a city, would be positively associated with cumulative dentine Pb exposure (CDPE). We also predicted that Pb exposures would peak in the first six months of life when gastrointestinal (GI) absorption of Pb is likely highest. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) of sectioned tooth dentine followed by Bayesian statistical analyses revealed that living 30 km or more from a mine or oil refinery did not explain CDPE. However, being born in a city explained 42% of CDPE. All individuals showed maximum Pb exposures after six months of age, likely due to contaminated solid food and/or non-milk liquids. This research demonstrates how tooth formation can be coupled with comprehensive elemental mapping to analyse the context and timing of early-life neurotoxicant exposures, which may be extended to well-preserved teeth from clinical and historic populations.

Advances in 2D Materials Based Gas Sensors for Industrial Machine Olfactory Applications.

The escalating development and improvement of gas sensing ability in industrial equipment, or "machine olfactory", propels the evolution of gas sensors toward enhanced sensitivity, selectivity, stability, power efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and longevity. Two-dimensional (2D) materials, distinguished by their atomic-thin profile, expansive specific surface area, remarkable mechanical strength, and surface tunability, hold significant potential for addressing the intricate challenges in gas sensing. However, a comprehensive review of 2D materials-based gas sensors for specific industrial applications is absent. This review delves into the recent advances in this field and highlights the potential applications in industrial machine olfaction. The main content encompasses industrial scenario characteristics, fundamental classification, enhancement methods, underlying mechanisms, and diverse gas sensing applications. Additionally, the challenges associated with transitioning 2D material gas sensors from laboratory development to industrialization and commercialization are addressed, and future-looking viewpoints on the evolution of next-generation intelligent gas sensory systems in the industrial sector are prospected.

Occurrence, transport and sources of metals and metalloids in the Bangpakong River in the eastern economic corridor area of Thailand.

The occurrence of elements in river water is affected by various factors, including mobility, weathering and transport processes and anthropogenic contributions. A total of six water sampling campaigns were conducted from 2021 to 2022 to study the factors affecting the occurrence of twelve elements (Al, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn and Se) in the Bangpakong River. The total concentrations of all the elements were within the levels set by the national surface water quality standard. Comparisons of dissolved elemental concentrations in the study area with the global average for dissolved elemental concentrations in pristine rivers indicated contamination with Al, As, Co, Mn, Zn and Se in the river water. Based on the percentage of each element in particulates to the total concentration, Al (80.6 %), Cr (71.9 %), Cu (69.9 %), Fe (95.6 %), Mn (76.6 %), Pb (74.7 %), and Zn (70.6 %) were mainly transported in the particulate phase in both the dry and wet seasons. However, As (65.5 %), Co (60.3 %), and Se (77.6 %) were mainly transported in the dissolved phase in both seasons. The ratios of the dissolved Se concentration in river water to the Se concentration in the Earth's crust indicated significant and high mobility, especially in downstream sites, likely due to Se leaching from alluvial sediments. Seawater intrusion is likely the cause of As and Zn contamination in the dry season. Weathering of rocks and soils likely causes Al, Co, and Mn contamination in the wet season. The anthropogenic sources of contamination include the discharge of Mn and Zn from fertilizers in agriculture and the use of formulated feed in aquaculture. Approximately 52.98, 25.23, 5.68 and 0.63 tons of Fe, Al, Mn and Zn, respectively, are estimated to be transported from the river into the Gulf of Thailand each year.

Emerging environmental contaminants: Sources, effects on biodiversity and humans, remediation, and conservation implications.

Ecosystems, biodiversity, and the human population all depend on a quality or uncontaminated environment. Quality environment provides people and wildlife access to nutrition, medications, dietary supplements, and other ecosystem services. The conservation of biodiversity-that is, species richness, abundance, heredities, and diversity-as well as the control of climate change are facilitated by such an uncontaminated environment. However, these advantages are jeopardized by newly emerging environmental chemical contaminants (EECCs) brought on by increased industrialization and urbanization. In developing countries, inadequate or poor environmental policies, infrastructure, and national standards concerning the usage, recycling, remediation, control, and management of EECCs hasten their effects. EECCs in these countries negatively affect biodiversity, ecological services and functions, and human health. This review reveals that the most deprived or vulnerable local communities in developing countries are those residing near mining or industrial areas and cultivating their crops and vegetables on contaminated soils, as is wildlife that forages or drinks in EECC-contaminated water bodies. Yet, people in these countries have limited knowledge about EECCs, their threats to human well-being, ecosystem safety, and the environment, as well as remediation technologies. Besides, efforts to efficiently control, combat, regulate, and monitor EECCs are limited. Thus, the review aims to increase public knowledge concerning EECCs in developing countries and present a comprehensive overview of the current status of EECCs. It also explores the sources and advancements in remediation techniques and the threats of EECCs to humans, ecosystems, and biodiversity.

PVP/aprepitant microcapsules produced by supercritical antisolvent process.

The supercritical antisolvent (SAS) process was a green alternative to improve the low bioavailability of insoluble drugs. However, it is difficult for SAS process to industrialize with limited production capacity. A coaxial annular nozzle was used to prepare the microcapsules of aprepitant (APR) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) by SAS with N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent. Meanwhile, the effects of polymer/drug ratio, operating pressure, operating temperature and overall concentration on particles morphology, mean particle diameter and size distribution were analyzed. Microcapsules with mean diameters ranging from 2.04 µm and 9.84 µm were successfully produced. The morphology, particle size, thermal behavior, crystallinity, drug content, drug dissolution and residual amount of DMF of samples were analyzed. The results revealed that the APR drug dissolution of the microcapsules by SAS process was faster than the unprocessed APR. Furthermore, the drug powder collected every hour is in the kilogram level, verifying the possibility to scale up the production of pharmaceuticals employing the SAS process from an industrial point of view.

Analysis of current technology status for the industrialization of cultured meat.

Cultured meat is expected to become an important material for future food production; however, contrary to initial expectations, the full-scale industrialization of cultured meat is slow and the actual level and opened technology amount is very limited. This study reviews the publicly available technologies of cultured meat and suggests future developmental directions and research agenda. As a result of analyzing papers, patents, and press releases published over the past 10 years, it was found that cultured meat production technology is still at the prototype production level. This is because most papers published are about culture medium and scaffold development, culture conditions, and there is almost no research on finished cultured meat products. Worldwide, most of the filed patents are for producing cultured meat principles; most of them do not use food-grade materials and are not economically feasible for industrialization. Therefore, future research on the industrialization of cultured meat should focus on effective acquisition technologies for satellite cells; cell lineage and undifferentiated state maintenance technologies; the development of serum-free media and culture devices; the prevention of genetic modification, safety verification, and mass production. Furthermore, basic research on mechanisms and influencing factors related to cultured meat production is warranted.

Advances in Two-Dimensional Ion-Selective Membranes: Bridging Nanoscale Insights to Industrial-Scale Salinity Gradient Energy Harvesting.

Salinity gradient energy, often referred to as the Gibbs free energy difference between saltwater and freshwater, is recognized as "blue energy" due to its inherent cleanliness, renewability, and continuous availability. Reverse electrodialysis (RED), relying on ion-selective membranes, stands as one of the most prevalent and promising methods for harnessing salinity gradient energy to generate electricity. Nevertheless, conventional RED membranes face challenges such as insufficient ion selectivity and transport rates and the difficulty of achieving the minimum commercial energy density threshold of 5 W/m2. In contrast, two-dimensional nanostructured materials, featuring nanoscale channels and abundant functional groups, offer a breakthrough by facilitating rapid ion transport and heightened selectivity. This comprehensive review delves into the mechanisms of osmotic power generation within a single nanopore and nanochannel, exploring optimal nanopore dimensions and nanochannel lengths. We subsequently examine the current landscape of power generation using two-dimensional nanostructured materials in laboratory-scale settings across various test areas. Furthermore, we address the notable decline in power density observed as test areas expand and propose essential criteria for the industrialization of two-dimensional ion-selective membranes. The review concludes with a forward-looking perspective, outlining future research directions, including scalable membrane fabrication, enhanced environmental adaptability, and integration into multiple industries. This review aims to bridge the gap between previous laboratory-scale investigations of two-dimensional ion-selective membranes in salinity gradient energy conversion and their potential large-scale industrial applications.

Current Research, Industrialization Status, and Future Perspective of Cultured Meat.

Expectations for the industrialization of cultured meat are growing due to the increasing support from various sectors, such as the food industry, animal welfare organizations, and consumers, particularly vegetarians, but the progress of industrialization is slower than initially reported. This review analyzes the main issues concerning the industrialization of cultured meat, examines research and media reports on the development of cultured meat to date, and presents the current technology, industrialization level, and prospects for cultured meat. Currently, over 30 countries have companies industrializing cultured meat, and around 200 companies that are developing or industrializing cultured meat have been surveyed globally. By country, the United States has over 50 companies, accounting for more than 20% of the total. Acquiring animal cells, developing cell lines, improving cell proliferation, improving the efficiency of cell differentiation and muscle production, or developing cell culture media, including serum-free media, are the major research themes related to the development of cultured meat. In contrast, the development of devices, such as bioreactors, which are crucial in enabling large-scale production, is relatively understudied, and few of the many companies invested in the development of cultured meat have presented products for sale other than prototypes. In addition, because most information on key technologies is not publicly available, it is not possible to determine the level of technology in the companies, and it is surmised that the technology of cultured meat-related startups is not high. Therefore, further research and development are needed to promote the full-scale industrialization of cultured meat.