There is a strong need to develop and implement appropriate alternatives to replace formaldehyde-based adhesive systems, such as phenol–formaldehyde, in the industry of wood-based panels (WBPs). This is due to the toxicity and volatility of formaldehyde and restrictions on its use associated with some formaldehyde-based adhesives. Additionally, the current pressure to reduce the dependence on polymeric materials, including adhesives, from petrochemical-based sources has led to increased interest in bio-based adhesives, which, in some cases, already provide acceptable properties to the end-product. Among the potential raw materials for good-quality, renewable-based adhesive formulations, this paper highlights tannins, lignin, and protein sources. However, regarding renewable sources, specific features must be considered, such as their lower reactivity than certain petrochemical-based sources and, therefore, higher production costs, resource availability issues, and the need for toxicological investigations on alternative systems, to compare them to conventional systems. As a result, further research is highly encouraged to develop viable formaldehyde-free adhesive systems based on renewable sources, either at the technical or economical level. Moreover, herein, we also showcase the present market of WBPs, highlighting the obstacles that the alternative and new bio-based adhesives must overcome.

In the last decades, the increasing complexity of industrial information technology has led to the emergence of new trends in manufacturing. Factories are using multiple Internet of Things (IoT) platforms to harvest sensor information to improve production. Such a transformation contributes to efficiency growth and reduced production costs. To deal with the heterogeneity of the services within an IoT system, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is referred to in the literature as being advantageous for the design and development of software to support IoT-based production processes. The aim of SOA-based design is to provide the leverage to use and reuse loosely coupled IoT services at the middleware layer to minimise system integration problems. We propose a system architecture that follows the SOA architectural pattern and enables developers and business process designers to dynamically add, query or use instances of existing modular software in the IoT context. Furthermore, an analysis of utilization of modular software that presents some challenges and limitations of this approach is also in the scope of this work.

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The establishment of self-disinfecting surfaces is an important method to avoid surface contamination. Recently, paints with antimicrobial properties have been developed to be applied on different surfaces, avoiding contamination with pathogens. In this work, self-disinfecting paints containing Chloroxylenol (CLX), Terpineol (TRP), and a mixture of both substances were developed. The goal was to evaluate and validate these paints using international standards for eventual commercialization and application in scenarios where surface contamination represents a problem. The paints were challenged with five different bacteria, Gram-positive and Gram-negative, before and after a scrub resistance test, where the long-term efficacy of the paints was evaluated. The antibacterial activity assessment was performed following ISO 22196 and JIS Z2801. In general, the paints showed very promising results, demonstrating their antibacterial activity, before and after scrub resistance test. The paint incorporating the mixture of CLX and TRP (CLX+TRP) stood out by revealing consistent results of antibacterial activity both before and after the scrub resistance test for most of the tested bacteria. The cytotoxicity of the developed paints was assessed in vitro by performing tests by direct contact with a human skin cell line, HaCaT, and testes on extracts with HaCaT and a pulmonary cell line, A549. The methodologies for cytotoxicity assessment were developed based in ISO 10993. For genotoxicity assessment, alkaline comet assay was conducted on both cell lines. The cytotoxicity assessment revealed promising results with the paints, demonstrating values of cellular viability above 70% and values of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage below 30%. The genotoxic assessment also revealed acceptable values of primary DNA damage for the developed antibacterial paints. In general, the selected methodologies presented good potential to be applied in the validation of both efficacy and safety of the antimicrobial paints, aiming to be applied in real scenarios.

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