Plant biomass is considered the main source of renewable carbon raw materials, which is a viable alternative to crude oil and natural gas and provides compounds with a low carbon footprint. The most promising direction for the conversion of biomass is the synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, which is regarded as a platform chemical, the basis for the synthesis of valuable compounds, including monomers and polymers. The move of the polymer industry to renewable plant materials will contribute to solving global environmental problems and ensure the sustainability and environmental safety of plastics production. This review analyzes recent advances in the preparation of key C6-furan platform chemicals, such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, 2,5-diformylfuran, 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan, levulinic acid, and their use for the production of monomers and polymers based on renewable plant biomass. Production processes of widely known furan polyesters and polyamides, such as polyethylene-, polypropylene-, polybutylene furanoates, polyhexamethylene furanamide, are considered, as well as developments towards novel promising materials that are furan copolymers and polymer mixtures. For the first time, studies have been systematized aimed at converting liquid and solid wastes of the synthesis of platform chemicals, known as humins, into a range of value-added products, including organic compounds, porous carbon materials, thermosetting binders, and anticorrosive coatings that can replace similar materials based on fossil raw materials. Economic and environmental prospects and problems of production and consumption of furan polymers are considered. The bibliography includes 275 references.

Here, we report the first confirmed autochthonous tick-borne encephalitis case diagnosed in Moscow in 2016 and describe the detection of Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in ticks and small mammals in a Moscow park.The paper includes data from two patients who were bitten by TBEV-infected ticks within the Moscow city limits; one of these cases led to the development of the meningeal form of TBE. Both TBEV-infected ticks attacked patients in the same area. We collected ticks and trapped small mammals in this area in 2017. All samples were screened for the presence of pathogens causing tick-borne diseases by PCR. The TBEV-positive ticks and small mammals' tissue samples were subjected to virus isolation. The sequencing of the complete polyprotein gene of the positive samples was performed.A total of 227 questing ticks were collected. TBEV was detected in five specimens of Ixodes ricinus. We trapped 44 small mammals, mainly bank voles (Myodes glareolus) and pygmy field mice (Apodemus uralensis). Two samples of brain tissue from bank voles yielded a positive signal in RT-PCR for TBEV. We obtained six virus isolates from the ticks and brain tissue of a bank vole. Complete genome sequencing showed that the obtained isolates belong to the European subtype and have low diversity with sequence identities as high as 99.9%. GPS tracking showed that the maximum distance between the exact locations where the TBEVpositive ticks were collected was 185 m. We assume that the forest park was free of TBEV and that the virus was recently introduced.

Three 40 wt % Pt/C electrocatalysts prepared using two different approaches—the polyol process and electrochemical dispersion of platinum under pulse alternating current—and a commercial Pt/C catalyst (Johnson Matthey prod.) were examined via X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The stability characteristics of the Pt/C catalysts were studied via long-term cycling, revealing that, for all cycling modes, the best stability was achieved for the Pt/C catalyst with the largest platinum nanoparticle sizes, which was synthesized via electrochemical dispersion of platinum under pulse alternating current. Our results show that the mass and specific electrocatalytic activities of Pt/C catalysts toward ethanol electrooxidation are determined by the value of the electrochemically active Pt surface area in the catalysts.

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