Special Sessions

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1. Electroporation meets electrostimulation

2. Non-thermal plasmas for food safety, environmental applications and medical treatments

3. Interfacial behaviour of lipid-assemblies, membranes and cells in electric fields

4. Electrical impedance measurement for assessment of electroporation yield

5. Application of pulsed electric fields technology in food: challenges and opportunities

6. PEF process integration — complex process chains and process combinations in the food industry

7. Veterinary medical applications

8. Non-electric field based physical methods inducing cell poration and enhanced molecule transfer

9. Predictable animal models for cancer treatments by electrotransfer

10. Pulsed electric fields and electroporation technologies in bioeconomy

11. In vivo electroporation — basic mechanisms (known before as: In vivo imaging of electroporation: from preclinical studies towards clinical applications)

12. Medical applications of electroporation

13. Electrochemistry and electroporation

14. Mechanotransduction: how mechanical forces regulate cells and tissues responses

15. PEF for the food industry: fundamentals and applications

16. Irreversible electroporation in clinical use

17. Electrotechnologies for food and biomass treatment

Electroporation meets electrostimulation

Scheduled for: Track C, Thursday, 15:00 – 16:00 and 16:30 – 18:00
Programme: link and link

Description:

The "Electroporation meets Electrostimulation" session will be held at the World Congress on Electroporation and Pulsed Electric Fields in Biology, Medicine and Food & Environmental Technologies in Portorož (Slovenia), during September 6^th – 10^th, 2015.

This session aims to foster collaborations between two application-driven research directions – electroporation and electrostimulation – which rely on the effect of electric fields on cellular membranes. However, whereas electroporation relies on pore formation of cellular membranes, electrostimulation often seeks for a parameter range which polarizes electrogenic cells thus inducing electrical activity in these cells. In this session we will address recent developments relevant for both research fields with a special emphasis on prosthetic applications.

The session targets experts ranging from electrical engineers who design and construct hardware to biologists and medical doctors applying the various electrical pulses.

Note that both registration and presentation submission will be handled via the WC2015 systems available here and here, respectively.

Revisit in a couple of days/weeks for more information.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: The session is partly funded by a grant of the German Ministry of Research and Education to foster collaborative networks in the Danube region.

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Günther Zeck from the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the Univ. Tübingen, Germany (email: ).

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Non-thermal plasmas for food safety, environmental applications and medical treatments

Scheduled for: Track D, Monday, 15:00 – 16:00 and 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link and link

Description:

For the first time World Congress on Electroporation and Pulsed Electric Fields is collecting individual meetings that are engaged in the investigation and development of methods for medical, environmental, food, biofuel and other related biological applications that are based on the exposure to pulsed electric fields. There is a considerable overlap with similar efforts going on in the plasma community and in fact many researcher involved in one area are also active in the other. We would therefore like to encourage a discussion between the different research areas and ask you to join us for a vivid exchange of ideas.

Topics:

• Plasmas for cancer treatment
• Plasmas for food preservation
• Plasmas for decontamination of water and air

Submission to this special session are encouraged through the conference submission system of WC2015 that can be found here.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: n/a

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Juergen F. Kolb from the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, Greifswald, Germany (email: ), and Christian Theel from Neoplas GmbH, Greifswald, Germany (email: )

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Interfacial behaviour of lipid-assemblies, membranes and cells in electric fields

Scheduled for: Track C, Monday, 15:00 – 16:00 and 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link and link

Description:

Rationale: The majority of electroporation studies have been carried out on free standing lipid bilayers, vesicles and living cells. The problem has always been the poor reproducibility of the experimental results. An alternative innovative attack has been to investigate the behaviour of lipid assembles, membranes and cells in field at interfaces. This approach is especially valuable since the interface gives additional stability to the platform and provides insight into the electroporation mechanism which has not been obtained with free standing systems. Details of these novel and interesting experimental and theoretical analyses have not been presented before as a stand-alone session at an electroporation conference.

Content: The aim of this special session therefore is: (a) to highlight the importance of the electrified interface in controlling lipid/cell membrane assembly and, (b) to show how this physicochemical approach can aid in the understanding of electroporation based phenomena. Aspects of membrane properties in potential gradients, from fundamental to applied including recent novel approaches, will be discussed. This session will cover theoretical and/or experimental developments which can lead to an improved understanding of the interfacial behaviour of both model and cell membranes in electric fields.

Topics:

• Supported lipid layers and vesicles in transverse electric fields
• Model membranes and/or cells at the electrified interface
• Theory and simulation of lipid molecules and lipid molecular assembly at charged interface and in potential gradients

Organised / supported / endorsed by: Endorsed by ISE – International Society of Electrochemistry

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Nadica Ivošević DeNardis from the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia (email: ), and L. Andrew Nelson from the School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK (email: )

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Electrical impedance measurement for assessment of electroporation yield

Scheduled for: Track A, Thursday, 15:00 – 16:00 and 16:30 – 18:00
Programme: link and link

Description:

The assessment of electroporation yield involves electrical monitoring with high time resolution during and immediately after high voltage application. It accesses the immediate changes on membrane level but also the degree and kinetics of recovery. In other applications, electroporation is used as test method for the presence of cells where the conductivity increase is a function of cell density.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: The ISEBI Society

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Uwe Pliquett from the Institut für Bioprozess- und Analysenmesstechnik, Heilbad Heiligenstadt, Germany (email: ), and Antoni Ivorra from the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain (email: ).

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Application of pulsed electric fields technology in food: challenges and opportunities

Scheduled for: Track D, Wednesday, 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link

Description:

Pulsed electric fields (PEF), one of novel non-thermal processing technologies, has been studied intensively worldwide for last decades, resulting in many publications regarding PEF treatment of foods. PEF treatments not only inhibit pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, but also result in the retention of flavour, aroma, nutrients, and colour of foods. This technology shows promising application of food for enhancing food safety, improving food quality and extending food shelf life. Although most of those studies were involved lab scale PEF systems, and a few of them were tested in a pilot scale PEF system, PEF processing systems are available for a commercial production of PEF-treated foods. However, currently there is no commercial production line using PEF technology for food pasteurization. PEF processing involves much more parameters to be considered, controlled and validated than other thermal or non-thermal processing.

Much work remains before PEF industrial implementation can be a reality, such as:

1. development of processing protocols for each food product
2. gathering more data on the inactivation kinetics of microbial pathogens at pilot or commercial scale tests
3. proof that commercial scale PEF processing and equipment are economically sound
4. implementation of PEF in combination with other hurdles

In addition, there are potential new applications of PEF in food industry, such as enzyme/protein modification, and enhanced chemical reactions. The speakers in this symposium are experts in the field of pulsed electric fields processing of food from academia and research, food professionals, equipment manufacturers, and will share their long time experience in PEF research and discuss challenges and possible solutions regarding PEF equipment cost, production cost, research scale up and validation, and the opportunities in new application of PEF technology. This symposium will provide valuable information regarding the benefits and challenges of commercialization of PEF processing technology in food industry and the directions for future PEF research and perspectives on new applications.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: Tony Z. Jin from the Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture (ARS-USDA), USA (email: ).

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Howard Zhang from the Western Regional Research Center, ARS-USDA, USA (email: ), and C. Patrick Dunne from the US Army Natick Research Center, USA.

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PEF process integration — complex process chains and process combinations in the food industry

Scheduled for: Track D, Tuesday, 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link

Description:

PEF applied for the disintegration of plant raw materials aims at replacing or complementing existing food processing operations. It is not the cell disintegration as such which is in the focus of the process but it is the impact of the cell disintegration on subsequent processing steps such as cutting, drying, extraction or infusion of compounds.

On the other hand, unit operations such as grinding of the raw material are applied prior to the PEF processing and will have an impact on the PEF treatment performance as well as on resulting material properties. Hence, due to the various interactions of the different processing steps, it is essential to analyse not only the PEF process as such but also its integration into complex food processing systems.

The consideration and combination of the various parameters related to material properties, disintegration technologies as well as the performance properties of different subsequent processing steps lead to a complex multi scale and multi parameter system. The analysis of the occurring interdependencies is the key factor in order to control the beneficial effect of a PEF treatment and the improvement of the complete industrial process.

A better understanding of the process-product-interactions and the design of innovative, scalable and flexible food manufacturing techniques will allow the creation of tailored raw material properties, optimized processing concepts and final food products as it will be shown by the examples presented in this special session.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST)

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Henry Jäger from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria (email: ), and Dietrich Knorr from the Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany (email: ).

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Veterinary medical applications

Scheduled for: Track B, Monday, 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link

Description:

Electrochemotherapy is used in veterinary oncology for almost 20 years. It is being used for treatment of dogs, cats and horses. Pronounced antitumor effect is obtained in many histologically different tumors types using either bleomycin or cisplatin. Besides electrochemotherapy, electroporation have been successfully used also for the delivery of DNA vaccines and therapeutic genes for antitumor gene therapy. In addition, irreversible electroporation has been tested for treatment of brain tumors in dogs. The electroporation based treatment in veterinary medicine are of great importance, not only because they hold a great potential for treatment and vaccination of domestic animals, but also because they can represent a good model for human disease and thus enable quicker and better translation of therapies into human clinical use. In the session, different treatment as well as technical approaches for successful delivery of therapeutic molecules (chemotherapeutic drugs, DNA plasmids) alone or in combination will be presented and discussed.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: LEA EBAM

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Maja Čemažar from the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana (Ljubljana) and University of Primorska (Koper), Slovenia (email: ), and Justin Teissié from the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology (IPBS-CNRS), Toulouse, France (email: ).

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Non-electric field based physical methods inducing cell poration and enhanced molecule transfer

Scheduled for: Track C, Wednesday, 15:00 – 16:00
Programme: link

Description:

Besides electric field inducing membrane electroporation there are several other physical methods inducing cell poration or enhanced molecule transfer, such as sonoporation, photoporation, magnetoporation, electrospray. Sonoporation between them is most developed and in nowadays is used for drug and gene delivery. The detailed mechanism of sonoporation is not known, however researchers, using their approaches each year are getting new insights into the machinery of the phenomenon. Therefore the aim of the special session would be to provide the researchers from electroporation field with an opportunity to learn what is known from other physical methods affecting biological membranes from the biophysical, technological and therapeutic point of views.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: n/a

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Saulius Šatkauskas from the Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania (email: ).

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Predictable animal models for cancer treatment

Scheduled for: Track B, Monday, 15:00 – 16:00 and Track A, Wednesday, 15:00 – 16:00
Programme: link and link

Description:

Emerging strategies in cancer treatments, such as electrogenetransfer and electrochemotherapy, are very promising. However, preclinical studies of effective therapeutic agents delivered in animal models to translate into the clinic still remain a crucial feature. In order to succesfully pass from bench to bedside, attention on in vivo models to be employed in promising translational preventive and/or therapeutic protocols must become of utmost importance.

In this session we want to call attention on important aspects that can make predictable an animal model, such as the possibility to mimic the onset and development of tumors occurring in humans. We therefore propose to debate on valid animal models as translational platform to use in preclinical protocols based on electrotransfer. We will also discuss the importance of companion animals which, living in the same environment of their owners, develop spontaneous cancers.

We are confident that the discussion on predictable animal models can open more promising perspectives for human patients.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: n/a

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Emanuela Signori from the CNR-Institute of Translational Pharmacology, Rome, Italy (email: ), and Maja Čemažar from the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana (Ljubljana) and University of Primorska (Koper), Slovenia (email: ).

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Pulsed electric fields and electroporation technologies in bioeconomy

Scheduled for: Track C, Tuesday, 15:00 – 16:00 and 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link and link

Description:

The concerns on energy and food security and on global warming led to tremendous advances in developing alternatives to fossils energy sources and in identifying energy efficient technologies in the recent decade. Already nowadays, sustainable and inclusive Bioeconomy concepts challenge the fossil fuels economy and will be a major issue for business, governments and academia for the future. Development of novel, energy efficient techniques for biomass processing, identification of complete biomass valorization routes and upgrading/refinement of biomass residuals to energetic and chemical feedstocks could drive bioeconomy. Pulsed electric fields (PEF) methods can provide an energy efficient tool for biomass conditioning and processing. Due to their specific properties, i.e. high energy efficiency, low wear and maintenance requirement, inherent sustainability, etc. PEFs have the potential for integration in multiple paths of novel processes developed for the coming age of Bioeconomy. To explore the huge potential of PEF in the rapidly growing and comparably new field of Bioeconomy there is a need for R&D innovations from fundamental science of electric field interactions with plant tissue through to large scale processing technologies.This session seeks to provide a venue for ongoing research in fundamental and applied science on PEF with implications for Bioeconomy.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: COST Action TD1104 – Workgroup 4, International Bioelectrics Consortium, and KIT Microalgae-Platform

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Alex Golberg from the Porter School of Environmental Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel (email: ), and Wolfgang Frey from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany (email: ).

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In vivo electroporation — basic mechanisms (known before as: In vivo imaging of electroporation: from preclinical studies towards clinical applications)

Scheduled for: Track B, Thursday, 15:00 – 16:00 and 16:30 – 18:00
Programme: link and link

Description:

The session will address how different imaging modalities (optical imaging, US, CT, MRI,…) can give new insights about in vivo electropermeabilization in preclinical studies on the one hand, and improve the therapeutics outcomes in clinical applications ( ECT, Image guided-ECT, EGT, IRE, DNA immunization,…) on the other hand.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: LEA EBAM

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Muriel Golzio from the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology (IPBS-CNRS), Toulouse, France (email: ), and Faisal Mahmood from Herlev University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark (email: ).

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Medical applications of electroporation

This session will consist of three parts. The first is dedicated to electroporation of cutaneous tumours, the second to internal tumours, and the third to potential medical applications of gene electro transfer.

Description:

Electrochemotherapy is being used in more than 140 cancer centers throughout the Europe. Nevertheless new developments in this field indicate on specifics that were neglected and are clinically relevant, but need to be discussed. In this respect, new SOP are needed, some new indications were explored and will be presented, as well as some technological advancements that will bring electrochemotherapy into the treatment of deep seated tumors. In light of this the session will address the current clinical developments in advancement of electrochemotherapy.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: The International Bioelectrics Consortium, INSPECT group

Medical applications: electrochemotherapy I

Scheduled for: Track A, Monday, 15:00 – 16:00
Programme: link

Chair(s): This part of the session will be chaired by Pietro Qualigno from University of Turin, Turin, Italy (email: ), Julie Gehl from the Herlev University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark (email: ), and Gregor Serša from Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia (email: ).

Medical applications: electrochemotherapy II

Scheduled for: Track A, Monday, 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link

Chair(s): This part of the session will be chaired by Julie Gehl from the Herlev University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark (email: ), Gregor Serša from Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia (email: ), and Damijan Miklavčič from University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia (email: ).

Medical applications: gene therapy

Scheduled for: Track A, Wednesday, 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link

Description:

Gene electro transfer (GET) has matured from a laboratory technique to an approach that is now being tested in over 60 clinical trials. The use of pulse electric fields to deliver plasmid DNA has been demonstrated to be safe and effective for many indications. Current trials are mainly focused on cancer and infectious diseases but recent preclinical studies have shown the utility of this approach for other applications including wound healing, cardiovascular, pulmonary disorders and protein replacement therapies. GET has a clear advantage over other gene transfer approaches as manipulation of delivery parameters can impart better control of the expression profile following delivery. Control of expression levels and kinetics has a direct impact on the potential effectiveness of the therapy and the ability to reduce and/or eliminate adverse side effects. It is clear that GET is maturing into a viable option for performing gene therapy. Successes in current clinical trials and the increases testing of new applications are clear indications that this approach will continue to grow.

Chair(s): This part of the session will be chaired by Richard Heller from the Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA (email: ), and Gregor Serša from Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia (email: ).

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Electrochemistry and electroporation

Scheduled for: Track C, Wednesday, 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link

Description:

Electroporation of biological cells in suspensions and tissue is accompanied by high voltages and currents leading to electrochemical processes, which may play an important role when electroporation is applied for electrochemotherapy, transdermal drug delivery, gene therapy, as well as non-thermal pasteurization of liquid foods.

The goal of this symposium is to gather observations regarding electrochemical reactions during electroporation, which may have been ignored in electroporation studies or considered a secondary effect or just not published. We encourage scientists in the field to shift through their earlier studies and share results that may be relevant to phenomena at the interface between electrochemical reactions and electroporation.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: n/a

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Gianpiero Pataro from University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy (email: ), and Guillermo Marshall from University of Buenos Aires and National Research Council, Buenos Aires, Argentina (email: ).

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Mechanotransduction: how mechanical forces regulate cells and tissues responses

Please note that this session has been entirely integrated into the new, general session
In vitro electroporation – basic mechanisms!

Description:

Cells and tissues can experience and respond to mechanical forces by changing shape and position. They possess mechanosensory machinery that allows them to detect physical stimuli and transduce these cues into biochemical signals that ultimately alter gene expression and modulate cell fate.

Electric pulses are nowadays used for different purposes in medicine (to treat cancers and to deliver genes) and food industries (for biomass conditioning and processing). Their mechanisms of action are not completely understood. The aim of this session would be to call attention on the potential consequences of electric field pulses on cells and tissues behaviours in terms of mechanotransduction.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: LEA EBAM

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Marie-Pierre Rols from the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology (IPBS-CNRS), Toulouse, France (email: ).

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PEF for the food industry: fundamentals and applications

Scheduled for: Track D, Thursday, 15:00 – 16:00 and 16:30 – 18:00
Programme: link and link

Description:

Food industry requires a continuous adaptation of its production processes in order to improve food quality or to introduce new products in the market while reducing energy inputs. Innovative nonthermal technologies such as pulsed electric fields (PEF) offer a range of opportunities for improving conventional processing.

During PEF processing, a liquid food or pumpable product is passed through a treatment chamber where it is subjected to short pulses (µs) of very high voltage. The generated external electric fields (0.5-30 kV/cm) induce the electroporation of the cytoplasmatic membrane of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. The pore formation affects the permeability of the biological membranes causing microbial inactivation and enhancing the diffusion processes through cell membranes. Due to these effects, PEF has gained increasing interest in recent years for liquid food pasteurization and for improving mass transfer operations in the food industry.

The recent development of PEF apparatus with sufficient power for processing large quantities of products, the easy implementation of the treatment chambers into the existing processing and the low energy consumption are keys of PEF technology for becoming a commercially viable technology for the food industry.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: n/a

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Giovanna Ferrari from the ProdAl S.c.a.r.l. consortium and University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy (email: ), Eugèene Vorobiev from Université de Technologie de Compiègne (email: ), and Javier Raso from University of Zaragoza, Spain (email: ).

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Irreversible electroporation in clinical use

Scheduled for: Track A, Tuesday, 15:00 – 16:00 and 16:30 – 18:30
Programme: link and link

Description:

IRE is one of the younger image guided minimal invasive methods for local cancer treatment. Because of its non-thermal active principle it is regarded as a more gentle and specific treatment option for tumours near to sensible anatomical structures than radiofrequency, laser or microwave ablation techniques.

In the last years IRE therefore found more and more its way into clinical routine but is still confined to relative few centres worldwide. There are several reports and ongoing studies about the treatment of a variety of cancer entities in different organs. Nevertheless, in comparison to the other local ablation techniques clinical data is still limited. This could be one of the reasons why IRE has not yet been incorporated in the official treatment guidelines. This session will give an overview about the variety of clinical applications presented from selected medical experts on this field.

The aim is to inform the participant about organ specific treatment options, current indications, advantages but also limitations, technical challenges and update about latest clinical outcome data.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: n/a

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Boris Rubinsky from University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA (email: ), and Damijan Miklavčič from University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia (email: ).

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Electrotechnologies for food and biomass treatment

Scheduled for: Track D, Wednesday, 15:00 – 16:00
Programme: link

Description:

Recently, the electrotechnologies based on effects of pulsed electric fields (PEF), ohmic heating (OH), pulsed light, arc discharges, and plasma treatment, gained the real interest in relation to the processing of plant foods, food by-products and wastes. These treatments as well as other alternative technologies like microwaves and ultrasound allow to enhance the efficiency of bio-compounds recovery, inactivation of microorganisms, and improving of biomass transformation.

The PEF, OH, and microwaves can preserve nutritional, functional, structural, and sensory properties of products better than conventional processing technologies. Arc discharges, microwaves and ultrasound can be used for biomass fractionation and extractives recovery. Pulsed light and plasma are very efficient for the surface treatment. Electrofiltration and electro-osmotic dewatering permit better separation of some biosuspensions and dehydration of food wastes with lower energy consumption.

Due to the above effects, the new electrotechnologies have gained increasing industrial interest and present a real alternative to conventional thermal technologies.

Organised / supported / endorsed by: n/a

Chair(s): The session will be chaired by Sudhir K. Sastry from Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA (email: ), and Farid Chemat from Université d'Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse, Avignon, France (email: ).

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