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The Irish Sea basin forms a distinct node of histories, economies, and identities. The Ports, Past and Present project considered five very different ports and their communities on either side of the sea: Dublin, Rosslare, Holyhead, Fishguard and Pembroke Dock. This is the redacted and abridged business plan for the project, which ran 2019-23. Executive Summary The ultimate changes sought and the final outcomes for the Ports, Past and Present project are: • Coastal communities enjoy an increased awareness of their cultural heritage and develop new opportunities for heritage tourism. • Port towns become ‘stopping places’ and ‘spending places’ rather than just ‘through places’ for tourists, with an increase in tourism-related employment • Tourism Networks are formed between twinned Irish and Welsh ports, linking local authorities, tourism-related SMEs, community organisations and creative individuals on both sides of the Irish Sea.

This research was supported by the project MAT2017-82182-R funded by the State Research Agency (SRA) of Spain and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBUA, Hypothesis: Ice adhesion to rigid materials is reduced with low energy surfaces of high receding contact angles. However, their adhesion strength values are above the threshold value to be considered as icephobic materials. Surface deformability is a promising route to further reduce ice adhesion. Experiments: In this work, we prepared elastomer surfaces with a wide range of elastic moduli and hydrophobicity degree and we measured their ice adhesion strength. Moreover, we also explored the deicing performance of oil-infused elastomeric surfaces. The ice adhesion was characterized by two detachment modes: tensile and shear. Findings: The variety of elastomeric surfaces allowed us to simultaneously analyze the ice adhesion dependence with deformability and contact angle hysteresis. We found that the impact of these properties depends on the detachment mode, being deformability more important in shear mode and hydrophobicity more relevant in tensile mode. In addition, oil infusion further reduces ice adhesion due to the interfacial slippage. From an optimal balance between deformability and hydrophobicity, we were able to identify surfaces with super-low ice adhesion., MAT2017-82182-R State Research Agency (SRA), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Universidad de Granada / CBUA

Strukturni fondovi predstavljaju financijske instrumente koji imaju za cilj postignuće socijalne i ekonomske kohezije na europskom tržištu koje je jedinstveno. Strukturni fondovi predstavljaju parametre kohezijske politike EU čiji je cilj redistribucija financijskih sredstava onim regijama u Europi čiji je bruto domaći proizvod manji od 74 % postotka Europske unije. Europski strukturni i investicijski fondovi su: „EFRR – europski fond za regionalni razvoj, ESF+ – europski socijalni fond plus, KF – kohezijski fond, EPFRR – europski poljoprivredni fond za ruralni razvoj te EFPR – europski fond za pomorstvo i ribarstvo.“ Regionalna politika EU se u današnje vrijeme smatra najvažnijom politikom koju provodi EU, glavni zadatak europskog akta koji je jedinstven podrazumijeva transfer resursa iz regija koje su bogate u one koje su slabije razvijene odnosno siromašne regije . Alat jedinstvenog europskog akta je financijska solidarnost i ekonomska racionalnost. Načela regionalne politike se sastoje od pet glavnih načela, a to su: stvaranje planova za dugoročni period, programiranje, koncentracija resursa, načelo nadziranja i dodavanja, partnerstvo te kontrola i analiza svih procesa po fazama. Također od velike je važnosti i kohezijska politika Unije jer čini većinu odnosno čak trećinu budžeta Europske unije te ona predstavlja jedno od glavnih čimbenika politike Europske unije. Prema nomenklaturi, europska unija se sastoji od 271 regije. Fondovi europske unije imaju velik utjecaj na razvoj kako lokalnih samouprava jedinica vlasti tako i područnih odnosno regionalnih jedinica vlasti. Dubrovačko - neretvanska županija je županija odnosno područna jedinica vlasti koja također koristi fondove europske unije. Niz projekata pomoglo je razvoju županije do sada, ali plan razvoja uz pomoć europskih fondova ide dalje te je već donesen do 2027. godine. European structural and investment funds are financial instruments aimed at the implementation of an EU public policy in member states. Structural funds are elements of EU cohesion policy aimed at redistributing financial resources to those regions in Europe whose GDP is less than 74% of the EU average. The European structural and investment funds are: „ERDF - European Regional Development Fund, ESF+ - European Social Fund Plus, KF - Cohesion Fund, EPFRR - European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and EFPR - European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.“ The regional policy of the EU is nowadays considered the most important policy implemented by the EU, the main task of the single European act implies the transfer of resources. The instrument of the single European act is financial solidarity and economic rationality. The principles of regional policy consist of five main principles, namely: programming; creation of long-term plans, concentration of resources, partnership, principle of addition and supervision, control and evaluation of all phases of the process. Cohesion policy of the Union is also of great importance because it accounts for more than a third of the budget and is one of the basic goals of the EU as a community of countries. According to the nomenclature, the European Union consists of 271 regions. European Union funds have a great influence on the development of both local self-governments and regional government units. The Dubrovnik-Neretva County is a county or regional unit of government that also uses European Union funds. A number of projects have helped the development of the county so far, but the development plan with the help of European funds is going further and has already been adopted until 2027.

The use of low carbon fuels (LCFs) in internal combustion engines is a promising alternative to reduce pollution while achieving high performance through the conversion of the high energy content of the fuels into mechanical energy. However, optimizing the engine design requires deep knowledge of the complex phenomena involved in combustion that depend on the operating conditions and the fuel employed. In this work, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation tools have been used to get insight into the performance of a Volkswagen Polo 1.4L port-fuel injection spark ignition engine that has been fueled with three different LCFs, coke oven gas (COG), a gaseous by-product of coke manufacture, H2 and CH4. The comparison is made in terms of power, pressure, temperature, heat release, flame growth speed, emissions and volumetric efficiency. Simulations in Ansys® Forte® were validated with experiments at the same operating conditions with optimal spark advance, wide open throttle, a wide range of engine speed (2000–5000 rpm) and air-fuel ratio (λ) between 1 and 2. A sensitivity analysis of spark timing has been added to assess its impact on combustion variables. COG, with intermediate flame growth speed, produced the greatest power values but with lower pressure and temperature values at λ = 1.5, reducing the emissions of NO and the wall heat transfer. The useful energy released with COG was up to 16.5% and 5.1% higher than CH4 and H2, respectively. At richer and leaner mixtures (λ = 1 and λ = 2), similar performances were obtained compared to CH4 and H2, combining advantages of both pure fuels and widening the λ operation range without abnormal combustion. Therefore, suitable management of the operating conditions maximizes the conversion of the waste stream fuel energy into useful energy while limiting emissions. This research was supported by the Project, “HYLANTIC”- EAPA_204/2016, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Interreg Atlantic program and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Project: RTI2018-093310-B-I00). Rafael Ortiz-Imedio thanks the Concepción Arenal postgraduate research grant from the University of Cantabria. The authors acknowledge Santander Supercomputación support group at the University of Cantabria who provided access to the supercomputer Altamira Supercomputer at the Institute of Physics of Cantabria (IFCA-CSIC), member of the Spanish Supercomputing Network, for performing simulations. The authors also acknowledge the help provided for the model development by the Engineering Department from the Public University of Navarre in Pamplona.

Phenolic acids are involved in modulating the activity of starch digestive enzymes but remains unclear if their interaction with enzymes or starch is governing the inhibition. The potential inhibition of nine phenolic acids against α-amylase and α-glucosidase was studied applying different methodologies to understand interactions between phenolic acids and either enzymes or substrates. Vanillic and syringic acids were prone to interact with α-amylase requiring low half-maximum inhibitory concentration (IC50) to inhibit starch hydrolysis. Nevertheless, the initial interaction of phenolic acids with starch somewhat obstructed their interaction with starch, requiring 10 times higher IC50, with the exception of chlorogenic and gallic acid. The study demonstrates that 10% of the phenolic acids were retained during starch gelatinization. Those effects were not really evident with α-glucosidase, likely due to the small molecular size of maltose substrate. Phenolic acids with > 1 hydroxyl group like caffeic and protocatechuic acids showed the lowest IC50 against α-glucosidase., Financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project RTI2018-095919-B-C21, Project RTI2018-095919-B-C22) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and Generalitat Valenciana (Project Prometeo 2017/189).

This work investigates the reaction of 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone (VP) and 2-piperazin-1-yletanamine (PPE) under UV radiation. Both substances are high-volume production chemicals (production >1000 tons/year) widely used in polymers, coatings and a wide array of applications, which have been classified as mobile chemicals and which can then lead to the formation of persistent and mobile transformation products (TPs). Thus, their reaction with UV light was studied by means of liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS). Both compounds presented a high reactivity, the VP quantum yield was 0.28 mol/E; whereas, PPE had a quantum yield notably higher than 1 (16 mol/E). Five and 7 TPs were identified for VP and PPE, respectively. Some of them had been already reported in literature due to sunlight photodegradation or other oxidation processes, but most of them are reported here for the first time. Finally, the acute and chronical toxicity of precursors and TPs were estimated using two quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) software tools which led to some discrepancies in the estimations, pointing to the need for experimental toxicity assays for these compounds This work was supported by the Water Challenges for a Changing World Joint Program Initiative (Water JPI) Pilot Call (ref. WATERJPI2013 – PROMOTE), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness/Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (refs. JPIW 2013-117, CTM2017-84763-C3-2-R and PID2020-117686RB-C32). We also acknowledge the Galician Council of Culture, Education and Universities (ref. ED431C2021/06). This research has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal Programme (POCTEP) 2014–2020 (ref. 0725_NOR_WATER_1_P). It only reflects the author's view; thus, Programme authorities are not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. SI

This work assesses the capacity of a microalgae-based system to remove three highly to medium polar pesticides typically found in freshwater: acetamiprid, bentazone, and propanil. Degradation of the pesticides was firstly studied individually at batch lab-scale reactors and abiotic and heated-killed controls were employed to clarify their removal pathways. At lab-scale, propanil and acetamiprid were completely removed after 7 days whereas bentazone was not removed. Four and two transformation products (TPs) were generated in the biodegradation process for acetamiprid and propanil, respectively. Then, the simultaneous removal of the pesticides was assessed in an outdoor pilot photobioreactor, operated with a hydraulic residence time of 8 days. During the steady-state, high removal efficiencies were observed for propanil (99%) and acetamiprid (71%). The results from batch experiments suggest that removal is mainly caused by algal-mediated biodegradation. Acetamiprid TPs raised throughout the operational time in the photobioreactor, while no propanil TP was detected at the pilot-scale. This suggests complete mineralization of propanil or residual formation of its TPs at concentrations below the analytical method detection limit. Aiming at biomass valorization, diverse microalgae harvesting methods were investigated for biomass concentration, and the effect of residual pesticides on the biogas yield was determined by biochemical methane potential tests. Anaerobic digestion was not inhibited by the pesticides as verified by the digestion performance. The results highlight the potential of microalgae-based systems to couple nutrient removal, biomass production, micropollutant biodegradation, and biofuel production., This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness State Research Agency (CTM2016-75587-C2-1-R and CTM2016-75587-C2-2-R) and co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Horizon 2020 research and innovation WATERPROTECT project (727450). This work was also partly supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Consolidate Research Groups 2017-SGR-01404 and 2017-SGR-014) and the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project CEX2018-000794-S).

Recently, very thin AlAs capping layers (CLs) have been proposed as a useful tool to increase the performance of InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QDs) devices. However, the structure of QDs after AlAs deposition remains poorly understood and the mechanisms to explain it are often contradictory. In this work, the structural and compositional changes of InAs QDs using different AlAs CL thicknesses have been studied by state-of-the-art STEM-related techniques. First, the heights and In contents of InAs QDs progressively increase with the CL thickness, demonstrating that the AlAs capping produces a strong shielding effect against the decomposition of QDs. However, QD populations for CL thicknesses above 5 ML split into a bimodal distribution in which smaller lenticular QDs cohabit with bigger truncated pyramids. Second, the actual Al contents around the QDs are well below the nominal design, but increasing for thicker CLs. Its distribution is initially non-uniform, tending to accumulate on the flanks of the QDs to the detriment of the apex. Only for thicknesses above 2 ML the Al contents around the QDs start to be similar to those in the regions between the QDs, behaving as a continuous film without irregularities from 5 ML onwards. © 2021 The Author(s), The work has been co-financed by the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI projects MAT2016-77491-C2-2-R and PID2019-106088RB-C33), Regional Government of Andalusia (project FEDER-UCA18-108319) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).