Boosting transcriptional activities by employing repeated activation domains in transcription factors.

Enhancing the transcriptional activation activity of transcription factors (TFs) has multiple applications in organism improvement, metabolic engineering, and other aspects of plant science, but the approaches remain unclear. Here, we used gene activation assays and genetic transformation to investigate the transcriptional activities of two MYB TFs, PRODUCTION OF ANTHOCYANIN PIGMENT 1 (AtPAP1) from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and EsMYBA1 from Epimedium (Epimedium sagittatum), and their synthetic variants in a range of plant species from several families. Using anthocyanin biosynthesis as a convenient readout, we discovered that homologous naturally occurring TFs showed differences in the transcriptional activation ability and that similar TFs induced large changes in the genetic program when heterologously expressed in different species.

Free vibration and sound transmission properties of beetle elytron plate: structural parametric analysis.

Honeycomb plate (HP), which is a high-strength and lightweight structure, has good vibration characteristics, while beetle elytron plate (BEP) has better mechanical properties. To promote the engineering application of BEPs, the vibration and sound transmission characteristics of aluminium BEPs were investigated in this paper with HP as the comparison object. This paper investigated the effects of the number of trabeculae, the ratio of length and width, skin thickness, core height and core thickness on the first 4 frequencies using finite element method.

Vibrational Characteristics of a Foam-Filled Short Basalt Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Resin Composite Beetle Elytron Plate.

The vibrational properties and mechanism of a foam-filling short basalt fiber reinforced epoxy resin composite beetle elytron plate (EBEP) were studied by experiments and the finite element (FE) method in this paper. The experimental results showed that the natural frequencies of the first two modes of the EBEP were very close to those of a foam-filling short basalt fiber reinforced epoxy resin composite honeycomb plate (HP), while the vibrational response of the EBEP was weaker than that of the HP, and the damping ratio was improved; the improvement of the second mode was significant. Therefore, the EBEP had a better vibration reduction performance and could directly replace the HP in engineering applications.

Utilization of silt, sludge, and industrial waste residues in building materials: A review.

To promote the effective utilization of sludge and slag produced in nature and from human activities, this paper summarizes the research progress in the field of building materials on the basis of expounding their classification and characteristics. (1) Sludge and slag include silt, sludge and industrial waste residues. These three materials are mainly composed of SiO, which can be used to produce building materials after treatment and can also be used as admixtures, including roadbed admixtures.

Evaluation of multiplex ARMS-PCR for detection of mutations conferring resistance to clarithromycin and levofloxacin.

Background: bacterium is a major cause of gastritis. With increasing use of antibiotics to treat infections, mutation resistant strains have emerged in most human populations. To effectively treat patients to help resolve infections, the clinician needs information on the antibiotic susceptibility profile of the infection.

Sulfated zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) hydrogels promote complete skin regeneration.

Unlabelled: Skin wound healing is a still long-history challenging problem and impeded by the foreign-body reaction including severe inflammation response, poor neovascularization, incomplete re-epithelialization and defective ECM remodeling. Development of biocompatible polymers, in combination with specific drugs or growth factors, has been considered as a promising strategy to treat skin wounds. Significant research efforts have been made to develop poly(ethylene glycol) PEG-based polymers for wound healing, however less efforts has been paid to zwitterionic materials, some of which have demonstrated their super low-fouling property in vitro and anti-inflammatory property in vivo.

Importance of zwitterionic incorporation into polymethacrylate-based hydrogels for simultaneously improving optical transparency, oxygen permeability, and antifouling properties.

Conventional 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA)-based hydrogels have an inverse relationship between optical transparency (OP) and oxygen permeability (D) as a function of water content. While the higher water content favors the oxygen permeability of HEMA-based hydrogels, it also causes poor optical transparency due to the water-induced scattering center effect. Here, we propose and demonstrate that the incorporation of zwitterionic [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium hydroxide (SBMA) with HEMA hydrogels enables the achievement of both properties (OP = 98% and D = 54.

Novel HS Releasing Nanofibrous Coating for In Vivo Dermal Wound Regeneration.

Hydrogen sulfide (HS), together with nitric oxide and carbon monoxide, has been recognized as an important gasotransmitter. It plays an essential physiological role in regulating cyto-protective signal process, and HS-based therapy is considered as the next generation of promising therapeutic strategies for many biomedical applications, such as the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Through electrospinning of polycaprolactone (PCL) containing JK1, a novel pH-controllable HS donor, nanofibers with HS releasing function, PCL-JK1, are fabricated.

Comparative Study of Heparin-Poloxamer Hydrogel Modified bFGF and aFGF for in Vivo Wound Healing Efficiency.

Wound therapy remains a clinical challenge. Incorporation of growth factors (GFs) into heparin-functionalized polymer hydrogel is considered as a promising strategy to improve wound healing efficiency. However, different GFs incorporation into the same heparin-based hydrogels often lead to different wound healing effects, and the underlying GF-induced wound healing mechanisms still remain elusive.

Heparin-Based Coacervate of FGF2 Improves Dermal Regeneration by Asserting a Synergistic Role with Cell Proliferation and Endogenous Facilitated VEGF for Cutaneous Wound Healing.

Effective wound healing requires complicated, coordinated interactions and responses at protein, cellular, and tissue levels involving growth factor expression, cell proliferation, wound closure, granulation tissue formation, and vascularization. In this study, we develop a heparin-based coacervate consisting of poly(ethylene argininylaspartate digylceride) (PEAD) as a storage matrix, heparin as a bridge, and fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) as a cargo (namely heparin-FGF2@PEAD) for wound healing. First, in vitro characterization demonstrates the loading efficiency and control release of FGF2 from the heparin-FGF2@PEAD coacervate.

Protein diffusion characteristics in the hydrogels of poly(ethylene glycol) and zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (pSBMA).

Unlabelled: Nonfouling materials such as neutral poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (pSBMA) are ideal biocompatible materials for drug, especially protein drug delivery. The interaction behavior of protein between the nonfouling materials could cause great impact on their future applications, such as controlled release drug delivery systems. In this work, we investigated the diffusion behavior of the fluorescence-labeled model proteins (bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme (LYZ)) in nonfouling PEG, pSBMA and mixed PEG-SBMA hydrogels (SBMA:PEG 4:1, SBMA:PEG 1:4).

Research Advances in Tissue Engineering Materials for Sustained Release of Growth Factors.

Growth factors are a class of cytokines that stimulate cell growth and are widely used in clinical practice, such as wound healing, revascularization, bone repair, and nervous system disease. However, free growth factors have a short half-life and are instable in vivo. Therefore, the search of excellent carriers to enhance sustained release of growth factors in vivo has become an area of intense research interest.