Synthesis of Temporin-SHa Retro Analogs with Lysine Addition/Substitution and Antibiotic Conjugation to Enhance Antibacterial, Antifungal, and Anticancer Activities.

In the face of rising the threat of resistant pathogens, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) offer a viable alternative to the current challenge due to their broad-spectrum activity. This study focuses on enhancing the efficacy of temporin-SHa derived NST-2 peptide (), which is known for its antimicrobial and anticancer activities. We synthesized new analogs of using three strategies, i.

DeBo: Contrast enhancement for image registration using binary differential evolution and bat optimization.

Image registration has demonstrated its significance as an essential tool for target recognition, classification, tracking, and damage assessment during natural catastrophes. The image registration process relies on the identification of numerous reliable features; thus, low resolutions, poor lighting conditions, and low image contrast substantially diminish the number of dependable features available for registration. Contrast stretching enhances image quality, facilitating the object detection process.

Active restoration efforts drive community succession and assembly in a desert during the past 53 years.

Regreening efforts in deserts have been implemented globally to combat land degradation and desert expansion, but how they affect above- and belowground community succession and assembly processes remains unknown. Here, we examined variations in plant and soil microbial community attributes along a 53-year restoration chronosequence following the establishment of straw checkerboard barriers (SCBs) in the Tengger Desert of China. This approach is a combination of fixing shifting sand and adding organic material (straw) simultaneously to expedite vegetation restoration by enhancing the success of plant establishment.

Exploration of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in gastric cancer patients through next generation sequencing: implications for diagnosis and therapy.

Objectives: The study aims to characterize BRCA1/2 mutations in Pakistani gastric cancer (GC) patients, identifying unique pathogenic variants and evaluating their potential as diagnostic biomarkers, while also exploring therapeutic avenues for personalized treatment strategies.

Methodology: In this study, we investigated the role of Breast Cancer gene 1 (BRCA1) and Breast Cancer gene 2 (BRCA2) mutations in Pakistani GC patients and their functional implications using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS).

Results: Through NGS, we identified a total of 19 mutations in BRCA1 and 11 mutations in BRCA2, all with high mutation quality scores.

A key parametric study of ultrasonic exfoliation of 2D TiB using DI water as a unique medium.

Liquid Phase Exfoliation (LPE) is a very effective technique for the synthesis of few layered two dimensional (2D) nanosheets. There is a surge to find environment friendly solvents for efficient exfoliation of layered materials to produce 2D nanosheets. TiB is an important layered material with very little reported work on its 2D nanosheets.

Tacrolimus Ointment in Periorbital Atopic Dermatitis.

Periorbital atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common sign in ophthalmological practice and usually has a persistent and relapsing course. Treatment with topical corticosteroids has various side effects associated with their usage. Tacrolimus topical ointment has unique immunomodulatory properties that decrease skin inflammation and pruritus in AD.

Bioinformatics, RNA sequencing, and targeted bisulfite sequencing analyses identify the role of PROM2 as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker.

Objectives: Prominin 2 (PROM2) gene has been reported as a molecular biomarker of human cancers; however, its role is still controversial. This study was therefore arranged to seek the role of PROM2 in different cancers with Bioinformatics and in vitro analyses.

Methods: A combination of bioinformatics and molecular experiments.

A pan-cancer analysis of pituitary tumor-transforming 3, pseudogene.

Background: Although evidence regarding pituitary tumor-transforming 3, pseudogene (PTTG3P) involvement in human cancers has been acquired via human and animal model-based molecular studies, there is a lack of pan-cancer analysis of this gene in human tumors.

Methods: Tumor-causing effects of PTTG3P in 24 human tumors were explored using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) datasets from different bioinformatics databases and applying in silico tools such as The University of ALabama at Birmingham CANcer (UALCAN), Human Protein Atlas (HPA), Kaplan Meier (KM) plotter, cBioPortal, Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING), Cytoscape, Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource (TIMER), and Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). Then, via in vitro experiments, including RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and targeted bisulfite sequencing (bisulfite-seq), expression and promoter methylation levels of PTTG3P were verified in cell lines.

Variations and driving factors of leaf functional traits in the dominant desert plant species along an environmental gradient in the drylands of China.

Leaf functional traits (LFTs) of desert plants are responsive, adaptable and highly plastic to their environment. However, the macroscale variation in LFTs and driving factors underlying this variation remain unclear, especially for desert plants. Here, we measured eight LFTs, including leaf carbon concentration (LCC), leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC), leaf phosphorus concentration (LPC), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf thickness (LTH) and leaf tissue density (LTD) across 114 sites along environmental gradient in the drylands of China and in Guazhou Common Garden and evaluated the effect of environment and phylogeny on the LFTs.

Solvent-Assisted Crystallization of an α-FeO Electron Transport Layer for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells Featuring Negligible Hysteresis.

Inorganic-organic metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) show power conversion efficiency values approaching those of state-of-the-art silicon solar cells. In a quest to find suitable charge transport materials in PSCs, hematite (α-FeO) has emerged as a potential electron transport layer (ETL) in n-i-p planar PSCs due to its low cost, UV light stability, and nontoxicity. Yet, the performance of α-FeO-based PSCs is far lower than that of state-of-the-art PSCs owing to the poor quality of the α-FeO ETL.

Plant trait networks reveal adaptation strategies in the drylands of China.

Background: Plants accomplish multiple functions by the interrelationships between functional traits. Clarifying the complex relationships between plant traits would enable us to better understand how plants employ different strategies to adapt to the environment. Although increasing attention is being paid to plant traits, few studies focused on the adaptation to aridity through the relationship among multiple traits.

A Differential Rectifier With V Compensation for High-Frequency RF Inputs.

A CMOS differential-drive bootstrap (BS) rectifier achieving an efficient dynamic threshold voltage ( V)-drop compensation at high-frequency RF inputs is proposed for small biomedical implants with wireless power transmission. A bootstrapping circuit with a dynamically controlled NMOS transistor and two capacitors is proposed to implement a dynamic V-drop compensation (DVC). The proposed bootstrapping circuit dynamically compensates the V drop of the main rectifying transistors by generating a compensation voltage only when the compensation is required, improving the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the proposed BS rectifier.

Concentrations and bioconcentration factors of leaf microelements in response to environmental gradients in drylands of China.

Determining response patterns of plant leaf elements to environmental variables would be beneficial in understanding plant adaptive strategies and in predicting ecosystem biogeochemistry processes. Despite the vital role of microelements in life chemistry and ecosystem functioning, little is known about how plant microelement concentrations, especially their bioconcentration factors (BCFs, the ratio of plant to soil concentration of elements), respond to large-scale environmental gradients, such as aridity, soil properties and anthropogenic activities, in drylands. The aim of the present study was to fill this important gap.

Synthesis and Characterization of Cobalt-Doped Ferrites for Biomedical Applications.

Novel materials for biomedical applications are in critical need of time. In the present work, the antibacterial properties of Co Ni Mg FeO nanoparticles (NPs) are assessed by the disc diffusion method for the common pathogen, that is, Gram-negative ( and ) and Gram-positive () bacteria. Overnight grown bacterial cultures were individually lawn-cultured on nutrient agar plates.

Hierarchical Nanospheres with Polycrystalline Ir&Cu and Amorphous Cu O toward Energy-Efficient Nitrate Electrolysis to Ammonia.

Electrochemical reduction reaction of nitrate (NITRR) provides a sustainable route toward the green synthesis of ammonia. Nevertheless, it remains challenging to achieve high-performance electrocatalysts for NITRR especially at low overpotentials. In this work, hierarchical nanospheres consisting of polycrystalline Iridium&copper (Ir&Cu) and amorphous Cu O (Cu Ir O NS) have been fabricated.

Nanoengineering of NiO/MnO/GO Ternary Composite for Use in High-Energy Storage Asymmetric Supercapacitor and Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER).

Designing multifunctional nanomaterials for high performing electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices has been very challenging. A number of strategies have been reported to introduce multifunctionality in electrode/catalyst materials including alloying, doping, nanostructuring, compositing, etc. Here, we report the fabrication of a reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-based ternary composite NiO/MnO/rGO (NMGO) having a range of active sites for enhanced electrochemical activity.

Physiological and transcriptome analyses demonstrate the silver nanoparticles mediated alleviation of salt stress in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L).

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) is a highly nutritive-value summer-annual forage crop used for hay, silage, grazing, and green chop. However, abiotic stresses including salinity negatively affect its growth and productivity.

Improved Electrical Properties of Strontium Hexaferrite Nanoparticles by Co Substitutions.

In this work, the sol-gel route was employed to synthesize a series of Co-substituted strontium hexaferrite nanoparticles (Sr Co FeO, = 0.0-0.50) to study the effect of cobalt ions doping on the magnetic, electrical, and structural properties of the nanoparticles.

Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of Microcystis aeruginosa exposed to artemisinin sustained-release microspheres.

Artemisinin sustained-release microspheres (ASMs) have been shown to inhibit Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa) blooms. Previous studies have focused on inhibitory mechanism of ASMs on the physiological level of M.

Nanoparticle's uptake and translocation mechanisms in plants via seed priming, foliar treatment, and root exposure: a review.

Nanotechnology is one of the promising techniques and shares wide ranges of applications almost in every field of life. Nanomaterials are getting continuous attractions due to specific physical and chemical properties and being applied as multifunctional material. The use of nanomaterials/nanoparticles in agriculture sector for crop improvement and protection against various environmental threats have attained greater significance.

Effects of environmental factors on anthocyanin accumulation in the fruits of Lycium ruthenicum Murray across different desert grasslands.

Anthocyanins can help plants adapt and resist adverse environments and have important nutritional and medicinal effects on human beings. However, how environmental factors affect the anthocyanins accumulation of plants and how to improve the anthocyanins content of plants in different soils needs further exploration. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the effects of environmental factors on the accumulation of cyanidin, petunidin, malvidin, and delphinidin in the fruits of Lycium ruthenicum in sandy desert grassland (SS), gravel desert grassland (GD), and saline-alkali desert grassland (SD) in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River Basin.

Design of Multilayered 2D Nanomaterial Composite Structures for EMI Shielding Analysis.

It is still very challenging to effectively design nanocomposite microstructures with significantly improved electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE). Herein, we developed a facile method for fabrication of molybdenum disulfide/graphene nanoplatelets (MoS/GNPs) nanocomposites, in which GNPs are utilized as highly effective electrical transport materials, while MoS resolves the agglomeration problem of GNPs. GNPs also serve as an efficient cluster of electrical transport systems and dampen the incoming electromagnetic wave.