The last decade has seen significant progress in the development of flexible electronics and sensors, particularly for display technologies and healthcare applications. Advancements in scalable manufacturing, miniaturization, and integration have further extended the use of this new class of devices to smart agriculture, where multimodal sensors can be seamlessly attached to plants for continuous and remote monitoring. Among the various types of sensing devices for agriculture, flexible mechanical sensors have emerged as promising candidates for monitoring vital parameters, including growth rates and water flow, providing a new avenue for understanding plant health and growth under varied environmental conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCortactin (CTTN) is an actin-binding protein regulating actin polymerization and stabilization, which are vital processes for maintaining skeletal muscle homeostasis. Despite the established function of CTTN in actin cytoskeletal dynamics, its role in the myogenic differentiation of progenitor cells remains largely unexplored. In this study, we investigated the role of CTTN in the myogenic differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts by analyzing its effects on actin cytoskeletal remodeling, myocardin-related transcription factor A (MRTFA) nuclear translocation, serum response factor (SRF) activation, expression of myogenic transcription factors, and myotube formation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne of the challenges in carbon fiber production centers around the high cost of raw materials required for fiber precursors or complex production processes involving multiple steps. This research paper delves into the utilization of asphaltene sourced from Alberta oil sands as an alternative precursor material that is low cost for carbon fiber production. We investigated the carbon fiber production process using a blend of different asphaltene types via melt-spinning technology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/aim: Angiogenesis imaging has been a valuable complement to metabolic imaging with 2-deoxy-2-[F]fluoroglucose (FDG). In our longitudinal study, we investigated the tumour heterogeneity and the relationship between FDG and [Ga]Ga-NODAGA-c(RGDfK) (RGD) accumulation in breast cancer xenografts.
Materials And Methods: Two groups of cell lines, a fast-growing (4T1) and a slow-growing cell line (MDA-MB-HER2+), were inoculated into SCID mice.