Bioerodible Polypyrrole

2001 ◽  
Vol 711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Zelikin ◽  
Venkatram Shastri ◽  
David Lynn ◽  
Jian Farhadi ◽  
Ivan Martin ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTConductive polymers such as polypyrrole (Ppy) are potentially useful as an active interface for altering cellular processes and function. Their utilization in medically related applications however have been substantially held back by their non-degradable nature. Herein we report a novel approach to creation of bioerodible polypyrroles via modification of pyrrole beta-carbon with an ionizable moiety. It has been shown that the erosion rate of acid-bearing derivative of polypyrrole increases with pH, which is consistent with the pH dependent ionization of carboxylic acid group. The novel paradigm proposed for the creation of bioerodible polypyrroles allows for simple and efficient control over the erosion rate of the substrate independent of the polymer chain length, via the choice of the terminal ionizable group and its concentration along the polymer backbone.

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Truman

Background  The role of cultural icons in twenty-first century North American popular culture has been under-theorized in communication scholarship. This is a significant gap in knowledge, given the importance of the icon as a public text through which collective cultural values are symbolized.Analysis  Using the novel approach of the scoping review, this article illuminates the current landscape of iconic studies by identifying wide-ranging examples of the cultural icon from academic scholarship, recognizing organizational categories, and synthesizing existing definitions to highlight the limits of current conceptualizations.Conclusions and Implications  Informed by the collected data, this article suggests a redefinition of the cultural icon that considers its current novel role in revealing tensions between different articulations of collective cultural values.Contexte  Le rôle des icônes culturels dans la culture populaire nord-américaine de ce siècle n’a pas encore reçu une attention théorique soutenue en communication. Cette lacune est sérieuse, vu l’importance de l’icône en tant que texte public par lequel nous représentons nos valeurs culturelles collectives.Analyse  Au moyen de l’approche novatrice qu’est l’examen de la portée, cet article illumine le terrain contemporain des études iconiques en identifiant divers exemples de l’icône culturel dans la recherche académique, en recensant des catégories organisationnelles pour celui-ci, et en faisant la synthèse de définitions courantes afin de souligner les limites des conceptualisations actuelles.Conclusion et implications  Cet article s’inspire des données recueillies pour proposer une redéfinition de l’icône culturel qui rend compte de son rôle novateur de souligner les tensions sous-tendant diverses articulations de valeurs culturelles collectives.


Synthesis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (01) ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Grogg ◽  
Donald Hilvert ◽  
Albert Beck ◽  
Dieter Seebach

Novel guanidinium-rich oligopeptide derivatives R-[Adp(X)]8-NH2 are described, which consist of an octa-aspartic acid backbone with argininylated side chains that are derived from the biopolymer cyanophycin [H-(Adp)n-OH]. The Fmoc-Adp(X,Pbf)-OH building blocks for solid-state peptide synthesis (SSPS) of Adp octamers were prepared from Fmoc-Arg(Pbf)-OH and Fmoc-Asp-OAll. Coupling on PAL resin provided four octamers with and without N-terminal fluorescent groups (FAM) and C-terminal amide groups. Milligram quantities of Adp-octamers were isolated after preparative HPLC purification. The structure of the novel guanidinium-rich oligomers is unique insofar as the side chains of the Asp8-backbone include both a guanidino and a carboxylic acid group, the influence of which will be tested with the corresponding ester and amide derivatives that were synthesized in parallel. Unusual cell-penetrating properties of the Adp-octamers are expected.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Gallagher ◽  
Bas Verplanken ◽  
Ian Walker

Social norms have been shown to be an effective behaviour change mechanism across diverse behaviours, demonstrated from classical studies to more recent behaviour change research. Much of this research has focused on environmentally impactful actions. Social norms are typically utilised for behaviour change in social contexts, which facilitates the important element of the behaviour being visible to the referent group. This ensures that behaviours can be learned through observation and that deviations from the acceptable behaviour can be easily sanctioned or approved by the referent group. There has been little focus on how effective social norms are in private or non-social contexts, despite a multitude of environmentally impactful behaviours occurring in the home, for example. The current study took the novel approach to explore if private behaviours are important in the context of normative influence, and if the lack of a referent groups results in inaccurate normative perceptions and misguided behaviours. Findings demonstrated variance in normative perceptions of private behaviours, and that these misperceptions may influence behaviour. These behaviours are deemed to be more environmentally harmful, and respondents are less comfortable with these behaviours being visible to others, than non-private behaviours. The research reveals the importance of focusing on private behaviours, which have been largely overlooked in the normative influence literature.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1960
Author(s):  
K. Tanuj Sapra ◽  
Ohad Medalia

The cytoskeleton of the eukaryotic cell provides a structural and functional scaffold enabling biochemical and cellular functions. While actin and microtubules form the main framework of the cell, intermediate filament networks provide unique mechanical properties that increase the resilience of both the cytoplasm and the nucleus, thereby maintaining cellular function while under mechanical pressure. Intermediate filaments (IFs) are imperative to a plethora of regulatory and signaling functions in mechanotransduction. Mutations in all types of IF proteins are known to affect the architectural integrity and function of cellular processes, leading to debilitating diseases. The basic building block of all IFs are elongated α-helical coiled-coils that assemble hierarchically into complex meshworks. A remarkable mechanical feature of IFs is the capability of coiled-coils to metamorphize into β-sheets under stress, making them one of the strongest and most resilient mechanical entities in nature. Here, we discuss structural and mechanical aspects of IFs with a focus on nuclear lamins and vimentin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 674
Author(s):  
Marianna Koctúrová ◽  
Jozef Juhár

With the ever-progressing development in the field of computational and analytical science the last decade has seen a big improvement in the accuracy of electroencephalography (EEG) technology. Studies try to examine possibilities to use high dimensional EEG data as a source for Brain to Computer Interface. Applications of EEG Brain to computer interface vary from emotion recognition, simple computer/device control, speech recognition up to Intelligent Prosthesis. Our research presented in this paper was focused on the study of the problematic speech activity detection using EEG data. The novel approach used in this research involved the use visual stimuli, such as reading and colour naming, and signals of speech activity detectable by EEG technology. Our proposed solution is based on a shallow Feed-Forward Artificial Neural Network with only 100 hidden neurons. Standard features such as signal energy, standard deviation, RMS, skewness, kurtosis were calculated from the original signal from 16 EEG electrodes. The novel approach in the field of Brain to computer interface applications was utilised to calculated additional set of features from the minimum phase signal. Our experimental results demonstrated F1 score of 86.80% and 83.69% speech detection accuracy based on the analysis of EEG signal from single subject and cross-subject models respectively. The importance of these results lies in the novel utilisation of the mobile device to record the nerve signals which can serve as the stepping stone for the transfer of Brain to computer interface technology from technology from a controlled environment to the real-life conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 7923
Author(s):  
Santiago Alvarez-Argote ◽  
Caitlin C. O’Meara

Macrophages were first described as phagocytic immune cells responsible for maintaining tissue homeostasis by the removal of pathogens that disturb normal function. Historically, macrophages have been viewed as terminally differentiated monocyte-derived cells that originated through hematopoiesis and infiltrated multiple tissues in the presence of inflammation or during turnover in normal homeostasis. However, improved cell detection and fate-mapping strategies have elucidated the various lineages of tissue-resident macrophages, which can derive from embryonic origins independent of hematopoiesis and monocyte infiltration. The role of resident macrophages in organs such as the skin, liver, and the lungs have been well characterized, revealing functions well beyond a pure phagocytic and immunological role. In the heart, recent research has begun to decipher the functional roles of various tissue-resident macrophage populations through fate mapping and genetic depletion studies. Several of these studies have elucidated the novel and unexpected roles of cardiac-resident macrophages in homeostasis, including maintaining mitochondrial function, facilitating cardiac conduction, coronary development, and lymphangiogenesis, among others. Additionally, following cardiac injury, cardiac-resident macrophages adopt diverse functions such as the clearance of necrotic and apoptotic cells and debris, a reduction in the inflammatory monocyte infiltration, promotion of angiogenesis, amelioration of inflammation, and hypertrophy in the remaining myocardium, overall limiting damage extension. The present review discusses the origin, development, characterization, and function of cardiac macrophages in homeostasis, cardiac regeneration, and after cardiac injury or stress.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 4359
Author(s):  
Sara Martín-Villanueva ◽  
Gabriel Gutiérrez ◽  
Dieter Kressler ◽  
Jesús de la Cruz

Ubiquitin is a small protein that is highly conserved throughout eukaryotes. It operates as a reversible post-translational modifier through a process known as ubiquitination, which involves the addition of one or several ubiquitin moieties to a substrate protein. These modifications mark proteins for proteasome-dependent degradation or alter their localization or activity in a variety of cellular processes. In most eukaryotes, ubiquitin is generated by the proteolytic cleavage of precursor proteins in which it is fused either to itself, constituting a polyubiquitin precursor, or as a single N-terminal moiety to ribosomal proteins, which are practically invariably eL40 and eS31. Herein, we summarize the contribution of the ubiquitin moiety within precursors of ribosomal proteins to ribosome biogenesis and function and discuss the biological relevance of having maintained the explicit fusion to eL40 and eS31 during evolution. There are other ubiquitin-like proteins, which also work as post-translational modifiers, among them the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO). Both ubiquitin and SUMO are able to modify ribosome assembly factors and ribosomal proteins to regulate ribosome biogenesis and function. Strikingly, ubiquitin-like domains are also found within two ribosome assembly factors; hence, the functional role of these proteins will also be highlighted.


2006 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. o2751-o2752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Sun ◽  
Jian-Ping Ma ◽  
Ru-Qi Huang ◽  
Yu-Bin Dong

In the title compound, C10H7N3O4·H2O, one carboxyl group is deprotonated and the pyridyl group is protonated. The inner salt molecule has a planar structure, apart from the carboxylic acid group, which is tilted from the imidazole plane by a small dihedral angle of 7.3 (3)°.


ChemInform ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (17) ◽  
pp. no-no
Author(s):  
Hajime Yokoyama ◽  
Takayoshi Kubo ◽  
Yosuke Matsumura ◽  
Junichi Hosokawa ◽  
Masahiro Miyazawa ◽  
...  

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