Platinum-binding peptides: understanding of selective binding and multifunctionality

Platinum-binding peptides have been used for fabrication of complex platinum nanomaterials such as catalysts, metallopharmaceuticals, and electrodes. In this review, we present understanding of the mechanisms behind platinum-binding (Pt-binding) peptides and the applications of the peptides as multifunctional biomaterials. We discuss how the surface recognition, the roles of individual amino acids, and arrangement of amino acid sequences interplay. Our summary on the current state of understanding of Pt-binding peptides highlights opportunities for interdisciplinary research which will expand the applicability of these multifunctional Pt-binding peptides.

The Cambridge History of Philosophy of the Scientific Revolution

The early modern era produced the Scientific Revolution, which originated our present understanding of the natural world. Concurrently, philosophers established the conceptual foundations of modernity. This rich and comprehensive volume surveys and illuminates the numerous and complicated interconnections between philosophical and scientific thought as both were radically transformed from the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. The chapters explore reciprocal influences between philosophy and physics, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and other disciplines, and show how thinkers responded to an immense range of intellectual, material, and institutional influences. The volume offers a unique perspicuity, viewing the entire landscape of early modern philosophy and science, and also marks an epoch in contemporary scholarship, surveying recent contributions and suggesting future investigations for the next generation of scholars and students.

Submicron drops from flapping bursting bubbles

Tiny water drops produced from bubble bursting play a critical role in forming clouds, scattering sunlight, and transporting pathogens from water to the air. Bubbles burst by nucleating a hole at their cap foot and may produce jets or film drops. The latter originate from the fragmentation of liquid ligaments formed by the centripetal destabilization of the opening hole rim. They constitute a major fraction of the aerosols produced from bubbles with cap radius of curvature (R) > ∼0.4 × capillary length (a). However, our present understanding of the corresponding mechanisms does not explain the production of most submicron film drops, which represent the main number fraction of sea spray aerosols. In this study, we report observations showing that bursting bubbles with R < ∼0.4a are actually mainly responsible for submicron film drop production, through a mechanism involving the flapping shear instability of the cap with the outer environment. With this proposed pathway, the complex relations between bubble size and number of drops produced per bubble can be better explained, providing a fundamental framework for understanding the production flux of aerosols and the transfer of substances mediated by bubble bursting through the air–water interface and the sensitivity of the process to the nature of the environment.

Sculpted Muqarnas: The Five Capitals in the Alhambra as a Case Study for the Proportions of Western Profiles

In the Alhambra of the Nasrid era (1230–1492), a transformed type of capital emerged that incorporated muqarnas to materialize the transition from the column to the abacus. Although the Alhambra contains the most muqarnas compositions from the Occident (Iberian Peninsula), the present understanding of “Western” muqarnas is based upon two carpentry manuscripts from the 1630s, from different authors on each side of the Atlantic (López de Arenas and Fray Andrés de San Miguel). In this research, the proportions of the muqarnas profiles from each manuscript are studied and compared to each other to articulate the formal consequences of their differences. By sculpting four examples of muqarnas capitals in the Alhambra, this study assesses whether the results correspond to the information provided in the manuscripts. The particularities that arise from these simple muqarnas capitals shed light on the proportions of the Alhambra muqarnas, generate new profiles that are distinct from those of the manuscripts, and establish geometrical relationships that have hitherto been unclear. These observations offer a basis for future tests on other muqarnas compositions in Nasrid palaces, therefore advancing the definition of the formal language of the Alhambra muqarnas.

Melasma Clinical Features, Diagnosis, Epidemiology and Etiology: An Update Review

Melasma is one of the commonest dermatological challenges that facing dermatologists in the whole world. Most of the previously published articles regarding melasma usually focused on its management and the newly discovered drugs; however, the understanding of the suspected etiology and the pathogenesis is very critical to treat this skin disorder in a correct manner. Therefore, this review is an attempt to do a comprehensive updating on the present understanding of the melasma epidemiology, etiology, its role in pregnant, post-menopausal women, and in males, besides its clinical features and diagnosis through searching in many scientific databases including EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Pubmed Central (PMC), Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus. This review approaches recognizing the pathogenesis that can provide ideas to solve the therapeutic problems which connect to melasma. Therefore, this article is entirely established on previously performed studies so that no new studies on animal or human subjects were conducted by the author.

Silencing of Unintegrated Retroviral DNAs

Retroviral infection delivers an RNA genome into the cytoplasm that serves as the template for the synthesis of a linear double-stranded DNA copy by the viral reverse transcriptase. Within the nucleus this linear DNA gives rise to extrachromosomal circular forms, and in a key step of the life cycle is inserted into the host genome to form the integrated provirus. The unintegrated DNA forms, like those of DNAs entering cells by other means, are rapidly loaded with nucleosomes and heavily silenced by epigenetic histone modifications. This review summarizes our present understanding of the silencing machinery for the DNAs of the mouse leukemia viruses and human immunodeficiency virus type 1. We consider the potential impact of the silencing on virus replication, on the sensing of the virus by the innate immune system, and on the formation of latent proviruses. We also speculate on the changeover to high expression from the integrated proviruses in permissive cell types, and briefly consider the silencing of proviruses even after integration in embryonic stem cells and other developmentally primitive cell types.

Cytological and Cytogenetical Studies on Normal and Interchange Allium Triquetrum

<p>Interchanges (otherwise known as segmental chromosome interchanges or reciprocal translocations), involving exchanges of segments of nonhomologous chromosomes, have been studied extensively in plants. Probably the earliest observations were those of Gates (1903) on a ring of chromosomes at meiosis in Oenothera rubrinervis. Belling's reports of sterility in hybrids amongst certain velvet beans (Stizolobium) were later attributed to an interchange of chromosome segments (Belling, 1925). More clearly defined early cases were provided by McClintock's (1930) cytological demonstrations of interchanges in maize. Burnham's (1956) review indicates a sizable accumulation of data in plants. The researches in maize by Brink, McClintock and Burnham, and others, are by far the most extensive, and these data have contributed much to our present understanding of many cytological processes, particularly synapsis, chiasma formation and orientation phenomena.</p>

Cytological and Cytogenetical Studies on Normal and Interchange Allium Triquetrum

<p>Interchanges (otherwise known as segmental chromosome interchanges or reciprocal translocations), involving exchanges of segments of nonhomologous chromosomes, have been studied extensively in plants. Probably the earliest observations were those of Gates (1903) on a ring of chromosomes at meiosis in Oenothera rubrinervis. Belling's reports of sterility in hybrids amongst certain velvet beans (Stizolobium) were later attributed to an interchange of chromosome segments (Belling, 1925). More clearly defined early cases were provided by McClintock's (1930) cytological demonstrations of interchanges in maize. Burnham's (1956) review indicates a sizable accumulation of data in plants. The researches in maize by Brink, McClintock and Burnham, and others, are by far the most extensive, and these data have contributed much to our present understanding of many cytological processes, particularly synapsis, chiasma formation and orientation phenomena.</p>

CONFIRMATION BIAS & PSYCHOEDUCATION WITH RELATION TO MENTAL ILLNESS

The article aims to review the present understanding of cognitive biases and how they play a role in the understanding of mental illnesses. The paper explores the effect of conformation bias in a collectivistic society and how psychoeducation can play a role in forwarding research backed and data-driven mental healthcare.