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Topic Review
Maize Breeding
Maize or corn (Zea mays L.), a plant species particularly generous in its production potential and in its wide diversity of uses, is fundamental for the development of a modern and efficient agriculture. Globally, maize ranks third in area and first in production, ahead of wheat and rice. Due to the large areas corn occupies, but especially to its yielding performance, maize is a major source of food for the world’s population. In addition to its nutritional importance for humans, corn is also basic food for animal feed and valuable raw material for industrial processing. The importance of corn for human health results from the fact that it is a food rich in nutrients, especially energy of 355 kcal per 100 g flour with 15% moisture, compared to 352 kcal for wheat flour, 348 kcal for rye flour, and 346 kcal for hulled barley. As food, maize also has some shortcomings, of which that the low amount of some essential amino acids was noted, such as lysine and tryptophan. Maize is also a valuable raw material for industry, extracting oil, starch, alcohol, glucose, and other products such as syrup, pectin, dextrin, plastics, lactic acid, acetic acid, acetone, dyes, and synthetic rubber from its grains. Paper, cardboard, and nitrocellulose can be made from corn stalks. Every part of the maize plant has economic worth, including the grain, leaves, stalk, tassel, and cob, which can be used to make a variety of food and non-food goods. Maize breeding research has traditionally concentrated on enhancing productive potential in newly created maize varieties because this criterion ensures a crop’s economic efficiency. Nowadays, genomics tools are essential for a precise, fast, and efficient breeding of crops especially in the context of climate challenges, but also may in the future represent a way to accelerate the processes of de novo domestication of the species.
  • 2.7K
  • 24 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Cell Cycle
The cell cycle is the series of events that take place in a cell, which drives it to divide and produce two new daughter cells. The typical cell cycle in eukaryotes is composed of the following phases: G1, S, G2, and M phase.
  • 2.7K
  • 03 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Fungal decomposition of dead wood
Fungi create a nutritional niche for deadwood-eaters ------------------------------ Direct comparison of the amounts of essential nutrients and ergosterol in wood provides evidence that the changes in the stoichiometry of decaying dead wood are driven by the action of fungi. They infest dead wood to take advantage of the ample supply of an energy-rich substrate. However, to exploit this resource, these fungi must import an array of essential nutrients from outside of the dead wood. This nutritional enrichment of dead wood creates a nutritional niche for xylophages that allows them to grow, develop, and reach maturity. Therefore, xylophagous beetles (considered as “wood-eaters”) are unable to gather the necessary amounts of nutrients from pure dead wood to grow and mature, but instead must utilize fungal tissues. ------------------------------
  • 2.7K
  • 03 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Detection of Beta-Glucan
This entry provides a comprehensive review of the current literature about biological properties and available methods for the detection of beta-glucans. It shares the experience of the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory with the detection of beta-glucans in nanotechnology-based drug products. This entry summarizes and discusses five different approaches currently applied for the data interpretation of beta-glucan tests with respect to the acceptability (or lack thereof) of the beta-glucan levels in pharmaceutical products.
  • 2.7K
  • 03 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Research on COVID-19
As of March, most of the world is under the order of a “lockdown” or “restricted movement control” whereby world leaders and medical experts believe that social isolation is the best option at reducing the spread of the highly infectious and novel disease, that is Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). While this preventive measure is in place, various diagnostic kits and treatment strategies are being researched daily to diagnose and curb this disease quickly. This report summarizes the characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and evaluates the diagnostic kits and treatment drugs as well as vaccines that are either currently being used (RT-PCR) or in the clinical pipeline for safety and efficacy testing, respectively. The sooner efficient diagnosis and treatment can be made, the greater the number of lives will be saved.
  • 2.7K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Tea EGCG and Coffee CGA
Tea and coffee are consumed worldwide and epidemiological and clinical studies have shown their health beneficial effects, including anti-cancer effects. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and chlorogenic acid (CGA) are the major components of green tea polyphenols and coffee polyphenols, respectively, and believed to be responsible for most of these effects. Although a large number of cell-based and animal experiments have provided convincing evidence to support the anti-cancer effects of green tea, coffee, EGCG, and CGA, human studies are still controversial and some studies have suggested even an increased risk for certain types of cancers such as esophageal and gynecological cancers with green tea consumption and bladder and lung cancers with coffee consumption. 
  • 2.7K
  • 20 Oct 2020
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Metal Binding Proteins
Metal ions play several major roles in proteins: structural, regulatory, and enzymatic. The binding of some metal ions increase stability of proteins or protein domains. Some metal ions can regulate various cell processes being first, second, or third messengers. Some metal ions, especially transition metal ions, take part in catalysis in many enzymes. From ten to twelve metals are vitally important for activity of living organisms: sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, iron, cobalt, zinc, nickel, vanadium, molybdenum, and tungsten. This short review is devoted to structural, physical, chemical, and physiological properties of proteins, which specifically bind these metal cations.
  • 2.6K
  • 18 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Development of Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies
We provide an overview of the challenges and advancements in the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies and antibody products.
  • 2.7K
  • 21 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Thermodynamic Dissipation Theory of Life
The Thermodynamic Dissipation Theory of the Origin and Evolution of Life argues that the escence of the origin of life was the microscopic dissipative structuring under UVC light of organic pigments (now known as the fundamental molecules of life - those common to all three domains) and their proliferation over the entire Earth surface, driven by the thermodynamic imperative of dissipating this part of the Archean solar spectrum into heat. With time, dissipative structuring led to ever more complex biosynthetic pathways for creating pigments and their support structures (and processes) which could dissipate not only the UVC region but also other UV regions and the visible wavelengths, until today reaching the "red edge" (at approximately 700 nm). The heat of dissipation of photons absorbed on organic pigments in water then catalyzes a host of coupled secondary dissipative processes such as; the water cycle, ocean and wind currents, hurricanes, etc. pushing the limit for dissipation of the incident light even further towards the infrared. The thermodynamic dissipation theory thus assgins an explicit thermodynamic function to life; the dissipative structuring, proliferation, and evolution of molecular pigments and their complexes from common precursor carbon based molecules under the impressed short wavelength solar photon potential to perform the explicit thermodynamic function of dissipating this light into long wavelength infrared light (heat). In a general sense, the origin of life is no different than the origin of other dissipative structuring processes like hurricanes and the water cycle, except that these latter processes deal with structuring involving hydrogen bonding while life deals with structuring involving covalent bonding. The external photon potential supplied continuously by the environment (our Sun), and its dissipation into heat by the assembly of dissipative structures, are, therefore, both integral components necessary for understanding life. Difficult problems related to the origin of life, such as enzyme-less replication of RNA and DNA, homochirality of the fundamental molecules, and the origin of amino acid -codon assignments (information encoding in RNA and DNA), also find simple explanations within this same dissipative thermodynamic framework once the existence of a relation between primordial RNA and DNA replication and UV-C photon dissipation is established.
  • 2.7K
  • 04 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Mosquitoes of Etiological Concern in Kenya
Kenya is among the most affected tropical countries with pathogen transmitting Culicidae vectors. For decades, insect vectors have contributed to the emergence and distribution of viral and parasitic pathogens. Outbreaks and diseases have a great impact on a country’s economy, as resources that would otherwise be used for developmental projects are redirected to curb hospitalization cases and manage outbreaks. Infected invasive mosquito species have been shown to increasingly cross both local and global boarders due to the presence of increased environmental changes, trade, and tourism. In Kenya, there have been several mosquito-borne disease outbreaks such as the recent outbreaks along the coast of Kenya, involving chikungunya and dengue. This certainly calls for the implementation of strategies aimed at strengthening integrated vector management programs. Here we look at mosquitoes of public health concern in Kenya, while highlighting the pathogens they have been linked with over the years and across various regions. 
  • 2.7K
  • 29 Oct 2020
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