Topic Review
Duckweed
Duckweed is the smallest and fastest-growing aquatic plant, and has advantages including simple processing and the ability to grow high biomass in smaller areas.
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  • 20 Feb 2021
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Amanita muscaria: Ecology, Chemistry, Myths
Amanita muscaria is the most emblematic mushroom in the popular representation. It is an ectomycorrhizal fungus endemic to the cold ecosystems of the northern hemisphere. The basidiocarp contains isoxazoles compounds that have specific actions on the central nervous system, including hallucinations. For this reason, it is considered an important entheogenic mushroom in different cultures whose remnants are still visible in some modern-day European traditions. In Siberian civilizations, it has been consumed for religious and recreational purposes for millennia, as it was the only inebriant in this region.
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  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Precooling and Cold Storage for Fruits and Vegetables
Cold chain systems, such as cold storages, are crucial to minimizing postharvest losses of fresh fruits and vegetables. Cold storage alone cannot prevent crop losses, but should be considered as one component that needs to be integrated into a cold chain network from the point of harvest to the point of purchase by the consumer. Cold chains are still in their infancy in developing countries due to the lack of basic infrastructure and management skills needed to support the development of integrated cold chain systems.
  • 2.1K
  • 08 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Natural Compounds and Autophagy Modulation
Autophagy is a vacuolar, lysosomal degradation pathway for injured and damaged protein molecules and organelles in eukaryotic cells, which is controlled by nutrients and stress responses. Dysregulation of cellular autophagy may lead to various diseases such as neurodegenerative disease, obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and malignancies. Recently, natural compounds have come to attention for being able to modulate the autophagy pathway in cancer prevention, although the prospective role of autophagy in cancer treatment is very complex and not yet clearly elucidated. Numerous synthetic chemicals have been identified that modulate autophagy and are favorable candidates for cancer treatment, but they have adverse side effects. Therefore, different phytochemicals, which include natural compounds and their derivatives, have attracted significant attention for use as autophagy modulators in cancer treatment with minimal side effects.
  • 2.1K
  • 30 Nov 2020
Topic Review
The Biomechanics of Cartilage
Articular cartilage (AC) sheathes joint surfaces and minimizes friction in diarthrosis. The resident cell population, chondrocytes, are surrounded by an extracellular matrix and a multitude of proteins, which bestow their unique characteristics. AC is characterized by a zonal composition (superficial (tangential) zone, middle (transitional) zone, deep zone, calcified zone) with different mechanical properties. An overview is given about different testing (load tests) methods as well as different modeling approaches.
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  • 14 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Poaching
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, poaching was performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and a supplement for meager diets. Poaching was as well set against the hunting privileges of nobility and territorial rulers. By contrast, stealing domestic animals (as in cattle raiding, for example) classifies as theft, not as poaching. Since the 1980s, the term "poaching" has also referred to the illegal harvesting of wild plant species. In agricultural terms, the term 'poaching' is also applied to the loss of soils or grass by the damaging action of feet of livestock which can affect availability of productive land, water pollution through increased runoff and welfare issues for cattle.
  • 2.0K
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Endophytic Fungi
An extensive literature search was performed to review current knowledge about endophytic fungi isolated from plants included in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) dossier. The selected genera of plants were Acacia, Albizia, Bauhinia, Berberis, Caesalpinia, Cassia, Cornus, Hamamelis, Jasminus, Ligustrum, Lonicera, Nerium, and Robinia. A total of 120 fungal genera have been found in plant tissues originating from several countries. Bauhinia and Cornus showed the highest diversity of endophytes, whereas Hamamelis, Jasminus, Lonicera, and Robinia exhibited the lowest. The most frequently detected fungi were Aspergillus, Colletotrichum, Fusarium, Penicillium, Phyllosticta, and Alternaria. Plants and plant products represent an inoculum source of several mutualistic or pathogenic fungi, including quarantine pathogens. Thus, the movement of living organisms across continents during international trade represents a serious threat to ecosystems and biosecurity measures should be taken at a global level.
  • 2.0K
  • 19 Jan 2021
Biography
Margaret Oakley Dayhoff
Margaret Belle (Oakley) Dayhoff (March 11, 1925 – February 5, 1983) was an American physical chemist and a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics.[1] Dayhoff was a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and a noted research biochemist at the National Biomedical Research Foundation (NBRF) where she pioneered the application of mathematics and computational methods to the field of bi
  • 2.1K
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Non-Enzymatic Electrochemical Sensing
Simultaneous detection of analytes that together exist in biological organisms necessitates the development of effective and efficient non enzymatic electrodes in sensing. In this regard, development of sensing elements for detecting glucose and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is significant. The non-enzymatic sensing is more economical and has longer lifetime than enzymatic electrochemical sensing, but it has several drawbacks such as high working potential, slow electrode kinetics, poisoning from intermediate species and weak sensing parameters. Here is a comprehensive overview of the recent developments in non-enzymatic glucose and H2O2 (NEGH) sensing, by focusing mainly on sensing performance, electro catalytic mechanism, morphology and design of electrode materials. A comparison of glucose and H2O2 sensing parameters using same electrode materials is outlined to predict the efficient sensing performances of advanced nanomaterials with metal/metal oxides and hybrid metallic nanocomposites.
  • 2.0K
  • 24 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Impact of Drought in Plant-Metabolism
       Plants are often exposed to unfavorable environmental conditions, for instance abiotic stresses, which dramatically alter distribution of plant species among ecological niches and limit the yields of crop species. Among these, drought stress is one of the most impacting factors which alter seriously the plant physiology, finally leading to the decline of the crop productivity. Drought stress causes in plants a set of morpho-anatomical, physiological and biochemical changes, mainly addressed to limit the loss of water by transpiration with the attempt to increase the plant water use efficiency. The stomata closure, one of the first consistent reactions observed under drought, results in a series of consequent physiological/biochemical adjustments aimed at balancing the photosynthetic process as well as at enhancing the plant defense barriers against drought-promoted stress (e.g., stimulation of antioxidant systems, accumulation of osmolytes and stimulation of aquaporin synthesis), all representing an attempt by the plant to overcome the unfavorable period of limited water availability. In view of the severe changes in water availability imposed by climate change factors and considering the increasing human population, it is therefore of outmost importance to highlight: (i) how plants react to drought; (ii) the mechanisms of tolerance exhibited by some species/cultivars; and (iii) the techniques aimed at increasing the tolerance of crop species against limited water availability. All these aspects are necessary to respond to the continuously increasing demand for food, which unfortunately parallels the loss of arable land due to changes in rainfall dynamics and prolonged period of drought provoked by climate change factors. This review summarizes the most updated findings on the impact of drought stress on plant morphological, biochemical and physiological features and highlights plant mechanisms of tolerance which could be exploited to increase the plant capability to survive under limited water availability. In addition, possible applicative strategies to help the plant in counteracting unfavorable drought periods are also discussed.
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  • 24 Aug 2020
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