Topic Review
Macrocyclic Receptors
An important direction in the design of tetrapyrrole macrocyclic receptors for a certain substrate type is modification of the macrocycle periphery with bulky substituents or molecular fragments of different natures. Bulky highly-branched lateral substituents are capable of forming additional complexing cavities that can be used for identification and selective binding of substrates of a certain type.
  • 755
  • 14 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Polymer-Matrix Composites - Environmental Fatigue, Creep, Long-Term Durability
Polymer-matrix composites are widely used in engineering applications. Yet, environmental factors impact their macroscale fatigue and creep performances significantly, owing to several mechanisms acting at the microstructure level. Seawater, due to a combination of high salinity and pressures, low temperature and biotic media present, also contributes to the acceleration of fatigue and creep damage. Similarly, other liquid corrosive agents penetrate into cracks induced by cyclic loading and cause dissolution of the resin and breakage of interfacial bonds. UV radiation either increases the crosslinking density or scissions chains, embrittling the surface layer of a given matrix. Temperature cycles close to the glass transition damage the fibre–matrix interface, promoting microcracking and hindering fatigue and creep performance. The microbial and enzymatic degradation of biopolymers is also studied, with the former responsible for metabolising specific matrices and changing their microstructure and/or chemical composition. 
  • 755
  • 07 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Voltage Gated Ion Channels
Safety Pharmacology is one of the most dynamically developing disciplines, whose objective is to assess the potential risks of improperly conducted pharmacotherapy. Evaluation of a potential risks in the use of a given substance is vital for placing a new medicine on the market. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has issued a number of guidelines for drug safety testing [1, 2]. However, the continuous development of medicine demands the extension and refinement of the test panel that a new molecule must undergo before it can be released for use by patients. Toxic effects of compounds on the most important organs are among the most frequent reasons of elimination of substances from further tests. Additionally, safety tests are also performed for medicines already approved for use. Such trials are required, e.g., to register new indications for "old" drugs.  The above mentioned activities require a suitable identifications of the antitargets which are commonly defined as undesirable molecular targets that play an essential role in the proper functioning of cells. Down modulation of an antitarget results in clinically unacceptable side effects, initiation of disease, or deleterious alterations in disease progression. This results in shorter onset time of the disease, increased disease burden, poorer patient outcome, or decreased survival time.
  • 755
  • 27 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Dimeric/Multimeric Anticoagulant DNA Aptamers
Multivalent interactions frequently occur in biological systems and typically provide higher binding affinity and selectivity in target recognition than when only monovalent interactions are operative. Thus, taking inspiration by nature, bivalent or multivalent nucleic acid aptamers recognizing a specific biological target have been extensively studied in the last decades. Indeed, oligonucleotide-based aptamers are suitable building blocks for the development of highly efficient multivalent systems since they can be easily modified and assembled exploiting proper connecting linkers of different nature. Thus, substantial research efforts have been put in the construction of dimeric/multimeric versions of effective aptamers with various degrees of success in target binding affinity or therapeutic activity enhancement. Several dimeric and multimeric DNA-based aptamers, including those forming G-quadruplex (G4) structures, were designed as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticoagulant, and anticancer agents and their number is certainly bound to grow in the near future. In this content, we here focus on dimeric/multimeric constructs designed as anticoagulant agents.
  • 755
  • 01 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Status of Health Estimation Methods
As the backup power supply of power plants and substations, Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) batteries are the last safety guarantee for the safe and reliable operation of power systems, and the batteries status of health(SOH)directly affects the stability and safety of power system equipment. In recent years, due to the aging and failure of VRLA batteries, some serious safety accidents have been caused, so it is very necessary to accurately evaluate the health of batteries.
  • 754
  • 21 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Biological Carbon Fixation
Biological carbon fixation or сarbon assimilation is the process by which inorganic carbon (particularly in the form of carbon dioxide) is converted to organic compounds by living organisms. The compounds are then used to store energy and as structure for other biomolecules. Carbon is primarily fixed through photosynthesis, but some organisms use a process called chemosynthesis in the absence of sunlight. Organisms that grow by fixing carbon are called autotrophs, which include photoautotrophs (which use sunlight), and lithoautotrophs (which use inorganic oxidation). Heterotrophs are not themselves capable of carbon fixation but are able to grow by consuming the carbon fixed by autotrophs or other heterotrophs. "Fixed carbon", "reduced carbon", and "organic carbon" may all be used interchangeably to refer to various organic compounds. Chemosynthesis is carbon fixation driven by chemical energy, rather than from sunlight. Sulfur- and hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria often use the Calvin cycle or the reductive citric acid cycle.
  • 754
  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Hard Carbons as Anodes in Sodium-Ion Batteries
Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are regarded as promising alternatives to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in the field of energy, especially in large-scale energy storage systems. Tremendous effort has been put into the electrode research of SIBs, and hard carbon (HC) stands out among the anode materials due to its advantages in cost, resource, industrial processes, and safety. However, different from the application of graphite in LIBs, HC, as a disordered carbon material, leaves more to be completely comprehended about its sodium storage mechanism, and there is still plenty of room for improvement in its capacity, rate performance and cycling performance.
  • 753
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Morella and Myrica Phytochemicals
Myrica and Morella (Myricaceae) are taxonomically close genera, which include species of trees or shrubs with edible fruits that exhibit relevant uses in traditional medicine. A wide array of compounds isolated from different parts of Myrica and/or Morella species possess several biological activities, like anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, and cardio-/neuro-/hepatoprotective activities, both in vitro and in vivo, with myricanol, myricitrin, quercitrin, and betulin being the most promising. There are still many other compounds isolated from both genera whose biological activities have not been evaluated, which represents an excellent opportunity to discover new applications for those compounds and valorize Morella/Myrica species.
  • 752
  • 07 Feb 2021
Topic Review
2D Nanomaterials for Optical Limiting
Due to the outstanding physical, chemical, electronic, and optical properties, ultra-thin 2D materials can be potentially utilized in a wide spectrum of applications, including catalysis, energy storage, sensors, biomedicine and electronics/optoelectronics, etc. 
  • 752
  • 18 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Aurilide Family
Aurilides are a class of depsipeptides occurring mainly in marine cyanobacteria. Members of the aurilide family have shown to exhibit strong cytotoxicity against various cancer cell lines. These compounds bear a pentapeptide, a polyketide, and an α-hydroxy ester subunit in their structure.
  • 752
  • 18 Mar 2021
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