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Topic Review
Xeno Nucleic Acid
Xeno nucleic acid (XNA) is a synthetic alternative to the natural nucleic acids DNA and RNA as information-storing biopolymers that differs in the sugar backbone. As of 2011, at least six types of synthetic sugars have been shown to form nucleic acid backbones that can store and retrieve genetic information. Research is now being done to create synthetic polymerases to transform XNA. The study of its production and application has created a field known as xenobiology. Although the genetic information is still stored in the four canonical base pairs (unlike other nucleic acid analogues), natural DNA polymerases cannot read and duplicate this information. Thus the genetic information stored in XNA is "invisible" and therefore useless to natural DNA-based organisms.
  • 2.8K
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
4D Printable Smart Hydrogels for Drug Delivery
Hydrogels are three-dimensional crosslinked polymer network structures that can absorb and hold a large quantity of water while retaining a distinct shape. Among modern drug formulations, stimuli-responsive hydrogels, also known as "smart hydrogels," has attracted enormous attention. The fundamental characteristic of these systems is the capacity to change their mechanical properties, swelling capacity, hydrophilicity, permeability of bioactive molecules, etc., in response to a wide range of stimuli, including temperature, pH, light irradiation, magnetic field, biological factors, etc. On the other hand, the expeditious development of 3D printing technologies has revolutionized the fabrication of hydrogel systems for biomedical applications. By combining these two aspects, 4D printing (i.e., 3D printing of smart hydrogels) has emerged as a new promising platform for the development of novel drug delivery systems, which release active ingredients in response to internal or external stimuli.
  • 977
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Bio-Vitrimers for Sustainable Circular Bio-Economy
The traditional polymer circular economy (CE) continues to be challenging due to its reprocessing/recycle ability; also, at the same time, newly developed substitute materials have not expressed similar performance to conventional materials involved in contemporary applications. Hence, linear approaches such as “take-make-use-waste” have severely affected sustainability modules where non-renewable resources have been used at maximum levels. In addition, sustainability is termed along with the circular economy paradigm in recent times, although material sustainability differs from CE material. The circular economy mainly focuses on the economic, environmental and social impacts, whereas sustainability is more about an ecological importance. Globally, frameworks have been formed to enhance the sustainable environment. The United Nations (UN) has designed 17 sustainable development goals to be enforced in all countries in order to reach the goal of a sustainable society by 2030.
  • 731
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Tire Rubber and Its Degradation Behavior
The use of ground tire rubber (GTR) for modifying asphalt is very promising and is a sustainable development strategy. The addition of GTR to asphalt shows many improvements in the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the rubber asphalt binder, such as enhanced stiffness, increased skid resistance, extended service life, mitigated fatigue cracking and so on.
  • 777
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Immobilized Nanomaterials for Energy Production
Nanomaterials (NMs) have been extensively used in several environmental applications; however, their widespread dissemination at full scale is hindered by difficulties keeping them active in engineered systems. Thus, several strategies to immobilize NMs for their environmental utilization have been established and are described in the present text, emphasizing their role in the production of renewable energies, the removal of priority pollutants, as well as greenhouse gases, from industrial streams, by both biological and physicochemical processes. The challenges to optimize the application of immobilized NMs and the relevant research topics to consider in future research are also presented to encourage the scientific community to respond to current needs.
  • 387
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
General Aspects of Carbon Dot and Polymer Composites
Carbon dot-based composite materials have been extensively developed for versatile biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, bioimaging, biosensors, and photothermal cancer therapy, owing to their excellent mechanical properties, electrical and thermal conductivity, large surface-to-volume ratio, and biocompatibility. For instance, the hydrophobicity and delocalized π-electrons of carbon dots enable insoluble drug loading in carbon composite-based drug delivery carriers. In addition, carbon dot-based materials are suitable for optical and electrochemical biosensor applications owing to their intrinsic properties.
  • 670
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
The Hydrophobic Effects
Hydrophobic interactions are involved in and believed to be the fundamental driving force of many chemical and biological phenomena in aqueous environments.
  • 839
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
CAMPUS (Database)
CAMPUS (acronym for Computer Aided Material Preselection by Uniform Standards) is a multilingual database for the properties of plastics. It is considered worldwide as a leader in regard to the level of standardization and therefore, ease of comparison, of plastics properties. It also supports diagrams to a large extent. CAMPUS is based on ISO standards 10350, for single-point value e.g. the density, and 11403, for diagrams, e.g. the Stress–strain curve.
  • 374
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
ALK Inhibitor
ALK inhibitors are anti-cancer drugs that act on tumours with variations of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) such as an EML4-ALK translocation. They fall under the category of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which work by inhibiting proteins involved in the abnormal growth of tumour cells. All the current approved ALK inhibitors function by binding to the ATP pocket of the abnormal ALK protein, blocking its access to energy and deactivating it. A majority of ALK-rearranged NSCLC harbour the EML4-ALK fusion, although as of 2020, over 92 fusion partners have been discovered in ALK+ NSCLC. For each fusion partner, there can be several fusion variants depending on the position the two genes were fused at, and this may have implications on the response of the tumour and prognosis of the patient.
  • 680
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Living Anionic Polymerization
Living anionic polymerization is a living polymerization technique involving an anionic propagating species. Living anionic polymerization was demonstrated by Szwarc and co workers in 1956. Their initial work was based on the polymerization of styrene and dienes. One of the remarkable features of living anionic polymerization is that the mechanism involves no formal termination step. In the absence of impurities, the carbanion would still be active and capable of adding another monomer. The chains will remain active indefinitely unless there is inadvertent or deliberate termination or chain transfer. This gave rise to two important consequences: The following experimental criteria have been proposed as a tool for identifying a system as living polymerization system. However, in practice, even in the absence of terminating agents, the concentration of the living anions will reduce with time due to a decay mechanism termed as spontaneous termination.
  • 1.4K
  • 31 Oct 2022
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