Crosslinked polyethylenimines (PEIs) have been frequently examined over the past decade since they can maintain the transfection efficiency of commercially available, 25k branched PEI, but exhibit less cytotoxicity. The argument is often made that the degradability of such polymers, generally synthesized with either disulfide or hydrolytically degradable crosslinkers, is critical to the high ef...

This report summarizes the state of the art and recent developments and advances in the use of degradable polymers devices for osteosynthesis. The current generation of biodegradable polymeric implants for bone repair utilising designs copied from metal implants, originates from the concept that devices should be supportive and as "inert" substitute to bone tissue. Today degradable polymeric de...

Remarkable acceleration of enzymatic proteolysis by pressure at kbar range is reported with ubiquitin as substrate and α-chymotrypsin as enzyme. The acceleration is interpreted in terms of the shift of conformational equilibrium in ubiquitin from the non-degradable folded conformer to the enzyme-degradable unfolded conformer by pressure because of the lower volume of the latter, while the enzym...

Degradable polymers are beginning to play an increasing role as materials for environmental and medical applications. Understanding factors that control erosion, such as bond cleavage and the dissolution and diffusion of degradation products, will be critical to the future development of these materials. Erosion kinetics, photomicroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy were used to understand the er...

Statement of Purpose: Corneal blindness deprives 10 million people worldwide of their sight. Current treatments for corneal blindness mainly rely on implants that replace the injured tissue and have been clinically unsuccessful thus far. The goal of this project is to prevent corneal blindness by developing clinically-viable scaffolds that promote orderly corneal wound healing using biochemical...

The aim of this study was to compare the nutritional value of sunflower meal (SFM) and soybean meal (SBM) protein by determining both its ruminal degradability and intestinal digestibility. Three non lactating Jersey cows fitted with a rumen and T-type duodenal cannulas were used to estimate rumen degradability and intestinal digestibility of SFM and SBM dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP). ...

The experiment was carried out using fistulated multiparous Holstein Friesian crossbred (75% Holstein Friesian and 25% Red Sindhi) dairy cows in their dry period fed on untreated rice straw to evaluate the nutritive value of local protein feed resources using the in sacco method and in vitro pepsin-pancreatin digestion. Experimental feeds were cottonseed meal (CSM); soybean meal (SBM); dried br...

A valuable approach for creating synthetic polymers is the ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Welldefined metal carbene catalysts have been devised that afford control over the polymer chain length and architecture. In addition, ruthenium carbene initiators have been developed with excellent air stability and functional group tolerance. These catalysts enable the synthesis of polyme...