to reduce peat while increasing the water holding capacity (whc) of casing soil in button mushroom production an experiment was conducted in 2006 with three hydrogel treatments of: t0= casing soil with no hydrogel, as control, t1= casing soil + 10% hydrogel (v/v), and t2= casing soil + 20% hydrogel (v/v) with three replicates in a completely randomized design. results indicated that treatment 1...

Transcriptional profiling, which is directly or indirectly associated with expressed protein levels, has been used in various applications including clinical prognosis and pharmaceutical investigation of drug activities. Although the widely used reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) allows for the quantification of absolute amounts of mRNA (mRNA) from inputs as small as a sin...

A hydrogel exhibits a real-time depth-controllable swimming motion via light-mediated modulation of local density to mimic the volume changes found in the bladders of fish. Moreover, other motions, e.g., rolling, somersaulting, and bipedal-like walking, can also be realized by designing or combining gel shapes, and the location of light.

Acrylic hydrogels have been used in agriculture to increase the availability of water soil; cause faster plant growth and survival stress; allow controlled release fertilizers; and, therefore, crop yields. On other hand, Aloe vera gel production generates a large amount solid waste as cuticles, which is currently underutilized despite that it good source cellulose nanofibers could be improve sw...

The repair of peripheral nerve injuries is still one of the most challenging tasks and concerns in neurosurgery. Effect of methylprednisolone-laden hydrogel loaded into a chitosan conduit on the functional recovery of peripheral nerve using a rat sciatic nerve regeneration model was assessed. A 10-mm sciatic nerve defect was bridged using a chitosan conduit (CHIT/CGP-Hydrogel) filled with CGP-h...

Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells (HWJMSCs) hold promise for myocardial regeneration, but optimal treatment regimen (preferably with a growth factor) is required to maximize functional benefits. The aim of this study was to explore the cardioprotective and angiogenesis effects of HWJMSCs combined with insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. Th...

Capsaicin, a topical analgesic used in the treatment of chronic pain, has irritant properties that frequently interrupt its use. In this work, the effect of nanoencapsulation of the main capsaicinoids (capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin) on skin irritation was tested in humans. Skin tolerance of a novel vehicle composed of chitosan hydrogel containing nonloaded nanocapsules (CH-NC) was also evaluat...

Recently we reported on chitosan hydrogel systems having excellent laser damage resistance. The measured laser damage threshold (LDT) was better than BK7 glass and quartz, commonly used inorganic optical materials, and 20 to 35 times higher than commercial PMMA, a popular polymer optical material. In this study, we continue our investigation of the phase transition behavior of water within the ...

Ketoconazole (KET), an imidazole derivative with well-known antifungal properties, is lipophilic and practically insoluble in water, therefore its clinical use has some practical disadvantages. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of PAMAM-NH(2) and PAMAM-OH dendrimers generation 2 and generation 3 on the solubility and antifungal activity of KET and to design and evalu...

PURPOSE Neutrophil-derived extracellular debris has been shown to accelerate bacterial biofilm formation on hydrogel and silicone hydrogel contact lens surfaces compared to lenses inoculated with bacteria alone. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the disinfection efficacy of four standard commercial contact lens cleaning regimens against neutrophil-enhanced bacterial biofilms formed on s...