OBJECTIVES The silk patch is a thin transparent patch that is produced from silk fibroin. In this study, we investigated the treatment effects of the silk patch in patients with traumatic tympanic membrane perforation (TTMP). METHODS The closure rate, otorrhea rate, and closure time in all patients and the closure time in successful patients were compared between the paper patch and silk patc...

Here we decipher the molecular determinants for the extreme toughness of spider silk fibers. Our bottom-up computational approach incorporates molecular dynamics and finite element simulations. Therefore, the approach allows the analysis of the internal strain distribution and load-carrying motifs in silk fibers on scales of both molecular and continuum mechanics. We thereby dissect the contrib...

We examine the impact of cross-prefectural differences in financial integration on the regional spread of Japan’s Great Recession in the early 1990s. In prefectures with many small manufacturing firms, post-1990 growth was significantly lower if low levels of banking integration with the rest of the country before 1990 existed. The least financially integrated and most credit-dependent prefectu...

The Indian sericulture industry is beset with many problems. One of the main problems is the inability to produce quality silk of international grade. The quality silk can be produced only form bivoltines. The bulk of silk produced in India is from Multivoltines which are of inferior quality. Therefore, it is highly pertinent to have more productive bivoltine silkworm breeds capable of producin...

Wildfires are often governed by rapid changes in seasonal rainfall. Therefore, measuring seasonal rainfall on a temporally finescale should facilitate the prediction of wildfire regimes. To explore this hypothesis, daily rainfall data over a 58-yr period (1950–2007) in south-central Florida were transformed into cumulative rainfall anomalies (CRAs). This transformation allowed precise estimatio...

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com main component of flower color is anthocyanin, a type of flavonoid [1]. Numerous genes involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis have been analyzed in various plants, and their biosynthesis pathways determined [2,3]. In addition to anthocyanins, flavonols and organic acids also play a role in flower color as ‘co-pigments’ [4]. Fragrant cyclamen cultivars...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Flower colour varies within and among populations of the Rocky Mountain columbine, Aquilegia coerulea, in conjunction with the abundance of its two major pollinators, hawkmoths and bumble-bees. This study seeks to understand whether the choice of flower colour by these major pollinators can help explain the variation in flower colour observed in A. coerulea populations. ME...

The fabrication of cellulose-spider silk bio-nanocomposites comprised of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and recombinant spider silk protein fused to a cellulose binding domain (CBD) is described. Silk-CBD successfully binds cellulose, and unlike recombinant silk alone, silk-CBD self-assembles into microfibrils even in the absence of CNCs. Silk-CBD-CNC composite sponges and films show changes in ...

BACKGROUND Combining high strength and elasticity, spider silks are exceptionally tough, i.e., able to absorb massive kinetic energy before breaking. Spider silk is therefore a model polymer for development of high performance biomimetic fibers. There are over 41,000 described species of spiders, most spinning multiple types of silk. Thus we have available some 200,000+ unique silks that may co...