Herein, we present a comparison of the electrochemical hydrogen-storage characteristics of two state-of-art Laves phase-based metal hydride alloys (Zr21.5Ti12.0V10.0Cr7.5Mn8.1Co8.0Ni32.2Sn0.3Al0.4 vs. Zr25.0Ti6.5V3.9Mn22.2Fe3.8Ni38.0La0.3) prepared by induction melting and hydrogen decrepitation. The relatively high contents of lighter transition metals (V and Cr) in the first composition resul...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this ex vivo study was to compare the antifungal activity of a synthetic peptide consisting of 15 amino acids at the C-terminus of human β-defensin 3 (HBD3-C15) with calcium hydroxide (CH) and Nystatin (Nys) against Candida albicans (C. albicans) biofilm. MATERIALS AND METHODS C. albicans were grown on cover glass bottom dishes or human dentin disks for 48 hr, and th...

Anacardic acid C15:3 and cardol C15:3 sigmoidally suppressed superoxide anion (O2-) generation using xanthine oxidase. To study this suppression activity, anacardic acids, cardanols and cardols having different numbers of double bonds in alk(en)yl chains were prepared. The O2- scavenging activity and H2O2 formation from O2- using PMS-NADH were examined. Anacardic acids and cardols indicated sig...

Neutrophil activation and adhesion must be tightly controlled to prevent complications associated with excessive inflammatory responses. The role of the anti-inflammatory peptide chemerin15 (C15) and the receptor ChemR23 in neutrophil physiology is unknown. Here, we report that ChemR23 is expressed in neutrophil granules and rapidly upregulated upon neutrophil activation. C15 inhibits integrin ...

Chemerin15 (C15), an endogenous anti-inflammatory component, inhibits the activity of neutrophils and macrophages through G protein-coupled receptor ChemR23; however, its role as well as functional mechanism in mouse myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury remains unknown. Methods. Sham or I/R operations were performed on C57BL/6J mice. The I/R mice received an injection of C15 immediately...

Drosophila leg morphogenesis occurs under the control of a relatively well-known genetic cascade, which mobilizes both cell signaling pathways and tissue-specific transcription factors. However, their cross-regulatory interactions, deployed to refine leg patterning, remain poorly characterized at the gene expression level. Within the genetically interacting landscape that governs limb developme...

Morphogen gradients determine a range of cell fates by specifying multiple transcriptional threshold responses. In the dorsal ectoderm of the Drosophila embryo, a BMP gradient is translated into an activated Smad transcription factor gradient, which elicits at least three threshold responses - high, intermediate and low. However, the mechanism underlying differential response to Dpp is poorly u...

The distal region of the Drosophila leg, the tarsus, is divided into five segments (ta I-V) and terminates in the pretarsus, which is characterized by a pair of claws. Several homeobox genes are expressed in distinct regions of the tarsus, including aristaless (al) and lim1 in the pretarsus, Bar (B) in ta IV and V, and apterous (ap) in ta IV. This pattern is governed by regulatory interactions ...

The reactive uptake of ozone to deliquesced potassium iodide aerosol particles coated with linear saturated fatty acids (C9, C12, C15, C18 and C20) was studied. The experiments were performed in an aerosol flow tube at 293 K and atmospheric pressure. The uptake coefficient on pure deliquesced KI aerosol was γ = (1.10±0.20)×10−2 at 72– 75% relative humidity. In presence of organic coatings, the ...