No abstract

In Arabidopsis, maturation phase, an intricate process in seed formation is tightly regulated by the DNA binding activity of protagonist basic leucine zipper 53 (bZIP53) transcription factor and its heterodimerizing partners, bZIP10 and bZIP25. Structural determinants responsible for heterodimerization specificity of bZIP53 are poorly understood. Analysis of amino acid sequences of three bZIPs does not identify interactions that may favor heterodimerization. Here, we describe a designed dominant negative termed A-ZIP53 that has a glutamic acid-rich amphipathic peptide sequence attached to N-terminal of bZIP53 leucine zipper. Circular dichroism (CD) and mass spectrometry studies with equimolar mixture of three bZIP proteins in pairs showed no heterodimer formation whereas A-ZIP53 interacted and formed stable heterodimers with bZIP53, bZIP10, and bZIP25. A-ZIP53 electrostatically mimics DNA and can overcome repulsion between basic DNA binding regions of three bZIP proteins. Gel shift experiments showed that A-ZIP53 can inhibit the DNA binding of three proteins. CD studies demonstrated the specificity of A-ZIP53 as it did not interact with bZIP39 and bZIP72. Transient co-transfections in Arabidopsis protoplasts showed that A-ZIP53 inhibited three bZIPs and their putative heterodimers-mediated transactivation of GUS reporter gene. Furthermore, four newly designed acidic extensions were evaluated for their ability to interact with three bZIPs.

Polyurethane (PU) production with the use of vegetable oils is greatly appreciated by researchers due to their low cost, easy availability, and nontoxic nature. The addition of TiO 2 in castor oil-based PU adhesive led to a remarkable enhancement in its mechanical and chemical resistance, an increase in T g value, and the adhesion. TGA analysis was done to study the thermal stability of prepared adhesive. The adhesive was also characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and FT-IR spectroscopy. Influence of various factors such as the NCO/OH molar ratio, hydroxyl value of polyols, and the amount of filler on the properties of adhesive were studied in detail. The adhesive with a mole ratio of NCO/OH equaling to 1.2, filled with 3 wt% TiO 2 , was found to be much better than the commercial adhesive used for bonding wood, when tested for single lap shear strength in various environmental conditions. C

Costs of stroke are variable because of heterogeneous healthcare systems prevailing in low and middle-income countries. Length of hospital stay and stroke severity appear to be the main predictors of cost. Understanding the costs of stroke in low and middle-income countries is important. However, the evidence remains limited because there is a lack of standardized research. Future research should focus on using a uniform method across low and middle-income countries for estimating the costs of stroke.

This study has been conducted with an emphasis to develop a biobased polyol from canola oil by transesterification reaction followed by epoxidation and ring opening reaction with an intention to insert hydroxyl group at unsaturation sites. The products obtained were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance and FTIR spectroscopy for structural analysis and to determine the extent of reaction. Furthur, the studies have been conducted on different Polyurethane (PU) adhesives obtained by reacting this resulted canola oil based polyether-ester polyol and various kinds of aliphatic or aromatic diisocyanates commercially available, i.e., Methylenediphenyldiisocyanate (MDI), Toulenediisocyanate (TDI), Isophoronediisocyanate (IPDI), Hexamethylenediisocyanate (HMDI) with a purpose to examine their influence on adhesive properties such as green strength, curing time, gel time, lap shear strength. The properties of resulted polyurethanes had shown considerable (or prominent) variation in their behavior particularly in terms of thermal stability, adhesion strength, corrosion resistance, etc. The synthesized adhesive showed much better performance as compared to commercially available adhesive formulation under different conditions of testing. The thermal stability of PU adhesive formulation were analyzed and compared by thermogravimetric analysis.

Direct medical cost or acute care of stroke accounted for a major component of cost of stroke. Poor outcome, length of hospital stay, and higher income were the cost driving factors. The socioeconomic impact on the family decreased at follow up probably due to joint family system.

Summary This study investigates the incorporation of castor oil–based rigid polyurethane foam with mineral fillers feldspar or kaolinite clay in order to enhance the mechanical, thermal, and flame retardant properties. Influence of mineral fillers on the mechanical strength was characterized by compressive strength and flexural strength measurement. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed to diagnose the changes in thermal properties, while cone calorimeter test was performed to ascertain the flame retardancy of the mineral filler–incorporated rigid polyurethane foam composites. Results showed that the foams incorporated with mineral filler demonstrated up to 182% increase in compressive strength and 351% increase in flexural strength. Thermal stability of these composite foams was also found to be enhanced on the incorporation of kaolinite clay filler with an increase in 5% weight loss temperature (T5%) from 192°C to 260°C. Furthermore, peak heat release rate (PHRR), total heat release (THR), smoke production rate (SPR), and total smoke release (TSR) were also found to decreased on the incorporation of mineral filler in the rigid polyurethane foam. So mineral fillers are ascertained as a potential filler to enhance the mechanical, thermal, and flame retardant behaviors of bio‐based rigid polyurethane foam composites.

The present study emphasizes the reinforcement of rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) by the addition of glass fibers (GFs) for diverse engineering applications. In contrast to the conventional RPUF, the foam developed in this case is castor oil based. The developed reinforced foam was tested for its mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile, flexural and compressive strength and for its morphology. Mechanical properties of the resulted reinforced RPUF were found to be improved with addition of the GF content. The foam density was also observed to be increased with the insertion of GF. The SEM results clearly indicated the decreased cell size in the reinforced RPUF.