Wood-Veneer-Reinforced Mycelium Composites for Sustainable Building Components

The demand for building materials has been constantly increasing, which leads to excessive energy consumption for their provision. The looming environmental consequences have triggered the search for sustainable alternatives. Mycelium, as a rapidly renewable, low-carbon natural material that can withstand compressive forces and has inherent acoustic and fire-resistance properties, could be a potential solution to this problem. However, due to its low tensile, flexural and shear strength, mycelium is not currently widely used commercially in the construction industry. Therefore, this research focuses on improving the structural performance of mycelium composites for interior use through custom robotic additive manufacturing processes that integrate continuous wood fibers into the mycelial matrix as reinforcement. This creates a novel, 100% bio-based, wood-veneer-reinforced mycelium composite. As base materials, Ganoderma lucidum and hemp hurds for mycelium growth and maple veneer for reinforcement were pre-selected for this study. Compression, pull-out, and three-point bending tests comparing the unreinforced samples to the veneer-reinforced samples were performed, revealing improvements on the bending resistance of the reinforced samples. Additionally, the tensile strength of the reinforcement joints was examined and proved to be stronger than the material itself. The paper presents preliminary experiment results showing the effect of veneer reinforcements on increasing bending resistance, discusses the potential benefits of combining wood veneer and mycelium’s distinct material properties, and highlights methods for the design and production of architectural components

Comparison of proteomic responses as global approach to antibiotic mechanism of action elucidation

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. New antibiotics are urgently needed to address the mounting resistance challenge. In early drug discovery, one of the bottlenecks is the elucidation of targets and mechanisms. To accelerate antibiotic research, we provide a proteomic approach for the rapid classification of compounds into those with precedented and unprecedented modes of action. We established a proteomic response library of Bacillus subtilis covering 91 antibiotics and comparator compounds, and a mathematical approach was developed to aid data analysis. Comparison of proteomic responses (CoPR) allows the rapid identification of antibiotics with dual mechanisms of action as shown for atypical tetracyclines. It also aids in generating hypotheses on mechanisms of action as presented for salvarsan (arsphenamine) and the antirheumatic agent auranofin, which is under consideration for repurposing. Proteomic profiling also provides insights into the impact of antibiotics on bacterial physiology through analysis of marker proteins indicative of the impairment of cellular processes and structures. As demonstrated for trans-translation, a promising target not yet exploited clinically, proteomic profiling supports chemical biology approaches to investigating bacterial physiology

One of the subjects partially instrumented to illustrate the electrode positioning (for details on the skeletal landmarks, see Material & Methods).

<p>One of the subjects partially instrumented to illustrate the electrode positioning (for details on the skeletal landmarks, see Material & Methods).</p

CRISPR/dCas9-Based Systems: Mechanisms and Applications in Plant Sciences

RNA-guided genomic transcriptional regulation tools, namely clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats interference (CRISPRi) and CRISPR-mediated gene activation (CRISPRa), are a powerful technology for gene functional studies. Deriving from the CRISPR/Cas9 system, both systems consist of a catalytically dead Cas9 (dCas9), a transcriptional effector and a single guide RNA (sgRNA). This type of dCas9 is incapable to cleave DNA but retains its ability to specifically bind to DNA. The binding of the dCas9/sgRNA complex to a target gene results in transcriptional interference. The CRISPR/dCas9 system has been explored as a tool for transcriptional modulation and genome imaging. Despite its potential applications and benefits, the challenges and limitations faced by the CRISPR/dCas9 system include the off-target effects, protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) sequence requirements, efficient delivery methods and the CRISPR/dCas9-interfered crops being labeled as genetically modified organisms in several countries. This review highlights the progression of CRISPR/dCas9 technology as well as its applications and potential challenges in crop improvement

Experimental set-up used in the current study.

<p>The dogs walked and trotted at their preferred speed on the instrumented four-belt treadmill, which allowed for the synchronous collection of single limb forces before and after a distal load-bearing lameness was induced in the right forelimb (see inset).</p

Mean (M) and peak (P) as well as the sum (S) of the braking (Fy−) and propulsive (Fy+) forces in %BW for the sound condition and when lameness was induced in the right forelimb (Fi) in the trotting Beagles.

<p>Time to peak force (TPF) and the duration of the braking force (TFy−) are given in percent of stance duration. Significant differences between sound and lame conditions at * p<0.05; n.s. = not significant. Fi = ipsilateral forelimb, Fc = contralateral forelimb, Hi = ipsilateral hindlimb, Hc = contralateral hindlimb.</p

Additional file 2: of Kinematic adaptions to induced short-term pelvic limb lameness in trotting dogs

Kinematic results for the pelvic limbs. For further explanation, see Additional file 1. (DOC 332 kb

Symmetry indices for mean (M) and peak (P) as well as the sum (S) of the braking (Fy-) and propulsive (Fy+) forces for the sound condition and when lameness was induced.

<p>Prefect symmetry is represented by SI = 0. Negative values indicate the respective parameter was greater for the contra- than the ipsilateral limb; positive values indicate a greater value for the ipsi- than the contralateral side. Significant differences between sound and lame conditions at * p<0.05; n.s. = not significant.</p

Additional file 1: of Kinematic adaptions to induced short-term pelvic limb lameness in trotting dogs

Kinematic results for the thoracic limbs. Mean ± standard deviation (Mean ± SD in °) of the limb, segment and joint angles for all dogs. Kinematic values for the limbs are: angle at touch-down (TD), lift-off (LO) and mid-stance (mid-stance). Kinematic values for the segments and joints are: angle at touch-down (TD) and lift-off (LO) as well as minimum (min), maximum (max) and amplitude (i.e. range of motion, ROM) during stance (ST) and swing (SW) phases. Mean SDs (mSD in °; i.e. SDs from the 10 strides per dog averaged for all dogs) illustrate the relatively low intraindividual variation compared with the interindividual variation (SD of Mean ± SD) and particularly compared with the angular difference between sound and lame trotting (Diff Mean ± SD in °). Note that this mean Diff was calculated by, first, subtracting the lame from the sound values per dog and, second, averaging these angular differences for all dogs (i.e. mean Diff represents the angular changes associated with lame locomotion). Positive Diff values indicate that the angle was greater during sound than lame trotting; negative values indicate the reverse. Significant differences between sound and lame trotting for each limb (I) as well as significant differences between the angular differences of the two limbs (II) at: * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001. For definition of angles, see Fig. 1 in [16]. (DOC 349 kb