A morphological view of the relationship between indirect flight muscle maturation and the flying needs of two species of advanced eusocial bees

This paper describes the flight muscles changes in relation to the age/function of the adult members of the colonies of two advanced species of eusocial bees: Apis mellifera (Apini) and Scaptotrigona postica (Meliponini). Here, are reported the results obtained through transmission electron microscopy studies, first describing a general overview of the flight muscle ultrastructure and second reporting on the ultrastructural changes that occur along the life stages/functions of workers, queens and males. The workers emerge with immature flight muscles, and the maturation takes about 20 days. In contrast, queens and males emerged with more advanced muscle differentiation, similar to workers after the 20 days of maturation. In both forager workers and laying queens, flight muscles showed signs of senescence, but not in sexually mature males. The differences among life phases, individual classes and species are discussed in relation to their functions in the colony.     

分散固相萃取-超高效液相色谱-串联质谱法测定果蔬、牛奶、植物油和动物肌肉中残留的61种有机磷农药

建立了果蔬、牛奶、植物油和动物肌肉中61种有机磷农药多残留的分析方法。果蔬和牛奶样品用乙腈均质提取,盐析分配;植物油样品用正己烷溶解,乙腈萃取;动物肌肉样品用正己烷配合乙腈-水溶液均质提取,盐析分配。各提取法得到的提取液采用C18和Primary Secondary Amine (PSA)粉末分散固相萃取净化,超高效液相色谱-串联质谱仪(UPLC-MS/MS)分析,采用电喷雾离子化正离子方式(ESI+)及多反应监测模式(MRM)测定,基质匹配标准溶液外标法定量。方法的定量限(S/N≥10)均达到0.01 mg/kg;回收率为62.8%～107%,相对标准偏差为4.2%～19%。该方法准确、灵敏、快速,可满足多种食品中有机磷农药残留的检测要求。     

The reverse block copolymer Pluronic 25R2 promotes DNA transfection of skeletal muscle

Muscle is an important and attractive target for gene therapy. Recent findings have shown that neutral amphiphilic triblock copolymers with a PEO-PPO-PEO arrangement significantly increase muscle transfection as compared to naked DNA. We were interested in evaluating whether reverse Pluronics (PPO-PEO-PPO) also possess transfection properties. Therefore, we measured the in vitro and in vivo transfection activity of 25R2 and 25R4, two copolymers that differ by their hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance. The results show that 25R2 significantly increases the transfection level in muscle compared to naked DNA. Taken together, this work demonstrates that the reverse Pluronic 25R2 possesses interesting properties for in vivo transfection.     

纤维型人工肌肉的研究进展

近年来,随着人工智能领域的不断发展,柔性机器人开始兴起.为了满足人们对人机交互和环境适应性的新要求,柔性驱动器作为柔性机器人的关键部件受到了广泛的关注.人工肌肉作为最常见的柔性驱动器之一,它对外界刺激反应迅速,并且能够响应刺激产生旋转,收缩和伸长等运动.在各种人工肌肉中,纤维型人工肌肉以其优异的驱动性能和广阔的应用前景...     

Emerging Strategies in Stimuli-Responsive Silk Architectures

The utilization of implantable devices beseeches highly invasive surgeries considering the adversaries in the insertion of large, impliable devices through the body channels, which necessitate the development of implantable devices using biocompatible shape memory polymers. Silk displays prodigious heterogeneity in its genetic structure and physical properties in accordance with the spinning and storage process, where proteins undergo folding and unfolding. The stimuli-responsive nature of silk can be explained with the help of the structural morphology and composition of the material, where the hydrogen bonds in β-sheet domains and amorphous region act as switch points and net points, respectively. This review provides a primary attempt to enswathe all the literature available to date on the stimuli-responsive nature of silk and silk-based materials as a natural and biodegradable alternative for commercially used synthetic shape memory materials taking their elastomeric nature and reduction in glass transition temperature into account. Further constitutive model using the continuum approach has been utilized to explain the anisotropic elasticity damping effect and plastic deformation based on the α-helix chains, β-sheets, and β-spiral structures. The practicability to develop biomedical devices such as patient-specific-injectable scaffolds, drug carriers, and artificial muscles has been encompassed in this article.