Phua SX

Method for Zero-Waste Circular Economy Using Worms for Plastic Agriculture: Augmenting Polystyrene Consumption and Plant Growth

Keywords: biodegradation; mealworm; superworm; frass; polystyrene; rooting; agricultural support; waste management

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Method for Zero-Waste Circular Economy Using Worms for Plastic Agriculture: Augmenting Polystyrene Consumption and Plant Growth

Polystyrene (PS) is one of the major plastics contributing to environmental pollution with its durability and resistance to natural biodegradation. Recent research showed that mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) and superworms (Zophobas morio) are naturally able to consume PS as a carbon food source and degrade them without observable toxic effects.

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An Alternative HIV-1 Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibition Mechanism: Targeting the p51 Subunit

The ongoing development of drug resistance in HIV continues to push for the need of alternative drug targets in inhibiting HIV. One such target is the Reverse transcriptase (RT) enzyme which is unique and critical in the viral life cycle—a rational target that is likely to have less off-target effects in humans.

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Role of the IgE variable heavy chain in FcεRIa and superantigen binding in allergy and immunotherapy

Background Variable heavy chain (VH) family frameworks (FWRs) have been reported to affect antibody receptor and superantigen binding; however, such effects in IgE remain largely unknown. Given that VH family biases have been previously reported in IgE of certain allergies, there is a need to investigate this phenomenon for biotechnological and therapeutic purposes.

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Perspective: The promises of a holistic view of proteins-impact on antibody engineering and drug discovery

The reductionist approach is prevalent in biomedical science. However, increasing evidence now shows that biological systems cannot be simply considered as the sum of its parts. With experimental, technological and computational advances, we can now do more than view parts in isolation, thus wepropose that an increasing holistic view (where a protein is investigated as much as a whole as possible) is now timely.

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Commentary: Augmented Reality Scientific Phone Apps - making the APD AR Holistic Review app and using existing AR apps for scientific publications

The average scientific publication is not the most palatable of reading materials, especially to those not in the relevant disciplines. Yet, conveying scientific concepts easily is precisely what scientific publications are meant to do. Imagine what the use of video pictures/paintings as depicted in the Harry Potter movie series can do to make things easier!

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Role of FcαR EC2 region in extracellular membrane localization.

The FcαR receptor (CD89) binds to the constant region of Immunoglobulin (Ig) A to mediate mucosal immunity [1–2]. FcαR consist of five exons: two that code for the signal peptide regions S1 & S2, two for the extracellular regions EC1 and EC2, and the final exon for the transmembrane/cytoplasmic tail region [3].

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