These observations suggested that embelin is a neuroprotective agent and may prove to be useful adjunct in the treatment of stroke.”
“Transcription factors play a fundamental role in plants by orchestrating temporal and spatial gene expression in response to environmental stimuli. Several R2R3-MYB genes of the Arabidopsis subgroup 4 (Sg4) share a C-terminal EAR motif signature recently linked to stress response in angiosperm plants. It is reported

here that nearly all Sg4 MYB genes in the conifer trees Picea GW4869 ic50 glauca (white spruce) and Pinus taeda (loblolly pine) form a monophyletic clade (Sg4C) that expanded following the split of gymnosperm and angiosperm lineages. Deeper sequencing in P. glauca identified 10 distinct Sg4C sequences, indicating over-represention of Sg4 sequences compared with angiosperms such as Arabidopsis, Oryza, Vitis, and Populus. The Sg4C MYBs share the EAR motif core. Many of them had stress-responsive transcript profiles after wounding, jasmonic acid (JA) treatment, or exposure to cold in P. glauca and P. taeda, with MYB14 transcripts accumulating most strongly and rapidly. Functional characterization was initiated by

expressing the P. taeda MYB14 (PtMYB14) gene in transgenic P. glauca plantlets with a tissue-preferential promoter (cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase) and a ubiquitous gene promoter (ubiquitin). Histological, metabolite, and transcript (microarray and targeted quantitiative SRT2104 in vitro real-time PCR) analyses of PtMYB14 transgenics, coupled Quisinostat purchase with mechanical wounding and JA application experiments on wild-type plantlets, allowed identification of PtMYB14 as a putative regulator of an isoprenoid-oriented response that leads to the accumulation of sesquiterpene in conifers. Data further suggested that PtMYB14 may contribute to a broad defence response implicating flavonoids. This study also addresses the

potential involvement of closely related Sg4C sequences in stress responses and plant evolution.”
“We present a novel all-dielectric left-handed metamaterial (LHM) in the X-band microwave regime. The LHM is formed by cubes and square rods, which are made of microwave ceramic with high permittivity and low loss. Both Mie theory and dielectric resonator theory are found to play important roles in generating negative effective parameters. The effective permeability is negative in the designed frequency range due to the first Mie resonance associated with the cubes, while the effective permittivity is negative below the plasma frequency owing to the second resonance mode of the square rods. The parameter retrieval method, transmission spectra method and wedge-shaped negative refraction method are used to demonstrate that the composite has a double-negative regime. Experiments are carried out to verify the designed all-dielectric LHM. The proposed method presents new ways to realize all-dielectric LHMs. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.